Sandcastle Birthday Book

This is the latest, of the birthday books, I have made for our children. It was given to Daughter No. 1 on her tenth birthday last Wednesday. She chose all the papers and adornments herself, so it's very special to her. The theme is a pretty sandcastle, so blues, greens and sand colours were chosen.

I bought some lovely ribbons, on rolls, at Spotlight. Very reasonable and matched the theme perfectly.

Aren't the butterflies lovely? They look like they are made from lace, then covered in glitter.

There are flowers of sand and blue, and gems in blue and green. I do enjoy the decorating part.

This was her 7th birthday cake. It sums her interests up well. Penguins and the Antarctic are her passion, and have been for as long as we can remember. The wiggly ribbon is a lovely velvet in the softest green colour.

The paper with the circles, was perfect for decorating with gems. I stuck gems over some of the dots to highlight certain areas. The gems are also from Spotlight, but all scrapbooking shops sell them. At only $1.99 a packet, they are a bargain!

I remember making this cake vividly. We had a new baby who wouldn't stop screaming, and we were up to midnight finishing the icing. The icing machine fell apart right at the beginning, but my clever husband rigged it up so it worked better than before. He actually did a lot of the piping too - and thoroughly enjoyed himself as well. The black lines, are from liquorice strips, cut down the ridges.

Now, I'm not sure if I was going mad or what, but the night before her party, I decided to make a mini book. It was for her friends to each write a birthday message in. It only took a couple of hours to do, as it was a simple round. I used the same papers and embelishments so it would match her birthday book.

Her friends thought it was really fun to be able to write in it. They each chose a round to write a special message on. We used a silver pen to match the silver "10". I love the front cover with all the pretty flowers on it. The gem in the centres make it a little more special.

I used plain coloured papers for the backs so it was easy to write on and also read. They wrote some interesting things, very ten, and very sweet. I'm sure she will remember her party well when she reads her little book.

Well, that's the end of Daughter No. 1's birthday week, and the last of our childrens birthdays for the year. Big Yay!!!

Now I will be able to get back to my sewing and crochet again. I've actually finished all the crocheted granny squares during my spare evenings, and now have to make lots of pretty flowers to fill them all. They are very time consuming little things, but quite fun to make.