Happy birthday Sweet Cake!

Apparently the St Lukes Charity Card Challenge had quite a low number of entries for last month's challenge. That's a shame - particularly when you think of the good this challenge does, raising money for the St Lukes hospice in Sheffield which cares for terminally ill people and their families. This month's theme is Teen Cards so go on, why not challenge yourself to make at least one! Here's one from me:

In my experience, no-one has more capacity for cupcakes than a teenage girl (well my teenage girl anyway!) This wonderful image is from a lovely set in the summer mini catalogue called Sweet Cake and I think it lends itself brilliantly to paper piecing - especially in bright colours like Rose Red and Tempting Turquoise.

In this photo you can see how I've layered all the elements up, popping up the cherry and the sentiment label on dimensionals. Looking at it now, I see that the icing on the cupcake is crying out for glitter so I shall add some Dazzling Diamonds before I send it off.

Here's what you'll need to make today's card:

Stamps: Sweet Cake

Ink: Rose Red, Tempting Turquoise, Blushing Bride

Card stock: Whisper White

Other: Patterns designer paper, markers, paper snips, stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. Your free brad and ribbon set will be added automatically to any order of £45 or more.

My youngest son had a great time on his induction day at senior school yesterday. "How was it?" I asked as we walked home. "It was brilliant!" he said with great enthusiasm. "I bought an oat cookie at break - that was 60p - and then I had a meatball and mozzerella panini at lunch for £1.80, followed by a rocket lolly for 45p!" That's right, he couldn't remember anything much about the lessons - he was completely obsessed by the novelty of choosing and buying his own lunch from the canteen! 

It's Thursday tomorrow and I'll have a three minute card to show you. See you then,

One layer Sweet Cake

I didn't think I'd have time to enter all my favourite challenges this week but when I saw that Cheryl's One Layer Wednesday challenge was to make a card featuring something sweet, I immediately thought of my new Sweet Cakes stamp set! How long could it take? I thought! Well it didn't take long at all - AND I was able to incorporate this week's gorgeous ColourQ palette (although I haven't done it justice at all.) Come and have a look:

I love this vintage seaside-style image (and the three stunning sentiments that go with it!) Wouldn't this make a cute little card to pop in a lunch box?! I think it also lends itself well to teen cards and this sentiment would work well for a sixteenth birthday.

I coloured the rubber with markers before stamping to get this multi-coloured image because I was going for a one layer card, but it would be fun to layer elements up on another occasion.

Here's what you'll need to make today's card:

Stamps: Sweet Cake

Ink: Poppy Parade, Pool Party, More Mustard, Crumb Cake - all markers

Card stock: Whisper White

Other: Stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593.

Talking of putting notes in people's lunch boxes, My daughter and I were having a clear out of her books a little while ago and this popped out and brought the memories flooding back:

It's a little note I put in her lunch box when she was having a tough time at school at just six years of age. I'm so touched that she kept it and the sweet thing is that those are actual clothes that we wore and that little green table and chair actually lived in her room! She tells me she loved getting notes in her lunch box and I do think it's a great thing to do regardless of whether your loved ones are having a tough time or not.

Oops, I've got distracted again... it's back to the kitchen for me! Enjoy your weekend won't you, and I'll see you very soon.

Hugs,