A Peice of Cake!

cakecakecakecakecake! :D

I love cake :) We had my son's birthday party today- I get scared about inviting too many people, so I only let the kids invite 8-10 friends and then only a couple of them show up- it doesn't matter. Gabe had fun anyways. The little bugger wanted a Lightening McQueen cake. Now, I don't have a pic as my camera is dead- but it turned out... okay? I like cake decorating and find it fun, but I definatly need more practice! But it was for some 4/5/6 yr olds so I don't think they'd be near as picky as I am! My arm is KILLING me- first from playing hard on drums on Rock Band last night with some friends of ours, then from SQUEEEEEZING out black icing. I didn't that the other icing colours were easier to use because they were thinner. I needed to add black icing colour to brown (chocolate) icing for a nice black colour- but because the icing was homemade, the black was thicker than the rest and harder than anything to try to squeeze out. I'll need to remember to thin it with some corn syrup next time.

So that's cake part 1.

Cake part 2 is me trying for the first time, paper cakes :) OMGosh are they ever fun and easy! On a side note- I wanted to make a cake and some cake 'peices' for samples for my on-line Facebook store- so I found the tutorial/template on Splitcoast and made a 1 tier cake with some samples. About my store- I only had it up for 1 day and I already have over 50 'fans'- so that's pretty awesome! Lots of work and lots of revanue (hopefully!) I just need to be better at time managment and procrastinate less.

Anyways- back to cake- here's my take on the infamous paper cake (SO MUCH FUN!) very easy- but somewhat time consuming:

I used some cream coloured cardstock, flourished stamp set and some gold ink and embossing powder. The stamping was pretty tedious, and I have no idea how I'd close up the backs of the boxes while making them pretty- I don't want people to have to wreak the box to open it- any suggestions out there? The flowers are all from Prima and there are gold and crystal stickles and some Michaels ribbon. So this is the only full cake I made, I then made some sample 'slices' so I wouldn't have to make a bunch of full cakes- but I'd still show people a variety.

These were super easy and so much fun to make- so here are some photos of the different peices. The materials are pretty much the same: Stampin' Around Wheels, Clear stamps by Inkadinkado, ribbons from Michaels, flowers from Prima and Stickles. I also used my cricut on the monkey one. SO! (I needed to squeeze a 'so' in there!) that's it for now- thanks for stopping by- ~Brandie~

Birthday Express

Hey crafters :)

I realized not too long ago (like, minutes) that I enjoy appearing busy- but when faced with the mountain of work I've made for myself I clam up. I was just realizing that as I read last night's Facebook Status update. Maybe I should worry less about appearing busy- thus, appearing important, and focus on the projects at hand. Can I finish them? Do I have the materials or finances to get the materials? Will it stress me to the max? My health is more important that how I appear to others. So yea- a bit of insight :P
Tomorrow is my son's birthday party. He turned six last week and being as his b-day weekend lands on the Canadian Thanksgiving, I usually wait a week. The kids are fine waiting on their parties (my 8 yr olds birthday is on the 30th of December- RIGHT SMACK in the middle of Christmas vacation- so we usually party at the end of January to give kids enough time to recoup after Christmas and parents to not have to worry about buying yet ANOTHER gift right away). So the kids are okay waiting- mom and dad do a good job of making the actual day special for family- so they basically get two parties :)
For Gabe's party it's going to be a mixture of things. He really wants a Lightening McQueen cake (I've dabbled in cake decorating- REALLY want to take that Wilton course!) and I have already made train themed party things. I am pretty excited about this :)
Last Christmas I really wanted to make a choo choo train out of paper as a centerpiece for candies and such- well, procrastinator I am Christmas came and went with no train. I was bound and determined and made one for my son- each 'train car' will be a goody bag. Goody bags are going to be pretty basic- just some candy (really- that's all kids care about) because it's a mixed gender party. Figuring out toys and such for boys and girls is just not gunna work.
So for this set I created the train in two parts. I made a simple box at 2 inches wide 2 inches deep and 2.5 inches tall. I made another box at 2x2x4 and then adhered them together with sticky tape. I then made a 2.5x2.5 inch pizza box for the top. The nose of the train is just a square (2 inchs? I think) scored in half and folded, then scored on each side at .5 inch to adhere to the front of the train. I took another peice of paper 2x5? and folded it over the front peice of the train to curve the top. I smooshed the paper with alcohol ink to give it a pattern and then stuck some 1 inch circles with silver brads for wheels. Embellish and VOILA done. The train cars (that will have baggies of candy) can fit some other stuff too- they are 2 inches high, 2 inches deep and 3 inches wide. Simple box without a top. I placed the wheels higher than I originally had them- because I wanted them to look 'wheel' like before- I had them lower- but the weight of the candies bent the wheels so I had to glue them higher. I also peirced some ribbon and stuck a small brad in there and adhered to the front and the back for those hooks that hook the train cars together. Does anybody know what those hooks are called? lol- after watching Thomas the Train for so many years- one would think I'd know!
The invites were fun and simple- I kept the same color combo- and you can't see it here- but it's actually layered. I used my cuttlebug and the train engine and caboose, taping them into place, and then had this die cut window to put "You're Invited" behind it. The cards are 4x4 and were pretty simple other than that. Just some silver brads, alcohol ink and scalloped edges. Then I made one cupcake topper so I could set this up as a set and sell them on line. I think I may have been a bit more excited than my son about the train. All my kids thought it was a toy so I had to keep taking it away and then sticking the scallops back on. I am in the process of making a hallowe'en one too- very simple and fun- using 'coffins' for 'train cars'.
Well- I hope I inspired you all this wonderful Saturday morning! Thanks for reading.
~Brandie~

