So what have I been doing

for the past month.... Well, Let's see..
~ Partying with my BFF's... My Birthday.. my DH's surprise 40th Bday.. 4th of July.. dinner w/ my BFF's and their hubbies.. when does the partying end?
~ Dr appointments... See what happens when you turn 41. You start falling apart. Come to find out, My C5 & C6 are herniated (in lay mans terms... the spongy balloon between my C5 and C6 vertebrae popped like a water balloon and as a result I have pain down my left arm and tingling .. almost like it's asleep .. in my fingers). They have recommended they go in and remove the herniation... I'll know more on August 5th when I see the actual neurosurgeon. Until then I'm trying not to think about it.. That is until I have to shake my arm to wake up my fingers.. I also had my 6 month follow-up appointment with my GBP surgeon on Friday. He was thrilled that I've lost over 100 lbs in the past 6 months.. WHOOP WHOOP.. All is good there. and....
~ I've been locked away in my stamp room..


What do you get when you mix 170 pieces of white card stock, a photocopier, scissors, ink, stickles, copic markers, double sided glue, silk flowers and a whole lotta Silver Hershey Kisses?


Let me tell ya... You get 8 - 2 layer cakes for a 25th Wedding anniversary. We used the cakes as the table centerpieces and then everyone could take a slice from the top layer as their favor.
I made 2 different cake designs.. 1 using the bamboo shoot from "Embrace Life" and the other using the large round wheel "Watercolor Vine" both are from SUP. This top cake is Embrace Life and the one below is WaterColor Vine.
Here's how they were made. The template for all 3 cake layers can be found HERE (edited... if this link is not working for you.. please email me (see link off to the top left of the blog.. under about me, view my complete profile.. ).. and I will happily email you the pdf format.. i can't seem to figure out how to attach it here. sorry).. To make 8 2-layer cakes we choose to use the top layer and the middle layers only. I started by photocopying on whisper white card stock all cake pieces (the middle layer used 11 boxes to form the layer and the top was 10 so there was 21 boxes per cake).. I then proceeded to cut out each piece. I found that if I stapled 3 pieces of card stock together, I was able to cut them 3 at a time (makes cutting 170 cake boxes just that much quicker).. Next came decorating. Since it was a 25th anniversary we choose to stick with a 'grey' pallet so all images were stamped (or rolled) in basic grey ink (SUP). I found the Going Grey was just too light. Next came coloring. The bamboo images were colored in shades opf grey using my copic markers... Next.. All images were enhanced with stickles. I wanted the glitter to sparkle in the candle light. Phew finally.. all 170 pieces were cut out, stamped, colored, stickled and dried...


Next came folding. Personally I found that trying to fold each of these using my score-pal was too difficult and my bone folder was just too wide (you'll notice that each image has a dotted fold line).. so off to Wal-mart I went. Luckily they are starting to put out their school supplies and for .27 I was able to pick up a couple super skinny flat ruler (these are getting cheaper by the year. When I was in school the rulers were wooden so that when we were smacked with them it stung and left a mark.. Oh the good ole' days when teachers disciplined us students.. WHOOPS sorry.. off track). These were perfect to place across the fold line and fold each seam. While I worked on the folding Jeanine (My BFF and who was having the party) wrapped Hersey kisses in white tulle and silver ribbon to fill the boxes. So now that I have all of my pieces folded, and ready to stuff, I choose to punch a hole in the back folds of each box to tie them closed. I then folded and glued each box, stuffed them with the Hershey kisses and tied them closed.... Now came the assembly. To hold them in place for transportation I choose to use my double sided tape on paper doilies (did I spell that right?).

All 8 cakes were now assembled and I needed to add a little extra embellishment. All were decked out in cream silk flowers and the cakes using Embrace Life I added a few extra paper flowers using the lily from the same set. I must say that for all of the work.. They were BEAUTIFUL..

Here was the Happy Couple Saturday Evening.. All decked out in their silver... The cake for their head table was a single layer with extra flowers on it. I was afraid that the 2 layers would be too high..

And now for a couple fun pictures from the party.. Here's me with my DH.. Way too much dancing going on..


And here us... The Party Gal herself... Jeanine.. and in the back row (L-R) me, Estelle and Michelle...


I hope you enjoy these and they entice you to make a few cake favors of your own..
Happy Stamping :)
Lisa