Living my dream

Merry Christmas and a very happy and safe New year!!!

I've been a wee bit quiet here lately. I think we all get like this over Christmas. So many people to see and things to do. Excited children out for the summer holidays. Beautiful days to enjoy. It's a wonderful time of the year. 

So instead of a big long post (well, it might be filled with pictures!) I thought I'd share some pictures of some of the Xmas treats I've made recently.....

Hand made chocolates / truffles

A friend of mine gave me this receipe a while ago and it's sooooo good. I get asked for the receipe whenever I make them, so here it is....

300ml cream

600g dark chocolate

50g unsalted butter

1. Bring cream to boil slowly in pot. 

2. when boiled add chocolate and butter and leave to sit for 2 minutes

3. Stir gently with a spatula until smooth (you can add a tbs of alcohol at this stage if you wish).

4. pour into shallow dish, cover and regrigerate for 12 hours

5. Shape mixture into small balls (use a teaspoon), place on baking paper and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

6. Cover with melted chocolate and other toppings you love

A gingerbread star tree. I've wanted to make one of these for a few years and finally brought myself the cutters to make it easy. And it was easy. The hardest part is getting them all to bake so they don't burn. Lesson learnt. Put small ones together and larger ones in seperate times.

More gingerbread. This time in the shape of Xmas trees and biscuit sized stars.

The royal icing is so much fun to use and play with and is super simple. Both the gingerbread receipe and the royal icing receipe I found here. It's a great receipe and the gingerbread is not horrible and hard.

I also quickly made some Xmas puddings from good ole Mellowpuffs.....

When I went to the shops to buys the Mellowpuffs, all the normal ones were gone, everyone else must've had the same idea. Still, the double chocolate stripe worked just as well.

Again, very easy to make. Just top the Mellowpuff with melted white chocolate, some lollie leaves (spearmint ones are perfect), and add in some 'berries'. You can use jaffas, or any other small candies, the main thing is they are red.

The last few years the McClune's have had a 'Make or Bake' Xmas which means that you either make or bake your Xmas presents. So while I was in the baking mood that's what I did....

I brought a lovely serving platter (something to keep for after) then loaded it full of Xmas bark, Xmas puddings, and gingerbread. Wrapped it in some cellophane and done!

For Granny, just a little something to add to her owl collection... an owl biscuit container filled with Gingerbread....

And that was it. Now I just need to remake some stuff as I got the two Sues mixed up and gave to the wrong one. Talk about feeling like an idiot! LOL! 

Anyway, that's it from me for the minute. Have a wonderful New Years Eve. And a very happy and safe 2014!!!

A cute Christmas Gift

For the last couple of years, the McClunes have done 'Make or bake' Christmas gifts. It makes for some really fun times as we all see what others have made for each other. There have been some incredibly creative gifts and talented people!!!

We each get given a name of someone and we just create for that one person. This year, Matt got his cousin (second cousin) Aaliyah who is just 2.5 years old. Because we'd left it so late, and she lives in Aussie, I decided to make something myself.

I created this:

What is it you ask? Well, it used to be an old hard back book, but I made this cute little family of owls with their very own home.

Let's see how I created it....

The first thing I did was take the book out it's hard cover. This is actually really easy as it's usually not attached all the way down the spine. But be careful as you may be over enthusiastic with your cutting and go right through the cover.

Next adhere some fabric to the front and back of the book. 

This book was already painted, but you don't need to do that! I didn't cover the whole book as it would be difficult to do and keep without lines appearing in the fabric. I also think it looks nice to see the cover.

Because the pieces of fabric weren't cut perfectly, I decided to add some ribbon along the edges to create a straight edge and also add a bit of texture to the book.

From there it's simply a matter of adding a zip. Yes, ok, that's the tricky part. And basically, you sew the zip into some pieces of fabric as if you were sewing it into a piece of clothing, but it's just being attached to random fabric.

Once you've done that you can glue it into the book.

Ensure that the start and finish of the zip is at the bottom/top middle of the spine of the book, so when laying flat it opens all the way.

To make the inside pretty, you just need to add some material over the inside spine of the book, then some paper/cardstock/fabric over all the inside edges of your fabric.

Then just add something inside to finish off the gift.

To keep within the 'make' part of the present, I decided to make some cute little felt owls. they are all hand cut, hand stitched and are the perfect way to fill the insides of this altered book.

To finish off the present I add Aaliyah's name to the outside spine with a little bit of bling. What girl doesn't like some sparkle?

