WOYWW 140 - where did that week go??

 Where on earth did the past week go ? the last few days have just flown by, and there just aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done!

This is my desk/dining room table today, stacked with leftover matchbox easel cards from last week, my Pro Marker colour chart, as yesterday I was working on samples for Saturday's class. The pile of samples for the class being buried under the big roll of paper on the right of the desk.  Said roll having been used as backdrop to try to improve my photos for my DT samples - I am definitely no David Bailey!

The eagle-eyed amongst you might spot the tester pot of paint sitting in a little white box in the middle of the table - I am in the process of painting a papier mache box ready for decorating, only had to move it from the kitchen cos it was in the way of that important work aid - the kettle!!

Oh, did I mention that whopping great box on the left??? Full of other boxes hopefully awaiting altering and decorating - otherwise known as the place boxes in our house get dumped lovingly placed awaiting a makeover!

I thought I would share with you some of my DT work for the WOW! Embossing team, on the theme of Valentine's Day, as it's so close!  These 2 were made using WOW! stamps and Embossing powders, and are gloriously girlie in red and pink :-)  There is a men's Valentine's card too, but I will save that for another day :-)

  

Happy WOYWW everyone, and if you're not sure what I'm blathering about,hop on over to the wonderful Julia's blog, where you can snoop into lots of crafty desks around the world

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Matchbox Easel cards and Pro Marker Storage!

Hi everyone, my recent obsession with boxes has carried over into my classes, and I thought I would share with you a pic of the Matchbox Easel Cards we made last night.

I love these little boxes as they are so versatile. They are a basic square easel card, mounted on a square 'matchbox' in a sleeve. I can personally vouch for the fact that they hold up to 9 Lindor choccies - but only 3 left now! ;-)  They can be for any occasion, we made some for valentine's day, and birthdays. I decided to go with a contemporary black and white stamped design, adding a bold colour accent in the punched images - I think they look fab!

I am entering the one on the right of the pic (with the heart!) in the Oldie but Goodie Challenge cos I've had the cute heart with a birdie stamp for ages and this is the first time I've used it! Also the Allsorts Challenge with one or More Hearts as the theme.

I  also thought I'd share with you a 'tidy tip', as I am rather prone to showing my messy workspace onn my postings, so I thought I would show that I do have some semblance of organisation!  Also, Di over at Pixie's Crafty Workshop is on a mammoth stamps re-org, and inspired me to show some organisation!

One of my biggies with organising my stash is that I need to be able to cart it around to the classes that I run, and so I have several chests of drawers, with lots of organiser boxes holding inks, different paper and card etc.  I use my Pro Markers all the time, both at home and at workshops, so I needed something portable, but that would let me organise my pens into colour families - I have about 75 pens, and want them all in one place.  I wasn't keen on the Letraset storage wallets, and lots of other wallets are really pricey, so here is my solution:

 

This is a toiletries bag, with a number of separate see thru zipped compartments, all of which are attached to the main case by velcro strips and so can be pulled out of the case as required, or I can just unzip the relevant compartment. The middle compartment even has a small zipped mesh outer pocket that holds my ultra fnine nibs - perfect! And the whole thing zips closed and fits nicely into my drawer when not in use.  And the best bit??? This cost me £3 on Ebay!

  

So, that's me for Thurs night. I'm demo'ing this Sunday at Hobbycraft, with a Valentine's theme - by the time Valentine's Day actually arrives I will be heartily sick of hearts! 

Thanks for stopping by

Debs xx

Hide n Seek card

 The sun is shining today, but it's really cold here! I've not had much time to be creative this past week, but wanted to share my Sunday afternoon creation.

I love playing with paper mechanics, when a card does something other than simply 'open' which explains my recent obsession with boxes, and the Matchbox Easel card I have planned for classes this week!

This is a Hide n Seek card, where the card has a 'hidden' interior section.

This is the first thing you see when you open the card, a lovely series of stamped and layered panels. Then, if you close the card and push the outer edges back ,when you open the card again.........

Ta Da!!  A 'hidden' message, in this case, the panels say 'With Love'

this is actually a really easy card to make, but takes ages to decorate all the panels. It's great fun though, both to make and to receive.

Start with a piece of A4, crease and fold to an A5, then add further creases as though it is a gatefold card, mountain fold the centre crease, and valley fold the 2 outer creases.

On the centre fold, mark and cut 3 evenly spaced horizontal slits, cutting from the centre fold to the outer folds at 5.25, 10.5 & 15.75 cm.

Fold each panel you have created alternately left and right. Cut 4 panels of mirror board at 21cm x 7.2cm , sandwich them back to back in pairs. Slide one mirror strip through the 2 left hand panels, and the other through the 2 right hand panels.

fold the card open and closed a few times to make sure it folds smoothly, then decorate to your hearts content!

Thanks for stopping by

Debs

WOYWW 138 and more boxes!

This is today's crafty corner of the dining room, prepping samples for this Saturday's class making gift boxes.  Centre front we have a cute little butterfly hexagon box (templates from a CD by Payperbox) stamped and decorated with butterflies.  Behind that is a pyramid box decorated with hearts (yes, Valentine's Day soon dear, if you're reading this :-)

Then you have a small collection of my Stickles glitter glues, and just behind that a teeny tiny set of dragonfly and butterfly stamps that I've had for years and absolutely adore! They are tiddly tho, perfect for backgrounds!

