It's a Creative World

Carrots are GREAT in cake!!!

Hi all from Di in Johnnesburg South Africa.

I have made this carrot cake sucessfully a couple of times and it has gone down a real treat. One of its advantages is that it keeps well. The icing is absolutely delicious and you can spread it on really thickly!

• The preparation time is 40 minutes

• The cooking time is 1 1/4 hours

• Pre heat oven to 180 Celcius

• Butter and flour a 25cm tube baking pan (that's the one with the whole in the middle.

• Grate the carrots, chop the pineapple and chop the walnuts!

Ingredients:

 

• 375 gm flour

• 10ml (2 teaspoons) baking powder

• 10 ml ( 2 teaspoons) bicarbonate of soda

• 5 ml (1 teaspoon) ground cinnamon

• 3 ml (1/4 teaspoon) salt

• 375 gm sugar

• 4 eggs lightly beaten

• 375 ml (1 1/4 cup) sunflower oil

• 5 ml (1 teaspoon) vanlla essence

• 750 ml (3 cups) grated carrot

• 250 ml (1 cup) chopped walnuts

• 250 ml (1 cup) chopped pineapple

 

For the cream cheese icing:

• 250 gm firm cream cheese

• 125 gm melted butter

• 500gm icing sugar

• 5ml (1 teaspoon) vanilla essence

To make the carrot cake:

1. In a large bowl sieve together the flour salt baking powder bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon.

2. Add the sugar

3. Make a well in the centre and and add the eggs, oil and vanilla essence.

4. Mix wel

5. Stir in the carrots, pineapple and walnuts

6. Place the mixture in the prepared baking dish and bake for 1 1/4 hours. Allow the cake to cool for 15 minutes before removing from the dish.

To make the icing:

1. Cream the butter and 'cream cheese' together

2. Slowly beat in the icing sugar and vanilla essence.

3. The cake must be cool before you ice it.

Now just enjoy all that healthy stuff. believe me its the best way to eat carrots!

Thanks for visiting us at IACW.

Love from Di

 

 

l

Brayered Sky Card

Here's a technique that gives you the opportunity of getting very inky with your stamp pads and brayer!  Here's how it's done.

You will need a piece of smooth white cardstock, a brayer, some Post It notes and three colours of ink pad in different shades. I used Stampin' Up! inks in shades Barely Banana, So Saffron and Pumpkin Pie.

Begin by tearing your Post It notes in half and sticking them to the bottom of your cardstock.

 

Take your lightest ink colour (in this case Barely Banana) and brayer it across the bottom until you have a good coverage.

   

Next, layer the second darkest colour (in my example So Saffron)  in the middle, and the darkest colour (Pumpkin Pie) at the top of the cardstock. Don't worry if it looks stripey, like mine - that can be fixed! :O)

   

Use either a dry sponge or Cut and Dry Foam to dab extra ink onto the cardstock to blend all the colours together as shown above.  Finish off by dabbing just a little of the darkest colour at the bottom of the cardstock, on the line of the Post It notes.  Once you're happy with your effect, you can remove the Post It notes.

 

This background looks most effective using sillhouette type stamps.  The stamp I have used is from the Stampin' Up! Lovely As A Tree set.

 

Ta-da!  The completed card!  There's no reason why this technique cant be used to make fantastic ATC's as well as greeting cards.  Try experimenting with different colours and see what you can come up with.  Here's another background I've done but not finished yet:

 

This one was done using Stampin' Up! colours in Pretty In Pink, Brocade Blue and Night of Navy. 

Play around and have fun with this technique!

TFL! Joanne xxx

Be our guest ...... Scrapdolly

As you know we love having people over to play at It's a creative world and today we are joined by the lovely Scrapdolly.

This is a rather fabulous post so I shall hand you straight over to the lady herself.

I know many scrappers use sizzix dies and it seemed such a shame to throw away the plastic case the larger dies come in – so here is a way of making it a great case for a small accordion fold mini book. You can use any tin or plastic container, but the sizes given are for a large sizzix die case.

 

When making mini books it helps to tie a book together into a unified work, to use co-ordinating papers and embellishments. There are now so many makes on the market that are already co-ordinated that it seemed silly not to use them. I used the Skate Shoppe range by Basic Grey.

Mini books are also a great way of using up scraps and of playing with embellishments. I hope you have fun with this one and feel a sense of satisfaction at making something with a case you may well have thrown away.

