She DOES make cards after all!

Hooray! I actually have a card to share today... I'm entering this card into the Compendium of Curiosities challenge over at Studio L3 and Macabre Monday at Haunted Design House. My card isn't particularly gothic or, indeed, macabre (taking a pic of it in the bright sunshine doesn't help), but it is grungy so I'm entering it anyway...

The main image is stamped on some card which has been covered in alcohol inks using the Alcohol Ink Monoprint technique from Tim's book (and the challenge for this week at L3). The background was masked and inked with Distress Inks. Some extra bits and pieces, Stickles, gems and brads finished off the card. I must say I love Tim's products and what he does with them but reckon I still need some practice to achieve something that looks anywhere near as a good as his stuff...that's an excuse for more craft time if ever I heard one!

As you may be aware, I'm currently slightly addicted to buying cupcake and muffin cookbooks. There are a glut of them out there at the minute though so I'm having to be very good and peruse a book carefully before buying to make sure it actually has something new and different in...I recently bought the following, on recommendation from my mother, enabler extraordinaire...

and last night I made the Lemon and Ginger Cupcakes...

Very yummy, though reckon I need to chop the crystallised ginger a bit more finely next time.

Oh, and I think I've solved my acetate problem. I was scoring the fold, thinking it would help it to crease better, when it fact, it was just helping it snap. I just folded it and it looks much better! Serves me right for thinking in the first place! My first proper, fully functioning, acetate card is for Kirsty's new CD, which now doesn't air on C&C til 19th July but you can buy it from her website here and see some sneaks and Kirsty making some handcrafted flowers on Ustream here.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend and a happy 4th July to any of you from across the pond!