Anyone for a Cuppa?

This is a genuine re-cycled birthday card.

I had the idea of wanting to create a birthday card for Chris on the theme of cups and saucers. I went online to see what I could find for inspiration.
Well I came across a cup and saucer quite similar to this and decided to have a go.

I used a birthday card that someone had made for me. I cut out the shapes for the cup, edged it in blanket stitch and then sewed them together, and repeated this process for the base of the cup and the saucer.

Apart from the white card of the saucer, everything else came from the card that Val had made and sent me.  I did not make the flower, Val did. The doily in the saucer was also on the original card.  Cheers!

Ivy Wedding Cake

This three tier wedding cake was unusal... well I thought it was!

It was a fruit cake, covered with marzipan and icing and where the pillars normally go, I put a band of cardboard around the supports and covered it with beautiful organza gold ribbon.

The very plain cake was decorated around the sides with a simple narrow gold ribbon.

The top tier had full size gold candles with a cascade of gold dusted ivy trailing down the cake.

The Grooms Birthday Cake

The Groom had his birthday on the day of his wedding.

Not being keen on fruit cake, which the wedding cake was, it was decided that he could have his very own chocolate sponge cake.... it was his birthday after all !!!!!

Brian's Birthday Card

This is a card I made for my brother. He had just had a new shed in the garden and so thought this card would be a bit of fun.

I bought wood patterned card and cut it up to make the shed and the fence.
The door opened and you could see tools lined up inside.

The scenery came from a photo I took in Wales, I just thought it suited the card.

If you look carefully, you can see my brother inside the shed peering out.

Val's Birthday Card

I was at Chris's house crafting and sat watching her cut flower shapes out.

When I saw the piece of paper that was left, I came up with the idea of putting it on top of a pretty spotted paper and adding flower shapes on top with little diamante.

Chris's Birthday Card

I made this card for Chris for her birthday.

How do you make a birthday card for such an accomplished card maker?  Her blog is amazing!

Well it isn't by trying to compete, so I tried to come up with a different idea.

So I used a pretty paper, added a silhouette and then threaded a fine chain and a bead through the card so it looked like it was hanging around the neck of this lady.

Baby Ivy's Birth Card

My daughter asked me to make a birth card for a friend who had just had a baby girl and called her Ivy.

Isn't she just simply gorgeous?

Aunty Pat's Birthday Card

I can't forget Aunty Pat's birthday, she shares it with me. Pat really likes decoupage so when I saw this paper, I decided to use it because it had a repetitive pattern, a lovely ridged feel to the paper and was ideal to add layers.

I have to say this photograph does not really show up the various layers and doesn't show it in its best light, but it was a nice kind of old fashioned looking card and very feminine.

Graham's Birthday Card

This birthday card was a design I was shown at a card making workshop at a card making shop.

The band around the card on the right hand side holds the card together.

Once the band is removed, the card can be opened up with extra flaps inside showing photo's and various design elements.

Dorothy's Birthday Card

This is a birthday card I made for Dorothy and was created by stamping the flowers and the 'Happy Birthday'.

John's 80th Birthday Card

Getting ideas for men when it comes to birthday cards, can be quite tricky.

John's family were originally from Scotland, something he is clearly very proud of, so I decided to pick up on that to create this 80th birthday card for him.

Mick's 60th Football Birthday Card

Well I played safe again making a keen football fan a birthday card relating to his life long love of a football team.

It was a shame I couldn't show a win for the match on the day he was born.... but hey ho... I can't do the impossible.

I did however put the league table inside the card which showed a very healthy position in the league, so it wasn't all bad.

Mick laughed when he saw the card and said, 'No wonder I have never liked Man U !'  Sorry Man U fans.

My son-in-law made the two bottom badges in 'Photo Shop' for me to match the style of the Charlton badges. It was a good thing he didn't know what Mick was going to say because he is a Man U fan!!!!!!

I laminated the badges and stuck them on with sticky fixers.

Helen's Wedding Cake

This is an oval three tier wedding cake I made for the daughter of someone at Church.