 

 

Supplies

• Empty plastic sizzix case
• Alcohol inks in greens and blues
• I sheet of cardstock in olive green
• 4 sheets of Basic Grey Skate Shop papers
• Basic Grey letter stickers
• Basic Grey tag set
• 2 sheets of A4 white card
• I meter of ribbon
• 1 meter of velvet rikrak
• Chipboard letters or similar
• Embossing powders and inks
• Assorted brads and blossoms
• Corner rounder
• Sewing machine
• Heat tool
• Strong double sided tape

Step By Step

The case

• Clean all of the glue remains off the case. (I use Lakeland plastics sticky stuff remover as it is brilliant)
• Use alcohol inks, blended to suit your colour scheme, and colour the entire case, paying particular attention to the sides of both the front and the back pieces. You are going to cover the front and back anyway – so it is technically NOT essential to cover them entirely, but it is such fun to do.

 

  

• Cut two pieces of patterned papers 5 ½ “ x 4 ¾ “ , round the corners slightly and stick them inside the lids of both the front and back piece.

• Cut two sheets of cardstock 5 ½ “ x 4 ¾ “ for the front and back covers.
• Round the corners and ink the edges but don’t stick them on yet. It is much easier to work on them as mini pages and then stick them on to the case at the last stage.
• I cut to rectangles smaller than the cardstock using one of the patterned papers and then sewed them to the cardstock.
• I used Heidi Swapp chipboard letters for the title on the front. I inked them with a matching green ink and then heat embossed them with clear embossing powder to give them a real shine. I mounted two of them for the ‘we’ onto a co-ordinating tag and then fixed the tag to the cover with foam pads and a brad.
• I cut a heart from chipboard – I used old photo mount board. I coloured it with inks and then embossed this with kaleidoscope embossing powder to give a bit of bling. I finished the heart with a smaller green heart and a tiny crystal heart sticker to complete the bling look.
• Once I was happy with the cover I stick it on to the front of the plastic case using strong double sided tape.

• The back cover had the same patterned paper rectangle sewn on and then I used another tag and some of the Basic Grey letter stickers to form an additional title. I like to have the flexibility of displaying the case either way. I added an inked Prima blossom with a brad before sticking it to the back of the case with strong double sided tape.
• Finish the case with ribbons stock all around the edge and sides. Make sure you don’t cover the join – stick one ribbon or rikrak to the front cover side edge and one to the back. It doesn’t matter if some of the plastic case shows through – that is why you inked it so carefully.

 

 The Mini Book

Cut two sheets of A4 card into strips measuring  5 ½ “ x 11 “

Score the card at 4 ½ “ and at 9” as shown in the diagram. Make sure the folds work both ways.

 

When you have the two strips that are identical trim the 2” excess flap from one sheet and use the 2” excess flap from the other sheet to stick the two strips together. It will not matter that there is this overlap as you will be covering it anyway.

Once you have stick them together round the corners and you have your accordion fold book ready to decorate.

 

I find it much easier to work on sheets of paper making them into mini layouts and then sticking them onto the accordion fold book as a final stage. That way, if you want to push brads through, use the sewing machine and so on it doesn’t matter.

I cut eight sheets of papers to the right size (I made them slightly smaller than 5 ½ “ x 4 ½ “ as I wanted the white edge to show) cutting two from each of the four patterns and then worked on them as little mini pages.

 

 

 

As a final stage stick each of your finished pieces onto one piece of the accordion fold booklet.

 Once finished the booklet folds and fits into the case.

So there you have it, a very simple but effective mini book in a case. It would make a wonderful present for all sorts of occasions.

 

 

 

Thank you so much for coming to play Scrapdolly we hope you will come again.

Quick and Easy Cards

I vowed this year to send only handmade cards to friends and family.  To get a headstart, I went through all of my patterned paper scraps and looked for easy designs to cut out from them.  This took me the best part of a day, but I ended up with a large selection of pieces, including flowers, words and phrases and patterned circles, that I placed into a bag, ready to use on a card at any time.

Here are a selection of the cards I've made using shapes cut from scraps:-

 

 

 

Why not have a root through your patterned paper scraps and see if you can use some of them in this way!

Happy crafting!

Paulaxx

CHA CHA CHA!

Hello everyone!

Yes, it's that time again isn't it when all the scrapbooking companies reveal all their new lines! We all drool and then slowly end up having no money from spending way too much!

