Sharpie Fun.......

Hello,

I picked up a bunch of Sharpie pens whilst we were in America........not that we can't get them here, we can, but Walmart had these for $10US ....BARGAIN!  I only went in for milk, you can imagine what the boss said :)

I had in mind trying a watercolour effect on some plain clothing..........OK not today, but I'm working up to it.

I have, instead made some bookmarks. Always handy to pop in with thank you cards!

These started life as a 2 litre plastic milk container.  

If you want to try here's the what and how! 

What you need:

Coloured Sharpie markers (4), 2 litre plastic milk carton, Isopropyl alcohol  (available in Bunnings here in Australia), household scissors, corner rounder, Spray can of Varnish, twine and beads or ribbon to embellish.

How to:

• Add some boiled water to a clean, empty milk carton. This heats that horrid glue they use to add a label.  After a minute the label should come off clean.  Any glue left can be taken off using eucalyptus oil.
• Using household scissors cut down the centre of one side of the carton. (the one without the handle :) )  The flat bit front and back of the carton was what I used.
• Cut  two strips from the front and two from the back of the carton. Round the corners and using a whole punch, punch a hole in the centre of the top of each strip.
• Now the fun bit, using several Sharpie markers fill each strip with colour. 
• Next you drip dots of Isopropyl alcohol randomly over the coloured plastic strips and watch the colours meld into each other.  ( if you lay the coloured plastic flat you get the circles but on my pink and purple ones I held them up to let them  run.)
• Once dry, (it takes no time at all), a light spray of varnish will stop the colour from rubbing off
• Thread some twine through the punched hole and decorate with a few beads.  

This was a fun little project for a rainy day.

Thanks for calling past today, see you soon.................... 

Popcorn Bear Challenge card.......

Hello,

I love to colour this Popcorn Bear and thought he'd cheer up my Mum. She's worrying about the situation back in the UK and says she hates turning on the TV because it's all doom and gloom.....poor thing.

I masked an area for the bear before stamping the background.

Coloured using my Prisma's then cut away the right side.  I also stamped a second flower to hand cut and pop up for some dimension.

Some clear Sprinkles to finish before popping the image up on foam tabs over a pink top fold card.

Challenges:

Time Out Challenges #60 is to CASE one of Therese's cards....  Love all her cards so had to join in :)

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge  'Anything goes'

LTSCB # 80 - Anything Goes

Crafts Galore Encore Challenge "Anything Goes"

Thanks for calling past today, have a great weekend.........

Pretty in Blue, Green and Pink.....

How're you doing today?

In my last post I mentioned stamping some LOTV images to colour and todays card is one of them. 

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It so happens that our friends are celebrating an anniversary and this sweet image seemed to fit the bill!

  I started by chosing some Kaisercraft 6 x 6 design paper in blue/grey and green with a touch of pink.

(Is it 'blue and green should never be seen'.......can't think why....)

I've coloured the image with my Prisma pencils and used the same greens I coloured Ian's Birthday card with.......I love this shade.

I blend with Zest it solution and blending stumps.  I alway lay down plenty of scratch paper when I'm colouring too.

