'Final Exam' Cake

Hello and happy Monday!  Can you believe this is already the last day of April?!?  May starts tomorrow!

Last week, Missy and I had our last Decorating Basics class and we decorated our 'final exam' cakes.  I got the idea for my cake by combining two example cakes that were shown in our course book.  The cakes that I got my inspiration for both had ribbon roses on them.  I was too chicken to go with the roses though.  We learned the roses during the first part of our last class, then spent the second half of class decorating our cakes.  I got the idea of making the roses, but mine were by no means cake-worthy!!  It will take a lot of practice for me to perfect those!

So, here is my cake!  I made a lot of swirl flowers in yellow, pink and purple the night before class.  Thankfully I made lots of extras because those suckers broke easily when I tried to put them on my cake!  I piped a shell border around the bottom of my cake and placed the swirl flowers all the way around.  Then I piped a crescent shaped mound of icing on top of my cake and placed more swirl flowers along and on top of the mound.  Then I finished my cake off with my sentiment. 

Note to self.....do not leave a decorated cake on the Wilton Cake Turntable and attempt to put that inside my cake carrier.  The cake carrier is not quite tall or wide enough.  Too bad I had to learn this the hard way.  :(  Not only was the turntable wedged inside my cake carrier, but the flowers on top got a little squished.  The people we gave the cake to were very touched to receive it and (thankfully) very understanding of my mishap.  They loved the cake - squished flowers or not!

Thanks for stopping by to take a look!

FCCB #108 and MCS #53

Good evening!  This has been a busy week and it's going by so fast - I can't believe tomorrow is already Friday!  I finally found some time to get downstairs and do a little crafting earlier this evening.  I put together a card for my grand-nephew's first birthday.  His birthday isn't for a few more months, but there are a couple challenges going on this week that gave me some inspiration for his card.

Over at Fantabulous Cricut, the challenge this week is On the Go - make a project with a car, bike, train, plane, etc.  The challenge at My Craft Spot is Things that Go - make a card or other project and it must include things that go (car, bike, boat, etc).  I thought this was the perfect opportunity to get this sweet little boy's birthday card made - and what little boy doesn't like dump trucks??  I decided to make my card base the number 1 (welded together with my Gypsy), added the dump truck, some twine and stamped a sentiment inside.  Thanks for coming by to take a look!

Recipe:

Cardstock from Recollections

1 from Birthday Bash cut at 5 inches

Dump truck from Beep Beep cut at 2.4 inches

Cuttlebug embossing folders - Swiss Dots and Polka Dots

Twine from My Craft Spot

Sentiment from My Pink Stamper's Sweet Baby set

Black and white Sakura gel pens

Cupcakes

Happy Monday!  Did you all have a fabulous weekend?  Like I thought would happen, we didn't have much on our schedule but we sure managed to fill up our time!!

Last week, my friend Missy and I had our third Decorating Basics class.  We learned to ice cupcakes, make leaves and make some basic Wilton flowers (drop flowers, rosettes, pompom flowers and shaggy mums).  Here is my attempt at the shaggy mum.  Definitely not as nice as the ones in the book or the one that our teacher created in class, but for my first attempt it wasn't all too bad (I think, anyway!).  This week we have our final Decorating Basics class and we'll be decorating our 'final exam' cake.  I'm still trying to decide what to do on it, but I'm sure you'll be seeing pics!  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week!!

Birthday Explosion Card

Good evening!  This week sure went by fast!  We don't have too much planned for the weekend so far, but something tells me we will fill our time somehow and before I know it Monday will be here.  

Today is my sweetie's birthday and I wanted to make him a special card.  Have you seen the explosion boxes that some of the talented people out there have been making??  I've been seeing a bunch of them lately and I think they're so neat!  I did some searching and found some instructions HERE (scroll down about 6 entries in the forum for links to the PDF or Word document).  I modified my box slightly from these instructions, starting with a 9x9 square piece of cardstock for the base, scoring it at 3" and 6" along both sides.  For the lid, I used a 6.5"x6.5" square piece of cardstock, scoring it 1.5" in from each side.

I have seen some other exploding boxes that keep the entire square of paper in tact but couldn't find any instructions or tutorials.  If anyone can point me to some I would really appreciate it!!  Anyway, the possibilities are endless with these exploding boxes.  I've seen some exploding albums with 2 or 3 layers - how neat!!  I had fun with my explosion card and can't wait to try an album!

Thanks for coming by to check out my creation and I hope you have a fabulous weekend!

Top of the box.

The 4 sides of the box.

Inside the box (I left the center square open so I could write a birthday message to my sweetie).

