September Workshop

Gosh its a wintry day today. I have the heater on and sitting in my craft room getting ready for Perth Regionals. I decided I needed a break so here I am updating my blog. We had a lovely little gathering at our Workshop yesterday. Lots of laughter as usual. Always a laughter when a certain lady attends and we all love her to bits. I am sure you know who you are. I have decided now that it is getting close to Christmas that I will add at least 1 christmas card to our set. I love this one. I found the idea of the Pointsettia from Connie Babberts blog. Thanks Connie!
The Pointsettia is made using one of the leaves from the French Foliage Stamp Set.
For this card I have used the following:-
Stamp Sets: French Foliage, Snow Swirled
Ink: Always Artichoke, Cherry Cobbler
Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler, Real Red (flowers), Always Artichoke, Whisper White, Basic Black
Accessories: Big Shot, Polka Dot Folder, Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint mixed with rubbing alcohol, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Pearls & Always Artichoke 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon
With the Basic Black cardstock I punched out a circle 1 3/4" to place the petals onto. I have used 14 petals for my flower but some of the ladies in the workshop used only 12 and it looked just as good.
Its all pretty easy.  I cut out my petals while watching tv when I was getting my stamp camp swaps ready. It took me two nights to cut them out.
The next card was one I have designed myself. I orignally made the card using the brown tones but decided to use a bit of colour for my ladies. Funny though, they liked the Soft Suede one best.
Here they are.  The top layer was made using the Scallop Circle Punch on both ends of my cardstock. The piece was 4.3 x 10.5cm.  You place one end of the card in through the cutting section of the punch not where you would normally place it. Slide the card in just past the scallop cutting edge and be sure to line up the card and punch. Do this for the other end as well. You may have trouble sliding the card through so I used one of those things that you use to score with the little ball on the end. I cant think what it is called right now. You can use anything that is pointy. Just lift up the end as you slide and it works wonders.
Here is my recipe for the card.
Stamp Set: Creative Elements ( I love this set)
Ink: Wild Wasabi, Tempting Turquoise
Cardstock: Wild Wasabi, Whisper White, Very Vanilla
Accessories: Stamp-a-ma-jig, Scallop Circle Punch, Very Vanilla 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon (I ran it across the Pear Pizzaz and Tempting Turquoise stamp pads to get a different effect). Pearls, Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint mixed with rubbing Alcohol (used on butterfly), Daubers, Tempting Turquoise Marker. With the brown toned card I used Soft Suede and Crumb Cake colours.
The last one is a very quick and simple card also cased from the net but again I cannot remember who it was I cased it from. I promise to check next time when copying over to my files that their names come out readable. I have used the following products for this card.
Stamp Set: Lovely As A Tree,  Three Little Words.
Ink: Cajun Craze, Sahara Sand, Daffodil Delight, Basic Black
Cardstock: Basic Black, Whisper White.
All you need to do is using your stamp pad to swipe it along your cardstock. Do this for all three colours and then stamp your image onto the coloured area and put a sentiment and hey presto! you are done. You can either use the Basic Black Ink or you can emboss it with Black Embossing Powder. I kind of like it just with Basic Black and it makes for a very quick card if you are in a hurry.  Try using Christmas colours and a bit of glitter and you can have your Christmas cards made in no time.



Everyone seemed to love the cake I made this time. Its actually called Apricot Loaf but I dont know why as there is no Apricots in it. (Unless All Bran once had apricots added to it)
Here is the recipe in case you would like to try it. Its so easy! You do need to prepare the day before.

1 cup All Bran
1 cup milk
1 cup brown sugar (firmly packed)
1 tablespoon honey
1 cup SR flour
Mix All Bran, milk, brown sugar & honey into a bowl, stir, cover and place in fridge overnight.
Add flour and mix well.
Place in a loaf tin (greased & lined with greaseproof paper) and bake in moderate oven for 1 hour. Mine was ready in 45 minutes so keep a check on it. Once it is cooked place on cooling rack and spread butter on your slices and yummy! there you have it.