Sister's Birthday Paper

It is my sisters birthday on Tuesday. So I had to make her a girly birthday card. She likes girly thing =) I chose a nice simple card using a kit I bought from QVC called Lipstick Divas. I love this kit as its so simple to use and the effects are amazing =) 

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Grandad-in-laws birthday

It was the grandad-in-laws birthday not long before the mum-in-laws so was asked to make a card for him. Now I find making cards for men is difficult. For Grandads I find it even harder. Luckily I was inspired the when I went to bed about how I could make a card for him.

He used to work for Cadburys many years ago and has always loved Cadbury chocolate so I thought it was only fitting to make a Cadbury card however, finding a kit or any toppers that are Cadbury is near impossible so I had to a little hunting and pure computer crafting.

I went to trusty Google images and search for Old Cadbury Chocolate. I came up with a few images but no many so I thought I'd venture to the Cadbury site and low and behold they have a section devoted to old chocolate. I saved many of the images that I found on they page and opened up a program called My Craft Studio. Now, this program is fantastic for making cards to send online to people if say you've forgotten it was their birthday or you don't have a normal postal address or they live abroad. It is also fantastic for creating your own backgrounds and toppers.

I loaded all the images onto an A5 sized background and arranged them so there was no white background visable and so you could see every chocolate bar. I then printed this on Super Smooth paper (fantastic for a lovely finish to a card).

For the topper I went back to Google images and found an old Cadbury advert. I them mounted this on some matt silver background and raised it off centre. The tag was a old dairy milk that I copied the colour from and hit the dairy milk writing and placed Happy Birthday Grandad in the colour or the original writing. This was a cool little effect and the card was loved by all and I was told was very fitting for him.

Mum-in-law's Birthday

First of August was my "mum-in-laws" (not really just easier) birthday. I normally do her something along the lines of Disney or Winnie the Pooh however, I think getting a card like that every year (no matter how different) can get a bit boring so I opted for Peter Rabbit instead.

For all the toppers and background papers I used a Crafters Companion CD. (Beatrix Potter CD) It's so simple to use all you do is choose the design you want print the out and stick them together. I swear by them and think they are an essential piece in any crafters box! . My green cardstock came from the Works when they used to do their fit as much card into a folder as you can for £2.99. I got some lovely cardstock doing that but now they've stopped it and I'm running out =(. The gold mirricard came from create and craft. (Gold and Silver Mirricard) This is essential for any crafter as you do use a lot of it in crafting! The gems I just found (you can find them in any craft shop) and the ribbon can from a Kanban set but I can't remember which!

Mums Birthday Card

It was my mummy's birthday this month so I decided make a nice simple card for her. I've used a QVC kit called Kanban Reflections (I think I will have to double check it). All the pieces were in the kit so made it nice and easy to put together and (as with all Kanban kits) came with an idea sheet to make that little bit easier.

A simple girly card but I feel very effective!

Mummy's Birthday Cake

After making my Grandad a Winnie the Pooh cake for his birthday, my Mother wanted one for her birthday but made with fondant icing rather than butter icing. This was surprisingly easier than I thought it was going to be and turned out pretty well. I even managed to get the correct colours.

I actually took stage by stage photos as I was rather please with how 'spongey' the sponge looked. I have never had one come out so well!

This was just made with my general sponge recipe that I use for Wilton tins and Giant Cupcakes. I was given the recipe by a good friend who LOVES baking and it has never steered me wrong!!

To get the shape of Pooh Bears separate pieces I pressed the separate colours into the different part of the tins.

The yellowy-orange for Pooh Bear was made using Wilton food colourings. A bit of Wilton icing colour Orange and a little bit of Wilton icing colour Lemon Yellow. They worked really well and came out with the perfect colour for Pooh Bear.

The yellow of the hunny was just Wilton icing colour Lemon Yellow and the centre of the foot was just Wilton icing colour Orange.

Pooh Bears top was coloured with Wilton icing colour Red Red. It came out in the icing quite pale and thought the colour was going to be wrong for him but it turned out REALLY well!!! I am tempted to buy Wilton icing colour Christmas Red and try that another time!

The hunny pot was a ready to use icing called Regal Ice Chocolate flavoured. I have found it difficult before to make brown and couldn't get any Wilton icing colour to make my own so bought so ready. Made life a little easier =)

I placed plain white fondant icing around the outside of the base of the cake so it was all covered.
The black outline was just a bit of icing coloured with Silver Spoon black icing colour. This was quite fiddly to  do but worked really well.

The writing on the hunny pot was a bit of 'normal' icing as I call it. Just a bit of icing sugar, water and black food colouring. I made it quite thick so I could pipe it through a piping bag!

Mum absolutely loves it and thinks it tastes amazing. I'm so pleased that it worked out better than my Grandads' cake and even managed to get a 'Well done. It tastes really nice' off my brother! =)

Not sure what my next project will be but I can see it being a test for my Dads' birthday cake! =)

Raspberry Victoria sponge

I can't remember who told me but I was told my Grandad liked raspberry Victoria sponge so I decided to make one for him. I also decided to put some raspberries on top just to make it a little bit special.

Look Freddy, Cupcakes!!!

I was watching TV and saw the Morrisons advert with Freddy Flintoff. This made me want to make cupcakes. They're just a simple fairy cake recipe with coloured buttercream icing and sprinkles.

I had fun making them and my other half had fun eating them!