Merry Christmas Cupcakes!

 Merry Christmas everyone! I wanted to share one of my favorite holiday recipes with you today. These are delicious cream cheese cupcakes, the perfect dessert. They are like little clouds of heaven, not too sweet and a big hit at any party. These were a holiday tradition from a  family friend and I finally got the recipe so we could make our own. Thanks Mrs. Martinez!

You will need:

For the cupcakes:

5 eggs

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 packs of cream cheese (8oz each)

For the topping:

16 oz container of sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup sugar

maraschino cherries

cupcake foils

Beat the eggs, sugar, vanilla and cream cheese on medium speed for about 5 minutes

Pour into cupcake mold until half full. I use a ladle 

Bake at 350 for about 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean

Mix sour cream, sugar and vanilla for topping by hand and add to cupcakes when they are cold. I tap it on the counter so the topping spreads over the cupcake. Then you top it with half of a maraschino cherry! Keep it refrigerated until you are ready to enjoy!

 That's it! (I told you they were easy)

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Cream Cheese Cupcakes

For the cupcakes:

5 eggs

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 packs of cream cheese (8oz each)

For the topping:

16 oz container of sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup sugar

maraschino cherries

cupcake foils

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Beat the eggs, sugar, vanilla and cream cheese on medium speed for about 5 minutes

Pour into cupcake mold until half full. I use a ladle 

Bake at 350 for about 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean

Mix sour cream, sugar and vanilla for topping by hand and add to cupcakes when they are cold. I tap it on the counter so the topping spreads over the cupcake. Then you top it with half of a maraschino cherry! Keep it refrigerated until you are ready to enjoy!

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Christmas Craft Week: Christmas Hats!

I've been whipping up some more hats! This time I made by own bases and covered them with fabric. One hat is decorated with a matching bow and Russian veiling. The second (my favorite) is covered with fabric that matches my Christmas dress (to be blogged about) with rick rack around the edge and a Christmas ornament on top! It looks like something out of Whoville!

 These hats are quick to whip up and super satisfying. First I cut a circle of buckram, hand stitch some millinery to the edge. Then I cover the top in batting and then the fabric and attach it at the bottom. Then I sew some wool felt to the bottom, attach the hair comb and decorate the top! It's a great way to use up some scrap fabric. I found the tree ornament at Michael's and cut off the loop that attaches it to the tree and just tacked it to the base of the hat. 

I had plans to make even more hats but Christmas is coming too fast! See you tomorrow with the last craft of Christmas craft week! (ok maybe it's been longer than a week, whatever)

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Christmas Craft Week: Wooden Spool Garland

 I'm back with another Christmasy craft! This is the same one I made last year, except this year it is bigger and better! I was originally inspired by garland from modcloth, that was almost the same expect the fabric was just red and green with little variation. I personalized it and kept a scrap from each project I made this year and wrapped it on a wooden spool! This is a great reminder of all the cute things I sewed all year, It is my version of the "recap post".

It is super simple to do, I used the same rope and beads from last year, and just had to buy some more spools from etsy. I bought a pack of 50 and used them all up! That's a lot of projects. I kept a cup in my sewing room and every time I cut out a new project I put a scrap the cup.There is even some linings and trim on there. This is a really fun and easy way to add some sewing theme to your Christmas decor, you could even use leftover spools of thread, and wrap your fabric around that!

Have you ever made any sewing related Christmas crafts? 

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Christmas Craft Week: Sheri Berry Holiday Quilt!

I made a quilt, for the first time ever! I found this panel on etsy, which was adorable, and quickly decided to make a quilt with it. The panel is Sheri Berry from Northcott, a few years ago. I even found a free pattern to make a quilt from the panel. I carefully followed the pattern and started collecting the fabrics for my first quilt. 

I found some other fabrics from the same collection, as well as found some suitable fabrics in my stash for the blocks. (can you see my cambie dress fabric in there?!) I also found the perfect backing fabric in my stash, 3 yards of pink cookie fabric i bought YEARS  The hardest thing about quilting is cutting with the rotary cutter. SO much cutting. I much prefer my scissors and pattern paper. I found some stripes, polka dots and adorable bow fabrics that match the fabric, all from Fabricland. They all had to be cut into strips. And I cut squares out of the other fabric.

I used my quarter inch presser foot, and started to sew all those blocks together. No back stitching, and pressing the seams to one side NOT OPEN. Quilting is weird. I followed the pattern except I added another row of the bows after the blocks. To quilt it I used the walking foot and stitched it the ditch, or at least attempted to. It was a little bit hard to do. 

I also added rick rack to the binding, following this tutorial found on pinterest. The whole thing took me about a week and a half. It was fun to make something different, but I don't think quilting is for me. 

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Christmas Craft Week: Vintage Ornament Wreath

Christmas Craft Week is back! The first project is probably also my favorite. If you follow me on Instagram (erikamadeit) you've gotten a sneak peek!  I've been OBSESSED with Georgia Peachez  and her fabulous vintage ornament wreaths forever. I mean they are the best thing ever. But I could never get my hands on one, so this year my Mother-in law and I decided to make our own.

I've been collecting for the past year from some rummage sales, but haven't hit the jackpot yet. Yard sales seems to mainly have baby stuff, nothing old enough to be fun. But then we hit the motherload in Grandma's attic! She has some that were her Aunt's... extra large ones, small ones in the shiny brite boxes, some had paint that were all peeled away. I also scored some at the local antique center, along with the santas, elves and reindeer.

We watched the video tutorial from  Retro Renovation about a million times and were ready to go! OMG it is not as easy as it looks in the video. I had a burn blister after about 30 seconds. The hardest part is the beginning base of ornaments around. I couldn't do it but luckily my Mother in Law got the hang of it. You have to glue the ornaments to each other otherwise they don't stick to the tinsel garland.

After you get the base done then it becomes much easier. You figure out where to put the non ornaments (santa, reindeer with elves, and little girl for me and elves on a ladder, 2 reindeer for MIL), glue them done and then arrange the ornaments around them. We used the 14" green wreath rounds, and they look bigger than Geogia Peachez, mine ended up at 22" across!

We were surprised about how good they came out! They are definitely Georgia Peachez worthy! We spent the whole day doing this from 10am and finished at 7pm (organizing, shopping for the wreath supplies and chunky garland and lunch included). It was exhausting and my fingers are still paying the price. BUT IT WAS SO WORTH IT. It would probably been cheaper to buy one of the OG wreaths, but it was very satisfying and fun making our own.

My wreath now lives on the door to the Florida room. I'm so in love with it. I attached it to the door with one of those magnetic wreath holders. It seems pretty secure, but I'm paranoid it will break. The first thing I did this morning was check out it, yup still there, still gorgeous. I can't wait to make more!

See you tomorrow with another Christmas craft! Pin It Now!

I'm a Winner!

My Halloween costume was voted most creative costume in the 2013 Threads Magazine Halloween Costume Contest! Thanks to anyone that voted, and congrats to everyone that entered!

Here's what I won: a Threads prize package including Threads Fitting DVD Series, Sewing Made Simple, Threads Fitting for Every Figure, and Couture Sewing Techniques DVD. I luckily don't have any of these Threads items, and am very excited to learn some new techniques. 

Thanks Threads! 

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