Cupcake Kit

This "Cupcake Kit" is a birthday gift for my sister-in-law. I got the idea when I was blog surfing one day, but unfortunately, I didn't write down the name of the person or blog where I saw it. If it was your idea, let me know so I can give proper credit! Anyway, the kit contains various items to make and decorate cupcakes. My SIL likes to bake, and her kids love to help, so I thought this would be something fun they could use together. I included some fun cupcake liners, various sprinkles, a spatula, a couple of decorating tips and pastry bags, and a cupcake recipe book (my favorite part!). Everything is contained in an old Stampin' Up! punch box that I altered just a bit.

The original idea I saw included a purchased cookbook. I thought about buying one also but then decided it would be fun to make one with my Bind-It-All. It was quite a bit of work getting all of the recipes together, formatting them, etc., but I love how it turned out! And now that I have it all together, I can use them again (I'm planning to make myself one too).

The book is 6x6 and uses BIA chipboard covers that I altered with cardstock, American Crafts DP, my beloved Big Bold Birthday set, and Jumbo Outline Alpha. The alpha was stamped in Certainly Celery and then colored in with a Versamarker. With the overlapped letters, I like how you can still see the outline of slightly darker color versus the Versamark inside.

The book has 3 recipe sections - cupcakes, icings, and fillings - so each section has a divider. For each one, I used the cupcake from Big Bold Birthday, coordinating American Crafts DP, various colors of cardstock, and the Round Tab Punch. The back of each divider was folded into a pocket to keep any other cupcake-related recipes that might come along.

The recipes themselves came from various sites - Wilton (the majority - they have a great cupcake section), All Recipes, and Very Best Baking. I also included my favorite cake recipe, White Almond Sour Cream Wedding Cake (if made strictly for cupcakes, makes about 5 dozen). The recipes were printed on glossy paper so the pages would hold up a little better than regular printer paper.

The card was based on this week's sketch challenge on SCS. I used 9 squares of striped American Crafts DP and alternated the direction of the stripes. The cupcake layer was adhered to a 3" square of Blue Bayou that has the small happy birthday stamp stamped as a border along each edge. It was adhered to the card with dimensionals. I think everything else on the card is pretty self-explanatory.



This was a really fun gift to put together. I hope she likes it as much as I do!

Thanks for looking!

Recipe:
Stamps: Big Bold Birthday, Jumbo Outline Alpha, So Very, Fancy Flexible Phrases
Cardstock: Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Blue Bayou, Certainly Celery, Real Red, So Saffron, Bashful Blue
DP: American Crafts
Ink: Versamark, Versamarker, Certainly Celery, Real Red, So Saffron, Bashful Blue, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Red & White Gingham, Red Ric-Rac, Stylized Silver Hodgepodge Hardware, White & Red Eyelets, Irridescent Ice Embossing Powder, Chocolate Chip Taffeta Ribbon
Tools: Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, 1 1/4", 1 3/8" and Scallop Circle Punches, Nestibilities Dies, Corner Rounder, Ticket Corner Punch, Round Tab Punch

First Bind-it-All Scrapbook!

My grandparents recently celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary. We just had a small family gathering to celebrate, so I wanted to capture a few of the pictures in a small scrapbook for them.

This was my first project with my Bind-it-All. I wanted to use some of the acrylic covers for the book since I wouldn't have page protecters for the inside pages, so I went with the 5 x 7 1/2" size. With such a small size, it was challenging at first to come up with layouts for the pages.

I knew I'd keep them fairly simple, but I didn't want them to be all the same either. Anyway, once I got started, I really enjoyed working with the smaller size. I started out scrapbooking several years ago, but I've gotten away from it recently. After this project was done, I decided I like working with scrapbooks for individual events like this and will probably start doing more of them as opposed to all 12x12.

I think the book ended up being about 12 pages. I've included just a few examples. The cover is a replica of the anniversary card I gave them. I then kept the rest of the base pages black and white and added a Rose Red accent of some type to each page (some Felt Fusion flowers, cardstock, prints DSP, etc.). I'm really happy with how it turned out and hope they like it too!

