Fun Cards…..Day 4

A few months ago I happened to be looking at a paper cake made by Janet Hopkins if I remember correctly.  How adorable ti was and I instantly wanted to make one.  Cakes are fun to embellish in real life so embellishing a paper cake has to be great fun.  A paper cake is more forgiving than one from flour and eggs and much easier to redo if tragedy strikes.  Even better than making a paper cake is embellishing a paper cake.  As I contemplated ideas I saw the rhinestone clusters (they are part of the Recollections brand from Michael's) and thought they would make perfect decorative "frosting" for my cake.  So I made that cake…and I was happy.  Happy Dance time!!!!  Since then I've made others, including gorgeous wedding cakes with clear rhinestones or pearls.  I also made a child's birthday card with blue and teal "frosting".  They are always fun and so easy to tailor to fit any occasion. 

This exuberant birthday card was made using paper and embellishments from Pink Paislee and The House of 3's Soiree Collection which is readily available although it has been retired from Pink Paislee. 

The entire collection is very eclectic.  There is no doubt there is a party going on.  The collection includes  

These are but a few of the papers in the collection but I wanted to show you how diverse they are.  You can see the entire  collection here. 

My card started with a base card made from a beautiful peach colored paper that is the back of the paper called "Diamonds".   I made the card into 6x6 in. because I am obsessed with this size and shape right now.  It is easy to with the 12x12 piece of paper I started with.  I love this paper in particular because of the tone-on-tone design work you can see in the upper right corner of my card.  I was careful and made sure to cut/fold the paper in a way that I could still see that design when the card was completed.  Of course I inked the edges…this time I used Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink.  Next, I tackled the sweet little cake table.  I started with a little wooden table that is part of the Soiree line.  You can see the wood cuts in the picture to the right.  There is also a smaller table  a tea pot, a pennant garland, an arrow and the pointing finger.  I knew I wanted to ink my table with the Distress Stain and I knew I wanted it vibrant.  Not always so easy to achieve with these type of wood cuts and ink.  In order to get the vibrant color I used Spiced Marmalade Distress Stain.  First 

put on a lot of stain, let it sit a moment, wiped off the excess with a paper towel and repeated this.  After the 3rd application of stain it wasn't getting any darker so this time I put the stain in heavily, and without wiping it off, I used a heat gun to dry it.  This left a much darker and more vibrant color as you can see in the finished project.  I applied Embossing Distress Ink to the entire piece and covered it with UTEE (Ultra-Think Embossing Enamel) and melted it using a heat gun.  When the first layer was hot and molten I applied the second layer of UTEE- no ink this time- and heated it.  Again I added more UTEE and let that melt.  Usually, after the 3rd application and melting of UTEE the result is a thick plastic finish that is divine.  I will be honest, when I melted my 3rd layer I was not happy with the results.  I had to heat it up until it was entirely molten and wipe the entire piece off so I could start over.   For some reason I had way too many little bubbles.  I suspect it was from overheating the UTEE.  To be honest (again) I have a habit of just holding the heat gun to the powder and letting it go rather than moving the gun around as directed.  I've burned my fair share of embossing powders.  After my second attempt the table looked great so I applied it to the card using Glossy Accents.  

Time to bake make the cake.  I'm sure you can see I just cut simple rectangles from Soiree card stock. This is the time you can play around and get the exact design or printing onto your layer.  My second layer says "BASH" which wasn't an accident.  I carefully chose the pattern/design of the first and third layers so it wouldn't clash with the rhinestones and the busy look of the 2nd layer.  When the layers were what I wanted I inked the edges with a coordinating Distress Ink- Peeled Paint, Spiced Marmalade and Worn Lipstick.  The rhinestone clusters were added after the cake was assembled.  

I had the cake and the party Pennants…I needed some gifts.  All of the sweet little packages were inked and some were attached using foam tape to add dimension.   I added flat-back pearls to the white-and-yellow polka dot package and the peach box.  Although it is hard to see in the photo, the little cupcake on the package that says "Soiree" was covered in white glitter.  Bows were added with peach-and-white kitchen Twine, white seam binding and blue seam binding.    

This card is full of texture and suprises and so much fun.  

Tomorrow I will show the first of three masculine Tim Holtz -inspired cards. 

Laters….