So why don't you grab a cup of 'CHA'!, sit back, and enjoy all the luscious items that the manufacturers have in store for us!!!

^{3 Bugs in a Rug}

Butterfly Kisses

Happy Bird-day

What a Hoot

 

Snips and Snails

Chatterbox

Bo Bunny

Fancy Pants

Crate Paper

Lilian

Little Sprout

 

Orbit

AMM

Jillibean Soup

My Little Shoebox

American Crafts

Basic Grey

So what are your favourites? I think Crate Paper has been and continues to be my fave.

This is just a very small tip of a very large iceberg. My one piece of advice? Go forth and spend!

Cath xx

Theme Day - New Beginnings

Hi from the cReative giRls who today have been challenged with the word(s) "New Beginnings".

Here is what the girls have come up with!

Hi from Caz

Today i'm sharing 2 "New Beginnings" projects. The first is a wedding card for my cousin. He is getting married in March in SA. He and his new wife will be embarking on a very exciting journey, and beginning a new life as husband and wife.

Inspiration for the card came from the lovely Anam. You can see the layout on this post, 7th one down.

The second is a baby welcome card for some very dear friends who are due to have a baby boy in April. (nothing like being prepared, eh?) It will be a new beginning for baby and a new beginning for my friends as parents of two :)

Hi from Di

I have set pretty realistic goals for this year and am really inspired by the changes - I am really living my "New Beginnings" so decided to make a collage using cut outs from magazines to reflect all the new beginnings in my life.

I went through lost of old and new glossiy magazines and tore out whole pages of the things that reflected my "New Beginnings", then just cut out the bits I wanted.

 

Then the fun part - I used an old canvas from my painting days and just laid out the bits till I achieved the effect I wanted. I used a spray glue to attach everything. It is removable so was great for repositioning.

 

Hi from Maria.  My take on new beginnings is this glass coaster that I keep on my desk. 

We were very boring and didn't live together until we were married so this, our wedding day, was a new beginning for us. 

A very simple reminder that it is forever.  Mind you, I sometimes have to resist the urge to throw it at his head ...... Hee hee!!!

Hi from Jakey. As it’s January and the start of another new year I thought I’d share with you my word for 2009. This year I thought I’d go for Enjoy. Should be easy enough to achieve, eh?

But seriously, my word is not as flippant as it sounds  Obviously, I do hope to enjoy my year, but on a deeper level my thinking goes like this:

I want to Enjoy my food – without overeating. No more mindless stuffing. Eat what I really want to eat, not what I feel I should eat, and that way I’ll feel satisfied, and not feel the need to gorge.
I’ll Enjoy a few drinks at the weekend, but keep it as a treat, rather than just opening a bottle when I’ve had a stressful day… enjoy a glass or two – and put the top back on the bottle! Lol!
I really want to Enjoy time with the family – and participate in making the memories, as well as scrapping them.
Learn to Enjoy each day - with all the challenges and small achievements it brings.
Enjoy the things I have, and all the blessing bestowed on me… and stop pining for the unobtainable and wishing my life away hoping for miracles which will probably never happen, and for things I’ll never have.
Make certain to Enjoy the here and now, for it’s a certainty that we’ll never live this moment again.

And just Enjoy being me… being the best me I can be, inside and out.

There are many more Enjoy’s.. but you get the picture, I’m sure. I don’t know why I chose this word... maybe because in my line of work I often encounter people who feel angry that they never enjoyed their lives enough, never had the time… never made the time…and now at the end of their lives, they wish they had the chance to do it all again…

So my wish for me this year is to simply Enjoy.
My wish for you all is the same.
jkxx

 

Since im the new girl on Its a Creative World this really is a new beginning for me.  I love the fact i can now create, make, bake and show all the things i love doing so thank you to all the wonderful participants who have made this possible for me. 

This year is going to be so different as I started meditation and have booked a weekend retreat which looks at teaching yoga and meditation on a deeper level.  I really think this is so positive in my life and has given me a sense of a new beginning for the future.

For anyone wanting a good, move forward and be yourself book then check out Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.  A one woman story about travels through Rome (eat), India (pray) and Bali (love) with an underlying message of how we have to make ourselves happy before we can please others.

Thank you and ommmmmmmm! ;)

Debbie

x

Katie Here!

For 2009 I intend to experiment with any new craft that takes my fancy. I want to go wherever my inspiration takes me (assuming I have some inspiration!!)

