Saturday Supper - Kedgeree

What with Len being on foods that didn't really need much chewing lately, I made this during the week:

Kedgeree


Serves 2

½ onion, finely chopped 

55g/2oz butter

300g/10½oz basmati rice

1 tsp madras curry powder

freshly grated nutmeg

200ml/7fl oz milk

110ml/4fl oz double cream

300g/10½oz naturally smoked haddock, (NOT dyed) picked over, bones removed and flesh cut into chunks

sea salt and cracked black pepper

small bunch parsley, chopped

3 hard-boiled eggs, shelled and halved

good pinch cayenne and freshly ground nutmeg (optional) 

NB. The recipe omitted the fact that you should gently poach the fish first, I realised this thankfully and just gently poached it for about 5-10 minutes in half milk and half water. That way it's easy to flake the fish and check for any bones.

To serve

knob of butter

wedges of lemon

Cook the onion gently in the butter for a few minutes, then add the rice.

Continue cooking gently and stirring, adding the curry powder and nutmeg. After a few minutes, add the milk, cream and 250ml/9fl oz water.

When the mixture begins to simmer, add the fish and continue simmering, stirring occasionally until the rice is cooked. (You may need to add a little water if the mixture becomes dry.)

Season, add the parsley and stir. Add the eggs and garnish with cayenne and nutmeg if using. Serve topped with a knob of butter and wedges of lemon.

Another time I might just slightly increase the amount of curry powder, but not by much - just perhaps a heaped teaspoonful instead of a rounded one. I reckon you could also increase the amount of fish by half as much again - this is really a breakfast recipe and for a supper you might want just that bit more 'substance'.

And I forgot to add the parsley before I served it so just chucked it on top - and omitted the knob of butter at the serving stage. Needless to say this is a James Martin recipe - I love his recipes but always try to cut down on the amount of butter and cream he uses :)

The two-legged mouse loved it - we're still taking it easy but he was at the dentist on Thursday and is doing well apparently. Good job - I could murder a nice steak!!

Di

x

Martha Stewart was a good girl

...because, this time a packet of MS embellishments I bought in NM came with the promised 10 rather than just four lacy butterflies and six teeny gems :)

I wanted some little cards to enclose with Snippets Playground prizes etc. so made a couple of these for starters, the production line will be going to make more in different colours (mauves and pinks) as they were such fun:

I used:

- 3.75" x 3.75" square white card stock

- deep purple (aubergine really) backing paper from the snippets folder - ages ago I'd bought a pack of quite sturdy but thinner than card envelopes to punch out butterflies for some sample Wedding invitations. Another design was chosen by the happy couple so there I was with nine envelopes left to chop up and file away

- a snippet of white card

- sentiment from the SU 'Four Frames' set stamped using Memento 'Elderberry' and a LOTV stamp from the 'Small General Greetings' set - and then punched out using SU's matching punch

- one of the MS embellishments - the set is called 'Hydrangea'

Yay! It's Friday - hope you all have a great weekend.

I'm supposed to drive up to beyond Oxford for a school reunion Committee meeting to finalise plans for our Summer Reunion in June. But we're all watching the weather forecast - it's held at the National Herb Centre near Banbury. A lovely spot but, out in the wilds and very exposed, I've almost been stuck there previously in snowy conditions :( Don't fancy living on herbs for a few days......although they do sell wine I think :)

Di
x

Upcycled bear

Oh, I do prefer to use the term upcycling rather than recycling :) This is another attack on the shop-bought Christmas cards and it's for Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge, where this week's 'theme' is the letter 'P'.

Snigger, I rejected all the penguin cards we seemed to have been sent, in favour of 'paper'. The cute little bear seems to be carrying rolls of wrapping Paper, to wrap Christmas Parcels:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card stock

- papers from Echo Park's 'Seasons Greetings' pad, these are printed on both sides and so useful to mix and match

- Spellbinders dies - 'Wonky Squares' and a pennant die

- self-adhesive ribbon from Trimcraft's 'Jolly Happy Christmas' pack

- little red self-adhesive button from Hobbycraft

The 'Wonky Squares' dies are fairly new - thanks to Kath using them here. I can see these dies being the first ones to be tried when Christmas cards are being upcycled :)

Another one for the box and am also adding it to Craftyhazelnuts Christmas Extra Challenge.

Di
x

WOYWW 192 - and I need to get out more!

Sigh, looking at my desk yesterday afternoon I realised that maybe, just maybe, I truly do need to see someone about this OCD trait that jumps up and waves its arms every now and then.