Recipe:

Solid cardstock from Bazzill and Recollections

Patterned cardstock from The Paper Studio

Happy Birthday from Sweet Treats cut at 1.25 inches

Present from Sweet Treats cut at 1.5 inches

Party favor from Sweet Treats cut at 1 inch

Cupcake from Sweet Treats cut at 1.5 inches

Party hat from Sweet Treats cut at 1.5 inches

Golfer from Everyday Paper Dolls cut at 2.5 inches

Golf club and ball from Father's Day cut at 2 inches 

Green and flag from Everyday Paper Dolls cut at 2.5 inches

Golf bag and clubs from Everyday Paper Dolls cut at 3 inches

Twine from My Craft Spot

Glossy Accents

Black and white Sakura gel pens

First Birthday Airplane Card

Good evening!

Our neighbor's sweet little boy turned one this past Saturday.  I wanted to put together a card for him and thought an airplane pulling a "Happy 1st Birthday" banner would be cute, so I pulled out some Cricut handbooks to find some images.  I used the Beep Beep cartridge, one I got for Christmas but have yet to use, and also Twinkle Toes, another cartridge I've had for a while but rarely use.

I'm going to enter this card into a couple of challenges.  Over at Fantabulous Cricut, the challenge this week is April Showers - make a project with an umbrella, rain or clouds on it.  The clouds on my background paper came from the Cricut Imagine Best Friends cartridge.  Over at My Craft Spot, the challenge this week is Make it Pop - use dimensionals to make some part of your card really stand out.  I used two different sized dimensionals - larger ones for the airplane and smaller ones to pop up a few clouds that I cut around for a little extra depth on the card.

Thanks for coming by to take a look - hope you are all having a great week!

Recipe:
Solid cardstock from Bazzill and Recollections
Patterned cardstock printed from Best Friends Cricut Imagine cartridge
Airplane from Beep Beep cut at 2.6 inches
Banner from Twinkle Toes cut at 1 inch
Sentiment from My Pink Stamper's Sweet Baby set
Black Sakura gel pen
Blue chalk ink around banner
Twine from My Craft Spot
Glossy Accents
Pop dots

Birthday Cake

Happy Monday!  I hope you all had a great weekend.  We were lucky here and missed all the of the severe weather that they kept saying would be coming.

As some of you know, I got a Cricut Cake machine for Christmas and I've only used it once.  I definitely want to use it more, but I think it would be nice to know more about cake decorating first.  My friend Missy and I decided that the thing to do was take some cake decorating classes, so we signed up for the Wilton Course One - Decorating Basics.  We just had our second class last week and we had to ice and decorate a cake.  We learned piping gel transfers and dimensional decorating, and of course leveling the cake and icing it.  It's a learning process for sure but we're having fun!  I found out that my icing was a little too stiff, so I got some crumbs in my icing, but overall I was pretty pleased with how my first attempt at dimensional decorating turned out.

Hopefully Missy and I learn a lot in this class.  Our next adventure will be the Wilton Course Three - Gum Paste and Fondant.  We're excited for that class and hope to put our Cake machines to work with the knowledge we gain!

Oh, and if anyone has any helpful hints for cake decorating I'd love to hear them!!  :)

Seize the Cupcake

Happy Saturday!  I hope you're all having a great weekend.  I had some time yesterday afternoon and decided to get my Imagine out.  I got my Imagine for Christmas and have barely used it.  Recently I've purchased a few cartridges for it, so I decided it was time to get it out and play with it a bit.  It's a little overwhelming at first, but I must say I really love it!  All the pattern papers you can print that coordinate so well with the images....it makes it easy for projects to come together pretty quickly.  I have a lot more to learn about that big machine, but I think I'm going to have fun doing it!

The card I made I created for a few reasons.  I need to get some cards created for some birthdays coming up and there's a couple of challenges I wanted to participate in.  Over at Fantabulous Cricut, the challenge this week is Buttons and Bows - make a project with at least one button and bow on it.  The Die Cuttin Divas challenge this week is Use Pastel Colors.  Here's what I came up with.  Thanks for coming by to take a look and enjoy your weekend!

Recipe:
Solid cardstock from Bazzill
Patterned cardstock from Better Together Imagine cartridge
Cupcake from Better Together cut at 3.5 inches
Face from Peachy Keen Stamp's Wide Eyed Kids Face Assortment
Sentiments from Hero Arts Cupcake set
Crinkle ribbon
Twine from My Craft Spot
Button from my stash

CTO Challenge #58

Good evening!  Hope everyone is doing well!  It's a rainy day around here, and they're forecasting more rain for the next few days.  Might mean more scrap time for me instead of yard work!  :)

This week over at Celebrate the Occasion, the challenge is 'Just Because' and you must use pink.  I'm in desperate need of building up my card stash so I got to creating!  I was flipping through a number of Cricut handbooks trying to decide on an image to use and nothing was striking my eye for this challenge.  So I decided to go Cricut-less - something I don't do very often!!  It's a pretty simple card but I figure if I'm writing someone 'just because' simple might work perfectly.  Thanks for coming by to check out my creation!

