It's a Creative World

African Chicken Stew

I forgot to check the schedule until it was too late to make something to show so this time it is just a quick post about a quick tasty recipe I've used a few times lately.

 

It's African Chicken Stew from the All Recipes website. They have so many yummy things over there. I don't use a full chicken because it's too much hassle. I just use a packet of chicken breasts and chop them up with a pair of scissors into bite size pieces. My kids love it and I like to think that the chickpeas make it nutritious even though the peanut butter tells me otherwise.

I've used their photograph as it hasn't lasted long enough for me to take any photos of my own.

 

Kerry

Embossing and altering frames

A while back I made a frame covered in UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Powder (enamel)) based on the wonderful frames on the Stampman Blog, you can see mine here.  My husband really liked and wanted one for his desk, so this was my valentines present for him (if you look at the dates on my blog post he had to wait quite a while for his!).

The frame was from the poundshop, I coated it in some white acrylic (as this stops your ink soaking into the wood), and then inked it up with a clear wet ink pad and started adding layers of normal embossing powder and UTEE.  As my hot air blower is fairly fierce and I covered my room in UTEE, my first layer was mostly fine embossing powder and then I added the layers of UTEE over the top, inking each layer and then adding a patch of UTEE, you need to build up at least a couple of layers to cover the frame. Whilst I was doing this I heated up some UTEE in my meltpot (tho again you don't need a meltpot for this it is just easier) and I dunked some punched butterflies, a flower and a chipboard key into the mix of gold and orange and yellow.  I added these to the frame melting them in.  I also poured some of the UTEE onto the frame in the thicker areas and then inked up a stamp and pressed it into the powder, to add a little more texture I sprinkled some seed beads into the embossing powder.  You just keep on going adding and mixing the UTEE with your heat gun, you can always add more layers if you don't like how one area turned out.  My final addition was a little brushing of perfect pearls into the stamps and keys, just to add a little more colour - I used some red.

Amazingly this time I didn't get the tradtional UTEE burnt fingers so my only other piece of advice is to be really careful when you make these as it gets very hot.  

I hope you enjoyed that :)

 

Katherine

 

a little bit of She Art...

Hi everyone, its Alix here!

Just for fun i thought i'd share a few paintings i've done following on from Christy Tomlinson's She Art painting class which i took last year.  If you haven't taken this class i highly recommend it...you can see all the info on it here :0)

Now, i am no painter...and i can't draw for toffee...mmmm toffee...but i can do this style of mixed media artwork...and so can you!!  Christy is so sweet and takes you through baby steps with lots of video tutorials...its as easy as painting by numbers when you know how.  i'm slowly working through my friends immortalising them one at a time...

here is my friend Pippa...who is a real painter :0)

notice how the background is painted and then the girl is paper pieced over the background using scrapping scraps...and then painted over to help her meld into the artwork...

 

notice how there are lots of details...some are doodling...and some are rubons...both are super cute :0)

and notice how there are dimensional elements too...like these pearls...all in all the idea is to use all sorts of media...can you spot the stamping on this girl's legs?  

...and don't forget you can have *he* art too...this one is me and his Nibs ;0)

you can even have religious icons if you're so inclined!!  please forgive me...this is my first ever *face*...i know its far, far from perfect...but i sort of like her! :0)

so what are you waiting for...get out your scraps and some paints...you've got nothing to lose...if you don't like it...you can just paint over it!!  *genius*

It's not cheating ... it's an inspirational help

Hi everyone, Dolly here.

I want to talk about templates today ... templates to help give your digital scrapping a bit of a kick start and an inspiring helping hand.

Many digital designers make templates, which are easy to use, easy to personalise and make your own. They are layered kick starts which you add your own papers and photos and embellishments to, but some of the hard work has already been done. Someone else has planned the balance of the page, decided where things go.  

They are a little like using sketches to inspire you to scrap and, just as you can adapt a sketch and make it your own, so you can adapt a template and make it your own.