Storage isn't bad in the craft room here, but the only way I can store 12" x 12" card stock is in 12" square Really Useful Boxes - flat and on a fairly high shelf. Got fed up rootling through them, especially the luscious Stampin' Up plain ones, so yesterday I took the bull by the horns and spent a happy couple of hours doing this:

The fruits of my labours - a home made colour swatch. I know, I know, SU do sell their own but this satisfied the OCD trait that wanted to come and play. The SU Stampin' Spots are there 'cos I was checking which additional colours I might want - the answer is none 'cos they've practically discontinued them :( Shame!

The storage container with the Stampin' Spots in is really for peel offs, from Hobbycraft - it holds 20 with one spare space so you can move 'em round like those games we used to play with as kids, makes it much easier to lift a little pad out.

The finished 2" x 2" swatch, tied with ribbon until I nip out to buy more book binder rings - the one lying on the desk would defy even the strongest person! I found a lot of the card colours in the snippets folder but for some colours I had to cut into a fresh sheet (ack! pain) - just a 2" strip, the remains of which are also in the SU Really Useful Box to be used to back sentiments, make flowers etc.

e

The colours are sorted into SU Collections and each one has the colour on a printed label on the back.

Err, I also have swatches for my collection of coloured ink pads - just with a swipe of colour on the front of white card and the name on the back. No need to do it for the SU ones as the card swatch does that job I think. Yup, the men in white coats could be here soon!

And, whilst ferreting round in a drawer I found this - it's a pack of two Replacement Cutting Channel Mats for Woodware's T-400 Finger Guard Trimmer. NOTE, it's the smaller 24cm one, NOT the 35cm T-200. I ordered them wrongly a while ago and, rather than throw them out, am more than happy to post free and for nothing to anyone who might have a T-400 Woodware Trimmer. Just drop me an email - di_wray@hotmail.com. If more than one person is interested, then it's first come, first served.

Now, if you want to really see fun and messy - hop over to Julia's to inspect her desk and then travel onwards to many others who will be linking in today.

Happy WOYWW!

Di
x

Less Is More - Kraft and Kreme

It's been a couple of weeks since I joined in over at Less Is More - shame on me. Happy 2nd Birthday to Chrissie, Mandi and Jen!!

As soon as I spotted this week's challenge - 'Kraft and Kreme' - I had an idea, instead of mulling possibilities over for days on end and then missing the deadline:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square Kraft card stock

- a strip of cream card from the snippets folder, stamped with a sentiment  from SU's 'Wonderful Words' set, using Memento 'Toffee Crunch'. I'm sure I bought 'Wonderful Words' as a pre-loved SU set a while ago (sounds better than second-hand) and I love it

- double embossed lines above and below the sentiment - which don't show up in the photo of course:(

- two hearts die cut using the Cuttlebug 'Concentric Hearts' die set - same as Liz won on Saturday in the Playground. The hearts were then stamped all over using Memento 'Toffee Crunch' and an 'inchie' stamp from Inkadinkado's inchies 'Flourishes' set - did the stamping after the cutting to have a fighting chance of not having huge gaps :)

- then ran the hearts through the Xyron, cut a little slit in one and looped them together before sticking onto the card - many thanks to Kath for showing this on a card she made for the Playground a few weeks ago

Hope your week is going well!

Di
x

Inspired by Charles Rennie Mackintosh

We had friends round for dinner recently and, whilst setting the table that afternoon, I suddenly remembered a neglected stamp. The connection was that I was using our lovely Charles Rennie Mackintosh place mats and coasters, bought quite a few years ago as a lovely gift by my buddy Moira - who lives near Glasgow. I've always been a fan of CRM and would love to go to the Hunterian museum in Glasgow some day, it's on my 'bucket list'.

This is the card I subsequently made with that 'neglected and never used before' stamp:

I used:

- A6 white card stock

- a large Nesties oval to cut the aperture on a piece of backing card and then I used the trick of placing the cut aperture piece over the front of the card itself, popping the Nestie back in and running it through the Cuttlebug so that the inside lines up with the front (hope that makes sense?)

- the image was stamped onto acetate with another amazing bargain from the fabulous Kraft Kabin (where Julia of WOYWW runs classes), costing all of £1, a wooden stamp by Funstamps called 'F-M66 Glasgow Nouveau 1'

- I stamped the image using StazOn and then did just a little bit of colouring using Sakura Gelly Roll pens - long neglected and almost forgotten about

- the sentiment is from a Stampendous set called 'Happy Messages' also stamped in StazOn just 'cos it was to hand. I'd looked at a few Charles Rennie websites and realised that fancy script was so not his style, hence the simplicity of the sentiment font

- then it was just a case of attaching the acetate with extra-tacky tape to the inside of the front of the card and backing it with the piece of card which also had an oval cut in it

I think this is deffo. a card which will need even just a plain folded insert so the message written to the recipient doesn't show through and spoil the 'window' effect I was looking for. Funny, the photo makes the acetate look really set back in the card - not so, it's sandwiched between the front of the card and the backing which is right behind.

