I’ve been a little MIA lately. I’ve been getting migraines again and not enough time to rest between errands. Hopefully I can nap after church on Sunday, and it’s sad that I have to wait that long due to how busy this week is turning out to be. Oh well! *eye roll*

Fortunately, yesterday was my brother’s Birthday. So it gave me a chance to kinda take a break to do something fun and creative. The major part was the cake, but I’ll tell more about that in a bit. First, here is the would-be-10-minute card that I “whipped up” for Levi. It really was quite easy to put together, once I had found and pulled all the images I was planning on using. I had thought about this card all day, so that helped to speed up the process.

The card base is actually a card from American Crafts. I got a big variety of these when a local stamp store was closing it’s doors. The colors on this one were perfect for what I wanted to do, and I really like the layout. The white strip is the perfect spot for some ribbon, but there is a hitch! Preprinted on this card is the word “dad”, right under where the circle sentiment is. Well, Levi is obviously not my dad so I had to cover it up. I stamped the sentiment from the set Riviting by Stampin’ Up! in black, then used the layering stamp to color in the area with Taken with Teal. Then you punch out the middle (putting the punched out circle aside) and then punch out the sentiment so you have a ring. I flipped over the punched out circle and adhered it over the “a” since that is the letter that would be showing thru the middle of the sentiment. Then I tied some twill tape that I got from Fabric Barn (which matches Old Olive very well!), knotted it and then adhered the sentiment with dimensionals.

For the focal image I stamped the bear from Happy Camper in Basic Black then masked him before completing the scene. The oval from A Muse was then stamped in Old Olive, then I used my Taken with Teal, Night of Navy and Old Olive markers to color the party hat from Just Beakcause. When the mask was removed I had a black bear with a party hat standing on grass! Hehehehe! I used my Mega Circle Punch from Marvy for the image and my Giga Scallop Circle Punch for the Taken with Teal mat. Adhered the image to the mat and then adhered it to the card with dimensionals. Then my would-be-10-minute card was done! Woo Hooo!

Now about the cake. For the past three years I’ve made the same cake for my brother. It’s turned into a funny Birthday tradition. When I got the Wilton 2002 Yearbook and he saw this cake in it, he said he wanted that cake every year. It’s a hilarious cake and each time I do it I figure out how to make it better/easier for me. The fun part is that he picks different colors, cake and filling flavors each year. This time he wanted orange and I picked the green to go with it. I bought the candles for this cake about three months ago, so I tried to make the green match the green candle in the pack.

His arms are dowels, and I think next year I will look for thicker dowels. What I was using before was too big and short, so I thought this would work better. It did, but I just want him to have thicker arms. I messed up in some places because I was starting to hurry since Don worked pretty late and I still had to get the boys dinner and then tossed in the bath before everyone came over. So his face is not as good and I would like, but oh well! It’s good enough.

This year Levi picked yellow cake with raspberry filling. (Sorry, Jami, no horseraddish with this cake) There are four layers of cake inside to make him tall enough to decorate. I learned the first year that two layers was not enough (even if they were divided in half to get “four” layers). Three layers was almost good enough, but four is the winning number with this one. I also sprinkled some of Wilton’s glitter over the top to make it more fun. When all was said and done, he was a very tasty cake. It was only an 8 inch round cake, but because of the layers one smallish piece was pretty filling. The seven of us only ate 1/4 of the cake so I sent 1/4 home with my parents, put 1/4 aside for us, and the last 1/4 (with the whole face) is set aside for Sunday when Levi and some friends will come over to finish it off. Thru is all, this happy cake kept his smile on and it was decided that he was, indeed, an optimistic cake.

A big belated blog Happy Birthday wish to my brother, Levi!! You are a wonderful Uncle, a great friend and brother. I’m glad the June Bug never caught you and that you’re still around after all my big sister antics. I love you lots!!

P.S. I already know what candles I’m going to use for next year! *giggles*