In Color Fun Flower Card

This Lovely Flowers DSP is so beautiful if I see a scrap of it lying around I have to make something with it right away. There’s quite a bit going on here but that’s usually the way my cards end up–I never know when to stop adding things!

The card base is Melon Mambo, one of the 2009/2010 In Colors. I stamped it with En Francais background stamp in Versamark ink, then sprinkled on Clear Embossing powder and heat embossed for a subtle raised effect.

Next, I matted a piece of Lovely Flowers DSP onto Old Olive card stock and adhered it to the card base using dimensionals.

The top layer is Crushed Curry (another In Color) matted with Whisper White, which I stamped using Happy Everything and Flower Lines, a Level 3 Hostess set. The “happy” was inked with my Melon Mambo marker, “Birthday” in Old Olive, and the flowers were also inked with my in color markers, but I stamped off before stamping onto the Whisper White each time.

To finish off the card, I stapled a piece of folded Old Olive 5/8″ grosgrain ribbon to the edge of the Crushed Curry layer and adhered it to the base using dimensionals, offset slightly to the right.

Happy Birthday to Me

Yes this was my birthday cake and YES it was GOOD! I got the recipe here (great site) but you can also find the recipe below. One word of caution–this recipe makes a HUGE 3 layer cake. Make sure you have a lot of people around to eat it! I can’t be trusted around this cake so I’m bringing hunks of it to friends and family immediately!!

Ingredients

Cake:

1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick butter, softened
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
5 eggs, separated
3 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups all purpose flour

Frosting:


3 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened
1 stick butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 2-lb package powdered sugar (I used less according to my taste)
1 cup chopped pecans
1 1/2 cups sweetened flaked coconut

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 9-inch round cake pans.
  2. Beat egg whites until stiff. Set aside.
  3. In a large bowl, cream together butter, oil, and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the egg yolks, vanilla, and coconut.
  4. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda, and baking powder.
  5. Alternate adding buttermilk and dry ingredients to wet ingredients.
  6. Mix until just combined, then fold in egg whites.
  7. Pour evenly into the three prepared pans.
  8. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.
  9. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes, then turn the cakes out onto cooling racks and allow to cool completely.

To make the frosting:

  1. In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar.
  2. Beat until light and fluffy.
  3. Stir in chopped pecans and coconut.
  4. Spread between layers, sides, and top of the cake using an offset spatula.
  5. This step is optional, but I toasted some extra coconut (in a single layer on a parchment lined baking sheet in 350 degree oven for 10 minutes or so until lightly browned) and dressed up the sides of the cake.

I suggest storing the cake in the refrigerator until ready to serve, then take it out about an hour before to allow the frosting to soften a bit.

Trifold Party Invitation

This is a personal favorite–I just love how it turned out. I’m kind of obsessed with this tri-fold design, and I’ve made cards like this before (see previous post for directions and measurements). Based on what my coworker requested (color theme pink and blue) this is one of the samples I came up with. Since the birthday party is for both a 2 year old boy and a 7 year old girl, I kept the pink at bay, and used the bright Kiwi Kiss along with the neutral Close to Cocoa to keep everything balanced out.

Stamps used were All in the Family and Introducing. This time I colored in the images with my SU Markers. The sentiment was heat embossed with White Embossing powder on the top flap. The circles were made using my 1/2″ Circle Punch (Regal Rose and Kiwi Kiss card stock) layered with 1/4″ Circle Punch (Bashful Blue). I love this look–it’s like retro pom pom lampshade trim!

The inside view:

Inside, I layered Regal Rose and Whisper White, stamped with invitation wording block from the Introducing stamp set in Close to Cocoa ink.

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