Di
x

Pixies Crafty Snippets Playground - Week 58

Wow, another bumper week in the Playground! Now, I can't see me ever running out of snippets here - am sure the little perishers breed in their folder, so long may this continue.

First, my snippets card:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card stock

- backing papers from Pink Petticoat's 'Wild Blossoms' collection - one is a whole sheet slightly trimmed and the other is a snippet (if I still have a patterned paper pad I tuck the snippets under the front cover)

- blue card from the snippets folder

- my baby sewing machine - kept purely for working on card/paper

- images/sentiment are Stickeroos from the 'Young Things' sheet, the shoe is separate on the sheet but I thought it looked 'the biz' on top of the sentiment - more about Stickeroos further down this post

- baby blue ribbon with an iridescent edging from the ribbon box

- two flowers, layered and held together with a pearl brad

And here are some of the wonderful makes that caught my eye this week in the Playground:

Cathy made this little beauty - wow, some patience there, loads of teeny snippets used and a brilliant result!

Our Jules (Founder and Patron of the Playground - yay!) made this brilliant card. I have a couple of these LOTV stamps and just know that the really detailed colouring is a labour of love!

Kath brought this lovely 'January Blues' card along - love the paper piecing and that's one of my favourite Penny Black stamps - super Kath!

As I always say, each and every one of you made some beautiful cards and other makes this week - you can hop round them all by going to last week's Mr Linky thumbnails here.

Back to last week's draw, those fabby Cuttlebug dies were won by:

LIZ

I just checked the comments and Liz was hoping to win, which is great - well done! The way the hearts are interlocked is to snip one of them right across at the point where it will lie underneath the top (unsnipped) interlocked one - so the snip is hidden :)

Can you please email your address to me Liz - here - di_wray@hotmail.com and they will be popped into the post for you this week. 

As you all stuck to no more than three entries (thank you for reading the small print) I could use the Random Number Generator without having to re-jig numbers! Len showed me how to capture the results - err, I hate to admit it but I was using the Control key instead of the Function key to capture the screen, no wonder it wouldn't work :(

Anyhow, back to Penny Black Stickeroos - I carried out my threat and bought some online. I have enough to split them into seven sheets this week and seven for another week later on - thought that was fair. So this week you can win a sheet the same as the one I used for my snippets card today (it is intact 'cos I bought one for me too!) plus six others, also unsullied by yours truly:

Have tried to split/spread the styles across what I'd ordered - from the left we have the girlies, cute hedgies and other friends, two lovely florals, a quite modern looking Christmas sheet, a soft shades of browns/blues floral one (love this so much!!) and one with hearts - ready for Valentines Day.

So, if you want to join in the Playground fun and frolics and be in with a chance of winning this set of Penny Black Stickeroos - the Playground is open all of this coming week but it will close on Saturday 9th February at noon, UK time and Mr Linky is below as usual. Just enter a snippets make into the Playground this week and I'll do a draw after the Playground closes next Saturday. But, as usual I am asking for a snippets make please, maximum of three entries and please say 'No thank you' in a comment if you DON'T want to be entered.

I'll post to anywhere in the World BTW - it's open to all of you lovely Playmates, the flowers won by Brenda went all the way to Canada. And why not, blogging is a universal sport!!

Speaking of universal - our lovely Bernie in the US of has her latest blog update here. She is absolutely blown away (and upwards) by all of your lovely visits to her blog and support. From the bottom of my own heart, I love and thank you all lots and you are such stars!! I had to go into the settings in Bernie's blog to stop anonymous comments (and therefore, with luck, the dreaded spam) - have just done the same on mine too. What beats me is WHY they think an old biddy like me would want Viagra?! A large G & T works a treat :))

Di
x

Saturday Supper - Spicy Pea and Lentil Soup

I made this really yummy soup yesterday evening for Len - who says he's doing fine and thank you!

Spicy Pea and Lentil Soup

Serves 4

1 onion (chopped)
150 grams potatoes (peeled and sliced)
800 ml vegetable stock (hot)
350 grams frozen peas
400 can of green lentils (drained)
2 rounded tsps curry powder (mild)
1 tbsp oil

Heat oil in a big pan and cook onion until soft. Add curry powder and cook over a low heat for one minute.

Add potatoes and stock, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Then add peas and lentils.

Return to boil and simmer for another 5 minutes

Purée the soup or blend until not quite smooth and season to taste.

The two-legged mouse 'woofed' it down, and then trotted back for more - under normal circumstances I wouldn't blend it until really smooth of course, although it didn't spoil the mildly spicy flavour at all. And we'd have fresh crusty bread - aren't I kind cutting the crusts off (the birdies are loving it).

