Sweet Shoppe

Sometimes I get crazy ideas for projects that turn me into a crazy person trying to finish them. A couple of weeks ago, I decided to try and make a felt food sweet shoppe for Little Bug's birthday. I started out fine, but as usual, I got a little bit carried away with what I was trying to accomplish, and was cramming at the last minute to try and get everything done.

It started out with a free shelf that I got. It is one that was meant to go above a toilet in a bathroom, but after I painted it, I had been moving it around trying to find the perfect use for it. So, it became the base for the sweet shoppe. I just need to add a back to it. I had some leftover beadboard from another project, so I just cut it to size and nailed it to the back.

There are so many cool resources for felt food. I found many free tutorials and patterns which I used to make cakes, cookies, cupcakes, and many other desserts. I also did some winging it, and made some things up on my own. I also bought a couple of patterns from some Etsy shops, when I got too frustrated trying to figure things out on my own. 

This is what I ended up with: 

A chocolate cake with raspberries. 

A strawberry cake. 

Some sugar cookies.

Three swiss cake rolls.

Three lollipops. (It's funny, because I totally made these up at the last minute. They turned out ok, but not great and they are her very favorite thing. I have to remind her that she shouldn't really lick them.)

I wanted a cute way to display all of the desserts, so I made some wood cake and cupcake stands using supplies from Michaels. For the sweet shoppe sign, I cut a piece of foam core board that I had down to the size that I wanted. I cute the banner out of scrapbook paper and Modge Podged it onto the board. Then I used my vinyl cutter to cut out the letters for the sign.

Can I just say that I love felt/fleece food. I ended up using both fleece and felt for this project. It is really forgiving, easy to work with, and it looks pretty real too. Once I got into the swing of things, it didn't take too long to make everything. Some of the details like the shell border, the sprinkles on the cookies, etc. did take a long time, but I think that they were worth it. 

Here are some great links to tutorials and patterns that I found helpful. The patterns that I bought were from Etsy, which is also a great source for ideas. I loved just looking through all of the felt food to try and get ideas, or to figure out how to make something that I wanted for my sweet shoppe.

Feed Dog - This is where I got the swiss cake roll pattern.

Fairy Fox- This blog has many free tutorials as well as patterns for sale. 

Pink Tea- She has a brownie and a sugar cookie tutorial. I used this as a guide for my brownies.

Bugga Bugs Shop- This is the pattern that I used to make the cakes.

There were other ideas and tutorials out there that I didn't get to yet. I had a couple of failed cupcake attempts, but I will keep trying. I figure that is the beauty of this gift, I can keep adding to it over the years as I get new ideas. 

-Mandi

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