Anniversary Card

Another card made with CAP2 - this time for my son and daughter-in-law's wedding anniversary.

Autumn Fairy

Well here she is the finished Fairy Fae.   Painted with Luminarte Primary Elements, various makes of metallic acrylics and lots of Pebeo gilding wax applied.

Pretty pleased with her.

Funny Bunny Jam Jar Topper

Had a little play with Cloud Clay this afternoon.  My husband has named her "Funny Bunny".   OK so I am a little out of practise modelling bunnies - it must be 20 years since I last made one in sugarpaste!

Fairy Fae

My daughter bought me a Paverpol kit for my birthday, and have at last got around to using it.   I knew what I wanted to do ever since I made my first Paverpol figurine a few months ago, as I knew we had an old shoe (or cobbler's) last in the garage.

First stage now complete - She just needs painting now

and this is some photos of the various stages of getting there:

The basic shape that came with the kit

Bulking out the shape with foil

First wrap with Paverpol

Experimenting with the shape of the wings I made

Almost done and sitting drying

Amazing what you can do with a bit of wire, some tin foil, some old T-shirt and some gauze swabs!  For the dress I cut out a vague leaf pattern in cardboard, and then roughly cut the shapes out of a cotton jumper.  Top of her skirt is an old honeycomb material dishcloth.   Wings are fashioned from florists wire wrapped with tape and a piece of gauze swab, I pinched from my husband's dressing pack!   Hair is twists of torn paverpol cotton squares, twisted into ringlets.

I am thinking I will turn her into an autumnal fairy - and paint her in bronze, gold and greens, as her skirt is "leaves".

.......   so watch this space for the finished painted piece.

A few cards

Forgot to take pictures of finished cards - duh - so just the toppers for the next three

In the Den! - Mixed Media Painting

at last I have managed to spend an afternoon in the Den, and  ......

I have managed to produce my first ever painting in acrylics.  Actually  my first ever painting! - and mixed media to boot!

Now I do not profess to being an artist by any means, and have always said I can't paint for toffee, (I was bloomin' useless at school, and I definitely can't draw!)  but I decided to have a play to see what I could achieve..  (Well my pal bought me this lovely easel for my birthday, and I had to use it!  Would have been rude not to!)

After initially painting the blue sky and the sea base with a paint brush, I then only used a palette knife, and in a couple of places a sponge!

not too bad for a first ever attempt!

I only used the Pebeo colours that I had, plus I mixed some green Pebeo vitrail glass paint, and green ceramic paint in with the white acrylic for the bushes and trees, and some of the hill effects.

products I used

I also had a little experiment with Cloud Clay and Pebeo mixed media .   I stamped into the clay, then painted it with yellowand red glass paint.  I then added some Fantasy paints and outlined it with gold outliner. When I went to lift it off my craft mat, it distorted slightly as it wasn't dry - but I rather liked the effect.  Don't know what I am going to do with it yet - it was only an experiment - I might even cut the butterfly out.

Mixed media butterfly

Thanks for popping by, at least anything goes in the art world today!  lol!

Cloud Clay playing

Whilst our visitors were here, I introduced them to Cloud Clay, and this is some of our makes.

I am a bit proud of this first one - as this was a challenge from the children - Olaf the snowman from Frozen. Quite pleased with result, as he was completely alien to me !!!!!

Some of our other "plays"

cowboy with football

Daisy the Elephant - made by Sassie

He was supposed to be a teddy bear with a pot of honey

all our makes!

A little Miscellany - cards and Loom Bands

Life seems to have overtaken me recently as mentioned in my last post, what with the big "0" party, visitors, my actual birthday, medical and dental matters, and then to add into the mix the  hospitalisation of my son-in-law with a burst appendix and peritonitis, so I have failed to blog.  So here is a little catch up!

Card for son-in-law to go with his cake

card for a brother-in-law

Card for sick son-in-law

Whilst her mum was on anytime visiting, I had my granddaughter on a couple of days, and she taught me how to make some loom band charms.   We made a little dress each and an initial:

my efforts on right 

We then decided to make a couple of bracelets, in a technique we had already learned, but this time, using double bands for the edge to make it firmer.  It worked really well..  Shall do it this way again.

Granddaughter's Bracelet

My bracelet

Also used the bands for some french knitting, to make this key fob, to which I added the dress I made earlier.

handbag charm

and another little bit of french knitting, using our young visitor's gadget

and finally my clever granddaughter, made this cover for her i-phone.  Brilliant isn't it!  Even the "button" fastening was incorporated into the weaving design, and I love the pointed flap.

I-phone cover

Thanks for dropping by.  Now to upload some more bits on next edition!

A little more from the Birthday Celebrations

Memory page

I mentioned that we did all the catering for the party  So I thought I would share some pictures of the laden tables!

The Cake Cutting Ceremony!

our balloons:

and finally ....

A rare photo of me!

Birthday Celebrations

I have been a bit lax this past week with the blog, but it has been such a busy week.  A big "0" birthday tea party last Sunday, friends to stay, days out and an emergency visit to dentist to have a tooth removed, as I had split the root to name but a few things.

Anyway, I will attempt to catch up.

This post is all about the cakes I made for our big birthday tea party, when my daughter, daughter-in-law and I catered for about 120 guests!

My daughter's 40th sponge birthday cake 

My daughter actually had a birthday cake on her birthday earlier this year, (you may recall the minion cake).  So I made a simple victoria sponge with a handmade, airbrushed rose, and buttercream swirly roses around the sides.

Son-in-law's 50th Birthday Cake

My son-in-law is an avid steam train enthusiast, and also has a few quirky gnomes in his garden, thus the theme of his cake.  I designed the topper in CAP2 and had it printed on sugarpaste at Simply Topps, which just happens to be situated about a mile from us.  His cake is a rich fruit cake, with Royal Icing.

My70th Cake

I knew I wanted sugar butterlies and Marguerites on my cake, and at the beginning of last month I won the sugar dough elephant made by one of the country's top demonstrators (Jan Clement-May) in our raffle at Sugarcraft Club.  I just knew he had to go on the top of my cake.  I just added the piped 70.  I made all the sugar butterflies and the Marguerites.  This cake is ivory sugarpaste and again is a rich fruit cake.

Cup Cakes 

We decided I should make a few cupcakes for the children, and these were simple vanilla cupcakes, with buttercream swirls and I designed the three toppers in CAP2, and had them printed on ricepaper.

close up of the toppers

The cake buffet table

I also made a huge batch of marsbar crispie, and my daughter made some lemon drizzle and carrot cake tray bakes.

I hope you have enjoyed a glimpse of my creations.  More to follow of the week's activities on another day.