Busy Busy Busy

Getting into the final stretch of pregnancy- entering the sixth month where I am slooooooowly getting bigger and seem to be having more trouble moving around and less energy to move. BUT crafting away- getting orders in and I haven't even started my store yet- so that's great news!

We got some snow already up here in Northern Alberta and today it's warmer and the snow that was here for a week seems to be leaving. We usually have snow on Hallowe'en- except last year- and I am hoping for that again this year because it's SO NICE not to have to wear snowpants under a costume.

SO I do have some Hallowe'en stuff underway. But right now I've been busy with babies and birthdays. Today I am going to share some pics of my newest creation- Boxed Book Set- with a real simple tutorial to follow as soon as I have some time away from crafting for profit. It's really easy and quite fun :)

So- I got the idea from my daughters books. She is really into Geronimo Stilton books and I bought her some for last Christmas- they were all boxed up and it gave me an idea for a card set. You know when you order from scholastics? And you order a set of books in a box? WELL VOILA!So it's a box that carries four 'books' that holds four cards. A great idea and a break from the traditonal boxed sets of all occassion cards. The finished size is 4.5x5.5x2 inches, so it did require either 2 sheets of 8.5x11 cardstock or a 12x12 sheet. This is for standard cards- so if you wanted to shrink it to make smaller cards and a smaller box- it would work. The 'books' are 1/2 and inch wide and have a pocket in it to place the cards. This was the first thing I started making with my Stampin' Up goodies I bought back in May- so it has the Bella rose and Urban Garden DSP used- I miss them :(

So here are some photos of the books- I was trying different techniques, and here is a photo of a 'book' all opened up. Pretty simple really. I was starting this WAY back for Mother's day- needless to say, I can be pretty distracted at times!

Here are some cards I made to go with it- but if you don't make them too bulky you should be able to fit four per book. I had a lot of fun making this and figuring out the template (NOT fun trying to describe on my blog- hence me waiting until I have photos to help explain what I'm doing. I am SO not an explainer :P)

For right now, I have 50 Thank You cards to make and more pictures to post in the next couple of days of things I have finished- one of them something I have wanted to try since LAST Christmas.

Hope you guys enjoyed it and thanks for reading.

~Brandie~

Thank You

I am a fairly new blogger, and not-so-new-crafter :) And to see people actually coming and reading and following my blog makes me a happy Brandie. I'd LOVE to be one of those 'bloggers' that you can't wait to read every day and gets those 'Good Blogger' awards. I have a ways to go yet- I realize- but you guys make me want to keep bloggin' my heart out. To know I have friends in the blogging community that come on here means a lot to me. So thank you :) thank you for your comments (which I definatly read and appreciate!) and following me :) Find me on Splitcoast stampers as lexgabella- I post different pics on there than I do here sometimes.
BUT I just came on to check out how my blog is doing and saw some comments and that made my day- so I just wanted to thank all of you for reading :)
Much love and God bless!
~Brandie~

Slow Goings

I am so excited :) After six weeks I FINALLY finished some baby gifts I was working on- woo hoo! lol- I am not the most motivated person- tho I love crafting. I need to get my act in gear because I finished some onesie sets as gifts, posted the photos on some local Facebook groups so I can start earning money crafting. I was trying to take kids in for a daycare type thing- but that isn't me. I like kids- I have kids- but to be one of those organized, structured dayhomes is not for me. I am more laid back and let the kids do what they'd like (so long as it's safe!) I don't like structured time unless it's eating and bedtimes. Other than that- if you want to play- PLAY! So yea, I don't think I'm cut out for that- so I am working on crafting for a living- why not eh? Do what you love- earn money to buy more goodies and who knows where to go from there?

