Playing with paper


Sarah: I have loved creating things as long as I can remember and unfortunately there are still some of my less artistic works (being kept as a reminder of my enthusiastic but ultimately dodgy, artistic attempts) knocking about within the family. I am by no means naturally artistic but I do enjoy (trying) to be creative!

My main focus at the moment is paper craft and, more specifically, card making.  I do have a habit of trying to attempt things far too intricate for my current skill level and often I do not know when enough is enough (is there such a thing as too many sticky gems??) so, I am currently trying to go back to basics and create a stock of cards that are simple to make and simple in design but hopefully still 'nice' enough in their own right. And so...we come to today's project, which has taken me approximately 30 minutes to make (not including any time wasted spent blissfully watching the snow continuously fall through the window.)

I started with a pre-cut and scored card blank (card blanks are easy enough to make but I'm lazy and I have a stash of pre-made card blanks all ready and waiting to be used so....), from a pack of Dovecraft rectangle - 105x148mm (250gsm). I wanted to print my sentiment directly onto the card so I played around with a few fonts and decided to use 'Anarchistic' and as I had already decided that my palette for this card would be green & white, I typed 'Happy Birthday' in green and went ahead and printed this straight onto my card blank.

Spray adhesive, printed card blank & die cut shapes.

As I was going for a simple card, I decided that I would just add one embellishment to fill most of the white space and since I don't use my Sissix Big Shot as often as I should I decided that the easiest way to do this would be with some die cut shapes. I cut four scalloped circles in varying sizes from two different types of patterned paper that I thought complimented each other well.

3 of my die cut scalloped circles and an example of the font used for my sentiment.

Next, the potentially messy bit! Using spray glue (before using spray glues, cover your work area and then cover it a little more, just to make sure you're not going to end up accidentally sticking anything you don't want sticking - a passing nosey pet for example!) I fixed the biggest circle directly onto my card blank before matting the other circles, in size order, on top of that until I ended up with this:

Scalloped circle card almost finished.

I think the card looks pretty nice as it is but 'simple' doesn't necessarily have to mean 'plain' so I decided to just go a little bit further and add a border. Nothing fancy, just a freehand doodle border using a generic fine line green pen and a lime green Letraset ProMarker.

And here we have it, the finished article:

Scanned image: completed scalloped circle card.

As I mentioned above, I'm planning on trying to put together a stock of simple cards so, as I work on making these I will post them here. I hope you like them and thanks for stopping by! :) S.x

Tea, anyone?

I tend to bake a box of cupcakes and decorate them according to a certain person's taste. One of my friends is a bit of a tea addict (just like myself...) so I decided to make her some tea-themed cupcakes (picture below)

I decided to stick with a pretty floral theme, so I decided to decorate three of the cupcakes with a sugarpaste rose. These are something it has taken me a while to master, but now I feel like I could probably make them in my sleep!

I then decided to create a sugarpaste teapot (which to be honest I am very pleased with, this was my second attempt at making one, and it seemed to turn out well) and a matching teacup. As it turned out, she loved these two cakes in particular, until she held the box out to offer one to a friend, and they took the teapot cake. Then her partner gave the teacup to the dog!! Never mind!

I am getting into the habit of creating a "gift tag" on at least one cake per box. Call it my trademark if you will :o) Somebody said the other day they could tell a certain box of cakes was made by me, I took that to be a compliment, and hope it didnt mean that I am predictable in my decorations!
I am a big fan of decorating cupcakes with flowers, so am always pleased when asked to create a box for women rather than men!

I tend to use buttercream on the majority of my cupcakes. This is not only because many people seem to like the buttercream, but also because I do think it looks nice, and the decorations sit nicely on top. I occasionally create a sugarpaste disc upon  which I can place an edible decoration, such as the teapot and tea cup.

First Time Blogger!

Jennie : Wow where do I start? I guess I should explain when my love of baking began!

I never really had an interest in baking when I was younger, and actually it took me until the age of 25 before I realised it was something I wanted to do. I remember the box of cupcakes I gave my best friend as part of her christmas present. At the time, I was so proud of them. But now, I look at the picture I took of them, and I cringe because they look like such a half-hearted attempt!

Ever since then, I have regularly baked and decorated cupcakes as presents for friends and family. I have tried to improve my baking and decorating skills each time and would like to think I've improved tenfold since the above picture, but I still doubt my skills every single time! I think the problem is, it doesn't matter how many times people tell you they like your work, you will still doubt yourself and won't be 100% happy with it.

I will use this blog to show you some of my favourite creations from the last year or so and will make personal recommendations on my preferred methods when baking/decorating cakes.

I hope you enjoy looking through my photos - looking through them is a nice reminder of how far I've come, bearing in mind I have only ever had one cake decorating class.

The box of cupcakes I decorated during my class, which I got to take home to show off to my family and friends! :o)