Wednesday 29 June 2011

Less is more Sketch

Here is my card for this week's less is More. I masked off a section of the base card and stamped and sponged using waltzing mouse large doily stamps and a variety of ink. I then stamped one of the same stamps three times and cut out with a nestie before positioning on the base card with 3d glue. The sentiment is also waltzing mouse.
Thanks for looking I will try and visit you in return x

Monday 27 June 2011

By popular demand - Lime and coconut muffins

 Thanks for your lovely comments on my last post.Thought I'd better share the recipe for Lime and coconut muffins, as I'd tempted your taste buds!
Ingredients:
10 oz/ 300g Self raising Flour
1 tsp baking powder
5 oz/ 150g caster sugar
1 3/4 oz/50g dessicated coconut

1 beaten egg
7 fl. oz/200 mls coconut milk
3 1/2 fl.oz/100 mls sunflower or corn oil
Grated zest of 2 limes
1 tablespoon lime juice

topping:
3 oz cream cheese
2 oz butter
2 oz icing sugar
 lime juice to taste (2-3 teaspoons)

sprinkle with shredded coconut and a  strand or two of lime zest (or a small blob of lime marmalade!)

It is very easy! Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C/ Gas mark 6. Put 12 muffin cases in a muffin pan. Combine the wet ingredients in one bowl and the dry ones in another. Carefully add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold until just combined. Add to cases and cook for 20 minutes or until golden.
They are yummy straight from the oven, but if you can wait till they cool down try the topping with a sprinkling of coconut and zest shavings/ or a blob of lime marmalade swirled on.

Topping. beat the icing sugar into the butter. Beat in the cream cheese (I use philadelphia) and then add the lime juice and beat again.
 Hope you enjoy them!

Sunday 26 June 2011

Weekly Blogging

Well, there was I thinking things would slow down once I'd done my reports, but I was mistaken. I don't know why it always takes me by surprise, but I can see I might only manage weekly blogging for a couple of weeks as there is so much going on. It isn't like I haven't done any crafting, but getting to post it here is a bit hit and miss. Anyway, here are a few things I've been up to. First is an 8x8 card I made for a friend who's dad turns seventy next week.
 He likes music, travelling, reading, walking and red wine, so I used an Inkylicious music background stamp, lots of hobby Art stamps, The luggage label is a clear choice stamp and the boots are from an aspects of design sheet from the Stampman. I watercoloured the lot with distress inks.
My next card is for our assistant site manager who has been doing lots of gardening with the children. This stamp (Personal Impressions) is one I haven't used for a while. The little images around the border are all various See -Dee's collections.

Finally I decided to try a new recipe today - Lime and coconut muffins topped with cream cheese frosting - very tasty, particularly whilst sat in the garden!
We have had a very productive day today with hedge-cutting, baking, marking, and card making too!

Sunday 19 June 2011

Father's Day

Happy Father's day to all you Dads out there. This is the card I made for my Dad. I thought it was particularly suitable as last time we went out for a walk with him we saw 4 buzzards! The stamps on the main picture are Hobby Art, watercoloured with my aqua markers and distress inks. The Fern (Rubber Stampede) on the base card was stamped in Kaleidacolor Autumn leaves.

Wednesday 15 June 2011

Normal service is resumed (Hopefully!)

Well, I've finally finished my reports and handed them in, so I've had a night of chilling out! I came home and did a bit of creating in the kitchen (made fish cakes with prawns, chilli flakes, lime zest and spring onions) and then made a card whilst watching Springwatch...can you tell?!
This gorgeous stag was one of the Lavinia stamps that flew into my hand at Doncaster on Saturday, along with about 7 others that I am sure you will see in due course! The ferns and leaves are all Lavinia too.
It was great to look around, but the two most inspirational stands for me were Lavinia and Inkylicious. There were some stunningly beautiful cards on display and I came home with plenty of goodies from both. I am now like a child in a candy shop, not knowing what to try next! Whilst we were there Lynne and I bumped into Lesley (aka Craftymamma) and Judith (Poppy Cottage). It was lovely to see you both.
Whilst I'm here I'd like to say a big thank you to all of  you who visit and comment, even when I'm a less frequent visitor. I really appreciate it. Hopefully I will get to visit you all over the next few days. Thanks for looking!

