Sunday 28 November 2010

Stuff it !!!

It's been one of those days today... nothing has gone right and 3 projects have already ended up in the bin!
Maybe I should stick to cooking - I seem to be doing ok with that.  Yesterday I tried making this Chestnut & Cranberry Roll. This was fantastic... a real hit and even though mine wasn't quite as neat as theirs, it still looked fab at the table.


Just beware of the recipe - I didn't read it before I started and ended up with my two rolls, plus extra for stuffing a turkey! 
For this week's sweet treat I made some Biscotti. It's much easier to make than I thought it would be. Here's the recipe I used. I added glace cherries, instead of the dried ones, and substituted chocolate chips for the raisins.



I made a little sleigh to hold some Biscotti, and even tough I'm not very happy with it, I thought I would show you it, because it's a cute, little gift idea. I got the Sleigh template from Clear & Simple Stamps It's designed by Sue Berker. Take a look at her little Sleigh - it's just so elegant.


Challenges...
Winter Wonderland - 'Shape Up'.   Not sure if my entry has to be a card, or if this is ok???
Fab 'n' Funky - Anything Goes
A Spoon Full of Sugar - Anything Goes

Friday 26 November 2010

Totally Papercrafts #44 Non-traditional Christmas

Morning everyone.... Wow!! You all loved our Snow & Snowflakes challenge at Totally Papercrafts. last week. We had a fab number of entries, so, if you joined in, head on over there to see if you are the lucky winner, or maybe one of our Top 3.
This week the lovely Carol is hosting our challenge and the theme she has chosen is

Untraditional Christmas

So, step away from the reds, greens and golds and let's see something different.
Our sponsor this week is Simon Says Stamp
Here's my card - Black & White - so definitely not your usual Christmas colour combo.


I found this sweet freebie image over at Ladybug and Friends ( scroll down the page for a full sheet of freebies).   I kept my colouring to a minimum, just adding a little grey shadow and some stickles glitter.
The DP is Papermania Mono and I coloured the gems with a black Copic. Ribbon was from my stash.
This was a very simple card to put together, and in real life it looks very striking. It's growing on me, but I'm not sure if anyone else would appreciate a black and white Christmas card!

Challenges...
Creative Cottage - Untraditional Christmas Colours

Thursday 25 November 2010

Skating on thin ice.

**Happy Thanksgiving**   Hope everyone that is celebrating today is having a lovely time.
Here in Yorkshire, we had a smattering of the white stuff this morning and it sounds like there is more on the way for the weekend!
Here's a card that I was asked to make for a friend of a friend. All they asked for, was that it said 'to both of you', so I hope they like this.


 I don't have many 'couples' stamps, so I was happy when I found these freebie skaters from Cuddly Buddly. They are coloured with Copics and some gold stickles glitter. I also used a gold glitter pen for the skates.

Challenges... 
Creative Inspirations - Red, Green & Gold
ABC Christmas - X is for Xmas, with the optional extra of flowers.
ABC - I is for Ice (& Snow)


Cuddly Buddly Digi Image.    DP is Memory Box, Misteltoe.    Merry Christmas stamp from Catslife Press.
Leaves made with a XCut punch.  Gold stickles glitter.  Blooms and Ribbon from my stash. Lace border punch, Martha Stewart.
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Tuesday 23 November 2010

Relax ... it's your special day.

Have you joined in with the Christmas Blog Hop, over at Wild Rose Studio? There are lots of fabulous prizes up for grabs along the way, and an awesome GRAND prize too. All you have to do is make a card using Dawny's sketch ( you can use any image you like) and collect a phrase from the hop. Simples!

Here's my card using Dawny's fab sketch.



I have used the wonderful Ronnie Relaxing image from Pollycraft. You can find him in Pollycraft's sidebar and all money raised from his sale goes to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.
I paper-pieced the chair and then added Ronnie on top, coloured with Copics. The background was distressed with inks. I also added a little glossy accents to the biscuit packets and his cup.

