Cupcakes for Grandad and a Sweet Challenge over at My Partner in Crafting Crime!! :)

Hello everyone!! :)

Sorry I'm a little late with this one- today's been a bit of an off day for me so far and I've been struggling to get myself going at all!! :S Anyway, on to what I wrote last night so I'd be all ready for a nice early post today... the best laid plans and all that!! ;) ......

Well, another fortnight has passed in a flash and so it’s time for another new challenge at My Partner in Crafting Crime... and this week it’s a scrummy one: ‘Sweets & Treats’!!! :) So we’d like to see something edible, sweet and delicious on your cards- and, if you’re anything like me, you’ve got plenty of yummy (and calorie-free!) things in your stash so we’d love to see you come along and join the fun this time!! :) You could win some fab digis from our sponsor Bows & Berries, too!! :)

I decided to go for a cupcake theme to give one of the LOTV stamps from the Time for Tea range, which I bought earlier this year, its first inking (shameful I know- I’ve had it for months!! :( lol) and so my card was going to be in sweet and pretty pinks and lemons... but then I remembered my Grandad’s birthday was coming up and pink went out of the window!!lol Maybe I'll get around to the pretty card sometime soon but this is what I made for my Grandad and the challenge:

I got some cupcake shaped base cards from Anita’s last year and made a card I loved for a friend’s birthday straight away but it was a bit fiddly so I’ve not used them again since- it would be easier if I didn’t bother to fold the paper for the base but I really think it looks so much better that way... and I’m a glutton for punishment apparently!!lol

I decided on a kraft and coffee kind of colour scheme as this was a masculine card and started by drawing around the shaped base card onto some scrap to get the shape I wanted- slightly bigger and with a softer shape than the base- so it would sit over the folded paper ‘case’ :)

For the cake case, I cut a strip of a spare kraft envelope, which I stamped with a polka dot stamp from my first Waltzing Mouse Stamps purchase (not my last, I suspect!!lol) in a creamy coloured chalk ink :) The stamp was surprisingly easy to line up to repeat the pattern, too :) I scored the strip and folded it all up- that’s the fiddly bit but worth it, I think... for someone special anyway!!lol I tried using my paper crimper but the creases weren’t sharp enough to let me gather them more at the bottom for a realistic look... I’m a recovering (mostly!) perfectionist and that just wouldn’t do, I’m afraid- especially as my Grandad’s a perfectionist, too!!lol The lovely greeting is from a Craftwork Cards Goody Bag which a vv lovely blogging buddy picked up for me at the GNPE show a couple of weeks ago, along with the Flexmarkers I used to tone down the white a tad to match the rest- thank you so much again, hon, if you're reading this!! :D :D – and the natural twine adds a bit of texture and interest.

I used some of my lovely Core’dinations Chocolate Box cardstock for the ‘Topping’, which I embossed with a snowflake folder that I love for all sorts of things, not just snowy Xmas cards, and thought would be good for looking like sprinkles!! :) I sanded the card before and after embossing then added shimmer spray and Stickles around the edges and on a few of the sprinkles :) The finishing touches- for the outside, at least- were a big pearly button and some more twine :)

The final thing- that I almost forgot to do- was an insert to hide the slightly shabby looking inside of the spine of the card, which I decorated as well with a little cupcake stamp :)

The List:

• Cupcake shaped card blank- Anita’s from DoCrafts
• Core’dinations Chocolate Box cardstock
• Cuttlebug Snowflakes embossing folder
• Perfect Pearls Pearl Shimmer Mist
• Stickles in Platinum and Distress Stickles in Antique Linen
• MOP button and Natural Jute Twine from the Ribbon Girl
• Kraft paper
• Polka dot stamp from Waltzing Mouse’s Off Beat Background set
• VersaMagic Wheat ink pad
• Craftwork Cards sentiment
• Kanban Fairy Cakes stamp set, Versafine Vintage Sepia ink pad and Whispers Brush Markers for the insert

I’d like to enter this in the following challenges: Dream Valley – Buttons :) ; Creative Inspirations – Let’s Celebrate :) ; Crafting For All Seasons – Fall Colours :) ; Bows & Berries – Glitter :) ; Birthday Sundaes – Buttons :) ; OSAAT – Use your favourites (I’ve used Kraft, Shimmer Spray and Stickles on this one!! :) ) :) ; The Squirrel and the Fox – Anything Goes :) ; Just Some Lines – Fall Colours :) ; DYSU - Duos (Two colours- cream and coffee/kraft) :) ; Crafty Sentiments - Happy Birthday :)

Well, thanks for stopping by- do please go and take a look at the PCC blog to see the creations from the rest of the DT and welcome some lovely new DT girlies, Ashley, Dianne and Rhonda, to the fold!! :) Oh, and do enter the challenge if you can, too, of course!!lol Can’t wait to see all the yummy creations you come up with- better get used to being hungry now, I think!!lol 

Hope you all have a great week... might even feel like the summer we never got by Wednesday if the rumours are true although at the mo' it looks and feels like it's about to pour down!! :)