Birds in a Cage Card

I created this card for this weeks Freshly Made Sketches I hope you like it. I used the new Birdcage Cottage Cutz die that i got for Christmas, i love this new technique.

Recipe:

Cardstock: Marina Mist, Perfect Plum, Rose Red
Stamps:`Short and Sweet
Accessories: Subtles DSP, Big Shot
Techniques: Die Cutting, embossing

Posy Punch Birthday Card - by Karmi84 on madeit

Posy Punch Birthday Card - by Karmi84 on madeit

Something Special

Well i haven't blogged in a few days as it has been quite a busy couple of days, firstly i have some news, i got engaged on the weekend to my wonderful partner now fiance. You can see a picture of my engagement ring that he picked all by himself below, i was blown away, very surprised and shocked. Then sunday we spent the day at the hot springs for my birthday, it was fantastic, if you have never been i highly recommend it.

On another note the winner of my 150 facebook fan giveaway is Margaret from Chica es Artísticaso congratulations, please contact me with your address so i can get this great prize out to you.

Don't forget there is only 9 days left to order your favourites from the stampin up retiring list before they are gone forever so make sure you take a look and grab them before it's too late

Retiring Stamps and Accessories List

Friday MadeIt Finds

Happy Friday everyone, hope you all have had a creative week. The theme for Friday MadeIt Finds this week is Jewellery, so here is what i have come up with.

Green and Silver by SnickerDoodles

Beautiful Swarovski Crystal Bracelet by Lola Shoppe

Pink Swarovski Crystal And Pearl Sterling Silver Bracelet by Dehnike Designs

Chocolate Eclair Earrings by sweetpetiti

Aqua Glitter - small resin bangle by Rainbow Memories

My Creative Space

Not a lot happening over in my creative space this week, last night i worked on my crescendo necklace again, i think i am finally getting the hang of how to do this necklace, although the instructions still confuse me a litte. My Skinner blend turned out a lot better except for when i tried to turn the clay and stretch out the blend it still didn't turn out quite right, i got a different kind of effect which still looked alright but i think i will leave that part out next time i try. Hopefully i will have some photos up of the new version that i made soon.

This is the necklace out of the book Polymer Clay The Art of Jewellery, this is how it should look but i have learnt that you can't always get things the same.

You can find instructions for this project in the above book

I also got a new Ott Lite this week, very exciting my old pink one decided to stop working so i now have a lovely new blue one to play around with

 

Hope you all have a creative week

 

150 Facebook Fan Giveaway

Yay, i have now reached 150 fans on my facebook page. As a thankyou to all of my new and old likers i am having a giveaway. I am going to be giving away a copy of the 2011/2012 Stampin up idea book and catalogue. This book has some great ideas and lots of inspiration for fantastic paper crafts and lots of card ideas. It is a not to be missed item. To enter the giveaway, you need to either follow my blog or be a liker on my facebook page, then just leave me a comment below for your chance to win this great item.

Classic Shepherd's Pie

I thought i would try and cook something a little different last week, so we cooked up a shepherd's pie which turned out to be absolutly delicious so thought i would share this recipe with all of you so you can have a go to and see just how easy it is.

I found the recipe on exclusively Foods so you can check it out and take a look at many other great recipes too

This was our beautiful shepherds pie below

We substituted the tomato paste for gravox, i think this adds a little more flavor, we also took out the parsley, instead we added corn into the meat micture with the peas.

Enjoy

Meat Layer
20ml (1 tablespoon) oil
1 large (200g) onion, peeled and diced
1 large (200g) carrot, peeled and diced
1 large garlic clove, peeled and crushed
1kg raw minced lamb or beef (or 800g chopped cooked meat)
60ml (3 tablespoons) tomato paste
12g (1 tablespoon) plain flour
250ml (1 cup) chicken stock
40ml (2 tablespoons) Worcestershire sauce
400g canned crushed tomatoes
Salt and pepper
128g (1 cup) fresh or frozen peas
2 tablespoons chopped parsley

•  Heat oil in a large heavy-based pan or saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, carrot and garlic to pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes, or until vegetables have softened. 
  
  

•  If you are using raw meat, increase heat to high and add mince to the vegetables. Cook, stirring and mashing mince, until the mince has changed colour and most of the liquid has evaporated. If you are using meat that is already cooked, add the chopped meat to the vegetables and continue to the next step.

• 
  Over medium heat, add tomato paste and flour to meat mixture and cook, stirring constantly, for one minute.

• Add stock, Worcestershire sauce, crushed tomatoes, salt and pepper.

• Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until liquid has reduced (about 15 to 20 minutes).

• Cook potatoes (see directions below) while the meat mixture is cooking.
  
  Preheat oven to 210 degrees Celsius (190 degrees Celsius fan-forced).
  
