RECIPE: Harissa and Lemon Chicken with Sticky Onions and Spring Onion CousCous

This was something I cobbled together last night and we enjoyed so much I thought I'd write down and share the recipe. I used a small chicken crown, available from some supermarkets, but you could use individual joints, or a small whole chicken. Adjust the cooking time to suit - the onions are very forgiving and will be happy with a bit more or less cooking.

Ingredients (to serve 2)

1 small chicken crown
1 tbs harissa paste
juice of 1 lemon (I used just half of one of those huge Sicilian lemons, which are far more juicy)
2 medium onions, sliced
2 tbs sunflower oil
1 tbs pomegranate molasses
100g couscous
130ml  boiling water
2 tsp olive oil
large pinch of salt
small knob of butter
6 spring onions, including green parts, finely sliced
4 large sprigs parsley. chopped
green salad to accompany

Heat oven to 200C (180 Fan)/400F/Gas Mark 6
Choose a small non-stick roasting tin, or line a conventional roasting tin with foil.
Toss the onions, sunflower oil and pomegranate molasses together and spread in the bottom of the tin. Place the chicken on top, skin side up, and rub all over with the harissa paste. Drizzle over the lemon juice, allowing any left over to trickle down into the onions.
Place in the hot oven and cook for 40-45 minutes until chicken is cooked.

Meanwhile, put the couscous into a saucepan and add the boiling water, olive oil and salt. Stir, cover and leave for 15 minutes. When the chicken and onions are ready,  add the butter to the couscous and heat gently over a low heat, breaking up the lumps very gently with a fork, until piping hot, and then stir in the spring onions and parsley.

Remove the chicken from the oven, take it off the top of the onions and carve or joint. Add a little (about ½ cup) hot water to the pan and stir to make the onions into a sticky "sauce". Bring to the boil, stirring and scraping with a wooden spoon to scrape up the caramelised juices and dissolve as much as possible in the sauce.

Serve the chicken with the couscous and the sticky onion sauce, accompanied by green salad.

WhoooOOOooo Loves You?

This entire card was inspired by a lovely piece of owl-patterned paper I found in my snippets box. So where is the paper? Well, when I test-assembled the card everything looked right together EXCEPT the paper that inspired it in the first place!

All the papers came from my snippets box (and one of them went back in again!) and the scrap of ribbon from my bulging ribbon snippets bag. The owls-on-a-branch are actually a really cute button I bought recently - I have several more to play with. Perhaps next time I really WILL use one with that owl paper! But for now I'm going to head over to the Snippets Playground to share this

Shaker Cards at Cardz 4 Guyz.

This week at Cardz 4 Guyz we'd like to see your Shaker Cards - and don't forget to make them suitable for a man!

Now shaker cards of all types are very fashionable at the moment, but I have a big confession to make. I don't like them. I don't like them to look at - if I've ever made a nice comment on one of your own shaker cards, it will have been because there was something other than the shaker element that I liked - and I hate making them. Which of course means that I have very little to hand in the way of suitable supplies for them.

However a rummage through my stash yielded these tiny black and cream buttons, so small that I've never been able to find a use for them, and I thought the wheels of the penny farthing bicycle would complement the roundness of the buttons, especially when mounted on top of a round shaker.

Not one of my greatest cards, but proof that however limited your supplies, a resourceful crafter can usually come up with something.  With hindsight, I should have distressed the edges of the backing paper, or at least inked them a bit, and added more embellishments, but all I could think was "Shaker, shaker!".
I'm sure you are all much, much better at making shaker cards than I am, so why not pop over to Cardz 4 Guyz and show us what you can come up with.

I'm sharing this with Craft Rocket Challenge - Spots and/or stripes

Glittering dragonflies

I must confess to a bit of a shopping spree at the craft day I went to on Saturday. I bought several colours each of Alchemy Waxes, Sparkle Medium and Starlight Paint, and a selection of stencils to use with them.

However for my first Sparkle Medium make, rather than a new stencil I used a very old brass one that I've hardly ever used. The sparkle is perfect for the dragonflies, and the lovely raised texture makes it look as if they are fluttering over the surface of the card.

A hint of colour from watercolour pencils and a simple stamped sentiment (one of the very first stamps I bought, around 20 years ago!) are all that it needed to finish the card without detracting from that sparkle. Have you noticed that nowadays I often make one layer cards from choice, rather than groaning when I see it as part of a challenge? Is it a sign that my CAS-ability is growing up?

