Stamping and Colouring on Vellum at Back to Basics

This time at Back to Basics we would like to see some stamping and colouring on vellum.
The stamping is often done in white, to give a parchment craft effect, but I've recently seen several projects using gold embossing instead, and decided to give that a try.

I stamped and embossed the partridge in a pear tree image, a stamp that came with a recent issue of Creative stamping, using gold ink and gold detail embossing powder. Then I used Promarkers to colour the vellum on the reverse side. As you can probably see, the alcohol pens don't blend as well on vellum as they do on normal papers. 

I embossed the holly frame onto the card front and lightly sponged it with green ink, filling in the holly berries with a red gel pen, then used invisible glue dots specially made for vellum to attach the vellum panel.

Paint it Black

Having just posted one song-inspired card for the Allsorts Inspired by a Song Challenge,  here I am with another, rather off-the-wall one.  You can blame my Facebook friends for this - they dared me to make it!

The other night I was thinking about what to make for the challenge as I drifted off to sleep  - and woke up next morning with an earworm of the Rolling Stones song "Paint it black". So I jokingly posted on Facebook my idea of making an all-black card, and several of my crafting friends dared me to go ahead, so here it is:

 

I used Versamark ink and clear embossing powder for the sentiment, so it really is just a shiny version of the same shade of black as the inside.

 

But open the card and....

 

I covered the left inner panel with white card to give the sender somewhere to write.

April Showers

I've used a Clearly Besotted stamp set for this card - I masked off the umbrella and part of the card directly below it and then stencilled and sponged the rainy sky around it.

I am sharing this with
Sweet Stampin - Whatever the weather
Allsorts - Inspired by a song   (actually I know of TWO songs called "April Showers)

It's Rudolph Day

Happy Rudolph Day! And it's the last one of the year, because the 25th of next month is Christmas Day itself.

What could be more fitting to use for this month's card than the set of stamps I won in the September Rudolph Day challenge?

How did we manage bold, solid stamps like this in the days before stamping platforms? After stamping the baubles, I doodled in hanging threads using a glitter gel pen.

As well as playing along with this month's Rudolph Days  challenge at Scrappymo's I am sharing this with Less is More where the challenge is One Layer - Holiday.

Rudolph the VERY red-nosed reindeer

We've all seen them (or been there) in the run up to Christmas - red-nosed, hungover, bobble hat askew, bottle in hand, staggering through the park at dawn after a rather-too-good party the night before! But did you know reindeer do it too? Well, this one obviously does!

The reindeer and his hat and bottle are stamped and cut with the stamps and dies that came with a recent issue of Creative Stamping and I've used papers from the same issue. The sentiment is from the same set of stamps, cut with one of my trusty old Spellbinders labels dies.

I am sharing this with
Alphabet challenge - reindeer
Jingle belles - festive food and drink
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes   

RECIPE: Onion Loaf

Last year a branch of Miller & Carter opened near to us and I love eating there. I'm always fond of a steak, but what makes Miller & Carter stand out for me is the accompaniments, especially the wedge salad, that I've never had anywhere outside the USA before,  and the onion loaf which I've never had ANYWHERE  else.

On Friday night we were having steaks at home, so I googled to see if there were any "fakeaway" recipes for onion loaf out there. I found several, although they all seemed to be clones of the same one, which makes industrial-strength quantities and uses pancake mix. Pancake mix? There's no way I'm letting that darken my doorstep! So I had to make my own recipe up.

The resulting dish is much lighter and crisper than the M&C version, so I didn't succeed in actually recreating the recipe, but it's also very, very delicious. You'll probably need to go out for a 10 mile run to work off the calories though!

I used a smallish onion and it made enough for 4-6 Miller & Carter sized portions or 2-3 greedy person sized ones.

You will need
1 onion
1 egg
50ml milk
1 mug full of self raising flour
seasoning
oil for deep frying

Start well in advance - peel the onion, slice into rounds about 5mm thick and push out into rings. Beat the egg and milk together and place in a wide, shallow bowl. Add the onion rings and mix well so they are all costed in the mixture. Allow to stand for at least an hour, turning the rings in the mixture from time to time so they all absorb some of it.

Heat the oven to 220 C (200 fan), 450F, gas mark 8. Line a small loaf tin with non-stick paper.
Heat the oil in a deep fat fryer (I don't have one so I used a deep wok) and while it is heating, put the flour into a large plastic bag, add about ½ teaspoon each of salt and pepper and shake well. Then lift the onion rings out of the soaking liquid and drop them into the bag. Squidge it all around (that's a technical term, you know) until the rings are coated in flour then deep fry a few rings at a time until crisp and golden, draining them on absorbent paper as you go along.

When all the onion rings are cooked, pack any you have managed to protect from being snaffled (they ARE very tempting and will draw everybody into the kitchen) loosely into the lined tin and bake for about 15 minutes until really deep golden and crispy and lightly holding together.

I think to make it more like the dish I was trying to copy, I should have cut the slices thicker, cooked them for less time before putting them in the tin, and then pressed them down to stick together. However I actually prefer my version - they came out like a Western version of onion bhajis. I might try varying the seasoning next time I make this recipe - some hot smoked paprika in place of pepper would be incredibly yummy. I can just imagine a plate full of that with some aioli to dunk the rings in.

Blue and White at CD Sundays

Our latest challenge at CD Sundays is a colour challenge - Blue and White.

It's a colour combo that always makes me think of the Willow Pattern, and I've used a paper and topper from Joanna Sheen's old CD "Oriental Dreams" that reminds me very much of the Willow Pattern design.

I've added a die cut Oriental scene -  the die was a gift but I think it is also a Joanna Sheen one - and used matting and peel offs to "frame" the image. Incidentally if, like me, you have a huge stash of old peel offs from when they were popular 15-20 years ago, take great care if and when you decide to use them. I found that some of mine have gone very brittle and tend to break up when you remove them from the backing.

Incidentally did you know that the Willow Pattern itself isn't actually Oriental, although it is clearly inspired by it? It originated in England in the mid-19th century.