SO I finally finished those onesies, as I was saying, and they were fun! Who knew that stamping didn't have to be limited to paper (insert maniacal laughter here).

So here's one gift set, I call it Safari- and boy did my Zooballoo cartridge get a workout!

All stamps are from Inkadinkadoo's acrylic stamp sets- I am unsure of the names, but one is the Baby Boy set and the other is the Baby girl set. I saw some BEAUTIFUL swirled onesies that I can't wait to try doing from SCS. So I mixed and matched the stamps, using the giraffe from the baby girl set and the elephant from the baby boy set. These onesies are from WalMart- they come in packs of four for $15 CND. The glitter is added by Scribbles dimmensional fabric paint. They are 3D paint, but I glooped it on carefully and 'painted' it where I wanted it with toothpicks. Then you can embelish with buttons, string, ribbon- whatever :) NOW my sister made a point- the buttons are tiny and someone stated that they were worried about their child rolling on their tummy and the embellishments pushing in on their skin- I think that the buttons are small enough that it shouldn't bother them- I think of zippers. The zippers push in, but don't seem to bother babies. ANYWAYS that's my thought- I could be wrong. We shall see. If you don't feel comfortable doing that, then stamp away to create faux embellishments :)

For the safari set I used my Zooballoo cartridge which not only has a full alpha set, but animals for each letter and some cute 'backgrounds' for the animals. I used the grass and the vines, highlighting them with green ink. To find out how to make the boxes- check out my Milk Crate tutorial in October, 2008. The boxes were just simple acetate boxes, you can find the tutorial for that on Splitcoast stampers- which is where I found it :) Super easy and really cute for a baby shower gift! (I'd suggest NOT doing newborn ones- as we know how fast they can outgrow them!)

So here are some other ones I made:

For both sets I used the SU! Beautiful Little Baby single stamp and It's Beautiful Stampin' Around Wheel for the girl one and an old Flourishes stamp set that I forget the maker for for the boy set and Martha Stewart punches for both.

Here are some tips: I did use pigment ink (I practiced on some of my old tank tops) NOW they DO work but here's some tips: 1. Stamp hard! BUT stamp careful- we don't want smudged! 2. Iron both sides of garments. I put a piece of chipboard between the front and back of my onesie, then placed parchment paper and a dish towel over the image and ironed both sides like that for at least two minutes. 3. If using fabric glitter or paint, you DO need to let it set for 24hrs- so no sewing or stamping til that's dry! Hope that all helped :) You do need to wash it inside out in cold water and hang to dry- I washed in cold water and dried it normaly (my tank top) and didn't turn it inside out- the image DID stay- but was pretty faded.

SO! That's how Brandie does onesies- I hope you try it yourself and package them up all pretty! I hope if you do try making these sets that you enjoy making them as much as the recipient will enjoy getting them!

Thanks for reading!

~Brandie~

Cards Galore

Well- tis the season for weddings. Well, sort of. With warm summer weather drawing to a close, weddings and wedding cards will make way for all the holidays of the fall and winter months.

But not quite yet. A friend of mine was heading to a couple of weddings and wanted me to make her a couple of cards. She also wanted some grad cards, but the grads are gone, my summer was busy and alas- I didn't get to them in time. But because she already paid for them I owed her another two cards- SO thank you cards they became :)

Here are the wedding cards:

This is definatly my favourite layout. I found it on Splitcoast and can't remember who did it- but I loved it! This is my second time doing this layout- I used golden tones instead of the pink. The edge was one from Martha Stewart- I forget it's name and bought it at Michaels- but I can't seem to find it on her website- it must be an older one. It's a 4x5.5 card. I cut a 8.5x11 sheet in half at 5.5 and then scored each edge at 1.5 and 3.5 folding the 1.5 edge out and the 3.5 edge in. After punching the edges I embossed using the Swirls embossing folder from cuttlebug, highlighted it with gold ink and spread gold stickles over it. The Patterned paper I made myself and was FUN! I used an old flourish stamp set and stamped randomly on a peice of vellum. Then I took a medium sized and small sized flower and stamped them randomly on the flourishes. I did that with gold ink, sprinkled gold embossing powder all over it and embossed it. Of course, you need to be careful when heat embossing on vellum, going quickly over the entire sheet and not too close (I've blistered a lot of vellum before). BUT the result was worth it! I don't know if you can see it too well, but I plan on doing it again as it was absolutly GORGEOUS! Then topped it all of with some frosted fairy tale flowers from Prima.

