Custom Keepsake Baby Shower Cake Topper

One of my long time cake artist client in Australia contacted me a couple of months ago to see if I could create a special keepsake baby shower cake topper. Her son and daughter-in-law are expecting their first baby boy and her first grandson. Vanessa is the first to ask me to do baby shower cake toppers (if you recall the baby in the baseball mitt and the blue baby bears, building blocks and baby blanket?). Anyway, this time it was near and dear to her heart. Her daughter-in-law loves penguins and her husband is a BIG baseball fan and his favorite player is Derek Jeter of the NY Yankees. 

So, she asked me to combine the two. She asked for a winter theme as she is doing a topsy turvy style cake with penguins and baseball elements on the different layers. She wanted the penguin on a sled with elements of baseball so I went with a baseball mitt, NY Yankees hat, baseball and bat. Her son and his wife have a nickname for their baby boy to be, "Mo", so I made a NY Yankees style pennant with his nickname on it. Needless to say, Vanessa LOVED it! I cannot wait to see it on the finished cake!

Newborn Headband Project...

Last week, one of my past brides who has become a friend, asked me if I could make her some newborn headbands for her baby girl who made her debut into this world on Friday. She is planning a newborn shoot in a few weeks and asked if I could create something for her. I was a little reluctant but agreed. I have never made newborn headbands so I was a bit nervous, but I like a good challenge. She pretty much left it up to my creative decisions.

First I had to hunt for the headbands. Thankfully yesterday I found them and started working away. I came up with 3 cute designs. One with gardenias, handwired crystals and velvet leaves. Granted, these are definitely more for photo shoots and probably wouldn't be something a baby would wear on a regular basis. 

The 2nd design is a pink ranuculus with green velvet leaves.

The 3rd design is a peach/pink peony with green velvet leaves on a chocolate brown lace band.

I got so much interest from my friends on Facebook that I'm going to look into offering these on Etsy soon.

Clay French Macarons as Home Decor Accents!

More and more of my clients have been so enamored with the idea of having clay versions of French macarons. They want to decorate their home with them. Obviously the real ones are just too delicious to not eat and of course they wouldn't last long as a home decor piece. So, why not have them made out of clay? 

They would also make wonderful photo shoot props for wedding professionals who want to use them whenever they need them. Professionals who offer favor boxes would love these as a way to showcase their product with a favor content prop!

I think my clients have even got me convinced I should make some for myself and display them in our kitchen!

 

If you would like to order some of these lovelies, but want your own color combinations, please see the following link!

More Custom Arrangements...

My client Melissa, asked me to make several arrangements. The first set was of a lily of the valley arrangement in a silver mint julep cup and French Macarons. In addition to that order she wanted an arrangement of white peonies and bluish purple muscari.

 She wanted the macarons to be embellished with sparkles and iridescent paints in Tiffany blue, pink and purple.

 This was how the peony and muscari arrangement turned out. We decided to use a birchwood style vase for this beautiful home decor piece.

After she saw the first lily of the valley arrangement, she decided to order 2 more to give as gifts. Each lily of the valley arrangement has 300 blossoms and 45 buds.

 Truly blessed to have clients who cherish my work and continue to come back and ask me to create new things for their homes or to give as gifts.

Replicating a Holy Communion Celebration Cake

A couple of months ago, one of my long time clients asked me if I could replicate a cake she had created for her daughter's Holy Communion. She sent me the photos and I said I could do it. I procrastinated for some time making the cake because for one thing, laying clay on a styrofoam cake form is not my forte.  I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised that I managed to do it and it turned out pretty well. Granted, not as smooth as fondant on a cake, but as close as I could get it with what I had to work with.

It gives me hope that I can create some more of my own faux cakes to show off new cake flowers in the future. Although if you were to ask my husband and son they would say that I was in such a bad mood while I was making the cake. I stressed about it more than you know. 

My client's cake was a greyish lavender with a pearl trim at the base of each layer with dogwood branches. She decided she wanted the cake to be bigger than the actual cake was at the celebration. She was so impressed with how it turned out that she "mistakenly" thought it was the actual cake. She is so sweet to say that she thinks that if she can imagine something that I'll figure out how to create it. I'm honored that she has been one of my clients since 2008.  I'm definitely way behind in blogging, but will share some of the other pieces I created for her recently.

Lily of the Valley Bouquets for Mother's Day

Back in February, my senior pastor at my old church where I used to go asked if I would be willing to make something special for the mothers at the church. I was honored to be asked. His only requirement is that we stay with the theme of Trinity and include a scripture card. 

I kept going back and forth as to what to make because last year I made roses, poppies, gardenias and ranunculus for the mothers as gifts. I decided to make lily of the valley since there is religious significance to the flower, it's white and it's so pretty and delicate. 

1200 flowers, 300 buds, 150 leaves and 50 scripture cards. It took me 5 days to complete not counting the time that I had other orders going on simultaneously. While making the actual components wasn't so bad, the taping, wiring and assembly was the most taxing on my fingers. They say God uses your talents to do good in this world and that good comes out of pain, I do feel that it was well worth the fingers with blisters and cramped joints to be able to share these lovely mini bouquets with the scripture verse, "You are our glory and joy." 1 Thessalonians 2:20.

