Welcome to my crafty blog. This card should come with a serious sugar warning – and won’t help me get through those final few pounds to my Slimming World target, that’s for sure! Although I could argue that this is the low calorie version, rather than the real thing… I’ve resurrected another stamp set from deep in my stash, this time the Stampin’ Up! ‘hello cupcake’ that was part of the Sale-A-Bration sets a few years ago. I’ve hung onto it and the matching dies as they’re so versatile for different occasions.

I’ve also dug out some of my old ribbon stash as well for this one. There were quite a few ‘keep calm and…’ posters and sayings around a few years ago, when the original ‘keep calm and carry on’ Second World War poster became very popular, and I bought several sets of ribbon at the time. The chocolate ribbon came straight to mind when I saw the current challenge over at Less Is More – they’re celebrating their 10th birthday with a great theme. I also took inspiration for the colours and the layout from this week’s Fusion Card Challenge

I started with a square of cream card and stamped the ‘sprinkles’ in each corner in ‘espresso’ Adirondack ink (unfortunately I don’t have one with a chocolate name!) and then heat embossed them with a clear powder. I die cut a dark brown banner which went on the card topper, and then attached the ribbon to run across the centre of the banner. I’d cut the card to fit a 6×6 card blank, which was the right size for the wording on the ribbon.

Next was to stamp and die cut the cupcake – I used ‘latte’ for the cake case and ‘espresso’ for the sponge and icing. I also added some sprinkles to the chocolate icing by heat embossing them with a cream powder.

I mounted the cream card onto a 6×6 dark brown card blank, and then added the cupcake to sit on the upper part of the banner using foam pads.

Thanks for dropping in. I hope you like this card – it has been suggested that chocolate makes you happy, as it contains a number of compounds associated with mood-lifting chemicals in the brain. The bad news is that scientists now say that these compounds are in such small quantities they are probably digested before they reach the brain! It’s not all doom though – they think it’s the experience of actually eating the chocolate and satisfying food cravings that releases the endorphins in the brain and makes us happy. Good to know with Easter not far away and chocolate eggs already in the shops!