Try again...Help

Hello! I’ve been thinking about my blog for a while, feeling guilty because it’s so neglected! Truthfully though, I just seem to be unlucky with apps for blogging on my iPad, I did have a good one called Blogsy and then they got rid of it, so I need to know what other people who blog on iPad use, because I really do miss sharing my piccies and projects with you. So let’s see if I can make a successful post here...

Nope, not gonna work, I clicked on the icon to add picture (it looked like an icon to add picture, little mountains?) and it just says ‘focus the editor before applying any command’ ermmmmm ok?

So do you blog on iPad? What app do you use? Help...

Soul food Sunday, in a pickle....

It's still Sunday, just about, so a quick Soul food Sunday post is in order.

I'm struggling to get my head back in the Slimming World game, so in an effort to make things a bit more interesting I thought I'd try something different with my salad.

 

Tuna Mayo with Gherkins...

I used a tablespoon of light mayo mixed with lemon juice.

 

Add the tuna..

In brine though, not the oily one.

 

Then chop plenty of these puppies up and throw them in...they are not just tasty, but they are a speed food too!

 

Done!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Maria x

Charm meets Beauty

Good afternoon!

I thought I'd blog a step by step for the Groovi project I did on Hochanda yesterday, be rude not as I actually remembers to take pics!

 

Emboss 3 sides of the largest postage stamp, check picture to see where I stopped...

 

Move parchment along to extend the postage stamp into a rectangle 

 

Use the nested scalloped rectangle plate to add an internal frame

 

Using a spare piece of parchment, make a template for the stamp and postmark, use this to position the postmark first.

 

 

Now add the postage stamp

 

Emboss the head, torso, and lower leg from the Charm plate

 

Change over to the Beauty plate to put the skirt in place

 

Return to Charm, add the rest of the legs into place, fill in any gaps.

 

Add a couple of swirly ribbons

 

Use the straight Piercing grid https://claritystamp.com/products/straight-basic-piercing-grid-br-a5-squareto emboss two rows of dots as in picture.

 

Use 6mm and 4.5mm ball tools to add a little white work, rest between layers-the parchment not you.

 

To colour, mask off the inside frame and use Dorso Crayons and Dorso Oil to blend around the bottom edges. Use Pergaliners to colour the images.

 

To finish the piece, pierce and snip, or just cut around the scallops.

Cut a piece of paper from the Brighton Rock paper pad, needs to be the size of the inside frame.

Use brads to secure artwork and paper to an A5 card blank made from thick acetate.

 

 

Hope you like the project, I certainly enjoyed making it.

Thanks for stopping by

Maria x

Grey & Yellow, Less is More challenge

Good Morning!

While having an overdue look around blogland, I spotted a cool challenge over at  Less is More.

Grey and Yellow certainly takes me out of my comfort zone, but I had a little go anyway...

I used one of the mini flowers that come in the Flower Framer stamp set, a line sentiment stamp, and the heart stencil from the A5 Basic Backgrounds stencil set.

I lightly drew a heart in pencil, then using Shadow Grey Archival ink I stamped and masked the flowers. I brushed grey ink through the stencil heart and brushed yellow across the bottom of the card, coloured the flowers then stamped the sentiment, done!

That's all from me, thanks for popping in, have a great day.

Maria x

Is it working?

Hello!
Yes it's been a while, blogger very kindly locked me out of my blog over a year ago, and I'd not really had time to concentrate on finding out why and rectifying the issue. But out of curiosity this morning I tried to log in and if you can see this, then it appears to be working again....
Lots of things have happened since I last blogged, but where to start?? So while I think about that, and check things are working properly, I'll TRY and load a card....

This is (assuming it's visible) a nice quick monochromatic card we did in classes a couple of months ago using the lovely Snowdrop stamp from the Wildflowers set, from Clarity of course.

That's all for now!

Groovi Tuesday

Evening!

Yep late again...but I have been a busy girly.

So Groovi Tuesday then, I thought id show you a couple of panel designs, I love panels because they can combine a modern look with traditional or retro.

I felt I should be using all oranges and browns on these flowers, but the rebel in me said go for contemporary green, lilac, pink, so it doesn't look like it's come straight from 1975 in this one.

Change of shape and colours now...

This one is a little more retro, I like it!

I used

Funky Henna Groovi border

Half Tone Groovi border

Henna Borders Groovi border

Hope you like them!

See you soon.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Soul Food Sunday #6

Evening!

It's been a busy week, so bloggy has been a bit quiet, I didn't want to miss a Sunday foody post though.

I mentioned last week id show you another pudding/dessert.

One of my fave puds has always been rice pudding, so I figured out a Slimming World friendly version.

I used 65g pudding rice

Couple of spoons of sweetener, depending on your taste

500ml of unsweetened almond milk

Sprinkle of nutmeg

Cook in the oven for an hour

Because I have unsweetened almond milk for my healthy A, I can have a full litre each day, otherwise I would have to syn the milk for the pud.

