A simple joint birthday cake for my son-in-law and myself, as we are having a family tea, and our birthdays are next door to each other on the calendar.  As my birthday is a bit of a milestone, we had to have cake and my son-in-law loves my rich fruit cakes (well so do I).  If nobody else wants any, we will be quite happy with that - it will be half each!  I must admit my fruit cakes have quite a reputation, and I have had many compliments in the past from chefs, but only the immediate family know the secret!

We both love royal-iced cakes too, but as I had hurt my back (see an earlier post) I couldn't stand to do the icing as it takes a few days, albeit only a few minutes each day, so for once I cheated and used sugarpaste.

We both love sweet peas, so I chose those for the spray on the top, colouring them the same as some I have growing in the garden.

Obviously I couldn't make the cake too feminine, so I discovered a train stencil in my cake stash, and my son-in-law collects model trains, so I stencilled it on to a strip of sugarpaste and attached it to the front of the cake, using the same range of purple colours that I used in the flowers.   To finish the sides of the cake I did scallops of little blossoms.

side front view

a glimpse of one of the scallops around the rest of the side of the cake

Quick gift card

To go with the huge card from yesterday - a little card to contain the gift of some money.  I can't remember who manufactured the set of stamps - apologies!

Just stamped in Nuvo black, and then watercoloured.  I can see that my eyes are getting worse, but fortunately with water colouring it doesn't matter too much.

I tweaked the painting on this image that I shared the other day.   I wanted to make a card from it, but the handmade rag paper was A5 size and I didn't want to trim the natural edge to it, so I had to create an A4 card.   Thank goodness for washi tape!.  It worked to join the two bits of cardstock and I used some more to create a frame around the front of the card.

(In hindsight, I think I have some A3 card somewhere, but I will blame it on the heat this week that I didn't even think of that!  Added to which I have been suffering from a very painful back following a collision with a wall in the house, where the wall won!)

I didn't add any sentiment to the card, so it could be mounted in a frame later.

Penguin Card

A card made for a family member who is mad about penguins.   Created in Craft Artist.   He was originally a Christmas penguin, but with a bit of tweaking and adding a hat and changing his bow, he is an anytime penguin!

The edges of the image were distressed with ink, and using the same ink and a stamp the edges of the card were also stamped

Watercolured Goblin

I haven't done much  crafting this week, due to having a slight argument with a wall!  My own fault, I slipped thinking I had reached the bottom of the stairs, and I hadn't - ended up head butting the wall (fortunately a hard head and didn't hurt that), but the abrupt coming to a stop whilst falling has given me a sort of whiplash in my back, and to say I am in agony would be an understatement.  I am finding it hard to bend over my work, or even sit for any length of time.  I hope it gets better soon, but we all know these things take time!  I also have a birthday cake to ice and decorate for my upcoming birthday!

Anyway I did manage to sit quietly in the sun the other day and paint this Pink Ink designed I stamped onto handmade cotton paper.   (The paper is beautiful to work on).   I want to try and stamp this on to fabric, so this was a little experiment on the paper first.

Russian Dolls

Aren't these cute?  Had great fun painting these.  (Even if the old eyes had a little problem with some of the intricate bits)

This was how they arrived:

A bit like painting by numbers.  I painted them in the traditional colours, and followed the idea given in the instruction.

I have always wanted a set of these dolls.   I could get addicted to painting them.  ( I have seen some online that are completely plain, and have some great ideas of how they could be painted.)

(The company also sells dolls that can be painted as animals - I bought a set of penguin ones for a young family member for their birthday)

Finished Piano

Here is the finished piano, complete with its flower arrangement.   The flowers are made from air dry clay - mainly using FMM paste, but also a little Hearty Clay.   I made the roses and leaves in white paste and then dusted them with cake decorating powder colours.  As I wanted a softer effect instead of making the gypsophila from clay, I used some dried gyp from my stash.  I have had this for over 20 years from my cake decorating days, and although it was in a dark place under the stairs it had aged a tad.  Undaunted as a crafter I dry brush it with a bit of white gesso to bring it back to life.  (I have now ordered more - so I will remake the arrangement in due course).

another view

The flowers and leaves before and after they were dusted

MDF Piano

I have fallen in love with the littler piano.   I didn't know what colour to paint it - but ended up doing it in a classical style.  I shall make some flowers to go in it and I thought he black would set off the flowers well.

I gave the MDF a coat f of black gesso on the outside and gold gesso on the inside.   I also used the gold gesso on the gold sections and embellishments, with a smidgen of gold gilding wax to give shadows.highlights.

I found an image of the inside frame of a grand piano and printed that off and stuck it to the bottom of the inside - it wasn't quite the right shape, but it was difficult to get it just right.  However, it won't notice when the flowers are inside.

