Chocolate Birthday Cake

The focus of this "Fall" Birthday Card is CAKE...not just any cake, a chocolate birthday cake. Decorated with creamy frosting and loaded with candles...

Seriously how can you celebrate a Birthday with out a cake? Cupcakes would work...they're small so you can get a way with eating a couple...after all its a Birthday, go for it!

And if it's your Birthday you are celebrating with a cake is even better...

you get to have any of the cake that's leftover for a late night snack...maybe with a big glass of milk!

What do you do with a bunch of doilies?

I have been collecting doilies...

a lot of doilies...

a whole big bunch doilies...I enlisted friends and family in this search...

An older lady at one of the thrift stores I stop in a couple times a month while on my  search  calls me her "doily lady". She would ask me how many I had found...I have no clue, I had never counted. I just knew I was going to need a lot for all the project ideas I had. 

I finally got the time to work on a banner/garland for my Darling Daughter...

I hung the doily banner on the front window at my house to take these photos. The window in her house is much larger than mine, so I draped the ends on either side of my window, then pulled up on parts of it to create some swags.

I created scrunchy bows out of crinkled seem binding ribbon and placed one between each doily on the banner...

DD hung her  banner up on her window, looks pretty good. Now I need t come up with some other creative ideas for all those doilies...yes, I'm still collecting.

Lily of the Valley, Mr. Selfridge and black dresses...

I worked on this card while "Mr. Selfridge" was airing on PBS. The program had more story lines then a Soap Opera. The first couple of weeks I was having a hard time of keeping track of who was who at Selfridge's store...every one dressed in black...very professional. 

 The logo for the perfume line that Mr Selfridge had created for the store...that "anyone could afford" was Lily of the Valley. Probable a very abundant flower in the English country side...

Those delicate little white fragrant bell shaped flowers have a marvelous vintage look.

I wonder if you can still find the Lily of the Valley cologne at Selfridges in London...or do they only carry the modern designer brands?

Chicks, Snowdrops and Egg Hunt

These fluffy yellow chicks  are all blinged out for the Easter Egg Hunt. 

They found an egg hidden in the garden amongst the Snowdrop flower. Now all they need is a basket to put it in...has anybody seen their basket?

Happy Easter

Twelve days to Halloween and nothing to wear for a costume.

I love the look of vintage Halloween...I'm talking way old, like 1920s-1930s. That was the era that Halloween parties and dressing up was for the adults. They would have big extravagant parties that would last way in to the early morning. The costumes at that time were very creative.

With that in mind, I created a tag with a vintage 1920s look.

 I'm not sure where I found this image of a woman draped in a textured shawl, from that era. I dressed her up in a pair of black and orange butterfly wings that came from Graphic Fairy (thanks GF love the wings!) and embellished with Black Stickles and a glitter pen.

The background of the tag was stamped then layered with a black doily and a “Petrified Butterflies” label.

Baby Tags

I've been playing with TAGS again...this time it's all about the BABY.

 This cute baby boy image is from a vintage woman's magazine cover. Bits of lace, blue checked patterned paper, some Stickles (blinging up the bath water), distress ink and a blue butterfly charm

For a baby girl it's all about the PINK ... vintage baby girl card image, ribbon, Stickles, pink patterned paper, a doilie, distress ink and a pink ribbon flower.

I put the cap on the Stickles for this antique looking tag... vintage baby photo and buggy ad, ecru lace, distress ink, tissue tape, and 3 three old buttons from a button box.

In my spare time...

Last Christmas season I gave my darling daughter a banner I had made for a design team project...you remember the one. I designed it using the
Cavallini & Co. vintage postcard wrap.

She liked it so much she still has it up. In June I decided it was time to make her a new banner she could keep up all year. My plan was to do this in my spare time...which I don't have.

DD has black and white accents in her home, I started collecting black and white patterned paper, embellishments and a bit of bling.
Sweet Wendy over at Leaky Shed Studio had given me some of their chip board die cut banner letters to spell out: H O M E. The letters have holes at the top to run a ribbon through to created the banner. I covered the letters with the black and white patterned paper, leaving the holes covered. I placed them on chip board die cut pennant shapes that I had my DD cover in the back and white patterned paper ( The only was to get this done was to make it a team effort). I had great plans to layer each pennant and letter  with tons of embellishments... in my spare time.

In the end I kept the embellishments simple...doilies, silk flowers, ribbon, gems and Stickles. 

I don't plan on going in to the banner making business, but it was fun to  work on a different kind of project with and for my DD.