My Creative Space - A New Blog Look

I have a new obsession. (I know, like I need another one of those.)But, I felt it was necessary to learn. Digital scrapbooking. I love it. I mean LOVE it. I do not love it more than traditional scrapbooking, I am too, tactile to give that up. But, for things like blog design, holiday cards, business graphics etc. This is brilliant. It took me two days to get to where you see the header and buttons are now. I am sure I will be tweaking them in the coming weeks but for now I am pretty darn happy with what I come up with on my first try.

I managed to find a ridiculous amount of freebies with some googling. Not all of them are Shabby princess either, but all of them are awesome! My favourite elements (In case you can't tell)are the torn bits of paper and the aged pieces. There are some really pretty feminine elements I like too but for now, I can't get enough of the fake masking tape and staples!

I can't direct you to any good tutorials yet because I just downloaded a but load of files and then began to resize and layer them in Photoshop CS2 until I figured out what I liked and what I was doing. It is itimidating, I hemmed and hawed and asked for help on Twitter before even trying to download anything. It was just so overwhelming. But, I plan on doing some fun stuff with the blog soon and I really wanted some cool looking buttons. I haven't made those yet, but maybe this weekend when I have my Easter sewing done (Ack! One more week!)

What I can do is leave you the two links I used for the most plentiful freebie downloads. There is the ever famous Shabby Princess freebies. I say ever famous because as far as I know their freebies are synonymous with getting started in DS. Also, they are great for us beginners as absolutely no cutting and pasting are required for the elements. (I mean each element and alphabet piece is it's own individual file.) The other site I got MAD freebies from was from ComputerScrapbook.com I must have received hundreds of dollars worth of free downloads, (with a lot of patience) just for signing up for their newsletter (which tells you about more freebies!) I did find a couple more sites but they didn't really have what I was looking for, but you might for serious though, just google free digital scrapbooking elements and you're golden.

And now, I must go and join the physical world and do my dishes, fold my laundry, play with my babe. Check out some other Creative Spacers @ Kirty's when you have a moment for the digital world. I hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Wednesday on Wednesday

Here is to sunny days and simple fun with good friends. Happy Spring!

How To : Mod Podge Egg Garland

This was a labour of love but it was worth it and I am excited to have a new tutorial for you.

A few notes before beginning:

• To Modge Podge the fabric to the eggs took me about 3 hours from beginning to end and I did sixteen eggs. The flowers were easy peazy and the threading took only minutes as well.
  
• The Modge Podging makes the eggs strong enough to be collected by little ones on Easter but pretty enough to collect in a bowl or thread on a garland. If I hadn't already sewn up two dozen fabric eggs this is what I would have done for her to collect.
• I did notice after all was said and done that the darker/brighter the fabric the better it looked when dried. I did up four to begin with and almost didn't finish because I wasn't sure if I liked them with the paler fabrics. As soon as I added the bright yellow and purple though I loved them.
• Also, you want to talk frugal? These scraps are the size of quarters and the eggs came from a couple weeks of baking.
  
• I wasn't sure if you would want to make the same flowers I made, but just in case I made a quick video tute because pictures would have taken too long to show you what a video does in 1:30s. Also, don't laugh when you see me burn myself.

My Crafty Weekend

Wow, and Monday is upon us already! I'm okay with that though, we managed to have a great weekend around here despite the weather. A family pizza party, sewing, crafting, baking and all around general fun was had.

I know last week I posted the bare minimum, but the weather here was so very wonderfully unseasonal we couldn't bear to stay inside and because of the fresh air we couldn't stay up late (at all)to blog so it just kind of petered out after Wednesday. Well, seasonal weather is back and the skies are grey so here is to hoping for a full week of posting with a couple tutorials thrown in for good measure.



On Friday I baked some cupcakes for a family get together. I made the carrot recipe from Martha Stewart Cupcakes and it was so good. The cream cheese frosting pictured is my own recipe though made so that I could pipe it on. You can find it here or on my new recipes page. It is thicker than the recipe I used for the Creepcakes and the Tank Cake. They were very tasty, I mean uber-tasty!

Do you like the purple backpack? I made that Saturday morning for Wednesday's cousin's seventh birthday. I wanted to make her something but I didn't have her measurements and aside from being really bright at school I was not too sure what she was 'into'. So I made this drawstring backpack and filled this bag with a jump rope, sidewalk chalk and bubbles. I hope she liked it!(Every seven year old likes purple right?) It was made from my own design because every tutorial I found confused the heck out of me. I am not a technical reader! So, I decided it was so easy, fun and gosh darn cute that I will be making at least one more for Wednesday and you can expect a tutorial for it because I decided the basic design could use some modifications.

