Jenny's 2012 Christmas Cake

Somewhere underneath this mass of icing is a cake! ha ha...

Jenny looks after my lovely dog when I go out and for this I am extremely grateful.

So this is my thank you cake to Jenny this year.

I told her I had made a cake but hadn't decorated it and she said, "Put a Christmas tree on it"... so I have!

THANK YOU JENNY

Christmas Cake 2012

I was asked if I was making a Christmas cake this year.... I think it was a hint!

Well yes I was so asked how they wanted the cake decorated and Graham said he would like a Father Christmas sitting by the fire in a rocking chair.

Well that wasn't quite enough on its own so came up with the idea of a two-scene cake. The edge of the cake was outside... the path, front door, brickwork, Christmas tree and the reindeer's hooked up to the sledge but taking a rest.

The top of the cake was Father Christmas in his rocking chair, sitting by a fire and on the table was the usual glass of sherry and mince pies.  It was fun to make... I felt like a big kid with my plasticine!

Embroidery Guild's Anniversary Cake

I was asked to make a cake to celebrate an Embroidery Guilds 35th anniversary.

I did not make the cross stitch band that went around the cake but made the fruit cake, covered it in marzipan, regalice and then made the bits and pieces to decorate the top in a variety of Squires sugar paste and royal icing.

It was fun to make.

Wedding Anniversary Card

I made this card with the help of my sister-in-law using her card making CD to create the background paper and adding a wedding photo on top.

I then layered the card to create a memory of their wedding day for their second anniversary.

Nina's 33rd Birthday Card

Nina would love to own a bag shop selling all the posh bags you can possibly purchase.... of course this is a dream she doesn't expect to realise, but there is nothing wrong with  dreaming.

So with the help of my sister-in-law and her card making CD, she produced the pictures for this card.

I then built the card up using the pictures and peel offs placed onto acetate to create this really effective card. This picture doesn't do the card justice, and you cannot see how all the windows are see-through. When the card was opened you could view the whole of the inside of the shop, rather than just peeking through the windows!

Nina thought it was the best card I had ever made for her so that was good.

September Card Making Day - Sue's Challenge

Well in September 2012 we had another card making session. Four of us met (a different four to last time... no Julie but Sue came along) and we set each other a challenge. Sue started the day by giving us a pack of identical materials and said that we did not need to use everything in the pack, and that we could add two items of our own for variation.

You can see the cards have a similarity because we all used the tree and the teddy... but after that we all did our own thing.

It was a lovely day we spent together, and I liked the way we all came up with such different styles of cards where no two were remotely alike.

What a lovely time of food, fellowship and fun card making. I can strongly recommend it.

September Card Making Day - Pam's Challenge

 So this was my challenge... the second of the day, and I gave everyone a card with an oval hole in the middle... an aperture card it is called... I am told. How lovely to see the different way people tackled it.

September Card Making Day - Mary's Challenge

Mary set us a challenge of making a Christmas card but have to say only Sue and I actually made one.  Chris said it was too early to make Christmas cards and she and Mary busied themselves finishing off other cards.

I really enjoyed this challenge because Mary brought along lots of lovely Christmas die cutters and papers and left us to help ourselves.

It is funny how other people's stuff seems so much more interesting that our own.  I felt a bit like a kid in a sweet shop!

September Card Making Day - Chris's Challenge

This is Chris's challenge.  She gave us a set of papers and a sheet of card in different colours and told us what style of card she wished us to make.

It was lovely to see how we all started off with the same materials and yet we all made it differently.

Folded Thank You Card

I made this card to express my thanks to good friends who really proved themselves to be just that this week.

My sister-in-law was all ready to make the long coach journey to our home town on the Monday when she received a phone call from me the day before telling her I had picked up a nasty bug was ill and it was very contagious. Sue had a very important occasion to attend on the Thursday and we could not risk her becoming ill.

So we asked our friends if they could step into the breach and they did. They drove 18 miles to fetch Sue from the coach station, took her home and have looked after her for the past three days.

I had to make them a thank you card...  so decided to have a go at this folded card my friend Chris (of Purple Peonies blog) showed me from a CD by Anna Griffin. The inside has a pocket also, and we wrote a little note and tucked it inside.

Sheri's Birthday Card

I work with Sheri and this is the first birthday card I have made for her so I hope she likes it. The inspiration came when Chris from the 'Purple Peonies' blog came to craft.  She had the lovely die that cut the scalloped edge and I had the die cutters for the flower.  Well Chris started making a card cutting out this flower and then decided she didn't fancy using it so I wasn't going to let a good flower go to waste.
The background paper does look a bit 'peachy' but in actual fact it was a lovely pale ivory coloured paper... just in case you were thinking that these two colours don't go together!

