A little bit distressed.

I came home on Friday to find that my stash had arrived and was waiting for me at home. I now have so many cute Elzybell stamps, buttons and inks. It is such a shame that Elzybell has closed, her stamps are certainly ones to make you smile. I also received my parcel from Oyster stamps of Tim Holtz distressing inks. I must say that Oyster stamps are brilliant. Next day delivery and cheaper than anywhere else on these inks. Highly recommend.

It was a good end to a slow day!  

Saturday I managed to catch up on a lot of sleep and my lovely chappie Al, put up a hanging rack and created a shelf for my desk in the spare room. At last I have some much needed space to work on. I haven't quite got it like I would like at the moment but my crafty space is taking shape. I just need some paper and ribbon storage. 

These pots are ideal for all my pens.

The shelf that Al made and my Ikea hanging rack.

Whilst Al was busying himself sorting out the rack and shelf I spent some time making some loaves, Aubergine parmigiana, Cauliflower cheese, mushroom stroganoff and a veggie stew. You must be thinking that that is some feast we were having. I had a load of stuff that needed to be used fairly quickly, cooked them up and froze them. Looks like that is most of the weeks teas sorted!

Will have to post some photos of the mini loaves I made...they look so fab!

Today has been a slow one. Overnight I have felt quite poorly with congestion, chesty cough and a crampy stomach. So I have taken things on the easy side for once. Shame as I was hoping to tidy up the back garden as the cold weather starts to take hold. The garden has been a productive one this year. We still have beans, courgettes, chard, spinach, lettuce, beetroot and sprouting still growing. We have had some lovely veg from the plot and lots of lovely bees and butterflies buzzing around too. Sadly the hogs that we spent all last Summer and Autumn taking care of, seem to have vanished. We think that the ones we spotted squashed on the main road may be them. I can't even bear to think about it. I miss them and their hoggy ways :(

I was itching however to have a go with the Tim Holtz inks and some of the stamps I bought, so I sneaked upstairs and had a go with them. I totally forgot to get a blending tool, so I had to make do with stamping some of the inks onto an acrylic block, spritzing some water and placing some watercolour paper on top. I pressed down and then gently lifted it off. The inks had merged and mingled to create a nice wash effect. I used my fingers to spread some of the ink globs a little and then wiped off the excess. I love the washed effect on the page. I dried the paper, trimmed it and then used it for a background. I then used a lovely unmounted rubber stamp from Elzybell of a loveable dog and bee on some white card. I washed it with some more of Tim's inks and the watercolour was great. I added an Elzybell 'Happy Birthday' clear stamp to finish it off. Good thing too as I realised it was my mum's boyfriends birthday this week! 

Here is the result..

Right I am going to slope off and grab some food, a lovely hot choc and settle down and watch some tv. Have a great weekend, whats left of it folks...!

Till next time

xx

The dove from above

I liked the pink paper and the dove from the last card making session so much I thought I would use them again in a slightly different way. I saw a card on the Hero Arts website idea gallery which used one of the 'Two Peas in a bucket' Big Owl for the main centrepiece. Here is my inspiration

I loved the layout of the card, so I thought I would adopt this, replaced the owl with the dove and used different papers for mine. I also added some snowflakes on the Kraft, which I embossed with some glittery holographic powder. You can't see it very well on the photo. You also can't see what a mess I made doing it. I now have glittery trousers and look like a throwback from Abba.

It is a little on the busy side but was a nice little project for the night nevertheless.

Supplies: Snowflake and Joy stamps from Stampin Up
Dove stamp from a bargain bucket in The Range
Kraft card-Stampin Up
Ribbon and embossing powder from selection at The Range
Selection of papers from Dovecraft Christmas Fancy paper stack

After I fiddled about with this, I then found I had a very cool cutout of a dove in some kraft card. I couldn't let this go to waste so I made a little gift tag for Christmas. 

Waste not want not and all that! It is quite simple but looks effective. I like it so much I think I may have to make some more. 

Made from Kraft card-Stampin Up, Sentiment stamps from PTI and ribbon from selection in The Range

I am kind of excited at the moment, as I am waiting on some clear stamps, buttons and ink from the old Elzybells website. Unfortunately Elzybells decided to close its doors. I managed to find the website before it closed and purchased a lot of the reduced stock. It is a shame that the store had to close as it sold some fun stamps. I will post some photos when they have arrived and I have had some fun playing with them. 

I also have been itching to have a go at Tim Holtz's distressed ink. The techniques you can use with his products look really cool. When I was searching the web I found Oyster stamps which seemed to be selling the ink a lot cheaper than other crafting stores online. The website is a bit on the disorganised side, but nevertheless they have some fab finds. I am now waiting on a selection of distressed inks and stickles and can't wait to have a go. 

With Stampin Up's new catalogue and also PTI's launch coming up, I think it will be an expensive month. I have seen some wonderful stuff in Stampin Up and also love the sneak peaks for the October stamps on PTI. The designs for the friendship jars on Mish Mash's site are wonderful. Choices choices!!!!! Oh well my birthday is in December so perhaps the crafting fairy will be kind to me!

