Highland Fling - a New Year Card

Evening All,

Hope you've all had a lovely day - the sun ventured out here for a few hours, long enough to get the washing dried, but it doesn't look at all promising for tomorrow.

This wee card is made from leftover card and paper from the scrapbook layout I made yesterday - see here. Thought that rather than tidy up and add to my snippet collection I'd use up the bits and pieces now -  today ...  The stamped image, Nellie Sugar's Dancing Maggie,  was one I had stashed away - already coloured too - and wasn't it lucky her kilt, coloured with ProMarkers, is just the right colour to match those papers. The base, a ready made 5" square, also found stashed away, is covered in a remnant of red card, stamped with the shooting stars, Fiskars New Year stamp set, in VersaMark and embossed with Stampendous midnight  black EP. The strips of polka dotted papers, Pink Paislee Twilight Collection and Papermania Reindeer/Polka Dot,  apart from being pretty, hide the fact that the red card wasn't quite wide enough to cover the base. The greeting came from the Fiskars stamp set too, embossed black on red card and matted onto black card. I raided my stash again for the gingham ribbon which I threaded through the spine of the card before tying in a knot.

Inside is decorated with  the last strip of the black DP and with shooting stars. These are the waste from the punch outs from an X-cut punch - and they just have to be the smallest snippets I have ever used!

When I was younger it was the tradition to send New Year cards to family living far away, often overseas. But this tradition seems to have fallen out of fashion, but I thought I'd make some this year and revive the tradition. We have family and friends in England, Australia, Canada and the US ... I'm sure one of them will be pleased to receive this little highland lassie :)

I'll be entering this card into Jules' Sunday Snippet Challenge. Week 32.

Happy crafting,

Shimelle's Sketch of the Week - from last week

Hello Everyone,

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I started mine off with the best of intentions. I was going to participate in Shimelle's Online Scrapbooking Weekend ... high hopes ... other priorities intervened and together with a huge dose of indecision I just about got started Sunday afternoon!

To be honest, it's quite some time since I did any serious scrapbooking and I'm more than a little rusty... but, hey, it's a challenge ... and I thought I'd like to participate in, not least because I need the practice. The first challenge on Shimelle's list was to create a layout from the sketch above - find it here.  So I'm making it even more challenging for myself ... I've never constructed a layout from a sketch ... they've never appealed - until now, that is.

For my subject I opted for our most recent trip ... well, it's fresh in my mind and I'd like to have a record in my scrapbook. So, what took me all weekend to get it together ... deciding! Deciding what photographs to use, deciding what papers would be best, deciding what embellishments I had, and where on earth had I stashed them, deciding what title and how/where was I going to find the letters for the job, etc., etc. Phew! Too many decisions! However, I got there in the end and a scrapbook page was born :)

I used Stampin' Up Crumb Cake, papers from Pink Paislee Twilight Collection, Papermania's Reindeer/Polka Dots and a multi-striped paper is from an unknown source, snippets of red and black card for matting and layering. The embellishments came from a variety of sources too: Joanna Sheen's Nostalgia Collection CD1 for train stamp, the 'Day Out Ticket' topper is a Crafty Individuals Miniature from the People & Places pack; the cigarette card is from stash. The title letters are computer generated and coloured with ProMarkers. 

As you can see I stuck pretty much to Shimelle's sketch ... I don't have the confidence yet to stray too far. And, despite, the time it took, the procrastination, and the humming and hawing, I enjoyed the project and quite like the end result. Will I follow a sketch again .... we will see!

Fortunately, Shimelle has given us until the 21st August to complete the challenges so I plan to carry on and see just how many I can get through in the time.

In the meantime, it's lunchtime for me. Happy crafting to you all,

Another Recipe from Mother's Cook Book - Bran Fruit Tea Loaf

Afternoon All,

I meant to post this recipe some time ago, when I made it for my friend as a thank you for looking after The Boss while we were on holiday ...  but kept forgetting, so here it is today.

A recipe for the busy/crafty person who hasn't got time to be messing about in the kitchen ... well there's crafting to be done ... but would like everyone to think they are a domestic goddess, or god, whatever the case may be : )

This delicious fruit loaf is so easy to make because all you have to do is chuck most of the ingredients in a bowl, leave overnight, giving the fruit time to plump up and the other ingredients time to mingle and meld and do their magic. The real problem is remembering to throw everything into the bowl the night before you want to bake the cake. Here's the recipe:

Bran & Fruit Tea Loaf

Ingredients:      
·         2 mugs of bran breakfast cereal – I used All-Bran but you can substitute with any make, even supermarkets own brand does nicely.
·         2 mugs of dried fruit – either the ready mixed fruit containing candied peel or, if like me you have friend who can’t stand the candied stuff, substitute with your own mix. I used sultanas and chopped dried apricots for the one in the photo.
·         1 ½ mugs of soft brown sugar – gives a nice caramel flavour. Once again, I substituted three-quarters of the sugar for low-sugar granules and it worked perfectly.
·         2 mugs of milk
·         1 large tbsp malt extract – this is not essential but gives a nice flavour. You could use Ovaltine granules instead and it tastes just as good.

The night before: put all the above ingredients into a bowl to soak overnight.

 Next day:

·         Set oven to moderate temperature at Mark 3/4 on my mother’s old oven – that is 160̇̇°C /170°C on my more up-to-date, but temperamental, fan-assisted oven.

·         Grease and line either 2 small loaf tins (about 1lb size) or 1 large tin (about 2lb size)
·         Then add 2 mugs self-raising flour to the mix and stir well, really well - I speak from experience! - and pour into tin(s)
·         Bake for about  1 ½ - 1 ¾   hours, depending on size of tin - this could be less in one of the newer ovens ... I’m still getting to grips with how much having a wee fan in an oven can speed up the whole process.  

When done, cool and served sliced with, I quote, a scraping of butter – clearly, my mother lived through frugal times!

Enjoy!