I didn't dare take a pic of the whole table, cos anyone who read my blog last week might notice that most of the same stuff is still there! Have been super busy this last week, and lost a day yesterday after a visit to the osteopath (old war wound lol!) after which I felt like I'd been kicked by a mule (actually petite and blonde, but she still packs a punch!)

After doing a quick flick thru my Blogger reading list, has anyone seen the preview of the new Distress Ink Marker Pens???   Ooooooooh, I really NEED these!!!! 

I have deadlines coming at me all over the place, 3 classes in the next week, and samples to make for the trade show at the NEC, so forgive me if I don;t make it to your WOYWW entry this week.  I will do my best later today when I have a bit more time, so for now, I'm off to add my name to the list over at Julia's blog, then it's back to the inkpads :-0

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Sandown Craft show - new stash!

So I blew my New Year's resolution, which was to not buy any more stash in January!! went to the Sandown Stictch & Creative Crafts show, and bought some goodies........

The beautfiul Isabelle paper pack, lots of glittered and double sided papers in soft shades of green, brown and pink - yum! Packs of coloured card, 10 sheets per pack, £1 a pack - bargain! Got the Martha Stewart punch reduced cos there was no box - yay! And the set of Pro Markers incljudes 5 ultra fine nibs, so very happy with those.  Some extra Glossy Accents mini bottles - so useful for my classes, a leaf punch that I've been meaning to buy for a while, and was reduced, and a cute little Tina Wenke stamp of a book-reading hedgehog that I absolutely fell in love with! 

I was very restrained, kept picking up goodies,sighing over them and then putting them back on the shelf - there were sooooooooo many stamps I 'needed', but still I managed to resist - made of stern stuff, me! Also, the fact that all the credit card machines at the show were playing up helped, cos most stalls were only taking cash and that ran out really quick........ :-)

Been demo'ing at Hobbycraft all afternoon, showing the Papermania 'Blue Burleigh' Capsule Collection, and the Portobello Rd Collectiion.  This is one of the quickie makes using the Blue burleigh  Collection, which includes these great die cuts that you can use to layer up with the toning backing papers for really quick and easy cards.  This one is 2 die cuts, each with a hole punched in the centre of the scalloped edge and tied together with a ribbon bow, then fixed to the front of the card with foam pads.  I finished with sticky gems - super easy!

Thanks to the lovely ladies from my craft classes who stopped by to say hi, it was so nice to see you and have a chat, see you at the next class!

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Woyww 137 - The West Wing!

 Ok, so this is the current workdesk pic - chaos as always! I am in awe of those crafters who can stay tidy. I think I'm doing well if i can see any table top at all!!

Working clockwise from centre front, on my craft mat is a concertina'd paper strip ready to turn into a rosette, going left my rubbish pile - usually put this in a box lid as I go, but the box lid was full of other crap lol!!

Left of that a set of Sizzix alpha dies I was going to use on my project but changed my mind, and precariously balanced on that my I-phone!

then one of the cards from my DT project - using Papermania Portobello Rd kit to make some patriotic British cards!Then my pile of stash, various sticky things, a 2nd card for the project partially finished.

and finally...............the West Wing of the crafting mansion!! 

Formerly known as the kitchen, and now in use as a stamping, embossing and die cutting station.  And......I have hit on a great way of saving on the heating bills!

I put my washing in the washer/dryer on the drying cycle when I am working in the kitchen - keeps me toasty!  In fact, if I'm using the heat gun, can get positively tropical lol!!

For those of you who are wondering why on earth I would post pics of such a disaster zone, pop over to Julia's Stamping Ground, where she hosts a weekly blog hop of crafters desks and works in progress from around the world. Great fun, hugely addictive, and I only managed to visit bout 25 blogs last week, so will try to see more this week, but not all today!! Got a class tonight and I still have some work to do - yikes!

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

WOW! Embossing January Challenge!

So the first of our monthly Challenges is up and running! To be in with a chance of winning any 6 WOW! Embossing powders of your choice in a handy carry case, you need to check out the challenge details on the main WOW! blog here. 

The challenge is to create a project based on the theme of LOVE (well it is Valentine's Day in a few weeks lol!) and/or using the Colours above as your inspiration. You must use WOW! products on your project, post it on your blog, and then list it on Mr Linky's Magical Widget on the main WOW! blog. The Challenge closes on Jan 31, so jump on in! Do leave us a comment letting us know what you think of the Challenge, and the DT projects.

More DT projects coming soon, and I can't wait to see what ideas you crafty lot come up with!

Happy Crafting

Debs x

Love is in the air!

Beautiful sunny day here in the South of England, and I wanted to share my DT project for this week - a Valentine's card.

Yup, Easter eggs are being advertised on tv and it's Valentines day a month from today! Any ladies thinking of proposing, it's also a Leap year, so brush up on your proposal etiquette lol!

The card was made using WOW! stamp sets - With Love, Build a Butterly (so cute!), and Flowers background stamp and WOW! embossing powders in red glitz and pale gold.  You can see the rest of the DT's projects here

The ribbon band across the centre of the card was an experiment, I tried embossing on mirror card and it worked a treat! My advice would be use an anti-static pad on the mirror card before stamping.  WOW powders are all treated to be anti-static but mirror card holds finger prints etc so it is better to be safe than sorry (the voice of experience!!)

