Budgie printables and gift wrap idea

The sun is shining and it feels like spring is finally here!  It’s a good day for taking photographs, so here are some pictures of my new budgie designs printed out...

This printable party invitation is available in two sizes – 3.9 x 5.1 inches as shown here, or 5x7 inches.  The invitations feature my illustration of a colourful row of budgies and come personalised with your own choice of text.

I also have some new printable scrapbooking paper designs and gift tags featuring budgies.  Printable patterned papers are great for scrapbooking or cardmaking projects but they can also be used as gift wrap for small gifts.  You need never run out of interesting gift wrap again if you print your own!

For this gift wrap idea I printed the blue budgie design onto A4 paper - if you’re lucky enough to have an A3 printer you can print the full 12x12 inch paper to wrap slightly larger presents! The present was then wrapped in two colours of yarn and a gift tag added, which I had printed onto card.

This is the full set of printable papers – 8 designs with different budgie patterns in colour and monochrome as well as coordinating spots and stripes.
All of these printables are available to buy from my Etsy supplies shop.

Delicious Halloween Pumpkin Cakes!

I don't usually like eating pumpkin but these pumpkin cakes are delicious and they're perfect for Halloween!  This batch was baked yesterday based on a family recipe, I've decorated them with a fun spiders web pattern and some of my Halloween printable papers.
 

To make the cake you will need:
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon (I also add a little ground nutmeg and mixed spice)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup pumpkin, cooked and cooled

For the topping:
icing sugar
milk or water
orange food colouring

Heat the oven to 180C / 350F / gas mark 4

The recipe I was given says to mix all ingredients together and pour into a floured tin.  I usually mix the dry ingredients together first, then add the beaten eggs, then the oil and finally stir in the cooked pumpkin.

I find the easiest way to cook the pumpkin is to heat it in the microwave for a few minutes until soft.  If the cooked pumpkin is very wet drain some of the liquid away before adding to the cake mixture to stop the cake from being too moist.  This recipe only uses a little pumpkin - if you're not making anything else with it the spare pumpkin (raw) can be cut into cubes and stored in the freezer, ready for baking another time. 

 

Pour the mixture into a tin or individual cupcake cases and cook for 25 minutes.

When the cakes are cooled they're ready to decorate!  Make some glace icing with icing sugar and milk or water.  Take some of the icing and colour for the spider web pattern, leaving the rest white.  (I gradually added a little yellow and red colouring until the colour looked right.)

Spread white icing onto a cake then pipe orange rings onto the white icing.  Using a cocktail stick draw lines through the icing, from the centre to the edge of the cake to create the spider web effect.  It's best to decorate one cake at a time rather than ice them all in white first.

I think the cakes look great with just this iced pattern on, but to finish these ones off I have also used some of my Halloween printables.

The designs were printed onto card, then cut out by hand.  The cupcake toppers can also be cut with a 2 inch circle punch.  For the circles, sandwich a cocktail stick between two circles of card and glue together.  I also used some of my new Halloween flags - for these simply fold in half with a cocktail stick glued in the centre fold.

Fish Printables part 2

I'm launching the next 3 products from my fish range today...

First up is a pair of printable gift boxes...

The design of one box features lots of fish and the other has a simpler pattern of spots and fish scales.  I've decorated the box photographed using a little fish tag, some fancy eyelash yarn and blue stranded cotton.  These little boxes are perfect for giving small gifts in a unique way - they could also be used as favour boxes at parties.

I have decided to expand my range of printable products by designing more items for parties.  It's simple to achieve a themed party with little more than a printer and scissors - if you're feeling more adventurous the printables could be embellished too.

These tent cards (there are 4 designs in the set) come blank with the option to personalise - they're great as thank you cards but could also be used as food labels...

Also new in the party range are these name place cards.  The full sheet includes 8 different fish designs...

More printables in the party range will be released tomorrow! :)

If you like these fish printables why not enter my giveaway for a chance to win any 4 printables from my shop!