Sunday was the day of the ruffler foot. This actually wasn't as stressful as I am remembering. Problem was I pulled it out after two hours of trying to shirr and realizing that my machine would have none of it. No matter how much I fiddled with upper tension, lower tension, hand winding the bobbin, machine winding the bobbin. My machine just does not enjoy sewing with elastic thread and that is something I will have to get used to. So, to make myself feel better I pulled out my forty-year old Kenmore ruffler foot and started to teach myself how to use it. After I got past all of the technical jargon I managed to get it to plait beautifully on ever stitch regardless of stitch width. Unfortunately, anything else just didn't look very good. But that is okay, my gathering foot works really well for less full ruffles on most medium-thin to thin materials. Wow what a gorgeous full ruffle from the foot though. I just might come up with something for Ruffle Your Stuff yet. Although, I think I only have a couple days left. Sigh.

Last but not least. I stayed up until midnight last night finishing up these beautiful eggs. I also have the first part of that tutorial photographed but I don't have what I thought I had to finish it so that will have to wait until tonight or tomorrow. But it will be worth the wait, I promise!

p.s. What do you think, would this make a good link event? My Crafty Weekend I mean. I think it would. next week, expect a McLinky. :)

Happy Monday Folks!

Recipe : Pipe-able Cream Cheese Frosting

I made some carrot cupcakes this weekend for a family get together and since it was close to Easter I wanted to make them a little bit fun. Cream cheese frosting is not necessarily known for it's pipe-able properties. It is definitely known for being delicious and pairing perfectly with carrot cake though so it was only natural I thicken it up some how to make the pretty little bird nests you see pictured.

This yields enough to pipe small nests on about ten cupcakes and spread another ten. (The cupcakes I made were very muffin like without frosting so I chose to leave some bare for snacking.)

Ingredients
2 cups icing sugar
1-8oz package of cream cheese (Softened)
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
cream (Optional, use only if you find consistency not creamy enough)
Food colouring

Directions
With an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter together.
Add vanilla and colouring
Add icing sugar slowly until well combined.
Add cream tsp by tsp if consistency too thick. Alternatively add more icing sugar if it is not thick enough.
Put into icing bag and use immediately on cooled cake/cupcakes/cookies.

This is not so stiff you cannot spread it nicely, but if you want it creamier add another 1/8 cup of butter and cream by the teaspoon until it reaches desired consistency.

Wednesday on Wednesday

She is no leprechaun but she makes a heck of a fairy yes? Happy St. Patty's Day friends!

Guest Posting @ The Sewing Dork!

Good morning! Today is super exciting! I am guest posting for the very first time (anywhere) at Confessions of a Sewing Dork! March is frugal crafting month at Confessions of a Sewing Dork and I for one have been really enjoying the posts! So when Cynthia asked me to author a post for her themed month I was more than willing. So much so I was almost instantly inspired. I had this skirt sketched in my notebook but I was dragging my butt on the actual creation of it. Until the other day. Suddenly (like as soon as I read the email) I had to make it that day! And I did. And it is awesome. And now I will share with you how you can make the cutest skirt from a ratty pair of jeans, an old stained t-shirt and a shoelace. Seriously if that is not the epitome of frugal, well than can I at least have a B+ ?


Want to make one of these? The skirt, not the gorgeous kid, this is a g-rated blog!


For the next few days the tutorial will be located here at Confessions of a Seeing Dork. How cool is that? I have been reading her blog since shortly after I started this one. I cannot remember which one of her many awesome (and uber thrifty) tutorials lured me in as she has so many. Re-purposing and refashioning are the main themes which would explain why I love it when her blog pops up in my dashboard window. Oh and giveaways, this woman is uber generous! Always giving away handmade items, would be a good idea for you to visit her often!

Hope to see you there!

Recipe : Ovarian Chocolate Cake

This, my friends, is what happens when your hormones demand satisfaction!
You have heard of Bavarian Cream Pies? Well, this is the Ovarian Chocolate Cake.

By nature I am not a chocolate lover. That is not to say that I do not enjoy chocolate, but I am more of a liker than lover. Every now and then though, particularly when I am ovulating I crave sweets, usually in the form of chocolate. And about a year ago, I was craving it pretty bad so I made this cake. It has become a family favourite and I love to make it for special occasions like Father's Day (My dad is a chocolate fiend!) and like yesterday at my (not so)little brother's birthday dinner.

It is a devil's food cake with pudding between the layers, a mousse frosting and cookie crumb coating. It is a fairly involved cake, but totally worth it! Would you like to make one too? Oh goody! Let's begin.

