Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes with Maraschino Cherry Buttercream

My sweet, sweet Mara just turned six. For her birthday dinner she asked for McDonald's (of course) and Cherry Chocolate cupcakes for dessert.  She adores Maraschino Cherries.  So I decided to use the cherry juice in the frosting and my Grandmothers amazingly easy and delicious chocolate cherry cake recipe for the cupcakes.  If you like cherries than you'll love this.  If you don't then just move on there's nothing to see her.  I must warn you though it is sweet.  The frosting was divine and Mara ate it with a spoon and didn't even touch the cupcake. 

2013 Year in Review...

I've never done a year in review before so bear with me.  At first I didn't think I had much to review but then after I thought about it I realized quite a bit had happened this year.  

I honestly didn't expect much from this year because we moved in January from Germany to Maryland.  That doesn't sound like a huge event but after living in Germany for 8 years living in the United States was kind of a culture shock for us.  I loved being back but it felt like I was in a foreign country.  It didn't take us long to get settled, buy a house and find all our favorite stores and restaurants. I was particularly happy to be back in the land of Target, Starbucks and Hobby Lobby.  Ah, there's no place like home. 

Panda Tea Party

My sweet Marina just turned 10 years old.  I can barely believe it.  They grow up so fast (sniff).  But I adore the young lady she's become, so sweet and loving.  She has always loved animals.  She was never a Barbie or a dolly girl.  So when she asked for a panda party, I thought it was perfect for her.  She has loved pandas for years and I knew we could have a lot of fun with it.

Hostess with the Mostess Feature!!!!

I have nothing but love for Hostess with the Mostess right now.  Thank you, thank you for featuring my Zombie Apocalypse party. I've been on their party of 5 features a couple of times and it's a wonderful honor to even be mentioned there.  But this is the first time I've had a post all to myself and I'm doing a happy dance. So don't anybody pinch me because I don't want to wake up.  Hope you are having a fabulous Monday and don't forget to enter my flash giveaway for these zombie printables.  Thanks again Hostess with the Mostess<3  

Zombie Apocalypse Flash Giveaway!

It's time for a Flash Giveaway! 

When zombies attack you have to be ready so I'm giving away one Zombie printable set in the next 24 hours. To Enter all you have to do is leave a comment and tell me what is your favorite zombie themed food. I will choose the winner from the comments Tuesday at noon.  

This is my first fully editable printable set.  Which means you can add your own text to make it say whatever you want whenever you want.  No worries about waiting on me to email your files or edit your files.  Super simple and easy all you need is Adobe Acrobat reader and you are ready to go (and a printer). 

This set includes:

Banner (editable)
Invitation (editable)
Thank you note (editable)

Envelopes  
Welcome sign (editable)
Cupcake toppers (editable)
food labels (editable)
cupcake wrappers 
drink wrappers (editable)
treat bags 
cake topper (editable)
circle tags for mason jar lids (editable)
decorative zombie hands (for placing on doors or mirrors or doorways)

Don't forget to tell me what your favorite zombie eats are and you will enter to win this printable set.  I will announce the winner tomorrow at 1pm.  Good luck my undead 

friends. 

This Giveaway is now closed and the winner is...... "Bryan H"......

Bryan if you could email me at sunnybydeisgn@gmail.com that would be great. 

~Sunny~

Zombie Apocalypse 8th Birthday party

For Myles 8th birthday he chose a zombie apocalypse theme. He has a slight obsession with pretending he is defending us against the zombie apocalypse (no we don't watch the Walking Dead).  It's kind of cute with him and his friends running around the neighborhood with their Nerf guns making sure we are all safe and secure.  So I tried to translate that into a kind of desolate zombie apocalypse dessert table and treats.  

Halloween Flower Wreath For 13 Days of Handmade Halloween

Yay I'm a contributor today to the fabulous Cupcake Wishes and Birthday Dreams, 13 Days of Handmade Halloween   If you'd like to see the tutorial for this wreath and get the free printable download for it visit her blog.  

You can also visit her blog everyday after that for a new crafty Halloween idea up until All Hallow's Eve.  Hope you all are having a wonderful fall and getting ready for Halloween.  Thanks again Keisha for letting me participate in such a wonderfully fun countdown. 

