Mishaps first.
Remember those yummy looking cupcakes I showed you a few posts ago? Well apparently they were as delicious as they looked – APPARENTLY! I am noticing as the years pass (sigh) that reflexes aren’t as sharp – anyone relate to that? A couple of cupcakes had been devoured with a lot of oohing and aahing. I decided it was time to put them away so that there were some left in case of visitors. You know what is coming don’t you – yes as I was putting them away on the top shelf the container slipped and cupcakes tumbled down the shelves – each shelf then held a couple of cupcakes each, usually upside down. I could have cried – but my EVIL 😆 dd laughed then tried to smother her laugh when she saw my face 😡 but I’m glad she did laugh because it lightened the atmosphere and made me realise that they were only cupcakes and would still taste the same even if they didn’t look pretty at all. I hope you weren’t expecting a photo of the disaster – I was far too upset to consider photos. Let’s just say they were still edible but really not “picture perfect”.
I didn’t have any requests on the blog for the recipe so I won’t publish unless anyone is interested.
Now for the little Misses.
Here is a cute photo of my 2 gd’s taken at Easter, 2012 – awwwh
Too cute – who’s a lucky Grandma?
Bye for now
Gift cards are becoming a very popular choice for presents so I thought over the next week I would show you a few different options for presenting these little goodies.
Today’s option is (as you might have guessed from the title of today’s post) a SLOTTED GIFT BOX. I’m loving this option.
Here is where I found the template (and some others I have purchased) Creations by AR – Let’s get Creative ← click to go to the site. They have very reasonably priced items so have a look. I cut my templates by hand, not a cutting machine, and it was very easy.
First of all the top of the completed box –
The band which slips on to hold it closed.
More photos of the steps along the way –
Do you like the squirrel image? It is a stamp from YNS – Your Next Stamp. Click to go to their shop. I might use some of their stamps over the next week also.
I have used 2 different dies for the leaves, Spellbinders of course and an embossing die from Cheery Lyn Designs. It is the first time I have used a die from Cheery Lyn and I am very impressed.
The Nuts R US faux gift card is something I produced on the computer because I haven’t had a chance to find a REAL “nuts” gift card. I added a small sample of nuts to the box in an ATC pocket, which fitted perfectly.
Well that is all for today but see you in a couple of days with another gift card holder.
Bye for now,
I’m feeling a bit guilty about the lack of “card” posts on my blog lately. So I sat down with a memory of a “pin cushion” card I had seen in a magazine a year or so ago. They had used a Unity stamp set I think. I really can’t remember what it looked like but the theme has stayed with me. So here is my version of a Pincushion card –
Mmmmm – not what I had in my mind but I think it will come in handy in my stash of cards.
The digital stamp set is “Make Your Own” from Hero Arts and has lots of other “sewing” type images and sentiments. The dp is from October Afternoon “The Thrift Shop”. You can just see a Spellbinders die cut peeping out from behind the top layers. I think you might be seeing it quite often – time-consuming to die cut and poke out the little pieces – but very sweet.
That’s all for today.
I’m back. Not much chit-chat but some photos to show you. First of all are the photos of the little girl who is in a caravan near us. As I showed you in a previous post I put together a kit for her to make some Easter Treats. Here is the result with her little stall (cute hey?) –
We had a lovely Easter because all of the family were able to get together, which unfortunately doesn’t happen too often.
a few red eyes but lovely to have a photo of all of us.
Getting a ready to start their Easter Egg Hunt.
See you soon with some crafty things.
Recently I purchased a cupcake recipe book. Well so what you might ask, there are lots out there. This one is a bit different “Vegan Cupcakes”. I am allergic to eggs and these recipes don’t have eggs in them – woo hoo – I’m so happy. The recipes are quite different to your “normal” cupcakes but they are delish! I have tried the “Red Velvet” and tonight I made the “Chocolate Cherry Creme Cupcakes”. We haven’t tested them yet but if they taste as nice as they smell and look I’ll be very pleased. The only problem is how to store them because they are too high for my usual Tupperware containers.
Here they are –
Yummo ……….
