Its nearly 2015 wait... what the?

Wow I had no idea it had been so long since I stopped by here. I'd like to say I've been cooking up a storm and making lots of cards but the truth is my day job and being a mummy has kept me pretty busy for the last 18 months. 

 If I'm being honest I really haven't felt like making anything, but I've had two weeks off work and the kids are on holidays and I was bored silly so guess what I did....made some cards...and it was fun again. Insert 'squeal' :-)

So here are my latest creations...some are my own, some are CASES I've loved on Pintrest.

Sweetie Belle's Vanilla Cupcakes Thermomix Style!

Ok this one was a request from Kira.  The recipe comes from her 'My Little Pony Cupcake Recipe Book' and they were really good! We mixed the batter in Thermie but of course you could just use a normal mixer.

125g butter
1 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups self raising flour

Icing

240g Icing Sugar
70g butter
20ml  milk
dash of vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180'C.  Cream butter and sugar at speed 6 for 1 minute.  Add the remaining ingredients and mix on speed 6 for 20-40 seconds. Spoon mix into 12 cupcake cases, fill to 2/3. Bake for 20 minutes.

While the cakes are cooling, mix icing ingredients on speed 4 for 30 seconds.  Ice your cakes,  job done!

Quite possibly the best mashed potato I have ever tasted!

Ok it's a big call I know, but this was seriously good!

It comes from the British version of Thermomix's Everyday Cookbook.  If you don't have a thermie, just steam or boil the potatoes then mash by hand or pass through a potato ricer.

I've tweaked the recipe a little, so here is my version


750g floury potatoes, cut into 2cm cubes
500g water
1 tsp salt
100g milk/cream
1tsp vegetable stock concentrate or stock powder (see here for recipe)
40g butter

Add water to jug and place potatoes in steamer basket. Place steamer basket in to the thermie jug and cook on soft spoon at varoma temperature for 20 - 25mins or until soft. If cooking on stove top, steam or boil potatoes until well cooked.  Do not try to mash undercooked potatoes, they'll turn to glue!

When potatoes are cooked, remove the basket and drain the potatoes.  Remove the water from the jug and attach the butterfly whisk.  Place potatoes back in the jug and add the remaining ingredients.  Whisk on speed 4 for 2-10 seconds.

The kids love these! You could also add your own favours or seasoning such as roasted garlic or parmesan cheese for a change.  Enjoy :-)

Welcome Thermie!

Ok so you can see from how regularly I've been posting in the last 12 months that I don't often get the chance to make many cards these days.  I'm going to make a real effort to change that but in the meantime I thought I'd start sharing my other hobby...cooking and baking.

I've always loved to cook and at one stage I had every intention of throwing away the day job and heading back to school to become a pastry chef.  Well websites and communications are a far cry from puddings and icing but I still love to cook so thought I'd start sharing my favourite recipes here.

Another reason is I've got a new gadget, affectionately known as Thermie, to cook with and I LOVE IT!  Cooking was becoming a real pain in the butt. My passion had turned into a chore. Between working four days a week and hearing the constant 'I don't like that' from the little people whenever I tried anything with a sauce or flavour, I felt like throwing my hands up in the air, handing them box of nuggets and calling it a day! But what kind of mother would I be if I did that?? (A popular one with the little people I suspect!!)

Enter a new kitchen and my Thermomix (aka Thermie) and I love it!  Between that and the oven it does just about everything (except wash the dishes unfortunately). I've got a new rule with the kids...one dinner for everyone, don't like it there's the fruit bowl! I figure they won't starve and will at least try most things and hopefully over time learn that risotto will not kill them :-)

So I'll now be sharing any tried and tested recipes on here that can be used in a Thermomix or easily converted to use in a conventional oven or cooktop.  I  might even get the kids to share a 'kid friendly' rating, although probably best not to use that to determine the quality of the food ;-)

The recipes will be a mix of mine and those I've collected from around the place, off course when I know the origins I'll credit the original source.

thanks for stopping by
Kirst

Clean and simple sketches

So it's been a while but life's been a little busy lately. We've moved house and it's taken a while but I finally feel like my stuff is organised and I'm ready to roll again. Besides it's winter here and what else is there to do when it's miserable outside?

I stumbled upon an awesome sketch site the other day. So here 's what I've been up to...

