We had a great Mother's Day celebration with my husband's family the past weekend. Besides my own mother and my grand mother (too bad these two very important women are not with me in the States this year), another very special woman I appreciate the most is my husband's mother. My husband and I concluded - the best mother and mother-in-law we could ever ask for! And how funny is that my husband was telling me when he was looking for a serious relationship; he always wanted to look for someone just like his mom. And not for long he found me and my personality is just like his mom.
I always love to hand make something speical for the people I love and treasure the most for their special day. Sure, we could always spent some money to buy a nice gift and a beautiful bouquet from the mall or at the store. But in my stubborn mind, I truely want these people to know how important and special they are and how much I love them by making them something they won't see it at the store; and hopefully, they will remember the gift forever.
Last year, my mother-in-law left an old picture album on their dining table. I causally flipped through it and found a lot of great and valuable pictures of my husband. I snapped some pictures by using my iPhone and I knew that right away one of these days, these lovely pictures will become handy for me to make some great art works or crafts. When Mother's Day was approaching, I was thinking to make my mother-in-law something nice to appreciate her love, care and support to my husband and I the entire time; what better than something she could eat, something she could laugh about and something she could add to her office desk? So here the idea was arised - a pot full of memories and "Cupcake in a Tube"!
I editted the pictures to make them looked brigher and sharper before printing them out from a color printer. Then I stick the paper on a thicker paper and cut them out. Next, if you have some left over gift tags from Christmas, you could add them behind the pictures to make a little talking bubbles. If not, you could always buy a paper puncher from any craft store and make your own talking bubbles. If you don't like the talking bubbles idea, just simply leave the picture alone. I added the bubbles because I wanted to add some humors (my husband and I are both very goofy and funny persons, and that is totally our style *laugh*). Now they are ready to put on a lollipop stick (could be purchased from your local craft store).
Then, I went to the craft store to get a flower pot and some ribbons for decorating. As soon as I saw this turquoise colored pot; I knew that I didn't need to look any further=p. The turquoise color reminded me of my husband and my wedding ceremony (deep brown and turquoise were our themed colors). I wanted to make my pot chic and still girly. So I picked up a roll of skinny black with white polka dot ribbon and a turquoise colored ribbon to make my pot modern and chic=) I also designed the "We L<3ve You" label by using a design program; and cut it with my cutting machine. Now, everything is ready, and I could use my glue gun to glue everything on the pot.
There are multi different ways to put in the pot for securing your "photo" flowers. I have a great and inexpensive way to put your "photo" flowers/cake pops/cake in a tube, pretty much anything on a stick format - go to your local 99 cent store to get a pack of elbow macaroni and filled in the pot (cheap and easy!). Of course, you could always buy a styrofoam and cut it to fit in the pot; however, I found my way to be faster, cheaper and easier=)
The day before heading to my in-laws' house, I made our new product - cake in a tube to put in the pot (cake is pound cake with strawberry and whipped cream in between)! I decorated the plastic container with the ribbons I bought from the store to tight the pot and everything else together. And I wanted to give my mother-in-law a little surprise when she eats the cake. I cut the strawberry into a heart shape and put on top of each "cake tube"<3. This gift idea is not only good for mother's day. You could use it for birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, or any other special occassions you could think of.
