Legen-DAIRY!

Hello again!  These blog posts are becoming like buses aren't they? ... you wait for ever for one and then two come along at once 😜 

Another set of stamps and dies that have been languishing on my desk since March is the Milk It! kit from Hero Arts.  Such a CUTE set and I love the cow/milk theme obviously.  I have been dying to make a card with it ever since it landed in the mail box but just didn't get round to it before our trip in April and then since we've been back I completely forgot all about it.   It was only when I was looking for inspiration on the Hero Arts website that I came across this blog post featuring a card by Channin Pelletier and remembered that I had this kit and knew that this was just what I wanted to create.

Channin has created an excellent tutorial on YouTube which I followed to make this adorable milk carton card which uses acetate for the carton so you can see the 'milk' pouring out. 

The black ink stenciling does take quite a bit of time to fully dry so as Channin mentions in her video, you need to be really careful to avoid transfer on to your cutting plates and then subsequently onto your paper (which I definitely did not do ... **ahem) so in order to be really safe I would recommend maybe doing your stenciling a little while before and leaving it to fully dry before cutting your panels.   Clearly though I am far too impatient for that, so if you are the same you might want to have that cloth handy and make sure you wipe your plates thoroughly between cuts! 

using a sticky mat definitely makes stenciling easier, especially
 when using black ink which seems to get everywhere!

This card has quite a few steps and is a little more time consuming than a clean and simple style card but the end result was definitely worth it and I figured if I was cutting one, I may as well cut two so made one in pink at the same time.  Really pleased with how they turned out!

Coincidentally, a new milk shake place recently opened up near us so I have arranged to meet Youngest there this afternoon to check it out (purely in the interest of research you understand 😉).  How appropriate!  

Thanks for dropping by and hope to see you next time!

TTFN

Bev x

SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE!

Summer has finally arrived here in Arizona!  This will be our 11th summer here and they certainly do not get any easier with each one seemingly hotter and longer than the last!   I long to be in one of those places where summer means long balmy days spent outside in the garden with a good book or leisurely walks in the warm sunshine or perhaps even a picnic in the park.  Bliss!  Let's be realistic though - does such a place exist?  I am from England, where if you were lucky, you might get 3 days in a row of that before it got unbearably humid and oppressive for another few days before it reverted back to grey skies, rain and the inevitable period of "is anyone else chilly?  Shall we put the heating back on?"!

Here in Phoenix however, summer generally means hibernating indoors with the AC blasting and outdoor activities are limited to a couple of short hours first thing in the morning (and by first thing, I mean dog walks at 5.30am!  Ugh).  This year, however, instead of dreading the very real possibility of 110+ temperatures for weeks on end and wishing away the whole of June through September, I decided I needed to have a word with myself and come up with activities which both evade the heat and also bring me joy so that I can look forward to each day and actually enjoy the summer instead of just wishing it away as quickly as possible!  Time is precious and life is for living!

Of course one of the benefits of being up and about so early, is longer days and more hours to spend on my most favorite activity of all - crafting!  YAY!  I love all things paper obviously, but also on my list is to catch up with my digital scrapbook journals, delve further into hybrid scrapbooking, finish knitting that blanket that I started 3 years ago (I've gone off it already and not loving the 'battleship grey' wool I chose at the time **eye roll**) and learn to crochet! Plenty to last right through summer and beyond!

As well as creating, I also love to write and I suddenly remembered the crafty blog that I started several years ago but have seriously neglected of late - does anybody still read blogs even? Let me know. 

Oh.  Just noticed that the last post was almost five years ago ... sorry what? FIVE YEARS?!? Holy Macaroni Batman!  How did that happen?!   

Anyway, as I have a craft room which is bursting at the seams with 'stuff', a lot of which I have yet to play with, why not start there?  Today's project utilizes last month's subscription kit from Hero Arts which was languishing on my desk unopened, and as my stash of birthday cards is running low I decided to start with the large Happy Birthday die, which is the perfect size for using as the main card focus, and make a shaker card ... or 3 as it turned out!  Well, who doesn't love a shaker card?  I didn't quite have the right color sequins to coordinate with the card from the kit but trying hard to use what I have and they kind of work I think?  There are lots more great birthday themed items in the kit that I can't wait to work with, including a large present die which I think might be next!

If you made it this far, thanks for sticking with it and hope to see you again next time!

TTFN

Bev x

 

Counting down to Christmas!