Thanks for stopping by

Debs xx

Woyww 136 and a bit of happy!!

It's been one of those running around trying to get everything done days, and I got home this evening to find I had missed the postie in my various 'popping in and out' and have one of those lovely little red cards for me to go pick something up at the sorting office, which I can't do til the weekend!  but lo!! Under the pile of junk mail what do I find but the latest edition of Making Cards, so I make a cuppa and pop my feet up - with a choccy biccy cos that's the law.  And as I wrench off the plastic wrapper what do I see but.........my card is the main pic on the cover!  AND, 2 more of my cards are on the cover too! 

Some of you will know that I contribute to Making Cards as a freelance designer, and there are usually a few of my cards in each edition, but I've never been on the cover before, and I was chuffed to bits! Mine are the iris-folding card top left and the 2 cutesy cards bottom right.   I knew that the cutesy cards were going to be in this month's, cos I was asked to design the cards using the free craft papers in the centre of the mag this month. When I told hubby this, his first reaction was 'so you're the centrefold girl??'  Men! Can't live with 'em and can't shoot 'em!

Also, hubby's car finally came home yesterday from the garage, so I got my car back - freedom!

So this is why there is not pic of my workdesk for you Woyww'ers to see - nothing going on there last couple of days - but if you pop on over to Julia's blog, there are lots of desks far more productive than mine.  Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

WOW! Design Team

Some of you will already know that I am on the DT for WOW Embossing Powders, and that I made a bunch of samples for the NEC show in November.  The DT is now up and running, and the blog will be updated soon and introduce you to the team and their designs during the course of this week.

Look out for some amazing inspiration, challenges and giveaways and check out the blogs of the rest of the DT from the side panel!

this is one of my designs exhibited at the NEC.............. more to follow!

 

thanks for stopping by!

Debs x

Creativity returns! Hurrah! And WOYWW

woo hoo!  Finally, after a couple of weeks of crafty inactivity, I get to craft again.  Have to confess, I didnlt really feel ike crafting much over Christmas break, which surprised me, as I had several days of 'nothingness'. However, these were spent semi-comatose in front of tv eating anything and everything to hand and watching drivel on tv - bliss!  We have had a few weeks of the 'everything that could go wrong.......' syndrome, starting just before Christmas with Hubby's car dying, so I am currently car-less while he makes use of mine. Isn't it amazing how much you take a car for granted? I hadn't realised just how much I use mine, particularly for last minute supplies for classes!!

Then the dishwasher decided to have a heart attack just in time for Christmas, my poor Brother in Law is still in hospital, having now contracted MRSA and a chest infection following his 4th or 5th surgery. And yesterday, with the storms, I spent a fun few minutes sailing across the garden hanging on for dear lifge to the canopy from our swing seat, as I tried to prevent it flying into someone else's garden, and then our fence blew down!

My work desk is a bit of a work in progress today, as I am frantically packing up kits for tonights class, having left it to the last minute (not intentional - lots of interruptions!!)

centre front is my lovely new A3 cutting mat courtesy of Santa Hubby! and on that is the sample card for tonight (more detailed pic below) and set of packing/construction instructions and box of kits.  If you look carefully at the top right of the pic you will see my Christmas oven mitts which have not yet been returned to their home for another year :-)

So this is a close up of tonight's project - a shutter card with lots of matting and layering, flowers, butterflies and mirri card.

May not get to look at everyone's desk today on WOYWW, but will hop on over to Julia's blog now and hopefully will get a chance to catch up tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

WOYWW 132 - Snowmen, lots of Snowmen!

Not much going on today on the workdesk, so decided to post a pic from earlier.  In a post a few weeks ago I mentione dhow batch stamping had killed my mojo, so I decided to try to make each card different - well, here's the results.

Given that I had (stupidly - and never again!) stamped and coloured them all pretty much the same, I was a little limited. but they turned out ok.  The eagle eyed among you might spot that the diamond pop up with snowballs (left of pic) was in the December issue of Making Cards :-)

I'm a bit late with my WOYWW entry today, been a bit busy with non-crafty stuff, and will probably be tomorrow before I get to take a peek at other crafty goings on, so click here if you want to get ahead of the game & take a look at other crafters desks. For those who asked, my last 2 posts include the template for the christmas Crackers and the Gift Boxes - have fun!

Debs xx

Gift Box (Christmas or any time really!!)

These gift boxes look amazing, and are so easy to make! We made them at the Weds class last week, and I demo'd them at Hobbycraft yesterday, and was inundated with requests for instructions, so here we are!!

