Butterfly duo

Where is this year going? It's already challenge number 5 at Twofers, I could swear it only started with the first one about five minutes ago!

There will, as always, be a brief pause here while I go and take a photo of my two cards together - something I forget to do Every Single Month.

The die I have used on both cards is the First Edition Layering Butterfly die, which I seem to be using on half the cards I make at the moment.

On the first card I cut it in light turquoise plain and dark turquoise patterned papers, and added a scrap of self-adhesive hessian, a stamped sentiment and some tiny paper flowers that have been in my stash for years. I knew they would come in handy some time!

I am sharing this card with

C.R.A.F.T. - Birthday
Watercooler Wednesday - All About Occasions

  

For the second card I cut the die in yellow and black and teamed it with two patterned papers from my stash and some pretty ribbon as well as a sentiment cut with an old Cuttlebug die. I thought the name of the die would be stamped on the metal, but unless it's called "Made in China" I must be wrong.

I used my Hougie Board to score those pleats - I'm far too messy to do that freehand!
I'm popping into the Butterfly Challenge with this card, for a second visit, this time using Harvest Gold and Hearts.

Veggie Good Friends

What, three posts in a day?
Make the most of it because you won't be getting one from me tomorrow, I'm waltzing off into London for a guided tour of Borough Market.

For this card I have used the Hero Arts "Stamp your own salad" set. The ground line is drawn with a fine liner along the edge of a deckle-edged tearing ruler. The watering can is cut with a die from the First Edition Garden set and I've used a clear sparkle gel pen to draw in a little water sprinkling from the spout.

I am sharing this with
Fab and Funky - Garden or Outdoors 
Country View Challenges - Be Humorous
Time Out Challenges - Quote

Yo! Ho! Ho!

I love the Clearly Besotted "Pirate Party" stamp set. I didn't get the matching dies as I quite enjoy the fussy cutting part of proceedings.

I coloured the images with Promarkers and used a scrap from an old SU pad for the "treasure map".

I am sharing this with

Addicted to Stamps and more - Anything Goes
CASology - Marine (well, you wouldn't have pirates without the sea, would you?)
CAS on Friday - Cute

While men were all asleep...

... the snow came falling.

I can't remember any more of the poem, sorry!

The die I have used was the cover mount on an issue of Die Cutting Essentials a year or two back. I cut it in white and dark blue, inlaying the dark blue sky into the white circle, then coloured the remaining spaces in with glitter for the snow and a fine marker for the doors and windows. The background squares are die cut with snippets from my festive stash.

I am sharing this with
52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Sketch


Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Bells or anything goes (I'm guessing there's a bell in the church tower!)
Jingle Belles - Buildings

Revisiting an old friend

I wonder how many times I have used this stamp? It's been in my collection for many years - the date on it is 2000 - and was made by Stampa Rosa who I don't think are around any more, and yet I never tire of it.

Today I have stamped it in black Versafine them embossed with clear powder, and coloured with watercolour pencils and a water brush. The background is embossed with a crafters companion folder to echo the text background of the stamp, and the sentiment stamp is one I won in the Playground two or three years ago. I've added butterflies cut with the First Edition Layering Butterfly die set. After assembling each butterfly I coloured the outer dots of the wings in red to match the colours I used on the stamped image.

I am sharing this with
Addicted to Stamps and More - Anything Goes
Butterfly Challenge - letter H - I chose heat Embossing and Hunter Green
Retro Rubber - Beautiful Flowers
Shopping Our Stash - Chanson papillon
Sweet Stampin' - Flowers   

Men's Hobbies at Cardz 4 Guyz

It's always a safe bet, when making a card for a man, to make something connected with one of his hobbies, which is why our new theme at the Cardz 4 Guyz challenge is Men's Hobbies.

Lots of men love fishing - in fact I believe that it's one of the most popular hobbies in the country. In fact lots of women love it too - I was a very keen sea-angler in my teens. So I have chosen this fishing tackle image and paper from the CD "The best of La Pashe 2014"

You can't really tell from the photos, but after assembling the decoupage I covered the lure with glossy accents to give it a realistic shine.

I am sharing this with Allsorts Challenge - Fancy Folds

Sort of paella-y thing

You may recall that last month we went for a holiday to Spain where it was very cold and poured with rain all the time. However we DID enjoy some delicious meals while we were there, and brought home some tins of pimenton (smoked paprika) from the local market. 

One of the dishes I loved was paella, but I can't make that for Mark as he is allergic to fish and seafood, gets an upset tummy if he eats peppers and doesn't like saffron (unless it's baked into a Cornish saffron cake!). However thanks to a fridge dive, I came up with a dish that most certainly isn't paella but  reminds me of it and is definitely delicious!

My fridge  dive produced

A cupful of leftover roast chicken scraps
Some stock made from the carcase
4 stalks of asparagus
half a tin of chickpeas
a third of a small chorizo
2 tomatoes

To that I added

1 tbs oil
150g paella rice (available from most supermarkets - you could use risotto rice instead but it gives a creamier texture)
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
about 50g frozen peas, defrosted
1½ teaspoons hot smoked paprika
½ teaspoon salt (omit if using bought stock)

This made two very generous servings.

First of all, chop the onion and dice the chorizo into small cubes. Cut the chicken into small bite sized pieced and the asparagus into pieces about 2-3 cm long. Drain and rinse the chickpeas, crush the garlic and chop the tomatoes quite roughly.

Heat the oil in a wide, shallow pan or lidded frying pan. Fry the onion gently for around 5 minutes, until it starts to soften, then add the chorizo and fry for about 3 minutes more until the red colour is released. Stir in the garlic and paprika and cook for another minute.

Add the rice, salt and around 350ml of stock. Bring to the boil and simmer very gently, uncovered, until the rice starts to soften - around 20 minutes. Keep an eye on the level of the liquid, adding more stock or water if it threatens to burn. After the first 10 minutes, stir in the chicken.

When the rice is almost cooked, add the asparagus, peas and chickpeas. Stir well, cover and continue to cook until the asparagus is tender - around 5 minutes (although mine was stubborn and took 10). Finally add the tomatoes and cook, stirring to prevent sticking, for another 2-3 minutes until starting to break down but not mushy. If there is any liquid remaining, give a quick blast of high heat to boil it off.

Serve immediately.

I'm linking up to Kitchen Clearout at Madhouse Family Reviews.