Cake stand - in action!

Following on from my previous 2 posts - this is why I wanted a cake stand.

I made individual Black Forest Gateau cupcakes, topped with a Dutch or British flag. I made the cupcake wrappers from doilies. The reason for the two flags?: well, we've spent half our married lives in the UK and half here in Holland.

We had a few friends help us celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary and this was the centerpiece. It caused a few comments (all nice ones!!) and looked great on the table.

Recycling - part 2

Having prepared all the parts, I then began the fun bit - the construction.

The candle holder was glued, upside down to the largest plate.

I left this, with a couple of heavy books on top, for 24 hours before adding the next layer as I didn't want it slipping around.


I then glued the middle sized plate to the "base" (from above) and glued another candle holder - this time the right way up and left it 24 hours to dry as before.


The final plate was then glued in place and again left to dry.



I have one candle holder left over which I am going to use for decoration - maybe with a flower arrangement or simply a candle. I will post a picture of it next week, when it has been used for the reason it was made.

Don't forget to check back and see it in use.

Why not post a comment and let me know what you think of my recycling?

Recyling

I needed a cake stand but didn’t want to spend a fortune buying one.

Having just replaced my plates for some nice white square ones, I decided to use some of the “old” ones to make a cake stand. I selected 3 suitable plates but need something to go between the plates as the supports. I had some spare candle holders (the sort used for burning those scented oil candles).

Here are my raw materials:

I removed the metal bit from the candle holders and gave them a good wash.

Check back tomorrow for part 2 of this project.

Strange but true!

Yesterday was not a good day. I woke up with earache. Not just the painful type of earache but I was also completely deaf in my right ear.

It is a busy time here at the moment - lots of birthdays, DS has his 16th birthday this week and our 20th anniversary is rapidly approaching plus all the normal stuff and of course Krafted Keepsakes. Simply put, I don't have time to be ill or not running at 100%!

I decided that rather than sit around and mope, that I would clean the kitchen ceiling - "why?" I hear you ask, because it needed doing and it was annoying me to look at it. This involved using the ladder, not a wise move when you have ear problems (as it affects balance). In my infinite wisom I donned my ipod, selected some fine music from Michael Jackon, whacked it up to full volume and set to.

Having finished cleaning, I removed my ipod and sat down for a well earned cuppa and to my amazement my ear went "pop" and I could hear again, much to my delight.

Now DH has a theory (as you would expect) and it goes like this:

As I had my music on full volume, it was possible that it had made my ear drum vibrate causing whatever was causing the blockage to be dislodged - could this be possible or just a coincidence?

Now this is not a medical solution that I would suggest to anyone else. This simply falls under the heading of "Strange but true!"

Now to get on with the million and one things that I have to do this week.

Check back soon for our latest news and for goodness sake stay healthy!!

New cards

Having made a card for a dear friend in July and having got such great feedback from her, I decided to make some similar ones for the shop. I used the same techniques, but instead of a greeting I added a bit of bling! I also added a few crystals to the feathers.

Why not check them out in our shop?

Back to school

The school holidays are over!!!!! DS went back to school today. Despite not being over keen on going back, today was the first day in living memory that he didn't have to be dragged out of bed - I wonder how long this will last.

I have spent the morning trying to get the house back to it's pre-holiday state (not going quite as well as I had hoped!) and making a list of all the things that I'd like to get done, now that things are back to normal, well, as normal as they get here.

I have a busy month ahead, several birthdays and our 20th anniversary to organize and a huge list of DIY to work through and of course I still have my Krafted Keepsakes work to do.

I'm looking forward to getting on with it all - watch this space!

To those whose offspring have returned to school today - "WELL DONE!! You've survived another summer holiday!!)

Wow!!

This year we bought a hibiscus for the garden. The label said that it would produce big flowers (XXL to be precise!!) Little did we know that it would bloom as well as this.

Each bloom is about 19cm across and it looks absolutely stunning!

Good luck & goodbye

It's a known fact, people come and go but it's always sad when a colleague leaves. One of DH's colleagues is moving onto pastures new and he wanted a special card to send her and her family on their way.

As they are moving abroad, I thought it apt use to use an aeroplane and from this thought I came up with the idea of adding the clouds. Mounted on a pale blue pearly card blank with the greeting below completed the card.

So here's wishing them well in their new life and may it be all that they want it to be - we know how difficult it can be making this type of move.

A special visit with special celebrations

This year sees DH and I celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary and my Aunt celebrating her 80th birthday.

As my Aunt was over with us for a visit we decided that it would be nice if we could celebrate both occasions whilst we were together. I cooked a special dinner which my Aunt believed to be an anniversary dinner. However, the dessert gave the game away as it was a birthday cake with candles. This was followed by cards & presents for the "birthday girl"!

A lovely evening was had by all!!

Wedding time

A colleague of DH is getting married next week. The date and time have been carefully chosen - 09-08-07 at 6.05pm giving the following: 9-8-7-6-5!! How memorable.