The Snippets Playground closes at noon - just to give me time to sweep up the sweetie wrappers, collect up discarded hair ribbons (which I'll wash, iron and pop into the lost property box in the Playhouse if you're missing any) and also some time to calm the donkey down! A bottle or two of Newcastle Brown Ale should do the trick.

Di
x

A Friday Smile for Annie and almost missed the deadline......

....for Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge 109 where the theme is 'Nativity', just squeezed in on the last day:

I used:

- A5 gold edged cream card stock

- 'up-cycled' image, chopped from a 2012 Christmas card 

- gold mirri card to back the image and the backing paper (which was a freebie not so long ago)

- a vertical strip of gold mirri card so the deep purple/aubergine ribbon stands out

- gold Card Candi

And it's a new month over at Hazel's monthly Christmas Extra Challenge, where it's always 'Anything goes' so I could even be first to play this month.


A special friend called Helena emailed me this and am still giggling here:

It's the caption that sets me off every time I look at it :) So, it's for Annie's Friday Smile.

Being of a curious nature and wanting answers to everything, I Googled to see which was faster - and found that the cheetah can run at 70mph and an ostrich at 40mph :( Then, I spotted the story behind the photo itself.

It's genuine (the caption was added by some wag later) but in fact the cheetah was chasing a hare which is out of the shit shot. The ostrich of course didn't know this and legged it - well, would you have waited to be introduced? Apparently, when it began to tire, the ostrich turned on the cheetah - who then promptly also legged it, back the way it came :) Result, cheetah belting in the opposite direction (probably muttering 'sh*tsh*tsh*tsh*t' to itself), one very bemused and weary ostrich left standing......................and the hare got away. I love a happy ending!!

This will post at midnight Thursday/Friday but am off to bed right now (8:30 pm for goodness sakes!!) as I have a wounded soldier here, needing some TLC after a nasty tooth extraction with some embroidery work by the dentist thrown in just to complicate it - so I'll do the links once we're up and about on Friday morning. Sigh, how many ways can you scramble eggs?

Have a super weekend, whatever you have planned :)

Di
x

Triple stamping - first play

Hmmm, I think I was better at the triple jump, but this was a first try:

I used:

- 6" x 5" white card stock

- white card for stamping on

- SU 'Certainly Celery' card

- stamp set called 'Flowers - by Rhonna Farrer' made by Autumn Leaves

- SU ink pads in 'Certainly Celery' and 'Rich Razzleberry'

- sentiment by Stampendous from the 'Happy Messages' set, stamped using Memento 'Tuxedo Black'

- a snippet of green grosgrain ribbon

This was such fun to make, thanks to Sarn for showing on her blog earlier this week.

Ack, then I hit problems properly lining the things up - totally my fault trying to rush so I ended up doing some trimming round the outside edge of the bottom layer of 'Certainly Celery' - BIG mistake :( But it really is such a great technique if you don't have a squint in one eye :)) Nip over to Sarn's if you want to see one properly done!

Di
x

WOYWW - 191

Taken when I trotted back home yesterday after an afternoon crafting with a friend:

Sigh, this is becoming an all too familiar sight, abandoned coffee cup when I dropped everything and ran off to play, basket of cards at the back waiting for inserts and scribbled notes all over.

The flowers were given to me by my crafting friend yesterday afternoon - 90 Kaiser flowers in lovely Christmassy colours (sshhhhh, she doesn't know what she just gave away).

There are a couple of new Clarity stamps ready to be played with, once I face the brayer challenge again, plus a mahoooosive one further back. I almost had the vapours when I saw the size of it but it turns out to either be a wrong code on their website or a wrong pick at dispatch. BUT, how about this for service - when I rang Clarity to speak about it, they said straight away they'd send the correct size out and I should just keep the bigger one! That's what I call getting Brownie points from a happy customer. Particularly as the big stamp would be of interest to others so will be a prize in the Playground sometime :)

OK, that's me for WOYWW - do hop over to Julia's to see what others are up to.

Di
x

Spring Bringer and my 800th post!