Saturday 11 June 2011

Less is More - One Layer in the Frame

The challenge at Less is More this week is to make a one layer card, incorporating a frame, which can be embossed, doodled, stamped or masked. I used my fleur de lys squares to make my frame, then masked with  post-its and sponged a little background in wild honey, Victorian velvet and crushed olive distress inks. I used a stamp from an Inkylicious set called Meadow Breeze with black versafine for the image. 
I know, I'm skiving. I took a little break after tea and will get back to the reports after Casualty. I'm skiving tomorrow too, as Lynne and I are off to Doncaster. Thanks for looking!

Thursday 9 June 2011

Less is More - Monochrome

Here is my card for this week's Less is More, where the challenge is Monochrome. I have had so little time and so little inspiration this week, but I managed to finally have a go  at about ten last night. I used a clarity corner stamp and majestic blue versafine. I am getting better at these. It still isn't perfect, but it is a big improvement to the first one I made. Hope this is CAS enough - not as much white space as I normally have!
Thanks for looking! I will try and leave as many comments as I can, but as I still have 12 reports to write and a lot of tweaking to do I might not get round as many as usual. Bear with me. I should have finished them by the end of next week!

Sunday 5 June 2011

Anyone for tea?

In between writing reports I had a bit of a look at Waltzing Mouse website and came across their sketch challenge. I sometimes find sketches a little too fussy for my liking, but the sketch for this week looked just my cup of tea!!!
I had printed off some gorgeous papers from Summertime Designs called Moments, and they reminded me of some oddments of china my Dad had found in his loft, that originally belonged to my Grandma. I used the Waltzing Mouse teacup (Afternoon Tea sentiments) which I paper pieced.For the sentiment I stamped the tea bag tag (Afternoon tea) and distressed with Tea Dye ink. I am really loving these colours at the moment and I can see so many possibilities for my tea cup stamp.
Thanks for looking!

Thursday 2 June 2011

A couple of challenges

Here is my card for less is more this week, where the challenge is 'Squares', that is to use roughly 25% of the card front, either centrally or a corner. I opted for the top right corner, as that was what the stamp needed! I stamped the bird on a branch, added a few extra leaves and the sentiment (all Stampin' up! A touch of Nature set) in Memento. I coloured it in with promarkers.
I'm also entering this into the Allsorts Challenge where the theme is Things with Wings.
Thanks for looking!

Wednesday 1 June 2011

June Challenge at Sir Stampalot


Good morning and welcome to this months challenge at Sir Stampalot. We have a photo for inspiration this month, and as you can see I've been very literal!
I stamped the 8 x 8 base card with Hero Arts Old French Writing and Penny Black corner piece in Fired Brick and Tea Dye distress ink. The main image has Hero Arts poppies, Sheena's daisies and Hero arts silhouette grass. It is all coloured with a variety of distress inks including crushed olive, peeled paint, fired brick, tumbled glass and wild honey. Apart from the daisies everything used is available from the fabulous Sir Stampalot shop.

My second project is a little box. The template is the 'cuppie love' template from Waltzing Mouse. I printed it on to white card then sponged and stamped. I used the Hero Arts grass and Sheena's poppies, which I painted with H2Os.

The poppy on the lid was made with shapeabilities flower creations 3 (also available from Sir Stampalot), which were sprayed with cherrylicious creative colour sprays (Crafty Notions) and secured at the centre with a brad. The leaves are a woodware punch.
Now, here is the prize for this month
Fabulous, isn't it? Do visit the Stampalot challenge blog to see the design teams variety of inspiration. You don't have to put poppies on your creation, you may just want to use the vibrant colours as your inspiration. Thanks for looking!