Triple yummo …….
Did you notice the cute patty pans? When I bought the book I also ordered some beautiful patty pans – all sorts of designs. Today’s have deep scallops around the top and are a bit different. I will show you others as I use them.
I thought these should go down well when we have visitors over Easter (will they last that long?).
If they are tasty and if you are interested I will share the book’s name, authors and my take on the recipe.
Bye for now,
I found some very cute 1″ x 8″ clear cellophane bags on eBay. You may already know about them but for me they are new. They arrived in the mail on Monday and on Tuesday this is what I have started to make –
I’ve been putting together some little treats for a young girl we know for her to sell. She is definitely an entrepreneur in the making. Last weekend she collected some shells from the beach and coloured them and set up a little shop in the caravan park to sell them – so cute. I thought if I put together a kit for her she could colour the stamped image and then sell? give the completed treat bags to her family.
Here are some that I have started on –
The inside of the triangle bunny box (template and bunny stamp are stamps from Inky Antics) –
This is a cute stamp from Amuse coloured with Copics
I have other Easter stamps which I will get ready for her as well.
That’s all for today.
Bye for now,
It is quite a while since I have entered a Bugaboo Challenge so today I am remedying that.
Over at Catch The Bug Challenge Blog this week there is a colour challenge. The challenge is to make a project featuring the colour combination below –
Here is my entry –
Card Recipe –
- Digital Image – Bugaboo “Flower Pocket”
- Sentiment – PTI
- Card – Bazzill
- Paper – Authentique “Journey”
- Diecut Edge – Whiff of Joy “Dancing Hearts”
- Mesh, ribbon & heart pin – from my stash
- Kindy Glitz
- Flock – Doodlebugs “Crushed Velvet – Limeade”
I need to make a few more “all-purpose” cards to have on hand for thank you’s or quick notes, etc. This one will start to build my stash.
Hope you enjoy what looks to be a beautiful weekend.
Bye for now,
My dh took these photos yesterday while on his way to a job. He tried to trick me saying we should have one of these gorgeous pink plants in our garden. Well nooooo! It might be gorgeously pink but I still could recognize it for what it really is here in Australia – a noxious weed.
You might be asking why this one is pink. Well if you look at the next photo you will see that everything nearby to it is pink also. I think when the weed controllers spray they add a colour to the spray so they can see where they have been.
Pampas grass was very popular in gardens back in the 70’s/80’s but it adapted so well to conditions here that it spread like crazy and now has been classified as a noxious weed. Lots of imports from overseas “good ideas at the time” have thrived in the conditions here and turned out very bad for the environment. Here are just a few – rabbits, foxes, cane toads, camels, gorse bushes, Scottish thistles – the list goes on.
Pretty in a photo but that is about all it is good for.
Bye for now,
This month’s ATC theme is “Stars”. Quite a broad range of ideas came to mind for this one so it should be interesting to see the other 8 member’s cards. Because I left it until the last couple of days to produce my set of ATC’s (smacking my fingers now – ouch) it had to be something quick and these really where. I’m pleased with how they turned out considering the short time they took.
The colour scheme is based roughly on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The red sparkly stars are made from Red Glitter card and they look lovely in real life. I have scored and creased the stars to give a 3D effect. Disappointingly you really don’t get the idea in this photo. The scoring and creasing are easy and it really makes a difference. All you have to do is score from each star point to the opposite valley (couldn’t think of a better word) then pinch each long crease line, turn over and pinch the short crease lines. There are lots of tutorial out there so if my instructions are “as clear as mud” have a bit of a search around on the web. To make it even easier I die-cut the stars with a Spellbinders star die. Have a try it really is effective and very simple.
Bye for now,
Welcome back blogger friends. I did promise that I’d show you what I was putting inside the card/box which I made in my last post. After all the suspense you might be a bit disappointed but I think it is fun and funny. I can’t remember when or where I bought these chocolate moulds, must have been years ago, but I knew they would come in handy one day because we have quite a few “tradies” in our family.