Once again it back to the drawing board to come up with something different.


Chosing my materials was the easy bit (for a change), the design took longer and this is what I came up with.



















I cut an oval aperture in a pearly white card and used acetate to fill the gap.
The flowers were made with my favourite flower punch. The cake was made from an envelope stiffener, finished off with die cut hearts. It was my first time using acetate and I found it a challenge with the glue but all in all I was pleased with the results.

Hollandays!!

It's official - it's holiday time and in typical Dutch fashion, it's raining!!

Today sees the arrival of my Aunt for her annual visit, which makes for a special time for us all.

I always make her a card and I thought I'd share it on the blog. It is very similar to the blue birthday card that I posted last time, but with the sentiment "Happy Hollandays" (instead of holidays).

She hasn't seen her card yet but I am safe in showing it on here as she is currently sitting on a plane!!




















Until the next time - happy crafting!!

and now for some blue

Sometimes I see something and think "that would make a good card". This can happen anywhere, but usually when I am out shopping.

The inspiration for this card came from some wrapping paper. The wrapping paper was in the style of Delft blue tiles. Now I didn't want to just stick a wodge of wrapping paper on the front of a card blank, so I took my circle Sizzix die and cut some circles (clever huh?). I then mounted the wrapping paper circles onto larger circles in dark blue.


Then with my favourite Cuttlebug embossing folder (D'vine Swirls), I embossed a piece of white card.

The greeting was cut in white using my Sizzix alphabet (Cat 'n' Mouse).





The card was assembled using a pearly blue card blank.
Not bad eh?

Until the next time - Happy crafting!Y

Pink (& black)

I have had these feathers in hand for a while but had no inspiration as to what to do with them (please no rude comments!!) I needed to make a card for a friend. As I had no idea where to begin, I started by selecting the materials that I wanted to work with - the feathers, black paper trim and a pearly pink card! By limiting myself to just a few materials (and colours) I avoided the painful part of just staring at all the lovely things that I have to work with. I then decided that I was only going to work with the computer (for the greeting) and my lovely cuttlebug embossing folders (for the background).

I was pleased with the result and also pleased that I was able to get the card in the post the following day!













Until the next time - Happy crafting!Y

and the results are . . . . . .

PINK

Thanks to all those who voted either on the blog or via e-mail. It was nice of you to take part in this bit of fun.

DS is feeling quite smug about the results and DH is yet to comment - as for me, well I work with colour every day and what looks pink one day may well look red the next!

Until the next time - Happy crafting!Y

DH said...

Looks like I need to get some colour correcting specs! Pink it is then, must be due to the aging process :-(

29 June 2009 12:53

A bit of fun

Following on from yesterday´s post, I thought it would be fun to get your opinion.

POLL IS NOW CLOSED

(comments still welcome!)

Thanks to those who voted.

radiogael said...

i'm pretty sure they're burgundy, like a brown/red mix

25 June 2009 13:48

Anonymous said...

Hi Lesley, well Red? Pink? I'd say your both winding DH up ganging up on him to me they are like my cherries at the inbetween stage red going black ...lol.Paul

28 June 2009 23:18

Father´s Day Card for DH (with a twist)

A few weeks ago I asked DS what design he wanted for his Dad´s Father´s Day Card. In typical teenage fashion the answer was " I dunno." With time running out and inspiration having done a disappearing act, I was beginning to panic. Then DH gave me an idea. To make a long story short, DH bought himself some new earphones - he was sooo pleased with them (another of his bargains!), however, when he showed them to us he was just a little miffed at our response. DS said "what do you want pink earphones for" closely followed by my "was the light bad in the shop?" DH protested that the earphones were in fact red (and kept telling us this for the following week). Over the course of time they became "raspberry red" to which our response was raspberries are pink, strawberries are red. From this, his Father´s Day card came to be . . . . . need I say more!



























Until the next time - Happy crafting!Y

Happy Father´s Day

HAPPY FATHER´S DAY!

My creation for my FIL - Made using my new Cuttlebug embossing folders.

The same card - with a difference

I needed to make another anniversary card for today, so I took the card that I had previously made and added the couple´s initials.

I co-ordinated the initials with the colour of the printed text and the inked edges of the hearts.

Result: Perfectly personalised!


Until the next time - Happy crafting!Y




Anonymous said...

it's was a perfect card indeed!!
Thank you so much!

Greetings,
esther

25 June 2009 11:14

More to show

Having been busy recently making cards & keepsakes for anniversaries, I thought it was about time that I designed one for the shop.
I started with a pearly white card blank. This I embossed with one of my favourite Cuttlebug embossing folders. I added two simple white hearts, the edges of which I inked in lilac (not too clear on the pic). I added a strip of purple paper and added the gems.

The greeting was printed (before I embossed the card).

New Job

How lovely to hear that someone has got a new job, their first job at that. Of course that requires a card.

I didn´t have a lot of time to make this one and the tools are not quite the right ones - construction tools would have been more appropriate.

Still, I was pleased with the result.