Blackboard and Chalk

Hi Friends.

It was one of our friends 60th Birthdays a couple of weeks back. She is a teacher and has a love of pigs - remember the cake I did back in July? for her and her husbands joint celebration.
So I thought I would have a go at creating a 'blackboard' - the kids of today won't have a clue what one is I suppose.

Here's the card.

 

I created the background paper by stamping the 60 repeatedly with Versamark and embossing with WOW white fine detail powder. then I blended distress inks-Picked Raspberry, Salty Ocean, Shaded Lilac, and Dusty Concord over the top, and then mounted the piece on black card. The whole thing was then mounted on my base card.

 I punched a hole in the top right and added a brad ready for the string from the chalk, which my hubby - bless him drilled with a fine drill so that I could thread the string through the chalk. I made a little cone from card for the chalk to sit in and a strap and it was secured on the inside of the card with tape, but covered by the insert.

The Blackboard was made by die cutting two pieces of card and gluing together for added thickness. I then gave it two coats of Blackboard paint (Hobbycraft finding) and left it to dry while I made the frame from the same die(sorry can't remember which one) but a larger size.

A die cut pig and added some glitter glue and then made -a Box!

 

 

 

The box lid was embossed with the Spellbinders A4 garden Lattice folder and then decorated with bits from Floral Ovals, Jewel Flowers and Flourishes and Create a Flake 3 (not just for Christmas).

 

Job Done!

 

Thanks for stopping by  - hope you like what you see and if you do I would love for you to leave me a comment.

Enjoy your week - I should be sat by a pool somewhere sunny(hopefully) when you read this!

Take care friends.

Carole xx



Keepsake Wedding Card

Hi friends.
Last in the wedding series today - the card! Quite a few pictures so get comfy.
It is 8inches square and a trifold created with two cards stuck together.

 



I covered the front of the card with some lovely silk shimmery paper and cut out a heart aperture with a Spellbinder Heart Die.

 

 

 

Then I cut a heart in acetate ,big enough to cover the 'hole' and stuck it to the inside of the card. I then made two heart frames to cover the edges both on the inside and outside of the card.

The wedding rings were cut with a Marianne Die from satin silver card so that they looked like Platinum and I adhered to the acetate with a little Cosmic Shimmer glue - great glue -dries clear.

 

 

I cut two of the lovely triangles from Spellbinders  Gold Elements One and glued them on the back return flap to add a bit of interest when the card was opened. These could not be seen when the card was closed thus leaving nothing showing behind the acetate. The sentiments were computer generated and matted on the same paper used on the front of the card.

 

 

 

 

 

The front of the card was embellished with die cut flowers and pearl swirls and the 'Wedding Congratulations' was a stamp that I had in my collection and I used WOW Platinum embossing powder to emboss with.

 

I them had to make a box as there was no way I was going to squash it in an envelope! so I used some patterned shimmer card for the lid, and added ribbon and two pearl hearts across the corners and

here it is displayed with one of the spare sugar flowers.

 

 

That's the end of the wedding posts, next time we are back to Birthday cards!

 

I hope that after my holiday next week I can get back into some more general card making and perhaps I should make a start on those Christmas cards that have never materialised monthly!

I also need to sort out the craft room and do a 'Stock take ' I think. I have forgotten half of what I have and I have some lovely new stamps from Uniko and Indigo Blu and LOTV that I want to play with and...................I could go on but I am sure you know what I mean.

 

Till next time  -Thanks for looking, take care and thank you to anyone who takes the time to leave me a comment.

 

Crafty hugs

Carole xx



Wedding Cake

Hi Friends.
Hope you are all well. It's a bit grey and miserable here to day and a sign that Autumn is upon us as  the trees are turning to their lovely reds and browns. Ready for a few pictures? Get comfy!

Well here is the cake that took a lot of my time -and love this summer. It travelled well to the wedding, and safely I am pleased to say. The whole of the car boot was taken over with the cake!

 

Very traditional in design , 3 tiers of fruit cake, covered in marzipan and ivory icing. The bottom tier weighed "a ton" to quote my hubby who had to do the lifting! Apart from the ribbon round the base of each cake everything was made from sugar. More pictures below to show the detail better.

 

 

I have to say that I was really pleased with the lace as it just looked like material.

 

 

I took a couple of spare flowers with me but fortunately I didn't need them.

Now for a picture of the "Happy Couple" - perhaps not the best- needs a bit of photo shop but that's not my department! I do well to get them on the blog! It seems to take forever!

and the actual place they were married

With a lovely view, and the sun shone.

    OK folks , hope you have had a little taste of what we enjoyed on the day. Please pop back soon for the wedding card.! Last in the series -!!

Hugs xx Carole

 

"CELEBRATE"

Hi Friends.

Well we are back from the wedding so now I can begin to share with you all that has kept me busy over the last few months. All went well on the "big day" I am pleased to say and the weather was kind to us. It rained the day before and the day after but the day of the wedding was dry and sunny although very windy and a tad nippy. The wedding was outside overlooking the sea in Ilfracombe - Devon. It was a beautiful setting. Hopefully some pictures of that when we get them off the cameras!
So first up the invites .
Idea and colour scheme by Iain and Nicole - executed by moi!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After that came the favour boxes and place cards- my design this time, and I decided that I would incorporate the name tags on the boxes in case we sat outside and it was windy and then they wouldn't blow away!

