Sunday 27 February 2011

3rd Birthday wishes to Lily

My neighbour's grandaughter is 3 today.  Can't believe that the years have gone by so quickly.  One year they were parents to 2 grown up daughters and within the space of 12 months were grandparents to TWO grandchildren.

Well, today it's Michelle's daughter, Lily's 3rd birthday.  I knew the date was coming up soon, but when Michelle answered my question on Facebook that it was TODAY I had to get my carcass out of bed and make a card for a gorgeous little girl.

And this is what I came up with while drinking my coffee whilst enjoying the peace of the rest of the family having a lay in.



The dragon digi image is from Doodle Palace and I've printed him onto photographic paper then coloured him in using Promarkers.  Now, I've found that Promarkers dry pretty darned quickly on photo paper, but I still got to show high and low lights on him.  The icing that he's got smeared round his greedy chops is glittered, because we all know that EVERY little girl loves sparkle, don't we?

Wishing Lily a wonderful 3rd birthday! xxx

Creative ingredients:
15cmx15cm pearlescent white cardstock - Doodle Palace digi image - Promarkers - Stickles - Thickers letters & number - Ribbon - Papertrail paper

Saturday 26 February 2011

Happy (belatedly blogged) Birthday, Susan

Only a few days late posting this card for our lovely friend Susan.  It was made and hand delivered on time (I promise!) but I never got round to tweaking the pic and uploading it through the week.


I'd like to enter this into the Ribbon Girl Challenge to make a project using the colours Cream, Pink and Brown.

Creative Ingredients:
Brown checked paper: BasicGrey - Pink & Cream paper/cardstock; scraps - Photograph; I took that! - Alphas; Making Memories - Flowers: Prima - Leaves; Woodware punch - Brads - Ribbon - Gems

Monday 21 February 2011

Tweaked cards R us!

I made a quick card a week or so ago (at VERY SHORT NOTICE... GARY!!!) but couldn't get it across to Guernsey in time for Valentines Day (ordered Friday, needed by Monday) so I've changed and tweaked it a bit to become a for a card for his wife's birthday instead.

Hopefully Jules will love it. If she doesn't then it wasn't me that made it! ;-)


Creative Ingredients:
Cream A5 Cardstock - Paper; BasicGrey - Punch; Stampin' Up Bird/branch & Martha Stewart Butterfly - Flower; Prima - Stamp - Tim Holtz - Brad - Pins - Ribbon - White pen; Inkssentials

Sunday 20 February 2011

Daring Cardmakers

Daring Cardmakers challenge this week is around the subject of 'Steampunk"; a term I'd never heard of until Friday when it popped up in my blogwatch.  So I had to Google the term to find out how to interpret it 'Rosie Stylee'.

Well it seems that there are lots of free images out there in the Steampunk era so I nabbed two and printed them out on to some cream cardstock which I inked the edges of to add a little vintage look.  The greeting I created myself in PS using two different fonts to go with the lady holding her binoculars 'seeing the bright future ahead' that the light bulb invention in the other image would bring.  Clever eh? HAHA!




This card is available for sale.  Please see my "Cards for Sale" page for details.


Creative Ingredients:
Cream 5"x7" cardstock - BasicGrey Capella papers - Images free from the internet - Ribbon - Glossy Accents - Inkpad; QuickQuotes

Inspired by a photograph

This card was made during some 'me time'.  Not for anyone or for anything in particular.  It all started when I printed a photo out that I'd taken quite a while back to test my new printer.  Bits and bobs were added until I as pleased and realised that I needed to stop before I totally cluttered it up!



Creative Ingredients:
Cream cardstock - Photograph - Butterfly: Prima - Stamps: Inkadinkadoo - Flower: Prima - Leaf punch - Woodware - Glossy Accents - Scroll; Delish Designs - Gems - Button - Crackle Accents - Ribbon - Inkpads; Versafine & Quick Quotes

Saturday 19 February 2011

BasicGrey Challenge 38 - Sketch

It's been a while since I played along with BasicGrey Challenges, even though they are my FAVE EVER paper manufacturer!|

They've got a sketch this week to inspire the creativity within; and inspire it did!


Papers used are from the Kyoshi range... aren't they beautiful?


This card can be purchased from me HERE

Creative Ingredients:
Papers: BasicGrey Kyoshi - Stamp: Tim Holtz - Flowers: Prima; Bird; Stampin' Up punch; Leaf punch; Woodware; Ink: Versafine & Quick Quotes - Brads - Ribbon

Friday 18 February 2011

Cards update

February's a pretty busy month as far as birthdays goes.  Mine was on 2nd.

This lovely lady celebrated a special one on 8th.



This one flew over to Belgium to this lovely lady.



And this one stayed at home to go to South Shields to the lovely Jane who I had the pleasure of meeting when I went to London to cook with Ainsley Harriott.


Bring on the lighter nights is all I can say as night time, 'flash' photography is doing my doofers in!

