Cupcakes!

When we were in Illinois for Thanksgiving I went to my favorite craft store and bought this cupcake ribbon.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it but that became my inspiration.

When I think of cupcakes I think of pink.  Why? I don't know, it's fun, it's girly, it's a happy color for me.  What color goes with pink... brown... and the inspiration started to take shape.

Since I like texture and mixed media I decided to quilt the bottom part of the cupcakes.  But first I needed to pick out six different fabrics that would go well with pink and brown.  I have a huge stash of fabric so it wasn't hard to find fabric, it was just hard to narrow it down to only six pieces!  For the back of the cupcakes I just used muslin because no one was going to see it anyway.

I free form quilted each square before I cut out the cupcake design.  I decided to quilt with the muslin facing up so I could see what areas I had already done, on busy fabric this is hard to see.

After quilting:

I still hadn't decided where I was going to use the cupcake ribbon but I continued on.

Now for the fun part: creating the icing!  I created chocolate, strawberry and vanilla icing using a texture medium and iced my cupcakes.  I also knew I was going to use glitter because glitter will make anything look girly.  Glitter and pink, you can't get much more girly than that.  After that was done I held the cupcake ribbon in my hand and it hit me... put it right in the middle! So that's what I did.  Plus I had brown and pink ribbon in my ribbon stash that I could use going vertically.

Here is a close up of two of them:

Who Wants a Cupcake?  is now for sale at Olde Towne Art in Portsmouth, VA.

Photography and flowers

I love taking all kinds of pictures but I always come back to my flowers.  Flowers are so beautiful and from different angles they take on different looks.  God created this whole earth and I believe He gave us flowers to show his extreme love for us.  I like getting as close as I can for a flower shot and it's a bonus for me if it has a bumble bee or a butterfly on it. 

In my photo folders I used to have my flowers labeled according to location but, being the organized person I am, I decided to create folders of flowers according to their color which is working out a lot better for me.  Here is just a small sampling of some of my flower pictures created in mosaic form:

Faith, Hope and Love are living - Christmas, Christmas, everywhere

For Christmas I have asked to turn this blog into a book (super easy at blog2print.com) so I need to stop posting for a while so the manufacturer doesn't get confused!  But I did want to do one more post.

*** Update:  I've figured out how to turn my blog into a book without needing to stop posting for a while, YIPPEE!!  So on with the posts!! ***

I have mentioned Ideals Magazine before and how much I love to read the poems and short stories contained in them.  While I was organizing my books last night I came across this poem taken from Christmas Ideas 1951 entitled Hello, Again by Nina Gertrude Smith:

Hello, again, it's Christmas!  in the postman's ring,
In a little child's face, on the snowbird's wing:

In the "sh-sh-sh" of secrets; colors, sounds, and smells-
In a stranger's warm, sweet laughter hear the golden bells!

Christmas in the sacred story of a Yuletide's song,
In a new re-captured glory righting every wrong.

In the joy of giving, giving... Christmas in the air; Faith and hope and love are living-
Christmas, Christmas, everywhere!

A sneek peek at our Christmas card this year (just ordered!)

Holy Nativity Religious

Send special Valentine's Day cards from Shutterfly this year.

View the entire collection of cards.

Happy Second Sunday of Advent