No Guilt Cake and Matching Card -- Tutorial!

Supplies: Battery operated tea light (2 for $1.o0 at Dollar Store), SU Exclusive Flower Folds die, SU Afternoon Tea DP, Choc. Chip and Very Vanilla CS, SU Satin Ribbon. Punches from Martha Stewart, EK Success and Punch Bunch. Faux half-back pearls from Michaels, faux pearl string roll form Michaels.

OK, I admit the cake is really little! But it's so fun to make, and so cute!! NO calories, NO fat, NO guilt!! This set is for my sister Tina's birthday at the end of the month.

You have to try it!! All you need is a battery operated tea light, DP and any embellishment you want. Here's easy step-by-step tutorial (use whatever materials you have, this tutorial is how I did the above cake with the materials I had):

Wrap the tea light with your choice of DP, leaving about 1/8" border on top. Battery operated tea lights can vary in size, so just measure or eyeball the one you are going to use. You want to make sure there is an extra amount of DP around the top of the tea light.




Snip at even intervals all the way around the exposed perimeter of the DP.







Fold down the edges and glue to top of tea light.






Die cut the smallest flower of the Sizzix Flower Folds die (SU Exclusive). Punch a 1/4" hole in the middle, then use your craft knife to slice random criss-cross marks across your hole.





Slip the die cut flower over the flame of the tea light. Adhere the "petals" to the sides of your cake.




Choose tiny sized embellishments to add to your cake. I used my Martha Stewart Hydrangea punch (the 2 smallest petals) and an EK Success leaf punch. I then added mini brads to the centers of my flowers and attached them to the top of the cake.



Next I then added half-back white pearls from SU Pretties kit to the scallops on the side. I rimmed the bottom with a string of faux string pearls.



Seriously, thats how EASY this cake was to make!!

AND NOW FOR THE CARD...

For the card, I used the same Sizzix Flower Folds die. This time I cut all four shapes from the die in the matching DP from SU. A cut two additional Chocolate Chip flowers to give a shadow look to the flower.

Here you see the the largest flower in brown on the bottom, topped with the matching size flower in SU DP -- both are adhered completely to the base card . I laid a 13" piece of SU 15/16" Chocolate Chip Satin ribbon across the top of the largest flower and secured it with 2 mini brads (notice the brads don't match each other since I know they'll be covered completely in this project).

I continued layering the die cut flowers on top of the largest one, using the next smaller size with each layer. I finished with the smallest flower from the die.

In the center of the flower, I cut a brown scalloped circle with a Nestibilities die. I stamped the round "Enjoy your Day" from the SU "Riveting" set in Chocolate Chip, and added a Blue Moon "Celestial" bead to the center of the circle. (I secured the bead with clear plastic stretch cord sewn through the bead with one stitch bottom thru top.) Mini Brads from ??? secure the circle to the flower since there are so many layers here!.



This is how it looks when the flower layers are completed. I punched 3 Certainly Celery fern leaves (punch by Punch Bunch) and tucked them under the flower.



To finish the card, close up the petals of the flowers, layer by layer, beginning with the inner most petals.





The result may be bulky. Make sure the top folded petal is one that will be wrapped by the ribbon (as shown here). That way, the one petal on top will be able to keep all the other petals under it, closed.






Tie the center of the flower closed with the ribbon strands.







This is how it will look with all the petals folded and tied shut.





And this is the card when Tina unties the ribbon!

Seems like lots of steps, but really truly ladies, it was much faster making it than it was doing this tutorial!! Check out THIS LINK for additional Flower Fold cards like this one!!

Have fun stamping today! Hugs!