For this next card I used the Baja Breeze (my last sheet :( ) with the matching DSP (which I also forgot the name of- geez- I think I gotta start labeling my stash!) It's 5.5x4.25 and I overlapped the folds on this card. This one was fun too! I got to use my Storybook Cartridge and cut two background leave images at 4.5 inches. I sprayed them with some tattered angel spray and let them dry. The one side I mounted on vellum and then cut out a rectangle on the cardstock to create a window. On the other fold I mounted the die cut on the DSP. I added some more Prima flowers and printed my sentiment on the computer using the Word Art feature and mounted it with a Making Memories rim.

Here's the inside. I found some BEAUTIFUL wedding poems and (OF COURSE) forget where I found them. sigh. My friend loved these. It was fun (and actually, pretty easy) to make.

For one of the thank you cards I tried my hand at that Trifold technique recently featured on splitcoast- so here's my take on it:

I used neutral cardstock from the Paper Company for the base. I used DSP from Stampin' Up and added some simple embellishments. I wasn't too sure- I've seen some AMAZING other cards like this. Mine, to me, seems kinds "wa-wa". I used my new Lyrical Letters cartridge to create the argyle strips and highlighted them with some tan ink. I added some brads from MM and also a rim for my sentiment, stamped with the elegant thank you from SU!. The swirl came from one of my various acrylic stamp sets (which I organized my style, not manufacturer- so I don't know who made this) and a ribbon. I wanted it simple and sort of masculine- or at least not as feminine as I'm used to. I'd love to try it again- but totally pimp it out girlie style :D

Anyways- that's it for now- I've got more cards coming and some new templates to showcase. Thanks for stopping by!

~Brandie~

A Long Time

wow.

I mean WOW!

I am so sorry. It's been roughly two months of chaos. I didn't mean to abandon you all- I have just been crazily busy. Too busy to craft :( What a sad state.

WELL- we are all moved into and settled into our new home. It's nice to have the space. Wasn't so nice to have to clean up the entire house before moving in. GROSS I mean deep clean scrub your toilet elbow grease on your hands and knees type of clean. I am told that's normal. Ick- I was just hoping to move and settle right in. So I had to clean this place, which took two full days, and the old apartment which took the better part of one day. Then unpacking, settleing, buying new furniture and fixtures and then setting them up- that seemed to take forever. Then pregnancy hit like a rock and I was tired constantly. (cram in hubby's vacation and a some-what impromptu trip to Edmonton). Then came August with a ton of babysitting and helping out with VBS.

Now I have actually been able to craft (in my new craftspace :D) I don't have a 'room'. But HOLY HANNAH is my bedroom ever big! I have my space in there, which is very gracious of hubby considering it's like my desk exploded now. So I have been verrrry sloooow on a few projects, but I got my bum in gear and have tons to share :) So hold onto your hats kids- here we go!

So using Lauren Meader's "All Boxed Up" template, I created this cute box for a friend of mine who wanted some baby thank you cards. Her baby was born premature, but thanks to the miracles of God, the support of friends and family and LOTS of prayer, he is a healthy, happy BIG baby boy :) And she wanted to thank everyone via card. Poor girl waited three months (or longer, I lost track) but still has many people to thank, so that's good she can make use of them :)

Using a stars I created two sets of eight thank you cards. The images are from inkadinkado's "Baby Boy" acrylic stamp set.

I made vellum stars using my star punch from Fiskars and cut the vellum out, then I inked them and dabbed them with stickles. The star stamp from the set was almost the exact size as the punch, so creating a layered look was fun and easy :)

The other set I used my Stars border punch from Martha Stewart (I am soooo falling in love with die cuts and border punches again! They make such amazing embelishments and background elements!) For the focal point I cut the light blue cardstock to 5.5 inches and cut the sides with the border punch. Then I scored the sides in, just past the punched image, and folded the sides in. I them took some vellum, splashed it with alcohol ink, stamped the sentiment, and then glued the punched sides over the vellum (so the vellum was cut at 4.75? after). I liked the effect it's made. Then I glued the element to the bright blue cardstock which I cut at A2 size and punched the outter edge. I hope that made sense :P I didn't think of actually taking pics while I was making them. I was too concerned with actually FINISHING them.

Inside of the box:

WELL- blogging is tough when you have to go and edit the placement because the photos don't line up- and I'm watching SIX children today (aigh!) So I'll let that be that for today and come back tomorrow to showcase the wedding cards I've made for a friend of mine. Thanks for stopping by!

~Brandie~