Autism Awareness Day is April 2nd 2012. April is Autism awareness month. There are countless wonderful blessings around the world are affected by Autism. Much research has been done but there is still so much more to learn. Our world has gotten so small it seems and more kids each year are being diagnosed with a form of autism that almost everyone knows someone who has it.
Our family knows a few that have this and my life has been forever changed by knowing these amazing people. It is through the research that has been funded in the past that the families were able to get help to unlock this puzzling disorder. In the dark years, many of these children would have been just shoved off by society. I cant imagine my world with out a particular young man in it. His smile makes my day! His hug is sometimes the first hug I get for the day! His love is so genuine and a heart so pure that when he says he is praying for me,,,,, I KNOW HE IS PRAYING NON STOP WITH THE FAITH OF A CHILD! 
Please get involved today by finding an organization in your area to help serve in. Buy Autism awareness products so that the money will go to fund more research and help families of these gifted people that know how to love more deeply than anyone I have ever met!
We sell the Autism awareness ribbon if you are looking for some to make awareness ribbons to share, or other crafts to use this ribbon in so that when people ask you what in the world is this ribbon for, you can tell them.
This is way too cute not to share. These adorable cupcakes can be for Easter or a baby shower. Baby ducks can symbolize spring and of course new life. The mint green cupcake papers, peachy fluffy star icing topped with the pastel yellow ducklings are all gender neutral baby shower colors.
I have previous blogs on how to build a cup cake stand if you are interested or use one that you already have. You can personalize the edges of the cake stand by adding baby shower ribbon. You can also just add baby shower mini ribbon bows too. There is plenty of room for bows on the edges.
The icing is easy to do. 
Dip your icing into a bag and use the largest star tip and simply start at the edge of the paper and spiral around adding large fluffy start dots until the whole cake is covered. The duckling can either be sat on top or placed on a toothpick and stuck down into the cupcake. Only thing left to do is ENJOY THEM! YUM!!
We love to watch birds! We make pine cone bird feeders in the winter with peanut butter and pine-cones. It was an old girl scout craft that we just kept doing through the years. Of course we feed the humming birds too. All our bird feeders are taking a beating with all the weather we had. This looks like a fun way to do a craft with my daughter and make the birds happy at the same time. I found a few pictures of this craft that looked much nicer than mine.
All you will need you already probably have at home. It doesn’t take long to make and just a couple days to dry. Then you can use some organic cotton ribbon to hang it in a tree and you have a beautiful decoration that is nature friendly.
4 cups bird seed feed
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup water
3 T. corn syrup
1 package of plain gelatin
cooking spray
bundt pan or Jell-O mold with a hole in the center
Directions:
Step 1: In a large bowl put 1/2 warm water and gelatin mix together and let the gelatin dissolve.
Step 2: Whisk in the corn syrup and flour to create a paste.
Step 3: Add 4 cups of the bird seed and stir well.
Step 4: Spray the bundt pan well, then scoop the seed into the pan evenly as possible.
While browsing pictures, I found this super cute cake. It is a layer cake made to resemble a cupcake. A Giant cupcake! But the part that caught my eye of course, is the satiny ribbon bow cutely stuck in the side of the cake.
Don’t be afraid to use non edible things on a cake. They are fast to add, easy to remove and in most cases give your cake the WOW it needed. We have been putting candles on cakes for years and I have never heard of anyone eating the candle. However I’m sure someone has. Lol
This cake would be a great smash cake for a baby girl’s first birthday party! They have so much fun exploring the texture of the icing and cake as it squishes through their fingers.
The bow can be made simply by tying a bot from satin ribbon and placed in the icing. If the baby gets the bow, there will be no wire or anything that could hurt her. But it would be best to remove it before she digs in.
Cartoons and decorative ribbon can create two gifts in one! A wonderfully wrapped gift and funny reading material in one little decorative package.
I remember when we were little; we would love to get a present wrapped in the Sunday funnies. It was special. It made us feel special too. 
We all waited our turn read the funnies. So when an occasion came up to receive a gift, mom would wrap with the funnies or even use our favorite clips to tape on the gift.
I love the lime green paper as the back ground under the comics. The crafty wrapper of this gift, choose orange ribbon, green yarn, and complimentary decorative ribbon to fashion a bow.