Recipe:
Stamps: Baroque Motifs, Make It Count, Anniversary Birds (Verve Visual)
Cardstock: Basic Black, Whisper White, Rose Red
DSP: Rose Red Prints
Accessories: Basic Black Grosgrain, Chipboard, Brads, Grommets
Tools: Corner Rounder, Nestibilities, Bind-It-All

BBQ Apron Invitations

My DH and I started a tradition the first year we were married of having a big 4th of July BBQ. I am originally from the Kansas City, Missouri area, so I got him hooked on the great KC BBQ when we were dating. (As a side note, if you're ever visiting KC, our favorite is Jack Stack in the Freighthouse district behind Union Station. Get the Crown Prime Ribs and split them between 2 people - you won't regret it!) Anyway, the first year we just had a grill, so we had your traditional hamburgers and hot dogs along with a Beer Can Chicken. Well - by the next year we had purchased a smoker, so we had ribs, smoked chicken, baked beans, and I don't remember what else, along with the standard burgers and dogs (mainly for the kids at this point). That trend continued, and now he is in the process of building his own smoker. We had hoped it would be done and tested at least once before the 4th, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. We've had a few delays, but he is making great progress on it though!

Anyway, back to stamping! I always like to send out invitations for the big party (who can pass up an excuse to play with paper and stamps!), so when I saw this adorable BBQ apron on Susan Lile's blog, I knew I had to recreate it. So, here is my version.

I actually didn't do any stamping on it though. I created a pattern with a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2" piece of scrap paper and just eyeballed the curve of the arm opening. I then folded the scrap in half to make both sides even. I looked all over for some fun designer paper that would fit with our BBQ theme, but I couldn't find any I liked so I just used a variety of DSP that I already had. The spatula was created with the tag punch and word window punch. I scored along the top of the tag punch and adhered them together with a silver brad. The neck of the apron is a piece of twill, also adhered with brads. My aprons aren't as detailed as Susan's, but I wanted to keep them fairly simple to recreate. And - I think they turned out really cute!

Thanks for looking!

Award & Take A Number Birthday Card

Thanks to Nancy Riley for nominating me for the Kreativ Blogger award! If you've never had an opportunity to check out her blog, go take a look. I promise you won't be disappointed!

There are so many great blogs out there which make it hard to choose who to pass on the award to. Here are just a couple that I like to visit.

Jill, Jill's Card Creations
Jenn, Stamp Your Heart Out



I also have a card to share today. We celebrated my niece's 3rd birthday on Monday, and this was the card I made for her. I used the Take A Number wheel again and spotlighted the number 3 in a 1 1/2 in" metal edge circle tag. The bottoms of the cupcakes were embossed with the Swiss Dots embossing folder.

Thanks for looking!

Recipe:
Stamps: Big Bold Birthday, Take A Number Wheel
Cardstock: Old Olive, Whisper White, Brilliant Blue, Pumpkin Pie
DSP: Jersey Shore
Ink: Versamark, Pumpkin Pie, Versamarker
Accessories: 1 1/2 in" Metal Edge Circle Tag, Brilliant Blue Brads, Irridescent Ice Embossing Powder
Tools: Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, 1 1/4" Circle Punch

Stampin' Up! Retirement List

The retirement list for the Stampin' Up! Spring/Summer Collection is available. You can view the list either alphabetically or numerically.

These items will only be available until August 10th, so don't wait if any of them are on your wish list!

I made Stamper's Showcase!

Thanks to Nancy Riley for letting me know that my "Window's of Cherries" card was displayed on Stamper's Showcase yesterday! (For those of you who might not know, Stamper's Showcase is a gallery on the Stampin' Up! Demonstrator Website that displays projects made by Stampin' Up! Demonstrators.)

You can see all of the details for the card here. What a fun way to start the week!

Simple Joys

Just a quick card using the flowers from Papertrey's Green Thumb set. I love to look at everyone else's flowers this time of year, but I have to say I prefer this type of flower garden for myself - no weeding required!

Recipe:
Stamps: Papertrey Green Thumb
Cardstock: Purely Pomegranate, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip
Ink: Purely Pomegranate, Groovy Guava, Pretty in Pink, Old Olive
Accessories: Purely Pomegranate Double-Stitched Ribbon, Basic Grey Buttons
Tools: Nestabilities Rectangle and Scalloped Rectangle Dies