I am feeling pretty smug about these beautiful die cut, hand assembled, wedding invitations with gorgeous purple bows. 

Making these wedding invitations took an age!! The gold outer for each invite took around 15 minutes to cut on my Cricut Explorere machine, and then the purple inlay and invitation details also needed cutting, assembling and purple gemstones added. Finally each one had a ribbon secured which was then hand tied. Although it took days to pull together I think it was all worth it when you see them all finished and piled high. 

The evening invites had the same papercut pattern but just one square adhered to a purple backing and the invite details secured via little paper cuts in each corner. 

 One of the nicest things about making 60 of these beauties - and another 40 evening invites - was that my husband helped! The invites are for the MD at his company and he offered to make these as our wedding gift to him. We spent several nights in the craft room together, designing the cards, then me feeding the cricut and him weeding out the papercuts and sticking on the gems (I think I got the best deal!)

To tie the bows, we followed this video by Lia Griffith and I think it's pretty much revolutionised bow tying for the rest of my days! I even made a bow frame for our bedroom using the same technique: https://instagram.com/p/8bVQ6jNpcE/?taken-by=mummypuddleduck 

 The gold and purple card stock is Peregrina Majestic Gold and Nightclub Purple from G.F.Smith which is stunningly beautiful and very glamorous. Luckily there were enough leftovers for me to make these Christmas bauble papercut garlands! 

https://www.etsy.com/uk/your/shops/mummypuddleduck/tools/mummypuddleduck/uk/listings/251619657 

Let me know what you think of these wedding invitations by contacting me on any of the social channels listed on the left or by commenting below. 

Christmas is coming - papercut banner now listed

The Christmas countdown has officially started as I've just listed the first Christmas item in my Etsy shop! www.mummypuddleduck.etsty.com.

I've listed them as 'Christmas papercut gold and purple bauble banner / bunting / garland' as I'm not quite sure what to refer to them as - is it bunting? Or a garland? Or a banner as they would refer to it in America?

Whatever it's called I think it will add a touch of glamour to any festive decor. I can't say my uneven grey walls show it in the best light but you get the idea. 

There are eight baubles in each garland, two each of four different bauble shapes. A round bauble features cut out holly leaves. A pointed bauble and a round fat bauble both feature snowflakes and the tall thin bauble has a star cut out. Each bauble is 5.5 inches high. 

The gold and purple baubles alternate and the string is two metres (2m) long. Each bauble is secured to the string to ensure they don't all slip to one end or bunch up. These baubles are going to stay put when they're up!

Each shape has been die-cut to make sure they are perfect every time. 

I know design is subjective and this is especially true for Christmas when there are so many different colour schemes and themes so if you like the idea of these but fancy reindeer, Santas and Christmas puddings instead, contact me via Etsy, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram (or email mummypuddleduck [at] gmail.com and I will bring your ideas to life - or rather get them down on paper...... and then cut them! 

Let me be amongst the first to say Seasons' Greetings and Happy Christmas! 

National Cupcake Week

Despite being back at work after maternity leave and the house being a state, the ironing piling up and nothing in the fridge that's still in its sell by date, I couldn't let National Cupcake Week go by without my own bake off.

On Thursday it was my boss's birthday and what better way to suck up to the boss than a dozen cupcakes? I think the results show that yellow and grey even works for cakes. I love this colour combination.

I took over mum's kitchen again this morning to do a birthday batch, choosing a purple and lilac theme.

Both batches were inspired by my new baking bible, Ruth Clements' Busy Girls's Guide to Cake Decorating. Ruth was in the first series of Great British Bake Off and has her own blog www.thepinkwhisk.co.uk.

Yum, yum, happy National Cupcake Week.