  Stir peas and parsley into meat mixture and pour into a 2.5 litre capacity ovenproof dish.
  
  Top filling with mashed potato. Use a fork to create peaks in potato; sprinkle potato with cheese.
• If the dish you are using is quite full, sit it on a baking tray in case any of the sauce overflows during baking. Bake pie for about 20 minutes, or until sauce is bubbling and cheese is golden brown.

Mashed Potato Topping
1kg potatoes, peeled and chopped
50g (2 1/2 tablespoons) butter
Salt, to taste
About 125ml (1/2 cup) milk (the amount needed will vary, depending on the type of potatoes used)
100g (1 cup, firmly packed) grated cheese (we used a combination of mozzarella, cheddar and parmesan)
    tep.© 






  

Freshly Made Sketches #47

Time for another Freshly Made Sketch Challenge, here is this weeks design

I used Butterfly Prints Stamp set and Short and Sweet. I don't have a circle punch so i improvides with a circle stencil i purchased until i can buy myself a circle punch. I used the butterfly punch to cut out the butterfly's and my paper trimmer to square up the various paper shapes

Stamps: Butterfly Prints, Short and Sweet

Card Stock: Regal Rose, Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquiose, Whisper White.

Ink: Regal Rose, Basic Black.

Accessories: Brights Collection Brads, Butterfly Punch, Subtles Collection DSP

My Memories Suite, Digital Scrapbooking Software

My Memories Suite kindly gave me a trial version of there digital scrapbooking software to trial and review. I have now had a little bit of a play with there product, the final piece i created is shown below. It is only something fairly simple but if i had some more time i could sit and play a lot more.

With this softwate you can create great scrapbooking layouts, greeting card calendars amongst many more.

It has many different background papers to choose from or if creating a card and you want just a simple colour it also has many to choose from along with different shapes and embellishments including, ribbons, buttons and brads.

You can create your own design from scratch or you can use one of the many designed pre made templates that are already done for you. If none of these are for you then perhaps you could consider buying a featured design from MyMemories.com

I highly recommend this product for scrapbooking and greeting card enthusiasts a like, at the moment they are offereng $10 off, you can find the coupon code for this in the side bar.

Hope you all have a great night

Friday MadeIt Finds

Happy Friday everyone, hope you all have some exciting things planned for the weekend, i have dinner plans for sat night but the rest of the time i think i might have some time to do some crafting, it's the perfect weather for it at the moment so hope you all stay dry. The theme for this weeks Friday MadeIt Finds is Jewellery, this is what i have found on MadeIt

Reversible Printed Abstract Pendants by  Wendy Lee: Adventures in glass and metal

Keep Calm Scrabble Tile Pendant by Enchanted Creations

Fancy Filigree Butterfly - Teal Ear wires by Nomstar Designs

Owl Earrings by Starry Girl by Starzyia

Pastel Rainbow Rose Polymer Clay Earrings by Sew340

My Creative Space

This week in my creative Space i have been working on my crochet blankets, i know it's probably a little hard to see from the photo but it is supposed to look like little cats peeping over the fence, it will look great once it is finished. The wool is really lovely and it is nice and warm so will be great to have on the bed during these cold nights, i don't think the rain is ever going to stop here in melbourne, it is so cold.

I have still been working on my crescendo necklace out of the book the art of jewellery polymer clay, i have now run out of clay just waiting on some more to come, this is not an easy necklace to make i have discovered i was getting confused on the part about where it said to turn the clay 90 degrees. After contacting polymer clay productions, they did a video demo explaining how to do this technique on there live video for tuesday smoozeday. Thanks guys for this great demo. If you would like to check out this video you can do so at the following link

Skinner Blending with PolymerClayTV | Polymer Clay Productions: Podcast, TV, and ThingsCrafty Learning Community

Craft and Quilt Fair

Well last Sunday i attended the Melbourne Craft and Quilt Fair in the Melbourne Exhibitions Building. I had a ball, did a couple of classes and ofcourse did some shopping. In the morning i did some english paper piecing with blue willow cottage pictured below. I bought some square templates to attempt some more at home

After attempted the english paper piecing i had a go at a christmas card and decorations done at the scrapmatts stand as shown below, i also bought some more chipboard and another decoration to do some more at home

 

I bought these molds from Flexi Crafts molds to use with my polymer clay work

The whimsical bead was a new stand at the fair this year and i was so excited to discover them because in the past it's mostly been all about quilting and card making i was excited to discover they finally had something polymer clay related at the show where i could purchase polymer clay. I bought a tutorial, some clay and a new blade with little handle, i am forever cutting my fingers on my polymer clay blades

 

At 12:30 we watched a demonstration of sashiko stitching so i just had to try this too, i know i'm gonna have my work cut out for me trying all these new projects but i ca't just stick to one, so here is the pattern i chose below from bebebold textile

  

 

