Carol's Marie Antoinette Folder: Sensual Pleasures

Here is the spread I just completed in Carol's Marie Antoinette Folder. Her theme is "Sensual Pleasures." I immediately thought of cakes and chocolate candy. I decided to do a 4-tiered pop-up cake. The cake itself turned out fine, but there was still something missing. I pondered what to do to complete this spread, but nothing I came up with felt right.

Usually when I hit a block like this, I end up rethinking the project and start all over again. There are many ways to work through a block. For example, I could have gotten out all of my Marie Antoinette materials (which I have collected in preparation for this folder swap) and see what leaps out at me. In this case, I was getting ready to lead a group of my high school classmates (affectionately known as the "Sweeties") in a magnet-making craft night. As I gathered my magnet materials, I realized that the flat marbles that we use to make magnets would make fabulous chocolates. I had a bunch of leftover candy cups (my hubby keeps me well stocked with chocolate) and simply found pretty, colorful pictures of petit fours and glued them to the flat marbles. I then glued the little "chocolates" to the candy cups. At first, I centered the doily in the center of the layout, but soon realized that the flat marbles weren't so flat after all--Carol's book would not close flat enough for mailing. So, I placed the doily on one side of the layout and arranged the candies on the doily. Now, the folder can be properly closed. I added chipboard letters to spell out "Sweet Thing" and my folder was done. How appropriate that the Sweeties were the inspiration for my "Sweet" spread in Carol's folder!