Friday, April 25, 2008

Papertrey Ink's April Blog Hop



I was selected as one of the participants for the April blog hop at Papertrey Ink. I decided to make two cards.

Card one, I used the paper snipets to make a bowtie as well as cutting down some squares to create the look of a cumberbund.

Card two, I found an image and basically paper pieced the suit jacket and tie, using the paper snipets for the tie and hankie in the pocket as well as cutting the squares in half for the corners of the card.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

2008 Mid-Atlantic Cake Show

The Mid-Atlantic Cake Show was last weekend and I wasn't motivated to make anything to enter into the Divisional Cake competition I guess since I haven't made a cake since last year. On Saturday, I did compete in a 1 hour competition in front of an audience (whoever wanted to sit and watch) and I think all seats were full but I didn't let that scare me, LOL, I just focused on what I was trying to do, LOL! It was about 7 or 8 of us, including two men, and we were provided with dummy cakes and we had to use Chocopan fondant and flowers that were provided by a few sponsors so I say "trying to do" because I had a few ideas but I didn't know what I was doing until I saw the flowers, so I basically just kinda winged it. I could have done better but I guess it's not too bad considering the time limit and it was my first time using Chocopan, a chocolate based fondant. I did start to have problems because it started to get soft and sticky but thankfully I managed to cover the cake dummy keeping the Chocopan in one piece. I thought for a second I would have to cut it into pieces and do a patchwork design but thank goodness that didn't have to happen, whew, LOL! I did find out that I wasn't the only one unsure of how they were going to decorate because during the competition when the emcee, Norman Davis, (he's been in several Food Network Cake Challenges, so if you watch these shows, you know who I'm talking about) asked if any of us were winging it and I think the majority of us was like, yes. So that made me feel better. What a challenge high! The cakes were put on display for people to vote for their favorite by adding money to the jars for that specific cake; the money is going to a Ronald McDonald charity. I didn't win but it was fun! On Sunday, I took 3 classes; figure and flower piping with Mike Terry, brush embroidery with Toba Garrett and whimisical cakes with Carrie Biggers.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Black and White



After reading a blog post about creating using a black and white color scheme, I thought I would give it a try. This is a simple card measuring 8 1/2" x 4 1/2". I stamped the flourish image on strip of white card stock, adhered to black strip of cs, then adhered to the card front. I used a punch to round off the corners. I used the Spellbinder's die to cut the oval shapes but I was really lazy that night and traced around the shape and used my scissors to cut it out; talk about lazy, LOL! Ok; for me it wouldn't have taken but a few seconds to get my bug out but I was so determined to get this card done because the ideas were flowing and I couldn't let it mess up my mojo! This was probably the quickest card I've done. Stamp images are from Inque Boutique's Aging Gracefully set.