Darcy Wilkinson Project #3 Garden Party Part 2 ....

"Did the projects yesterday get you in the mood for a party? It is all looking pretty, but there is something important missing... cake! Let's make something colourful for the cakes".

I took an A3 sheet of paper, put my glass cake stand onto it and drew around. I then added on another inch and drew another circle. Now between the two circles I marked out triangles, all the way around. These are painted with Fresco Paints, then decorated with dots of a contrasting colour. Cut out just the triangles, up to the inner circle.

Once all the paint was dry I doodled with black and white this makes this cake stand trim match in with the bunting from yesterday. If you want to make this more durable I suggest covering it with clear sticky back plastic.

So now we have a pretty cake stand, lets make the cupcakes more interesting too.
I took some plain white paper doilies, and using a compass I removed the middle.

 

I then cut the remaining outer part of the doilies in half...

 

... and then trimmed off about an inch from one end. These are now the perfect size to wrap around my cake cases.

Next I got out my Gelli Plate and some stencils and using only "Translucent" Fresco Paints I built up a few layers. You do need to be careful and not let the doilies get over wet as they can tear. Once dry I glued them to plain cartridge paper. This hides the painty backs, keeps paint from being near the food, and also makes the colours of the paint pop more.

I then cut them out, curled them around and glued the ends with about an inch overlap. I can't wait to pop some cakes into these. 

Of course the guests will want to take a cake home, so we need some pretty cake boxes. I measured my cake cases and first off made the insert that will hold the cake.

You can see it is just a square with a hole in the centre, the edges are folded and snipped at the corners. Glue the corners under the sides, then you can measure again and work out what size your box needs to be.

The stand should fit in snugly, but leave enough space above for the frosting on the cake.
I cut a hole in the front 'door' and added a piece of acetate.

Here you can see it all put together.

Now you have a blank box and you can go to town with decorating. I had some shimmery inked card left over from the invitation. I stamped lots of JOFY flowers on that card, cut them out and covered the cake box. 

I added a doodled line around the edges, and stamped a message for the top.

Finally I wanted to make a centre piece for the table. I thought about a vase of flowers, this led me to think about a metal pot of flowers. I wasn't sure how the Fresco's would work on metal, so I went in search of one. Of course all the ones I had seen in the shops had disappeared when I needed one, so I ended up with a watering can! It had a decal image on one side, this was easily removed with a little rubbing alcohol.

I then sanded the whole thing, the red paint was quite glossy, so sanding it gave me a bit of a key to add new paint. I wanted my top colours to be bright so I first applied a coat of Gesso.

I then selected my colours.. This is the order in which I used them. I started at the base of the can with dark green, moved up through the greens to the yellow. I dabbed each colour on with a sponge, this made them very easy to blend so there are no harsh lines. From the yellow I moved into the sky colours, ending with the darkest blue up near the top rim of the can. 

Once the paint was dry I then sponged on a little Snowflake to create fluffy clouds. At this point I was so pleased with the result, the Fresco Paints are so delicious and blend so beautifully. 

I then stamped some JOFY flowers onto scrap paper, and using BluTac I put them on the can ,playing around till I liked the arrangement.

I then wasn't really sure how to get my flowers onto the can. I did think the best way would be to stamp onto tissue paper and glue those on. Given the curve of the can I thought that would be easiest. I stamped a load of flowers onto tissue, painted the backs, and then painted the fronts .….and within seconds of adding them to the can I hated them ...
so plan B. Would it be possible to stamp directly onto the can? How fiddly would it be, given the shape? As it turned out, it really wasn't that difficult at all. The flowers on the main part of the sides were easiest, I used PaperArtsy Flexi Blocks, and Archival Ink. Just stamping as normal. The images on the spout and those closest to the handle were a little trickier. I had to use the stamps without a block, and gently roll them onto the can. But I took my time, and they all stamped ok. 

I then painted all the flowers using Fresco Paints.. and finally added a coat of spray varnish. I absolutely love this little can now.

However it's not very tall, for a centrepiece, so I decided to add some height.
First I used the reverse stamping method to make two sides of a butterfly. By stamping onto a plain rubber block and then using that to stamp onto card, means I can get a mirror image of the butterfly stamp from HP1204.

I coloured the butterflies with ProMarkers and then cut them out and glued them back to back. 

I trapped a bamboo skewer between both sides of the butterfly, and then added Glossy Accents to each side. I dabbed some Sky onto a paper towel and used this to swipe the paint onto the stick.

Next I took some white tissue paper, folded up in a concertina style, the tissue paper is trimmed at the ends and formed into a ball. There are many, many tutorials on making tissue flowers on YouTube. As I formed the tissue ball, I glued a bamboo skewer inside. I then stood the skewer into plastacine so that I could colour the tissue. I wanted the colour to be quite delicate, so I added a little Fresco Paint to a spray bottle with more than double of water. I then sprayed the flower.

Spray from a distance, and do not oversaturate the tissue. Then allow to dry naturally, if you use a heat gun you will blow the petals together and they will stick. If any are clinging together, peel them apart very gently whilst damp, once dry they will not come apart.

Once dry, add a slightly darker paint to the spray bottle. Do not add any more water, just a few drops of the next shade. Again allow the tissue to dry, and then finally add a third darker shade, and repeat the process. This flower has three layers of paint sprayed, the lighter one mainly on the top and the darkest one is mainly underneath.

I then went on to make two other tissue flowers, painting them in the same way.

I put a large piece of plastacine inside the watering can, and then popped in the flowers and the butterflies ....

...and so the centrepiece is complete, and we can finally set the table.

I will be back tomorrow night with a certain friend you may have seen me Tweet about recently .... all will be revealed soon. In the meantime, if you have been inspired to play along with any of this weeks challenges, click HERE to share your work.

Leandra Says: You've certainly earned that glass of wine! What a fantastic week of posts so far, love how they all link in to each other. Now you can have the best picnic-parties all summer long!

Gillian Says: Outstanding .... I really would like to be inside your head when you come up with all these creative and unique ideas. I'm chuckling away at you taking all the Garden Party pieces and setting them up ... looks amazing. Were you swamped with uninvited guests lol.