Just finished this cool Advent Calendar following the brilliant tutorial from Maymaymadeit.com.  Isn’t it cute?!  I love that the 24 little ‘pizza boxes’ will hold a more substantial surprise and that it can be reused each year (although I am planning on filling it up with treats for College Boy so will probably never see it again 😂). 

I used some Christmas papers from my stash to cover the chipboard for the book which I have had FOREVER and then some gorgeous winter watercolor images that I discovered recently on The Hungry JPEG  (currently just $1!) which I downloaded and then printed out on watercolour paper. 

These soft images are truly gorgeous!

 I decorated the front using some of the new Nature’s Garden Gnome stamps and dies from Crafter’s Companion.  All of these images are super cute!  

Although this was quite a lengthy project, I love it so much I might make another one for myself and fill it with mini beauty treats from ‘Santa’ 😉

Thanks for visiting!

Bev x

Friendly Flowers!

It seems to be a sad reality of late that I am needing to send a lot more sympathy and condolence cards 😢 and as my stash of these is becoming rapidly depleted,  I needed to add a couple of new ones. 

I wanted to keep these fairly flat so that they could just be popped into the mailbox at a moment's notice with standard rate stamps, which I always try to have on hand, thus avoiding any last minute trips to the Post Office for additional postage because they are too thick or heavy.   I wanted to use a larger stamped image that I could color and add as a flat layer to a plain card base and the new Friendly Flowers stamp set from this month's Simon Says Stamp card kit was perfect.

Friendly Flowers

I began by adding a narrow gold foiled border onto a piece of cream cardstock using my Cricut Maker  and then I stamped the large flower image with Versamark ink and heat embossed with the cream embossing powder, also included in the kit.   I colored the image with my Promarker alcohol markers and then added a sentiment, this time embossing with matte gold.   I matte a piece of pale pink patterned paper onto a cream notecard (both also from the card kit) for the base, but then decided that it needed just a little dimension, so cut out the middle section of the colored layer and popped it up slightly on a thin double sided foam tape which I liked much better.  Finally, I added a few sequins, which lay much flatter than crystals, using a dot of art glitter glue.  

I usually only stamp and color onto white cardstock, so this was a first for me.  I like the finished result and think the cream card definitely gives it a soft vintage look.  Of course I then had to make another one on white card this time so that I could make a comparison 😊 

Two slightly different looks but using the same stamp set and the same color markers.  I think on balance, I prefer the white one.  What do you think?  Which one is your favorite? 

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Stay safe!

Bev x

A Victoria Sponge just in time for tea ...!

 Hey friends!  Happy Sunday!

College Boy announced that he is paying a visit this afternoon with his girlfriend, so I thought I would knock up a quick Victoria Sponge for tea.  You can’t go far wrong with a Victoria Sponge can you and it takes no time at all to cobble together using ingredients that are pretty much always to hand.

In case you’ve never made one before (and if not, where have you been?!), it couldn’t be simpler!  I tend to use the ‘all in one’ method (which basically means you just chuck everything in the bowl together and mix) as find that it gives a lighter texture which I prefer, but you can totally make the traditional way of creaming butter and sugar before adding eggs and flour if you prefer.  I would normally use a good quality strawberry jam (I like Bonne Maman) to sandwich the sponges together however as I had just made a batch of lemon curd a couple of days ago (in an effort to make a dent in the bumper crop of lemons we have on our tree at the moment!) I decided to use that today.  Anyway, below are the quantities  and method I used in case you want to have a go at making one yourself 😊

Ingredients:

8 oz butter, softened to room temperature

8 oz castor sugar

8 oz self raising flour

1 rounded teaspoon of baking powder

4 eggs

1 teaspoon good vanilla extract 

2 tablespoons of milk 

Method:  

1. Preheat oven to 350 deg F/180 C.  Grease and line 2 x 8” sandwich tins (at least 2” deep)

2. Add all ingredients, except the milk, to the bowl of a stand mixer (or you can use a large mixing bowl with electric hand beaters, or even a food processor but be careful not to over mix)

3. Beat everything together for 1-2 mins until well mixed and then add enough of the milk to give the batter a soft dropping consistency 

4. Spread evenly between the two prepared sandwich tins and bake in centre of oven for around 25 mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cakes comes out clean.

5.  Remove from oven and cool in the tins for 5 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack.

6.  When completely cold, spread one half with the jam of your choice - strawberry/raspberry or lemon curd as I have used here - and sandwich the other half on top and sprinkle with a little caster sugar. You can switch up the fillings depending on what you fancy at the time.  Adding some freshly whipped cream and sliced strawberries on top of your strawberry jam turns this teatime cake into an extra special dessert! (Just saying 😏)

Easy peasy!  

