Birthday Cakes

Earlier in the week I shared the picture of a topper I designed for a birthday cake - well here it is on the cake.

and here are the cupcakes:

close up of one of the cupcake topers

Granddaughter's card

I had two of my granddaughters a couple of evenings ago, and the 7 year old asked if she could use the computer whilst I was preparing dinner, as she wanted to use Craft Artist.  Of course I said yes as I know she likes to play on the programme sometimes   Well this is what she made .... card for her Dad - isn't it brilliant - she designed it all herself.  I showed her how she could add shadows and "edges" if she wanted, once she had finished her layout, as she had never tried that before - and away she went.

She chose some white pearlised card to mount it on, and then that was mounted onto cream pearlised card.

I did help her slightly with the insert, but more by helping her with the layout settinG - she did the rest.   Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of her finished card, but I did save this picture of the topper.

Toppers for a Birthday Cake

 Following on from yesterday's post here are my designs for cake toppers (created in Craft Artist)).

What do you put on a cake for a man.  Well he is a computer geek - so I kept it simple. 

 The one above will be for a cake and will be printed on sugarpaste.

The one below will be printed on small discs of wafer paper and put on cupcakes.  (Of course I will be making both cakes, but again they will be simple as the grandchildren don't particularly like sugarpaste decorated cakes, but love a victoria sponge with buttercream.  Makes my life easy!)

If I remember I will take photos of the completed cakes

You're having a firaffe.

It is my son's birthday next week, and I couldn't resist making this tongue in cheek card for him, using a stamp from Pink Ink, on watercolour paper.

The photo doesn't do it justice as I painted it with Royal Talens Van Gogh metallic and interference paints.  The giraffe is actually mostly interference blue, with highlights in gold, brown, purple/grey and pink, and leaves on his neck are actually green.  The giraffe was stamped with brown Nuvo Ink and embossed with clear detail embossing powder.  The sentiment was stamped in black and clear embossed.  The glasses were stamped in grey and embossed, and glossy accents applied after painting.   The leaves were stamped with Nujo green, and like the sentiment were art of the giraffe stamp set.

The background was done with IndigoBlu luscious powders and then sprayed with water.  A large cold 40 peel off was added.

Another attempt at paint pouring

 

So following on from the blue paint pour, I tried again using a slightly different technique, still not what I had set out to do, but I saw this idea on Utube.

I spread white paint over a piece of MDF, and then dropped small amounts of colour along the centre - two shades of blue and red - and then balloon smashed them to create "flowers".   I then added some drops of green either side and drew those out with a skewer.  (Having taken the photo I realised there was a foreign object in one piece of green - this has now been removed - it was a piece of cotton - goodness knows where that came from I had no cotton near where I was working!)  I shall take another photo later.

I quite like this  - so when it is dry and "cured" I shall probably pour some resin over it.

Paint pouring

It is a while since I have done any paint pouring.   I wanted to try a particular technique, but it didn't quite work.  Originally I wanted blue in one corner and white in the other, with a balloon smash along the centre line!   I couldn't get the effect I wanted - so added more dark blue along the join of the colours and attempted to balloon smash that - erm no - so undaunted I proceed to do various balloon smashes with white on blue and blue on white!  Oh well I suppose it looks like waves on the sea.  I need to try and add the figure of a surfer on it somewhere!

Playing with Water colouring on Black Card

A few weeks ago I treated myself to some black watercolour card, and the Royal Talens van Gogh Metallic and Interference paints.  At long list they arrived, so I had to have a play

Nothing fantastic - just playing to see what the paints did and trying a bit of double loaded brush techniques for some of it.

The photos really don't do the colours justice - so difficult to catch the fantastic shine of the paints.  I even tried taking a photo in daylight in the sun - but it still didn't show them up, so you will have to take my word for.

If anybody has had the Spectrum Noir metallic alcohol pens, you will know what the effect is - and these paints give the same effect, but in watercolour.

I am going to try stamping with Versamark and white embossing powder on the black card and then colouring with the paints.  I think the effect will be fantastic.

Gelli plate playing

original landscapoe

I have had a gelli plate for yonks and never used it, although I have used my smaller ones.   The other day there was a demonstration by Barbara Gray and Mike Bossom, where they swapped place and Barbar tried encaustic art and Mike tried the gelli plate.

It was a fascinating show, and mike used some encaustic art techniques on the gelli plate.  So inspired, I had a go.    I did have a mini practise on one of my small gelli plates, following wht Mike had done (see image further down).  However, this was trying to create a landscape, following his demo.  Not bad for a first attempt, but when I chanced to turn the picture upside down I saw a leeping fish.

landscape turned upside down

I then swiped the plate again as there was still quite a it of paint on the brayer and although "muddier" this was the result, after I had drawn a few random lines into the paint.

Originally I thought this was a bit "rubbish", but the more I look at it I can see a landscape with a bridge.   I shall keep practising! 

Finally this was the little trial I did on a small geeli plate, doing exactly what Mike had done on the tv demo - just brayering on red and orange and then make marks with a sponge, a come and a circular piece of spong..

Tiz Done ... Gramap;hone

I had a busy Easter weekend out gallivanting, but I did sit in the sunshine on Saturday and painted by old fashioned gramophone.  I am really pleased with it.  I tried to keep it authentic and vintage looking.

Another view with the "needle" on the record

The Base was painted with a varied mix of Pebeo and Amsterdam browns, creams and even purple "splodged" on to a painting mat and randomly mixed and then painted on to create a wood effect.. Decoration done with gold posca pen.

Trumpet painted with black gesso and then a Pebeo iridescent gold and overpainted with Golden's gold. The arm was black gessoed, then painted with gold, then changed my mind and painted silver, and then pebeo gold gilding wax. the record was black gessoed and then painted with black acrylic, and the label was created in craft artist. 

Finally a coat of spray and shine

The label on the "record"

Easter Gift Cards

I haven't made Easter Cards as such this year.  I also haven't bought Ester Eggs for the family - with a lot of them having allergies to various things like, milk, nuts etc. I couldn't cope with my dodgy eyes of reading every single package to find out if they were suitable, so this year they are all getting some money.  However, rather than just giving them the money I made some cards to hold the money, so they looked more like a present.

I used the new Katy Sue "Adventures in Creativity" stamps, which I have fallen in love with..  They are based on Emma Boyes paper cutting images, which some of the granddaughters have

.

I stamped the images with various colours of Nuvo pads, and then embossed them with clear embossing powder.  They were then "water coloured"  with either Indigoblu Luscious Powders or acrylic paint (mainly Posca Pens water down)  I found some old Easter peel-offs in my stash, so added those (albeit these aren't showing up that well in the photos)