2012

A guid new year to ane an' a' 
An' mony may ye see, 
An' during a' the years to come, 
O happy may ye be. 
An' may ye ne'er hae cause to mourn, 
To sigh or shed a tear; 
To ane an'a baith great an' sma' 
A hearty guid New year.

Have a great Hogmanay everyone, and may your first-foot be tall, dark and handsome! xxx

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all my friends.  If some of you are wondering why you did not get a card this year, my family decided to get back to the real meaning of Christmas so I decided to give the money I would have spent making cards to Charity this year, it went to Salt and Light an organisation who has managed to get ladies of the evening off the streets, clean and dry and living a good life, some are back with their families. 

So God bless you and have a wonderful Christmas full of Peace, Joy and Love.

Cheaters Christmas Cake

Cooking Time: About 2.5 hours

Preheat oven 120 degrees C (works out at 248 degrees F)

1Kg(2.2 lbs) Bag of Mixed Dried Fruit (Currents, Raisins, Mixed Citrus Peel etc)

600ml Chocolate Milk

2 Cups of Self Raising Flour (or use Plain Flour and add 2 Teaspoons of Baking Powder)

2 Tablespoons of Apricot Jam (melted)

Assorted Nuts and Dried Fruit (for decorating)

 

Mix dried fruit and choc milk put in fridge for 8 hours

Add flour and mix

Place in baking  tin (I use a round one)

 

 

Bake for 2 - 2.5 hours until skewer comes out clean

Cool cooked cake and apply warmed jam on top

Then decorate with nuts and dried fruit

Tuck in

Cutting equipment

OK here is the start of what does a crafter need and the first thing is cutting equipment.

There are some rules to follow:
(I may be telling folks what they know but several youngsters have asked for basic crafting info so please bear with me)

a) no blood allowed
b) when dealing with scissors point away and down is the best rule.
c) no walking or running whilst holding scissors with fingers in handles - ask me why I know that
    hmmmm - it is so easy to trip and stab yourself
d) when passing scissors to others pass with the handle to the person
e) store them safely when not in use even if you are working with them, close the scissors and put them
    in a box even when working with them - that means you can find them again
f) not to be used to pry things open

 OK what have I got that I needed:

1) small pair for cutting small areas out
2) paper scissors
3) ribbon scissors (I have found that my paper scissors after a while dont really cut ribbon cleanly)
4) general purpose scissors for cutting wire, card etc
4) craft knife and metal ruler - good for cutting things like chipboard and does not blunt your scissors
  under 16 get adult to supervise or even better get adult to do it for you

Be aware whilst Tim Holtz scissors are fab they have a tiny serrated edge to them and can leave this edge on the paper fine if you want that.

When I cut I turn the paper not the scissors to get a neat finish.
Also a good cutting machine. 
I use fiskars but there are loads on the market find one that suits how you work,  for me I love them as I cannot cut a straight line save myself and also if I need to cut several the same size it is excellent.  Get one that can take 12 x 12 paper length.

Some cutting machines also have scoring tools to put into them worth it to save you initially having to buy a scoring board.

Beginners stuff

I have been asked to do a sort of beginners bit in my blog what is the best things, how to do etc so if you have any ideas please let me know. TTFN

Chocolate Mug Cake

OK Lads and Lassies you asked for the recipe here it is

1 coffee Mug ng list

4 tablespoons flour (that's plain flour, not self-rising) shopping list

4 tablespoons sugarshopping list

2 tablespoons baking cocoashopping list

1 eggshopping list

3 tablespoons milkshopping list

3 tablespoons oilshopping list

3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional) some nuts (optional) shopping list

Small splash of vanillashopping list

How to make it

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well
Add the egg and mix thoroughly.
Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.
Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla, and mix again.
Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes on high.
The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed!
Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.
EAT! (this can serve 2 if you want to share!)
And why is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world?
Because now we are all only 5 minutes away from chocolate cake any time of the day or night

want to craft

why oh why did I decide to do things to the flat before Christmas must need my head looking at lol.
Want to craft but the mess around me beckons but hey procrastination is my middle name so off to shop lol well I need food in the cupboard and if I pass a few shops on the way well cannot ignore them you know they may go in the huff or more likely I will miss a good bargain tee hee.  TTFN

Convention 2011 at Disneyland Paris

Ok have some photos which I will put on, will get rest from camera when their machine is fixed.


Sparklies at Birmingham Airport with 4 hour layover, what a shame more shopping lolo

Friday night Dinner all dolled up

 Mickey sign at entrance to Park

Castle entrance.  Look at that gorgeous blue sky, there all day it was fab mind you it was cold

4 muskateers at Entrance to park

 I won a prize patrol - set of stamps, 12x12 designer series paper and a board book whoppee

 stamp set yet to be seen by others tee hee

Bah humbug

You would think in this day and age some folks still use reels in their camera and need them processed, can I find a place to do that, found one but the blessed computer part needs a part and that is a week away aaaaargh want my photos NOW!!!!!!!!!  OK temper tantrum over lol, will post as soon as I can.

