Poppy Parade

This past week has been about remembering those who served and, sadly are still serving, in the various wars.  We were delighted to have our dear friend, Dougie, a WW2 veteran, staying with us for a few days and we had some lovely trips out together.  My crocheted poppy wreath was also dug out of storage and hung on the front door.

On Monday, it was my Visible Image DT post which remembered the role of animals during conflicts.  I go to a local art group on a Monday morning and I didn’t have anything sketched so I had a go at copying a painting I saw on Facebook which accompanied a very poignant poem called “One Thousand Men Are Walking”.  I can’t credit the artist as I can't find the name anywhere.  Anyway, here is my version.

On 11^th, Project 71, the veteran’s group where I volunteer, were invited by the Royal Navy to a remembrance service followed by a lunch in the wardroom at HMS Excellent on Whale Island.  One of the veterans was celebrating her 99^th birthday on the day and is named Poppy for that very reason so I’d made her a cake to celebrate.  I began by making the fondant poppies a couple of days in advance so they had a chance to dry out and harden off.

Then for the presentation board, I inlaid some tiny poppies before attaching it to the board.

Once the cake was in place, the poppies were attached using royal icing.  The letters were also cut from fondant and glued on at the end.

I had a few casualties and in future would make the flowers using gum paste or adding a hardener, such as Tylo powder, to give them a bit more strength.

Obviously, as it was Poppy’s birthday, a card was also needed and I had the perfect set in Pink Frog’s Poppy stamp set.  The text was stamped in grey and then the poppies were stamped in black and clear heat embossed so I could colour with alcohol markers.

After colouring, I spattered with some gold metallic watercolour with my fan brush.

The card was finished by adding a sentiment and some gold gems.