A pretty nifty little idea that leaves so much room to customize your cake display. Decorate your cake with swirls, flowers, hearts or whatever you like. If you have a theme then you can incorporate this into the design (eg. for travel you could have planes and trains). Is someone special making your cake for you? You could write “made with love by …..” or even write the type of cake that it is.

To make it you will need:

• 9mm ply wood cut to size (or shape)… mine was 60cm x 60cm
• Some chalkboard paint
• A mini roller and tray
• Some fine grade sand paper

Once you have cut your ply wood to the size or shape that you desire, give it a light sanding to prepare.

Give it the first coat of chalkboard paint. Don’t apply it too thickly. Better many thin coats that dry quickly rather than fewer thicker coats is what I found.

Allow to dry between applications. You will need a total of about 6 thin coats.

When you have finished and the chalkboard is ready, then this is when the fun begins. Have a look online for inspiration and practice your design on a piece of paper. Baker’s paper can be good for this. If you are planning on placing your cake in your design like I have, cut a template of your cake size and work around it. Once you are happy, take a grey lead pencil and lightly sketch the design on your chalkboard.

When you’re done, trace the design with your chalk. You can use a chalk marker if you prefer, I just like the rustic look of real chalk. Build up sections of your text and apply accent lines . Don’t stress if you make a mistake, just take a damp microfibre cloth and wipe away the error. Wait to dry and try again!

I played with a few different designs as you can see.

Who doesn’t love a bit of colour at their wedding? With these colourful DIY place cards, your table is going to look fabulous. They are super easy to make and free too!

All you need is:

• Paint swatches from your local hardware store
• Cutting mat
• Ruler
• Paper scorer or bone folder
• Sharpie/pen/stamps/glitter pen/stickers (anything you can think of to create the letters on your placecards)

Follow the steps below to create your own colourful place cards.

Images by miki.0

Ms Gingham says: Simple, bright, contemporary….. what’s not to love?

About Bianca from miki.0: “I’m originally from the Netherlands where I spent 22 years of my life but I now live, work and play in Melbourne, Australia. In the spare time that I have left I love to cook, read, walk, ski and travel. Last year I spent 4 weeks in South America, which was an amazing experience. Peru was my absolute favourite. We also went to Hawaii, a place I want to return to. This year we’re off to visit my folks back home, but we’re also planning to sneak in some traveling. I’d like to visit Prague & Vienna.”

Here we present a few pretties to tempt you to embellish your stationery. Floreart reminds me of snowflakes and their delicate designs would add just the right touch to a stationery suite that doesn’t cry out for over the top decoration.

Floreart is available from My Fonts.

The Pink Fox is the signature cocktail of Melbourne’s Pawn and Co. The bar, situated in bustling Chapel St. South Yarra, offers a vast selection of cocktails and today we’re lucky enough to get the recipe for this scrumptious looking concoction to make for ourselves at home!

Ingredients

45ml Beefeater Gin

15ml Disoranno Amaretto liqueur

15ml Crawleys Orgeat syrup

One whole passionfruit, pulped.

30ml Fresh Lemon Juice

One egg white.

Dash of soda water and grenadine.

Served in a crystal champagne glass.

Method

Add all except soda into shaker glass and shake without ice.

Add ice and shake, then strain into chilled glass.

Dash with soda and garnish with a passionfruit wheel.