Nice with some fresh strawberries or try mixing in half pot of muller light yogurt.

Try it!

Ok, I'll be back on Tuesday, I promise.

Thanks for stopping in.

Hugs!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Love is in the air....

Good Morning!

There's a new challenge over at Fantasy Stampers challenge blog.

The theme is Love is in the air, here's my design team inspiration...

I struggled with this theme a bit, because I don't have anyone to send a valentines card to, so I mainly ignore it and pretend I think it's a waste of time and just a ploy to get us to spend money....I'm such a ray of sunshine!

But actually it doesn't have to be about valentines day does it, there's the love of life, love of good and true friends, family,the dog, chocolate!

I also love Mica powder on black card, and my Arty Heart and Leafy Swirl Claritystamps.

You have almost 2 weeks to join in the challenge, so pop over and see what the other design team members made to inspire you.

Thanks for stopping by.

Peace and LOVE!

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Soul Food Sunday #5

Evening!

Better late than never eh?

I have quite a few pics of SW friendly food ideas to show you already, for today I chose some comfort food, you know when you need to feel you've eaten something naughty.

I can't eat this myself this week though because I'm on SP for a week,so only speed food and protein, if it works well then I'm in with a chance of reaching my 8 stone target on Thursday, I'd like that...

 

So I think I'll call this Comforting Fried Potatoes

I sliced some tinned new potatoes, celery, red onion and bacon, threw it in the frying pan with Frylight spray, added a sprinkle of paprika and chives. Fry for 5 minutes.

 

Add a good portion of sliced mushrooms and fry for a further 5 minutes to brown the spuds.

That's it, done!

I did tell you I only do easy food.

Next week I think we'll have another pudding dish.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Finish it Friday #lost count!

Hello!

Thanks for popping in, it's time for Finish it Friday, except that I can't remember what week I'm on....

So, out of the little box of abandoned bits, I plucked these..

I thought the sprayed piece was too dark to stamp on, for my taste anyway, so I thought I'd just use it as a background piece, the poppies were done with gold texture paste, the apertures were left over from a class, and swirls just seem to multiply in my house!

And this is what I did, the red swirl was too big so I opted for the smaller cream one.

I resisted the urge to put some text on because I don't know what I'm gonna use it for yet.

That's it for me today, I'll be back tomorrow with a new challenge at Fantasy Stampers.

Happy Friday!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Workshop Wednesday #1

Afternoon!

As there was no Groovi Tuesday this week, we need a Workshop Wednesday instead, usually it will just be a little peek at a project I've done in a workshop, past or present, but as today is the first one we'll have a step by step...

Grab your Lapwing stamps ready and a piece of Clarity stencil card.

Using Cobalt archival ink, stamp the lapwings in place, take note of where the big fella is at the bottom, cover the birds with masks. Put a border of low tac tape around all four sides and put a moon mask in place.

Prepare your Brayer with Clover adirondack ink

Brayer the sky, then the bottom area too, leave a nice band of white through the middle though.

Using the Tangle stencil and clarity brushes, add a little texture to the bottom area only, just sweep gently in one direction from the bottom of the stencil upwards.

Remove the moon mask and replace with the aperture part instead, gently add a little weathered wood ink along one side of the moon.

Remove all masks and masking tape.

Use a marker or pencil to add shade to the birds, note, I used an alcohol marker even though I stamped with archival, I was very very careful not to touch the stamped line art with the marker or it could make it bleed and ruin my pen.

Terrible shadow on this pic, sorry!

The finished one is a bit better, but I'll never be a photographer.

Hope you like it, the class did once they got over the fear of the Brayer, funnily enough Barbara mentions fear of the Brayer on her blog today, Dave's strategy made me laugh!

Thanks for stopping by, hopefully see you Friday for another piece of bodged artwork from heartbreak corner.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Soul Food Sunday #4. A day in the life..

Hi there, thanks for popping in.

I'm asked a lot on FB to post what I eat, so today instead of showing you one idea, I thought id show you a whole day.

So the day I chose started with breakfast, wierdly enough...

That little lot contains 1/2 a syn for the HECK Paprika sausages.

Onto lunch...

Potato skins stuffed with tomato, mushrooms, peppers, little fat free cottage cheese, topped with chives and grilled. Zero syns!

Dinner next...

Sweet n Sour chicken, this is a syn free Slimming World recipe, it is seriously nice, I could have had boiled rice with it, but I just wanted to eat it on it's own.

So up to now I've had 1/2 a syn out of my allowance, which means I can eat alllllllll of this too...

And if I was hungry in between I can eat tons of fruit, muller light yogurt.

Drinks?

I can have plenty of tea and coffee if I use my milk allowance, couple of diet cokes, diet bitter lemon.

So that's my day! I feel full just looking at the pics.

Enjoy your Sunday.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy