Heritage Collection Men's Card Set

 

                                           

Hi! I hope you are having a great day so far! I want to share the latest addition to my Etsy shop. (Click on the pictures to see them better.)
Looking for a special card to give your father, husband, son, grandfather, uncle or friend? This trio of cards was made with a special man in mind.
The first one is reminiscent of the old scrapbook albums. Remember the ones maybe your grandparents had, wtih photo corners on each corner of the picture? It was always great to look back through those albums, with someone's handwriting, and well worn photos. That is what I tried to recreate here. I aged the card panel with different techniques and inks, even added water stains.
The second card is made with a travel theme and decorative edges.This card is slightly thinner than the other two cards, but just as charming. I used distress ink for the travel icons and lightly sponged the edges with a rusty red color to help everything stand out.
The last card is a clean and simple design, made to look elegant for the recipient. The top layer has rounded corners on top and a decorative edge on the bottom and a slight texture on it. The main card panel has a ribbon stamped on it- giving the card a ribbon without actually using one and all four corners have been rounded.
All cards are standard A2 size- 4 1/4 x 5 1/2, with the exception of the travel theme card, with is slightly thinner, and come with envelopes for each of the three cards. This lovely set is ready to ship will arrive in a padded envelope to prevent damage. 
You can find this great little set here:  http://bit.ly/g5Xrwe .  
In other news, I have been preparing to make not one, but two cakes for my husband's grandmother's 80th surprise birthday party. (Not to worry, she doesn't read blogs on the internet, so she won't find out about it through me!!) One cake is going to be a 3 layer yellow cake with mocha buttercream. I took one of those cake decorating classes a few months ago with my 9 year old son (he wanted to go- and did a GREAT job!!) and as much fun as it was, that buttercream is G.R.O.S.S. Sorry, but I couldn't get the shortening taste out of my mouth. Blah!! Being someone who tries to eat healthy, and rarely eats fried or fast foods, having shortening in my house hasn't happened in YEARS. Anyway, I wanted something that tastes better, so I got out my handy dandy classic- The Joy of Cooking. Oh yeah, buttercream with a ton of real butter. Totally goes against my "non--diet" (because, really, I don't diet!!), but I made the Mocha Buttercream recipe for Alex's 9th birthday party and it was sooooooooo good. (I used decaffeinated btw- I don't think it would have been a good idea to use regular coffee for six 9 year olds!!) There are more steps, but it is well worth it. I don't have any fancy equipment, so really, anyone can do it if I can.
The second cake is a white cake, 2 layers with apricot preserve filling. This is the big one- 12x18 (they are expecting about 100 people for this shin-dig). This one I want to cover in pale pink fondant- which I have never worked with before. So, I am starting early in case it doesn't turn out the way I am picturing in my head. I will have time to fix it. Anyway, I will be writing Happy Birthday and a few little embellishments in white icing and if you happened to see the article in Country Living not too long ago, chocolate cameos made with white and regular brown chocolate. I will post pictures if it turns out the way I hope.
I am off to bake, right after I feed my littlest man. I can't believe he is already 8 1/2 months old- and yesterday found him trying to stand up in his crib. Makes me want to cry. Not ready for this!!
Don't forget to check out http://parkersprints.blogspot.com/ later today, Stephanie has fun posts on Thursdays!