Ovarian Chocolate Cake

Devil's Food Cake Ingredients/Directions

2 cups sugar
½ cup + 2 tablespoons butter, softened
3 eggs, separated
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup boiling water
1 cup sour cream

1. Preheat oven to 350 deg F and grease two 9 in cake tins.
2. Put cocoa in small bowl; add boiling water and mix until smooth. Let cool.
3. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed for approximately 5 minutes. Add egg yolks and mix well.
4. Sift in flour, baking powder and baking soda, add cocoa mixture, sour cream, and vanilla extract and mix well.
5. Whisk egg whites until stiff and fold gently into the cake mixture. Transfer to the cake tins trying to keep them as equal as possible.
6. Bake at 350 degrees until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, approximately 40 minutes. Let the cakes cool.
7. Slice each cake through the middle to make four layers. Let each layer cool before icing.

Now, the easy parts. Filling and icing.

Ingredients (I guess you could call them that)

1 box chocolate pudding (Fudge flavour works really well)
1 cup (250ml carton) 35% whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbs sugar
1 box Oreo cookie crumbs (You won't use the whole box, closer to half but I didn't measure this step)

Prepare pudding according to package directions. Spread a thick layer to the edges on three cake layers. And stack to form four layer cake.

To prepare whipping cream put cream, sugar and vanilla in a bown and whip until stiff peaks form. (You can also substitute Dream Whip here if you so choose)

Add remaining chocolate pudding to whipped cream and ice cake top to bottom.

Now, the part that requires a little bit of patience. Adhering the cookie crumbs to the sides without making a giant mess. To do this I poured the crumbs around the cake on the cake platter and then with a knife slowly 'pulled' (for lack of a better word) them up the side of the cake until I was satisfied with how it looked.

And it really does look fantastic doesn't it? But, never mind that how did it taste? Like a little piece of heaven! The combination of fluffy chocolate cake and pudding make for an almost brownie like consistency that is the good kind chewy. Now, there is one little sliver left and I am going to claim it before my chocolate fiend of a father gets it!

Bon Appetit!

Storybook Sunday : I Wished For A Unicorn

I Wished for a Unicorn by Robert Heidbreder and illustrated Kady MacDonald Denton.

This was the book that inspired this series of posts. I found it so randomly at a charity shoppe that I wanted to share it with everyone so that others may enjoy it if and when they happen upon it or even go looking for it.
The book is a charming book written with such a wonderful rhythm that I actually enjoy reading it to Wednesday, over and over and yes over again. She calls this "My Unicorn Book" and we read it together at least once a day but usually more. It is perfect for her attention span having only one or two four line rhyming stanzas per colourful page. I find that anything more than that and it is anyone's guess if she will stay interested past the first two pages.
But the rhythm in this one flows so wonderful, the verses just roll off your tongue.

The story is about a child that wishes for a unicorn and through sheer will and imagination, has their wish granted...sort of. She goes on an adventure that includes a magic wood, moat monsters and a dragon to mention a few. She (I am presuming it is a she but it could just as easily be a he) and her unicorn don`t stop until they need a nap.

Wednesday's favourite parts have to be the colourful yet scary trees in the magical wood, the howling and the moles that are "Like the Mole Sisters.". My favourite thing about this book is how the title is not I wish I HAD a Unicorn, instead the narrator makes something out of what she already has. Sounds like a familiar concept around here yes...

I pleased to find out when I Googled the author and illustrator that they are both Canadian. It is so rare I happen upon Canadian authors without being directed to them. Also in googling the authors (Kady MacDonald Denton also writes children's books as well as illustrates)I found The Library and Archives Canada website and is it ever wonderful. Canadian or not I encourage everyone to browse through the pages and take advantage of the services it offers. I can tell you that this will not be the last time I visit there.

Robert Heidbreder and Kady MacDonald Denton team up for one more book A Sea Wishing Day and it looks to be just as wonderful, I cannot wait to add it to Wednesday's ever growing bookshelves.

Speaking of Wednesday's bookshelves, you may have noticed the widgets in my sidebar. They are there as recommendations only. I will add books as we buy them, read them and if we love them. I thought it a great way to share with you what we are loving. Make no mistake, Wednesday's bookshelves are plentiful and i cannot wait to show you a picture but for now I am adding books as she loves the not as I do. (I have so many books just waiting for her to be old enough to absorb them!)If you use the links I make a minuscule commission (I didn't even bother finding out what it is I assume it is so small) but for anyone who does, it will let me know that you value my opinion and my head will swell.

Bonne nuit and happy reading!

Wednesday on Wednesday

Wednesday's first Easter egg hunt. This was last March. I was not nearly as crafty this time last year so I just bought some super shiny eggs and a bucket and threw them on the grass. She loved it. She was too young to really hunt so instead of making it hard for her we kept it simple. She loved it and when she would open them up and find some real fruit candy all the better. This year they will be one hundred percent less plastic but a zillion percent more awesomeness!