Here are the contents – WARNING don’t look too closely because there are quite a few air bubbles and uneven edges 😕
They will go in a cellophane bag but they didn’t photograph well. It was my first time moulding chocolate so plenty of room for improvement. It was fun and I hope it will bring a smile to someone’s face. Don’t feel too sad for the recipient ‘cos I will put some “proper” chocolates in also. 😆
Bye for now,
Mo’s DP2 Challenge this week is to “Bling It On”. What a lovely challenge. Did you immediately think “girly cards”? Well I thought I would challenge myself a bit more and try to Bling Up a male card.
The wonderful digital stamp is “Mr Fixit” from Mo of course. What do you think? Blingy enough for the challenge?
The paper is “Stella Rose” from My Mind’s Eye paper pad. The silver shim is embossed with a Cuttlebug folder. Unfortunately I don’t know manufacturers for the brads, drill charm or crystals because they were just from my stash. The card is Bazzill.
Bling things – metal shim, drill charm, metal screw brads, black crystals and glitter on everything chrome or other metals.
But wait there is more! Buy a set of steak knives No no no…. but not only is it a card but also a gift box.
Saw this idea on THIS BLOG and couldn’t wait to try my own.
I will show you what is going inside next week – oooh the suspense :lol
Bye for now,
Another card to show you. I am really amazing myself and have posted each day this week and I still have a couple more projects for you. Today’s card is for the Simon Says Stamp Challenge “BINGO“. Here is the bingo card –
My “Bingo” goes straight down the centre line – Glitter, Lace, Punches/Die Cuts.
Well they say that every cloud has a silver lining but this one is a little different and has a sparkly outer. The cloud die is cut from Kraft Card by a MFT die then covered with glitter, the two die cuts surrounding the image are from Magnolia. The butterfly punch is from Martha Stewart. Glitter (√), punches/die cuts (√) and lace (√).
The image is made from 2 “Mini Magnolia” stamps – “Tilda with Birdcage” and “Lazy Summer Flowers”. The pretty papers and banner with sentiment are from “My Mind’s Eye “Bee Happy”.
To suit the sweet little image I made the card 10 x 10 (approx 4″ x 4″).
Bye for now,
It is Autumn here in Australia and we have to endure Winter (I’m definitely not a grey sky, rain and wind lover) before we can enjoy springtime but I thought I would still join in again at Penny Black and More March Challenge. The challenge is to provide a bit of Springtime in the card, be it the fresh colours of the season, flowers or even Easter cards. This time I thought – daphne, lavender, lilac, hyacinth – they’re all shades of purple so my card had to have a purple base.
The stamp is from the Penny Black Transparent set Betsy Bluebell. The card and strip of dp are from PTI as is the background stamp. I stamped the purple card with Versamark Ink using a floral background stamp. The flowers are cut with a die from Cheery Lyn Designs.
Bye for now,
It is very encouraging to receive feedback and I received a really lovely email from J. a couple of days ago. Thank you so much.
She has used my instructions from here to make some Post-It Note covers for her family. J. is kindly allowing me to post a photo of 1 of them here. I’m hoping that others might have made some and that they would also like to share them or tell me if they have had fun making some. Don’t be shy, join in.
Here is J’s “pretty in pink” cover .
J. told me that she was able to get some very reasonably priced supplies for these from the Reject Shop. * note to self – must go shopping :D:
Thank you for sharing.
Bye for now,
Welcome back. Here are my last 2 fun little cards using the theme “B”.
“B” – black, blue, little blue man,
As a child we used to fill in some of our long school holidays playing old records of our parent’s era (these weren’t even vinyl they were thick and heavy). You had to change the speed depending on the record size – can’t remember much more about them. One of the records was a song called “The Little Blue Man”. I used to think it was so sad. When I coloured this little alien blue it made me think of the song so I went searching on the web. When I listened to it with adult ears I was not so sad!! Was he a stalker or was she having delusions??? 👿 😆
Here is my next card, probably my favourite –
“B” – Blue, bloom, bee, be silly
That’s all for today, no more “B” themed cards.
Bye for now,
Cards & Co
Cards & Co 