Thank you to Father Mark for asking me to be part of a special gift for all the wonderful mothers at our church and hopefully some of these will be given to mothers who might need to be reminded how much they mean to God. :) I also chose this flower because it was my late mother-in-law's favorite flower growing up as well and it's because of her that I actually found a new love for making them!

New Items for 2014 on BRIKA.com

Back in early July, BRIKA's merchandising department asked if I would be interested in relaunching more of my mini teapots and single flower blooms for their online retail shop. I love BRIKA and I really wanted to do another launch with them, but my father's sudden diagnosis of advanced stages of cancer and his passing made it difficult to commit and I had to push it out. Thankfully, BRIKA was still interested and asked me a couple months ago if I would be willing to try again since they wanted my unique flower gifts as an option for Mother's Day!

So, without further ado, here is a snapshot of what you'll find. I created single blooms of gerbera daisies, peonies and gardenias, as well as mini teapots. The peonies sold out in the first day of launch and since they are very popular I hope to recreate some more to sell as they seem to be a big hit!

If you are thinking to buy something unique for your special mom, grandmother, or friend, definitely check out my shop on BRIKA.com! Thank you again to Jen and Kena for believing in me and giving me time to take care of family issues and be part of BRIKA again! Click on any of the links or pictures to get to my shop on BRIKA.com.

Dogwoods and Redbuds...

A client contacted me roughly 6 months ago and asked if I could create redbuds. I didn't know what they were so I had to Google them. What lovely little buds they are. The bride's two main flowers she wanted to be highlighted in her bouquet were dogwoods and redbuds. Her wedding is going to be held in a barn and so she wanted a rustic look with pinks, whites, redbud tones, browns and subtle greens with burlap and lace.

I absolutely love how everything turned out. I worked on a bridesmaid bouquet, 15 boutonnieres/corsages, hair flowers and cake flowers.

 

These are the matching boutonnieres and corsages for the grandparents.

 These are the matching boutonnieres and corsages for the parents of the bride and groom.

 

Boutonnieres and a corsage for the usher, ring bearer and the guestbook attendant.

Lily of the Valley, Rose and Hydrangeas

Another sweet client contacted me after she saw my Victoria Magazine article. Her sister is a big fan of my work and wanted several pieces to create her own floral arrangements at home. Her sister chose lily of the valley stems, a pinkish cream rose and 6 single blossoms of light blue hydrangeas.

With all the rain we got this weekend, this was a bright spot in my day on Friday.

Pink Peonies and Snow Berries

After the move to Southern California, we have been blessed with awesome Spring and Summer like weather. We finally got hit with a big winter storm. We had small rivers and lakes growing around our house. While the rain is a welcome sight with drought like conditions, it is something we need. Needless to say, I missed my daily dose of bright blue skies and sunlight.

So in order to brighten the last couple of days, I finished the bouquet, boutonniere and corsage order for my client and it helped cheer me up. What's not to love about pink peonies and snow berries?

While my client originally asked me to just make her bouquet and 3 boutonnieres, about a month ago she asked if I could take on a cake flower, 5 corsages and 2 additional boutonnieres. She is doing a lot of DIY projects for her wedding and these items would have put her on overload and stress her out. Of course, I was happy to help her. 

I love how the snow berries turned out with the peonies!

DK Designs Featured as 2014 Woman Entrepreneur in Victoria Magazine

Back in September, I was contacted out of the blue by the editorial coordinator for Victoria Magazine. They loved my work and asked if I would like to be in their January/February 2014 issue featuring Women Entrepreneurs. I almost thought it was spam and was about to delete it and then I read it. I contacted the editorial coordinator and told them that I'd love to be featured. Their staff was amazing to work with and it was a very easy process. I actually had to have a friend who had a degree in PR/Journalism help me rewrite my bio because it was so outdated.  It was a simple process of picking several photos and head shots, answering a questionnaire and viola.

The most amazing thing is that I started getting phone calls from people who are subscribers and get the issue before it hits the newsstands. It was awesome! As I mentioned in the previous blog post, I've been blessed with several orders because of this article and I'm so happy for the opportunity to share my art with Victoria Magazine readers.

The issue is beautiful and a must see. Granted, the March/April issue is already out, but I'm sure you can order the back issue online. If you're interested you can learn more about Victoria Magazine at www.victoriamag.com. In case you don't get a chance to see the magazine in person, here are some images I took of the issue I have. Thank you again to the editorial staff at Bliss Victoria Magazine! I am so honored to be one of the selected entrepreneurs to be featured in this issue!

Custom Flowers for a Client

I am so behind in blogging that I haven't even talked about the feature article on my company in the Jan/Feb 2014 issue of Victoria Magazine, but I will get to that this week (I know, a LITTLE late!). At any rate, because of that article, it has brought me awesome exposure in the home decor business. While my clientele has been predominantly brides, this article really helped people make the connection that these could be home decor pieces as well as works of art to showcase in their homes.

This one client in NY, had this beautiful lead crystal Baccarat Gingko vase that she wanted to fill with my flowers! The vase was so gorgeous and heavy. She wanted to have white hydrangeas, light pink peonies and I added in some pink ranunculus as well. She was so happy how they turned out. I'm sure with all the snow storms the East Coast has gotten, this will be a welcome bright and Spring like arrangement to cheer up the dreary cold snowy days!