The few that I have managed to finish

The few cards that I have managed to finish

The front panel of the card is a lift up topper with a folding out greeting sheet. The stamped image is from a sheet of clear stamps by Hero Arts & coloured with Twinkling H20's.

The papers for this card are from the DCWV rose tints Christmas paper pack. The tree is an origami fold.

The Halloween girl stamp is a sugar Nellie from Funky kits. The spider is from the english stamp company. Backing is from Coredinations cardstock put through the web Cuttlebug & sanded to shoe the orange core & black glitter was added.

The stamp is a Great Impressions stamp and is mounted on an acetate card front, before mounting the image I used a white Staz-on pad and stamped the snowflakes with the Stampin up Snowflakes spot set.

This is probably one of my favourite stamps from my recent purchases a spiral Whisper stamp from Pink Gem.

Apologies

Firstly let me apologise for being such a bad blogger lately. No excuses, just reasons.
Firstly real life has taken over and cyber life has been put to one side for a while. I have worked somewhere in the excess of 70+ hours overtime this month & as much as I love my job it has seriously eaten into my ME! time. Work is very bust at the moment with all of the Halloween stock arriving, I had fun making a display to promote all of our Halloween goodies. We have Christmas stock arriving everyday, some lines already having sold out a couple of times already.
I am also trying to get organised for 10 days in the sun, but having looked at the weather report for Corfu I may just pack a jacket as they have had rain all day despite it being 25 degrees.
Abi & I have been to a couple of demo's on the last couple of Saturdays by Docrafts & Trimcrafts, both were excellent and we both picked up some great new ideas. I have noticed that paper folding / origami is cropping up in a lot of the demo's lately.
As a result I only have a few new cards to upload.

Snowflake spot

I decided a few weeks back that I would make my general Christmas cards from a couple of sets and using simple designs mass producing would leave me with more time making the special individual cards for close family & friends. After making that decision I found a post by Jenny All I need to do now is too decide which colour scheme I will use & order my cardstock.
who inspired these cards. I intend to make half of my batch cards using my new Snowflake spot set, which was on the retired list from Stampin up so is only available for another couple of weeks.

I quite like the navy cards they have a certain distinctive look.

Spiral Whisper 2nd Challenge

Here is the challenge sketch for this weeks Spiral Whisper Challenge, this week only it's being hosted by Stamping Caz.

Mini Halloweenies

I have been making a few Halloween mini cards using my sugar Nellie stamps.

Comfort food

Since the weather here in Norfolk had turned chilly this week the main topic of conversation at work ( other than all the lovely new crafting goodies that keep
arriving ) is comfort food. Now this varies from person to person, but cakes and chocolate kept coming up as firm favourites.

I have just found a couple of recipes that I though I would share the first is a favourite of Shelli Gardener ( the founder of Stampin up )

Carrot Cupcakes

2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/3 cup vegetable oil (I use olive oil cause its healthier)
3 extra-large eggs at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups plus 1 Tbsp flour
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1 1⁄2 tsp salt
1 pound carrots, grated
1 cup raisins (optional)
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Frosting

3⁄4 pound cream cheese at room temperature (I usually just use 1 lb because its easier to measure, then I might add a tiny bit of everything else till it tastes good)
1⁄2 lb butter at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
1 pound confectioners’ sugar

Decoration

2 Tbsp butter
1 cup grated or shaved carrots
3 Tbsp good maple syrup

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line muffin pans with paper liners.

Beat the sugar, oil, and eggs together in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until light yellow. Add the vanilla. In another bowl, sift together 2 cups flour, the cinnamon, baking soda, and salt

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Toss the carrots, raisins, and walnuts with the 1 Tbsp flour. Add to the batter and mix well.

Scoop the batter into the muffin cups until each is almost full. Bake for 10 minutes, then lower the oven to 350 degrees and bake for 35 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool on a wire rack.

Makes approximately 3 dozen cupcakes.

For the frosting, mix the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until just combined. Add the sugar and mix until smooth.

For the decoration, melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat; add the carrots and maple syrup and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes, until the carrots are tender. Spread them on a paper towel to cool.

When cupcakes are cool, frost them generously and garnish with big pinches of sautéed carrots.

Baileys-Frosted Cupcakes

Makes 12-18

These after-dinner muffins will go down especially well with the girls at your party! Serve with shots of Baileys or steaming liqueur coffee.

• Blend 6oz self-raising flour, 6oz caster sugar, and 4oz margarine in a food processor, or with an electric whisk.

• Add 2 beaten eggs, 1tsp vanilla extract, and 4tbsp milk.

• Fold in 2oz white chocolate chips and divide the mixture between 12 cake cases.

• Make the Baileys icing: beat 2oz butter with 2tbsp Baileys, and slowly add up to 6oz icing sugar, beating until smooth and creamy.

• Spread the icing roughly over the cakes, and sprinkle with whatever edible goodies you can find.
  

A dusty stamp set

I have a whole shelf full of stamps from Stampin up

So as you can imagine I don't use them all with any regularity, like everyone I have my favourites. This is a set that I haven't used for at least a year.

Spiral Whisper

Another card made from Amanda's manga designs that are available to buy over on the Spiral Whisper

Creativity runs in the family

I think creativity runs in the family.
Dan made his girlfriend a birthday card for her 18th Birthday.

How sweet is that

A little gem

A little Gem I just had to share.

Quickie card

I was asked last night to make a card for and 11 year old boy called Ben who is football mad especially Norwich City.
It's sometimes harder to make a card when you don't know the person, this is what I came up with

FRONT


BACK



The letters were cut using my Cricut with the George basics cartridge & the shirt logo was from a price tag on an item in the Norwich City shop ( they were very kind and gave me the ticket when I told them my dilemma.

You can follow me!!

You can now follow me by clicking the follow button and you get an update everytime I update.
You can also add this button to your own blog so we can then all follow each other...... I hope that no one gets lost!

I won another challenge

I won another challenge, I entered the first challenge over on Spiral Whisper.
I have won a new stamp......How cool is that?

New Kid on the block ~ Challenge

I have just found a new challenge blog for those of you addicted to Basic Grey.
Basic Grey

Christmas 2008

I have decided this year that I need to be more creative with my time management running up to Christmas, so for the first time ever I have decided to make my personal cards for the family ( 100+ cards ) that we never see all the same, well from 2 Stampin up sets I have chosen and in a pastel colour scheme. I have decided this is the best way to make time for creating the personal keepsake cards for my immediate family & the 3 Baby's first Christmas cards I need to make.
As everyone knows I make handmade cards I know they would be offended if they get a shop bought card and they would be wondering what they had done to upset me.
I also hope to make tree decorations, place settings & some of my special reindeer food cards, so saving time is essential.

Does anyone else have this problem

Penny Black Saturday challenge 13

So on to this weeks challenge

One For The Girls



Two for the price of one this week as I couldn't make up my mind which colour way I liked best.

Penny Black Saturday Challenge

Spiral Whisper 1 st challenge card

Here is my card for the Spiral Whisper 1st challenge

using Mandy's Guitar Girl Stamp