Off to the ATDML retreat!

I have made it to the end of Blogtoberfest!  Really pleased that Karen persuaded me to take part and I shall definitely be carrying some ideas forward - I have had a lot of fun with the Buy it & Use it, Out of the Drawer and Pin-spiration themes.  A big thanks to Michelle for running it.
Today I am off to the retreat run by A Trip Down Memory Lane in Suffolk - the journey is supposed to take 2 hours, but I have never managed it in that time!  Here is what I am taking with me, somehow my good intentions of packing light this time just didn't happen......

Looking forward to a weekend of crafting and catching up with everyone I know :-)

Christmas preparation: Mincemeat, part two

Oops!  I forgot that I had shown the first step, but not the finished jar!  When it's matured for a while, I will be using it to make Delia's Christmas Mincemeat cake.  The recipe from her original Christmas book does not appear to be online, the similarly-titled one on her website requires pre-soaking of fruit and has some different ingredients.  For this original version, you literally add mincemeat to the cake-y ingredients (flour etc), mix and bake.  If you can get hold of the book, I would recommend it highly just for this recipe - borrow it from a friend if you have to!

Just for good measure, I have started two more fruit vodkas - blueberry (left) and blackberry :-)

These should be ready to strain and drink just before Christmas.  That should give me enough time to find some nice bottles..... LOL

Cross stitch in progress 2

Here is the fortnightly update on my current cross stitch project.  I took the photo in the car, thinking that daylight would be helpful, but it was so dismal outside that those trees still look more black than green!

I do have a slight concern with this project - the instructions say the finished design is about 17" long, so I have used a 21" wide piece of fabric.  This should leave 2" at each end, right?  However the tree at the farthest left will fit, but with only half an inch to spare which could affect framing.  I haven't counted out the trees to the right hand side yet, and I do know that I started slightly left of the fabric centre ..... but not by that much!  The middle tree, incidentally, is the one which is currently showing as second from the right :-)

So I have started a few stitches for each of the tree trunks, to see what the spacing is.  I didn't quite get them all done this morning.  I don't think I can just take one tree out of the design, that would leave eight and odd numbers are more pleasing to the eye!  So I would have to take it down to seven, maybe doing the remaining two as separate pieces, thus making a tryptich to hang on the wall!  We shall see......

Birthday card - Butterflies

First, the good news - my Stampin' Up parcel has arrived and the contents are spread all over the dining room table!  Ten stamp sets, seven punches, two embossing folders and one die set - wow!  I have tested the punches and christened one of the stamps, so far :-)

Now for today's card.  I bought this Authentique paper pad because it looked really nice online, but I was really disappointed when it arrived, I didn't like it at all.  So I am trying to use it up on card-making! 

I embossed a plain sheet with a dotty embossing folder and cut a square to place an image on.  The Memory Box dies are recent purchases, Crafts U Love had the background die on their weekly special a while ago, then a couple of weeks ago the outline came on special too!  I cut the butterfly background from a spotty paper to echo the embossing and then the outline with a plain colour, using Stick It for the outline and this worked brilliantly.  The, ahem, unusual corners are due to the fact that I picked up a corner rounder rather than the intended inverted corner punch..... having made the mistake on the first corner, I went all the way round and then tried out the inverter on the rounded corner to see what happened.  It's not bad, but I don't plan to do it again LOL.

I am really pleased with this card even though I still don't like the paper!!   These butterfly dies are going to be very useful.

Beat the Christmas Rush - October

Oh my goodness ..... I haven't done this challenge since May!!
It also counts as a Buy it & Use it and an Out of the Drawer, so value for money today!

First, the cards - Two more cards with the Memory Box text die, but they also use something new .....

And two more which use an Impression Obsession die, bought sometime ago - these also use something new .....

The 'new' item is a sheet of adhesive developed especially for die-cutting, to enable the most intricate cuts to be self adhesive.  You may recall a while ago I had trouble with a delicate die here, well I think this will be the answer!  It's called Stick It, I bought mine from Craft Obsessions - who have made an instructional video here - but other retailers are stocking it too. So far, it is living up to the promise :-)

Now, this was not actually my planned blog post for today.  What I had hoped to share with you was my bumper parcel of Stampin Up goodies, which I was expecting on Friday or Saturday, so that I could spend a happy weekend playing .... unfortunately they haven't arrived yet!  Fingers crossed LOL.

Christmas preparation: Mincemeat, part one

I haven't made this mincemeat for a couple of years, because I have discovered that Waitrose's all-butter mince pies are much better than the ones I make :-)  I do also use it to make a Christmas cake, but last year I had enough left to be able to do that.  Now that I have finally run out, I need to make another batch!

This is Delia's mincemeat recipe, which you can find here.  I miss out the almonds because I don't like nuts and I also peel the apples - she says you don't have to, but I don't like the little bits of peel in my teeth LOL.  I also can't recommend her suggestion that veggie suet is just as good, because the result is just horrendous and I had to throw it away.  Other peoples' experience may differ, of course ...... :-)

Here are all the ingredients mixed up and ready for the oven:

 

It'll take some time to cool enough to pot up, so I'll share the finished result with you tomorrow.  In the meantime, my house smells wonderful :-)

Stamped background sheet

I made this at the crop a couple of months ago, but didn't get around to blogging it.  It started in the usual way, with distress inks smooshed over the base and a crackle stamp randomly applied.  Then I over-stamped with various medallions from a Stampin Up set and added some gold swirls from another stamp set which happened to be in my crop bag!

I am not sure what to do with it yet, but I don't think it needs cutting into smaller pieces for cards etc as the pattern is quite large and would be lost.  So I will probably use it as a whole sheet for the base of a layout.