It's a Piece of Cake!

...and a Gift Card Holder Too!

It was love at first sight when I first saw Susan Neal's "Slice of Cake Card" in the March 2008 issue of PaperCrafts magazine. Those of you who regularly follow my blog know how I enjoy making shaped and interactive cards. So when my sister-in-law's birthday came up, I decided to create my own version of Susan's card.

I used Susan's pattern for the base of the card, with a few modifications. I decided I wanted my card to be a gift card holder. So I extended my "cake" patterned paper to create a pocket on the inside of the card. I also used Photoshop to add some shading and swirls to my "icing."

For my sentiment, I chose "Birthdays are nature's way of telling us to eat more cake." It seemed appropriate for this card! LOL

I decided to create my own candle, instead of using the pattern provided. I chose to create my card to fit in a 5¾" square envelope. This gave me the room to design a taller, slimmer candle than the one in Susan's project. Here's the step-by-step on how I created this candle...

Step 1: Run small pieces of yellow, light pink, and dark pink cardstock (CS) through your Xyron sticker maker. Remove clear plastic.

Step 2: Punch small flowers from dark pink CS. Set aside punched flowers to decorate cake.

Step 3: Adhere dark pink cardstock over light pink cardstock. Cut out shape of candle.

Step 4: Cut out flame from yellow CS.

Step 5: Adhere candle and flame to a transparency sheet, leave a small amount of space between the top of the candle and the bottom of the flame.

Step 6: Trim around the candle and flame, leaving approximately 1/8" of transparency around the outside.

Step 7: Using a silver metallic Sharpie, draw a "wick" on the back of the transparency.

Step 8: Adhere to card using an adhesive dot.