Challenges...
Wild Rose Studio - Dawny's Sketch and Blog Hop
Pollycraft - Blue
Crafty Emma - If you have donated to the Yorkshire Air Amabulance you can get an extra entry to Emma's Fundraising Candy, by making a card with one of the 'Ronnie images'. See Emma's blog for the full details.
Top Tip Tuesday - Layer on Layer - Check out Anne's great tutorial on how to paper-piece digi images.


Digi Stamp - Ronnie Relaxing from Pollycraft.    DP Daisy & Dandelion, A Winter's Tale.   Papermania 'Scrolls and Sentiments' stamp set.   Glossy Accents.    Card Candy.
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Monday 22 November 2010

Believe in the magic of Christmas.

Morning everyone... hope you all had a great weekend, whatever you were up to. I did absolutely nothing..
apart from my bit of baking, I just vegged out in front of the TV...  :-)
Oh, yes and I did manage to find time to put together this simple card.


 This is still one of my fav. stamps of the season, even though it takes me forever to colour it. The background sheet is really blue and the head dresses ( what are they called?? ) are green, but that's kind of hard to make out in my photo.

Challenges - 
Lili of the Valley - Glitter and Glitz.   I added glitter around the edges of the red card, and at the feet of Mary & Joseph. Their head bands are drawn with a Glitter Sakura pen.
CES Challenges - Lovely Lace
Create 4 Fun - Sketch ( I rotated it, to suit my image)


Stamp - LOTV, Mary and Joseph, coloured with Copics and stickles gliter ( frosted lace). DP is Dovecraft, Christmas Fancy. 'Believe' is a Making Memories Velvet saying.  'Merry Christmas' is Making Memories Chipboard sticker.

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I also want to say a HUGE thankyou to Emma,
for the fabulous Candy that I won.
Look at all these amazing goodies.

At the moment Emma has some Fundraising Candy up for grabs.
If you make a donation to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance
you could win a $20 voucher, provided my Mo's Digital Pencil.
Check out Emma's blog for all the details and to see how you can get an extra entry.

Sunday 21 November 2010

The ratio of people to cake is too big !!!

First Year of High School...   Form 1T... Home Ec. Room 17...      That was the last time I made a swiss roll!
So, I thought I was long overdue to give it another try. Of course, these days the humble swiss roll has been transformed into a 'roulade'.


This was really De.lic.ious. 
  The sponge just melted in your mouth.  The cream had a little hint of orange,
so you might want to add more zest or flavouring to yours.  I did mange to swirl the icing on top to give it
some resemblance to a log, but if you had some little decorations to put on there too, this could be a real show stopper.





I also made up a batch of mince pies - I hate mince pies, so I can make as many as I like, safe in the knowledge that I will not stuff my face with them!!!
BIG thanks to the wonderful Julie, who gave me the link to this White Chocolate Fudge recipe.
I added some dried blueberries to mine, and whilst it looks ( and tastes) wonderful, I think the crunch of the added nuts would have been better.



Enjoy the rest of your weekend
xxx

Friday 19 November 2010

Totally Papercrafts #43 Snow and Snowflakes

Morning everyone, have you all started your Christmas shopping?? I haven't got a thing yet - give it another week and I will be in full blown panic mode :-)
To keep your Christmas projects rolling along we have a great new challenge for you on Totally Papercrafts this week. I chose the theme, and I would like to see....

*SNOW AND SNOWFLAKES*

So, add some sparkly, glittery snow to your project, or a snowflake, or 2.    I can't wait to see what you come up with.    Check out the fabulous work of my teamies - they have done an awesome job this week. And pop over to Squigglefly, who are this week's sponsors, with 5 of their wonderful digis up for grabs.

Now, since December is fast approaching, I thought it was time to make an advent calendar for my girls. I have seen this idea, to use matchboxes, on my blogging travels and thought I would give it a go.




