Wallace and Gromit Were-Rabbit Birthday Cake

I have been terrible at updating my blog recently, but I needed to share this.

My lovely Monkey turned 5 recently, and he requested a Curse of the Were-rabbit cake, as he LOVES Wallace and Gromit. Now the only problem with 4/5 year olds, is that they believe that whatever they ask for can be magically created (and I always try my best to magically create!).

So here is the cake.

Gromit and Wallaces' head are both modelling chocolate (which I made, and I'll post the details and photos later) and the rest is fondant. The cake (at Monkeys' request) was Vanilla sponge, strawberry jam and chocolate buttercream.
I want to add more photos to this post when I get round to it!

Face Painting Party Day

Today has been crazy busy. This morning was our kids church Christmas party, and this afternoon was my nieces birthday party. Since I bought some face paints at Easter I've been looking for opportunities to practice with them, and today two came at once. This morning I did some painting for the Preschoolers at our church party, and this afternoon I painted for a reception class! At the party this afternoon I thought I was going to have a quiet time, as it took at least 10 minutes for anyone to come over and ask for it to be done, but from that point on I didn't stop for 2 hours!
12 Hello Kittys, 10 butterflies, 5 foxes, 3 batmen, 2 supermen, 1 spiderman, 1 superhero and 1 princess later I was able to enjoy a piece of cake and a cup of tea!

Here's my little fox

And the beautiful birthday princess

and another action shot.

I hope you like my lovely Christmas jumper my honey bought me this week from Primark!

Irish Red Setter Silhouette Card

My father in law recently got a little puppy. I say little puppy, he won't stay little for long as he's an Irish Red Setter, and they grow to be pretty big!
We wanted to go down and visit them whilst the puppy, Finn, was still small to let our boys get used to him, and he them. You'll see some pictures further down.

For my father in laws birthday I thought I would tie in the new member of the family and used my silhouette to cut a cute red setter. I also used my silhouette to cut out a matching sentiment.

I looked through my 6x6 papers and found 4 that had similar orange/red tones which would work with a red setter. Some of the papers are Basic Grey, but unfortunately all my papers are loose and mixed up, so I couldn't tell you which!

Amazingly this is another card without a single bit of stamping!

Here's Finn with my lovely hubby, and then here is my Monkey being licked by Finn! Monkey is a little scared of him still, and this was really funny watching him try and avoid being licked!!
When we visit again at Christmas I'm sure he'll have grown loads!

Cbeebies Mr Tumble Card

Today is my little man's 4th birthday! Here is the card I made to send to the BBC for their Cbeebies channel.

Its done to look like Mr Tumbles spotty bag, and has images from Octonauts, Chuggington, Tree Fu Tom and Number Jacks on it.

There he is, under the 4!

Unfortunately they can't show every card that gets sent in, so its a bit hit and miss. Last years card was a miss, which when you've spent hours making it, and spent about £5 sending it comes as a bit of a blow (especially when you have a little one waiting expectantly by the television!). Here's hoping it gets shown!

Happy Everything Goes!

Here is a card I made for my sister in law whose birthday is tomorrow. After being inspired by the recent Pajama party to use my Folk art medallion set with some vivid colours I set about finding the perfect combination of colours. After some experimentation I decided to go for Distress Inks in Seedless Preserve, Forest Moss and Chipped Sapphire.

I took the tiny pennant from the set and stamped along the central section with alternating colours.

I also embossed some purple card with Swiss dots and stamped an extra medallion and some leaves for embellshmenst. Finally the sentiment is Paper Smooches from the set Simply Said.

I'm entering this into the Waltzingmouse Pajama Party Bedtime story sketch

and the Paper Smooches Anything goes challenge

Pretty Banner Card

Here is the card I made for my beautiful niece who was 1 a few weeks ago. This card is almost entirely made on my silhouette.

First I cut a number 1 from pink card and embossed it with cuttlebug Swiss dots. I also cut a coordinating white number 1 to layer onto. I also cut little banner triangles from white card, and some patterned paper I got in a magazine last year, each one with a letter of her name. 

I placed some pink card behind the letter banners to make them stand out. Each little banner is attached to some twine so it falls like a real banner.

Elijah Rainbow Banner

In preparation for the Cake Smash photos I wanted to make some props, and really liked the idea of a name banner. As I had planned a rainbow cake, a rainbow banner was obviously appropriate.

I used my Silhouette to cut the banner shapes, which made it super easy, and I cut each of the letters of his name out too. I then stamped onto each white banner with the coordinating colours, and used square, circle and star stamps.

Here's a close up...