It was so much fun to make and didn't take that long either. The book was done in maybe an hour? I think next time I could do it much quicker as I now know how to do the zip part. After all I'm NOT a sewer!

I think the cost was perhaps around $15 total including the book (second hand shop), fabric (Spotlight), and zip (Spotlight). The other items were all found around home. Of course it can be cheaper than this, but I happened to pick a relatively expensive fabric. Oh dear! Grin.

An easy and cost effective gift. 

 

A new layout for The Colour Room

I've been so busy lately that I haven't had much of a chance to do any of the Colour Room palettes.

But seeing this one is the last one of the year and I just knew I WANTED to do it. So I started and got so far, and then it sat and sat and sat for over a week on my desk until finally this morning I was able to finish it.

So it means I'm totally late for the release, but it has been done!

Take a look:

This photo may look bad, but is so wonderful. If you're able take a read of the journaling. It was a very very special time for all of us when Doggie was found again!

 

I've used lots of glorious Prima, a paper doily and a crocheted doily. Once I finally got it finished I was pretty happy to have this special time recorded.

If you want to take a look at what all the colour room designers have created, just click here. It's a hugely inspiring team!

Sunday Shake Up

I've been doing a lot of walking lately. I've always enjoyed it. But lately I've needed to do it. To take my mind off things that I can't change. 

So off I go. It started out about 40 mins, then got up to an hour, then 1.5 hours and now sometimes up to 2 hours. I know as far as exercising goes, it's not the most time efficient, but I really enjoy it. And it means I feel better about not being able to do anything.

So this morning, with nothing on our plates for the day, I dragged my family off on a family jaunt. It was fun. 

I remember years ago reading a blog and the writer talked about how a friend asked her how she kept her marriage strong and she replied, we walk together. And when we walk we talk. 

And that's what happened to us today. We wandered along the streets chattering away, holding hands, enduring some rain, throwing rocks in the sea. And it was good.

So my challenge to you this week is to put on your walking shoes, grab your family or a friend you haven't seen in a while and take them for a walk.

Dare ya.

Giveaway

I'm doing a giveaway on the PaperHaus blog. One of my kits from earlier this year. It comes with full colour instructions and all the product from Prima to make 2 layouts, 1 card and 1 mini album.

You will need some punches and die cuts, but can easily make do without these items.

Check it out over on the PaperHaus blog, leave a comment there and you'll be in the draw to win.

 

Christmas Cupcake class tomorrow!

I'm so excited to be teaching a class tomorrow on how to make these cupcakes. Mostly quick and simple. You can even set up a production line if you're making more than one of the same one.

We'll be going over some of the basics in decorating, then straight into making these delicious designs. Can't wait to see you there!

Where you ask? Scrapaholics new shop!!!

Winner

At the end of September I put up a post about winning one of my special goodie bags. All you had to do was share the post I had put up. There were a few commenters, and I truly appreciate you sharing the news about my trip to the USA. I also said I'd reveal the winner in November. Whoops. Sorry I'm late everyone! But the good news is that I have a winner to announce.

I said to Andy, Hun, give me a number between 1 and 15 including those numbers. He gave me 13. So that makes my winner..... drumroll........ Lainie!!!!

Congrats Lainie, can you please flick me your address and I'll get it in the mail to you quick smart.

This is what you're getting:

Enjoy!

9 ways to make your gift wrapping fun, sophisticated and unique

Over at the Paperhaus blog, the 12 days of Xmas blog hop continues. As part of the blog post today, I've shared some ways to make your gift wrapping this season extra special. Let's take a closer look here too......

 

 

A lovely way to decorate your mantle, wrap up some gifts and sprinkle them along it. Or pop under your Xmas tree, or anywhere really! To make it even more special, add some extra sparkle with tinsel and other bought trinkets.

 

 

Two of these gifts have been wrapped with cellophane that has been stamped on. One in a continuously random pattern, but the other with one single image (made of 2 stamps). Add some seam binding, and a little tag and you're done!

 

Here's a close up look at how I prepared the cellophane:

 

 

The third gift is wrapped using some gorgeous scrapbook paper, covered with a book page that has been folded over and over, and then to the side a couple of gorgeous snowflake die cuts from Tim Holtz have been added.

 

 

This gift is very simple. It has been wrapped with brown paper, then two pieces of seam binding that have been twisted with each other. Tie a knot at each end and you're done.

