Sweet bundle of love …

I started a beginners cake decorating course at night school in September.  My daughter, who is getting married in 18 months’ time, has asked me to make her wedding cake and whilst I feel very honoured, I also feel a little daunted too …

She asked me because I made my own wedding cake … but that was 24 years ago and I only decorated it as my mum made the fruit cake base!  So I thought I’d better do something about it now whilst I have plenty of time to practise …

So far I am loving the course.  We have a lovely teacher (hi Tracey) and I’ve made friends with a great girl, Claire, who helps me enormously.  On the very first lesson, Tracey got us doing some sugar modelling … here’s my first attempt at sugar crafting…

I lost count of how many times I did the ears and took them off again, but I have not laughed so much in ages – it was great fun! 

Now for something I feel a little more comfortable with … my friend, Ana, asked me to make a new baby card for her friends in Italy.  I used my favourite baby stamp set from Stampin’ Up! called Bundle of Love…

I just love this two-step stamp set.  The images are so cute they are adorable!  I used whisper white and pretty in pink for the card but the lighting wasn’t quite right when I was photographing it and everything turned out looking a little pink - maybe I should sign up for a photography course next! 

Thanks for dropping by today

Sunshine and serendipity…

Don’t you just love it when everything seems to fall into place all by itself?

This morning the sun was shining, there was a warm breeze and it felt like the perfect day.

Before the day even dawned, I was working on some photos for my blog when I quite by accident happened across a program on my computer that is fabulous for writing my blog posts. I can’t believe it’s been there all along but lay undiscovered by me – a truly happy accident!

Now, if only I can get it to do the housework for me too …

In the words of Eleanora Duse:

 

If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you,

if the simplest things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive.

 

So here’s my card to share today.

I’m sending this to a very special friend, ‘cos sometimes you just need to know that someone cares…

 

I did some stamping on the inside too, and didn’t forget the envelope …

I love the friendship phrases on the Friendly Words wheel from Stampin’ Up! and it was after going to the quarterly training event back in April which is run by my lovely upline, Michelle Last, that I got the courage to “whack-a-wheel”, that is cut up the wheel into separate stamps, and I am so glad I did. From that one wheel, I got 13 sentiment stamps plus 3 flourish stamps too. How brilliant is that? I am one very happy lady! I’ve used the sentiments on so many of my cards already as they fit just perfectly on many of the labels dies available in the mini catalogue.

And, my card was inspired by the challenge on So Shelli’s blog for this month, to make a “thinking of you” card.

 

Several layers of cardstock on this card, with the edges of the whisper white layer given that shabby-chic look with the distressing kit, sponged with crumb cake ink, and I then added splashes of crumb cake ink with my aqua painter too (my latest favourite thing to do).

All supplies from Stampin’ Up!

Cardstock: crumb cake, very vanilla, whisper white, rose red; Inks: crumb cake, pink pirouette, early espresso; Stamp set: Friendly Words wheel (whacked); Accessories: Flower daisies die, #2 circle die, lots of tags embosslit, eyelet border punch, basic pearls, linen thread, distressing kit, crimper, aqua painter.

Have a great day everyone. Hope the sun is shining where you are too.

Thanks for dropping by today

 

 

 

Cherry thanks…

I love the challenge on the Less is More website this week - buttons and bows are my favourite embellishments!

This was a quick and easy card to do, used very little supplies, and I love the way it turned out.

I stamped all images onto whisper white cardstock and then popped up some faux buttons,

made with the sweet buttons embosslit, with dimensionals on to the cherries – love it! 

 

Stampin Up supplies used:

Cardstock: whisper white, real red; Inks: real red; Stamp sets: tart and tangy, thank you kindly, baby blossoms; Accessories: stampin’ write markers in real red and garden green, real red satin ribbon, stampamajig, stampin’ dimensionals, sweet buttons embosslit.  

 

Thanks for dropping by today

Crafty goodness…

Some friends came round the other day for a cuppa, cake and crafting.

There was lots of laughter and we had so much fun making and creating together…

 

My theme was “white card and texture”… 

Each project was based on a piece of plain white card, and with the addition of a little designer series paper, ink and some ribbon we were able to make these cards and a gift box.

The first was inspired by a card I made recently for my friend’s mum. 

I adapted it a little to make a smaller, A6 size card …

The ladies loved making all their own embellishments for the card.

Stampin’ Up! make it so easy to get professional results because the punches co-ordinate perfectly with their stamp sets.   

Genius! 

We used dsp to make the dimensional flowers, which are super easy to do but look so effective.  And because all the products from Stampin’ Up! co-ordinate with each other, the dsp matched perfectly with the ink on the labels – super cute!

The flower is very dimensional so this is definitely a card that would benefit from being hand delivered.

Next we made a matching set -

a birthday card…

with flower embellishments that were a little less dimensional this time,

so the cards could go more easily through the post…

 And a matching gift box…

We used the scraps and off-cuttings to make more embellishments with the Stampin’ Up! embosslits – sweet buttons and beautiful wings.  Nothing went to waste! 

All the ladies did so well  and completed all 3 projects - having so much fun in the process!  Some are very new to crafting but you would never guess as their projects looked absolutely beautiful.  Well done ladies! 

Thanks for dropping by today