I would like to share this with

Less is More - Use something tactile (that raised glitter surface is VERY tactile!)
Retro Rubber - Summertime - what could be more summery than dragonflies dancing over a lily pond in the morning sunshine?
CAS on Sunday - Thank You

Rudolph Day in July

It's the 25th of the month- Rudolph day again! After 6 months on the DT, it seems strange to be a "civilian" again! Here's today's Christmas card

I used the second half of a Kanban topper sheet - I think I used the first half about a year ago - and Debbie Moore's quick and easy stepper card technique. The embossed card is from Hunkydory. It might score quite adorably but I'm afraid it doesn't cut very prettily, leaving a rather harsh white edge.

I am sharing this with

Rudolph Days at Scrappymo's, of course - pop over there to share YOUR Christmas card and join in the fun, but be quick as it only runs from today until July 31st!
52 Christmas Card Throwdown - 2 or more folds
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - add a sentiment

Crafting in Camberley

Well, actually it was Heatherside but then the alliteration wouldn't have worked!

Back in the Spring, one of the make-and-take sessions I really enjoyed at the Make It show was a stencilling session with B J Crafts, so when a Facebook friend told me she was organising a workshop with them for her craft group, and invited me to join in, I was absolutely delighted. The workshop took place only a few miles from my home and was held yesterday, on July 23rd.

Jean and Bob from BJ crafts had driven all the way from Kings Lynn with a van packed with goodies, it was like a mobile craft shop! (Oh, wouldn't that be every crafter's dream - to hear the music on a van chiming each day and rush out to it, to buy not ice creams but craft supplies! I wonder what tune they would play?) and by the start time of 10am the room was set up with our first project pack and we were ready to go.

The first project involves stencilling a pretty butterflies and daisies design onto both patterned paper and acetate, to make a bow-fronted card. The stencilling medium is Imagination Crafts Sparkle Medium, which gives a beautiful texture as well as intense sparkle. Being inexperienced with stencils, I was amazed at how little of the medium was needed to give such a lot of texture, but under Jean's expert guidance, I soon got the knack. We were shown how to mask off the stencil so that the colours didn't overlap and given tips for getting the colour into those tiny holes for the daisy centres.

The acetate bows out at the front, but untucks from the right hand border to lie flat for posting. I am sharing this card with Ooh La La Creations - add some texture

Our next card was very similar to the one I had made at the make-and-take, a design stencilled using the beautiful alchemy waxes. This time instead of spreading the colour with a spatula, we dabbed it on using cut and dry foam. The colours blended beautifully and the butterfly, coloured with Starlight Paints, adds extra dimension to the card. I chose very girly colours, to make a change from the green/gold/brown shades I normally make a beeline for.

I am sharing this with
Cardz 4 Galz - No patterned paper
Uniko Studions challenge - Flowers  

More stencilling followed, this time a Christmas make using white Stardust Paint on black semi-glossy cardstock. The wall was very lightly stencilled, the image more heavily so and then cut out and raised up over the background with silicon glue.

I am sharing this with
Crafty Gals Corner - Christmas in July
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge - Christmas

After a short break to eat our packed lunches, we moved on to some stamping. I don't think Jean had expected that in a room full of experienced crafters, there wouldn't be a single person who had ever used the Rockablocks system before, so there was some pretty intensive teaching to be done! Once we all had our stamped and embossed images, we used a water pen filled with bleach to remove some of the colour from the flowers and then used a spray can filled with bleach to create a mottled background - the backgrounds on both cards are made from a single sheet of card that started out the darker coloured part of the image. I went a bit OTT with the spray on my coneflower card and removed almost all the green from the background! I've tried bleaching card before, without success. Apparently it's been because I've been trying to use posh thick bleach instead of the cheapest thin kind.

I am sharing the blue card with Creative with Stamps - Ink Splatters (I hope BLEACH splatters count!)


Our final card - but not our final project - was made using delicate printed rice papers, some real sea shells, a cute little anchor coloured with Stardust Paint and some "fishing net" which was cut from the packaging of the shells. It's given me a great idea for a way to use some of the decoupage papers that I never seem to be able to find a use for!