Recipe:
Solid cardstock from Bazzill and Recollections
Patterned cardstock from EKSuccess
Martha Stewart Ribbon Loop Punch
Ribbon from The Paper Studio
American Crafts twine
Button from my stash
Sentiment from Hero Arts Everyday Sayings set

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone!  I hope you're all enjoying the holiday weekend.  I have one final Easter card to share today, and I'm going to submit it to the challenge over at Fantabulous Cricut.  The challenge this week is 'Egg-ceptional Easter' and we're asked to create a project with an egg on it.  Here is what I came up with.  Thanks for coming by to take a look and I hope you all have a fabulous holiday!

Recipe:
Solid cardstock from Bazzill and Recollections
Patterned cardstock from my scrap stash
Bird and broken egg from 3 Birds on Parade cut at 3.5 inches
Eggs from Doodlecharms cut at 4.5 inches
Fiskars Grass border punch
Swiss Dots, Spots and Dots and Tiny Bubbles embossing folders
Sentiment from My Pink Stamper's Happiest Moments set
Black and white Sakura gel pens
Glossy Accents
pop dots

Happy Easter Eve!

Happy Saturday!  I hope everyone's holiday weekend is off to a good start!  I had a 14-mile run this morning - my longest run in over 6 months I think - so I'm a little tired.  But I'm enjoying the weekend, hoping to get some crafting done and watch the Masters golf tournament on tv - one of my favorite golf tournaments of the year!

I have another Easter card to share with you today.  I'm going to enter this card in the challenges at Krafty Girls and My Craft Spot.  The challenge at Krafty Girls is 'For Peeps Sake' and the theme of the challenge at My Craft Spot is 'Easter'.  Both challenges are looking for Easter-themed projects.  Easy enough, right?

The inspiration for my card came from my good friend Missy's blog.  She recently had a blog makeover, which I LOVE!  After her makeover was complete, I was looking over all the new features of her blog and I kept thinking how cute the little ribbons with flowers were by all her headings.  The more I looked at her new title display, the more I realized that could totally be a layout for a card.  And so my idea was born a couple weeks ago.  It's just taken me until now to find the time to get down to my craft room and bring it to life!!  Here's my take on Missy blog title design.  :)

Recipe:
Solid cardstock from Bazzill and Recollections
Patterned cardstock from DCWV
Chick in egg from Simply Charmed cut at 2 inches
American Crafts twine
Button from my stash
Sentiment from My Pink Stamper's Happiest Moments set
Black Sakura gel pens
Glossy accents
Action Wobble

Die Cuttin Diva's Challenge #59

Hello!  This week is flying by for me - I think it's because I've been so busy!  I've managed to find some time to get started on my Easter cards, thankfully.  I'm really looking forward to the weekend and am hoping to find some more time to play in my craft room.

This week over at Die Cuttin Divas, the challenge is a sketch challenge.  Here is the sketch:  

I haven't followed many sketches, but this one looked like fun (and not too terribly difficult, thankfully!).  Here is my Easter take on the sketch - thanks for coming by to take a look!

Recipe:

Solid cardstock from Bazzill and Recollections

Patterned cardstock from The Paper Studio and EKSuccess

Bunny from Create a Critter cut at 2.6 inches

White Sakura gel pen

Glossy Accents

Pop dots

Disney Thank You

Happy Wednesday!  I hope you're all having a wonderful week!  Are you ready for Easter??  I'm just getting started on my Easter cards - running a bit late, I know.

This past weekend my sweetie and I were out in California, where we had a second wedding reception since that is where nearly all of my extended family lives.  While we were there, my niece celebrated her birthday at Disneyland.  My parents were gracious enough to treat the family that day, taking advantage of the fact that we were all together - which unfortunately doesn't happen very often.  I wanted to make a thank you card for them to let them know how much we appreciated the day.  My sweetie had never been to Disneyland, only Disney World, and I hadn't been to Disneyland in years.  We had a great time riding the rides, seeing the shows, and of course spending time with family!  Thanks for stopping by!

Recipe:
Solid paper from Bazzill and Recollections
Patterned paper from DCWV
'Gawrsh' from Mickey Font cut at 1 inch
Goofy from Mickey Font cut at 3.5 inches
Ribbon from my stash
Sentiment from Friends and Neighbors Set by My Craft Spot
Glossy Accents
White Sakura gel pen