Here is what I started with - my design paper ( Memory Box ) and 24 small matchboxes, that were glued and taped together.
If anyone has any idea about what I can do with 10,000 loose matches, let me know!!   :-))

The Virgo in me is screaming that the matchboxes aren't perfectly lined up, but I shut her up with a chocolate biccy!!!

Once the matchboxes were all glued together, I added a piece of card to the top and bottom. I covered the matchbox sides with the same card and some design paper, using a different paper on the 'drawer' fronts, and adding a pearl brad to each one. The numbers are stickers.
Then I decorated the whole thing with some snowflakes cut on my Slice machine and covered with Diamond Dust. The cute penguin on the top is from this week's sponsor, Squigglefly.

Of course THE BEST thing about this project was researching the sweeties to go in the drawers. They are very small and I had to munch my way through a lot of rejected choccies. :-))  I finally came across a box of Milka chocs, where I could fit 2 in each drawer, with a few left over for sampling!!!


Finally, I added this cute Catslife Press stamp
to the bottom of the box.
I hope you give this project a go - it's really very easy, just a bit fiddly and time consuming, but I would love to see your versions.
xxx

Monday 15 November 2010

Deck the Halls

Is it time to put the Christmas Tree up yet???    I can't wait    :-)   We all troop off together to get our tree - like the Griswolds in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation ( A must watch film for us over the hols ) - except our tree comes from the local DIY store, not the wilderness!!



This cutie is James Bear, Deck the Halls, from LOTV. He's coloured with Copics, baby blue stickles on his tinsel and some glossy accents on his star and baubles. The DP is Dovecraft, Christmas Fancy and the text stamp is from a Penny Black, Christmas Critters set.
I found these pretty little star charms, that I had completely forgotten about - I can't even remember where I got them from, but Bunny Zoe's Crafts has a great selection of charms.

 Challenges - 
I followed Arielle's fab sketch over at The Pink Elephant.
Pollycraft - A Glittery Christmas

Sunday 14 November 2010

Candlelight Friends

I love easel cards, but I have yet to master taking a decent photo of one, especially on an overcast day like today - so, apologies for this rubbish picture!



 I really enjoyed making this card - I think it has every kind of bling on there..lol** The image is coloured with Copics and I decoupaged the holly leaves and added some gems for the berries. I LOVE the way the 'candle wax' turned out - after colouring it, I added a thick layer of Glossy Accents.

 Challenges - 
Allsorts - A great sketch to follow this week.
Stamp Something - Digi Day - you can use any digi image you like.
Secret Crafter - Sparkle and Shine
Die Cut Dreams - Snowflakes


The image is a cute Digi stamp from Cuddly Buddly. I don't know why I haven't come across these before, besides having a fabulous range of craft goodies, they also have digi stamps and printable decoupage sets. There's even a great freebie section for you to give their stamps a try.
DP is a mixture of Memory Box Mistletoe and Spiceberry.
The crystal gems I used were clear, I just used a Copic to colour them red.
The snowflakes are an XCut punch, covered with Diamond Dust.
Behind the image is a narrow, glittered and embossed strip. I bought this thinking that it was stick on ribbon, but it turned out to be a transfer - it's from Daisy and Dandelion.
Sentiment is from Craftwork Cards.

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Saturday 13 November 2010

All ruffled up!

I tried something a little different on this card, but I don't think it quite worked. I have been seeing some lovely ruffled ribbon lately and wanted to give it a go. I wasn't sure how to ruffle up the ribbon, and I ended up folding it over as it was going through the sewing machine. The result is that the ribbon is flat - not the effect I wanted at all. So if anyone knows where I'm going wrong, please let me know. Or, you could do a tut and show us all (wink* wink*)     :-))
 

 I used the fabulous Mary and Joseph image from LOTV, coloured with Copics and a Sakura glitter gel pen on their headbands. The Fa La La stamp is Catslife Press and my DP is My Mind's Eye, Signature Christmas.
I cut the large snowflake on my Slice machine ( Fa La La Design), covered it with Diamond Dust and added a gem brad in the centre. Then I trickled some stickles glitter around the edges of the stamps.

