Bikini Beauty and Recipe!

Hello friends,

Welcome to the start of a brand new week - what do you have in store?

Bit of a long post this one...

Today's crafty offering is a scrapbook page created for Spellbinders™ - 

it appears in their Idea Gallery - all the details can be found here.

I used Grand Labels Four as part of my background and Labels Four for the tag, 

I like the classic shape.  Bitty Blossoms cut from felt and then sprayed to look just a little bit 

aged and grubby(!) to emulate the edges of the scrapbook page.

As for the photo - well that is my big sister as a little girl.

Some class news:

The Advent Frame class booked up immediately so I'm going to run this class again 

on Sunday 4 November, the details are uploaded to my Spellbinders Academy page.

For those not familiar with the Advent Frame, this is the one I created last year, 

this year the design will be a little different, new festive papers, they are gorgeous, pictures to follow.
(I'm having a lots of fun shopping for goodies!)

Christmas plaques are in production...

Now to the recipe slot!

Great idea - I'm more than happy to share my recipes.

I'm old fashioned I'm afraid so I do ounces, pounds and tablespoons!

Lemon and Coconut Cake 

This cake recipe started off as orange and coconut but I changed it to lemon - I prefer lemon! 

I started baking this cake over 20 years ago, it's an 'all in one' and so easy.

4oz soft margarine

6 oz caster sugar

4 oz self-raising flour

2 oz desiccated coconut

grated rind and juice of 1 lemon

2 eggs, beaten

3 tablespoons of milk

3 oz icing sugar

Preheat oven to 180 C, 350F or Gas Mark 4

Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin.

Place margarine, sugar, flour, coconut, lemon rind, eggs and milk into a food processor or bowl.

Whizz for 30 seconds or beat for 2 minutes with an electric whisk.

Spoon the mixture into the tin, spread evenly.

Bake for 1 hour until golden and risen. Leave the cake in the tin.

Blend the lemon juice with the icing sugar.

While the cake is still hot prick it all over with a skewer and spoon the lemon mixture over.

When the cake is cold remove it from the tin.

Eat and enjoy!

Mention to Carolyn who has been blackberry picking over the weekend, 

I have a blackberry bush in my garden that is still laden with blackberries! 

I hate to see them go to waste but there isn't any more room in my freezer!  

The birds have stopped eating them, it may have something

 to do with the 16 cats in my neighbourhood (no exaggeration!)

It is a lovely busy time for Hope and Chances and I wish to say thank you to everyone 

for their kindness and support, it makes me wake up each day with a smile!

Take care,

Make Christmas Cards

Hello friends

99 days to Christmas!  

I'm sorry it's a bit mean of me to keep reminding you that Christmas is coming around very fast,

but just in case you are festive mad like me, I thought I would share a card that I created for the 

'Make Christmas Cards' - the magazine details can be found here.

Blue isn't my first choice when selecting papers for Christmas but actually I quite liked the end result.

It is such a speedy card, patterned paper lightly distressed and inked, 

pretty lace and ribbon, a sentiment and then Create A Flake Three

snowflakes arranged in a triangle.  A straightforward design if you are making batches of cards.

Had a brilliant day yesterday - I met so many wonderful crafters both at my class in the morning 

and visiting a craft club in the afternoon.

I certainly did a lot of chatting, I make up for all those hours I'm sitting working in my studio on my own! 

Have a good Sunday - I'm baking today which reminds me I must answer Jenny's question - the cake I made for yesterday's class was lemon and coconut (again!) a tried and tested recipe but I'm heading in the direction of chocolate for my next class.

Also - Lydia's question regarding the papers used for yesterday's card,

they are Kaisercraft - Turtle Dove - a 6x6 pad is available here.

Happy Sunday friends.

3 Ways With Sketches - No.2

Hello friends

Busy day for me today, I've got a class in my studio this morning and then this afternoon I'm off to visit a local craft group, they have invited me along for a chat - I readily agreed because I enjoy a good natter!

The card featured today is another one created using the sketch below.
Again, I've pretty much replicated the sketch using Layered Poinsettias as my three
embellishments down the side.