I wanted a music ledge, so I used one of the embellishments and cut it in half lengthwise with a hacksaw, and with a pokey tool (aka a crafter's bradawl) I made a couple of holes and fashioned some retainers with jewellery wire.   I then found an image of a piece of music and reduced it in size, slightly colouring it by brushing some Old Paper Distress Oxide over it.  I then coated it with gel to stiffen it.

another view

The kit is made by Olifantjie.

a glimpse of the inside

I will post another photo when I have made the flowers.   I am thinking at the moment roses and sweet peas.    In fact I could probably make a lot of different flowers and change the arrangement according to the season.

Family tree plaque

My daughter bought this MDF tree back in the Spring from Craftwood Creations, on the proviso that I painted it for her .... I have at last got around to doing it.  It is not entirely finished, as I didn't know what sort of background she wanted, so the canvas is just gessoed for the time being.   Also I didn't know what she wanted on the hearts, or where she wanted them placed, so for the moment nothing is stuck down.   Once she has decided I can finish it ....... or she can finish it herself.

I painted the bark with various shades of brown, and then having been playing with some stamperia creme paste and a tree bark impression mat, I used the "skin/mould" I created with the paste (picture below) as a stamp, and added some bark effect with light brown and darker brown paint.  I am pleased with the result.   The leaves were painted with various shades of green and a smidgen of brown.

I used various colours of paint on the owls until I was happy with them, smudging a lot of the colour on with my finger.  I then did a bit of highlighting with a couple of paint pens again smudging with my finger..   The flowers were painted with a couple of shades of aqua and some yellow added for the centre.  I then applied some Nuvo drops to the centres

The hearts were painted with the darker of the two aqua colours, and then I distressed the edges with a sponge and some grey nuvo inkpad.   I also distressed the edges of parts of the tree and leaves with a sponge and a black ink pad.

Below is the strip I made from the texture mat with the creme paste.  I managed to tear it as I removed it from the mat, but for the purpose that I wanted it for it was fine, and it was a first time experiment using the paste.   You can see how  I used it with paint as a stamp.

MDF Grand Piano

I have always wanted a grand piano - but think this is the closest I will get - lol!   Work in progress at the moment as I have to decide how I want to paint it, now that I have made it.   Do I go classical black, or white, or cream or some bizarre colour?   I also need to make some flowers to go in it.

I am going to have fund whatever I decide.

The kit was from Olifantjie.

Celtic Tree

I got this Celtic Tree from Button-It and Craftwood Creations (oh they do have some lovely designs - do check them out).  It was great to catch up with them at Farnborough back in the Spring as there was no show last year and I do love their designs.

I have kept this very simple and just did a background with various green and brown acrylic paints, applied with a sponge.

I painted the decoration with black gesso and then rubbed Pebeo gilding wax, and to try and give some shading I used silver and gold.

I am not quite sure what colour to paint the canvas yet - possibly a light blue or a light grey.   I did think of watercolour painting it with blues and greens, but am not sure - I think it needs a plain background.  Decisions, decisions!

The kit in its "raw" state

A little fun plaque

A little piece of mixed media for this one.  Once again I can't remember where all the bits came from, apart from the fact that I bought them at Farnborough, I do know the sentiment was a SamanthaK one.   The coffee cup was a die from my stash (at this point in time I can't remember who that was from either, and the packaging has gone missing - how do things suddenly disappear off your desk when you have just been using them ?)

The roses were made freehand from Hearty Clay, coloured with a smidgen of food colouring and then brushed with cake decorating dust.  The leaves were done with a cutter, and again coloured and dusted as before.  

The sentiment was glued on the plaque, then the whole thing painted with black gesso, and then overpainted with Pebeo blue/black iridescent paint and finally Pebeo gilding wax in  silver and gold was applied, and the coffee cup, which was cut from Kratt card, had the same applied

Mixed Media canvas

Another little play - using up some of my ~MDF stash.  I think this kit was from SamanthaK crafts - to be honest I have had some of my stash for so long I forget where I bought it - but I think this was Sam's that I bought at Farnborough.

I painted the background with water colours, in an attempt to create a countryside scene with sky, sunshine, fields and flowers.

The MDF pieces were painted with acrylic paints

Something a bit different

Men's card can be so difficult - well they are for me!    I bought this set of  AALL & CREATE stamps at Farnborough back in the spring as I thought it would be a good one for backgrounds in  journals.  However, I decided to try and use it on a birthday card, as I have a crafting friend who is  into steampunk  etc.  OK it's not exactly steampunk, but I went with it anyway.  I stamped the white cardstock with the larger stamp as a background, and then die-cui a square with the Clarity picot square dies, and stamped the other image onto that and embossed it.  (I used Nuvo Poppy Red for both)  I then used a dauber to go around the edges of the square and card with the same ink pad, and I used some Nuvo Warm Grey which I watered down to paint around the outside of the centre square, with a paintbrush once it was stuck down, to create a shadow.   I used the same Grey with a dauber to go around the edge of the card to tie in the background.   Finally a sentiment in red was cut from red pearlescent  card.

It was a complete experiment and quite out of my normal comfort zone, but I am pleased with the finished result and the faux 3D effect around the central square.

(For info when I made the insert I used the smaller Indigoblu Golden Ratio stamp as well).