A Birthday Cupcake!

Hello bloggies!

Well … you know what they say … sometimes the best of intentions …. go astray! 😀 😉

I was all set to pop by yesterday morning to do a blog post … but WordPress was having issues. 🙄 I couldn’t get in to reply to comments or do a new post. So … instead of wasting more time … I decided that I needed to “bite the bullet” … and finally get my grocery list onto online shopping. (A big job that I have been procrastinating about.) I already do my mum’s groceries online for her every 2 weeks … and without a car most days I thought it might be helpful & more efficient to do this for my shopping also.  You probably won’t believe this … but … the first 3 items took 1 hour to list!!!!!!! That is NO EXAGGERATION. And … to submit the whole list … took 5 hours! It was taking several attempts & a very long time to “refresh” each time I added an item. You can imagine the tears & the frustration by the end of the task! So … long story short … (I’m not very good at keeping a long story short 🙄 ) I ran out of time yesterday to do my post.

It has however prompted Gav to once again test and retest different settings … positions … network issues etc etc … and with a few changes … it does seem to be behaving much more postively today. Poor Gav! We have lost track of the number of hours he has spent on trying to maximise out internet performance! But … fingers crossed … it will be stable for a little while! I promised the girls over at INK4U! that I would get the details for this card posted asap! This was an INKspiration challenge … using this photo for the inkspiration! Talk about taking an INK challenge literally!!! 😉 Here is my card …

I really enjoyed this challenge … just the whole idea of trying to carefully copy the whole picture was fun! These INKspiration challenges are completely FREE … ie. you can take all or just one element of a pic (eg. colour / images / theme etc) to base your card around. I decided to go with the lot! 😀 Nothing like a real challenge! 😀

I also thought I would enter this for the current SUO (Stampin’ Up! Only) challenge – which is to create a birthday card! I think that this one qualifies! My card recipe for this card (at the end of this post) is quite detailed … including a template for cutting the base of the card. I hope this is a help if you decide you would like to CASE this one!? 😀 You might want to click on the recipe to view the template better? And … once the image is open … you should be able to click on “CTRL +” (together) … to enlarge the pic as much as you wish! 😀

And … I also wanted to pop this on Shelli’s latest challenge … too! “Crazy for Cupcakes Creative Challenge”! It seems birthday challenges are a little “hip” at the moment! I am pretty sure this qualifies as a cupcake card!!!!! 😀 :wik:

I wanted to show you this pic … so you can see the gorgeous shimmer paint spray (a mix of Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint +some isocol). It really does add such a sparkle to the icing and the cupcake “paper” base … and is a really pretty finish!  Click on this pic to open … the shimmer really does look a treat when this pic is enlarged!

Well … I have been out this morning with my mum … stocking up on a few baby shower goodies for Stacey’s party on Saturday. It was fun … and we are looking forward to a girly morning tea at the Cliffhanger Restaurant, Bulli … with gorgeous views down the escarpment to Wollongong! Stace is getting quite excited now. She only has one more week of work … and it is 4 weeks today until the baby is due. I must admit … now I am getting a little excited too! Another new stage in our life adventure!

The last two days have been glorious sunshine … and today there is a gorgeous breeze blowing. It is a beautiful day. Apart from looking out on an overfull pool … you wouldn’t know that we had been through such a downpour on Monday! I hope it is a lovely day in your little part of the world! 😀 If only I could get rid of this cough!!! 😀 C U all soon! Hugs xxaxx