~Sunny~

Kitchenaid Giveaway

I love to bake and I love my Kitchen aid mixer.  It's my favorite kitchen tool by far.  That's why I'm oh so happy to be a part of this awesome Kitchenaid giveaway hosted by Takkido.  But wait you can't have a lovely Kitchenaid mixer without an extra bowl and beater blade. I don't even have a beater blade so I'm just a tad jealous. To top it all off this giveaway also includes a sweet mini gingerbread house cookie cutter from Fancy Flours. 

This giveaway has no affiliation with Kitchenaid.  Just a bunch of bloggers and companies getting together to spread some baking love.  

Bloom Designs Online, Sweet Dahlia, Paige Simple Studio, Party Patisserie, Fancy Flours, Sunny by Design,Sweet Threads Clothing Co, Paisley Petal Events, Best Friends for Frosting, Catch My Party, A to Zebra Celebrations, A Zesty Bite, Mother Would Know, The Hopeless Housewife, Eat2Gather LLC, This Mama Cooks!  On a Diet, Mexico in my Kitchen, and Cooks & Books & Recipes.

This giveaway is open to all residents of the United States and will be open until 
10pm PST, Monday, October 7th..  

If you would like to enter to win a Kitchenaid 6 quart Artisan Mixer, an extra bowl, a beater blade, and a set of mini gingerbread house cookie cutters from Fancy Flours, you may do so through this the giveaway tools widget below. 

Good luck and happy baking.  

Entry-Form

Mindy Cone's "Gourmet French Macarons" Book signing

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting the talented and sweet Mindy Cone from Creative Juice.  Who also happens to be the author of the beautiful new cookbook "Gourmet French Macarons".  I have never met Mindy in person so when I found out she was going to be in Maryland for her book signing I jumped at the chance to buy the book, get it signed and meet her face to face.  

Lace and Pearls table by Cupcake with Character

Earlier this summer I worked with Shauna from Cupcake with Character on burlap and lace themed printables for a lace and pearls bridal shower dessert table.  It's so wonderful to see your work along with many other talented vendors.  I'm just a little excited to finally be able to share the beautiful photos by KTMoffitt photography. Here's what Shauna had to say about her lovely table. 

Never Forget...

I will never forget where I was on the morning of Sept 11th 2001.  
I will never forget what I was doing, who I was with or the sadness and fear that I felt at that moment in time.  
I will also never forget the way people rose up from the ashes and gave their lives as hero's.  
I will never forget the way we joined together as a community and a country to recover from this tragedy.  
This day has forever changed us and we will never forget.  

~Sunny~

Print, Cut and Assembly

I am happy to announce that I am now offering to print, cut and assemble your orders and ship them to you.  I've wanted to do this for a long time but living in Germany made shipping anything very difficult.  So now that I'm in the good old US of A, I can do it. 

Printing

Cut and assembly

I'm just starting out with this service so please be patient with me as I work out the bugs.
I'm offering the print and assembly services separately just in case you'd like to save some money or your are a crafty type person who likes to play with paper like me but doesn't have a reliable printer.  I hope to print something for you soon. 

~Sunny~

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Fall is right around the corner but I just couldn't wait that long to start baking with apples. I mean really does it have to be fall to bake with apples?  I don't think so. So lets bake some Apple Cinnamon muffins please. 

Free printable Thank you card and envelope

Sometime during the day yesterday I hit 2,000 likes on Facebook. I'm excited and happy and a little smitten to have you all join me.  I know many have joined thanks to giveaways and I really hope you stick around with me for awhile.  To celebrate the big 2000 I'd like to say "Thank you" with a free printable thank you card and envelope.  

I designed these for a dear friend and can't think of a better way to use them.  You can always use a sweet thank you card.  

For those that are new to printables just download the files below and cut them out.  For the cards you just have to fold them in half and you can write a sweet thank you note on the inside.  For the envelopes I have some simple walk through instructions on how to assemble them here. 

Download your thank you card

Download your envelope

Instructions on how to assemble your printable envelope

ENJOY

Beginning Illustrator Lesson 1 Shapes

Welcome to my very first tutorial on Adobe Illustrator.  I am not an expert.  I've actually taken an Adobe skills test several times on several job board websites and failed, well I got an average score(they were super hard). I am a Graphic Designer and an illustrator and I pretty much fell in love with Adobe Illustrator from the first time I used it.  I have about 8 years of experience with Illustrator and I've mostly taught myself everything I know.  I did take a couple digital illustration classes in college but that was it, the rest I learned through trial and error and online tutorials.