Eventually it was, sadly, time for our last project of the day, and this time we moved right away from cardmaking and stencilled a canvas bag, using Stardust Textile Paints. These are machine washable, once fixed with by ironing (Oh dear, that means I'm going to HAVE to do the ironing now!) so can be used to decorate clothing, table linen, cushions.... the list is endless.

I'm sharing this with Allsorts Challenge - Anything But a Card

And here I am, in the middle, with two of my Facebook friends, showing off our finished bags.

After a few photos, it was time to leave - but not without doing a bit of shopping first! All our materials for the day were provided, with each project made up into individual bagged kits. We all got the same materials to work with - yet everyone's finished results were different as we all added our own colour choices and finishing touches. We were also given a very generous goody bag to bring home, as well as one of the stencils we had used, and there was a raffle with one lucky lady winning a bundle of goodies worth as much as we had paid for our tickets. And there was a great discount on any shopping we did too!

As you can see in this photo, Bob and Jean worked very hard all day. Bob kept everyone supplied with tea, coffee, water, biscuits and funny stories, while Jean is a very attentive and inspiring teacher who kept us all working hard - all those projects were completed in the space of 6 hours!

This was the first of the BJ Crafts Roadshow Workshops, but they are hoping to organise more, so if you would like to book one for your craft group, or find out if there is one already planned for your area, you can find all the details on their website. The cost per person will depend on how many people there are, their ability (skilled crafters will get through more projects - and that means more materials - than beginners), how far Jean and Bob have to travel and, probably most importantly, the cost of hiring the venue. I can thoroughly recommend it as a great day out, lots of fun and packed with ideas and inspiration for everyone from an absolute beginner to an experienced crafter. [I promised Jean I would include this plug - partly because they worked so hard they really deserves the praise, and partly because I'd love to see them head over this way again then I can do it all over again!]

We're having a heatwave....

... a tropical heatwave....

Well, actually, it's almost over now, but wouldn't it be lovely to be cooled by a sea breeze when the weather is scorching hot? It was this week's hot spell that tempted me to make this tropical island themed card, using a selection of dies from the X-Cut Nautical set (now discontinued, probably because the wording cuts back to front!), with clouds from the X-cut Baby Icons set, a Tattered Lace sentiment and a punched sunshine.

I am sharing this with

Addicted to Stamps and More - Holiday
Dies R us - Water and/or beach
Cuttlebugmania - Summertime  

A day out with newly met old friends

Yesterday I was lucky enough to meet the lovely Darnell from djkardkreations who is over visiting the UK at the moment, along with a group of fairly local craft bloggers, many of them very well known, at a hotel in Southampton. We met up for lunch despite a rather late arrival from me and Sue from Zouave Cards as we got stuck in a massive traffic jam, and spent several hours talking, eating and laughing. But mostly laughing!!! Ladies, Darnell is just as warm and witty in real life as she is on her blog, and although Hammy couldn't be there in person he sent along something to remember him by, which I won't reveal as I know  that dozens of you who may be reading this will be meeting up with Darnell over the next few weeks.

I'll not list who was there and tell you all about the day, as Darnell has already done so here    but I have copied the group photo to give you an idea of the day

I wanted to take along a little something for Darnell, but was worried that if everyone she meets was to take her  a gift, she'd never be able to get everything home, so I thought it had better be something consumable. And what could be more consumable than chocolate? So I got a bar of our most famous British chocolate, the one that is so very different from any available in America. being a crafter, of course, I had to alter it - and I decided for a change to do it portrait -oriented rather than landscape as chocolate wrappers tend to be.

The panel die is a tattered Lace one and the dragonfly a Spellbinders one, all cut using  bits from my snippets box. The pearlescent paper used for the underneath layer of the dragonfly's wings is a very old scrap left over from a kit I had a few years ago - it was tiny but I knew it would come in handy one day!

I would like to share this with Use Your Stuff where this week's theme is Die Cuts/Punches

Make Us Smile at Cardz 4 Guyz

This week I have chosen the theme at Cardz 4 Guyz  and I would like you to Make Us Smile.

My card is made using the image Weekend Walter from Dr Digis, coloured in with Promarkers. And with those greying underpants, I just HAD to use this sentiment from a Dylusions set! I've attached the image to the backing layers using screw-headed brads, to imply that Walter really ought to be getting on with some DIY instead of  slobbing around with his tea and newspaper!