Challenges - 
 ABC - H is for Holidays, it doesn't have to be Christmas, you can choose any holiday you like.
 Lili Of The Valley - Anything Goes (Any make of stamp or digi ) and a Blog Hop, with the chance to win some of the gorgeous LOTV stamps.

Friday 12 November 2010

Totally Papercrafts #42 Black and Purple

How far can you throw an Epsom printer? I am seriously thinking of hurling mine down the street. It seems to have a mind of it's own at the moment. Hubby says that screaming at it won't get me anywhere - but I find it helps!! :-))
Well, 'tis Friday today and that means another challenge over at Totally Papercrafts. Our fabulous host this week is Tammy and she has chosen the theme of...
Black and Purple

Visit the blog to see the wonderful prize on offer this week, from Mandi Moore and check out the gorgeous creations from my teamies.
Here's my card....


This is the cute Party Edwin from Magnolia, who doesn't get out nearly as much as he ought to! He's coloured with Copics and a little stickles glitter.
I used  liquid pearls (platinum)  for the dots on the black card. The sentiment was cut on my Slice machine (Parties Design Card). DP is Papermania Capsule Collection, Heather and Mono. Ribbon is from my stash and I coloured the adhesive pearls black with a Copic.

Wednesday 10 November 2010

Bah Humbug !!!

Can you believe there are people out there that actually don't like Christmas!!! And my brother is one of them, so when I saw this image I knew it would be perfect for his card. :-)


This cute 'gruffy little gnome' is from Meljen's designs, and is coloured with Copics.
I made the little 'Bah Humbug' tag on my comp - if anyone would like it, it's on my side bar (just right click on it and save it to your comp).

 Challenges
Papertake - A fab sketch by Dawny, with the chance to win a WOY Christmas stamp.
A Spoon Full Of Sugar - Sonja would like to see 'Snow/Snowflakes' and Bunny Zoe's Crafts is this week's sponsor.
Top Tip Tuesday - Use any image or sentiment. Check out the fab tutorial from Dawn, on how to get started with Copics
Meljen's DT and Challenge - Just got time to get my entry in for their '3 different shapes' challenge. Mine are the rectangles, the circles of the card candy and the snowflakes.


Stamp - Meljen's Designs, Gruffy Little Gnome        DP - Dovecraft, Christmas Fancy
XCut punched snowflakes.
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Monday 8 November 2010

Forever Autumn

Help! Calling all you eagle-eyed stampers.   This is one of my fav stamps, but I just can't decide if the little girl is reaching for a flower, with her left arm - what do you think??? Is that her hand around the flower???


I used  my fav. papers for this card - Websters Pages - they're so gorgeous, you don't want to cover them up. I did manage to keep the cute little squirrel  in one corner!

Challenges -
CES - 'Forever Autumn'.  I decided to stick with browns for my card, but check out the fab DT work on the challenge blog for some rich Autumn colours. Emma is offering a fab embellie box to this week's winner.
Stampin' for the Weekend - a great sketch from Sandie, with a twist - you must add a butterfly to your creation. The prize up for grabs this week is a $25 voucher from Simon Says.
 

Stamp - GCS Artstamps, Little Girl    coloured with Copics.
DP - Websters Pages Triple Collection.          Gems are Papermania Mosaics.
Butterfly is a XCut punch.      Butterfly and around the image is sponged with Distress Ink, Antique Linen      Lace ribbon from my stash.

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Sunday 7 November 2010

Bonfire Treats

There were quite a few bonfire and firework parties around and about last night. Hope that everyone that went to one had a great time and kept safe.
Suzie let out the odd yelp when she heard the fireworks, which wasn't too bad - at least she was more in tune than Wagner was last night!!!

Here's my Coffee Walnut Cake - looks good eh??? Don't be fooled, it actually looks better than it tastes!!
I was disappointed with the cakes, they came out a bit flat and didn't taste of much. The best bit was the coffee buttercream - I had to stop myself from eating the whole lot with a spoon, straight from the mixer!!
Here's the recipe if you want to try it out.




