Day Care

This fortnight at CD Sundays the challenge is All Creatures Great and Small which of course sent me straight to the beautiful Design House CD, Meadow's Edge.

I decided to try one of the "side stacker with frame" image sheets. I'd not used one before and as you can see from the lower photo, it's a little bit strange as the outer edge of the frame waves about unsupported above the rest of the card. Maybe the intention is that you insert it, recessed, into an aperture card with the frame flush with the card, but that, of course, would leave you with the insert sticking out into the inside of the card.

Anyway, what it lacks in practicality it makes up for in prettiness! I've used one of the co-ordinating backing papers from the CD, plus the border and a tag from the image sheet and a die cut sentiment that just happens to fit the tag perfectly.

Sourdough "fattoush"

To begin with, apologies for the quality of the photo in this post, I hastily snapped it on my phone in rubbish light while I was in the middle of dishing up the meal.

When we go into any kind of Middle Eastern restaurant and order mezze style dishes, Fattoush is one of our must-haves. Yesterday I was putting together a fridge-and-freezer clearing meal of lamb kofte from the freezer, bulghur pilav, tsatziki and a tomato and cucumber salad, when I remembered the stump of sourdough bread in the bread bin. Not wanting to waste a crumb of the lovely bread, I decided to see if I could assemble something resembling fattoush which is normally made using flatbreads.

The version in the photo is rather bread-heavy, as we were very short of tomatoes and cucumber and only had half a shallot, but of course you can vary the proportions according to what you have available (and what you fancy). I didn't add any fresh herbs simply because we had none, but parsley, mint and coriander would all be delicious in this.

Ingredients

2 slices stale sourdough bread
¼ cucumber, diced
a handful of baby plum tomatoes, halved, or use larger tomatoes and chop them
½ a torpedo shallot, finely chopped, or a few slices of red onion
1 tsp dried mint
juice of 1 lemon
4 tbs olive oil

Heat the oven to a low to moderate heat - about 160 C, 325 F gas 3. place the bread on a baking tray and cook for around 10 minutes, turning once, until dry and crisp and beginning to brown. Break and tear into bite sized chunks and allow to cool.

Place the bread in a mixing bowl with the cucumber, tomatoes and shallots/onions, sprinkle over the dried mint and mix well.

Stir in the lemon juice and then the oil, mix well and leave to stand for around 30 minutes to allow the bread to absorb the dressing, stirring occasionally,

If you are adding fresh herbs, add them immediately before serving.

The lemon and oil dressing seems to emphasise the natural chewiness of the sourdough, making this a substantial and satisfying side dish.

I'm sharing this with the No Waste Food Challenge at Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary

A sprinkling of fairy dust

Today I'm heading over to the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers, where the new challenge is L for Legend.  Not just ancient Greek or Norse legends, but any kind of mythical or magical creature. So I decided to go for fairies, and printed out some papers, decoupage and a background from the La Pashe "Gnomes and fairies" CD to use with a stamped sentiment from one of the wonderfully snarky Dylusions sentiment sheets - this one is from "Say it how it is".

When the CD came out, a couple of years ago, La Pashe brought out special aperture cards to go with the decoupage, but I didn't get any. They had windows in the first two panels, instead of just the middle one, and a double score about 3mm apart for each fold. The idea is that the decoupage is double sided, so by adhering the acetate behind the centre panel, which becomes the front of the card, then using foam pads to attach the reverse panel to it, there could be decoupage on the BACK of the image while still allowing the card to close.

Anyway, since I had none, I rummaged through my stash and found one that had the double score lines but a closed in end panel, so I had to butcher it a bit to create the right effect. Hence any failure of edges to line up is entirely my fault.

THIS is why she looks so happy!

Stencilling again

You may remember that I recently combined stencilling with a stamped dragonfly in a CAS card, well, I liked the effect so much that I decided to play around with it again, this time going even more CAS and making a one layer card.

This time I stencilled directly onto the card using a Brilliance pad in Pearlescent Orchid, then overstamped it with the moth (a very old stamp from my collection - I think it came from the now-defunct Graphicus range although I believe another brand now produces the same image) and the sentiment (a magazine freebie) using Versafine in Smoky Grey. Some pink gems completed the look.

I am sharing this with:

CAS on Sunday - Stencil it
Creative Card Crew - CAS
Inkspirational - Pink & Grey
  

Teenage Kicks at Cardz 4 Guyz

It's time for our new challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz, and this week Julie has chosen Teenage Kicks.

I decided to take the theme very literally, with this martial art (I'm not sure WHICH martial art) themed pyramage topper and matching backing paper from the La Pashe CD "Something for Everyone". I've added an embellishment from the bargain bag I got at the Make It show. I think if you squint really hard, you might see that one of the participants could be a girl, but it's a popular sport with teenage boys and I think the bold background paper and strong red and black layers give the whole card a very masculine appearance.

We'd love it if you were to pop over to Cardz 4 Guyz and share YOUR take on the theme with us!

I'm sharing this with

Craft Your Passion Challenge - Anything Goes
Glitter 'n' Sparkle - Anything Goes
A Bit More Time To Craft - Anything Goes  

Unchained Melody

I'm not a film fan - it's 10 years since I last went to the cinema and probably almost as long since I watched a film on TV without getting bored and switching off after the first 10 minutes - I'd rather read a story in a book than watch it on a screen - so I was really REALLY challenged by this month's Naughty or Nice Challenge, which is At The Movies

However I printed out this Wrinklies recreation of the famous scene from Ghost decoupage from the CD "The best of La Pashe 2014" - and then spent a week wondering what the heck to do with it.

While picking out a paper for another project, I realised an old K & Company 12 x 12 pad had a sheet with a vintage movie theme, and at last things started to come together.

I used a 20cm square card. The background is a square of the paper, overstamped with the words "Movie star" at random. I fussy-cut the projector, film, tickets and popcorn sign from the paper and used them to finish the card once the decoupage was in place.

Whether this is naughty or nice depends on a couple of things - whether or not you see any symbolism in that pillar of clay drooping over like that, and whether, when watching the original film, you found That Scene rather *ahem* stimulating, or you couldn't really see it properly through your tears.

Vintage Santa

The current challenge at Jungle Belles is Spirit of Christmas Past so they want cards with a vintage feel about them. For me, Vintage Christmas always conjures up images of Victorian times, so I used papers from the 2013 Christmas Special issue of Making Cards, called Victorian Christmas. The images and papers are also available on Joanna Sheen's Victorian Christmas CD-ROM.

To add to the vintage feel, I've added lace, ribbon and doilies, and introduced some gold into the layering.