So in celebration I made this piece to remind me to stay inky, arty and altering for another year!!

Have fun!

GlitteryKatie x

Thanks for visiting IACW!
Creative girls.
xx

Super Stuffed Spuds.

There’s nothing like some good old stick to your ribs grub at this time of year.
This is a great speedy dish to whip up when you fancy some filling comfort food that won’t pile on the pounds. I usually serve it on it’s own with just a side salad for lunch, or team it with pesto chicken or pork chops for a hearty supper dish.

Serves 3-4.
Oven temp 200/6 ish
Ingredients:

Large baking potatoes (one each)
Good sized knob of butter (or low fat alternative)
Large tub of cottage cheese
Teaspoon of finely minced garlic or a squeeze of garlic paste
Tablespoon of low fat mayo
Pinch or two of salt (celery salt is good!)
Coarse ground black pepper
Couple of ounces of grated half fat cheese.

Optional:
Chilli flakes
Chopped chives
Crumbled crispy grilled bacon.

After scrubbing the skins, I cook my potatoes in the microwave first, (to save cooking time) before popping them onto an oven tray and crisping up the skin in a hot oven. You could of course, cook them conventionally if you prefer.

Once cooked, cut open the potatoes lengthways and scoop out the insides into a large mixing bowl. Add the butter, cottage cheese, garlic, chives/chilli/ and half of the bacon, and mayo. Roughly mix the ingredients together and season to taste. Pile it all back into the empty skins. Sprinkle the grated cheese on top of each potato, adding the rest of the crumbled bacon if you’re using it. Put them back into the oven to reheat until the cheese is all bubbly and melty.

Enjoy!
love jakey xx

Testing Promarker Pens

My daughter got some Promarker pens for christmas as she does a lot of Manga Drawings. I decided to have a go with them to see what they were like.

The pens are doubled ended with a fine nib and a thick nib. they flow very quickly so you do not need much pressure. The colours are true to the packaging and there is a wide range to choose from. They can be bought individually or in packs to make them more economical.

 

I used Ranger Distress ink pad to stamp the image and it didnt smudge when i coloured the image in.... Stazon and Archival ink both smudged.  As you can see the colours are intense and they are specifically designed for blending.

 

I used mine onto prism card but you can also get special bleed proof paper.

I was surprised that they worked well on aceteate but you have to colour the image from behind and leave to dry otherwise they will smudge.

 

My verdict....expensive but well worth the money.

Thanks for looking

Lemon xx

Gorgeous Glamour!

I spotted these REALLY cool and funky stamps from Bombshell Stamps at 3dJean's shop just before Christmas and my lovely hubby bought me a set as a pressie! 

I love retro and vintage images but these are far removed from the classic Victorian and Edwardian stamps that are so often available to us crafters, these are classic tattoo images and 1950's style pin-ups, not a penny farthing in sight!

So I've been having a play and finding out just how versatile these images can be!

Firstly I experimented with how to colour them in. In one set I used my water colour pencils;

 and another set I used Pro Marker pens which gave a richer colour; but I liked both effects!

Here are a few different types of card and tag I've made using the various stamps from the Retro Cow Girls set of stamps;

Look there's that metal again on the last card- I told you I was using it lots!!

These are wonderful, fun stamps that make great cards for anyone especially those tricky to make for, MEN!

Happy crafting!

Love Glittery Katie x

Thank you cards

Hi, it's Maria here with another simple idea for getting your children crafting.

All children, big and small, love to receive presents but sometimes getting them to write thank you notes can be like pulling teeth.

We've come across a way to get the thank you cards out and have a little bit of crafty fun as well.  We set aside an afternoon and the girlies design and make some simple cards using pattern paper, card and rubber stamps.

We've found that a *production line* card works best with simple shapes and easy to colour stamps.  This year they went for a tri-fold card with a thank you stamp on the widest part.

They love using the cats eye stamps to edge their cards.  It's quite glittery in real life be the camera doesn't seem to pick up the Stickles for some reason.

I do believe that they *borrowed* the idea for the ribbon from a card that our lovely Joy sent to me.

We always pop a piccie in as they don't get to see most of the people they are for.  This also helps to fill some space and it doesn't seem so daunting when younger children come to do the writing part.

 

They wrote their thank you message on the left, tied it with ribbon and the job was done.  They had fun, got inky and I didn't have to nag.  Also, they use up a lot of my scraps so I don't feel guilty about hoarding so much stuff.

Toodle pip