As part of The Wholesaler’s 10th birthday celebration, we are celebrating in style with a spectacular gold theme. Gold elements are so much fun to work with and sourcing pretty gold elements is part of the creative process.

I knew that I wanted to celebrate with some beautiful cupcake liners. And the perfect way to create custom gold liners was to cut them on my Silhouette CAMEO machine.

To showcase my cupcakes, I placed them on a yellow/gold paper plate and sprinkled some gold glitter around the cupcakes. Some pretty candles finish off the cupcakes.

 I worked with plain white cupcake liners and then added a layer of gold ink to them. By combining a light misting of Gold Foil Color Bloom spray, then a layer of water misted onto the ink and then small drops of All Purpose ink, I was left with a spectacular gold marble effect. Two shades of gold – perfect for a celebration!
step 1 - Cut a variety of cupcake liners on your Silhouette machine.

step 2 - Use a combination of Vegas Gold All Purpose Ink and Color Bloom spray to add a gold layer of colour to your cupcake liners. Leave them to dry.

step 3 - Fold the cupcake liners and attach the ends together so that they fit snugly around your cupcakes.

 These cupcakes are perfect for a whole table of celebratory elements.

Next I added a pretty recycled bottle to hold the drinking straws on the table. This is such a fun element to make. Wash and remove all the labels from an empty drinks bottle. Cut down gold balloons and then pull them over the bottom of the bottles to look like a gold dipped effect. Paint can be so messy and so this is an amazingly easy alternative that is not messy at all. I added some white stars to the balloon dipped bottom that I had left over from cutting my cupcake wrappers.
So in the end everything finds a place and can be used to celebrate! A DIY Birthday made easy…

Inspiration is everywhere, and with Lady Pattern Paper having a cardmaking competition, I can’t help myself but feel the urge to make some more cards. I love making cards because they offer me a creative outlet that is not so time consuming as a layout or canvas. So today I am sharing a layout and a card – the card was purely inspired by the butterfly on the layout and of course I had to use the beautiful butterfly paper.

The butterfly design was inspired by the butterfly flair used on my layout. The other elements were inspired by the Lady Pattern Paper papers used for matting my photo and for the detailed strips on the background.

step 1 - Select the 2 patterned papers you want to use as your background.

step 2 - Adhere the 2 pieces overlapping each other using double sided tape.

step 3 - Using some of my left-overs from last week’s layout, I cut two squares. One with paint details on it and a second larger matt using the beautiful Kraft dot paper.
step 4 - Adhere the background piece to a folded card front. Adhere the pink paint matted piece to the centre of your card. Add some paint splats to the background for added interest.
step 5 - Stamp and colour a butterfly image using matching colours.
step 6 -Add a layer of dimensional glaze to the butterfly.
step 7 - Lightly sprinkle the butterfly with the wet glaze with gold glitter. Leave the glaze to dry and shake off the excess glitter.
I finished off my card with some cut circles, diamanté, and sewing around the outer edge.
Products used:
irRESISTible Texture Spray Copper IR-000-094
irRESISTible Texture Spray Sweet Plum IR-000-506
Brilliance Dew Drop Pearlescent Chocolate BD-000-076
LPP0004 Basic Essentials Script - Intense Teal
LPP0007 Basic Essentials Sheet Music - Pink Mary
LPPK0005 Kraft Essentials - Script - Opaque White
Other: diamante, stamps:Prima; Glitter:Prima; Sewing machine; dimensional glaze; butterfly flair; paint; gesso; watercolour paint; paintbrush

Over on the Imagine Crafts blog....
am in love with my Art Journal these days! I just love playing and experimenting with my inks and different mediums on the pages, my favorite of these is the Imagine Crafts range of products. Today I am sharing some ideas on how I incorporate different mediums with some shine on my art journal page.

 hop on over to the blog for loads more inspiration and a step x step on this page http://imaginecraftsblog.com/2016/03/23/irresistible-art-journal-page/

Yes – it is that versatile and simple.

The stamped sentiment on the card reads:
Sit in reverie, and watch the changing color of the waves
that break upon the idle seashore of the mind

It all started with a bit of an experiment and turned into this fun and artistic background.

step 1 – Select your colour of POP paint to use, a craft sheet, medium paintbrush and water.

 step 2 – Add some paint to your craft sheet using the paint brush.

 step 3 – Mist the paint with water. Use the paint brush to mix the water into the paint to form a liquid. You don’t want it too runny.

 step 4 – Dip your water colour paper into the paint. I let my first colour (blue) dry first and then dipped it into the red.
TIP: to get a lighter shade or red, add more water and then dip your paper into the paint.
Use a heat gun to dry the first layer of paint. Then dip the card again into red with less water for a darker shade.

 You can have loads of fun creating patterns and effects using the range of POP paint colours.
Perfect for your next scrapbooking or art journaling page.

So looking forward to this event happening in May! Have you booked your seat?