Something a little different

I was admiring my Nellie Moser clematis today - the flowers this year are huge - the size of dinner plates! Of course I had to get the camera and take a photo!

Having uploaded it, I then decided to play with my Kaleidoscope Kreator programme, and had a lot of fun with the image. Personally I thought Wow! Hope you do too. I think some of them would look great for teabag folding.

A fishy card!

When it comes to men's cards my mind tends to go blank. I decided to browse some of my Joanna Sheen cds to find a suitable image. My immediate thoughts went to the Jane Netley Mayhew cd as there are some nice wildlife images on it.

I came across this one, and I like the simplicity of it. (As most of you know I only do simple!) I also used one of the backing papers that went with the image. Originally I was going to cut the blue paper in a circle to match the image, but catastrophe - the blade seems to have disappeared from my circle cutter - heaven knows how - so that will be a new purchase. My husband said it looks quite nice on the square - just as well, as I didn't have a lot of choice! To make it a little different I cut the blue paper with the wiggly cutter.

The fish were decoupaged, and glazed. I also added a few drops of glaze as bubbles, and although you can't see them on the photo a few little bubbles with a sakura pen. Finished off with a sentiment from my Daisy & Dandelion stash, which was just the right colour and of course matching card candy buttons.

3-year olds rule this week!

We are attending a joint Birthday Party today for three 3-year olds. My granddaughter Bea and her two little friends who have birthdays this week - in fact it is actually her best friend Alex's birthday today.

I have made a cake for Bea - I hope she likes it. I asked her what she wanted on her cake and at first she said Peter Rabbit, then it was Peppa Pig and last week at her dad's birthday party she said a Fairy! I showed her the Messy Fairy Rabbit image on Wednesday and asked if she would like it on her cake ,and she said she "ooo a Fairy Rabbit - I like that Nanny" as she left I said so Fairy Rabbit on your cake then - "No was the reply "Mickey Mouse" Don't you wish you had never asked! Soooooooooooooooo - she has got the lot!

I have also made Birthday cards for her and her pals, plus a new baby card for her little friend Alex's baby brother. Matthew will probably be Connie's best friend - as they should have been born within a couple of weeks of each other - However, Connie was early and Matthew was late!

The cards are fairly simple. I had bought the decoupage images last year at Farnborough Show and finally got around to using them. I am glad they were die-cut images as there were some awfully fiddly bits, which would have been a nightmare to cut out with scissors! I also got to play with a couple of new purchases - my Martha Stewart punch and my mega nestabilities, and to try out an idea of threaded ribbon I saw in a craft magazine.

Martha Steward punch and flora doodles for Bea (she fell in love with the punch this week), and flora doodles are a must on cards for her!

Used a japanese punch on this card and then did the ribbon weaving. Letters cut with x-cut letter set.

Cuttlebug background, chalked and cut with a mega nestabilitie for Alex, and one of my favourite images from Joanna Sheen's Baby Love cd for his new little brother.

Son's Birthday Cake

We are having a bbq lunch for my son's birthday - hosted by my daughter, and I made this cake for him. I hadn't realised when I made the cake that the board I had was oval, and the cake I had made was round, but think the end result is quite effective (even if I say so myself!)

I was originally going to make a cake when he got engaged, but they didn't want a party. I had bought the ribbon for the cake and the bottle candle and glasses, so I have also used those, so it can also double up as a belated engagement cake, as Katharine's family will be attending the bbq!

I think the wording on the computer image should be dot net geek -having looked at his blog since I iced his cake - but what the heck! Mothers are entitled to get it wrong!

For those of you that dabble in cake decorating I have also added the instructions on how I did it.

Another view showing the side ribbon (originally bought for engagement cake)

And here is how I achieved the result.

I stamped the image of Lofty and his accessories onto a piece of paper. He was a tad too small for the cake. So I scanned the images and then saved them individually.

I used Publisher and drew an 8" circle and then imported the images and resized them and decided which ones I wanted to use. Printed off the draft design and placed it it a clear plastic wallet.

I then wiped the plastic sheet with vodka to sterilise it and dried it off, and then rolled Sugar City antique white platinum flower paste very thinly over the images and trimmed the paste roughly to size.


I then painted the design using cake dusts mixed with Sugar City "PaintMate" (iso-propyl alcohol). Some bits had to be painted free-hand so to speak, as couldn't always see the image underneath!

Finally with a very fine sharp palette knife I cut the images out of the paste and attached them to the cake with a dab of water. The number 30 was done with a cutter, and I piped his name in royal icing. Both were "edged" with gold dust mixed into a paint as before.

Finally I should add (just to get your taste buds going) the cake is made from a professional chocolate sponge mix!

My Baby is 30 today!

Where have the years gone - seems only yesterday, that I was driving to the hospital to give birth 15 minutes later!

This is his card - an 8" square! I printed the base image, side design and age and wording directly on to the card.

I then decoupaged the picture. Adding 3d glaze to certain bits. I didn't have any white flowersoft for the froth - so used stickles. I added glaze and stickles to the little beer mugs too. I also glazed the 30 and his name. You can't see the effect in the photo but it looks enamelled.

Finished with a peel-off and a couple of card candy buttons.

The inside is vellum made from the matching insert from the cd. I had to resize the insert in publisher to make two square inserts. Incorporated another of the images to the lefthand side and a verse to the righthand one.

Having made such a large card I needed an envelope or similar - so with help from Suzanne's tutorial on her Blog I made my first card bag. Not bad for first attempt. I kept it fairly simple and scored a couple of lines across the front beneath the ribbon, and attached another of the topper images; and as flora doodles are much coveted in our family as I didn't put any on the card - there is one on each side of the bag!

This is his card - an 8" square!