There’s still time to whip one up in time for tea if you get a move on ... give it a go and let me know what you put in yours!

Thanks for stopping by

TTFN

Bev x

Winter Wishes!

Hello Friends and a Happy New Year to you!   Let's hope this one is an improvement on last year and that Lockdowns and Stay at Home orders will soon be a thing of the past.  Although we are not under any mandatory restrictions here in Arizona at the moment, we are trying to be as careful as we can and therefore spending as much time as possible at home.  I don't mind though as for me that means more crafting time - yippee!  Every cloud ... 😉

This week I have been playing with some new Ranger Distress Oxide inks that I recently purchased and have to say they might just be my new favorite!  As well as being really easy to work with (they blend beautifully), you can get some really cool effects due to their oxidizing properties when you add water.   

I recently watched a video by Jennifer McGuire where she showed how to stamp/stencil with water onto distress oxide backgrounds and I couldn't wait to give it a try.  (I have linked to that video here).  I blended Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean and a little Seedless Preserves around the edges to create the inky background and then spritzed with water through a snowflake stencil from the Sara Signature Glittering Snowflake collection at Crafters Companion.  The water reacts with the ink to leave this cool oxidized effect.  So pretty.

Using metal dies from the same Glittering Snowflake collection, I cut out the center and matted onto a scrap of blue glitter card before adding to a plain white A2 card base and then cut a few smaller snowflakes from some iridescent silver card and added a few crystals 

Finally I stamped a sentiment, again using stamps from the same collection and heat embossed with silver tinsel embossing powder.

I loved this effect so much, I created another background in exactly the same way, except this time I used more of the Tumbled Glass and Seedless Preserves and only a little Salty Ocean to make a lighter, softer background.  For this card, I cut a large snowflake from the center and made it into a shaker window filled with chunky glitter and sequins and used scraps of purple metallic card to cut smaller snowflakes for embellishment.  I used the same Seedless Preserves Oxide Ink to stamp the sentiment and finished it off with a few tiny crystals and some lilac dew drops. 💜

I think these will make great cards for those Winter birthdays on my list!

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again next time!

Stay warm, stay safe and stay home!

Bev x

Wonderful Watercolor Wings!

Hi friends!

This week I have been continuing my mission to ferret out things hidden deep within the Crafty Cowshed that I had forgotten I had or that I have seldom (or ever!) used.  

This time it was the turn of the Spectrum Noir Aqua markers.  I love the final result that these give when blended out with water but have always found coloring in detailed elements a challenge as I don't seem to have the same control with a paintbrush as I do with an actual pen (and even then it can be questionable at times!)

After watching a few online tutorials though I decided to give them another go, this time trying out a stamping technique using the markers instead of ink pads.  I was really surprised by how much I LOVED the results so thought I would share these with you today in case it inspires someone else to have a go at this easy but effective technique. 

I dug out a couple of butterfly stamps that have been in my stash for ever.  These are large foam stamps that I found tricky to get a consistent impression with when using in the traditional way, but they worked great for this method.  I simply grabbed a few co-ordinating color markers and scribbled the ink directly onto the back of the stamp and then stamped onto a piece of watercolor card.  Then using a damp (not wet) paintbrush, lightly moved the color around on the image until it was all 'colored in'.   Then when completely dry I trimmed the image down, matted onto some gold glitter card and mounted onto a plain white A2 card base using 3D foam tape and then added a sentiment (this one was stamped in Versamark ink and heat embossed with gold glitter embossing powder).  Ta da!  I think its one of my favorite cards ever!

This next example was made in the same way, this time using aqua and purple markers.  I used some purple & blue foil card for the mats, embossing the purple mat with an Anna Griffin floral embossing folder and then added a sentiment popped up on foam tape and a few co-ordinating sequins to finish it off.

I had quite a bit of ink left on my stamp which it seemed a pity to waste so I spritzed it with water and then stamped again on another piece of watercolor card.  A totally different look but equally pretty I think.

Finally, I made one final card using both methods on the same piece of card.  For the sentiment I used a Anna Griffin die cut 3 times in white card stock and then once in fuchsia mirror card and glued them all together to give a raised effect but without having to fiddle with lots of tiny bits of foam tape.

I will definitely be giving this technique a try with other stamps in my collection - I love it!

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you next time.

Bev x