This is definitely toffee for grown ups - it has that strong, almost bitter, black treacle flavour - and it's hard to stop eating it once you start!
It's very easy to make, with just 3 basic ingredients.




Saturday 6 November 2010

Christmas Kiss


*Happy Birthday to Sue*
today is Sue's birthday and I hope she is having a wonderful day. If you have 5 mins swing by her blog, check out her fabulous work and say hello.

Here's a quick card from me, before I head into the kitchen to make a coffee walnut cake!!


 This is probably about as 'traditional' as I get with Christmas cards - at least it is red and green!!
I used this cute stamp from Digi Stamp Boutique, colouring it with Copics and adding some little crystals as buttons and some polar white flower soft as their fur trim.

Challenges -
 Just Cute Bears & Friends - A great sketch by Helen ( you can now use any animal image on these challenges, not just bears )
A Spoon Full Of Sugar - 'Relish to Embelish'.  My embellies are the 'crystal' buttons, the 'flower soft' fur trim,
ribbon, card candy and 'diamond'dust' snowflakes.



Stamp - Digi Stamp Boutique, Eddie and Jemima Xmas Kiss        DP - K & Co Peppermint Twist
Punched snowflakes covered with Diamond Dust.         Card Candy and Sentiment from Craftwork Cards

Friday 5 November 2010

Totally Papercrafts #41 Tag It !

I am dazzled, I tells ya !! You gals certainly love your 'sparkle'' - we had a fab response to our 'bling it on' challenge last week. Thanks to everyone who joined in - check out the Totally Papercrafts blog to see who the lucky winner is.
This week our host is the wonderful Anne, and her chosen theme is

'Tag It'

There are lots of different things you can do for this challenge - make a gift tag, a christmas tag, or add a tag to a card. Check out the awesome work of my teamies - guaranteed to get your mojo flowing!!
Here's my project - a little set of Christmas gift tags.


This started out life as a 'matchmakers chocolate' box. Don't you just love it when you have to eat the contents of a box, just so you can use it for something else!!
I used green card to make some dividers, so that my tags would sit in nicely,  then I covered the box with DP and added the cute 'Coco and Presents' stamp, from this week's challenge sponsor Digi Stamp Boutique


Don't look too closely at the tags - I cut them with my Slice machine, which can have a mind of it's own sometimes! It doesn't seem to have cut properly on the right hand side.
Anyhoo, I inked the edges, added some embellies and threw some glitter around in the hope that no-one would notice the mis-shapes!



Stamp - Coco and Presents, Digi Stamp Boutique, I paper-pieced the sledge and coloured the rest with Copics and stickles glitter.
DP - K & Co Peppermint Twist, which also contained the die cuts I used on the tags.
Slice machine - Fa La La Design.
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Tuesday 2 November 2010

Let it snow... just not yet !!

Now that we're in November, I need to step up my Christmas card making - here's one I made for a good friend,  I know she will appreciate the non-traditional style.

 I used the gorgeous 'First Snow' digi stamp from Sassy Studio Designs   coloured with Copics. I 3D'd the girl and coloured the background in with a pale green Copic and some stickles glitter. The green doesn't show up too well on the photo!!

Challenges
Sketch Saturday - Fab sketch this week and the chance to win some gorgeous Christmas stamps courtesy of The Craft Barn.
Die Cut Dreams Christmas Club - Use a Christmas digi image, with the prize on offer being 5 digi stamps from Prairie Fairy Designs.
Top Tip Tuesday - Create a 'Christmas Inspired' card or project or leave a top tip and check out Carol's great tutorial on how to stamp on candles.



DP - Memory Box a mix of 'Misteltoe' and 'Spiceberry'.       Fa La La stamp is Catslife Press.
'Let it snow' is a little button - I just snipped off the back.
Card candy and ribbon from my stash.

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