I would like to wish a very happy 30th birthday to one of my closest and amazing friends; Liisa! As it is such a special age I wanted to make a huge effort, so for her birthday I decided to take advantage of my creative flare and create a custom embroidery. I bought the 10 inch embroidery hoop for £3.20 and the job lot of different coloured threads from eBay. My design will hopefully appeal to her taste for Scandinavian home wear.

Recently I have been baking a lot of Birthday gifts for my friends. I am really into baking and I have been experimenting a little recently to try and create something really special. The cake above was a vanilla sponge cake with multi-coloured layers, chocolate icing and home made mini bunting. You can easily make your own bunting with some twine, washi tape and wooden chopsticks!
Keep your eyes pealed for a tutorial in the near future.

I made these pink vanilla and blue chocolate cupcakes with co-ordinating icing and sugar as a gift to Lucy S when she went on maternity leave. If you are making something like this for a leaving party or baby shower you could make people choose the cupcake they think the baby would be. So choosing a pink cupcake if you think it's a girl, or blue for a boy. The pink cupcakes disappeared first and sure enough she had a gorgeous baby girl.

I made this chocolate and smarties cake for my friend Andy's birthday. This was made in the same way as above, so that it had a surprise of multi-coloured layers inside. The Dr Oetker birthday candles came in a pack from ASDA for £1.52.

You can also neatly package your cakes in these handy cupcake boxes. This idea not only makes them look more like a gift (especially if you add co-ordinating ribbon), but it also makes them much easier to transport. These boxes can hold 1, 2, 4 or 6 cupcakes and come in a wide range of colours and patterns. You can buy them from a wide variety of locations - I even saw some in Home Bargains the other day! I bought this box from ebay for £12.99 for a pack of 10 boxes and free delivery. This works out at about £1.29 per box.

This is the first giant cupcake I ever baked; chocolate sponge and chocolate frosting with multi-coloured sprinkles. For an extra detail I pinned a ribbon and a bow around the base to cover up the join. Just don't forget to take the pins out before you cut the cake!

And this is the most recent of my baked gifts - a giant marbled chocolate and vanilla sponge cupcake with pink vanilla icing, sprinkled pink sugar and swirls of pink and white sugar balls, home made mini bunting and a number 6 sparkler instead of candles. Then, to finish it off I wrapped the base in wrapping paper and pinned a ribbon and bow around to hold it all in place. Handy tip: wrap cling film around the base of the cake before you wrap your paper around. This will ensure there are no grease marks soaking through from the sponge onto your paper.

Christmas is fast approaching, and with money seeming tighter than ever, I know a lot of my friends and family will be getting hand made gifts this year. But the great thing about hand made gifts, especially if made in bulk, is that the overall cost is a lot lower but the sentiment is much higher! Brownie points all round (brownies you can now afford with all the money you have saved!)

Now, I'm very stubborn when it comes to music; I tend to listen to the same old songs and rarely allow anything new onto my ipod. My friends, however, are really into their music and have extremely varied tastes. Therefore, this Christmas I will be asking my friends for mixed CDs. This type of gift is not only cheap, it can also be a thoughtful token of your friendship, especially if you've known each other for years.

So, if you decide to give some mixed CDs this Christmas, here are a few nice ways to personalise them...

This CD case was handmade by my friend Charlie, for his super gorgeous girlfriend Amy Hill. I love that he has given the CD it's own title, and the fact that it opens like a record sleeve is genius!

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Or how about this little beut? The devil is in the detail here. Notice the songs are marked by triangles instead of numbers and it comes with it's own little string of bunting - adorable!

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Or make your own paper case with this handy step by step guide.