The one with a Party (part deux)

Continuing the weekend's party theme, the boys have been helping to make mini cards from Paint Chips;

  

supplies - paint chips, bazzill card, spellbinders nestabilities circle dies, elephants in cherry trees font, crown brads.

The boys both have Scarlet Fever so this gave them a little something to do whilst keeping their spottiness out of the sun...

These would be fantastic as place cards or mini invitations, I love the way that they even come pre folded :)

TFL!

The Anniversary Waltz

Yesterday was Mum's birthday and the boys made her cards.

Josh's clean and simple design;


Jared's portrait design (luckily I think I have another skein of thread on that colour!)


and my card, based on Kazan's fabulous sketch #63 over at 2sketches4you;



I used;
Crate Paper Girl Paperie & vintage sheet music papers
Prima Marketing letters and pearls
Ribbon Girl ribbon and twine
EK Success butterfly punch
Paper flowers
Hand stitching and inking.

and this week's Daring Cardmaker's dare is a team dare celebrating our 4th Anniversary;

As you know, October is our Anniversary month - we're 4 years old in a couple of dares time so it's definitely time to celebrate. So our theme for this week's challenge is:

Welcome to the Dance

We'd like you to take Dance and Dancing as your inspiration and do some fancy footwork on your cards this week. We can't wait to see how you shimmy along with this one. Be it Ballet, Street-dance, Flamenco or Tango, the (dance) floor is yours

I used the title of the dare and made this;

and I used

Digital sheet music purchased online
Bazzill cardstock
Vintage papers
Tim Holtz birdcage and on the edge sizzix dies
Echo Park stickers
Ribbon Girl ribbon
Pebbles Inc. rub on
Kaiserkraft letter stickers

TFL - Don't to check out the gorgeous anniversary and dance inspired cards that the other DT members have made here.

Come Fly With Me

Late again this week for this week's dare as Jared;



had to go to hospital to have a little operation. He is fine and recovering very quickly!

This week's dare was set by the fantabulous Kathy;

My theme is All Up in the Air, really ;-) - I'd like to see the main elements of your card being things that fly, flutter, hover or waft about "up there" in the sky.

Mine is more of a floaty item and I made this;



For BIL John's Birthday - Happy Birthday John!

I used;
Bazzil cardstock
Echo Park paper and sticker
American Crafts thickers
Ribbon Girl Twine

TFL!

A few piccies...

Everyone here has had the most nasty coldy type thing so not much blogging going on...

A card for Josh's 7th birthday;
October Afternoon papers and die cuts, Scenic Route rub ons, Doodlebug rub on and Papermania brads

Josh celebrated his birthday (and Red Nose Day) with red hair...

and Jared and I made red nose cakes (90 of them(!) for both their classes)...A card for Kathy's most marvellous dare, using all the yummy bits and bobs that she sent to me to make the card with...
A card for one of Josh's friend's birthday...
MME papers, sewing, Bo Bunny ribbon, Scenic Route rub ons

and a tag.
More MME papers, Papermania scallop edge, gems, Bo Bunny ribbon.

Phew! TFL :)

Nigella's Chocolate Fudge

Continuing the soon to be a tradition of giving teachers some yummy fudge, the boys were very busy in the kitchen this week.

This batch had a little change with the substitution of nuts and berries for pistachios. Recipe coming up, courtesy of Nigella :)

Nativity time...

Josh and Jared both had their (separate) nativities this week - Josh was originally a shepherd but had to step up to the well known nativity role of a clock at the last minute before succumbing to Chicken Pox (again) and being sent home, Jared fulfilled his role as a boy from China in 'The Snow Bears Surprise' although he was a little distressed at having to wear a dress...

Spookiness

The boys celebrated Hallowe'en by becoming vampiric and zombified.






Josh was really thrilled as he won a 'best costume' prize at the party that they both went to and I made some tags...

and a quick spooky card...

TFL :)

CPS #73

We braved Next sale yesterday - not at the wee early hours of the morning but at a far more normal time of the afternoon and actually it was not busy - far more girl clothes as usual than boys but did pick up a few bits and bobs :) Had to chuckle at the signs in the girlie section entitled 'Big Girl's Bottoms'.....

Another of Jared's friends turned 4 yesterday, I used the CPS sketch #73 to make this for her....


I used Basic Grey Euphoria, Bazzil scallops and a 7gypsies stamp, I cut the circle with an x-cut shape cutter, hand cut butterfly, inking and a little bit of doodling.

And a little bit of garden tidying, they boys were allowed to stay up late for a little bonfire....




:)

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone is enjoying a happy Easter break :)

A cyberman has visited...

and he made this card...

and Jared made this one...


The Easter bunny was very clever and made egg toppers using Kate Hadfield's marvellous Easter Treats collection...


and 100% inspired after reading Kirsty's Jaffa Cake making, I dug out an old recipe and we all made some homemade Jaffa Cakes...

The boys did the icing and actually did a far better job than I would have done!