Frosty Ville Christmas card

My sister-in-law saw a picture of the Memory Box die 'frosty ville' used on a card where they had one row standing proud. It sounded so lovely I thought I would have a go.  Unfortunately we cannot find the card on the internet again so that I could give thanks and acknowledgment to the person who came up with this lovely idea.
What I have done is to support these fragile shapes by putting a piece of acetate behind, otherwise I have visions of it not surviving being pulled out of the envelope!
The Christmas trees are cut out of a piece of Christmas ribbon and I have used the odd peel off.

White Poinsettia flower in sugarpaste

This Poinsettia was made during a sugar craft lesson with Janet.  We didn't have any red icing so decided to make a white version of this flower, and I am pleased with the way it turned out.  I really fancy having a go now at making this in red, my favourite colour for this lovely flower which oozes Christmas to me.

Spray of flowers in sugar paste

This spray of flowers was something I made at my sugar craft lesson. To my shame I can't remember what they are called, I just wanted to make flowers to fill in when large bouquets were wanted. So simple yet so pretty.

Stargazer lily in sugarpaste

I made this stargazer lily at my sugar craft lesson with Janet Melillo.  She is an amazing teacher and I was overwhelmed to be able to make this lily under her instruction in a way that makes it look so real. I loved it so much that I decided it wasn't going on a cake, instead I have placed it in a glass vase and have it on my shelf over the fireplace.  I had a wonderful compliment when Carol and Bev visited our home from the USA, Carol actually thought it was real.... and she was holding the vase in her hand!  Thank you Janet for sharing your God given talent and being so willing to help others aspire to greater things.

Jane's Birthday Card

I made this card for a colleague at work.

Using my new Marianne die cut set I  created a card very similar to the one below, but have used softer colours and a die cut from the same set to create the flower shape in the middle.

(sorry this card is displaying the wrong way round for some unknown reason!)

Coco's Birthday Card

I made this birthday card using a new Marianne die cut set.

I decided to use some really pretty papers that were given to me as a gift from American friends Carol and Bev who were interested to know how I would use them.

(Sorry the card is not the correct way up... it is on my computer but not when I download it onto my blog !)

Stamp-a-faire Summer Camp 21st July 2012

As you can see from this wacky photograph, we had a really good day together rising to the Stamp-a-faire challenge online.

In the photo you can see Pam, Julie, Chris and Mary (well just about!), prior to knuckling down to our crafting.

I have to say how impressed I was with Julie, the card making novice amongst us who made her second card only, which meant that she used a die cutting machine for the very first time, stamped for just the second time ever, as well as watching the video on making the ribbon flowers and producing these lovely spotty coral flowers. I have a feeling we may just have a new card maker in the wings.

The second card was made by Mary. I really liked the way she stamped white onto the deep coloured card at different intensities to create a lovely effect. Like Julie she watched the video, made a flower and used it on her card. The tiny embellishments in lemon just finish it all off beautifully.

Then we come to Chris's card. Chris decided to use butterflies instead of ribbon flowers which look lovely. What a fresh carefree effect she has created with this card. I like the little pearls on the lacy header.  Lovely.

Then last is mine. I have to say I am not too keen on    it.  I made three flowers and really enjoyed making them but when I placed them on the card I didn't like them so decided to put little buttons on the card instead.  The card is not right and I am sure there will be something else on it before I give it to anyone.

I can really recommend getting together with friends and having a crafty day, what a delight it was.

I am looking forward to the 2013 challenge.... with a little more idea of what to expect next time.

I want to give a special thanks to Chris who introduced us to this lovely day, for all her help and teaching.

If you want to see some beautiful cards then do visit her blog... the link is on the right hand side of this posting.

Thank you for stopping by to take a look.

Papertrey Ink Stamp-a-faire Day 2012

What a fantastic day I have had today with three very special friends, Chris, Julie, Mary and myself. We joined the Papertrey stamp-a-faire which was held online today 21st July 2012.

We called ourselves the Cotswold Crafters because that is where we spent our day eating, chatting, drinking tea and coffee and making cards... of course!

The idea was that if it wasn't possible to go to their big event in the USA and craft cards with many other card makers, then you could still join in by going online to 'Capture the Moment' with Nicole Heady where they showed a range of instruction videos which were so interesting and then we set about re-producing similar cards ourselves which included the basic design but all with our own take on it. These are the first ones we made.  As you can see from the pictures, we all used the same colour  Papertrey card, but used different stamps and inks to create different effects.

