Sunday 30 May 2021

Happy Birthday - More Doodle Flowers

I had some doodle flowers left over from this card, and thought I'd better use them up and not let them gather in the ever increasing left-overs pile!

I added a light touch of shading on the inner side of the doodle lines to give a little depth.

Then I topped the centres with Nuvo Glitter gloss, and covered with a layer of Gloss Accents. 



My entry to ...

... CAS Colours & Sketches #421


.. AAA Birthday Challenge #25 


... AAA Cards Challenge #190



 


Saturday 29 May 2021

Hello Beautiful

The creative process sometimes takes you in a different direction to what you had planned. The Altenew May inspiration had me thinking of having rows of colourful flowers along black lines ... but then the flowers I had stamped were too large to have more than 2 rows. Then the slimline sketch came to mind, so I went with that.

I added some Tonic Nuvo Glitter Gloss to the centres.

My entry to ...

... Altenew May Inspiration

... Freshly Made Sketch #487

... Just Add Ink #556 : Slimline


... Addicted to Stamps & More #406 : Make your Mark


... Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge : Anything Goes





Friday 28 May 2021

Happiest Birthday

 Using more of The Greetery flowers ... in a frame this time.


My entry to ...

... Color Throwdown #644 


... AAA Birthday Challenge #25 


... AAA Cards Challenge #190





Saturday 22 May 2021

Looking out the Window

After seeing Jennifer McGuire's display frame cards, I knew I'd try one. 

My starting point was that I knew I wanted a window looking out onto a garden as the the display frame on the inside. 

My workspace was such a mess that my daughter challenged me to clean up a huge pile of papers/partly finished cards/bits and pieces left over - I had 2 days to to it.  It was while I was sorting through it that I found 2 pots with some flowers (left over from this card made in October last year). Thought they would look lovely on the windowsill. 

 
You can open the windows ... and get a lovely view of the trees, bushes and birds.

I took this photo with the photo lying flat in order to get the light to shine through the window to the world outside.

Here's a side shot so you can the see the dimension. I stuck some of the leaves to the back panel. I glued 2 narrow vertical panels on each edge midway from the window to the back panel. Then I glued a strip of clear plastic across from one panel to the other. This helped give some stability to the branches so they could hold the birds.


Then when it was all finished, I made the front to match


Here it is in action ...

My entry to ... 

... The Card Concept : Garden Treasures


... Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge : Use Dies or Punches


... Die Cut Divas : Tic Tac Toe I went with the diagonal of flowers, friendship, uneven edge. My uneven edge is on the inside with the windowsill and depth.






Sunday 16 May 2021

Color Hues #18 : Purple & Teal

 I am happy to be guest designer at Color Hues Challenge for Challenge #18.


It's such a lovely colour combo for this fortnight's challenge.

I have used the flowers from the Balloon Bouquet set of The Greetery - but I didn't want to put them on a balloon. I used the inks from Altenew from the Tranquility and Enchanted Garden sets, with my new Swirl Motive embossing folder.



I will also enter this to ...









Friday 14 May 2021

Cornflower 1

When people ask me "What is your favourite flower?", I find it impossible to give one answer! There are so many I love ... Delphiniums, Sweat Peas, Roses, Lavender, Hydrangeas, Freesias, Bougainvillea .... and Cornflowers. I had such a lovely garden of Cornflowers last spring.


So for today, I will pick cornflowers ...

I used Distress Inks : Chipped Sapphire with a little Black Soot and Pine Needles to make my watercolour background. 

It might have been difficult to work out where the washi was ! So you can see it was the cornflower. I love this washi!

I paired it with the cornflower die cut.

My entry to ...

... Die Cut Divas : Tic Tac Toe  I chose the bottom line ... washi, blue, flowers.

... The Flower Challenge : Favourite Flower

... Freshly Made Sketch #485

... Addicted to Stamps & More : Die cuts and/or Stencils





Tuesday 11 May 2021

Natur{elle}

We now have a tradition in our book club that when someone has a "big" Birthday like a 50, 60 or 70, then we each make a scrap page and put together an album. It's a wonderful souvenir as each page reflects the person who made it.

I so enjoyed doing this layout which was the title page ... can you tell she is an architect? ... and bilingual?

[Note : I don't normally post scrapbook pages as I feel I should keep photos private. So I have blurred the face for privacy.]

Here's the double page spread. I used the house & tree die cuts from Ellen Hutson, sentiment stamps from Mes P'tit Ciseaux, Mixed Typo text, Heart frame die & eucalyptus paper from Alexandra Renke.


A close up of each of the pages ...





Monday 10 May 2021

Two Cakes !

I'm happy to be the guest designer at Twofer Challenge #38 : Cakes or Cupcakes for May.

I decided to go for a cake as I have the wonderful Sweet Treats set from Pinkfresh Studio that I haven't used enough.

Firstly, I went for a CAS masculine look for a Birthday card. I took artistic license and used colours that are not often seen on cakes! I also left spaced between the layers to make it taller and coloured in the base to make it more bold.

I used 2 of the Hero Arts Infinity Rectangle dies as embossing for the edge to give some interest.

For the second card, I went all pretty and pink for a wedding. At first I stamped the cake in pink, but wedding cakes are mostly white so that wasn't what I wanted. I wondered how to get the white look with a solid stamp ... and thought how about a double layer of white embossing powder. I distressed the background with Hero Arts Sand to give a golden glow so that the cake would stand out.

The lovely 3D Botanicals embossing folder gives an elegant touch.

Here is a close up of the double white embossed cake. I gold embossed the other elements and coloured with Copics.


Here are the 2 together. 

Quite different looks!

Here's my favourite cake recipe - Carrot Cake. And it works very well as cupcakes too!

Janet’s Carrot Cake

3 Eggs
1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Oil
2 Cups Wholemeal Flour
2 t Bicarbonate of Soda
1 t Cinnamon
½ t Nutmeg
½ Cup Coconut, desiccated
1 t Baking Powder
3 Cups Carrot, grated
½ Cup Pecan Nuts, chopped (opt)
Dash of milk
Pinch of salt

Whisk together the eggs and sugar until light. Add oil and beat well. Sift in the flour, bicarb, BP, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add the rest of the ingredients. Bake for 50mins – 1 hour at 180ºC.

Gluten-free option : Replace the flour with 1½ Cups Rice Flour and ½ Cup Glutinous Rice Flour. I'm sure you can also use your go-to gluten free flour. 

Topping :

250g Cream Cheese
125g Butter
500g Icing Sugar
1 t Vanilla Essence

Use cream cheese at room temperature. Mix until smooth. Add butter and mix well. Add icing sugar and vanilla essence.

Note : 
t = teaspoon (5ml)

I will also enter ...













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