Cake cards could be my new thing

trying the cake top on for size: go big or go
 home? that is the question.

One of the housekeepers got married. I was in process of making this card when Front Desk went and did its thing. She'll still get this card but she is getting the other card first.

Inspired by the card I made for our boss (which he loved by the way), I decided to do another cake. I liked how the flower cluster made a cake top. So that is where I started... culled my paper stash to find something in her style or color scheme that would be card sized. This is the smallest of what remained in her style. Not exactly her colors but I can work with that. And as you can see from hte sketch... it commands a good deal of attention.

You can see the middle tier in the sketch has a kind of dotted background. There is a middle eastern ogee detail to that paper that I thought would make a great architectural statement... like an arch in a mosque. Un fortunately that plan did not work. The element was far to large to be useful in a larger than standard A2 card. Otherwise the elements came together pretty much the way that I saw them for the sketching.

And here we have the individual tiers. Constructing a cake card is about like it is when you watch cake wars. Decorate each layer and then assmeble your cake. I know it seems like the most logical and obvious thing to say... but hey there are some people who are not all that logical. For instance, the first time I made a cupcake card, I put the top and bottom together then decorated. I can not tell you how annoying it is to figure out how to go UNDER a piece of paper with a catseye ink pad! 

 Each tier has its color adjusted with pigment or chalk inks. Then when that is dry enough I add details with glitter glue in a tube or the sprinkle kind. I don't mind using either format. But the glitter glue at least is contained in its tube whereas the sprinles get EVERYWHERE! You can see on the top tier there is a paper ribbon. That shows phase two.

When the colors and the glitter have set I add the detail elements. I love my ek success (tm) ribbon punch. It is so easy to line it up and cut across paper in a row. This one in particular undulates in a way that makes me thing of the top of a carousel. And it is perfect for trimming a paper cake. It gets a little dash of glitter as well. Setting those pieces aside we begin Phase 3.

cake topper gets the treatment

Each of the dimensional elements has been embossed or debossed with a stylus. The shadowy areas are debossed. The highlighted areas are embossed. I think that it would have worked better if I had hit it with a fine mist of water. It would have prevented the gouging by softening the paper enough that the stylus marks would not have shown.

To deboss printed paper, first run the stylus around the area on the printed side with the smaller ball. Then flip over and use the larger ball to fill in the area and raise the paper. Hit it with glitter, a paint pen or gell rollers for effect.

At this point I lay everything out again, check the proportions and the fit. Even with a good template and careful cutting there are often places where little slip ups that are made turn into big problems later. But since I used glitter glue in a tube, all I would have to do in case of assembly emergency is fill in the gaps... kinda like leading a stainglass window.

What I should have done was plate the cake. But I trimmed it up to get a good edge instead. It was assembled on a white card decorated by applying ink directly to the paper from random ink pads within the color scheme. All in all I love the card. Especially after adding a few gold leaf pen highlights and hitting the edges with a burnt orange pad.

Now we just have to wait to see how the recipient likes it.