Blog hop winners and another winter's tale

Well, It's time to announce the winner of the set of MSE stamps from the blog hop, and the winner is...Shaz! Thanks for your lovely comment Shaz. Email Brenda  - brenda@ibas.co.uk with your postal addy and she will get your prize to you. The overall winner of the Hop was Cheryl. For other winners take a look atr the Sir Stampalot Challenge blog.
Now here is another wintry scene to remind you that the challenge still runs until 28th of January.

It's those penny black snowy trees embossed in white over a creative colour spray background in iridescent vivid blues and HA old French writing again! The sentiment is from Elusive images.
And the prize this month? feast your eyes on this little lot!

Fabulous! Well, off you go and get making a lovely winter's tale inspired creation so you can be in with a chance of winning. Thanks for popping by!

Sir stampalot Blog hop and January Challenge

 This is a sticky - scroll down for newer posts.
 Hi there and welcome to this months Sir Stampalot Challenge and Blog Hop. As it is the first one for 2011 I'd like to wish you all a Happy New Year. You should've arrived here from the lovely Chris's blog, but if not, don't worry. Just start at the Sir Stampalot Challenge Blog and follow the fun from there. First I will show you my card.Our challenge theme for January which will run for the the whole month as usual is 'A Winter's Tale'.

The main image (Simply stamps) is coloured with promarkers and mounted on a green panel over a base card stamped with snowy trees (Penny Black). The swirl and flower dies are Marianne designs and the border punch is by EK success. The prize on my blog is a lovely set of MSE stamps.

So, the letter you need from me is M and don't forget to leave me a comment too, so you can be entered into my draw and the one on the challenge blog. All that remains now is for you to have a play with the letters you got, put them in the right order and email your answer to Brenda at brenda@ibas.co.uk. The lucky overall winner will get this fab punch around the page set.

  I will tell you all about the Prize for this month's challenge at the end of the blog hop on 10th January. Good luck, and don't forget to join us making a card based on 'A Winter's Tale' so we can come and visit you too!

A quick post before bedtime

I've had another go at one of those snow scenes with trees (Inspired by Chrissie).

The trees are from the Stampin' up! set 'Lovely as a tree', and this time I used scattered straw, tattered rose and Victorian velvet distress inks. The sentiment is a clear set from Personal Impressions. Don't forget to crack on with your Winter's tale creations and get them on the January challenge at Sir Stampalot Challenge blog.
I've also made a card for a friend and colleague who has been off ill for a while.

The flower is one of the few magnolia stamps that I own, and I love it. It is so easy to decoupage and colour. I used promarkers and some glitter on this one. The ribbon on the left was some I bought to put in some booties my mum knitted for Megan when she was a baby. I bought far too much, and decided it was about time I put the rest to good use (14 years later!!!)
Thanks for looking!

It's been a while...

Well hello there, remember me? No sooner had I wished everyone a Happy New Year with the Stampalot Blog Hop (You have till Monday  to join in if you haven't already!) than I was hit by some sort of flu. Although the symptoms were quite mild for proper flu, it was still unsafe for me to go near a craft knife with the shivers and shakes I had until Wednesday night. I managed a few tiny comments on blogs here and there, but then it would all get too much again and I'd have to wrap myself in a duvet to alternately sweat and shiver. I am now officially recovered and returned to work today. It was that or I might have started cleaning the house! I have managed one little card since my recovery, inspired by the lovely Chrissie. I visited to see her entry for the Sir Stampalot challenge and just had to have a go myself.

This was my third attempt as I tried to find some trees the right size for this A6 card (These are a Whispers/ Docrafts stamp). I love the fact there are no mats or layers - just ink! I am definitely going to try some more DI colour combos with this technique.
I'm popping this over to Once upon a Stamp tomorrow so it can be passed on to Rob and Gordon. Gordon is in hospital at the moment. you can read all about it on their blog.
Well, I'd better not stop up any longer. it has been a long day! Thanks for popping by, and it's good to be back!

Another Birthday and lots of cups of tea!

This is my Brother's Birthday card. I just brayered with B&J waterfall and used Stampscape stamps in memento london fog and tuxedo black. Very simple. Next I saw the sketch on an oldie but a goodie and thought I would have a go. I used some flowery papers from Pink Petticoat, some gingham papers from my stash and the pink spotty paper (not sure where from, but another digi download). I wasn't sure what stamp to use on the centre. It was then my eyes alighted on the most recent craft stamper with it's little teacup stamp. I got a bit carried away and this was the result...

