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