So I've decided a back to basics approach is best right for me right now.  I'm loving the clean designs and simplicity of stamping and beautiful papers, so I've abandoned colouring for now and focused on clean and simple!

thanks for popping by

K

Christmas Fairy

Two days in a row, this must be some kind of record!  This card is for Cute Card Thursday. They have a great sketch challenge and I'd started colouring a digital image I had on hand. It's called Poppy Fairy but I can't for the life of me remember where I got it from. The colours give it a bit of a Christmas feel to it so I used some of my My Minds Eye Christmas papers.

Supplies:
Stamps - Digital Poppy Fairy
Copics: G21 YG63, YG67, R35, R37, RV29, E19, E000, E11, E31, E50, E25
Papers: My Minds Eye Lost & Found Christmas
Accessories: SU Ribbon coloured with G21, antique brads

It's Cup Day here in Melbourne and it's nearly time for the big race, so if you're in this part of the world, hope you're making the most of your day off.  If you're not, hope you're enjoying your day anyway!

thanks for stopping by
Kirsty

Has it really been that long?

Geez, time flies doesn't it. I knew it had been a while but I didn't realise it had been that long. Life has been busy busy in the Thomas household and there hasn't been much time for cards. Don't get me wrong, there has been plenty of time for buying new stamps, I just haven't done much with them LOL.  We've also bought a new house and are in the process of selling our own, so I swing between excitement and panic! 


It's Cup weekend here in Melbourne so this weekend I made some time for cards and I thought I'd share them. The first is a digital image from Make it Crafty which I used for this weeks Mojo Monday, the second is my new Gorjuss Girls stamps.

Supplies:

Stamps: Make it Crafty Chantelle at the Races, PTI mini messages

Copics: V91, 95, 99, Y38,35, C7, 5, 3, E50, 31, 0000, 11, B05

Kaiser papers, SU Elegant Eggplant card stock, stick on bling, SU silver chord.

Flying Above it All

Love my Gorjuss girls and I just got three new ones so I just had to play.  I've used my new fav blonde hair combo of E31, E50, and E25. The other colours are C1,3,5,7, R85,83,81 and E00,000, R20 for her skin.

If all this rain keeps up there might be a few more cards to show off this week!

enjoy the rest of your day

Kirsty

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone, I hope you had a great weekend with your family! We had a great 5 days at home doing not much at all really!  It was so nice to not have to worry about being here, there and everywhere at a certain time. The kids have had fun playing, we did a little bit of clearing up outside and enjoyed a bit of shopping:-)  

While I had loads of free time this weekend I only made one card.  I found myself enjoying my other hobby/day job - web work.  My dear friend (and super talented stamper) Bron let me fiddle with her blog and give it a bit of a makeover.  I've been bugging her for ages to let me play...not that there was anything wrong with her old blog,  she's just a thoughtful, kind person that's always there when you need her, so I wanted to make it one of a kind... just for her :-)  

I managed to finish it off yesterday so I decided to do a challenge.  Given that Bron is now on the DT for Magnolia Down Under, it was an easy choice. Here's what I came up with...

A little out of my comfort zone with all those greens, but I think I really like it!

Supplies
Papers: Kaisercraft Chapter One DSP, SU Basic Black cardstock
Stamps: Papermania Born to Shop sentiment, Magnolia 
Copics: Skin - E11,000,00, R20 Hair - E25,49, 53, 59, Jeans - B97, 95, 91 
Shoes & Handbag C9, 7, 5, 3, 1 Top - G02, G00, G000, Shopping Bags E55, E43, 41 40
Pendant - YR28, spica
Embellishment - flock flower ribbon, SU Tag punch, black satin ribbon, flowers handmade with SU boho flower punch, glimmer mist and DSP,  SU bling brads, kaisercraft black rhinestones.
 
Unfortunately it's back to school for the kids and work for me tomorrow, so time to curl up with my book for a little while. Hope you have a great week

thanks for stopping by,
Kirst
 

Another Sketch Saturday

Yesterday I was way late with my sketch saturday challenge and only just scrapped in before it closed.  This week I'm super early and already finished!  I LOVED this sketch and had an image that I'd already coloured on hand, so it was nice and quick.  The other reason is that I'm here on my lonesome ;-( ....or should that be a :-) ??  The kids are spending some time with their Aunt and Dan is working. The housework is done so it's just me, season two of One Tree Hill and some sketch challenges LOL.