As I said, It was gong to be an entry for an oldie but a goodie, but it is a very new stamp. Really messed up there didn't I?! Anyway, I remembered a housemouse stamp I've had for about 4 years that was also a teacup...

So here it is. Four cards before I reached my objective, but I did enjoy myself!

January Birthdays

There are a few Birthdays hot on the heels of new year in our family, so as soon as Boxing Day is over I start making cards for them. My MIL will be 86 on 4th January, and for her card I decided to do one of those half aperture swinging card things (If you know the proper name please let me know!). She is very fond of Pansy's and butterflies, so this year I've used a Hero arts butterfly, coloured with promarkers. There is a little bit of DP (MME) behind the butterfly and lots of stamping and distressing with wild Honey Distress Ink. The music background is a very old stamp from Stamporium, and the ornate corner is from Elusive Images.

My Dad also asked me to make a card for his dear friend Eric who is 80 on the 4th. They used to teach together and every Easter holiday they would disappear (along with another friend, John) for a couple of days up to the Lake District to plan the annual school camp. If I'd known a bit sooner I would've bought a camper van stamp for this one, as that is what Eric drove for many years. Anyway, the main request for this card was to have mountains on it, so what better excuse to get the brayer out!

The only stamp on this one is the 'spruce scape' from Clarity stamps.  I'll be back tomorrow with my Brother's birthday card (7th January) and a few others I've been playing with.
Steve was back at work today, so Meg and I decided we would go out for a while. We had tea and cake at Derby garden centre (very nice), a quick look in craft central there and then back to IKEA and Decathlon. What possessed me to go anywhere near IKEA? It didn't seem that busy, but it took us 45 minutes to escape from the car park! Although I guess he will never read it, I'd like to thank the bloke that let me into the queue in front of him. Might still have been there otherwise!

Recipe for Chocolate Orange Cupcakes

Well, the food marathon that is boxing day is almost at an end, so here as promised is the recipe for the Chocolate Orange cupcakes that I showed you on Christmas eve. It makes 12 muffin size cakes.

Ingredients:
2oz SR flour
2oz Cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
4oz castor sugar
4oz marg
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons orange juice
grated zest of 1/2 orange
For frosting:
 8 oz icing sugar
3 1/2 oz butter at room temperature
zest of 1/2 orange
1-2 tablespoons orange juice
Chocolate orange

Pre heat the oven to 160C/325F/ gas mark3.
Mix all cake ingredients together using an electric hand mixer until light and fluffy. Divide equally between 12 muffin cases. Bake for 20 - 25 mins or until firm on top. Set aside and leave to cool.
Beat softened butter and add icing sugar a little at a time until all combined. Add the zest and juice and beat well. Swirl onto cold cupcakes and finish with a slice of chocolate orange.

Now, chocolate oranges have 20 segments, so do you make double the quantity and leave 4 without chocolate on top, or do you make 12 and eat the 8 spare segments? I made 24 and had 16 spare segments. There's now 3 left!
We have had a lovely day with my Dad and brother coming over for lunch (Traditional Christmas Dinner) and then us all going to Steve's parent's flat and taking tea with us. As my dad and my brother no longer drive we fetch them and take them home too. I'm ready to put my feet up now! Hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas, and let me know if you make some of Terry's my cupcakes!

They're not Terry's - they're mine!

Chocolate orange cupcakes that is.

And here's one just for you...

If you would like the recipe let me know and I'll post it on my blog for you. I've also made my 'Christmas cake', which this year is a carrot cake, as I'm the only one in the house that likes fruit cake. Meg persuaded me to buy sone ivy leaf cutters, and I'm so glad she did, cos it meant I could do this...

In between baking I made my niece's Christmas card and another tipsy tree one.

Only two more presents to wrap and two cards to make... nearly there! Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and I'll be back after the weekend!

It's the holidays!!!

Finally we have finished the term, so, as promised here are a few more of my Christmas cards made at the weekend. There seems to be a bit of a colour theme going on!

 This first one features some funky fairies papers, a Marianne poinsettia die and a Martha Stewart punch. What, no stamps?! Well, I'm trying to keep them simple!