In fact, it's more than 800 because I've deleted a few older ones plus some that were a constant target for spammers. Despite the spam going into the spam comments on my dashboard I did get some pleasure out of deleting the posts that were being targeted. Grump, grump :(

The Hobby House have some lovely pre-coloured card toppers, I was mooching round their online shop for something totally different (Kenny K images for boys) needless to say, when this little cutie hopped into my basket as well:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card stock

- backing paper by Pink Petticoat from the 'Vintage Rose' collection - free with Quick Cards Made Easy magazine, and still one of my favourite paper packs

- image from the Hobby House set called 'Spring Bringer'

- doily die cut using DL102 'French Pastry' die by Cheery Lyn

- pink 'lacy' strip die cut using Marianne Creatables LR0155 and a snippet of pale sugar pink card - it's a shade I love but very hard to track down

- pink ribbon from my ribbon box, threaded through the 'lace' (and promptly hidden when the doily was added!) and tied in a bow

- heart shaped charm with the words 'Made with Love' engraved on, tied with iridescent cord and a bow

- sentiment by Craftwork Cards, mounted onto a larger oval punched with SU punch from a little snippet of the pink card

- lace butterfly by Martha Stewart, bought in Michaels in NM. Ha, and a bit of a swizz 'cos it says nine pieces on the packet, FIVE of which are just clear gemstones - good job that they were on offer so I bought two!

- and, as a finishing touch a hand made rose

I'm also entering this into the current Cheery Lynn challenge, which is 'Tickled Pink'.

Di
x

Rudolph Day - January 2013

So where did the last month since Christmas run off to? Sarn's monthly Rudolph Day challenge, which starts on the 25th of every month through to the end of that month, is a great way to make your Christmas cards throughout the year.

I used:

- 6" x 6" square cream card stock

- image from a delightful 2012 shop bought Christmas card - it didn't need trimming or anything, just gently prising from the front of the card

- papers from My Minds Eye 'All is Bright' pad

- embroidered brad is from Papermania's Henbury Lane 'Poinsettia' set - in real life it picks up the pale turquoise of one of the parcels on the image

- two strips of self-adhesive ribbon from a Dovecraft 'Jolly Happy Christmas' pack

- sentiment by Craftwork Cards

Another great challenge is also run monthly by Hazel, over at Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Extra Challenge. Plus, each week Hazel runs a weekly challenge with a theme to tax you just that bit more.

Absolutely no reason at all not to play and make your 2013 Christmas cards in good time, spread over the year :) I just worked out that if you make just one card for each of these challenges you'd have 70 in time for next Christmas - it's gotta be a bit of a stress buster surely?

This card is for Sarn's Rudolph Day and Hazel's Christmas Extra Challenge.

Hope you all had a good weekend - the white stuff has totally disappeared from here, phew :)

Di
x

Pixie's Crafty Snippets - Week 57

Yikes, this post almost didn't get written - but I cleverly washed all the tiled floors downstairs and mopped my way right to the bottom of the stairs so I could nip into the craft room and do a quick post while they dried, me not totally daft.

First, my snippets card:

It's a bit of a cheat 'cos the only real snippets are a couple of pieces of ribbon that were lying on the desk.

I used:

- 8" x 8" card stock with the front totally covered in a whole sheet of Raspberry Road backing paper, which came free with Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine - ages ago

- the most fabulous tag - absolutely NOT my own work although I did replace the ribbon. It was made by Dee (aka Peggy when she comments) along with two others quite some time ago - she doesn't have a blog as yet and is too busy even if I set her one up, but I live in hopes 'cos I'm sure she has some lovely work to share!

- the other piece of ribbon was just tied around the spine of the card

I thought the paper and the tag just screamed out to be used together - thank you again Dee!

I got Len to do the draw before he went out (for fear of being mopped down I suspect) and the winner of all those lovely flowers is:

Brenda B

Congratulations Brenda! Hope you have fun using them - and perhaps show us a result sometime soon.

I think this week has been the busiest I've known in the Playground - perhaps it was all the snow confining us to our craft rooms :)

Some makes which caught my eye:

A stunning grandfather clock, with workings plus two albums - the smallest one fits into a secret compartment! How clever is that? It was made by Bubbles of Patchwork Apples - it's great to see you blogging again honey and welcome to the Playground.

 

This lovely card was made by Mary H - using a paper napkin! There's a link in her posting which shows how to do it - fabulous!

 

Laura made this fabulous white on white anniversary card - it's just perfect!

And, just to make you smile - cheeky Sam made this 'snow chook' during the snow we had last week:

 

Once again - some brilliant entries, I just wish I could cover every single one - but to see them all you can always go to last week's posting here.

And finally - here's a card from two weeks ago:

 

It was made by Kath of 'Handmade by Kath' and I fell in love with the way the die cut hearts had been interlocked by Kath. So clever - and what d'you know, the draw for this coming week is................................

A set of Cuttlebug Concentric Hearts diesthe same as Kath used - just in time for Valentine's Day. I loved them so much that I found myself dropping two sets into the online shopping basket so you could have a chance :)

So, if you want to join in the Playground fun and frolics and be in with a chance of winning this set of dies - the Playground is open all of this coming week but it will close on Saturday 2nd February at noon, UK time and Mr Linky is below as usual. Just enter a snippets make into the Playground this week and I'll do a draw after the Playground closes next Saturday. But, I am asking for a snippets make please, maximum of three entries and please say 'No thank you' in a comment if you DON'T want to be entered.