You will need:

• 2 x A4 card
• ruler
• craft knife
• scissors
• pencil
• extra strong double sided tape or fast drying glue
• Patterned paper, rubber stamps, die cuts, ribbon etc to decorate

instructions

• To make the base of the box - cut one piece 20cm x 26cm, and one piece 20cm x 10cm
• On the larger piece of card, measure along the long edge and score at 8cm, 16cm and 24cm
• On the smaller piece of card, measure along the shorter edge and score at 8cm
• On both pieces of card, position the card so that the scored lines run top to bottom, with the 2cm section on the right hand side, and score each piece horizontally at 4cm up from the bottom edge
• With the card still in the same position, cut up each scored line, stopping at the 4cm horizontal score line.  This creates the flaps for the base of the box.
• Cut away the bottom edge of each of the 2cm wide flaps, up to the 4cm horizontal score line, and trim a narrow triangle from the left and right edges of all remaining flaps
• fold along all score lines, but do not burnish - you should now have 1 piece with 3 x 8cm panels, and one with a single 8cm panel, each piece having a 2cm flap at the side, and 4cm flaps at the base
• Apply any decoration (Paper panels - see measurements at the end) stamped patterns on the outside etc) before assembling the box - it is much easier when the panels are flat
• using extra strong tape (or wet glue) apply to the long edge on the outside of each of the 2cm flaps, and attach the long flaps to the inside of the next panel
• repeat with the base flaps, folding in 2 opposite flaps, and then the 2 remaining, only applying tape or glue to the last 2 flaps
• place the box upright on your work surface and use a ruler inside the box to press down on the inside of the base panels to secure them in place
• To make the lid cut a piece of card 13.2cm square
• score along each edge 2.5cm in from the cut edge
• to make the flaps, on one edge, cut up the vertical score lines until you reach the first 2.5cm horizontal score line
• Trim a small triangle from the inner edge of each corner flap (important to trim from the small corner flaps, and not from the longer rectangular centre section of the lid, to get a neat finish)
• repeat on the opposite edge of the lid
• fold along all score lines, but do not burnish 
• Apply any decoration (stamped patterns on the outside etc) before assembling the lid- it is much easier when the panels are flat
  
• using extra strong tape (or wet glue) apply to the small corner flaps only, and at this stage fix only 2 of the flaps in place
•  To ensure that the lid fits, place it on the box before finally securing the 2 remaining flaps in place
• Apply any decoration, die cuts, ribbon etc to finish the box

If you want to cut patterned paper panels to fit the box, you will need:

• 4 panels 15.5cm x 7.5 cm for the base
• 4 panels 2.2cm x 7.8cm and one 7.8cm square for the lid

It took a lot longer to type up the instructions than it did to make the box!  These are very easy and a nice size for small gifts.  You could also cut a shaped panel from one side and line with acetate to make an aperture box.

Experiment and have fun!

Debs x

Xmas Cracker Template

A few people asked for the template and instructions for making their own Xmas Crackers.  You can download a copy of the PDF template here

To make the crackers, you need the following supplies:

• Cracker Template 
• A4 patterned paper
• cardboard tube from loo roll
• ribbon
• double sided sticky tape
• ready made decoration (or stamp and colour your own) and sticky foam pad
• cracker snap (pr you can just get everyone to shout BANG!!!)
• Pencil and scissors

 Instructions

• Place the paper face down, find the centre of both long sides of your A4 paper, and mark with pencil
• Place the template on the wrong side of the paper, with the 2 notches marked 'Centre' lined up with your pencil marks
• Fold left and right sides of the paper under in line with the outer edges of the template (outer edges of the 'teeth')
• trace around the teeth onto the fold at both left and right
• remove the template
• Keep the paper folded, and cut out the marked triangles (don't cut around the outer edges, these should sit roughly on the fold of the paper)
• open out the paper face down, and apply double sided sticky tape to the wrong side of the paper, along both long straight edges, avoiding the areas with the cut out triangles
• place the cardboard tube in the centre of one long straight edge, attaching it with the sticky tape, and roll towards the other edge, securing it with sticky tape
• push one end of the paper in towards the tube, and tie with a ribbon bow
• fill with your choice of gift, a snap, hat and/or jokes (lots of cracker jokes available to download - just Google 'Xmas cracker jokes!)
• push in the other end, and secure with another ribbon bow
• fix your chosen decoration to the cracker

Hope you enjoy making these, I find that once I have all the materials to hand (having already made the decoration panels) I can run up 6 crackers in an hour!

Merry Christmas xx

Xmas crackers and boxes & WOYWW 130

This is one of those 'before and after' posts, this pic is actually the 'after', but I wanted to show it first as it's 3 cute Xmas projects in their finished glory!

Then there's the next pic, which is the 'before and during...' pic of my desk................

So you can see the 3 projects scattered on the desk, and the template for the hexagon box on my cutting mat, and stacked under the Christmas Cracker are the papers for yet more crackers!

to the far right, just in the pic is my grotty old black craft knife.  This was 'donated' by my DH some years ago (he is a draughtsman and used to use this regularly) The knife has been shrink wrapped several times, which has made it non-slip grip and has many layers on the cap, so I can shove the blade into it without worrying about my fingers - perfect, but not pretty!  DH bought me a lovely pink and purple 'proper' craft knife once, but I reverted to his (now mine!!) within a few days - do you have any favourite craft tools/kit that you wouldn't be without?????

I only managed to visit a few crafters corners last week, and I'm pretty late adding my contribution to the blog hop today at Julia's, so will have to wait til tomorrow to check out the WOYWW entries, as I'm working tonight, but I;m looking forward to seeing what's out there in craft cyberspace!

Happy WOYWW

Debs x

Mens cards - and recovered mojo!