The templates that are on the market are very varied. Some are incredibly simple, like the freebie offered today on here. They are a simple photo placement templates that you can use as they are or jazz up as much or as little as you like.

Some are amazingly detailed and also give you things in your scrapping that you might not be able to do without a template. For example, you can't do shaped text in elements but you can get templates that you can use in elements that have the shaped text built right in. Dawn Inskip is one of my favourite digital designers and her templates are unbelievably good and often do have text paths you couldn't make yourself.

I have a couple of examples to show you, using some of Dawn's latest Photo Empasis templates which, as it 'says on the tin', let the photos take centre stage but with such gorgeous layers and elements that you can use. For example this one used a template that came complete with the cute bird and branches that were also layered so you could personalise them. This was from Dawn's Photo Emphasis templates Volume 1 from her store at Scrapbookgraphics.

 

If you like lots of layers and lots of depth in your digital pages, then templates are a really easy way to achieve this. This French page was made using Dawn's Photo Emphasis Volume 4. It would have taken a long long time to get this sort of depth but was really simple to personalise using the ready made template and then adding your own bits and pieces to it.

 

You can also use really simple templates to give a very easy graphic look and then flip them different ways to give a coordinated feel. One of my favourite ever digital mini albums was a Journal Your Christmas album from 2 years ago where I used one template - flipped four different ways - for the entire album.  It made the album a really easy thing to fit in at a very busy time of year and made it look very coordinated even though each page was different. Below are 4 pages, one from each orientation.

 

Really simple to do.

So, if you fancy kick starting that mojo have a play with some templates and, just to get you started if you haven't used templates before, here is a really simple one that you can download and have a play with.

Download TEMPLATE 02 IACW

Have fun and do share what you have created - I would love to see your pages. x

Flowers for you

Morning folk's! I hope the day brings you flowers but if not be independent and make some for yourself! I've got a mini tutorial to make a scorched flower for your crafty work- perfect for a scrapbook, card or even a corsage if you are more of a perfectionist than me! I haven't got sizes to work with but would say the centre petals are about 1.cm  in size and then just work outwards! I have used silk samples as the natural fibres are the ones that scorch. Synthetic will curl but are just as lovely! So here's some pics.

 I have worked with the following number of petals. Centre-6, next larger layer below-5, another larger layer below- 5 and then the largest bottom layer- 8

You can position it together to get an idea of how it looks.

Now the fun part! Fire!! A very small one as you can gather by the birthday candle!! So now you just touch the edge of you petals  lightly on the flame. It will catch light so just be ready to puff it out!
Add a tiny piece of double sided tape to the base of you petal and pinch to give a bit of shape to it.

Now you can layer up your flower fro the bottom- using either tape,glue or a glue gun.

For the centre, get a large brad, and pierce it through the petals. You can the attach this to the centre of the flower to hide all the messy bits! and then.....

You're done!

Hope you give it a go!!

Bye for now

Laura xx

 

Crackle effects

At the moment I have a thing about adding texture to my scrapping and card making.

There are lots of crackle effect mediums on the market and I have three of them, so decided to do a comparison.

For this one I used PaperArtsy Crackle Glaze:

 

For this one I used Crackle Accents:

 

 

For this one I used Distress Crackle Paint in antique linen:

The left hand tag was painted and left to dry. I'd read that if you heat it you get bigger cracks, I tried this with the right hnad tag and there are bigger cracks.  I like the crazed pottery type effect you get with the distress crackle paint.

Here are all the samples side by side:

I shall keep these tags for reference, so I can check out which effect will suit my project best.

 

Thanks for looking.  Do have a play with your stash and see what you can make.

 

Lynne x

 

Which Inks?

Hello! I hope you're having a wonderful Saturday! Last time I posted I looked back at some basic techniques to create inked backgrounds. This prompted some questions about which inks I use so this is a whistle stop tour of my favourite types of inks!

