Cake pops for a 9 yr. olds birthday

Today I've got a couple photos of the birthday cake pops I made for my daughter's 9th birthday. I have never done cake pops before so it was a perfect reason to learn. I had planned to use half of the cake batter for the pops and the other half for a decorated cake that would hold the pops. Unfortunately the base cake was too thin to hold the cake pops and they had to be served separately. How do you serve your cake pops? I've seen some unique displays but I ran out of time and just brought them to the birthday party poked into my drying block.

For the ears on the cat I used chocolate chips and the ears on the dogs are made from chewy caramels. Noses were made from cut mini-M&Ms and shaped Starburst pieces. I got to use my edible pen for the eyes and faces.

So what kind of cake pops have you made? Do you have any tricks to share?

Inspired by Jennifer Davis

Being online and having access to so many images and artists has been so wonderful and inspiring to me as a creative person. I generally complain that I don't have enough hours in the day to work on all the things that inspire me. I have made mention of artists whos work spurs me to create before, but I thought I would share with you today a piece  I created recently inspired by Jennifer Davis. I'm in awe of Jennifer's work and I would love to get my hands on an original of hers.

I took a painting that I had started on canvas and had abandonned and photographed it. I then imported into Photoshop and practiced my digital painting. I really love not having to wait for paint to dry and always having access to the "undo" button. I used a painting of Jennifers as my inspirational reference. Below is the reference and my final image. While I think I strongly referenced her painting I think I was still able to make the image my own.

I uploaded the painting onto Flickr and made a point of claiming my inspiration and contacted Jennifer to let her know about it. Jennifer sent me back the most wonderful letter to let me know that she was not only okay with me using her work as reference but that she felt honored. She also told me about a couple pieces that she has created inspired by others. The results are fantastic.
Here's a great painting of Jennifer's and the reference photo of a lamp that she found on Etsy that appealed to her. Love it.

While many of us hear of artists getting their images ripped right off their sites and used to make money for someone else, we can't deny the benefits to creativity to be influenced by other artists. What are your thoughts on this? What is the line between plagarism and influence? I think the work will always be better when you make it distinctly your own.

The Pikapackage Project and Give-away

Woohoo! It's finally here!

The Pikapackage Project 'zine edition has been released and I'm so happy to have been a part of it. My 'zine "True Stories of Honcho Bluesephy" is one of the many 'zines created for the project by numerous illustrators. To purchase a package for your own 'zine collection, you can click here. To view and download a free 'zine of all the participant interviews, click here.

I had been wanting to participate in the Pkiapackage Project for a long time and with the opportunity to create this 'zine I was able to try my hand at illustrating a "book". What a great challenge.

Be sure to visit the Pikaland site for your chance to win one of two sets of 'zines being given away. Just leave a comment and you'll be entered to win. I'm interested to hear what you say.