And here's how the finished banner looks :)

Rainbow Smash Cake

When my friend who is a photographer was asking for a volunteer to have a go at Cake Smashing I have to admit I didn't have a clue what she meant, but a quick good showed exactly what it was! What do you get if you put a baby and a pretty cake together? Cake Smash!

The deal was, I make the cake, she'd take the photos, so off I set to make a cake. It had to be buttercream icing for the best mess and smash, but I didn't want it to be boring, so I searched around online and found a tutorial for a petal cake. I decided to take it to the next level and do it rainbow coloured. Here are my bags of rainbow coloured icings. You need to work on the one after the other, so I had to be careful to keep them in the right order!

You start by piping dots of each colour, the smudge them right, then add the next row, but move all the colours along one. You repeat this until it is completely covered. 

Here is the cake about to be smashed

Tomorrow I'll be showing the banner I made for the background!

Thanks to the wonderful Kirsty Wiseman for these fab images!

Mickey Mouse 1st Birthday card

This is the card I made for my little man for his birthday, and it is made almost entirely on my Silhouette portrait. We went to Disneyland Paris last week, and in preparation for doing my first real scrapbook I've been looking on Pinterest at loads of Disney layouts and free files which inspired this card. The font is called Waltograph and can be downloaded free from www.dafont.com (SO useful for all your font needs!). I made the background paper myself by replicating a little Mickey head over and over. The Silhouettes print feature makes this easy (and it also meant I could just print his name and then cut it on my silhouette. I googled some Mickey things like hands and shorts, then using the trace feature on the Silhouette software I was able to cut each other the parts in different sections and layer up the colours. Some bright red and yellow card was all I needed to finish it off, with a little stitched edge ribbon. I hope you like it :)

My little man is 1!

Where has the year gone?! I can't believe EJ turns 1 tomorrow. We had family round today for a little birthday tea and although initially I hadn't planned to make a cake I knew I had to!
Joey suggested Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (we went to Disneyland Paris last week) but I settled on just Mickey Mouse. Not wanting to over complicate it I just made a white base and added red and yellow circles and a Mickey head. My piping is, as usual, not great, but I'm working on it!!! I even tried to do a Disney font!

Hopefully I'll post his Mickey card tomorrow, and some other fun things we did for his birthday!

Gorjus Girlie card

This is a card I made for my friends daughter who was turning 3. I used a Gorjus Girl stamp and coloured her with promarkers. I've learned my lesson in the past and having coloured a beautiful image not been able to find any paper to match it, so based on some advice from C&C I chose my background paper first and based my promarkers on that! It makes SO much sense! I made use of some little punches which often get neglected, a tiny label one onto which I stamped her name, and a candle one which I think looks cute in the centre of a die cut circle. Doing pinks and purples is outside of my comfort zone, but I'm happy with how it turned out!

Fantastic Ribbon Spring Flower Card Including tutorial

This month the Fantastic Ribbons design team are making ribbon flowers for your inspiration!

So here is my card, showcasing some beautiful polka dot satin 10mm ribbon and some green polka dot washi tape.
After I made this card a few months ago people were keen to see a tutorial on how to make the ribbon flower, so here's what you'll need:

A circle cut from card and covered in double sided tape and some ribbon.

Now for the finer details!

I used a 1.5inch circle punch, 1m of 10mm ribbon (there was enough left over for my card, but its good to have a bit extra). The double sided tape should be as strong as possible, I recommend the red backed tape. The ribbon can be pretty much anything, but organza doesn't work very well.

So you start by attaching the ribbon 1/2 on, 1/2 off the circle and lay down about 1cm, then fold back a small overlap. Continue around the outside adding 1cm folds until you completely cover it, and then when you get back to the start you can move in a layer. Continue doing this until it is completely covered.

I did a pink one too.

You could use a button as a centre (Left), or a large brad (Right)

I stamped some leaves (Waltzingmouse Folk Medallions), a stalk and sentiment (Stampendous Ribbon builder) and added some washi tape and ribbon to a 5" white card which I'd sponged with green ink round the edge and added it to a 5 1/2 " card base.

I hope you like my spring flower, and do have a go at making your own ribbon flowers, they make a great embellishment, and are really easy to make.

Please check out all the beautiful ribbons over at Fantastic Ribbons for your inspiration!

Art Deco Eiffel Tower Card

Here is the card I made for my mother in law. It is perfect for her, because she loves the art deco style ladies and we're going to Paris together in a month! I used some of my lovely Waltzingmouse Paris Nouveau stamps: the lovely art deco border stamped in Peacock Feather Distress ink, the Eiffel tower stamped in Archival Black, and the Paris word. The art deco lady and the Best Wishes sentiment are from a free set by Claire Coxon that came with a Docrafts magazine this winter. I stamped the art deco lady onto some Stix2 masking paper and cut her out so I could stamp the Eiffel tower behind her.