Christmas paper tearing

Supplies: Kraft card-Stampin Up, Tall Tales designer paper-Stampin Up, Ribbon-Stampin Up, Sentiments and Christmas Tree stamps-Merry and Bright Additions PTI, & Beyond Basic Borders-PTI

I was on a bit of a roll with paper tearing and decided to use some more of my Stampin Up stash to create a couple of Christmas cards. The above card was inspired by one I had seen on the Hero Arts website. I was going to stitch along the wavy line but the sewing machine starting to play up so I covered up the holes by using some ribbon!

The card below is my favourite of the weekend make. I picked up the dove stamp for 50p in a bargain bucket in The Range.

Snowdrift joy

I stamped the dove onto some Kraft card with some clear ink and embossed it. The fab snowflake paper is from Dovecraft's Christmas Fancy paper stack.
I cut the small branch from a scrap I had. I had the great Joy stamp from Stampin Up and didn't quite have the right coloured ink so I mixed a red and white ink. It was surprised it turned out as well as it did. I didn't have any ribbon that seemed to suit the card so I cut some more of the card scrap I used for the branch and voila. I think it works quite well.

Till next time
x

Earthy colours

Supplies: Blue & Green Paper-the Paper Shop, Kraft-Stampin Up
Tall Tales designer paper-Stampin Up
Sentiment stamp: Beyond Border Basics-PTI
Ribbon: Stampin Up

Finally I got to use some of the stash that I bought from Stampin Up. I thought this was a cute way to use some of the paper. I seem to like using lots of Earthy colours at the moment. My stitching is getting a little better. It seemed to be a day for things to mess up a bit, as the sewing machine started to go a bit haywire after this. I pulled it apart and then put it back together again and it seemed to work. Still have no idea what the problem was!

Make me smile

I thought I would give some paper tearing a go to create a card for my gran. I didn't in fact send it in the end, but I might send it to her one day out of the blue just to make her smile. I am in desperate need of some decent ink as the ones I have are useless and frustrating me. Hopefully get some soon and make my life a lot easier.

Supplies: Paper from The Paper Shop
Stamps: Sentiment from All About You Additions-PTI, Flowers-Honey Bee PTI,
Ribbon: Stampin Up

Up, up away

I had quite a few scraps of coloured card and paper kicking about and thought I would do a quick and simple balloon inspired card. I thought it would be quick, that was until my round punch that I purchased recently from Papertrey Ink started to play up. I have now managed to get it sorted thankfully.

So here we go...

Supplies:
Range of paper from the Paper shop,
Bow from The Range
Stamp: Beyond basic borders-Papertrey Ink

Recipe challenge continues

Well the recipe challenge has been gong great guns I have to say. Yes we did relent and have a takeaway on one of the nights, but this girl is allowed a night off, yes?

The last couple of weeks have been hectic at work and I have had a stinking cold to top it off nicely. I came close to losing my voice a couple of times but managed to plod on regardless. For some unknown reason last week, I felt like I had worked an extra day. The week just seemed to drag way too much. I managed to finally clear my rather untidy desk at work of all the paperwork that was threatening to fall on top of me. So satisfying. I even managed to play a great game of 'dancing unknowns'. You might well ask what this is....well let me tell you. Where I work, my office has a big glass window looking onto the reception area. You can't hear the conversations outside the office but you can see people. I noticed the other day when I was having my lunch that people are very animated when they speak in the reception. I decided to put some dance music to see if the animated body movements would work with the music. Sure enough it did and let me tell you it is a great game. Warning, it can made you laugh a lot. We had 'Groove is in the Heart' playing and it worked perfectly. The result was two caseworkers crying with laughter for most of the morning. It was just what the doctor ordered after a couple of tough weeks.

Last weekend my chappie's mother stayed, so I made rather a lot of food. On the Saturday we had homemade Apricot and Hazelnut bread with some Lentil soup. At the night time my chappie and his mum had Chicken and mushroom casserole with baked pots. On the Sunday I made roast pork, sauteed greens with caraway seeds, maple carrots, roast spuds and homemade veg gravy. I had my fav Veggie Toad in the Hole. Then to top it off we had a New York Cheesecake. Chappie's mum was impressed and left very happy after her weekend here. I was totally knackered though!

This week we decided to have a go at making some bagels from the Good Food website. I love a good bagel and have always wondered how to make them. You simply make a bread dough, but before baking in the oven you have to blanch them in boiling water. They turned out pretty well for the first time and provided me with some sarnies for work.

Sesame, poppy and pumpkin seeded bagels

This weekend I decided to have a go at using Cornmeal, something I have never used in cooking before. I found a good recipe in one of my cookbooks for Tamale pie, which is a combination of cornmeal, sweetcorn, stock, tomatoes, spices, chilli and cheese. I accompanied this with some cornbread. When we were shopping in Lidl we noticed some mini bread pans which were ideal for the cornbread. They turned out perfect and were tasty dipped in the Tamale Pie. 

Large and small loaves of cornbread and some onion and cheese bread

Seeing as I was making bread anyway, I found another recipe for Onion and Cheese bread. They were simple to make but to be honest they were like mini pizzas! Delicious nevertheless. 

Till next time 

x