A Celebration of Purple

If you've been following my blog lately, you'll have seen a lot of posts about the decorations for my celebration dinner. It was a lot of fun preparing for it but it was even better when I was able to finally put it all together. Come and have a look at some of the details. Purple LEDs gave the room a lovely glow Placemats from Ikea and handmade napkin rings Purple LEDs and crystals decorate the centre of the table The beautiful butterfly cake Bonbonniere with butterflies dancing all around them The dessert buffet - the most important part of the meal! I was so pleased that it all turned out just as I had visualised it. And best of all, it was kind on the budget because so much was hand made using what I already had in the studio. Look out for another couple of tutorials on the "how to" in the coming weeks. 'Til next time..... If you can't get enough of My Tutorials and you want even more inspiration,  click......

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Butterflies in Flight - a Cake to Delight

Last week, Eli (my cake decorator) invited me to come and see how the cake was progressing and to make changes to anything I didn't like. I was very reassured to see her progress - she was totally on track to creating the cake I had imagined. When we first met a few weeks back to design the cake, I came prepared with lots of images of  what I liked. We put our heads together and discussed what would and wouldn't work, and together we came up with a very clear picture of what the cake would look like - nothing at all like the pictures I'd brought along but they helped us to arrive at the final design. We decided it would be purple and have lots of butterflies; everything would be edible including the ribbon and the greeting. It was exciting to get the sneak peek of the purple butterflies during my visit and my anticipation was growing as I knew Eli was going to create exactly what I wanted. I just couldn't wait to see the finished cake. And finally, here it is! ......

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Vintage Crystal Butterfly Frame - Faux Marquasite Butterfly

This week, I'm continuing with the butterfly theme. Here's the third of the four butterfly shadow box frames I've made which showcase the elegant simplicity of black and white. Three of these boxes will be displayed together on the wall so I'm trying to keep each one quite simple - their impact will come from being part of a larger group. For this one I've used a central butterfly surrounded by a circle of contrasting black and damask butterflies. I love the soft look the white doodling gives to the black butterfly. With all the little dots, it reminds me of marcasite, especially with a few crystals to highlight the design. They give the butterfly that aged, vintage look. Supplies for this shadow box:  Ikea Ribba shadow box frame ; Inkssentials white opaque pen ; Cuttlebug Combo Butterflies ; Sizzix Birds & Butterflies by Eileen Hull ;  Kaiser Craft crystals ; black card stock and damask tissue paper glued to white card stock. Just one more shadow ......

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