Alice in Wonderland Party Post 4

Do you like punch at a party? This has nothing whatsoever to do with the punch that you drink, but rather how I used paper punches to help with cake decorating for my little girl's Alice in Wonderland themed party.
I made this cake with my older daughter. We work well together as a team.

If you look at the base which we covered with Royal icing, you'll see how we used this flower punch  make the little daisies. We used little gold balls for the centre.

Then I made cupcake picks using a strip of paper I had printed out and glued onto a cocktail stick. The end is punched with this gorgeous victorian border punch.
The little watches are made from sugar paste written on with an edible pen.

More to come....

Alice in Wonderland party post 3

Here's a glimpse of the toadstool birthday cake Naomi and I made.

Phew. What an exhausting weekend! The party came and went without any major hitches. Glad it is over though. I still have a couple more things to show you that I made for the theme.

What amazing warm weather we've had this weekend. It's been positively tropical. Hard to believe how cold it was a week or so ago. I could get used to this warmth, but I'll try not to, as I'm sure it will be gone in a day or two.
That's Scotland for you. :-)

Alice in Wonderland party post 2

I bought some mint chocolate biscuits and made stickers with my trusty Xyron Sticker maker and now I have some cute watches for the party bags.
Cheap, simple but effective...

...and totally unrelated to that, I just rustled up this simple New Home card using scraps of one of my favourite paper stacks. Birdsong, by Papermania.

Digital Giveaway Winner....

Hi there, just a quick post to say that the winner of my Digital Giveaway is Jacqueline from Wonderfully Eclectic.  Congratulations Jacqueline, I'm sure you'll have fun playing with your new software.

If anyone else would like to get your paws on a copy of this software you can use this special code STMMMS80960 and get  $10 off the price plus another $10 off anything else in the www.mymemories.com store.

last chance

Last chance to enter my giveaway here to win fabulous digital scrapbooking software. I will be picking a winner tomorrow. Wherever you are in the world you may enter as this is a Digital prize. Go on, you never know! It might be you.

Bonjour

Feeling a little French today. Here's a little card featuring one of my cupcake illustrations. Border punch and Butterfly by Tonic Studios.

Alice in Wonderland Party. Post 1

My little girl will be 6 this weekend, and she has decided she would like an Alice in Wonderland themed party. This week I am busy making a few bits and pieces for it.
So far, I have done the juice labels. Flavoured spring water had the labels removed and more appropriate ones added. (I wrote the flavours with a sharpie pen underneath)

Party bubbles for the favour bags have been customised with a sticker and a new label...

“But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked. "Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat:  "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."  "How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.  "You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."

More on the party theme next post.

Finished my latest order...

Score,   fold,   print,  punch,  stick,  punch,  stick,  punch,stick...

  print insert,  fold,  measure,   punch,   punch,   punch,   punch...

measure ribbon,   thread through, tie - do the whole thing again 80 times.

All ready to post off to the Bride now.

Phew!

What I'm working on right now...

I'm currently working on some Order of Services for a friend. I decided to try out the hot foil printer that my Dad gave me. I used to help him print business cards with it many years ago so it was a bit of a fiddle to get it working and set up right.

I found this old photo of me and my Dad using the machine in 1985, (I remember that dodgy cardigan well)- I may have aged a bit since then (who am I kidding, of course I have!),  now I have reason to avoid the camera, don't know why I always did that. I wish I'd paid more attention to my instructor when I was younger, but anyway, I think I've got it sussed now. More on that later on.

While the machine was heating up and cooling down and heating up again (so that I could test it and make fine adjustments without burning my fingers), I made this fiddly thankyou card.

I used some fine nylon beading thread and glued it with Craft Tacky Glue between two punched out butterflies. In order for this to stay in place while it was drying, I had the thread stretched straight and stuck to my glass cutting mat with tape.

Inside I used a couple of punched hearts to hold the thread in place. My thread was longer than the card, and while it was drying I again stuck the thread to the glass cutting mat on either side. I only trimmed it once it was dry.

Before the card was inserted in the envelope I gave the butterfly about 5 twists so that when the card is taken out and opened it spins around a little.

(The pretty punched designs are all from Tonic Studios.)

Tonic Tools used..

• Shape Mate circle 
• Simplicity Geared punched classics flower head
• Simplicity geared pattern punches..Daisy Border 2, Floral Border 2, Victorian Border , and the tiny flowers are punchetti* from this Floral Border
• Multi Detail Butterfly punch
• Classic Heart medium punch

*punchetti is my word for the little bits that are punched out of the pattern punches.

A quick card

I just rustled up a quick card for a friend who is in hospital right now.

I am really enjoying using these recycled kraft card blanks, but this is my second card now with this colour palette. I think I'm ready for a change now!

I do love these new Tonic Studios border punches, they are so easy-peasy to use.

My next job is a stack of 70 Order of Services, so I better get to work!

[entering the May challenge over at Going Buggy ]

Beach day

It was Bank Holiday Monday yesterday, so despite the chill in the air we headed off to the beach for a blast of fresh air. My little girl enjoyed being adventurous.

The waves were crashing on the rocks, but it certainly was an invigorating walk. There is something about being by the sea that does your soul good.

This was before we headed back to the car to eat our picnic inside!!! Brrr!

The garden calls...

The sunny days have been a bit sparse, and there are so many things to get on with in the garden right now it has been a bit frustrating.  I have some lovely Aquilegia William Guinness Double

and some Clary Sage seeds to plant so I really must get out in the fresh air and take advantage of the sunshine which has just appeared. 

I'm hoping mine will end up looking like those pictures! 

There's nothing quite like a spot of gardening. But before I head off to the garden, I have just made a quick card to send to a garden loving friend. 

The lovely carrots image is from the Graphics Fairy, and I have coloured it in with my favourite Karisma pencils which are pretty much the same as Prismacolors. 

I have used a couple of the new Tonic Studios border punches which will be in your stores before too long.  I also used my Shape Mate for the circle, and my Multi Detail flower punch.  A bit of raffia gives it that nice natural look.

OK, I'm out of here :-)