 Thought I would share a couple of men's cards that were a recent DT project. The first one is a birthday cake made out of tools and bits of wood.  The birthday candles are screws with little flames added to the top, and the background paper with hammers is from a Joanna Sheen Messy Rabbit CD.

I stamped the image several times (you can see the full stamped image in the next photo) and coloured with Pro Markers, then I set about cutting it into pieces and assembling into a 'cake' - I was quite pleased with the end result - something fun and a bit different.

This second card uses the whole stamp (Personal Impressions - from Hobbycraft) as a background frame for my birthday message. Again, I stamped it out a couple of times and cut out individual pieces to decoupage on the main pic. Added a DIY guy from another Personal Impressions set - Cute Characters 1 - and used a cut out saw to create a stop for my easel card. Background paper from Messy Rabbit cd again (great papers on there!)

My DH is always pottering in the garage, and in our house it's known as 'the man's room!' so thought this was quite appropriate!

Been a strange week in our house, brother in law took a turn for the worse, then rallied, still in ICU, but slight improvement.  I had the lurgy - one of those strange ones where only one side of your nose is runny, and your head feels like it's full of soggy cotton wool, but to the outside world you appear 'normal' (well, as normal as I ever look lol!) - and I blame this (and my pathetic attempt at batch Christmas cards) for my loss of mojo.

However, after my last post, I decided to set myself a challenge - to take my multiple stamped images that look oh so samey, and to use each one to create a card that was different from the last. Going well so far! Will share some pics later in the week.

Off for my late morning cuppa and choccy biccie (Remember people, biccies are for life, not just for missing mojo!!)

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

WOYWW 129 - and self inflicted mojo departure!

 

OK, so I normally love to make Christmas cards, I actually started in January this year (only cos I had a couple of free days when I was bored & still in the christmas spirit, so made a few in the first week!!)  

Then pretty much nothing until I had to start making Christmas samples for publication, and that was in the summer! Made a bunch of sample cards and then forgot about my own Christmas cards, until this week, when I decided I really should get my act together. So I decided to get all clever and make a batch of snowmen cards.  Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!  I have discovered that batch making cards is a sure fire way to kill my crafty mojo! 

As you can see from the pic above,  my desk has a few snowmen, and I couldn't cope with them all being the same, so started changing the colours, and I stamped off a load of identical 'SNOW' letters, and cut them all out, made a couple of cards with the words on, and  now I'm bored with looking at them! 

So I am going to resort to my crafty inspiration - tea and chocolate digestives (and tonight's Pro Marker class!) And of course, taking a world-wide wander through other people's crafty inspiration over at Julia's WOYWW blog hop.

thanks for stopping by, and hopefully there will be something more fun to see next time you visit, and the crafty mojo will have reappeared courtesy of Mr McVitie's biscuits!

Deb x

Spending dilemma and blog Candy!

So my very kind Hubby gave me a voucher to buy some goodies at the craft Barn, and when I went on line to spend, I found they have a great Blog Candy giveaway!

I don't know about you, but whenever I get gift vouchers I develop a form of 'purchase paralysis'.  I want to buy something I wouldn't just go and buy myself anyway, as it's a gift, but then I end up spending hours (literally!!) roaming the websites trying to make up my mind how to spend my voucher. 

Such a tough decision!

Not a lot of crafting going on today, spent time cleaning the house - it so needed it! I'm not a great fan of housework, and positively hate the vacuum (see Bubbles!, that's why you should come to me for your vacuuming fix!!) so our house tends to get what my Mum used to cal 'a lick and a promise' now and again, then a full scale battalion attack when people are coming to visit :-)

so, housework done, and Blog Candy posted, I'm off to spend another happy hour deciding how to spend my voucher

Debs x

Fat and sugar free mincemeat (and it's delicious!)

For those who asked, here is my recipe for mincemeat.  My family have now got to the point where they won't eat the shop bought varieties as they find them too sweet and greasy.  A bit embasrrassing when you're out visiting!

This is an absolute doddle to make, and will keep in sterilised jars in the fridge for up to 4 months, and for a week once opened.  But in our house, it all gets used the day it's made, makes about 6-7 dozen mince pies (depends how generous you are with the filling). We then eat any that broke apart (and some that 'got' broken!!) on the day, and the rest are frozen.  If you're not bothered about the sugar, you can dredge with icing sugar once cooled, and I'm not too precise about the measurements any more, I just tend to go with what feels right. (I have been using the recipe for 20+ years, so it's almost second nature now lol!)

It has been known that all 7 dozen have gone before Christmas, and I've spent christmas eve frantically baking the same amount again, which duly disappeared by New Years!!



spicy fat-free mincemeat
1kg mixed dried fruit
600g cooking apples (about 3) peeled and grated (they will go brown, don't worry about it!)
2 tsp ground mixed spice, plus 1tsp ground cloves, 1 tsp ground cinnamon (or whatever mix of spices you prefer)
600 ml sweet cider (eg; Woodpecker)
50g chopped mixed nuts
100g chopped glace cherries
2tbsp brandy

1. Put dried fruit in large pan with apples, spices and cider.  Simmer for about 20 mins until pulpy and nearly all liquid evaporated

2. Turn off heat, stir in nuts, cherries and brandy

That's it!  Simple, delicious and smells AMAZING! Pop a large spoonful into each pastry case, pop in the oven for 15-20 mins and you're done.