The sentiment is from one of AnnaBelle Stamps sets, Andrea always added lots of sentiments to her sets, using great fonts :-)

~~~~~~~

From my stash I found the perfect ribbon and added some Sprinkles and heart pins to complete this Anniversary card.

Thanks for taking the time to drop past today, till next time................

Happy Birthday Walshie!

Hello,

How are you this lovely winter's day?

I had a couple of urgent cards to make  this week but first, I needed to move my craft room into the other spare bedroom.   The layout of the first room put my desk under a window and it was so warm and the light so bright,  I just couldn't work.  This room gives me better wall space on two walls with a smaller window. I think it will be a much happier space........well I hope so cos I don't fancy moving everything including a bed around again!!!

My 'boyfriend' celebrates his birthday today, one urgent card is for him :-) .  We plan to spend the day at his favourite place with breakfast and a walk around the bay.  Fingers crossed this lovely weather lasts.

Whilst moving stamps around I came across my LOTV folder, such pretty little designs I couldn't resist stamping out a few to colour.  I chose this one for Ian........

It's been so busy these last couple of months with the move, Disney and his/our friends moving to the area!

I know when he sees his card he'll say something like......."chance would be a fine thing"  haha!

I coloured with my Prisma pencils and layered this card, adding some cork for the Birthday Sentiment as well as some AnnaBelle twine.............

Kind of a sweet male card......Happy Birthday Walshie  xoxo

I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges:

Ooh la la - 'one for the boys' challenge #206
Crafty Cardmakers "for a special man" #166
Creative With Stamps challenge  #3 Masculine Cards.
Join in with this new challenge site!

Time Out Challenge 59   Masculine with the optional twist of mixed media......

Stamps and ink plus 2 other elements that add texture and/or dimension.

I added cork and twine for my little twist!!

New Home.........No, not us :)

Hello,

We're home again after our trip to Disney and Houston.  We left Houston in the pouring rain, without quite a few of the passengers who should have been travelling with us! The weather making connecting flights a nightmare, though to be honest it was good for us giving us more space on the 14.5 hour flight through to Auckland!  We arrived in Sydney as an East Coast low was in full flow!!! Gale force winds and flooding rain, so our drive back home was pretty horrible too.  

Our friends from Victoria arrived to stay a few hours after us. They move into their new home this week end, so naturally they have final inspections and all the usual paperwork to organise.  Despite our jet lag we're enjoying the company, especially this gorgeous girl.....

My card today was made for our friends, using my Silhouette Cameo which hasn't seen the light of day for a while.  Because I wanted a quick card I used a cut file from the Silhouette shop.  

I did just ungroup the design to add an outline. Cutting this from white card enabled me to pop the house  over a sheet of patterned card. 

The sentiment, inked in black to a strip of velum wraps around the Patterned paper with the addition of some Sprinkles to complete.



Thanks for calling past today, I'm off to finish the ironing :(

Thank you....

Good morning and thank you for dropping by today.

No chat, just a card to share.

I've been collecting some beautiful printable images from Pinterest as well as other on line sources. Thought perhaps I should start using them in my projects so....

The roses on this antique printable called for a soft pink and green background.  I added a doily with a little rose pink shading for a lacy layer.  Die cut leaves and a flower, with fish tail tabs, some ribbon and Sprinkles finish off my Thank you card.  Hope you like it :)

A little taste of yum!

Good Morning,

We'll be in Houston, Texas when this post goes to air. Our trip to Disney included most of the theme parks and ended on a high, with the fireworks display and night time parade.  More about the trip soon.

Walshie and I both have a sweet tooth.  We are careful not to let it get out of hand, but every now and then we indulge :-)

I tried a new recipe the other week for a Caramel Slice.  It's something we both quite like with a good strong cup of coffee.  OK, this recipe should be on the naughty list, but occasionally, what's the harm, we live in a house with stairs, we get plenty of exercise 😉

I followed all the steps exactly but I thought it might be a fail.  The fudge had to be cooked in the microwave, which I think is a bit hard to judge.  It didn't look too much like fudge, so when I got to the pouring on melted chocolate, I said to Ian this could be a waist of a good block of Cadbury's.  He was a bit miffed as I'd sent him to the shops to buy said chocolate!  Still I carried on.

Anyhow after the slice spent the night in the fridge we cut into it to have with coffee, yum we both agreed it was seriously good and better than cafe bought. Though I should add that a little goes a long way!

So I'm sharing the recipe with you.  Oh go on, you know you want to try some :-)

Don't be put off by the microwave portion.....Once the fudge is added to the base and cooked in the oven it's fine.

I also froze some of mine, though to be honest we had some visitors who helped eat half of the tray!!

Till next time............ :-)

CARAMEL SLICE

Ingredients:

Large Block of eating chocolate (milk or plain)

For the base:

·      1 cup self raising flour

·      1 cup coconut

·      ½ cup brown sugar

·      5 ozs butter (melted)

·       

For the filling:

·      2 tins of Condensed Milk

·      2 tablespoons butter

·      4 tablespoons golden syrup

METHOD:

The base:

·      Line a large (32cm) baking tray with baking paper.

·      Mix flour, sugar and coconut together in a glass bowl.

·      Add the melted butter and mix together to form a crumb.

·      Press the mixture into the prepared baking tray.

·      Bake in a moderate oven (180c) for 15 – 20 minutes or until just golden,

The Filling:

·      Melt all the ingredients together in a microwave safe bowl.

·      Using a lower than 100% setting in the microwave (70%) cook the fudge, checking and stirring every 2 minutes.  You need the fudge to thicken a bit and be a golden yellow colour.  (this is the bit I found difficult)

·      Pour the fudge over the cooked base.

·      Cook in the oven  for between 5 – 8 minutes @ 120c  until firm.

·      Remove from oven and cool.

·      Melt chocolate in your preferred way (I put mine in a dish over a pan of simmering water)

·      Once the base has cooled cover with the melted chocolate.

·      Place in the fridge overnight.

·      Slice using a sharp knife that has been dipped in hot water.

·      Keep in the fridge, taking out just prior to serving.