 

I am sharing this with

 

Craft Rocket Challenge - Anything Goes 

Glitter'n'Sparkle - Anything Goes 

Naughty or Nice - Anything Goes

And a partridge in a pear tree.....

I've been having a sort out of my Christmas stash box, which was threatening to get completely out of control, and found this stamp that hasn't seen ink for years. It's an old unmounted red rubber one from a grab bag, so I don't know anything about its origins.

The backing paper is from one of my favourite pads, DCWZ Stack 9, and the sentiment was part of a magazine freebie kit that also surfaced during my clear out. I chose the colours of the image to match the snowflakes on the sentiment.

I am joining in with

Just Add Ink where I've used this week's sketch

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Cute or ATG
52 Christmas Card Throwdown - 12 Days of Christmas  
Sparkles Monthly Challenge - Christmas in July

Pink daisies

OK, OK, last post for today, I promise! After all, the grandchildren have gone home now so I'm no longer being "forced" to craft with them (not that it takes much forcing, especially when the alternative is to read them "Six Dinner Sid" for the 350th time).

When I was looking out the dandelion clock stamp to recreate my duvet cover yesterday, I also spotted this lovely big daisy stamp, bought from Just For Fun in the same batch, that I haven't used for years and lifted it out again to play with.

I had recently seen this on Pinterest:
https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/54465476722957168/ 
And really wanted to give it a try but in a completely different way. This was the result:

Although there's a lot going on here, I've kept it CAS by making it into a one layer card and only adding black stamping and white gel pen to the pink background. I think the same layout would also look good stamped on white card and coloured in, with the central panel matted and layered, but it would no longer have the CAS look I was aiming for.


I am sharing this with
Less Is More  - Repetition 
Fantasy Stampers - Clean And Simple
Crafters Café - CAS

Classic Car

Sorry to be deluging you with blog posts today, but I've had the grandchildren to stay and that has meant me doing a crazy amount of crafting, because if I'm doing it at the same time as them, they get to look through and even use the Good Stuff that I don't let them have when they are doing it without me. So I've ended up having several hours of solid crafting, broken only by "Grandma, can you help me to tie this bow/choose some paper/spell that word?"

If any of my choices of style and/or colour seem a little off-key today, please bear in mind that a four year old and a seven year old were heavily involved in all my decision making processes!

Anyway, on with the latest card. I recently managed to get hold of some discontinued Linda Luckin stamps that were produced back in 2008, and I've used one of them for this card. My original plan was to stamp the classic car, mask it and then stamp the trees and colour the background, but the windows made it too tricky to mask and I wanted to be sure the background scene showed through them, so after a couple of failed attempts I made the background then stamped the car separately and fussy-cut it. I always find cutting "inny" parts like the windows leaves slightly untidy edges, however careful I am, so I went round each opening with the red Promarker I had used for the car paintwork.

The background is from a very old K & Company pad and the flashcards are Tim Holtz Idea-ology ones. The cogs are cut with docrafts X-cut dies.

I am sharing this with

Sweet Stampin Challenge - Wheels 
Planes, Trains and Automobiles at the Lunagirl Moonbeams blog and website

Broken crayons

I think at the moment we are all feeling a little broken - worry about what is going on in the world, here in the UK worry about the future of our country and who will be leading us into it, even worry about what is happening to the weather - and it's worth remembering that most of us can still get on with our lives and make the most of them, whatever  part of the bigger picture we find ourselves in.

This sentiment, from the Dylusions stamp set "How about never" is perfect for a "cheer up" card to somebody feeling a little blue. Not for somebody going through a major life crisis or suffering from serious depression, it is too frivolous for that, but for the postal equivalent of sending a hug.

The "crayons" are just 1cm strips of coloured card, "broken" in random places by chopping them with deckle edged scissors (ably assisted by my granddaughters).

I am sharing this with

ADDICTED TO CAS - Stripes 
CAS- ology - Art

Bright Butterfly

I've had a good rummage in the snippets box for this card, as I am pretty sure there's a scrap of actual denim-effect card in there, but I couldn't find it. However I did come up with a piece of denim-blue card so I've used that instead, with some scraps of bright orange to give a bold contrast.

The background is embossed with a Crafters Companion folder and the leaves cut with a Spellbinders Sprigs die. The orange butterfly is a printed die cut from Craftwork cards - it was white, but I coloured it with an orange Promarker.

