NATCH Charlie

My instructor, Janemarie, and her border collie, Charlie (Charlotte Sophia, or more affectionately known as "Chuck"), earned their NATCH (NADAC Agility Trial Champion) at a Funraiser trial in Bend, Oregon.  Here's a link to their NATCH run, a 20 point bonus line Jumpers run!  It was great it was for her NATCH (which Janemarie didn't realize until she returned home), but it was a great bonus line run to boot!

We celebrated when they returned home at the latest local trial, the Palomar Agility Club's August 24-25, 2013 trial.  I baked a yummy coffee cake (recipe) by the King Arthur Flour company because it needed to withstand the heat and we were celebrating in the early morning.  However, it needed to be decorated.  Icing was out of the question (too hot, and besides, who wants icing on their crumb topping?).  So instead, I made a chopstick "banner" and mini award ribbon using my Silhouette Cameo.

Because I needed to finish this project quickly, I used a banner file that I had purchased, and inserted the lettering to the file.  I fixed the lettering in the cutting file so that it would cut the purple banner part in one solid piece, instead of having little pieces from the letters A and R to attach separately (see below).  Then, I adjusted the sizing so that it would fit nicely over the 10"x15" pan.  I used a beige glitter background under the purple banner part.  The glitter cardstock was super thick, so I did something I rarely do:  cut using ALL of the blade exposed (#10), AND a double double-cut (4 overlapping cuts of the same design).  It STILL didn't quite cut all the way through, but it cut enough of it that we had a clean outline in the front, and most of it came off the mat.  But, it was worth it...  the banner was sturdy!

I cut two mirrored pieces of the glitter cardstock so that I could sandwich the chopstick between them, making a clean backing.  (I ended up using the cut out letters on the reverse side, just because I had them).  I attached all of the purple pieces to the backing, sandwiched the two glitter backgrounds, and glued the two pieces together with half a chopstick in the middle.  I use ZipDry adhesive for these types of projects, mainly because I need the strong hold and quick drying time of ZipDry.  It was essential to keep the bulky chopstick from shifting.

Next, I made the mini award ribbon from another purchased file.  I cut pieces out of gold glitter cardstock and purple cardstock.  After accordion folding the two strips, I attached each piece to each other to form a ring.  Holding the ring closed tightly, I ZipDry glued a purple backing piece to the accordion piece, and held it in place until the adhesive dried and held the shape.  I then glued gold center piece to the front of the ribbon.  I adhered the streamer pieces together, then glued those to the back of the ribbon circle.  I inserted and glued half of a chopstick to the ribbon, in between each streamer piece. 

All in all, the project took about 4 hours to complete.

Here's a photo of the finished project, as well as how it looked on the cake:

Janemarie loved her cake and decorations, and Charlie enjoyed smelling the cake  :-)