Here's what I came up with for this weeks Sketch Saturday.  It's a little on the shabby chic side, but a little bit of lace every now and then never hurt anyone ;-P

I stuck pretty much to the sketch for this one and just used basic layering with my papers.  I coloured my image with copics and airbrushed the background (I'm slowly getting the hang of it).  I made the lace flowers by running the thread through the lace to make small rosettes. Here are the list of supplies I used:

Papers: SU Blushing Bride, Kaisercraft Chanteuse Collection DSP
Stamps: LaLa Land Marci Ballerina, PTI Mini
Copics: R81, 83, 85, 20 Y21, 11, E97, E99, 000, 00, 11, YG 67, 63, BG10
Accessories: Lace, Pearls, PTI  vintage buttons

If you're in Melbourne and like a bit of comedy go and check out Danny Bhoy at the Arts Centre.  We were lucky to have a kid free night and headed off to the comedy festival for a bit of a laugh. Once again Danny's live show was awesome, one of the best observational comics going around at the moment.

Thanks for stopping by
hugs
Kirsty xo

Sketch Saturday Princess

Hi everyone
Hope you're all enjoying your weekend. Today I decided to play along with the Sketch Saturday challenge.  I coloured my new Sugar Nellie Manga Princess and paired her up with some Kaisercraft paper and here's what I came up with...

The card is fairly straight forward, I simply coloured the image and sponged the soft sky background. Here's a list of all the supplies:

Copics: V99,95,91 E00,000,11, 40, 41 Y21, E99, E97
Paper: Kaisercraft Lilac Ave Collection, SU Soft Sky
Ink: SU soft Sky, memento black, SU Perfect Plum
Accessories: Prima flowers, SU bling brad, Kaiser stick on bling, SU Modern Label Punch
Stamps: Sugar Nellie 'Manga Princess', Lizzie Anne Designs 'Once Upon A Time'

Heading off now to see Danny Bhoy, my favourite stand up comedian at the moment.  I grew up listening to Billy Connolly (and living with my dad who is as close you can get to the real thing) so for me Danny is definitely the next in line to the throne of observational comics.  Should be a good night :-)

thanks for stopping by
Kirsty x

With a Cherry on Top!

This is just a really quick post as I should have been asleep ages ago!  As usual the second wind kicked in and I decided to out together a card for this weeks Mojo Monday...no doubt I'll regret it when the alarm goes off in a few hours!

I'll pop back later and add all the details for this one but the stamp and cherry die are from CC Designs.

Hope you all have a great Monday

hugs 

Kirsty

Happy Birthday Dylan

My baby was 6 this week :-(  I can't believe 6 years has passed already.  My little dude is growing up to be a smart, generous and kind little boy and I am so proud of him. When we asked what he wanted for his birthday, he said a real skateboard.  It's now Daddy's job to dust off his old Powell-Peralta and show him how its done.  My heart will be in my stomach every time they take to the concrete and to be honest I'm not sure who I'm more worried about (Tony Hawke still makes it look easy at 40, how hard can it be LOL!).  Thank goodness for elbow pads, knee pads and helmets that's all I'll say!

I couldn't resist using my Hanglar Stanglar image for this card, it was perfect for it. Here's what I came up with:

Supplies:

Stamps: Hanglar Stanglar, Greeting farm sentiment (from My Guy Ian) and Kaiser birthday sentiment

Copics: YR18, 16, 12, 21, E35, 50, 41, 25,57, 000, 00,11 B97, 95, 91 C5,1, YG 67, 63, R20

Paper: Fancy Papers About a boy (orange and brown circles), Birch Haberdashery  (Green), SU Cake Crumb and White

Accessories: Circle dies, SU Twines and brown button

Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa 

It's a fairly simple card layout, but I think for boys that's best.   I've coloured the image with Copics and used some buttons and twine for embellishments. I also cut a felt shape with my small circle die (I cut it from a large SU pumpkin pie felt flower) to match the circle theme in the paper.