It is a fruit cake covered in marzipan and Regalice and I bought a reel of pre-embossed icing bands to wrap around the cake to create an interesting different look to this cake.

Of course today you can buy rolling pins that have patterns on them so you can make your own embossed band, but I had not seen anything like that prior to making this cake.

Rory's Birth Card

This was a simple card to make and came about because I saw this lovely paper in the card making shop and fell in love with it.  I really liked the old fashioned style pram and the shape of the paper. I also came across the ribbon which I thought so cute.

So it was one of those times when the card was inspired by the materials rather than having an idea and then getting the materials to make it.

Margaret's Sweet Pea Cake

This was the first cake I made with sweet peas, a lacy edging and the inserted ribbon.

This cake was made for a very special lady and as her son asked me to make 'the best cake I possibly could' I pulled out all the stops.

I iced the name 'MOM' on the cake and Margaret made us laugh when she stood behind the cake to have her photo taken with knife in hand... and she said, hey, this cake says 'WOW'

Margaret is no longer with us and so looking at this cake brings back lovely memories of this Godly woman.

Mandy's Cowgirl Birthday Card

My daughter had been invited to Mandy's cowboy themed birthday party.

Mandy had had a caricature of herself drawn and I used a copy of this to make the card.

I printed off the drawing, and coloured it in using watercolour pencils and covered the hat in diamante.

The stripey background was created by getting a piece of white paper, putting it under the grill and then burning the edges using matches to create the old wanted type poster.

I was thrilled to hear she was so pleased with this card that she is having it framed.... I just hope the glue on the diamante is strong!

Gaming Table Cake

I really enjoyed making this fruit cake, covering it in marzipan then using Regalice to cover the cake and make the onyx ashtray.

The playing cards, dice, cigarette and ash were made out of icing that sets hard and I painted them with paste colouring with a little water.

Nina & Graham's Wedding Card

This is a family tree wedding card which I made with the help of a friend Val. Her computer programme was so good for positioning the photo's accurately on the page.

Kate & Al's Acceptance Card

I layered two papers onto card and then placed two ovals I cut out using my Big Shot and my nestabilities.

The Iris's were stamped onto the white oval card and I then coloured them in using my watercolour pencils.

Pink Panther Cake

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I was asked to make this cake for a friends son for his birthday. I made a terrible mistake and cringe every time I see it because I stupidly used some of my own homemade jam to stick the marzipan to this sponge cake, and I presume because it didn't have the preservatives of bought jams, the cake started to go mouldy. So be warned!

Crinoline Lady

I think this was actually the first cake I made on my own back in about 1983. I was shown how to make it when I went on a coach trip to the Mary Ford shop in Hythe with a friend and a group from college.

The sponge cake was baked in a 'bell tin' and covered in Regalice. I had great fun decorating it.

The teenage doll had her legs removed so that it didn't damage the cake.

Doug's Birthday Cake

This was an unusual birthday cake I was asked to make for Doug.  It was good fun.

A sponge cake covered in marzipan and Regalice.

Postman Pat Birthday Cake

Another fun sponge cake I made and covered with marzipan and Regalice.

Postman Pat was modeled out of Regalice and I painted him with paste colouring and water.  I used cocktail sticks to attach him to the cake.

Frederick's Birthday Cake

This is one of the first cakes I ever made and it was for a gentleman who was very involved with amateur dramatics.

It was a fruit cake covered in marzipan and Regalice. The flowers and masks were made from icing that sets hard. I used powdered food colouring for the flowers and paste colouring with water to paint the faces on the masks.

Sue's Big Shot Birthday Card

I made this card for my sister-in-law, a fellow card maker. I knew she had a Big Shot and so I thought I would make a card that looked like one.

I photographed my own Big Shot, printed off a few copies and made this card in a decoupage style.

Looking at it straight on, it is difficult to tell it is actually a card, which is why I have shown the card again below from a different perspective.

Sue's Big Shot Birthday Card

You can see now from this picture how I layered this Big Shot card.