Alcohol Inks - my daughter's favourite! These can be used on a variety of surfaces from metal and dominoes to glass or plastic and even glossy card stock. I use them on shrink plastic too as the colour is always very pure. They come in a little bottle and can be used directly onto your project or pop some on an Alcohol Ink Applicator. For more tips on using Alcohol Inks why not start here? I think you can see, by the state of the bottles, these are well used!

Distress Inks - these are my absolute favourites and now come in Stains and marker pens (the pens will be in the UK by the end of March I believe!) I use these inks pretty much every day and I suspect I use Vintage Photo Distress Ink on virtually every project I do (I really must hide this ink pad and find a new favourite!) If you are fond of embossing these inks stay wet longer allowing you to emboss with ease. By staying wet this also means you can blend the ink on it's own or with other colours - in fact using more than one colour can look really striking! You can ink a project and blend the colour and stamp an image on top and the image will stand out against the background - a useful tip if you are entering a monochrome challenge! The ink also stays the colour you chose even if heated or wetted which means you have a more even finish to your project. As I showed last time, Distress Inks react with water and can 'bleach' giving a really cool vintage feel. Distress Inks are safe to use on photos and can create some really interesting effects.

The other main type of ink I use is Archival Ink. I use this when I want a really crisp image. The ink will not smudge when dried and will therefore not react once I put Distress Ink over the top - even if I wet it! My favourite colours to use regularly are Jet Black (I know black is boring but it's really useful!) and Coffee but I am currently experimenting with Cobalt and it's a really lovely sort of French Navy colour!

There is one other ink I use a lot - and that's clear ink for embossing or use with PanPastels. I use the ink when I want to create a 'resist' image or as a sort of 'glue' for the PanPastels to adhere to. It's surprising how, when I sat down to write this post, I nearly forgot about this ink and yet I use it often. I think it's because it's a sort of 'workhorse' ink that's always there but isn't terribly glamorous!

This is a tag I've made to show the difference between the inks. The background is Shabby Shutters and Peeled Paint Distress Inks and the leaves to the left are Vintage Photo Distress Ink. The middle leaves are Coffee Archival Ink and the leaves to the right are clear ink with brown PanPastels over the top. The small flowers and leaf are shrink plastic inked with Alcohol Inks.

Thanks for popping by!

Gabrielle x

 

Knit for Charity

No matter if you're a beginner or expert knitter there is always something you can do for charity.

There are lots of charities that look for knitted goods, including Knit a Square, and Bliss, the charity that supports prem babies.

In 2010 a group of us avid knitters at work made tiny little hats for the charity Bliss, and this year we are making squares and toddler hats for the knit a square charity. It's a great project to do as a community, in work or at school. And non knitters can get involved by donating a ball or 2 of yarn!

Perfect for keeping little heads warm.

Download Kiddies Knitted Hat

Thanks for visiting and happy knitting.
Caz
xx

Are you ready ?

for Valentine's day ?  I am not a card maker but I always try to make a card for my dearest.  This year, my card features a heart doillie, Crate Papers stickers, flowers and my favourite right now, some Washi tapes from Hambly.

And the a little closer on that cluster,

Blogged with love by Ifa.

That loving feeling

With Valentines day just around the corner and the shops all adorned with all things pink, red and heart shaped, it is really hard to avoid the subject of love this week

 

I actually created this romantic card for my mum and dad's wedding anniversary last month, but it would make an equally apt valentines day card.

 

 

The heart stamp is a Stempelglede, and definitely my all-time favourite set of stamps. Born on Valentines Day myself I guess I am destined to be drawn to hearts in all their many forms. The sentiment is by Stampin' Up.

 

The papers are a mix, My Minds Eye and Bo Bunny, flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts and the delicate leaves are a Marianne die cut.

 

I have created the shabby edges to the paper layers using a Tim Holtz distress tool.

 

I have stickled a few of the details, including the flowers, which I brushed with a paintbrush dipped in stickles ( much easier than trying to do it with the nozzle.)

 

So....have you got that lovin' feelin' ?

 

Til next time

Much love 

Tracey xxx