You can use almost any ribbon you want, if your gift was around the fall, you could even use camouflage ribbon and make it seasonal.
Its spring time finally and its time to get busy doing all that spring cleaning again. Open the windows, and air out all the dust and stale air that were trapped in all winter. Sometimes it’s easier to paint a room to freshen it up. Since I love to paint, That is the usually the method I end up with.
I love this simple way to spruce up your hand towels without spending a fortune. Cut a length of ribbon ½ inch longer than the width of the hand towel. This will allow for ¼ inch seam on back side of each end. This ribbon is 4 inches wide.
This is also a cute way to transform your own towels to festive holiday towels, Use the holiday ribbon to fit the next occasion. Easter ribbon would look so cute on pastel towels.
If you want your ribbon to have gathers like this, then sew a double basting (wide) stitch down the center of a ribbon that is much longer than you need. Do not back stitch. Then pull both thread ends at the same time, Work the gathers evenly down the length of the ribbon. Pin the ribbon to the towel. Sew a zigzag stitch down the center. Back stitch at the beginning and end. Leave enough ribbon to overlap the back and stitch down. Pull the basting thread out as you no longer need it. Tack down the ends of the ribbon on the back side.
Enjoy your new matching decorative hand towels. You can even use some of the same ribbon for curtain tie backs or shower curtain swags.
What is black and white and red all over? LOL….
Yep you guessed it… a newspaper! Lol but to be grammatically correct… I suppose I should say black and white and read all over lol!
This post is simply to remind you that if all you have is newspaper and any basic ribbon, you can wrap a beautiful gift for any occasion!
Maybe you are giving some perfume, body spray, or any other gift in a bottle, this is a way looks so cute to wrap it.
Simply roll the bottle up in the paper. You can hide the bottom in two ways, either save enough paper to fold under and tape, or wrap the bottom first by placing the bottle on paper and folding it up and taping in around the base of the bottle, then roll the bottle in paper. Secure the top with a decorative ribbon bow, and cut the extra paper into even strips. Then curl it by wrapping it around a pencil and holding it for a few minutes. Gently pull the pencil out and the curl will remain.
You cannot curl newspaper like you can curling ribbon.
These cupcakes are so cute! They look like baby rattles and would be adorable at a baby shower. Some friends throw baby showers and use diaper cakes as the centerpiece. This is a fun way to have cake and a diaper cake centerpiece too.
You can buy candy sticks in any discount craft store in the cake decorating section. The cupcakes are simply cupcakes baked accordingly to the directions. Decorate the top with icing in the theme colors. Choose gumdrops that coordinate with that color. Stick the candy stick through the cupcake and insert the opposite end into the gumdrops.
Choose an accent color for the narrow satin ribbon to tie around the “handle of the rattle”.
Isn’t this an adorable baby gift wrapping idea? This idea uses a variety of texture, print, and color to make it have the “WOW” factor. Using earth tones and non-gender monkeys allows this gift to be for a boy or a girl.
We all loved the sock monkeys when we were kids. I never had one but I always wanted one. I thought I’d make one for my girls when there were little but I didn’t do that either. That is why this idea caught my eye.
Don’t be afraid to mix polka dot ribbon and stripes when wrapping. By using the unwrapped white gift box to separate the two types, it breaks up the pattern and looks wonderful. Any solid color will work. An animal print ribbon would also look great for this gift. This gift is obviously two gifts in one, the first box is wrapped and the top is not. The creative wrapper used a slightly smaller piece of decorative paper and glued it to the top then topped it all off with a ribbon bow and of course a safety pin. Too cute!!!
Decorative ribbon, scrap book paper, tagging supplies and aluminum pie tins all used together can look similar to this. It only takes a few minutes extra to make gift giving and eye opening experience! You have taken the time to make your goodies with love so why not package them the same way?
This could be a neat way to take cookies or a pie to a teacher to show your appreciation for spending time with your child to educate them. Everyone has a mail carrier or other service people that are a part of your everyday life that could use a little extra encouragement. 
I mentioned in another blog about making one of these in a casserole tin, you can do matching ones for the dessert. Simply place your treat inside and place the card board lid over it and press down the sides. Glue decorative paper to the top in the shape of the lid. Then add any decorative ribbon to the top with trimmed ends and finish off with a bow
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