I'll post to anywhere in the World BTW - it's open to all of you lovely Playmates, the flowers won by Brenda will be going all the way to Canada.

Remember, it's Rudolph Day over at Sarn's until the end of January - that's on my 'to do list' for today.

Di

x

Saturday Supper - Beef 'n' Beer Casserole with Herby Dumplings

One for the current cold weather:

Beef 'n' Beer Casserole with Herby Dumplings

Serves 4

2lb (900g) beef braising steak or shin beef
3 large British carrots cut into chunks
Half a bottle (ie. half a pint/500ml) strong beer like Black Sheep 'Riggwelter'
1 pint (500 ml) beef stock
1 tbsp tomato puree
Dash of Worcestershire Sauce

Dumplings
3 tbsp beef suet (although I always use vegetarian suet)
6 tbsp self raising flour
Good pinch dried herbs
Cold water to mix to a stiff paste

Cut off excess fat from the meat and cut into 1-inch cubes. Lightly dust with seasoned flour and place in a casserole dish or slow cooker. Add all other casserole ingredients.

Cook in a low oven (130 degree C) for around 3-4 hours or in a slow cooker on high for 6-7 hours.

Approx 40 minutes before the end of cooking (or one and a half hours in a slow cooker) add dumplings to casserole.

Serve with a selection of vegetables or in a giant Yorkshire pudding.

To be honest, this is really a glorified plain old stew/beef casserole - but the beer does add something extra!

Things I did: For two of us I halved the recipe - of course! The casserole was cooked in the oven, mostly as I remembered too late to set it going in the slow cooker. And we didn't have the giant Yorkshire puddings - much as I adore them it would have been waaaay too greedy to have dumplings plus Yorkshire pudding!

By the way, for those of you in the UK, have you seen the new 'Aunt Bessie's' boat shaped Yorkshire puddings? They are a brilliant way to cheat and make toad in the hole!

Have a lovely day - and those of you in the North especially, I hope you're coping with the snow. It did tickle me a bit this morning when I read that during the overnight blockage on the M6 motorway which stranded a lot of motorists, apparently a couple got out of their vehicle and built a snowman!

Di
x

A touch of the Orient

Apparently, if you watch certain craft shows on tee vee, we're going back into the 'Oriental look' - that totally serves me right for throwing, yes throwing, out some oriental papers just last week :(

This is a card I rustled up yesterday:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square card stock

- Penny Black Stickeroos from the 'Unfolding' sheet

- totally perfectly matching backing paper (even if I say it meself) - from the Prima 'Firefly' paper stack

- green and maroon plain backing card behind the Stickeroos

- black Josy Rose nail heads

So it was really just a matter of picking, matching, cutting and sticking :)

I can see we're gonna have to have a Snippets Playground draw for some Stickeroos soon! I'm off to have a hunt on the internet to see what I can find :))

Di
x

Sunset or sunrise?

I dunno, could be either I guess:

This is the finished card that was still in progress yesterday on WOYWW - in the end I kept the whole thing reasonably uncluttered and let the image do most of the work, especially after the hours I toiled over it :)

I used:

- 7" x 5" white card stock, with four lines scored, two above and two below the ribbons

- the image - for which (apart from blood,  sweat and tears) I used Clarity White Silk finish card, the 'brayer' (aka by Sarn as 'the tool of the Devil'!), Adirondack ink pads in 'Peach Bellini' and 'Salmon' plus a very old multi-blues pad, stamp by Clarity called 'Spruce Scene' and Memento 'Tuxedo Black'. Yesterday's post explained how I did the reflection - and yes,  I had spotted that using a clear acrylic block was an option but the cello bag method works a treat  - and I suspect could be less prone to slipping/smudging, truly I'm quite clumsy!

- peach and turquoise ribbons layered, from the ribbon box

- Craftwork Cards sentiment, mounted onto an oval of black card

Di
x

WOYWW 190 - and a revelation

My desk yesterday before I trotted out to the Post Office. I'd brayered and stamped a scene for the very first time then got sidetracked with the 'Less Is More' challenge so had returned to 'the scene of the crime' and was fiddling round thinking about how to best make a card:

It's been a bit of a learning curve but following Shaz's brilliant tutorial along with using my new little helper in here, known as the Splodge Away Blending Mat (thank you for nudging me into getting one Sarn!), a lot of the angst and hair tearing was chased away. A loooong way to go with practising to get colours graduating properly I know but this was the best one I could manage:

Bwah, ha, ha - I didn't have a little 'birds in flight' stamp so hand drew what looks to me like some very overfed eagles....you wouldn't wanna be pooped on by these :( Little Clarity 'birds in flight' stamp now on order.

