Roses with noses …

My friends and I did some fund raising yesterday, for Red Nose Day - the Comic Relief charity – with a Great British Bake Off.

I was a judge so didn’t enter the competition, but made some cupcakes …

They were “roses with noses!” – lots of fun to do …

And raffled one of my cakes, which I hand-painted with a spring scene using edible food colours…

Everyone had worked so hard and all the cakes were delicious. It was a very difficult job for the judges having to taste all those cakes …

marks were awarded for appearance, taste and, of course, humour.

I donated the prizes and couldn’t resist doing a little papercrafting to make some hand-stamped labels, using the papillon potpourri and teeny tiny wishes stamp sets, with co-ordinating punches …

First prize went to the very imaginative red nose cake pops …

Second prize to the “yummy scrummy” carrot cake with the red nose …

Third prize to the very tasty carrot cake with the smiley face made from crushed walnuts …

And the other entries …

chocolate rice crispy cakes with red noses … (took me straight back to my childhood!)

The aptly named “Pennsylvania Dutch funny cake” …

A scrummy carrot kiss cake …

And take a look at this plate of lovelies!

It was such an amazing day!

Here’s what I used to make the gift cards – all supplies from Stampin’ Up! unless otherwise stated:

cardstock: whisper white; stamp sets: papillon potpourri, teeny tiny wishes; inks: pretty in pink, night of navy; punches: decorative label, butterfly; accessories: glue dots, adhesive rhinestones, ribbon from my stash.

Thanks for dropping by today

Memorable moments floral birthday …

I love the memorable moments stamp set from Stampin’ Up!  The cursive font of the sentiments is really lovely and looks so great next to the stylish numbers.

My friend, Diane, asked me to make a card for her aunt so I knew which stamp set to turn to.

I first stamped the greeting and then cut this out with the labels collection framelits.

Layered onto a slightly larger label in pool party, and popped up on some dimensionals, it made a real feature of the sentiment.

A variety of flowers punched out in pool party and silver cardstock were added, with whisper white circles made with the owl punch.

The owl punch gives the perfect size centres for the flowers.

Diane asked me to make a cake too, so I used the same colours …

Here’s what you need to make today’s card – all supplies from Stampin’ Up!:

cardstock: pool party, whisper white, brushed silver; stamps: memorable moments; ink: basic grey; punches: itty bitty punch pack, owl; accessories: labels collection framelits, blossom party die, big shot, stampin’ dimensionals.

Thanks for dropping by today

Glimmer glamour …

Today’s card was inspired by one of my cakes.

The silver glimmer paper looked quite striking against the basic black card,

and looked so sparkly and pretty in real life …

  My daughter’s friend asked me to make the cake

in black and silver, with feathers …

… for her classy, diva nan.

~

I was really pleased with how both the card and the cake turned out.

~

Here’s what you need to make today’s card – all supplies from Stampin’ Up!:

cardstock: basic black, whisper white, silver glimmer paper; stamps: memorable moments; ink: basic grey; punches: small star; accessories: labels collection framelits, big shot, stampin’ dimensionals; additional: black feather.

Thanks for dropping by today

Breakfast at Tiffany’s hen party …

I’ve been a little busy for the past few weeks … helping my daughter’s bridesmaids to organise her hen party (or wedding shower).  The girls got together and decided the events for the day and had lots of fun things planned.  Due to everyone’s busy diaries, the date was set and we had just 2 weeks to put everything together, so the race was on to get everything done in time.  I had lots of help from my best friend, Debs – I couldn’t have done it without her.  She was so generous with her time, spending several evenings with me, until the wee hours, cutting, scoring and sticking boxes and decorations.  The theme was “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” with little black dresses with diamantes or pearls for the evening – so glamorous darlings! – and a vintage hair and make-up makeover during the day …

I booked the hotel penthouse for my daughter and a few friends.  On the morning of the party, her friends took her for breakfast at the Central Perk cafe, and meanwhile I sneaked into the hotel room with the groom and my fabulous husband, who helped me put up the decorations - which were all in keeping with the theme … I used my big shot machine and dies to cut out the bunting from pool party and whisper white cardstock, with a sprinkling of adhesive rhinestones here and there.  The boys left and I gave the signal to the bridesmaids that the coast was clear for them to come back …

My daughter got a real surprise!