Dorothy's Birthday Card

The inspiration for this card came when I went to Chris's house for a day of crafting.  She showed me how to make these flowers... although it reminds me of those little cocktail stick umbrellas!

The white circle was given to me by Mary on a crafting day. She cut this out using her Big Shot. I don't know what make the die cut was.

The blue shaped card was bought from a card making shop.

Sweet Pea Birthday Card

This layered card was made using a method I had never used before, but shown to me by Chris on a crafting day.

I stamped the white card and some paper (which was the same as two of the layers), with a sweet pea stamp. Taking the blue paper I then cut the individual flowers out with scissors and stuck them onto the white card with little sticky fixers.

Betty's Handbag Birthday Card

I cheated with this card.  Mary made a similar card to this but in different colours with some lovely detail on it for me as a birthday card.

I liked the card so much that I decided to copy it, using mine as a template.

Chris had given me some lovely papers she hadn't wanted, and I cut this lovely Iris out of it and stuck it on.

Terry's 60th Birthday Card

Terry loves playing board games which is why I made this for his 60th birthday.

I photographed these games, printed them off on the computer and laminated them before attaching them to the card.

The playing cards were in a Christmas cracker and were perfect for this card.

Anne's 60th Sweet Pea Birthday Cake

Anne had bought a plain ready iced cake for her birthday and asked me to decorate it.

She had a party and it was soon evident from the number of people saying they were going to attend that there would not be enough cake to go around, so I made an extra tier.

I covered the cake with sweet peas I made out of icing that sets hard and added powdered colouring directly to the paste before modelling it.

Quick Christmas Cake

I wanted to make a thank you Christmas cake for Jenny who so kindly looks after my gorgeous dog when I go to work.

Struggling for time, I had to come up with something that was quick to make.

I baked a round fruit cake and cut it in two, placing them one in front of the other, making sure the one part was much bigger than the other.

I covered the cake with marzipan and Regalice, sprinkled the cake with edible glitter and then used cutters to cut out the reindeer and trees, colouring them with powered colouring and sprinkling edible glitter over them as well.  The tall trees were attached with cocktail sticks.  It was such a quick cake and a bit of fun.  Jenny loved the shape and in actual fact she gave one part of the cake to a neighbour as a gift.... she had more than enough for herself.

Kate & Al's Wedding Cake

This was the first time I had ever made a 'topsy turvy' cake.

It was a three tier fruit cake covered in marzipan and Regalice, with a double ribbon around the outside edge of the cakes.

The roses I made out of icing that hardens.

A Year In The Life Of A Man U Fan!

I think the title of this card speaks for itself.

It isn't easy coming up with ideas for men and I hoped this would be a winner starting with Graham's much favoured football club.

Glitzy Shoes Card

I think this has been my most favourite card ever to make.

My daughter asked if I could make a card for her friend who absolutely loves these kind of shoes.

I printed a copy of a pair of shoes onto white card and then proceeded to cover them in diamante.

These shoes were then mounted onto layered card.

So much did I love making this card that I actually made a second one the same and gave it to a friends daughter who also loves these type of shoes.

Audrey's Flower Birthday Card

This is another card I made whilst at Chris's house for a crafting day.

She let me use her cutters to make this lovely layered flower, the doiley and the leaves, which I scored to leave an impression of the leaf pattern.

Funeral Cake

This is a sad cake, sad not only because it was for a funeral, but because it was originally made for a lovely couple as the bottom tier of their golden wedding anniversary cake.

Unfortunately Ann died before the celebratory tea and therefore as the cake was already made, marzipaned and iced, I laid aside the golden roses that should have adorned this cake and instead made a single red rose out of icing as a symbol of love for this lovely Godly woman.

Nina & Graham's Wedding Cake

This cake was designed by my daughter and made by me for her wedding.

I did however put on one detail she did not ask for... the stylised initials they used on their wedding invitations.

These initials were made using teal diamante. Of course I had to give a warning about removing them thoroughly before cutting up the cake.

It was easier to get this deep teal colour than I thought it would be.  I bought Regalice that was already coloured royal blue and then added a lot of teal coloured powdered food colouring and fortunately it worked.