But, on this journey of discovery I then wondered how to tackle the stamped reflection. As you know, I have an intense dislike for don't get on with the brayer too well and the thought of pushing Mr Luck and brayering the reversed image like many folk do just made my teeth itch.

Wahoooo - a revelation!! Whilst Googling I stumbled across a technique that's too good not to share - it sort of blew me away in its simplicity, and I do know that lots of you might just sigh and say you already do 'reflections' this way but I'm gonna share anyhow!

Ha! Watching Create and Craft TV whilst ironing in the kitchen yesterday afternoon I saw a demo where the person doing the demo merely turned the card round by 180 degrees and stamped a second time - the result wasn't a true mirror image. Len rushed to see why I was waving the iron round shouting at the TV 'No, no!!!!' :)

So this is what my revelation was - stamp your main image onto your chosen piece of 'already brayered with a background' card, then re-ink the stamp and stamp onto a cellophane bag - one used to package cards in would be perfect:

This is the cello bag with the stamped image on, just laid down on some spare card so you can see - snort, and also see me reflected taking the photo :)

Then, take your piece of 'backgrounded' card with the previously stamped image on, flip over the cello bag with the same stamped image on so it's ink side down, line up the lower edge of the image and gently rub your hand over the bag  - or you could let the brayer play and use that I guess, just in case it sulks.

Hey presto - my little practise:

Easy as pie! I used Memento Tuxedo Black for both lots of stamping but for a softer reflection I might try Memento 'London Fog' for the cello bag stamping step.

The wavy black background for the image has been rejected here in favour of simplicity - but the card remains unfinished, until I get time to play today, so it's hopefully gonna be in tomorrow's blog post if you want to see the finished card plus list of 'ingredients'.

Right, off you go to Queen Julia's now and then onwards to see what other WOYWWers have been up to. Have a great day!

Di
x

Good friends

....are the best!

I love this sentiment, so it was a bit of a no-brainer when I spotted this week's 'Less Is More Challenge' - which is 'Friends':

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card stock - and without even stopping to think about it or fretting, it's a one layer card :)

- Elzybells stamp called 'Hugs' - bought from the Netherlands when I found an online supplier with some (very limited) stock last year - coloured with Pro Markers

- sentiment and the little flower ('cos I thought the leaves echoed the curls on the girlie's hair) are both from the 'Good Friends' set by Hero Arts

- light green Josy Rose nail heads in the corners

Di
x

Recycle or use something free

....that's the current challenge over at Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge. So, I turned to Christmas cards from 2011 - such a hoarder here :(

Hmm, the lurex ribbon is gold and the card stock I used is cream, plus the greens are a perfect match , truly - must be the reflection of the snow bouncing back, how peculiar!

I used:

- 6" x 6" cream card stock

- image from a Christmas card, layered onto red and then gold card

- backing paper which I've had for years, think it originally came from Craft Creations

- red and gold ribbons from the ribbon box

And this is also being linked into Hazel's other challenge - it's run monthly and you have free rein so long as it's Christmas - Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra. 

Don't forget - it's Rudolph Day over at Sarn's later this week too!

Oooer, I've been playing with the brayer here - got a lot of practise to get in yet but might even be brave enough to show my first result once it's been made into a card :)

They say more snow is on the way, we might escape this time but are just on the edge so, knowing our luck, there'll be more of the white stuff - sigh.

Di
x

Pixie's Crafty Snippets - Week 56

As always, my own snippets card first:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card stock

- Penny Black Stickeroo from the ''It's a Boy' sheet

- snippets of blue SU 'Marina Mist' card plus another paler one which might be 'Baja Breeze'

- a lace corner below the image, stamped using the Joanna Sheen 'Live Each Moment' set onto a snippet of white card  SU's 'Baja Breeze' then trimmed wiv little scissors

- sentiment is from the SU 'Petite Pairs' set, stamped using 'Marina Mist', punched with a SU circle punch and mounted onto a scalloped circle

- two 7" snippets of blue gingham ribbon - tying the bow was fun and very fiddly with such a short piece I can tell you!

- a selection of Wild Orchid flowers. The wire twists are just snipped from the flower stems and curled round a poky tool - the frondy leaves were punched. The punch hates card so I just coloured some paper using a Pro Marker before punching them out

- pearls from the 'gem box'

- plaster for the finger I burnt using the glue gun came from the First Aid box - just checking you're still reading :)

OK, so the flowers are truly taxing for me to use - this will be confirmed further down this post. Bev Rochester need have no fear of competition from this quarter for sure!