My good friend Dee has just become a SU demonstrator (you can visit her blog here www. deelishdesigns.com.au) and I've since been reminded how cool their stuff is.  I'd forgotten how nice it was to make simple, clean cards that don't take 4 hours to colour LOL!  As a result my purse is a little lighter and my stamp cupboard a little heavier, so I'm off now to make some cards with my new stuff.  I'll post the goodies later on this afternoon.

have a great weekend
Kirsty x

Congratulations

We've got a wedding this week so I decided to use this weeks sketch challenge from Splitcoast and my new SU set Elements of Style.  While I love my copics I have to say I'm really enjoying getting back to clean and simple designs without all the colouring. It's a little more productive too, I've managed to make three cards this weekend LOL!

For my wedding card I simply stamped the branch from elements of style on some vanilla cardstock, sponged the edges and sprayed some glimmer mist.  Next I added some satin ribbon, a satin flower and a sentiment.  Job done, 15 minutes!

It looks a little flat in the photo, you can't really see the glimmer  but it looks much more effective up close.

thanks for stopping by

Kirsty

Welcome baby Griffin

It's been a crazy week here (aren't they always!) so I decided it was time to chill out with a chick flick and make some cards. 

We got some exciting news yesterday, my oldest friend (and cousin in law) gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Griffin! We'd been expecting the news of course, but given we've all got a family wedding to attend next week (mum included), we were hopeful it would be sooner rather than later!

Both mum and baby are doing great and we're so excited to have another little one in the family.  Here's the card I made to welcome the new bubby...

Supplies

Stamps: SU Bundle of Joy and PTI anniversary sentiments

Papers: SU cardstock (vanilla, cocoa & bashful blue), old SU DSP

Copics: E77, 74, 71, 70 & R81

Accessories: Cream satin ribbon, SU buttons and twine

The next card I made with a new SU set Elements of Style.  I was going to get a more masculine set until it occurred to me that there are no male birthdays until September, so I flicked through the catalogue again and this little set caught my eye.  Thought it would be great for Mothers Day, so here it is!

I've seen some really nice cards made with it, so I think I'll get a lot of use out of it.

Supplies

Stamps: SU Element of Style

Paper: SU Pretty in Pink, Mellow Moss, White & Kraft (or whatever they call it now!)

Ink: Pink Pirouette, Mellow Moss, Pretty in Pink marker, close to cocoa, versamark

Accessories: Top Note die, mellow moss taffeta ribbon

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy the rest your weekend

hugs Kirsty

ICS Challenge

Since I had some time this weekend I decided to play along with Inspirational Card Sketches.  The sketch was a little different and I really liked the layout.  I had an image that I'd half finished colouring and thought it would look good with this sketch, so I finished it off and put it all together.  It's a fairly simple card, with just a few embellishments but I kind of like things nice and simple.

Supplies
Copics: Hair E49,29,25,53, 35 Clothes E41,40 V000,12,15,17, B97,95,91, G67 Skin, E000, E00, R20
Stamps: Wiff of Joy, sentiment from PTI
Paper: Cardstock and DSP from SU
Accessories: Prima flowers, SU ribbon (Rich Razzleberry), stick on bling, SU Jewellery tag punch.

Hope you all had a great weekend
hugs
Kirsty

Dark Arts by Kira

Hi everyone
It's a long weekend in Melbourne, so instead of being at work I'm enjoying some time with the family.  Today I've got some cards that my little munchkin made and she's asked me to share them here on Dark Arts. One is coloured with Copics, the other is a penguin card she put together using the cricut. I think they're just too cute...but then maybe I'm a little biased ;-)

I think she's got the cardmaking bug, so no doubt she'll have more to share soon!

thanks for stopping by
hugs Kirsty

Mojo Monday Challenge

Just a quick post before I head out to work.  I managed to finish a couple of cards this week that I wanted to share.  The first is for this weeks Mojo Monday.  I decided to be a little bold and use some stronger colours for this one.  I've had these Kaiser papers in my stash for ages and never used them, so for something a little different I went with this...

Supplies

Papers - Cardstock from SU, DSP Loire Valley Collection from Kaisercrafts

Stamps - Fifth Ave Floral from SU, Anniversary Set from PTI

Copics - C9,7,5,3,1 R29,27

Accessories - Modern tag punch SU, Kaisercrafts bling, Fiskars scallop border punch, SU embossing folder (which you can order from my friend Dee over at Deelish Designs)

For the next card I decided to use my new Hanglar Stanglar images.  I was so excited when these little babies arrived in the mail.  They are SOOO hard to get a hold of.  While I wasn't able to buy the stamps I did manage to get my hands on 100+ stamped images, so that should keep me going for a while!  Here is my first creation with them.