Enjoy

Debs xxx

WOYWW 128 - Christmas boxes

So I'm a bit slow with the WOYWW pic today, if you hop on over to Julia's blog at the Stamping Ground, you get to take a peek at lots of crafters creations - it's great fun but be warned - it's hugely addictive and can swallow a whole day if you're not careful!

I've spent the morning playing with templates for Christmas gift boxes ready for an upcoming class, and you can see a couple of them on my cutting mat, and another unfinished, with a red ribbon around it and a finished icicle box next to it. Lots of punches, some gems, some Pro Markers, a box of distress inks and the ever present baby wipes! And top right, a box of wires to try out with my new toy - a Zutter bind it All! I bought this on E-bay a week ago and didn't have any binding wires to try it out.  Christmas calendars here we come!

I have some beautiful craft cd's, including the Joanna Sheen 'Ivory Cats' cd, and they have fab Calendars on them, so I'm looking forward to giving calendars to friends and family. Just have to think up ways of personalising them so they aren't just 'print and bind' pressies. Also need to find some of those big cardboard envelopes for calendars - if anyone knows where to get them, let me know!

Next I need to plan and organise my Christmas 'bake in'. My Christmas starts when I make the christmas puddings, mince pies and cake - and I'm a little late this year so need to get my act together. I started making my own Christmas puds about 20 years ago, making only one that first year from an old Family Circle recipe (anyone remember that??) which I still use - it doesn't even have metric measurements! Then family members asked 'are you making them this year?' and it grew from there. Now I make lots of them!  They take about 6-7 hours steaming, the whole kitchen gets soggy, and while they are cooking I make the mince meat (sugar and fat free - so you can have twice as many lol!!) Then I bake the mince pies (8 dozen last year!)and I play Christmas music all day long, much to my husband's disgust!

I love this part of Christmas, the traditions and rituals that are my build up to the big day. Everyone is getting home made pressies this year, and I will be baking, cutting and sticking for a few weeks!
Happy blog-hopping everyone, and thanks for stopping by

Debs x

WOYWW

So an early entry from me today for the international snoopathon that is over at Julia's where we get the weekly delight of being able to see what others are creating, and show our workdesks to the world! Mine is relatively tidy (for me!) cos you can still see the table top in places!

Centre stage is a wedding card I'm working on for an old student of mine, and to the left are a batch of stamped images and samples ready for this weekend's Pro Marker workshop, and my 2 fave daisy punches, which I use again and again. Above that a pack of core'dinations and some beautiful Cheery Lyn dies I bought at the NEC - if you haven't seen these take a look, they are gorgeous! I have used one on the top right of the wedding card.

Hiding at back left behind my caddy is a tea bag box waiting to be altered, flip top tea boxes are just right for recipe cards etc. and to the left of the table out of shot is a huge bag of loo roll inners ready for more loo roll mini albums and Christmas crackers!

Hope you're having a fab Wednesday, and enjoy blog hopping around the other desks out there

Deb x

NEC visit, traffic jams and guilt!

If you read my earlier posts, you will know that I was not planning to go to the NEC, although I had some samples that were going to be on display.  I had a freebie pass, but not a free day.  Well, I had a last minute cancellation of a meeting on Friday morning, and had the whole day free, so thought to myself 'a-ha, serendipity! Off to the NEC for me!'

You would think that this would be a nice day out, free pass, goodies to drool over etc. I left home at 10.45, expecting to be there by 1.00 (usually 2 hours door to door) but actually parked up at the NEC at 3.30. Yep, nearly 5 hours in the car!  Teeth gnashing and wailing to no avail, there was a crash on the M42 and they closed the road for the air ambulance - and when I heard this after nearly 2 hours sat in the jam, I immediately felt bad that some poor soul had been so badly injured and all I was doing was 'off on a jolly'. Then the 'it could have been me if I was half an hour earlier' syndrome kicked in, and then guilt that I could be so selfish. Then later that night when I saw the terrible crash on the M5, I was so grateful that all that had happened to me was a traffic jam.

So, had about an hour and a half to rush round the NEC, indluding a stop at the WOW embossing powders stand, where my DT samples were displayed and here are some pics of my creations...

(still gives me a thrill to see my creations on display or in print :-)  Met some lovely people, didn't spend much (makes a change!) and got soaked in a torrential downpour - all in all a good day!


Thanks to the lovely people who have asked how Barney the kitty is doing, he's happy and healthy and the vet gave him a week off for good behaviour!  Back to the vet next week for a check up when hopefully he'll get the all clear.

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Kitty update and WOYWW

Thanks to everyone who asked after Barney the kitty over the last few days.  He is home now on 'Mummy Watch' feeling rather sorry for himself, but I think pleased to be home judging by the limpet-like attachment to my lap!  Not conducive to crafting!

One unfortunate side effect of his having been on an open catheter is the awful stink. Good job I love him. Let's just say every surface is covered in old towels to avoid contamination!  Poor little guy is still on tons of meds and with daily vet check ups, but definitely on the mend, so I gave him a bit of a wash earlier today - not sure who got wetter - him or me!