And now, the Playground - well, what a busy week. In between the excitement of Darnell's wedding anniversary, plus the snow here in the UK - we also had some wonderfully heartening news from our Bernie, so keep those prayers and positive thoughts going girls.

We had 41 lovely makes brought to the Playground this week - and these are the ones that especially caught my eye:

Both the above were posted by Victoria - what a fabulous butterfly canvas and such a great use of snippets!  Along with others, I almost had an accident laughing at Jeff the dog :)

Viv linked the above card - absolutely gorgeous - and the doily had almost been thrown out 'cos one edge was crumpled! Swift bit of chopping and what a lovely card resulted!

And a little Playmate tiptoed into the Playground this week - please welcome Debbie back, I know some of you already have been over to say 'Hello'. Debbie, bless her, suffers from a lack of confidence in her gorgeous work so I was delighted to see her coming to play again and to show the above fabulous tag book/card, please do hop over - and while you're there take a peek at the beautiful icing flowers she makes - one very talented lady!

ALL of your makes were gorgeous as always girls!

OK, so the little draw for the Paperarsy  PaperArtsy stamp.

I have to admit I squeaked when I saw whose name popped up this week - it's not her first win, but I do know the prize will be well loved, used a lot and was very much wanted. It was drawn fair and square using the Random number generator (Len hasn't found time to help me with Linux Gimp yet to show the results, he was shovelling snow when I typed this) so I do hope you'll all be pleased for:

Sam aka Hettie

Right, back to those flowers! Kath, of 'Plain and Simple', and I both have quite similar thoughts about crafting - ha, but not always about my recipes on Friday Feast though, eh Kath?! :)

We both struggle with adding flowers to cards - especially the admittedly fabulous Wild Orchid ones, and Kath has 'thrown in the towel'. A mahoosive box of flowers arrived from her the week before last to offer as a lovely giveaway - and I added some of my own as well as I've also thrown in my face cloth, whilst retaining some opened packets, and hate to see goodies just languishing :)

There are 14 packets in this little haul now - ranging from large, medium, small and tiny roses through to cherry blossoms, calla lilies and even some Christmas roses and white poinsettias.

So, if you want to join in the Playground fun and frolics and be in with a chance of winning this little 'florist shop' - the Playground is open all of this coming week but it will close on Saturday 26th January at noon, UK time and Mr Linky is below as usual. Just enter a snippets make into the Playground this week and I'll do a draw after the Playground closes next Saturday. But, I am asking for a snippets make please, maximum of three entries and please say 'No thank you' in a comment if you DON'T want to be entered 'cos once again I do realise that not all of you are into adding these sorts of flowers to your 'makes'. You can of course enter as many snippets makes as you like but only a maximum of three goes will be counted.

I'll post to anywhere in the World BTW - it's open to all of you lovely Playmates.

I'd like to enter my own snippets card into the following challenges:

Penny Black Saturday January Challenge which is 'January Blues'

Allsorts Challenge - Week 190 - 'Flower Power'

Hope you all have a lovely week!

Di
x

A Saturday quickie

So fast to whip up - even at my snail's pace:

I used:

- bits from a Kan Ban card kit called 'Special Moments', found whilst sorting out the craft room here - the card is just one of the backing sheets trimmed, scored  and folded in half to A5 size

- a few self-adhesive pearls

We had about 6" of snow here yesterday in the end - hope you're all keeping warm and safe!

Di
x

And the jury is out here

........my 'in-house' critic says this card is too sombre - it's the black he doesn't like. He can now be visited between 2 and 6 pm in our local hospital - his broken nose will heal fine they say but the limbs in traction could take a while longer :)

The reason I did a black background was 'cos I had a lovely new stamp set and ink from Santa:

The reason Santa was so good was because, after much questioning of yours truly, he discovered there was something on my wish list to play with - usually I dance around the subject until he gets fed up and just shops anyhow :(

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white linen card stock

- apricot backing card from the snippets folder

- A5 Clarity Black Coated card - primarily bought, along with some Clarity white card and (yay!) a Splodge Mat, to face the 'brayer bush tucker trial' soon. Ack, perhaps a handful of grubs to eat would be preferable 'cos that brayer still hates me

- Santa's gift of a  Joanna Sheen stamp set called 'Live Each Moment' plus StazOn Cotton White ink pad. The stamp set comes with four stamps - I love the long lace border and think it could be good to use with all sorts of coloured inkpads - in the long run a saving on real lace as well as the cost of postage

- sentiment from the same set - badly stamped but hey, my excuse is that I was just playing around

- a hand made rose and butterfly, both in apricot

Soon be time to pull on those big girl pants and face the brayer - our snippets playmate Shaz in Oz did a tutorial on her blog a while ago here - the results are fabulous and I'll be sitting here with it on-screen, trust me!

Di
x