Once completed our cards were photographed and uploaded onto the 'Capture the Moment' site so that all participants could share their work.

I don't think the others would object if I said I thought Julie was the star of the day because it was her first time at card making never mind stamping, and she produced the first card with the sentiment Thank you.  I loved the way she stamped the peony in pink and then edged it in a darker colour, I thought that was a great idea. I think a new card maker was born today!

The next card down was made by Mary, who is a keen card maker and I was really interested to see how she so successfully pulled together some quite different colours.  I would never have thought of putting yellow sunflowers with bright pink card, and yet it worked so well because she cleverly included small pink butterflies that matched so well.

Card three was mine and I decided to also use the peony stamp in pink but used blue with it. I particularly liked the idea of using velum and scoring it to create an opaque line at the top and bottom.

Card four, well that was made by the real expert in our midst.... Chris, who  gave so much of her time helping us whilst making her own card. If you want to see the cards she makes then just click on the link to her blog 'Purple Peonies' on the right hand side of this page, she creates some fabulous stuff.

We can't wait to meet again and spend another day crafting... Three cheers to the Cotswold Crafters... hip hip hooray, hip hip hooray, hip hip hooray!

Chris & Paul's 25th Silver Wedding Anniversary Cake

This is a close up of the peony on Chris and Paul's cake.

I used rose cutters to cut out the petals, and stretched them a little larger, and for the leaves, I used a plastic template cut out of an old plastic tub from the leaf shapes in Alan Dunn's book.

I used for the first time, a spray which gave it a nice gentle sheen and a richer colour.

I want to thank Janet Melillo for the lessons she has given me this year which have allowed me to improve the standard of sugarcraft work I do.

Chris & Paul's 25th Silver Wedding Anniversary Cake

A plain simple understated oval fruit cake covered  in marzipan and then Regalice, is the base for an open peony which decorates this cake for lovely friends to celebrate their silver wedding anniversary.

There is some silver, you just can't see it on this picture, but I covered the edge of the cake board with a burgundy ribbon and then placed another narrower ribbon on top in silver.

Chris loves peonies and has her own blog 'purple peonies' showing the beautiful cards she makes.... the link is on the right hand side of this page if you fancy taking a look.

Books of The Bible Cake

We were having a finger buffet to mark the occasion of our leader (Ann's) 'special' birthday... we aren't allowed to say which one!

Asked to provide food I had to offer to make a cake didn't I.. but then wondered how best to present it when it needed to be picked up fairly easily.

I came up with the idea of covering the top of a cake with marzipan and a variety of coloured icing, and then piped the name of a book of the Bible on each one.  I have to admit to choosing shorter names because there wasn't much room.

I wonder if people went for their favourite book or the colour they liked?

Each slice was placed inside a muffin case. I know it didn't fit properly, but at least gave some protection for each slice and something to pick the cake up with..  Happy Birthday Ann!

Charlie's Christening Cake

This was a Christening Cake for Charlie, a beautiful baby, the first grandchild of a colleague of mine. I made this two-tier fruit cake, covered it  in marzipan and Regalice.

To make the blocks I used Regalice and made the letters using a stencil.

I hadn't made booties before and got the idea of making them like this from creativecakesncookies.blogspot.co.uk which I found on YouTube. She did not have a pattern, but I soon made one out of paper looking at the shapes she used and stuck the pieces together with cellotape first to see if the sizes fitted together okay, tweaking them a bit.  I then mixed gum tragacanth into some Regalice so that it would harden, and then proceeded to cut out the shapes and build the shoe as shown... easy!

Graham's Disney Birthday Cake

With a trip to Disney World USA happening in June, Graham was wanting US Dollars to spend on his holiday. So this cake was made with that in mind.
The base and castle are rich fruit cake, covered in marzipan and regalice.
The bushes are marshmallows covered in royal icing and the tree is made using a crocodile clip on a stand, covered in icing to look like a tree and of course the leaves are real money.

Muffin Cake Birthday Card

The shape for this muffin cake came from a friend's daughter's birthday card that I 'scrounged' from her because she was going to throw it away.  I have used it as a template a few times to make a quick card in a whole host of different colours.

Today's cake was determined by some of the materials I had to hand.

The green card at the bottom was part of my mother's day gift box, the cardboard bow came off the card my daughter bought me, and the diamante off something else.

I had to laugh... when my daughter gave me the box and card she said, "I expect you will be able to make something out of these when you have finished with them" ha ha... she know me well I think!

I thought this card was bright a cheerful.