I made Tiffany style gift bags as a surprise for the girls who attended in the day – inside each bag was a small bottle of fizz, a chocolate diamond, a bottle of Molton Brown bubble bath for pampering, a pair of sunglasses (like Audrey Hepburn wears in the movie) and a DVD of Breakfast at Tiffany’s… with some diamond confetti too of course.

And I made a wine glass charm with their name on for each of them, using the new soda pop tops from Stampin’ Up…

The maid of honour’s mum, Jean, made Tiffany blue macaroons and added tiny sugar pearls by hand around each one! Beautiful!

And I made a Tiffany box cake, complete with white ribbon and sugar diamantes and pearls …

I added some edible glitter for sparkle …

I put together a memory book asking everyone to send me their answers to the following:

* Describe the bride in 5 words

* What is your favourite memory of the bride?

* What is the secret to happy ever after?

* Send me a favourite photograph of you and the bride

There were a few tears as she read through what they had written, but there was also lots of laughs too.

My favourite reply to “describe the bride if 5 words” was by my friend Marj – she’d simply put

“Gill and Dave’s biggest achievement” – I loved that!

Then it was off to the venue for our vintage makeover – here’s just a few photos of my beautiful daughter…

We had a lovely afternoon having our make-up and hair done, and there was plenty of chilled fizz and cocktails too.

Then it was back to the penthouse to meet up with the rest of the guests and get changed for the evening, and to play some games before dinner.

Laurie got into her designer dress and then her maid of honour announced that she wasn’t quite dressed up enough … there were more items she needed to add, but there was a problem … they’d been hidden somewhere in the apartment, so a treasure hunt followed for her to find all the presents the bridesmaids had bought for her.  Each clue was written on Tiffany blue cards wrapped with white satin ribbons, and there were lots of laughs watching her finding her presents of a tiara, a veil, a sash, a black feather boa, long black evening gloves, cat glasses with diamantes and L plates.

Then came the Mr & Mrs quiz to see how compatible the couple were.  I’d sent the list of questions to the groom and he’d videod himself reading the questions and then answering them.  We all took it in turn to read out one of the 30 questions to her, and then we played back the groom’s answers - it went down an absolute storm!

Dinner was booked in the private dining room at the Liverpool Racquet Club hotel  (Lorraine said she felt like she was in Downton Abbey)

and there were more balloons and bunting – this time saying “he asked, she said yes” …

and each guest had a gift box on their place setting, filled with diamond shaped wedding bubbles, a flashing ice cube and an individually wrapped chocolate – with more diamond confetti too…

The maid of honour (pointing in the photo above) gave a welcome speech to toast the bride to be.  Dinner was delicious and then came my turn to give a speech as mother of the bride.  I wanted to say a few words to Laurie too and turned to the words of a poem to help me.  I knew I might get emotional but her oldest friend agreed to be my wing man if I couldn’t finish reading the words by E E Cummings -

and in Love Actually style, I had made large flash cards which Anna showed whilst I read out the poem.

 Luckily I was able to keep it together until the very last line -

“I carry your heart with me, I carry it in my heart”.

but by then we were hugging and kissing so everything was fine.

We played another game to lift the mood again, and then it was on for after dinner drinks at some trendy bars.

I think it was a day to remember for Laurie, and everyone who was there too.

~~~

Papercraft supplies from Stampin’ Up!

Cardstock: pool party, whisper white, basic black; Inks: basic black; Stamp sets: just believe; Punches: large oval, decorative label, Accessories: adhesive rhinestones, whisper white satin ribbon (retired), stampin’ dimensionals, sticky strip, tombow liquid glue, soda pop tops, window sheets, crystal effects. *a

Thanks for dropping by today