Have just received my album from the Pink Mini auction.  Twyla's flutterby album it is sooo gorjuss will need to try and make one .  TTFN

back to reality

Just come back from a long weekend at a stampin convention held at Disneyland Paris, well one must see the park mustnt one he he.  Will post pics when they get sorted out.  Lots o loverly swops to take pics of and upload.

ttfn

Zentangle

well in my day it was called doodling, goes to show what the youngsters take and reinvent, so decided to use some glam pens and black card and doodle sorry tangle lol.  I have the house to clean, swops to make and what do I do, I doodle lol.

Another mini

This time it is a small mini to fit into a largish matchbox.

 

  The box has a cracked glass look to the birdcage.

Okay dont ask me why these have loaded upside down, they werent that way on the computer, cannot figure how to change it so you will just have to stand on your head lol.

 front page

 back page

Beaded Angel

Love this little angel, making loads of them for pressies.  Itza some are on there way to you xx.

and more Brayering

I just love using the brayer here are a couple more I did for the sides of a box, two more to make.  The cards have a quarterish inch of blank card around the sides, photography is not my strong suit lol.

this one I butchered the stamp to get rid of the waves at the bottom and put the birds ona different block to make them the way I wanted.

elastic bands whoo hoo I do love them with the brayer, this one I only did a couple of turns on the brayer.

Convention Swop

With grateful thanks to Valita for kindly allowing me to use her design - changed it a bit to make it sparkly.  Go to http://valitasfreshfolds.blogspot.com/ for more of her work she is fab.

My take on it is:

Techniques Book

Decided to play and make a techniques book, having lots of fun.

Just loooooove my brayer:

also did a reflection technique with the brayer instead of using acetate.

I also love thick embossing powders

white thick embossing powder with a french script stamp and differing mica powders on top

even the bronze thick embossing powder is great on its own with a Christmas stamp embedded in it.



Cooking with gas

Blog now up and running as it should.

No pics showing

Apparently blogspot uses Picasso for their pictures so until they get it fixed I sorted it out that if you click on the line box area a picture will pop up to let you see what should be on the blog itself.  Sorry about that but blogspot decided to do a major update but didnt fix the glitches go figure.

If you use Kaspersky you need to allow blogspot.com on the anti-banner part of it.

Go to Kaspersky > My protection > Online activity > Anti-banner > Click on settings next to use white list > Click add to add the blogspot.com to "white list" > Click Ok > Apply > Click Ok

hmmmmm

Honest dont know where the pics went.  Will need to investigate.

Pink Mini for A Cure

Here is my attempt at a simple mini for the silent auction to raise funds for Susan G Kolman Cure for Breast Cancer. 

There are some acetate pockets where you can put a photo behind it.

we could only submit 6 photos so these are the best I could do.

Homemade Jewels

Was messing around with my glue gun and made these jewels, decorated them with mica powders.  Thought I had removed all the glue trails see what thought did lol

Large Rosette

Following Kathryn's class decided to make a large rosette, wow it turned out beautifullyk, much nicer than the photo.

Utensil Holder

OK here is my utensil holder for those who wanted to see it,  Lorraine has now talked me into dioing a demo for her and her girls and if I dont do it I must run and hide lol.   OK Lorraine spatulas at the ready!!!!!

Not the greatest photo the sun decided to hide for the rest of the day boohoo.

My friend Jen

My friend Jen at the mini convention and she is also my upline - fab girl nothing is too much of a bother for her. when I phone her with the silliest questions.

Tartan Stampers Mini Convenion

Bril time playing with glue an paper lol.  26 shoebox swops done in one day after a marathon session.
Sunday saw scrapbooking going on will do another post on that one.  Great to see faces to the names and make new friends.  Cannot wait till I do this again even though I am knackered now!!!!!!

Here is my attempt at their designs.

My shoebox contribution was:

Flirtacious Designer Series Paper for candle stems, Doffodil delight aned pumkin pie edged with pumpkin pie for flames using build a blossom punch.  Cake frill was  Lace ribbon border with dazzling diamonds.  I do like my shimmer.  Matt was Wisteria Wonder card put through lattice embossing folder.

Elaine Brainwood - a notebook

Kara Milne

Tracey Moon

 Carolyn Huner

 Jen Lindsey

 Maggie Murray

 Laura Riddell

Kirsten McCall (from Houston, USA) gave us the mini cards and the cracker box.

Alison King

Yvonne Ferguson (wall hanging)

Fiona Duthie (Taffetta Brooch)

Mary Hutt

Christine Bain

Tooty (Elizabeth MacKennzie)

Susan Moffatt (not to be confused with this Moffat lol)

Lorraine McCormack

Jayne Steadman

Emma Crockett

Diane Purvis

 Dawn Silver

Sharon Sim

Liz Archer

There was also a craft bag with front decorated in wisteria wonder flirtacious DSP will take photo once I find it lol.