 

 

These ones are super simple too. The large bottom one is some plain brown paper that I splattered with some watered down gesso. Once it was dry, I wrapped the present and added a bow of seam binding to one end.

 

 

The top gift is wrapped with a book page, then wrapped with bought Christmas decorations. The baubles give a real sense of brightness and elegance.

 

 

 

This wee present is so much fun. There are two presents. The one inside and the ones on top.

Just wrap your present with book paper, add some mini Christmas crackers to the top and wrap with white seam binding.

 

 

The final two presents have were particularly fun to make....

 

For the top present, wrap with brown paper, then add a doily, a flower, a tag and trinket, attach with seam binding. Easy peasy and so cute.

 

As for my button packaging, I LOVE it. And so simple. Wrap the present in music paper, then on the top, add a large dollop of glue right across the present. Add in some red buttons and around the edges of these, some teeny tiny seed beads. Wait for them to dry and you're ready to give.

 

I have a ton more ideas that I'd love to share with you but not sure I'll get the time? Perhaps just keep an eye on my blog and I'll see what I can do!

 

Have a fabulous day!

Calling all Bakers (or anyone who loves to give back to their community)....

A couple of weeks ago, my sister sent me a link to this Herald article.

(This is Kim, you'll hear about her below).

You all know me and how I love to contribute to my community and it just seemed like it was something I could help out with. I LOVE to bake. I already help a similar charity, so why not this????

So I flicked Kim an email and asked if she needed any help with desert? - Hey, that's my forte. She replied.... Yes, she'd love it.

And so we chatted on the phone. There are going to be hundreds of people at this event, so there is no way I'm going to be able to do this by myself. Thankfully my sister and I are doing this together, and I'm kinda hoping some of you might like to help too????

Here's the dets:

We'll be providing Xmas cupcakes. I'll send you the picture of what we'll make them into (it will be fairly simple, quick and easy, but very effective). 

Ideally you'll then bake, and decorate the cupcakes to the pictures specifications (as many as you can handle). (I'm also happy to hold a day here where we can all decorate the cupcakes together. How fun would that be?!).

If you can't bake, but would like to decorate, or the other way around that's cool. I'm happy to have any help that is available. I even have receipes that are pretty 'no fail' if you'd like to use them.

Another thought is that if you're not a baker, but would like to donate some ingredients to make the cupcakes, flick me an email. I'll tell you what we're needing (butter, flour, sugar, icing sugar, vanilla essence, cocoa, coffee bags, buttermilk) and we'll arrange a pickup/delivery.

I need to have all cupcakes ready for delivery no later than lunchtime December 21st (the time is different to that in the article as it has changed). Time to drop off/be picked up to be confirmed when I talk to you.

I know, it's really close to Christmas, but this is why it's so important. It's a Christmas dinner! 

If you think you can help, can you please flick me an email?

If you can't bake, but would like to come and join in the decorating, it will be easy! Just flick me an email.

If you can't do either, perhaps you'd like to donate a carton of juice or a bag of potatoes or something else that could be used to make a 'typical' Christmas dinner? To arrange that, you just need to flick Kim an email. Her email is: [email protected]

Funnily enough when I was talking to my step Mum, she was already involved. She knows Kim and so that made it even nicer for me. Made me realise this was what I'm meant to be doing.

 

Paperhaus winter magazine release blog hop

Welcome to the Winter Frolic 12 Days Of Christmas Blog Hop! We are celebrating the release of the Winter Issue of PaperHaus Magazine but also inspiring you each day with wonderful holiday projects, giveaways and inspiration! Our blog hop will run from December 1st to December 12th! Be sure to stop each day and leave a comment each day to win some... fabulous prizes by our lovely sponsors! Don't forget to check out the Winter Issue for additional inspiration, holiday cheer and some amazing projects from our contributing team!

You can find the magazine here:

Winter magazine.

It's really quite something! Make sure you take a look. But before you do, here's a look at a wee Xmas card I've put together....

 

 

To carry on with the blog hop, just hop on over to Scrapbook Diaries (a fabulous online shop where you can buy kits from great scrapbook designers).....

Have a fabulous day!

 

Sunday Shake up

Words. We read them all the time. You're reading them now. And I believe we generally use the same ones over and over. 

So my shake up this week is to grab a dictionary, close your eyes, open the dictionary, and stab your finger at a word. Take that word and learn it. What does it mean? How could you use it? Why would you use it?

Have fun with your new word this week.

Dare ya.