So, crafting mojo seemed to have left the house with the Kitty, and I was forced to tidy my craft table -eeek!! found half finished projects I had set aside for later (erm.......forgot about) and that pesky quickie glue pen that disappeared suddenly, miraculously reappeared.

So here's  a pic of the 'tidy' table - bet you can't tell, huh?  the clue is in the visible table top, a rare sight around here lol lol!!

Am part way thru prep for tonight's class and the glitter is out in force :-) the little purple and lime zippy centre stage is my glitter storage bag, an old cosmetic case that is plastic lined and so doesn't let the glitter out unless I set it free!

Now I'm off to Julia's blog where she hosts the weekly sneaky peek at other crafty desks around the world, have fun desk hopping, and thanks for stopping by.


Deb x

Poor kitty :-(

Not much crafting going on in the Willis household at the mo.  Poor kitty is still really sick, and has been at the pet hospital since Thurs.   Thursday afternoon was awful, as I went to take him to the vet for his daily check up and couldn't wake him up - nearly had a heart attack on the spot.  After 4 continuous days of vets visits they admitted him and found he had a blood clot in his bladder, poor thing.  He is recovering now and I hope they will let him come home in next day or two.

Had a demo at Hobbycraft on Sunday, but that's pretty much been it for past few days - too busy going to  and fro to vets, or worrying about my baby :-(

For those of you who asked about my samples at the NEC, I won't actually be going, but my samples should be on the WOW Embossing Powders stand. 

Here's a pic of me setting up for my Hobbycraft heat embossing demo, and on the front left of the pic you will see a sneaky peek of the twin of a tissue box that should be on the stand at the NEC - that's if my parcel of samples arrives in time! With all the vet visits, and my poor brother in law in hospital, it's been a pretty stressful week, and the samples only made it to the post on Friday - fingers crossed they make it in time!!

Hope you are all having a good week, and to paraphrase Bruce Forsyth....."Keeeeeeep Crafting!"

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Shaving Foam Marbled paper

A few people have asked about the shaving foam technique, so I thought I would show you what we made last night and explain how.

 This is the marbled paper we created -what's left of it! this one got torn while it was still damp.

I saw Ali Reeve demo this on C&C, and there are videos on u-tube if you take a look. It's very easy to do.  Spray a layer of shaving foam (better than gel) in bottom of an A4 plastic box (or in a clean sink so you can wash it away after). Squirt a few sprays of ink onto the foam - I use Stamps Away Colour Mist, but you can use any re-inker or alcohol inks. the only thing that doesn't work well is something like Mica mists, as they are so diluted with water they just make the foam collapse.

Use the end of a paintbrush or pencil to make swirls in the inked foam, and when you are happy with the pattern, press a piece of paper or card gently onto the foam until the underside is covered with foam. Lay it face up on your craft mat and press a clean piece of paper on top of the foam covered side and you get 2 sheets - the first impression will always be darker than the second, but it's quite nice to create different depths of colour.  Then you just wipe away the excess foam with kitchen roll, or if you're being really thrifty, use an old credit card to scrape off the foam and pop it back in the box. This sample only used a little ink, but you can use a lot and create quite a strong colour - it's fun to experiment!

These are some of the embellishments we made with our marbled card and paper, different flowers, feathers and a rosette (we ran out of time on the rosette cos we had so much fun getting messy with the foam lol lol!)  Or you can use it as background paper, or to create an accent on a card with matting and layering.



And I just had to share with you a picture of my ladies from last night's class, we had 3 generations of one family there, isn't that lovely? We all had a great time, and got VERY mucky!

thanks for stopping by

Debs x

WOYWW

So I've fallen a bit behind in the blogging world........last week I was away all week working, thought I would have loads of time for crafting and blogging in the evenings. What happened? WEach evening I returned to my hotel room exhausted and all I did was eat and sleep! All those lovely crafty bits stayed in my bag, no energy and no mojo!

then this week we have had a family emergency and a poorly kitty to look after around the clock.  Have you ever seen a cat so drugged up he walks into walls and falls down? Bless him, now he's confined to the one room so he doesn't hurt himself

Anyhoo.......this is the pic of today's workdesk, with some strategically placed tissue paper to hide my DT projects that are headed off to the NEC next week!  You can just see a sneaky peek to the left and right of the pink tissue paper.

Front and centre we have the most important project right now - a cuppa!!!  In my favourite mug from Margaritaville. Front right are some masking experiments with shaving foam and spray inks, the key ingredients for tonights class!

I'm off to have a quick peek at a few more desks at Julia's before I head out for tonights class.

Happy desk hopping!

Deb x

Hallloween card - who knew tearing paper could be so scary????

I just had to show you the Halloween card we made last night.  The class had a ball making the card, learning how to 'flap' diamond top cards to get them to fold right, and adding scary pumpkins and bats!

 This is the front of the card, complete with haunted house, witch, pumpkin, black cat and or course, those bats I spent ages punching  out lol!!

The main image and wrap were torn rather than cut, to add to that grungy look, but some of the ladies in the class found tearing paper to be sacrilegous!!! It was so funny watching people trying to tear 'neatly' and some decided not to tear at all, and reverted to their scissors, using them to cut out the uneven 'torn looking' edge printed on the paper!

