The Wedding Cake for Susi

I am finally done with the Wedding Cake Gift Card Box I made for my friend, Susi!
As you all probably know, this 'cake' was inspired by Tracey Mason's fabulous one with those rolled roses she is so good at making!

Well, try as I might, I could NOT make those roses. My hands cramped after trying just
3 times, and they still didn't even resemble anything close to a rose, lol!..... So, I had to come up with another plan. One that I could do!

I was inspired again... this time by 3 ladies - two CTMH consultants:
1) Connie MacFarlane (see post "Easy Paper Flowers" under 'Flowers' on this page)
2) Mandy Leahy (see post "Carnations" under the 'Flowers' on the same page)

and by Lorinda from Atwater Moon (see post "Itty Bitty Paper Flowers", also under
the 'Flowers' here ).



Now without further a do.... I give you Susi's Wedding Cake! ---- just click on each photo to see it larger!

(Update 10.27.13 - With a new post today, on my latest Wedding Cake Box, I had to revisit this post.... it just occurred to me that I took the photo above before I added the pearls to the top and bottom layers, LOL!)

I made this using Tracey's instructions: 3 nesting paper mache boxes, covered in Colonial White cardstock. The middle layer is embossed using a Sizzix embossing folder in my Cuttlebug! Then several coats of Pearl Paint. The red paper "ribbons" at the bottom of each layer, were added after painting (and before hot-glueing the layers upside-down on top of each other!), as the pearl paint turned the red to pink!

The red flowers and the yellow-orange flowers are not made with CTMH cardstock, because I did not want the white-cored paper for those flowers. So those cardstocks were just from my stash. The colonial white flowers, both carnations and itty bitty's, are inked on the edges in Cranberry - 4 times to get the edges dark enough!

Here are the side and back views:

the left side

right side and back

The next photo is a close-up of the top of the 'cake'. The top carnation is just pinned on with a floral pin and the gift card is down inside a pocket I created and put inside the center of the cake. I cut a slightly wide slit in the top and second layer of the cake to accommodate the gift card pocket. The ribbons under the flower are attached to the gift card. I punched a hole in it (missing the magnetic strip) to put the tie through. After removing the gift card, the flower can be re-attached by just replacing the floral  pin to complete the cake again!

I made the carnations (inspired by Mandy) in 3 different sizes. The large are made exactly as in her tutorial, with 8 layers of the 2" scalloped circle punch. The medium size are done with 7 layers, and just not "fluffed out" as much as the larger one.

For the smallest carnation I actually used part of a Martha Stewart All Over the Page Punch, but it's the equivalent of a 1-1/4" scalloped circle punch. They are made with just 6 layers!

I did try inking the edges first, before spraying with water, which made the ink gradiently bleed toward the center of the petals (cool look!), BUT doing that made the Cranberry ink turn to Sorbet!....  NO KIDDING!! So I had to wait for the flowers to completely dry before inking them!

The yellow-orange flowers (inspired by Connie) are actually a cardstock version of hers! These flowers needed the Liquid Glass to hold together!

I did not have any 12-petalled flowers to fold and use, so I punched out ten 6-petal daisies (yes, 10 for each flower!) - glued 2 together as a base, off-setting the petals, so they ended up with 12 petals! Then folded the other 8 layers like Connie does in her tutorial, put a puddle of Liquid Glass in the center of my base, and glued 7 of them down by putting the folded end toward the center. The eighth folded petal, I glued straight up in the middle!.... Had to hold these puppies together for a minute or two for the glue to set a bit before moving them to the side to dry overnight! Once dry, I separated the petals a little bit to get a fuller look.

The other small red and Cranberry-tipped Colonial White flowers, are the "itty bitty's" inspired by Lorinda, and made exactly like she says in her tutorial!

Here's a closer look at the cascade of flowers. I hope you can see more details in this one:

The leaves were all cut from Olive cardstock, dry embossed lines on the underside for 'veins', then lightly inked the edges and over the top to show the 'veins', with Olive ink.

I covered the hot-glue seam between layers with glitter to help hide the glue.

And the final touch was the Pearl Opaques to adorn the top and bottom layers!

Viola!.... my masterpiece!

I hope you really like this creation I made.... while many were the "trials and errors"

in this endeavor, since it was my first attempt, I feel that it came out beautifully in the

end, and I know Susi will love it!

One last photo - the matching Wedding Card:

So, now that I'm done (and done early by 2 days from my given deadline!), Carol owes me the full 100 gloriously scrumpious peanut butter balls!!!... Get to rolling them Carol!

Hugs!