Pirates!

I absolutely love these pirate papers from Paper House!  I don't have too much to show for them yet but I was so happy to use them for pictures of my kids that were taken a year ago while they toured the tall ships, Lady Washington (used in Pirates of the Caribbean) and her companion Hawaiian Chieftan, that were in port here.  I added a few eyelets, lots of distressing and inking as well as a few embellies from Tim Holtz.

The Tangled Tower

OK so keeping this blog up to date really isn't my forte.  However, this, I think, was worth the wait.  I've been swapped with end of school year activities with the kids as well as V's birthday and an upcoming bridal shower and bachelorette party for a friend.  V's party was a success and I must say that the cake we made was impressive.  My great friend Kelly Conrad and I shared the task of creating this tower.  Yes, we know we're insane but we treat the day of creation like a girls' day and we have loads of fun chit chatting and laughing through the hours.  And there were many hours - about 10.  The end result was fantastic especially since this is our first try at a dimensional cake.  We take on about 3-4 cakes a year, for our kids and that definitely does not make us professionals.  Gotta say it is so fantastic to have a friend to do this with, one that thinks is such similar ways as me and one that completes the balance of artistic skills with what she literally brings to the table!  Her talent is amazing! (Thanks Kelly)

The cake itself is a store bought cake mix, actually two of them.  They were white cakes but I divided them and coloured half pink and half purple and then swirled the colours together.  The bottom is a 2 layer 10 in cake on a wood platform. There is a dowel attached and then there is a 4 in platform at the top.  The top cake is a 2 layer 4 in cake.  The fillings were blueberry.    The tops of the towers were sugar cones.  The tower section was Rice Krispy Treats.  Everything was covered in buttercream icing and then the tower was covered in fondant.  The vines are buttercream and the all the flowers were fondant.  Pascal the chameleon was a very last minute thought and is made of fondant.  Rapunzel is from a set of Tangled figures purchased at the Disney store.  The base cake is iced with buttercream.

A teacher's birthday

Last week was my son's teacher's birthday.  Of course I found out at the end of the day so I needed something quick and easy, and with a reasonable price tag.  I knew from past experience that Mrs. McDivit likes my homemade granola and had even requested the recipe.  I had dragged my feet on getting it to her and thought that this was the perfect opportunity.  I included the original recipe, and a lower sugar version that she prefers, on the side of the jar.

 

Patterned paper - from my stash (from a stack I think)

Ribbon- AC

Flowers- Petalo, and Prima (I think)

Button - from my stash

Die cuts - Nestabilities Labels 4

Hemp cord - Darice

metal attachments - CTMH

Thanks for looking!

What's been swallowing my time

The week before Easter I took a Pysanky making class.  (Pysanky are Ukrainian Easter Eggs)  I did grow up making these, but was never very accomplished, or patient, with them.  In Ukraine I made a few but I haven't attempted a pysanky in at least eight years.  I took the class with my very artistically talented friend Kelly (her first time ever making Pysanky) and was blown away by her natural talent.  For me, it wasn't so much about how great my eggs might one day be, but more about getting reacquainted with my Ukrainian roots.  It was fun and even relaxing.  And it was inspiring.  Pam Gomf, the instructor, is simply amazing.  She is actually one of only 5 egg masters in the world.  Her inspiration had Kelly and I attempting eggs all week.  Here's what I managed (well, the ones I'm willing to show)

Publish Post

The process is similar to batik.  You apply wax where you want the colour to remain what it is then you dye the egg and cover with wax what you want to stay that colour.  At the end you blow the egg (remove the inside) and then melt off the wax.  Easy, right?

Echo Park

OK, so I'm a little late on this post.  A whole week late.  But better late than never...right?  Besides I didn't say what Tuesday I'd post this for.
So this is what I did with the Echo Park Playground Line.  This is one of those lines that the scraps still sit on my desk.  I will definitely be using them up!

A little peak

Life has been so crazy lately!  Recovering from the car accident has really dominated my time as well as dictated a lot of what I can and can't do.  Good news - I'm on the mend.  Bad news - still not enough time to scrapbook as much as I want. 

For spring break we spent a week on the Oregon Coast with another family and we had a truly fantastic time.  We stayed in a house overlooking the beach and we had no schedule to stick to.  We, the kids and adults spent a whole lot of time just playing.  And of course, that meant a lot of pictures taken.  Almost 1000.  I'm still uploading and sorting but I'll be sharing some soon.  Until then I'll share a little of what I worked on this week.  Tuesday Lila will be putting out a new line by Echo Park (and some other yummy products).  I really loved working with this line. It's just a fun line, but the colours are also easy to match outside of the line - cardstock, brads, photo holders etc.  I always love it when I don't have to think to hard as colour matching is always a challenge for me!

 

This card was a last minute creation and barely made it into the bag of stuff to go to Lila's.  I was actually inspired by a challenge on Dixie Pieces this weekend to use some of the "leftovers".  

I'll post more on Tuesday!  Thanks for looking!

Thanks for the inspiration

My son has recently had a person make a difference in his life.  Through his school he was able to participate in afterschool martial arts.  His Sensei, Eric, was truly inspirational.  He was patient with him, yet able to teach him self confidence and some pretty cool moves.  I thought he deserved a truly original thank you card.

 Digi image - The Greeting Farm