Recipe for homemade Jaffa cakes.
Ingredients
3 eggs
3 oz sugar
4 oz self-raising flour
Marmalade - I think you can sieve it but we used Golden Shredless for ease :)
4 oz plain chocolate
2 oz milk chocolate - You are probably meant to use the posh stuff with lots of cocoa solids etc but the cheapo ones work just fine :)
rind of 1/4 orange, finely grated
1 Tbsp oil (not Olive) cos that would be yucky in these.
1.5 Tbsp water

Method
1. Whisk the eggs and the sugar until they are super extra thick and creamy -use an electric whisk as it takes ages.
2. Fold in the flour.
3. Spoon the mix into cake tins - make sure the tins are well greased.
4. Bake for around 10 mins at gas mark 6 - I think this is about 200°C.
5. Cool the cakes/biscuits - they are not really either...
6. Put the chocolate, orange rind, oil and water into a bowl over a pan of hot water and stir until all is melted, remove from heat.
7. Spread marmalade on the bottom of each cake.
8. The chocolate should be cooling nicely, once the chocolate starts to thicken spoon it over the cakes.
9. Leave to set - not in the fridge
10. Eat and enjoy the yumminess.

Jaffa Cakes. Done. - the mix makes around 24.

I absolutely do not ever want to open my eyes...

Mothering Sunday...

I hope all Mummys had a fantabulous day :) Jared made me a beautiful card with a teapot on it and proudly presented me with a pot - we have no idea what it contains but I am sure that time will tell! W had traditional (in our house) takeaway pizza (mine without cheese as cheese is made by disgustigons*...) Yum :)

*probably not a word but it fits nicely :)





and another Mum card - for J's Mum. All made using the rather lovely Come out and Play kit designed by Kate Hadfield, Catrine and Birgit.



TFL :)

The tooth fairy....

...visited at the weekend :) After about 3 weeks of wobbling, prodding and pushing, Josh finally lost his first tooth. I made this for him - at the request of the tooth fairy of course :)



and Josh's egg came back from school for a home visit...



Jase helped with the painting - à la the Madagascar penguins - *smile and wave boys*

not too sure what to do with it as Josh has been looking after it for over a week now - it's got to start being stinky at some point?!

and Jared has been a dragon at school for their Fairytale Wedding :)



TFL :)

Nigella's Fudge

I saw a fantastic recipe for fudge on the telebox - made by Nigella the domestic goddess and decided to make a load with the boys to give to their teachers and teaching assistants - between them they have nine! After the shock of both boys deciding that they wanted to make all the cards for their friends... ( we did go for the simple option of punched shapes and sizzix trees :))

We made lots of fudge, this is the recipe;

12oz dark chocolate, at least 70 per cent cocoa solids, chopped
1 x 14oz can condensed milk
1oz butter
pinch salt
5¼oz unsalted pistachios, shells removed

Method
1. Place the chopped chocolate, condensed milk, butter and salt into a heavy-based pan over a low heat and stir until melted and well combined.
2. Place the nuts into a freezer bag and bash them with a rolling pin, until broken up into some large and some small pieces.
3. Add the nuts to the melted chocolate mixture and stir well.
4. Pour the mixture into a 23cm/9in square tray, smoothing the top with a wet palette knife.
5. Let the fudge cool, then refrigerate until set.
6. Cut into small pieces approximately 3cm x 2cm/1¼in x ¾in. Cutting 7 x 7 lines in the tin to give 64 pieces best achieves this.
7. Once cut, the fudge can be kept in the freezer - there's no need to thaw, just eat straight away.
We adapted it to and made milk chocolate fudge with cherries...

and I made some headers for it with the help of some fonts, doodling and photoshop. Hopefully, nine happy teachers :)

Questions....

Found this whilst blog hopping here :)

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? wrapping paper – Deffo the paper - takes ages but I love adding little bows and curled ribbon to the presents
2. Real tree or Artificial? I prefer real trees and Josh was insistant that we had a real tree this year - not a fan of all the dropped needles though...
3. When do you put up the tree? The weekend after my Birthday so around the 15th
4. When do you take the tree down? Probably Boxing Day this year at the rate it is shedding needles...
5. Do you like eggnog? Never tried it but it sounds pretty grim
6. Favourite gift received as a child? Don't know really, I remember getting a Paul Daniels magic set that was pretty cool at the time and I played with alot.
7. Do you have a nativity scene? No
8. Hardest person to buy for? My Mum
9. Easiest person to buy for? The boys
10. Worst Christmas gift ever received? Not had anything really bad
11. Mail or email Christmas card? Post but the boys did write to Santa via email
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Gremlins or Die Hard 2
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? At some point in December!
14. Have you ever recycled/regifted a Christmas present? No
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Everything!
16. Favorite Christmas song? Last Christmas
17. Travel at Christmas or stay home? This year travel - but not too far :)
18. Can you name Santa's reindeer? Dasher,Dancer,Prancer,Vixen,Comet,Cupid,Donner and Blitzen
19. Do you have an Angel on top of the tree or a star? A big shiny silver star
20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas Day in the morning - although when I was little Dad insisted that they were not opened until after lunch which was really hard.
21. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Supermarket shopping
22. Best thing about Christmas? Seeing how excited the boys are.
So if you like the look of this, cut and paste and add it to your blog. x

Finally finished all the cards this week- just a few to hand deliver - phew! (and a huge thank you to Mrs B for her help :))

This is the photo of the boys for this year;

and here a few of the ones that we didn't use :)...