I have always been a big fan of Birthday Candle Numbers. You know...they are in the baking aisle...and you pick out the correct age (usually combining two candles to get your age)...and then stick them on your cake and light them on your special night. Those numbers. Fun!
And then they are thrown away. Never to be seen again.
Well, I wanted the number without the one-time-use factor. So I made some! Just in time for Evan's big day.
It was so easy! I just got a couple packages of oven-bake clay. I then proceeded to roll little 'snakes' out of the clay. I took the 'snakes' and manipulated them into numbers, using my exacto knife to help with corners. It took longer then expected, and my fingers got incredibly tired (clay isn't soft like play-dough!), but it was a nice activity to do in front of a good movie. I was going to just use tooth picks for the part you stick into the cake, but I wanted the numbers to be something that lasted forever, and I didn't think it was very sanitary to be sticking a piece of wood in and out of cakes for 80 years. Germs. So I used some metal head pins (for use in earring making), and just stuck them in the numbers before baking. I followed the baking instructions (15 minutes per batch), and waited patiently as my house smelled like burning chemicals.
For the record, I made two of every number 1 through 6. I figure once I'm 77, someone should be making me a cake. Also, I was tired.
Once they were cooled, I painted them with acrylic paint. And when the paint was dry, I gave them a healthy coat of Mod Podge.