Here is the simple sketch.

I'm going to try my hand at designing some sketches, I will explore buttons on my computer
that I've never used before!  Right, I had better get organised - I'm looking forward to meeting
another group of crafters at my class this morning and, talking of classes -
if you click on my Spellbinders Academy button on my sidebar

I have uploaded some more - all very festive.  It's not too long before Santa visits  -

in fact just 100 days!

Enjoy your weekend dear friends.

Friday Die Day

Hello friends

Wow didn't that week go fast!  FDD comes around so quickly.

This week I'm hoping to impress you with Impressabilities®!

So what are they??

They are flexible metal templates for embossing. 

They come in two sizes 5.5 x 4.5 and also in Grand size measuring 8 x 11 - fantastic for boxes.

I've chosen one of the smaller ones to demonstrate with this Friday - Flowers. 

 The sandwich is A Base Plate, your Impressabilities, cardstock/paper, 

tan embossing mat and B Embossing Plate.

 Looks lovely doesn't it...

 There are other uses for your Impressabilities.

Use them as a stencil, just rub over gently with some distress ink.

 

 The result is soft and pretty.

 You can also apply ink straight onto your Impressabilities, place your cardstock on top, run through with the correct sandwich to create the letter press technique.

 I really like this...

 I don't want you all to be too shocked but I'm not making a tag this week!!

It's going to be a little box instead - Square Bracket Edge Box
This is the lid.

 The box base is cut from plain dark pink cardstock.

 Fold along the embossed lines, make the creases sharp with a bone folder and apply adhesive to the tabs.

 The box assembled. 

 The lid seems to need a little something extra...I know - a butterfly! 

Les Papillions - an intricate die but easy to remove when using waxed paper.

 The finished box.

Not too fussy or busy but I can see an array of these on a dinner/party table.

Thank you for all your support with Friday Die Days.

Don't forget if there are particular dies that you would like to see featured, just drop me an email.

Talking of emails - Sue asked me for my email address yesterday,

here it is:  christine.emberson@blueyonder.co.uk

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

3 Ways With Sketches

Hello friends

Thank you all for confirming it isn't too early to be festive - hurrah!

In this month's edition of Cardmaking and Papercraft Magazine I was asked to 

design a sketch and then three cards.

I wasn't worried about the cards but I've never designed a sketch before.

I decided to go for a very basic sketch and one that I could generate on my computer.

(In the magazine they've made it look much better, with colour and everything!)

Feel free to use this sketch, if I have time I hope to create more sketches and will post them now and again.

For my first card I've turned the sketch to allow me to place three little snowflakes from 

Create-A Flake Three  along the bottom.  

I've pretty much stuck to the sketch design with the borders etc.

The papers are Kaisercraft - Turtle Dove, very vintage and my cup of tea.

I've had a search and the 6x6 pad can be purchased here.

I will be sharing the two other cards with you over the next few days.
(The Kits and Bits button had a gremlin yesterday, I investigated and gave the little rascal
its marching orders!)
Have a nice Thursday and see you tomorrow for ...

FDD!

Take care friends.

Lovely Teresa

Today I'm featuring a card that I received from a fellow

Design Team member - Teresa Horner. 

This sweet lady created this card for me to congratulate me on my new studio and 

sent it all the way from California.  Isn't it beautiful, so much detail.

My first meeting with Teresa was travelling from Phoenix Airport to our hotel in a limousine sharing a bottle of champagne!  We couldn't have asked for a nicer way to meet - I knew instantly she was lovely.

Not only did she send me a card but also some gifts too!

She knows I'm just a little bit butterfly mad so everything is butterfly themed.

But wait...there's more -

she found an album in the shape of a dog bone - Bella was in mind here. 

Teresa's blog is Victorian Paper Queen, so many brilliant inspirational projects there.

I'm hoping one day she will be able to come over to England.

Before I go, one little piece of news - there is a new bright pink button on my sidebar now -
Kits and Bits!  A place to find kits available to purchase.
My Amazon shop is slowly being filled with new items, some dies too.

Have a great Wednesday everyone.

Take care.