Craft: Create a Cupcake Card

I was browsing through the new Stampin' Up catalogue yesterday and saw a cute Cupcake card. I realised I had all of the tools and supplies to recreate it- so I did!

Supplies needed:

Cuttlebug
Sizzix Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder
Create a Cupcake stamp set from Stampin' Up
Rotary Trimmer with straight, scoring and small wavy blades
Cardstock in three colours of your choice (I used Brown, Pink Lemonade and Butter from Creative Memories)
Inks in three colours of your choice (I used Pretty In Pink, So Saffron and Chocolate Chip by Stampin' Up)
Tape Runner
Foam squares or Dimensionals
Scissors

Please note that some of the measurements in these photos are wrong as I changed the end dimensions of the card. Follow the written measurements instead of what is in the pictures.

Cut your base colour cardstock to 4 3/4 x 9 inches.

Cut your accent cardstock colour to 4 x 3 1/4 inches.

Change to the scoring blade on your rotary timmer and score your base cardstock at 4 1/2 inches.

 Taking your accent cardstock, make a mark in the middle.

The make a mark about 1cm above the first mark.

Using a 12" trimmer, slice from the tip of the cardstock to the inner mark, and then back out to make a triangle shape. You should end up with your piece of cardstock looking like this.

Change your blades to the small wavy in the Rotary Trimmer, and cut two stips from your third colour of cardstock.

Now it's time for stamping! On another piece of your accent colour cardstock (or white if your accent is dar) stamp out the spotted cupcake holder, cupcake top and ribbon in your chosen colours.

You can now cut these out with scissors, although if you have the matching Create A Cupcake Punch you can use that to make the job easier.

Now you can put the pieces of the cupcake on your accent pennant cardstock with Foam Squares or Dimensionals, and add a stamped sentiment.

Next, you will need to emboss your base cardstock using the Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder and a Cuttlebug or similar machine.

Now it is time to assemble- Place the two wavy stripes down the sides of the yellow pennant and then attach to the raised embossed side of the base card. And there you have it, a cute cupcake card!

Food: BLT Mac and Cheese

One of my guilty pleasures when I was breastfeeding was watching the Rachael Ray Show. I like most of her recipes and here is one that my whole family enjoys.

BLT Mac and Cheese

Ingredients:

5 slices bacon

200g macaroni

1 cup milk

1/2 tsp turmeric

125g cream cheese

2 cups grated cheese

6-8 cherry tomatoes, quartered

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 cup plain yogurt

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1/2 bag lettuce leaves

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. In a frying pan, cook the bacon until crispy.

Meanwhile bring a pot of water to the boil, and add the salt and pasta. Cook for 5-7 minutes and drain.

In a saucepan, bring the milk to a simmer. Whisk in the turmeric and cream cheese, and add salt and pepper to taste. Stir in 1 3/4 cups of the grated cheese until melted, then add the bacon, tomatoes and pasta. Transfer to a casserole dish.

Bake for 25 minutes. In the meantime, roughly tear up the lettuce leaves. In a bowl mix together the yogurt and vinegar, then stir through the lettuce leaves.

Serve and enjoy!

Craft: Paper Strips

I always end up with leftover odds and ends of paper, and I have finally found a way to use them all up instead of my usual card borders. Here is a layout I did of my son when he was five months old. It is very simple- I just added different widths and lengths of paper strips behind the photo and then added some journalling and a title. The whole page took me less than 15 minutes and the paper doesn't distract from the photo or journalling.

Food: Banana Peanut Butter Muffins

If you are like me, you always have a banana or two lying around that is past the eating stage. And banana chocolate chip muffins, while popular in my house, get a bit boring after a while. I found this recipe on Baking Bites and it is very delicious! The peanut butter gives the muffins an interesting flavour and the oatmeal and lack of butter or white sugar makes it healthier than other banana muffins.
Banana Peanut Butter Muffins

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup instant oats*
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp vegetable oil
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup mashed banana (about 2 med.)
6 tbsp peanut butter (pref. creamy)
1 cup milk1 tbsp white vinegar

*If you do not have instant oats, you can grind regular porridge oats in the food processor to make them smaller.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius. Lightly grease a 12-cup muffin tin.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Place the milk in a cup and add the vinegar, and let sit for 3 minutes until the milk has curdled. (This is how to make buttermilk if you don't have proper buttermilk on hand.)

In a medium bowl, whisk together vegetable oil, brown sugar, eggs, mashed banana, peanut butter and milk until very smooth, making sure all egg has been well-incorporated.

Pour into flour mixture and stir until no streaks of flour remain.

Divide batter evenly into prepared muffin tin, filling each just about up to the top. I made some regular sized ones for my husband, and mini muffins for my toddler.

Bake for 16-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the top springs back when lightly pressed.
Remove muffins from tin and cool on a wire rack.

Craft: ABC Book

I have finally finished a book I plan to give my son for Christmas. I found a lot of people doing ABC books for their children on some scrapbooking forums I visit, so I decided to give it a go myself. I wanted to really personalise it with photos of my son with the people and things he loves. Here is a selection of some of my favourite pages from the book.

Craft:Scrap FX challenge

I have been working hard on some challenges to keep me motivated, and here is my latest effort! My husband's cousin has just become a father and so I thought I would make a card for them. His wife is Spanish, hence the Spanish title.

The challenge that this was inspired by is from Michelle Logan's blog- http://mlogandesigns.blogspot.com/ She makes some amazing layouts and so when she issued this challenge I thought it would make me step outside of my comfort zone as I do not like working with the colour pink. The criteria for the card, layout or altered project were:

• Follow her blog
• Pink
• Chipboard
• Paint/mist/ink

Here is the card:

The background cardstock was pink, as well as the polka dotted paper and the flower. The flower is chipboard and I applied some pink and gold shimmer ink to it. I also embossed some butterflies with polka dots and adhered them to the card to give a nice 3D efect. I particularly like the pink button I put in the middle of the chipboard flower for the finishing touch. I hope you like it Michelle!

Craft: International Card Making Day

Today is International Card Making Day, and so I will have lots of projects to share with you over the upcoming days incuding a beautiful foldout friendship card. Sorry I have been so quiet recently- I have been very busy trying to finish my Earthquake album and also a cross stitch. In the meantime, here is a glance of some of the projects I have finished.