 



 

 

I used Square bracket Edge Box die from Spellbinders and the label is a D-Lites die from Spellbinders - Ornamental Tags One. Plenty of arm exercise with the Grand Calibur! The use of wax paper helped immensely when cutting the tags and it somehow seems to 'season' the die at the same time. After filling the boxes the tags were attached with tiny foam pads.


That's the first instalment - thanks for stopping by and don't forget to stop by for the next instalment.
Off to make a box for a birthday card that I have made - oh and catch up on some chores and washing. Got to make the most of this sunshine - Autumn is round the corner I fear.

Have a good weekend and take care.
Hugs
Carole x

 

Anyone who had a heart!

Hi friends!

Do you remember that song? I think it was Cilla Black back in the -mmmm- showing my age again! We won't go there.

Well one week to go till the wedding. The cake is all finished now and has kept me pretty busy of late. Just got to transport it to Ilfracombe in one piece now. (photo of that after the wedding).
Only the wedding card left to do!

So as a memento of the occasion I bought a wooden heart and jazzed it up as a keepsake! A bit of home décor.
Here it is -

 

I Had bought some Indigo Blu products to try so I first painted it with white Gee-Sso -Good - brilliant coverage, let that dry, it didn't take long and then added a touch of a pale pink acrylic paint in places.

Next out came the Flitter Glue and gilding flakes along with the Vintage Flourish stamp and I added that top and bottom. The lighthouse was stamped onto tissue and cut around and then carefully separated so that I had one ply and I attached it with Slap-it -on. - A big Thank You to Kay from Indigo Blu for those instructions. The wedding rings are a stamp from my stash - embossed in WOW Platinum and the words were all stamped in Archival black ink.

 After all that I decided to add some frantage as the rocks round the lighthouse, first applying Flitter Glu to protect the underneath layer. It worked well.

 

 

The lighthouse has significant memories for Iain and Nicole - they got engaged at one in Australia and will be married at Ilfracombe on the coast here.

 

A bit of ribbon to hang it with and all done. I added this to a keepsake box that I have bought them - more about that another day.

Hope you like my creation, I am quite pleased with my first venture into such things.
Have a good weekend, weather not too promising I fear.
Crafty hugs
Carole xx
 

 

"Piggin" Birthdays!

Last week saw me busy with a Birthday cake for friends who had a joint 60th celebration! One birthday was back in July and the other is still to come in September, a married couple so I had to be careful not to make it look like an wedding anniversary cake for 60 years!
She(Helen) likes pigs (hence the blog post title) and he(Steve) likes mini cars - so the colour scheme was born of pink and green and a two tier sponge cake. I decided on polka dots and I made a large 60 for the top of the cake, a pink sugar pig - and bought the mini- I just hadn't the time to make one! Steve used to own a racing green mini in his erm dare I say younger days! - hence the green choice.

It says Happy Birthday on the top, sorry that doesn't show on the picture, and their names on the bottom tier.
A good time was had by all at the "do" and they were very pleased with the cake - thank goodness! It tasted good too - I don't always get to try my creations!

So I have had no time for paper crafting and the wedding cake was side-lined for a few days - so back to the grind once more and up to my elbows in marzipan and icing. The kitchen smells lovely!

Will be back soon with the start of the wedding peeks so please stop by again, and if you would like to leave me a comment it would be vey much appreciated.
Thanks for taking the time to drop in!
Take care friends.
Carole xx

Early baby!

Where is the time going? Into August already. My sons wedding in September is keeping me busy (will soon be able to show you what I have been up to!) and last week my best friend from Blackpool came over for a few days to take me to get my outfit for the wedding. Dress sorted but still the shoes (and I need comfortable shoes so not easy I have to say), bag etc to get now.
Anyway while my friend was here she received news that her grandchild (due end August) was on the way  -  a month early! - so - she needed a special card, and what better way than to get her involved in the making. She is not a crafter, has never stamped or crafted before so we set about and this is what she did with a little help from yours truly, matting and cutting.

All the stamping. colouring and choice of papers was down to her, also she decided where she wanted the placement of things .(we knew it was a boy and would be called Oliver by the way). So I think she did a great job for a first attempt and the best bit was that she really enjoyed it! She didn't think she could do it, and she fell in love with the Grand Calibur when she cut the circles. If she was nearer I think I could convert her to a crafter.!

Oliver was born weighing 6lb 6ozs - mother and baby doing well, and Grandma over the moon!

That took us quite a while so not a lot of time left for me to make a card so mine was a quick one courtesy of LOTV using the new sentiments that I had bought, some Spellbinder dies, a bit of inking and an embellishment from my stash.




Right well lots to do with the rest of August - cakes! so best get on with it all and will be back when I have something more that I can share with you.
Thanks for stopping by and I would love for you to leave me a comment if you have the time.
Take care
Hugs xx