Testing...testing...

I had a practice this weekend at making chocolate cupcakes with raspberry buttercream. I need to make 30 of these for a friend's wedding (along with 30 lemon cupcakes and a 3 tier fruit cake!). My piping was rubbish so I just swirled the icing this time round - oh dear, more practice required... I was really pleased with how they tasted though and Connor gave them his seal of approval too!

Those of you with young children may recognise the next few characters...

These are my current WiP - canvases for Connor's bedroom. For those not in the know they are characters from In the Night Garden. I'll keep you updated with how they're getting on!

Bits and bobs...

Just a couple of bits to show - our camera battery charger has died so I haven't been able to take any photos for the last few weeks. I've resorted to my iPhone to show these so apologies for the quality of the pics!

The image is from Tiddly Inks, coloured with ProMarkers and accented with some Stickles. The ribbon is some seam binding from The Ribbon Girl.

This card was inspired by a card on the Pink Petticoat website - simple but effective I think. The paper is from Kirsty Wiseman.

And here is my latest digi page - entered into the A Work in Progress challenge number 2 which was to use a song as your page title. Mine was "This Magic Moment" by The Drifters which was our first dance at our wedding. After dithering for ages we heard it on an episode of The Sopranos and thought it fitted the day perfectly!

I mainly used a kit called "Be Mine" from Artgal at Scrap That Idea - as usual I added a few bits from other kits!

Another Leanne Ellis stamp

Here's another card using one of my new Leanne Ellis stamps...

She was stamped with black archival ink (as was the stamp in the last post - not Black Soot Distress Ink - ooops) and coloured with Distress Inks again. The papers are Costco and the edges have been distressed and selectively Stickled. The ribbon is "Oloroso" seam binding from The Ribbon Girl - gorgeous, the pins are from the same place and the flower is the last (boo hoo) from a Prima packet.
Here's your close up...

Hope you like it!

New stamps!

I bought some of the new Leanne Ellis/Sugar Nellie stamps a few weeks ago and finally had a play with them over the weekend. I also decided to have a go at stamping and colouring them with Distress Inks - think I did ok for my first time!

This card was stamped with Aged Mahogany Distress Ink. I then just used a wet paintbrush to push some of the ink around to colour her hair and to pick out some of the features of the image. I then edged the image with some Stickles and added a rose which I sprayed with Cosmic Shimmer mist. The papers are from a pack I picked up in Costco a while ago, I scuffed the edges up a bit and added some Perfect Pearls. The flower is from the October ScrapaGoGo kit - Enchanted Woods.

For this card I stamped with Black Soot Distress Ink then coloured with various "vintagey" colours. The papers are from the November ScrapaGoGo kit - Attic Treasures. The ribbon is also from the same kit - I love this ribbon and need to find more! As before the edges of the papers were scuffed and Perfect Pearled and I added some Stickles to the edge of the image.

I have two more of the images from this set and am looking forward to having a play with those too!

Right, off to do some more digi scrapping for my surprise album - my aim was to be finished by next week but I think I may have to re-evaluate that as I'm only halfway through!

Just a quickie

Here is a quick card that I made for a friends daughters 2nd birthday. She had a party at a local soft play centre - Connor had a great time though it turns out one of the kids has chicken pox so now we're just waiting to see if any spots appear! He didn't really go near her so fingers crossed, I know it's good to get it over with but it doesn't mean I'm looking forward to him getting it!

The image is from Mo Manning, coloured with ProMarkers and Stickles. The papers are a mix of Papermania and Kirsty Wiseman.

I've a few more cards to show over the next couple of days once the recipients have received them!

Cakey cakes

I've finally taken a photo of the card for my friends little boy, you know the one I said I'd show about 2 weeks ago?! We had a few laptop issues this week, our antivirus software went a bit mental and started dumping masses of files into it's "Dump" folder - 70gb worth! Anyway, all fixed now...

The image on this card is from Digistamp Boutique, coloured with ProMarkers as usual. I used Glossy Accents on the window on the rocket and on his helmet, and Stickles on the rocket. The papers and sentiment are from Kirsty Wiseman.

I've been busy in the kitchen today making cupcakes...

Jack Daniels and Coke...

The icing was a bit of a bugger - it has melted chocolate in so you don't have long to work with it. The first few looked really good but the last few - not so good! Hmmm, perhaps I could leave the icing over a pan of hot water to keep the chocolate melted? The recipe is from Eat Me if you want to recreate it - think next time I would use Nigellas Coca Cola cake recipe instead next time as the sponge seems to be moister using that recipe.

Oreo...

A vanilla sponge with broken up Oreos in and a cream cheese icing. The cupcake has an Oreo half in the bottom - don't think I'd do that again as the Oreo stuck to the case. The recipe is from Beantown Baker.