I didn't have enough of the denim blue card to cut the Cuttlebug butterfly for the lower of the two butterflies, so I cut it from white card. None of my blue inks matched the paper, but by blending over a mixture of Broken China DI and Violet Haze Cosmic Shimmer I got a lighter shade of a very similar colour, which probably looks better than having it all the same shade.

I am sharing this with

Butterfly Challenge - D for Dimension and/or Denim
Pixie's Snippets Playground - week 238

Inspired by the duvet cover

I have often thought the print on the duvet cover in our guest bedroom would make a good card design, so when Shopping Our Stash announced their current challenge of Get Inspired By Your Bedding I knew I had to give it a try. I'd been trying to work out a way to make it when the new Allsorts challenge, of Frame It!, was announced,  and then the vague idea that had been floating around in my head clicked firmly into place.

I made a background by lightly scribbling pink and blue bands onto watercolour paper, using watercolour pencils, then blending them into rough stripes with a wet brush. When it was dry I stamped all over with a tiny dandelion clock stamp (I got this years ago from an American company called Just For Fun - I don't know whether they are still around). Then I cut a triple-window frame: I don't have a die for this so it involved a lot of measuring and calculations.

The frame is applied over the background with 2mm foam pads. The finished card had no real focal point, so I added a sentiment on layered die cut circles.

and here is the bedding that nspired it

GDT at Inkspirational

Today there's a new challenge at Inkspirational and I am delighted that I have been asked to be the guest designer. The challenge is a photo inspiration, and this is the fab photo:

I've gone with the chocolate and cream colour scheme, using a DP from a V&A museum pad for the background, to represent the trailing floral garlands, with the London stamp from Tim Holtz's Cityscapes set. I was delighted to find out recently that Crafty Ribbons have a ribbon that uses the same images, perfect to use with these stamps!

I stamped the image and sentiment onto card that is actually some recycled packaging. It must have a coating of some kind as even after several hours the ink was still wet, so I had to emboss it, which hadn't been part of the master plan!

These are a girl's best friend at Twofers

There's a new challenge today at Twofers, and this time we have chosen the theme These are a Girl's Best Friend. I know the song says that diamonds are a girl's best friend, but what do YOU think it is?

Well, so many of my friends have been affected by breast cancer that I think without a doubt, our breasts are our best friends, and need to be cared for. They can be decorative (or not, in my case!), they can feed our babies, they can even act as buoyancy aids, but we need to remember to check them to make sure all is well with them. A few years ago I had a close escape myself, but thanks to checking it was discovered and dealt with immediately.

So my card today serves as a reminder to "check 'em". I've used die cut circles for the boobs and bra, cutting off part of the bra circles and stamping them using a Kanban lace background stamp.

The lace trim and straps are stamped with a dovecraft Curiosity Corner stamp. The sentiment is stamped using letter stamps from a toy stamping set that one of my now grown-up daughters had as a small child - I KNEW they would come in handy one day!

And as promised, I'm heading back to Naughty or Nice with this as my Naughty entry for this month's Anything Goes challenge. You can't get much naughtier than a pair of boobies - well,  you can, but not on a blog that's open to all ages!!!

Monkey Business!

Today's card was inspired by this super monkey-design ribbon from Crafty Ribbons. It made me think of the little monkey stamp and Cheeky Monkey sentiment from an old Woodware set that has been a favourite of mine for many years. I stamped the image and some bananas and coloured them in with Promarkers.

The background uses outline and solid leaf stamps from a recent new release Uniko set. I stamped them slightly offset because when I did some test stamping I thought they looked rather more fun like that than properly aligned, and as the image and ribbon are such fun designs they seem to work best that way.

I would like to join in with:

Alphabet Challenge - J for Jungle Animals
Addicted to Stamps - Make Your Mark
Use your stuff - Fruit and/or veg
Fab 'n' Funky - Add a Sentiment   

Mice on the beach

Afternoon all. My internet connection has been on and off all day, so I'm trying to post this quickly before it goes again, so no waffle from me today except to say that this card uses images, borders and paper from the Creative Crafting World CD  "Through the year with Seraphina"

I am sharing this with

CD Sundays - Summer Vacation
Glitter and Sparkle - Easel cards

Christmas in July at Cardz 4 Guyz

This week at Cardz 4 Guyz we're thinking ahead to Christmas, because it's time for our Christmas in July challenge.

