A Book of Cakes

The Apron die from Marianne Designs is such a fun die and for my first sample for Crafter's Companion I wanted to do something a little different. I have'nt done many albums but thought a little cute recipy book would be a novel way to use the die.

I used the following Marianne products, which are ALL available from Crafter's Companion:

• Dies: Marianne Craftables - Apron (CR1246)
• Embossing Folders: Die'sire Rose Garden 8 x 8 & Regency Damask 8 x 8
• Papers: Coredinations Brights & Marianne Design Paper Bloc - Happy Days
• Embellishments: Marianne Design Charms - Happy Days & Spectrum Noir Lights (set of 24)

I selected a card board scalloped love heart album and used a soft pink acylic paint and painted the back and front end, needed a couple of coats to ensure none of the scabby grey showed through.

Whilst that dries I set to the task of making my apron...

Cut the apron using the lovely turquoise and white spotted paper from the paper block. Used some pink and white washi tape and created a ruffle for the bottom of the apron and over laid with a piece of white ribbon. The lace trim on th large and small pocket was die cut in white velum and the smaller inner section of th pocket I made drawing round the inside of the 2 pocket dies with pencil and cut out with scissors. I attached these sections to the velum by hand with a needle and thread in a bright oink cotton. Four small white buttons where sewn with the same pink cotton and a bright pink thin ribbon was attached for the apron ties.

To create the backdrop for the apron I selected a delicate love hear shaped doillie. In my crafty stash I had a gorgeous cake and cake stand stamp. I stamped the image in black and coloured using my alcohol pens - I couloured the image in the same colours as the apron. Once I was happy with the coloured image I cut out. Now that I have the 3 main elements of the album cover (stamped image, doillie and apron) I splayed around with the positioning. Omce happy I glued them to the pink painted cover. I then embellished the cover further by:

• cutting the work C A K E from deep turquoise Coredinations Brights with my cricut machine
• adding pink and purquoise ribbon bows to the album rings
• coloured wooden spoon, tea cup and tea pot wooden embellishments with my alcohol pens
• addingsome paper and ceramic flowers
• adding gems in various sizes and colours and the blender charm from the charm pack

Now for the inside...

I chose not to decorate all the pages of the recipy book as I wanted to leave pages blank for the recipient to write their favourite cake recipes in. So I chose 5/6 pages and decorated them. I cut love heart shapes in 2 sizes from my cricut machine in Coredinations card and from the paper block.

To decorate further I used:

• washi tape
• ribbon
• cooking related embellishments from my stash
• my embossing folders
• paper flowers
• wooden themed embellishments

just really go to town and add as much or as little embellishments as you like.

Keep popping in to see what I do next with the fabby Apron die from Marianne Designs and dont forget to tune into Create and Craft TV on Sunday 16th June at 12 noon for more products and samples.