For a special friend - a birthday bottle card

I have known Kerry for around 32 years since we were at primary school. She is one amazing lady and we have accumulated loads of funny special memories between us over the decades! We have experienced love, laughter, heartbreak, marriage, careers and have been blessed with four beautiful girls between us who are carrying on the tradition of female bonding.

 

The sentiment on this bottle card has been taken from the docrafts Creativity Club sentiments collection I designed and it so says how I feel...

 

"A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself."

 

Happy Birthday Hon!

 

 

I made the origami heart by following the fabulous Beckie Dreyer's origami heart

template which can be found here. Once you have had a play and mastered the technique it is

quite addictive, so much so, my Christmas cards are being designed around them!

 

 

I used the Owl collection printables I designed for the Creativity Club to create the

theme and embellished the heart with Papermania Adhesive Stones and Bow.

 

 

I am a little addicted to my die-cut machine and antiquing with inks, so once again,

these techniques have found their way in!

 

To finish the back, I added a blank die-cut heart so that I can write my message.

A Papermania Ribbon and Baker's Twine completes the design.

 

 

Thank you for looking!

 

I hope you enjoy the wine Kerry!

 

Jill x

 

 

 

 

Cupcake Celebration Cake (as seen in the docrafts Bake magazine)

I have been lucky enough to be commissioned to make a series of cakes for the docrafts Bake magazine which was on sale with the newsstand September issue of the docrafts Creativity magazine! One of my briefs was to create a celebration cupcake design using the Little Venice Cake Company products. I am always looking for ways to challenge myself, so I decided it would be a good idea to push the boundaries of gravity! Here’s the finished result.....

There were about 45 cupcakes in total, both large and small, and it was a challenge to figure out how to assemble them into a tower! The theory was a type of helter-skelter, with bands of chocolate, violet and lavender cakes tumbling down the sides. 
 

 

After much experimenting, I decided upon creating a tower of polystyrene rings, secured together with glue. I covered them with two sheets of pale lavender and silver tissue paper, securing into position with pins, then stuck the whole creation to my cake board with butter cream.

 

Then for the fun bit! To determine how many cupcakes I needed to make, I attached cupcake cases to the tower with cocktail sticks, then played with colours by adding stickers/felt pens to the cases to get a feel for the design.

 

Full steps and instructions can be found in the September docrafts Bake magazine.

Have fun and thank you for looking!

 

Jill x