Love is in the air!

It's almost the end of January already and Valentine's day is just aroud the corner.  I've been making some fun new cards to help people show their love on February 14th.

Here comes the Bride.....it's wedding season!

Everywhere I turn I here about upcoming nuptuals, so wedding season must be in full swing!  I'm actually working with a bride to be on her wedding stationery and other items for her big day.  So far I've made some beautiful wedding invitations, complete with RSVP cards, Thank you cards, place cards, and wine bottle cuffs.

Yesterday I made some new wedding cards to add to my Etsy store, and think I'll be making lots more later this week.  Here is a preview of some of the new designs available at my Etsy store.

For every card I sell on my Etsy store in may & June I'll be donating the proceeds to the National Kidney Foundation.  On Saturday June 18th I'll be taking part in a 200ft rappel down a building in Baltimore, Maryland and hope to raise $1000 for the charity!  By buying a card from ym store, you are not only getting a wonderful hand crafted card, but you will also be supporting a very worthy cause.

Raising Money for the National Kidney Foundation

On June 18th I'll be going over the edge. Over the edge of a 200ft building in downtown Baltimore to be precise.  You may think I'm mad but it's all for a great cause and hopefully will be a bit of fun too.  I'm doing a rappell down the Canton Crossing Tower to raise much needed money for the National Kidney Foundation.

My dear father passed away in January 2005, following Kidney disease and so this is a cause that is close to my heart and I hope that I can raise at least $1000 to go towards more research and treatments.

On my quest to raise my goal I am soliciting the support of friends, family and nieghbors and will also be donating all the proceeds from my Etsy store for May & June, so I'm hoping that together we can reach the $1000.

For more information on the event you can visit my fundraising page here .

Please help me to reach my goal and help other people in the world fight Kidney Disease.

April showers bring May flowers, but why wait till May!

Today I have just finished decorating a beautiful birthday cake for a little girl who is turning 4.  I love making new cakes and this one was challenging as the little girl can't eat wheat or dairy products!  I always want to make sure that my cakes are as delicious to eat as they are to look at so after some research I found a delicious gluten free recipe for the cake and used dairy free butter to make the buttercream.

Once the cake was baked and filled with buttercream, the fun began in decorating it.  Like most little girls Cici loves pink and so what better than a huge pink daisy on the top of her cake.  I added 7 fondant purple butterflies fluttering around the side of the cake too.

I'll be off to deliver the cake shortly so I'm excited to see Cici and her Mom's face when they see it!

Great American Cake Show

Last month I was busy making cards everyday for my card challenge and this month it's all been about cake!  I've entered the Great American Cake show competition at the end of April and so have been busy preparing my entries.

2010 was my first year to enter and I entered three cakes.  One was a pink prada purse cake, the second and babies first gift cake and the last a two tier mothers day cake.  I was really pleased to win 3rd place for my baby cake in my category and come home with a little rosette.

I've been thinking about what to enter this year for a while now and have had a sketch drawn out of my wedding cake entry.  The theme for the wedding cake category this year is holidays, so I have chosen to do a Christmas theme wedding cake.  I finally decided on the cake dummy sizes and shapes and set to work decorating them with fondant last week.

Seeing my design go from paper into fondant is quite amazing and so far I'm really pleased with how the top three tiers have come out.  All was going great until today when I ended up getting my finger caught in a dog leash and now it looks like it may be dislocated.  I just hope I'll be able to get my cake finished in time for the competition on the 30th April.

Here are some photos of the top three tiers so far. The top tier represents a winter snow scene with a snow bride and snow groom on top.  The second tier is a Christmas present, the third represents the Christmas tree and I'm really excited at how that has turned out.  Although I'm keeping the cake all white, it has so much texture that it has depth and interest.

Custom order of military theme cards just finished

I've just finished making a custom order of 30 cards with a military/veteran theme and will be getting them in the mail to the customer today. I got a little carried away and ended up making 40 cards so I'll have afew of them to keep on my Etsy store too.

I made a selection of sizes and styles including Navy, Air Force, Army, Marines, Veterans, Motor Bikes and USA theme cards and love them all.

They are going to be sold at the Rolling Thunder event on Memorial Day in May to raise money for the war veterans, which is a great cause.

And the winner of my March giveaway is..........

Throughout March I ran a giveaway to win 10 of my handmade cards for people who either liked my facebook fan page or made a purchase on my Etsy store.  By the end of March I had reached over 100 fans on my page and made several sales on Etsy too.  So on April 1st, I did a drawing to see who the lucky winner would be and it is Laura! Congrats!

Here is a photo of the 10 cards that will be making their way to Laura and I hope she loves them and sends them all out to her friends and family.

Now its time to get started on the 85 wedding invitation sets I have on order so that will keep me busy for a while.