Materials:
BasicGrey Paper - Tim Holtz on the Edge House Die - Tim Holtz sentiment stamp - Ribbon - Fiskars Scallop scissors - Computer generated sentiments - Thickers numbers - Making Memories alpha stickers - Prima flowers - pins - Martha Stewart butterfly punch - brads - corrugated cardboard - Stickles glitter glue

Thursday 17 February 2011

PaperPlay Challenges - Add Shine

Hi folks, and welcome to my first DT project post for PaperPlay Challenges.  This week we had some fab images to work with, courtesy of Just Some Lines.

I chose to make a nice, easy, simple card for this one.  Nothing fancy schmancy, just a little something in the card line to give to a little one.  My 'SHINE' comes from two directions;  The shiny gold cardstock that I used and the glossy accents for the little girl's rose, hair bobbles, shiny shoes and the dog's healthy wet nose.


Please take time to go over to PaperPlay Challenges to see the amazing work of the other DT members.

Materials:
Gold cardstock - Image from Just Some Lines - Coloured using Promarkers - Sentiment; computer generated - ribbon; Ribbon Mad

Monday 14 February 2011

Love bugs Valentines canvas

Chatting to a friend at work who said she wanted to do something 'really special and different' for her man this year.  Not the normal, buy it from a shop, mass produced tat but something that meant something.

I came up with the idea of doing a canvas and being the arty friend that I am created a box for her to give to him.


But me being me, wasn't satisfied with just an empty box for her; I had to create something to fit inside it (well, to be honest I made the box to fit the canvas!) So I came up with this from the photograph she emailed across to me.


Am really pleased to say both Penny and Roger LOVED my creation.  To see her face when she opened the box at work to look at it was a real prize for me.  Let's just say it was taken out of her desk drawer many times on Thursday last week to look at ;-)  May they always be as happy and in love as they look in this photo.  xxxx

Materials:
Canvas - Ribbon - Heart punch - Prima flowers - Brads - WRMK ribbon slider - Tim Holts stamp - Making Memories alpha stickers.

Thursday 10 February 2011

Paper Play Challenge Blog

I've got some great news to share....

I've been asked by Sandie to join her fantastic Design Team over on the Paper Play Challenge Blog.

I can now proudly display my new banner too.


Really looking forward to working with the whole team on this great challenge blog.  Please join us too when you can.  It's always great to share the talent out there; and you lot are a mightily talented bunch.

Tuesday 1 February 2011

Chicken liver pate and what NOT to do when making it....

As I can't eat pork, and all commercially bought pates contain pork (even chicken liver pate!) I always make my own using chicken livers.  Thinking I'd give you a recipe and method of how easy it is (not to mention how much better tasting), I photographed the ingredients and the step by step method.

Thankfully it was only my iPhone that I dropped in the finished item and not my Nikon!  As you know, you can't wash phones, so I (disgustingly) licked it clean before wiping it with a damp cloth!


You need:

1 pack chicken livers (defrosted if frozen - my local butcher sells them in big packs)
3 cloves of garlic
1 large onion
8oz butter (not for those dieting)
Herbs of your choice, but I tend to use parsley, sage & oregano
Splash of sherry (optional)



This fella on my worktop makes lots of things, including making pate a breeze.


I use my mincer attachment to mince the chicken livers on a coarse screen prior to cooking (speeds up the time taken to cook it.   If you don't have a mincer, then chop up the livers (or use kitchen scissors to cut them up).


I then push my garlic and onion through the mincer for two reasons. 1) it clears all the liver out, and 2) the onion is now the same size as my minced liver.  You can obviously chop your garlic and onion finely instead.  Add all your herbs to the liver and onion mix in your bowl (as well as your splash of sherry if you're using it).


Melt half a pack of butter (4oz) in a large frying pan, make sure you don't brown or burn your butter or your pate will taste awful.


Add the ingredients from your bowl and fry until the onion is transparent and the livers are cooked.


I use this cooking time to wash my mincer attachment ready for the next stage.

For the cooked liver mix I then use the fine screen on my mincer as I like a fairly smooth pate.  Push the cooked liver mix through the mincer and collect in a clean bowl.  If you don't have a mincer, you can use a food processor or a blender (or hand held stick blender) to make it smooth, or alternatively, you can leave it fairly course in texture.  It's all down to how you prefer your pate.


Cut up 2oz of butter into small pieces and mix thoroughly with your minced livers until melted.


Transfer your pate to your serving dish.  I add a bayleaf for decoration before gently melting the remaining 2oz of butter, straining this through muslin (to produce clarified butter) and then pouring this over the top of your pate.  This both seals it from oxidisation and also helps preserve your pate.


Chill in the fridge until cold, then enjoy with crackers / toast, salad and a nice home made chutney.

I'll try and get round to sharing my apple chutney recipe with you which goes beautifully with chicken pate, cheese, hams etc.

Enjoy!  If you make your own, please remember to come back and let me know what you think of it, won't you?

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