 The next two are more using the tipsy trees (woodware) and papers from my Funky hand Dreams Come True cd.

Finally this one uses a Digi image from Digistamp boutique, coloured with promarkers. The paper was a funky fairy one and the paper used for the border is a rich burgundy colour - not dark brown as it looks on the photo!
I'm off to have a nice cuppa and try to tidy my craft table a bit. Thanks for looking!

Ten cards and two cakes!

This weekend I've gone a bit crazy with making cards (just started number 11) and cakes (2 carrot cakes). We have three days left at school, but no planning required, so all my free time has been spent on cards. Here are a couple using Woodware tipsy trees...

and a couple using the holly swirls, also from Woodware.

 I'm entering this one (above) into the Allsorts Challenge for this week, where the theme is Free and easy- anything goes. If you look closely you will spot Hero Arts Old French writing, and the sentiment is an old one from Stampourium. I used Chipped Sapphire, dusty concord and tumbled glass distress inks, and stickles of course!

Now there are probably several challenges out there that I could enter besides Allsorts, but I'm afraid I just haven't got the time to look! I'll show you a few more of my cards during the week, hopefully! Roll on Wednesday!

On a roll!

Well, I've shopped till I've dropped and then come home and made a couple more cards. The first is for a friend's 40th birthday next Friday, and I decided to use the sketch on Our Creative Corner Challenge blog.

 The tree (Penny Black) was stamped with Versamagic Night Sky and embossed with Kaleidoscope embossing powder. The backgrounds (Hero Arts and Penny Black) were stamped with chipped sapphire distress ink. I added card candy, punched leaves and a flower I made from stardream paper. Besides OCCC I'm entering this into the Penny Black @ Allsorts challenge where the theme is 'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder' and for me that is trees. 

My other card is made from some offcuts of a card from my last post (woodware holly stamp). The design is one that Brenda came up with and I saw two of her samples at the Stampalot Demo day. Unfortunately I am not as skilled as Brenda is at getting things straight! I think it looks more wonky on here than it does IRL!
Now for some wonderful news!

When our new challenge at Sir Stampalot goes live on 1st January, we are also having a blog hop. We thought it would be the perfect start to the New Year and as you would expect there will be lost of prizes on offer so we hope you will all be joining in the fun.

Please grab the logo above and help us spread the word and look forward to seeing you all on 1st January.
 Finally a little celebration as my holly card from last weekend made the top three on Keep it Simple! Thanks guys!

Infrequent visits

Well, It has been nearly a week since I last posted and my visits to blogland have been sporadic to say the least. That's because I've had another week of late nights as our school panto did go ahead (despite the plummeting temperatures) a week later than it was supposed to, Commitments at Meg's school and shopping for parents/inlaws/ us. Anyway, now I've explained my absence, I'll show you what I've been up to when I have eventually got home.

 This first card is a variation on the one in my last post. I used distress inks (bundled sage, Victorian velvet and wild honey and then stamped over with a Woodware clear holly stamp in versafine black. This time I embossed with kaleidoscope embossing powder. I used stickles on the berries and added a sentiment (Paula Pascual) in a nestie circle with a punched border. I'm entering this into the Stampman challenge where the theme is Take 3 colours on a Christmas theme.

Yet another variation on the same theme I used broken china, chipped sapphire and dusty concord distress inks this time. I also used silver creative colour spray (Crafty Notions) which helped to blend the colours and give it some sparkle. I'm entering this into the Lots to do challenge, where the theme is Glitz

 The finishing touch on this one was a Marianne design flourish and a paper flower made using flower creations 3 shapeabilities (and more stickles!). I do like this colour combo!

Next is my 'simple card' for this year. I used a Marianne designs poinsettia die from Sir stampalot and a Crafts too embossing folder loaned to me by Lynne. I did use a bit of distress inks around the edge of the poinsettia, but there is no stamping  - not my usual thing at all, but okay I think! As it is so simple and quick I'm entering it into this week's Allsorts challenge where the theme is last minute Christmas, which sums me up! They are being sponsored this week by the Stampman and have great goodies on offer from Kay Carley .
I'm aiming to well and truly sort Christmas this weekend, so hopefully I can start visiting some more of your lovely blogs by next week. Have a great weekend and thanks for looking!