I stamped some more Peacock feather distress ink onto my craft mat and then painted with it like a water colour. I also mixed some Antique linen with some Barn door distress ink to make her skin tone. Peacock feathers tie in with her hair piece and dress really well. I sponged around the outside with more distress ink.

Finally I added some Fantastic Ribbons Aqua Organza. A little white tag and some nice pins, and a little turquoise gem on her headpiece finished it off.

90th Birthday Wine Bottle card

I can't imagine that many people will ever need to make a 90th birthday card, but I wanted to make one for one of my husband relatives,

He used to run a pub, so wine seemed a good theme (plus I wanted to get the year of his birth on the card, and a vintage bottle of wine seemed perfect!).

His last name is Lock, so that got on there too. 

The background paper is wallpaper from the lovely Galeria Memories.

I cut the numbers and wine bottle on my Silhouette. I bought the bottle template from the Silhouette store, which for 33p I thought was worth it.

I even did the print and cut for the label which was cool. 

I finished it off with some gold embossing on the bottle label and the numbers.

I think this makes a great masculine card, or for anyone who likes red wine!

Vintage 30th Butterfly Card

Here is a card I made for one of my housemates from uni. She is the most lovely person you could care to meet, and I thought this delicate and beautiful card was so suited for her.

I cut the numbers on my silhouette, and the background paper and the purple 30 are some papers I got free with Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine (Issue 115) a few weeks ago called Floral Fantasy.

The sentiment is a very old wooden stamp which was stamped onto a labels 4 shape I cut from cream card with my cuttlebug and inked with Walnut Stain distress ink. I also inked the edges of everything with this too!!! The butterfly is a punch I borrowed from a friend, and I think its a Tonic Studios punch and I inked it up with some new distress ink Seedless preserve.

The ribbon is ivory senorita ribbon, and finishes it off :)

Waltzingmouse Flower show CASE

Today we are CASing cards from the recent Waltzingmouse Flower Show.

 I knew when I was looking through the cards that I wanted to CASE JJ Bolton, and had trouble choosing between the two cards she had made, but eventually I settled on the vellum one.

  here is JJs original here

I started off by stamping the main image from Folk Medallions in a rainbow of colours (I do love rainbows!). I then cut a circle in the centre, using circle nestabilities, which would make the centre of the card visible.

I stamped a red medallion onto a piece of white card which would sit inside the card underneath the main medallion and be seen when the card was closed.

Here's how it is when it's open. You can see some of the glitter in the vellum too.

I used my silhouette to cut the black cardstock to the shape of the medallion.

Here's how it looks when its closed.

I added some Fantastic Ribbon rainbow ribbon and a Paper Smooch sentiment (Simply Said) which was stamped in versamark and used Wow extra fine white embossing powder.

Here you can see the inside of the card with the small medallion.

I hope you like my take on the original :)

Have a Jurassic Birthday!

You know that feeling when you have an idea, make something and its just "wow!". Yeah, that!
I LOVE this card. I don't care if anyone else likes it (apart from the person its intended for!!) because it is absolutely what its meant to be!

When I was making a card a couple of weeks ago I was flipping through some rub ons and showing my hubby, and as I flicked past some dinosaur ones he said "oh, that would be perfect for my sister!". You see she's a HUGE Jurassic Park fan. I wouldn't even like to hesitate a guess as to how many times she's seen it. But it got me thinking. How could I make her a Jurassic Park card?
I set to googling it, and decided to use my new favourite thing, my Silhouette Portrait!
I decided to make a funny version of the logo and use a cute dino instead of the scary one! I also decided to change the name to the Happy Birthday sentiment.

I tried to find the font, and online it was suggested that African was the closest. I used www.dafont.com to download the font for free.

I also printed a sentiment inside the card using the African font. I never use inserts, but on a black card you don't really have an option!

I hope you like my card, I do, and I'm loving my Silhouette more and more!!

Vintage Motorbike Card

Here is another card highlighting the wonder of the Silhouette!

I had some wonderful motorbike wallpaper from the Galerie Memories pattern book from my dad, and knew I wanted to use it along with my Silhouette. I tried to scan in the paper to trace it on the Silhouette software, but it wasn't clear enough, so I googled and found a free image that I could trace and amended it slightly so it wasn't TOO tricky to cut out (Even the Silhouette has limits!)

Some sponging, a sentiment and some polka dot background, and there you have it!

I hope you like it :)