Olivia the Pig Baby Shower

Here is the fun foam 4 foot Olivia.  She was fairly easy to make from an enlarged pattern.  

See how I made Winnie the Pooh fun foam characters here.

Alice in Wonderland Party tells how to enlarge clipart

Fun Foam Margarita Man

I am helping to plan an Olivia the Pig baby shower.  Since it is a "Sip and See" tea party, I wanted to use lots of silver.  I have these silver frames I bought on sale at an outlet.  They have been to two weddings and two parties to date.  I had worked on putting Olivia in different outfits, but hadn't decided on how to display her.  I matched up nine of her "Life Lessons" and framed them.  

In the first four frames, the lessons are:

• If you are cow #2, having a moon to jump over is always good.
• Sometimes you just have to use your big voice.
• It's important to use fancy french words when you're talking about ballet.
• Whatever the question, costumes are always a good answer.

 

In the next five frames, the lessons are:

• Every day is a good day to play dress up.
• Not everyone looks good in red, especially when you're pink.
• If you have to sit next to a brother eating spaghetti, you'd better wear a raincoat.
• Be nice to your toys and stuffed animals, because one day they may end up helping your best friend.
• When you're at a party, it's okay to pig out.

I am using the characters on tags for the milk bottle favors.  I have made a big fun foam Olivia as a decoration.  I have a couple of her books for the buffet table to go along with the cake. 

 

Here is my BFF's mom holding the new 10 day old baby, LeeAnn.  They dressed her in Olivia's colors.  We all got to hold her as she slept through the whole party.

 
 These are the two proud grandma's.

 I LOVE my spiget jar.  I have an added little table it sits on to give it the extra height to get the jars under the spiget.  The bottles were punch glasses and favors combined.  I bought the Starbuck's Frapaccino bottles and peeled off the labels.  Then I sprayed them with GlueGone and washed them in hot soapy water.  Amazon.com sells the acrylic straws. I put an Olivia in a dozen different outfits on each tag.

Here is Olivia blown up in PrintMaster to a 2 x2 sheet size.  She is reversed on the other side.  I just glued her together and slipped her onto the wooden blocks with dowels I made for the Christmas party.  She was in this costume on one of the drink tags also.

Here she is in some of her outfits.


 I am going to attempt to use Wilton's 3-D bear pan to make an Olivia cake.  I will post a photo if it turns out.  I didn't want to use a lot of red fondant, so I am putting her in the cow costume.  I have a large stuffed Olivia to give to the baby with an outfit with tights.  As Olivia says, "Sometimes your lucky tights are luckier than you thought." 

The above photo is of the crumb cake layer of the Olivia the Pig cake I am making. I baked a chocolate cake in the 3-D pan.  I made up two cake mixes.  I added chocolate instant pudding from the box and an extra egg plus on 1/3 cup oil to make it thicker.  The pan takes 1and 1/2 cake mixes.  I baked the other half of the cake mix in a meat loaf pan for the legs.  I use canned frosting for the first layer.  You must refrigerate this until it sets. I leave it overnight in the frig.  As you can see, I cut the bears ears off.  I also trimmed down his original legs which stuck out to the side.  The legs aren't as big as they appear in the photo.  It is the angle I used. 

 I wanted the new tall ears to stick up, so I printed them out front to back and glued the four pieces together.  This gave me a thicker ear, but not as thick as cardboard.  I rolled out pink fondant,which I made from white tinted with pink and a little orange for the ears.  I ran it through my pasta maker for thinness.  I used my cardstock ears as patterns for the fondant.  Then I frosted the cardstock ears with canned frosting and attached the fondant ears to the front and back.  They are drying.  Tomorrow I will paint the inside with diluted food color.  Tomorrow I will cover him with egg white frosting.  I will pre-cut black fondant cow spots.  Olivia will be dressed as a cow for this cake. (She was a cow in a school play and very upset that she didn't have a speaking part.) I'll build up her nose with extra cake I trimmed from the bear.  I hope it turns out cute, don't you?

Here is the Olivia cake.  Just kidding.  I found this picture on Pinterest and DREAMED about being able to make it.  Below is the disappointment, to me, not my friends, of my cake.

The ears were too big and heavy.  They split the bear's head in two.  Then I had to do major repair.  I stuck a dowel in until I got to the party.  The pink was the wrong color.  It should have been more orange.  Olivia's Life Lesson # 8 When you add liquid food coloring to your egg white frosting, it will not stiffen quickly.  It will slide, and slide, and slide. The fondant cow spots came out nicely.  Her legs were too wide. But...she was delicious. The hostess yelled, "We're going to cut the pig."  Everyone came to see the fun.  The oreo pudding I added to the mix gave it just the added edge.  The too wide legs were good sizes for eating.  I will give this more thought if I ever have to do another pig.  I am not making the Easter Bunny from this mold now.  I saw a pinata cake with unwrapped candy pieces inside it.  Check out my FunJani pinterest board on Cakes and Cookies.  I AM doing that.