This is my “Love is in the Air” Valentine’s Cake Topper and it is a special project for today’s blog hop hosted by Paulette from Around the Block with Scrapalette.  All participants in the blog hop are sharing their Valentine’s Day and other love-ly projects and you may some find sweet blog candy while hopping along so make sure to see everyone.  Here is the whole lineup for today:

Paulette from http://scrapalette.blogspot.com
Dana from http://danascraftycorner.blogspot.com
Beth from http://thunderbirdlindybydesign.blogspot.com   Hopping From
Sis from https://papercraftscissors.wordpress.com                  Your Current Location
Doreen from http://polkadotpaperprincess.blogspot.com    Hopping To
Cindy from http://www.inlovewithpaper.blogspot.com
Deb from http://www.queenmommy.com
Michele from http://www.michelegreen.com
Carolyn from http://cccscraproom.blogspot.com
Colleen from http://scrappycol.blogspot.com
Elizabeth from http://www.217creations.com
Sukie from http://www.scrappindhilly.blogspot.com
Sharon from http://designsbysharon.blogspot.com
Renee from http://icameisawicreated.blogspot.com
Tammy from http://www.scrapcavecreations.com
Brenda from http://happyscrapper64.blogspot.com
Amy from http://scrap-pix.blogspot.com
Jami from http://thepaperfarm.blogspot.com
Terri from http://scrappinwiththebug.blogspot.com
Meg from http://peacockpaperie.blogspot.com

You could personalize a cake topper to fit any occasion, and here are some helpful hints:

Use a tree (this one is from Paper Doll Dress Up) or other cut with a good solid base.  You need stability so your cake topper doesn’t waver in its duty.  And you need a cut with a fairly even cut across the bottom – if it doesn’t have it, you can always trim it.  This tree is cut at 8″ tall.  I used Cricut Craft Room to make the cut a little narrower in order to get two trees from one piece of 12″ paper.  The width of the tree is 7.2″.

After you cut your base image, wire your cut to attach pennants or letters later.  For the cake topper, I used floral wire for the top branches and trimmed a bamboo skewer to have a means of inserting the topper in the cake.  Note:  bamboo skewers are not inconsequential so make sure your cut is wide enough to account for the added circumference.  I used painters tape to hold my wires and skewer in place before adding the next layer on top.  I used three layers – two for heavier weight papers for the base and one decorative patterned paper.   After assembling the base layers, I simply pinched the tree inward around the skewer to get a little added dimension.

The owl is from Campin’ Critters and is 3″ tall.  Her spyglass has a Glossy Accents lens with a hand cut heart.   The word LOVE is from the Cricut Craft Room Basics.  You may have noticed there were three wires in the construction photo, I simply trimmed the unused wire but I have learned it is better to have it and trim it than not have it when you need it.

Here’s a close up of the owl with her spyglass.

I hope you enjoyed your visit and have visions of cake toppers dancing in your head now.  For those so inclined to leave a comment, you will be entered in a random drawing for a $25.00 gift certificate to Papertrey Ink.  One entry per person please, and the drawing will close at 8:00 PM EST on Sunday January 29.

Don’t forget to hop on over to Doreen’s blog from some more inspiration and I hope you’ll come see me again soon.