Paper Roses Don't Taste this Good

I signed up in December for a cake decorating class at my local library. The original date [in January] had to be rescheduled to this past Wednesday. One of the local decorators at our Publix grocery store volunteered her time and Publix graciously donated lots of supplies for this free class.

I've dabbled in icing techniques here and there for the annual birthday cakes we produce, but nothing ever really fancy, so I was up for a challenge.

This is what we saw when we entered the meeting room:
After we piped on some icing swags and a top and bottom border, we were ready to tackle the prettiest of all....roses:

Now, don't be fooled.....that giant beauty in the back was the decorator's example...see how perfect it is! My first attempt is the rose in the front with the slightly wavy petals. More like an artificial rose if you asked me. And, the icing was beginning to get warm, so I tried to work quickly.

Next up, I moved to a red icing to try my hand at more roses, and then we learned a technique for rose buds, which you can see are a reddish-whitish because the decorator added fresh icing and didn't mix it in completely. I decided to make mine look as if they were "falling" over the edge.

I also made leaves (my first time) which I thought resembled ivy and came up with a small sentiment with a simple tip. I was thinking at the time that "Valentines" was too long to pipe. I guess it was a pretty good idea because the lady behind me asked if she could use the same wording on her cake.

Here's the final result: And here's me in all my glory with Loretta, the decorator. [I needed this picture for my 40th scrapbook album.] I had a fun time and it sure is good to eat!

Hugs & kisses to you....Happy Valentine's Day!

Using Coupons at a Young Age

My girls know how much of a coupon-fan I am, in fact, on several holidays, I've been presented with homemade coupon books for such things like, "Free foot rubs" or "Free cleaning my room without complaining" or my favorite, "Free time in the craft room without interruptions." So, a few days ago while at my local scrapbook store I knew I had to do something with a pre-made 12x12 sheet of Valentine's coupons I found from Pinecone Press. They are called, "Honey Bunny Coupons." They are so cute and include things like, "Breakfast in bed" and "Read me a story" along with "One big kiss."

I cut apart the coupons yesterday (w/o taking a picture...sorry) and then said out loud, "Now what am I going to do with them?" I thought about punching a hole in the corner and using a notebook ring and ribbon, and then I thought...."What about making a coupon wallet?" I had some leftover holiday fabric, interfacing and velcro....and this is what I came up with.... ...here's a shot of the inside pocket where the coupons are stashed. I also topped each coupon with a small ribbon loop just for decoration. I absolutely love Tim Holtz's Tiny Attacher for things like that. It works like a dream.

And here's a shot of the cover. I jazzed them up a bit with some felt and embroidery floss. I also had some chipboard pieces and heart buttons to personalize each one.

I thought I would steer clear of the plastic toys and junk candy this year and I'm happy with what I came up with. I hope you have a good day!

Valentine's Day Bubble Treats

I decided to go with something non-traditional for my 2nd grade classroom treats this Valentine's Day. I found these really cute heart bubbles at Michael's for only $4.00. I designed a card to incorporate the bubbles, keeping the workload to a minimum. (We still need to finish the inside of each card.)

Here's what the outside of each card looks like:

I used the three-heart punch from Stampin' Up, along with their word window punch. The red ribbon is leftover from a Christmas project. My corner chomper also came in handy for rounding the corners...it's a great tool to have.

Forgive my eensy-weensy collage up top, I'm in the process of learning a new photo-editing program and it's like baby steps each day.

Some birdy loves you

I noticed over at the Cards blog that Paige is issuing a new challenge every week to get our creative juices flowing....well, this week's challenge was to create a Valentine's Day card using fabric. I pulled out a scrap of a favorite patterned fabric in my stash and decided to make a ruffle for this card:
Once I started designing the card, several ideas just "came" to me....I love it when that happens. I used two different embossing folders from Quikutz and Cuttlebug, along with a chipboard bird, cardstock in my scrap stash, a cute piece of BoBunny ribbon, flowers from my flower jar and my Stampin' Up heart punch.

As I was trying to decide what sentiment to add, I remembered this really cute stamp set I snagged at a make n' take during this summer's CHA trip to Orlando. This cute stamp is from Taylored Expressions. It fit perfectly on my Spellbinders tag die.

Warning: Cute Overload

Aren't these the cutest things you've seen???? My friend, Katie, made these treats for her 2nd grade classes....the frogs are for her son's class to enjoy and the bags with the cute toppers are for Katie's own class to enjoy (she also teaches 2nd grade). I told her I was going to "borrow" this photo so that I could post it on my blog....I had to brag, they are just so darn cute!
What are you planning? From the looks of these, I need to get busy...

Be Mine x2

I recently picked up this fun stamp called "The Love Tree" made by Memory Box and decided to make a batch of Valentine's Day cards. I made two different versions and can't decide which one I like better.....here's the pink version using Stampin' Up's "Melon Mambo" cardstock and ink:
And then there's the kraft version using my favorite kraft cardstock which I picked up from Hobby Lobby:

Other supplies I used include "Very Vanilla" cardstock, SU's word window punch and scallop edge punch along with Papertrey Ink's "Daily Designs" sentiment stamp. These were fun to put together and I'm excited to send them out. (There has to be a secret to photographing kraft cardstock, because my pictures always turn out much darker than the real version.)

Moxie Fab - Patchwork Hearts

Here's this week's Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger: ....aren't they gorgeous?
These are called Vintage Heart Boxes from The Red Thread and here's a close-up of my take using them as a trigger for my inspiration:

I went to my scrap paper stash and pulled out some paint chip cards I gathered on a shopping trip a long time ago....so long ago, I forgot I had them. Next up, I found this pretty piece of aqua colored ribbon and decided to go with a clear card which reminded me of the glass front on the trigger piece.

I also used a stamp sentiment from Papertrey Ink, along with a heart punch from Stampin' Up. I grounded my heart punches with a Spellbinders scallop die and added a few pretty pink gems. To finish the card, I used my corner chomper to round the corners.

Thanks for stopping by....I had fun with this one!

Blog Winner

Hi guys! I'm still here....I've been busy and working on "home things" for a while.....I have sent some "creative" things out....but didn't take any pictures....sorry. :(

Anyways, I hope to be back to posting today [and tomorrow, and the next day.....] with some Valentine projects that are in the works. Oh - and we've also had some computer problems, which we temporarily solved this morning. I'm eyeing the new HP all-in-one touch computer, but we have some comparison shopping to do.

I've been enjoying the anniversary celebration going on all this week at Papertrey Ink and you know that I've entered every contest for the chance to win some amazing stuff....so far, no luck, but....I did find out this morning that I won a cute little mini-album from Creative Cafe.
I love the Creative Cafe products and can't wait to see this baby up close! I'll share pictures when it comes in. I made a similar album at the CHA show in Orlando and it turned out really cute!

Take care and I promise to be back soon!