Monday, March 28, 2011

Bring on the Cake

Hello, I hope everyone had a relaxing weekend! My son went for four bike rides of 1.5 hours each in -8°C (17°F) weather. He's always asking to go out, no matter the weather, and I love that he's so active and outdoorsy. My husband was sweet enough to endure the cold so I could have time to craft. I have quite a few birthday cards to make in the next month so I hope you won't be bored with that theme. :) Today's card is for the Hero Arts March Contest in the theme of... you guessed it... birthdays!

Even though I have a few uninked Hero Arts sets, I find myself coming back to Friendly Flags. I just love looking at this set, let alone using it. I wanted to get more mileage out of these flags than just making banners with them. I looked at the sentiments in one of my new sets, Essential Messages, and came up with the idea of making a giant stacked cake with the flags.

After some puzzle-building and several colour combinations later, I came up with this pyramidal cake. The flags that are pointing upward are adhered directly on to the card base and the ones that are pointing down are popped with foam tape. The popped flags also have twine attached to them. The pink sorbet bows are tied around each flag and the honeydew twine represents the candles at the top of the cake! This is going to one of my besties in San Diego and she'll need about 3.5 times more candles on her actual cake but I'm sure she won't mind having only ten on this one. ;)

I'm still not very confident photographing cards that open on the right. This card in particular was troublesome to photograph because I couldn't find a good angle and that's why I included two full shots in this post. Which one do you like better? Or do you prefer that I include two different views?

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury kraft & 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Hero Arts Friendly Flags & Essential Messages; SU Old Olive & Rose Red inks; Memento Rich Cocoa ink; Ranger Antique Linen & Walnut Stain Distress Inks; The Twinery Honeydew & Pink Sorbet baker's twine; Stampin' Dimensionals; Ranger Blending Tool; SU Basic Rhinestones

26 comments:

Sunghee said...

what r u talking about! your photos all look good. I love the way it is. you are genius. how did you come up with this!!! what a creative way to use the flags. Looks awesome!

Kirsty Vittetoe said...

Beautiful card Emily, love how you used those twine, you are just so creative!

Ujjwal said...

wow!! who could have thought making a cake with flags other than you!! Its absolutely brilliant.

Janna Werner said...

great idea! never seen those banners used like this before :-) And I know the problem of taking pics with cards that open to the right ... but urs look wonderful and yummie! :-) Have a great day, Janna

Wendy ten Hove said...

Oh, wauw!!! This cake is awesome!!! The candles are so clever, love those! And the brown sentiment on the kraft, with the white cake, with green and pink, perfect these colors together, love it!!
Wishing you a lovely day, dear Emily, thanks for your addy! Who knows, maybe something will pop up in your mailbox soon ;-)

Hugs, Wendy

Lynn said...

You are so amazingly talented...I love how you used this set and the candles are awesome! I am fighting with my camera these days...but I like the one straight one on the bottom!

Alice said...

no one is going to get tired of your card, girl! keep them coming! =) such a creative cake!! LOVE your twine candles. fabulous work as always!!

Angela said...

A banner cake? With twine candles? And bows? AND it's pink and green?
If I was your pal in SD, I'd flip. I'm flipping anyway!

Oh, and all the photos work, so...go with your gut, I guess!

Jen W. said...

LOL! Emily, this is brilliant! You blow me away with your creativity. :) Your friend is going to love it and I predict a winner at Hero Arts.
As for the photos, I feel your pain. I really like the close up shots. As for the full shots I think I like the first one better - it looks too flat in the second one.

Karen B. said...

I think your photos are great. What an innovative and entirely way too fun card!

Karin said...

Creative as always; And just when I think you have done everything imaginable with twine, you think of something new...Awesome!

Erin (Homemade Cards by Erin) said...

Love that you turned the flags into a cake! And added bling and twine, perfect! And kraft... nuff said!

Emily (stampingout on SCS) said...

Love what you did with the pennant flags, Em! We have had crazy cold weather here in Ohio, too! That 70 degree weather from last week was a dirty tease! LOL!
My boys were itching to be outside, so we built a big fire on the patio and let them roast hot dogs over the fire. They had so much fun, but hubby and I were FREEZING! I snuck back into the house and into the warmth of my craft room!
We thought 28 degrees was cold, but you have us beat with 17! YIPES! :0)

BabyBokChoy said...

Oh yes... love that card, I have some stamps that I can lift this idea. I prefer the second full shot. :)

G Peplow said...

Hi Emily, fabulous card, so inventive, again!!! Love the colours and the twine and how you've placed all the triangles. It doesn't matter which way you photographed it Emily, it's a winner in both pics :0) xxx
So glad little one is enjoying the fresh air and his bike, happy days:0) xxx

kasia c. said...

Emily, this is fab as usual! You are so wonderfully creative. I mean, a banner cake? Awesome! :)

Wow is your son ever active and in such cold weather! That bike link you sent me was so neat. I've never seen those before. My hubby thought so too.
BTW my hubby's DREAM is to design bikes, I told him about your hubby and he thought that was pretty cool!

Julie said...

This is so pretty, Emily! You have such a way of putting sets together that always WOW me. :) Love your use of the banner stamp!

Jocelyn Olson said...

Super cool card--just genius how you used the flags! I love how you incorporated the twine. Wow!

scrapsnsuch@gmail.com said...

What a way to use banners - there you go again getting creative on us :>) As for pics - all of 'em look great!

Emily Keaton said...

I love the flags, Emily! Those little twine candles are so creative. I know what you mean about photographing cards that open on the right--those give me trouble, too. But I think that *all* of our photos for this post are fantastic!

Jennifer said...

Twine candles!! Too COOL!! (= LOVE your card and creativity!! (=

Cheryl said...

Oooohhhh! I love this! So fun and creative! The twine candles are just over the top fun.

Savannah O'Gwynn said...

OHHH! I love those flags!! I loooooove those little twine candles--what a clever CLEVER idea!! You rock EVERY stamp and EVERY creation that you make!

Pauline said...

Well, I would NEVER have thought to use these flags in this way, this is truly inspired! I just love it, and immediatle thought it was a Christmas tree, as the colours are perfect for that theme.

I think I like the straight on pic, as you have photgraphed the card from different angles anyway - I like to see all the different sides of a card, somehow 1 pic doesnt do it justice.

Love the bakers twine too, just adds that little bit of cuteness xxx

Scrapcollectr said...

So cute, Em. Now that is stretching a stamp set! Love those twine candles, girl....
*smile*

Lindsey said...

Love, love, love those twine candles! Brilliant! And just to throw my opinion into the mix, I like the angled shot just a smidge better. Nothing wrong with posting an assortment!