I decided to keep this one nice and simple.  Unfortunately I cut the shape out and then decided I didn't really like it as an oval! After that the mojo kinda left the building ;-)

Supplies 

Papers - DSP Grant Archival, cardstock from SU

Copics - E 35, 33,31, 29, 25, 70, 71, 74, 77, 79, 41, B97, 95 91, G20, 21, C7, 5, 3, 1 E0000, 000, R20

Stamps - Hanglar Stanglar, Sentiment from PTI anniversary set

Accessories - Modern tag punch, Martha Stewart Lace punch.

I'll be back later tonight with some gorgeous cards that my little munchkin made.  She's asked me to share them on Dark Arts.  They are so cute and I'm pretty sure she's got this colouring thing down better than me!

hope you all have a great day

hugs Kirsty

Back to Basics

I've decided it's time to get back to basics...no copics allowed!  For the last 12 months every card I've made has been coloured and it just takes forever to put it all together. So tonight I opened my drawer, pulled out the ink pads and headed straight for my SU stamps and this is what I came up with for this weeks Mojo Monday.

The sentiment is from 'Great Friend' and the butterfly from 'Butterfly Prints', both sets are from SU. Cardstock is SU and DSP is from Kaisercraft.

Thanks for stopping by,

Kirsty

Soooo out of my comfort zone

In more ways than one this week! Lucky me went back to work this week after 6 weeks long service leave, what a shock to the system that has been! Throw in a bit of upheaval at work and it's been quite a roller coaster.

Since going back to work I've had zippo energy. I'm a night owl, up till all hours, but this week I've been in bed at 9.30pm which is unheard of for me (haven't even watched my trash TV....gasp!). As a result this poor little Tilda has been sitting coloured on my desk since the challenge was announced last Sunday and I've only now just finished putting it together.

When I first picked my stamp I decided to go out of my comfort zone and colour something bright.  Now colour and I just don't get along. I love black, grey and all shades in between. If you're lucky you might catch me in a bit of pink or purple but defiantly nothing too bright. So for this card I decided to go all out and picked ORANGE (shock horror!)

So what does one do with a little Tilda in a little orange dress when you're totally colour challenged? It's only taken me about 4 hours and 10 different papers to figure it out hehe, but we got there in the end and this is what I came up with...

Hope your all enjoying your weekend, till next time
Kirsty

Sketch Saturday and Scooter Boy

I've got a couple of cards to share today.  Isn't it typical that when the kids are back at school and I'm due to go back to work I finally get motivated to make something :-)

I've had a great six weeks with the kids and tomorrow my little dude begins his big primary school adventure! I can't believe how fast the time has flown and I think tomorrow you may see another post as I try and distract myself from the fact that for the first time in 8 1/2 years  there will be no little person calling out 'mum, can I have..." or "mum, can we...."

While I may be a little sad I'm also really excited for him.  He's sooo ready for school and is going to have  a blast, so I'll try and remember that as I say goodbye tomorrow morning!

Anyway, enough of my ramblings the first card is for this weeks Sketch Saturday Challenge.  I tried a new technique with my copics for this and inked up my Magnolia Puppy.  The papers are Basic Grey  Hopscotch and Grace Taylor Flower Patch.

Copic Colours

Puppy - E35, E33, E31, R20

Bow - BG78, BG75, BG72

Rose - R05, R02, R01

The second card is one I finished the other night using the Scooter Boy image from Sugar Nellie.  I'm not sure of the brand of the graffiti papers, but you can get them at Picture2Page in Lilydale.

Since this one is for a boy I kept it nice and simple, just adding some silver brads. The sentiment is from The Greeting Farm.

Copic Colours
Jeans & Scooter - C9,7,5,3,1
Green on Scooter - BG11, BG10
Top - V17,15,12, 000
Hair - E35, YR23, Y23

Hope it's nice and sunny in your part of the world and you're enjoying your day. Thanks for stopping by
Kirsty