This book came from Can Do Books and i cant wait to try out some of these techniques

 Stamps from Catchy Crafts

New Mini light from Daylight man, i also got a globe for my ott-lite but sadly my lamp no longer works, think its time for a new one

Last but not least the best thing is i finally got a big shot machine, this is supposed to be a birthday present from mum and dad which isn't for a couple of weeks yet but i was allowed to have it early so can't wait to test it out so many things i wanna try with it

These are the dies i chose with my bigshot machine

Hope you enjoyed my craft fair finds and if you have never been i definetly recommend going next year, so many craft stalls from all over the country all in the one place

Friday MadeIt Finds

Happy Friday everyone and welcome to the weekend, hope you all have a good one. I am off to the footy tonight, Hawthorn vs Geelong, go the might hawks. Then tomorrow i have some time to myself to do so much needed crafting. 

The theme for this weeks Friday MadeIt Finds is Clothing, here is what i have found Enjoy!

Wanderlust oversized cowl neck sleeveless fleece vest Emerald Green by Miss Fancypants

Wrap-Around Mini Skirt in 70s Brown & Orange by ReeBee Melbourne

Girls Cotton 3/4 shirt S10  by KI Dye

Wanderlust 3 Way Discovery Skirt mustard grape print mix  by Miss Fancypants

Pink and yellow floral printed vintage inspired tea dress by One Denim Bird

My Creative Space

Well this week, there is not really a lot happening in my creative space due to lack of time. On the weekend i attended the melbourne craft and quilt fair so that was my sunday gone but it was heaps of fun if you have never been i highly recommend it. I attended some classes and did a lot of shopping i will soon have photos to follow so you can see all the goodies i obtained. So this week i have mostly been working on my cross stitch it is nearly finished, i can't believe it it has taken me quite a while due to having more than one project on the go at once. it is so fine i usually have to use my ott lite but i was so disappointed when i discovered a few weeks ago that my ott lite no longer works anymore, time for a new one i think. Anyway here is the cross stitch so far.

Retiring Stampin up Stamps and Accessories

Today the Stampin up Retiring stamps and accessories list was released, you can find the links to both of these pages below and don't forget it is strictly limited stock, so get your orders in now while stocks last.

Retiring Stamps

Retiring Accessories

A couple of Points to remember.

They are no longer selling the stampin write markers individually, you must buy them as a set and all the current ink pads are retiring as we are getting new ones, in the same colours ofcourse they are just an updated version

My Memories Suite, Digital Scrapbooking software Giveaway

My Memories Suite has kindly give me a copy of their software to trial as well as donating a copy to give away to one lucky reader.  To enter this giveaway you need to either be a fan of my facebook page or a follower of my blog, then just leave a comment below for you chance to win this great product.

Share my Memories Digital Scrapbooking software

My Creative Space

Last week in my creative space i said i was going to attempt the crescendo Polymer Clat Necklace, well i did that i tried it twice and both times didn't exactly go to plan, i guess i will just have to keep practicing, i have discovered you can't always get something the same as the expert out of the book, but instead you put your own spin on the item. Here is what i have come up with.

  

 This what the first attempt, i think i got the colours alright but i forgot to change the setting on the pasta machine to one so i think they are a little thin it might be hard to poke the holes through the sides, Instead i am going to poke the holes in the corner and create a necklace that way

This was the second try from yesterday, somehow my colour or my skinner blend didn't exactly go as planned, it says to turn it on a 90 degree angle to pass it through the pasta machine the only problem was it didn't fit that way so somehow i think i ended up passing it through to much and blending the colours a little too much, back to the drawing board i think. Hope you all have a creative week

A ray of sunshine blog award

I am super excited, Kathy Moody over at Life on Lakeshire Drive has nominated me along with 9 other nominees for a ray of sunshine blog award, Thank you so much Kathy for your nomination and congratulations on winning this award yourself.

Ocean Commotion Card

Here is another card i made last week i really like this one, i was inspired to do this one by Kris McIintosh over at Splitcoast Stampers You can find more of her work on her blog Stamping with Kris

Stamps: Perfectly Penned, Ocean Commotion

Card Stock: Real Red, Pacific Point, Bashful Blue, Whisper White

Accessories: Blue Double Stitched Ribbon

Freshly Made Sketches #44

This week for Freshly Made Sketches i thought i would try somethig a little different, i don't have a big shot embossing machine, well i don't really have any embossing machine, i was trying to work out how to make my card a little different, i have a fiskars embossing set one that you do by hand, this was me experiment, it didn't exactly go as planned so it's not one of my better cards the embossing machines look much nicer i am so looking forward to getting one.

This weeks Sketch #44

The final product

Cardstock: Melon Mambo, Temptin Turquoise, Pink Pirouette
Stamps: Short and Sweet
Other: Subtles Designer Serious Paper