My Grandson Andrew is Graduating... Congrats Andrew!!!

Greetings Everyone … This is ♥Carol♥ and I am so pleased that you are visiting me here today at my Little Creation Corner … I hope everyone is enjoying a wonderful week.

As many of you already know.  I have a daughter and a son, between the two of them, they have blessed me with 5 wonderful grandsons!  And I love all those rascals to pieces ... all FIVE of them!

This year, my oldest Grandson, Andrew, is graduating from High School ... Hurray for the Class of 2010!  Andrew has asked that I make his graduation announcements for him.  I've been pondering how to do this for a couple of months now ... but I can not wait much longer ... this announcements need to be mailed ASAP!

Here is my first draft ... I'd love to get some input ... all comments are welcome.  But please send your comments as quickly as possible ... I am on a deadline, so time is of the essence.

This is a very rough draft.  On the face of the announcement, I plan to make the cap a little larger and do a better tassel, and diploma a little smaller, maybe ink it a bit so it shows up more too.  (his school colors are black and orange) 

Click on images to see full size

On the inside of the card is his graduation picture with an overlay in vellum with the actual announcement information.  On the top of the vellum is a black strip ... in part for color contrast and to give it a finished look, and in part to hide the adhesive underneath.  At the bottom of the announcement verbage is Andrew's calling card with a picture of his school's mascot (a tiger) as a watermark behind it.

BTW ... the vellum lifts up to reveal the graduation picture.

(again, click on image to see full size)

I hope you enjoyed your visit here today and liked my Graduation Announcement card ... Don't forget, this is just a rough draft of the card ... so please leave a comment to share your thoughts with me, I'd really love to know your thoughts on this!  As always … thank you for stopping by to visit me here at my Little Creation Corner.

Have a great day, and HAPPY CRAFTING!

Hugz,
♥Carol♥

Special Sweet Treat Presentation with a Cake Plate Wrapper

Greetings Everyone … This is ♥Carol♥ and I am so pleased that you are visiting me here today at my Little Creation Corner … I hope everyone is enjoying a wonderful week that extends throughout the Easter week-end.

Over at the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog, the Sweet Treats Thursdays design team are truly celebrating SWEET TREATS with some very special packaging for your delicious goodies. For today’s offering, I decided to make a cake plate wrapper … and in this case, it’s a wrapper custom made to match my cake.

Here is the Cake

(Please click on images to see full size)

To make the wrapper, I combined elements from two separate Cricut Cartridges, the First is the Heritage cart, for the scrolly flourish, and the second is the Paisley cart for the strawberry. The flourishes were cut at 2” and I cut two of them and welded them together in DS. I also used the “hide contour” feature in DS to remove the inner pieces of the ends (you may be able to see the faint lines of the removed sections in the image below). Because the perimeter of the silver cake pedestal cake plate is so long, I was unable to cut this in just one piece … however, I was able to match the flourishes perfectly by placing them end to end and securing them with glue dots.

As luck had it … I was able to cut 3 of the 2 welded pieces, plus one other single, and it measured perfectly to fit around the plate. Note: If you do not have the Cricut Design Studio program, you could also cut 7 of the flourishes and join them end to end (depending, of course, on the size of the cake plate that you are using.)

An Image of the Cuts using the DS Program

 

The flourishes were cut using a silver metallic paper (to match the silver cake plate). I also cut the strawberries out of metallic papers to keep the same paper theme … in this case, red and green. They were cut at 2 ¼ inches and were attached to the flourish with glue dots. This was actually very easy to do … and of course, I selected to adorn the flourish with those strawberries to compliment the cake.

So, how did I make this decadent chocolate cake? OK, no secrets here, I called on Betty Crocker for some assistance and used her yummy Devil’s Food cake mix … the Cake required 2 cake mixes because there are actually 4 layers. I even called upon Betty Crocker for help with the frosting … using two cans of frosting, one dark chocolate and one chocolate fudge. After the cake was frosted, I drizzled melted dark chocolate across the top. Believe me, this cake will give you a major chocolate rush! *grin*

I then topped off the the cake with little chocolate frosting nests to help hold those HUGE luscious strawberries and poured strawberry glaze over them. The strawberry glaze is easy to make too. Simply heat 1 cup of sugar, one cup of water and 1 tablespoon of strawberry strained strawberry juice until dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly, then add in 2 ½ tablespoons of cornstarch to thicken and a couple of drops of red food coloring. Spoon the glaze mixture over the strawberries … chill until ready to serve and enjoy!

Here is the cake covered with the crystal dome

(this cake is so tall, it barely fit)

It was actually very simple to make, and isn’t that beautiful? What a wonderful compliment that cake plate wrapper is for my delicious cake! Why not give it a try when you make your next cake? I think your family and friends will be very impressed at the lovely presentation.

Don’t forget to stop by the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog to see the wonderful creations made by the other Sweet Treats Thursday Design Team members … they have truly made some amazing projects!

I hope you enjoyed your visit here today and liked my cake plate wrapper … It was super easy and even fun to make. Please don’t forget to add a comment and share your thoughts, I adore reading what you have to say … I’d really love it if you would sign up to be a follower too, your visits make my blog so much more meaningful. As always … thank you for stopping by to visit me here at my Little Creation Corner.

Have a great day everyone, and HAPPY CRAFTING!

Hugz,
♥Carol♥