I've used this fun "Santa Selfie" image from Dr Digi's House of Stamps, which I printed out 24 hours in advance to prevent smudging then coloured in with Promarkers. I had planned to colour the braces a more realistic dark grey, then I remembered the classic cracker joke:

Why does Santa wear red braces?

To keep his trousers up!

Well, of course after that they HAD to be red, didn't they?

The sentiment is a Dylusions stamp that seems very suitable for Christmas in July, and the backing paper a very old freebie from Craft Creations. The snowflake border is a self adhesive felt one that was a gift from a friend.

 

I am sharing this with:

 

Christmas Card Challenges - Snowman 

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - July Anything Goes 

Christmas Cards All Year Round - Anything Goes 

   

When life gives you lemons.....

There's a saying, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade", that often appears on handmade cards. In fact I have a stamp of it myself. But I find it a little bit twee for the kind of person I might be sending a card to, so I was delighted to get a sheet of sentiment stamps from Rubber Dance that put a rather different angle on the phrase. I knew the time for its first inking had come when I saw that over at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers this week, Edna wants us to use the theme B is for Booze - a theme that really speaks to me!

I have combined with a background of lemons stamped with the Hero Arts "Stamp Your Own Salad" set.

I am sharing this with

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - B is for Booze
Sweet Stampin' - Sentiment as Focus
House of Cards - Fruit, Drink and/or Colours

Festive Buttons

Here's another card made using the lovely Christmas buttons I treated myself to. And I enjoyed making this weekend's V-fold card so much I made another. I like the idea of using the V panel to display a Christmas tree, because you get the balance of an upward triangle against a downward one. Maybe that's just the mathematician in me speaking!

The papers were from a Christmas magazine, I think it was Crafters Companion, a couple of years ago.

I am sharing this with Winter Wonderland - Cute and/or Christmas Tree 

Stocking up for Christmas

The other week I bought a pack of really gorgeous Christmas buttons, including some beautiful stockings, and I wanted to showcase one of them as the main feature of a card, so I made this diamond-fold card - again using my Hougie board - so it would really stand out.

 

The card is a small 4" one, perfect for using up some tiny but too-nice-to-throw-away snippets of Christmas paper and mirri

 

I am sharing this with

 

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Purple 

Pixie's Snippets Playground - week 237   

A Blue Christmas

After making a couple of fancy-fold cards in styles I was already familiar this week, I thought I'd learn a few more, so I've had my Hougie board and accompanying books out to play. The fold I've used for this card is called a V-fold or Art Deco style fold.

The ribbon is actually really glittery - but as usual the sparkle doesn't show on the photo.

I am sharing this with 52 Christmas Card Throwdown where this week it's a colour challenge

Happy Birthday Emma!

Today it's the birthday of my older daughter, Emma. She was immensely cheered this morning when her 4 year old daughter burst into the bedroom and said "Happy birthday Mummy - you're 37 now and that means you're going to die soon!"

Every year, I make her a sunflower themed card and this year was no exception. It's my first attempt at a cascade card, and I'm not going to enter it into any challenges as I carefully followed the instructions and measurements given in an old issue of Making Cards, right down to the positioning of the sunflowers, so although it's all my own work, it isn't my own design. But never fear, now I've mastered the technique I'll be making more of these.

Doesn't time fly when you are crafting?

Well, for me it does - I can lose all sense of time when I'm crafting. IN fact only today I was so engrossed I almost forgot to go out somewhere.

And what was I engrossed in? Making my card for this week's Less is More challenge, where it is one layer week with a theme of Time.

For this card I stamped the pocket watch and brackets, them masked them  and the top and bottom of the card off and stamped the "Time" background. Then I used a water brush to pick up a little of the ink from the words and lightly cover the uinmasked area, to create a band across the cards and give the words a slightly "unfocussed" look which helps the main image to stand out. Finally I added the "Tempus Fugit" (time flies) sentiment.

If you are making a card for this week's Less Is More challenge, and it includes some stamping and no digis, then perhaps you could consider also linking up to our Clocks and/or Time challenge at Twofers, as we only have two entries at the time of writing! The challenge runs until the 15th, and there is a prize of a $15 Alletsyamp voucher for our top pick.