And as promised, this is the inside of the card, complete with 'flying' ghostie! We stuck 2 ghosties back to back, with some thread sandwiched between, and then poked a hole in the top of the card and threaded the ends thru so the ghostie 'floated' when the card was opened.  We covered the ends of the thread on the back of the diamond with another pumpkin head.

This was so much fun to do, and would work equally well for a Christmas card, with hanging snowflakes, and one lady wants to use it as a nativity, because the diamond top looks like a roof - lots of inspiration there!

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

WOYWW 123-Halloween and Flowers

So this is my work space this morning - if you're not sure why I'm posting a photo of my messy table, hop on over to Julia's blog where she hosts the biggest snoopathon!!  You get to check out the craft desks and workspaces of other crafters. You get to see what other people are making, and feel better about your own messy (in my case) space!  lol lol

Bottom left of pic are the kits I'm getting ready for tonight's class, and just above that you can see my Halloween punch - I've been punching out gazillions of little black bats - guess what tonight's project is?????????? Witches and bats pumpkins and flying (yes, flying!!) ghosties!!

Above the punch is an empty ice cream container - great size for craft storage, so I will just have to keep eating the ice cream! Also a part-finished DT project I'm working on - not quite coming together yet.  Just to the right of centre are a few pink tissue paper carnations I've been experimenting with, I'm quite chuffed at how they turned out and they are a doddle to make, AND they squash flat to go in the post, and it just makes them look better! Will add them to a later post - thinking of dunking them in glitter to bling them up a bit!

On the far right is a bag of K&Co embellishments and a few packs of die cuts and rub on's. I've had a sort out and I'm trying to decide what to do with them, cos I don't think I'll use them. 

Oh yeah, and in the front of the pic, the placemats from last night's dinner, which is, after all, only the secondary purpose of this table lol lol!!

Happy WOYWW everyone

Debs x

Stampscapes, Ink Dusters and the Grand Prix!

I had a lovely afternoon yesterday whilst Hubby watched the Grand Prix - I spent hours with ink and paper and stamps!  I mentioned in an earlier post that I had received some beautiful Stampscapes stamps for my birthday, and I had a ball playing with them.  This was the first design with a brayered background using a Big n juicy ink pad and Funky Hands 'Funky Seasons' backing papers from the beautiful Winter Skating collection.

The second design was using Distress Inks and Inkylicious Ink Dusters (thanks to Shoshi for her U tube tutorial!)  The background was lightly covered with Mustard Seed and Wild Honey and then stamped all over in Wild Honey and Walnut Stain, after stamping off the first generation of ink to give a very soft background.

The tag was inked with Mustard Seed, Wild Honey and Spiced Marmalade, and overstamped with Memento Tuxedo Black, then mounted on black mirri card. The fibres were added to give the card more texture, as it seemed a little flat.

I was really pleased with the INkylicious Ink Dusters - they give a beautiful soft finish and blend so easily. I did find that they take longer to achieve a result than Cut N Dry or the Tim Holtz blending tool, but the end results are much smoother.

Thanks for dropping by!

Deb x

Missing the sunshine :-(

OK, I know it was unseasonal weather last weekend, and everyone's probably heard enough about it already but........I miss the sun! Sat here with grey clouds and cold feet (must put slippers on lol).

I wanted to share just one last pic from the hot weekend - my Barney - big fat ginger cat.  He got so hot outside, he had to come inside for a lie down in the shade, and decided he needed to cool as much of himself as possible as fast as possible lol lol!!

It's been a busy work week, so not much crafting.  I have to make a wedding card (it's tomorrow - eek!!) and I have some new stamps to play with, so I need to get organised.

Debs x

WOW - a clean workspace (aka the dining room table!)

I just had to share this pic today, cos it's not often you can actually SEE that this is a table!! Being a follower of WOWYY with Julia at Stamping Ground I wanted to show you that today, dear blog hopper, I have a clear table.  It's a sad day when there's no crafting :-(

Think I'd better mess this table up soon to make myself feel better :-)





  So I thought I would show you what I was doing during our mini heatwave last weekend, when Hubby was out slaving in the garden............... and I was working hard on my next project for Making Cards!  This is MUCH more normal - you can see how my Crafter's Spread has....ahem....spread...to the chair, the floor and even the kitchen!

This proved to be a bit of a challenge when I needed to stop and make sarnies - nowhere was clear! So being a good crafter I improvised and moved the kettle to the floor so that I had space to make lunch - well, I couldn't move my Cuttlebug - I still needed it!!!

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

CF Weds Class - Using Decoupage Twisters

Our Weds Class last week was all about using decoupage sheets in a different way. We all have them - sheets of decoupage images with borders, tags and little embellishments - something we fell in love with and then can't think how to use it!

We cut the front of the card on the diagonal and fixed the main image to mirri then on the inside face of the card so it showed over the diagonal (if your decoupage is not square, you could just mount it on a square of mirri or toning card). Front & inside of card was covered in toning paper, and we reserved the smallest layer of decoupage & cut an aperture lower right front to fit - the little swan looks great peeping through the aperture!

On the front of the card are a tag and border from the decoupage sheet, layered onto mirri, and a couple of vellum butterflies (glittered, of course!!) and the rest of the decoupage layers.  Added some card candi on the inside of the card to finish it off and balance it out - we were quite pleased with our finished design!

Debs x