Colour Story Challenge

When I read the criteria for this challenge I knew it was going to be just that ... a challenge!  I seem to have a love-hate relationship with red.  I love the colour but I can't wear it or I look like Rudolph, I always wanted to add red highlights to my hair but they turned orange.  Not a great track record is it?  For my thirteenth birthday all I wanted was a 50's style skirt with a ruffled petticoat (my friends never understood my facination!).  And so my mom made me one in red with white polka dots, but I had to wear it with a white shirt or I looked terrible.

And this brings me to the details of this challenge.  Create anything in white, red and aqua!!!!!  I love white, I love aqua, but the red has caused me no end of trouble tonight.  After searching for patterned paper in those colours for ages, I gave up.  So then I tried making a background by stamping and heat embossing with white on red card.  It looked very nice, but didn't suit the photo I was working with.  About 50 different options later I found something I liked.  This is another page for my family recipe album and has two recipes from my Great, Great Grandma.

Grandma Itter's Eggnog Recipe

I originally tried painting the background with Distress Ink 'Fired Brick', but it turned ORANGE on the white (a bit like my hair LOL).  Then I remembered that one of the kids had bought me Glimmer Mist 'Mels Diner' which is a beautiful shade of red with silver sparkle.  It looks lovely.  I used lots of my birthday presents in the end on this one.  The glimmer mist, Glimmer Glam on the teal flower, the Martha Stewart deep edge border, diamonte swirls, and the tiny silver butterfly.  I think I shall spend some of my birthday money on a daylight light bulb for my lamp.

I am pleased I finished this one and didn't let it beat me in the end.  As it is now the wee hours of Monday morning here I am headed to bed.  I will have to look at the rest of the challenges in the morning.

I hope you enjoyed the weekend of challenges as much as I did.  Now to try and finish them all during the week...

Chipper

Cake Love

I had a few minutes spare today so I wanted to create a fun layout for my Family Recipe Album even though I don't yet have the details for the page.  If I am going to get the album finished on time I need to have some blank pages ready to just insert the recipe and the story that goes with it.  I pushed myself and made a pink page ... my least favourite colour!  I started by just grabbing a few matching supplies and limited myself to just that.  This is going to go in the dessert section and I have made two, one for each album.

Little Yellow Bicycle 'Cupcake Love' papers

I lightly tacked the white rectangles of card on the page so that I know where the information will go.  Once I have it printed out, I can easily remove my white cards and replace them.  I used lace, ribbons, 

embellishments from the paper range, brads, thickers, and a few sheets of Bazzill to finish this layout.  It only took me about 20min to put the page together, but I like it.  I tied a knot in the ric-rac to put on the title and I loved how it formed a heart shape.  Purely accidental!

Sometimes it is nice to see what we can do with only a few supplies and a few minutes!  So another page for the recipe album is done.  Oh, and my Great Aunt emailed me back and apparently the 'Mayonaise Cake' i spoke about in the previous post is absolutely delish and moist.  So we should not judge a recipe by it's ingredients!

Enjoy your week,

Chipper

Family Recipies

Tonight I am making a start on my Family Recipe Album.  If you are wondering what I am talking about you can read about my new project here.  My Great Aunt has sent me some old family recipies that she had, and reading through them today one shocked me ... a 'Mayonaise Cake'.  YEP, you read that right, MAYO, in a cake!!!!!  I don't even know if I am going to make one to try it.  Have any of you ever made a cake with mayonaise?????  Here is the recipe as it was given to me.

Mayonaise Cake

2c flour

2tsp soda

5tbs cocoa (sifted)

1c sugar

1c mayonaise

1c cold water

1 tsp vanilla

375F for 30-35 min

The only other information on the recipe was that it came from Dan O'Brian's Mom in 1948.  Very strange.  I think I shall have to email her and find out not only who Dan was but if this cake is any good!

I am heading off to a class tonight and I think I am going to use it as the title page in my cousins version of this Recipe Album.

Happy crafting,
Chipper

Don't you love it when a plan comes together!

I have emailed, messaged, and chatted galore in the past few days.  And it has all been worth it ... my family are all getting in on the 'Family Recipe Album' idea that I had for my cousins wedding present.  I am so excited that I am going to make two, one for me and one for her.

My family has been fractured many times over for generations and we are spread all over the world.  Some of us try to keep in touch and others have lost their family roots.  This is my way of passing some form of family heritage onto my cousin at the time of her marriage.  I know she will appreciate it.  I love her dearly and I miss that we have grown apart as she got older because I moved away for a while.

Family I very rarely speak to are emailing me back saying that they know just which recipe and story they will forward to me.  I am so excited and even the thought of how much work it is going to be to compile it all is not dulling my enthusiasm.  I have asked each to send me a favourite recipe along with the story that goes with it and where possible a photo.

I am enjoying writing this blog even though it is a learning curve for me.  I still can't seem to post comments (although that is probably due to the age of my computer!) but Shimelle's 'Blogging for Scrappers' class (see the right of the screen) has been full of inspiration and valuable information.  It was due to one of her prompts that I came up with this idea.

Stay tuned for updates on this album.  I have six months to finish it :-)

Chipper

A new project ...

I missed a day.  I really wanted to post yesterday, but try as I might, it wasn't working.  Yesterday's prompt (if you have read back you will know that I am doing a class with Shimelle called 'Blogging for Scrapbookers') really bugged me.  It shouldn't have, as it was an easy topic really, but the more I thought about it, the harder it was to come up with something to write.  I could have taken the easy option and just posted something else, but I decided to sleep on it.

And what was this most difficult of topics?  Blogging about goals ... I told you it wasn't scary, but I was stumped.  I have always been a goal setter (or so I thought).  I set goals in education.  I set goals at work.  I set goals for vacations.  And I set goals ... well, no where else really ... I have set personal goals but I can't recall ever keeping them, or making myself accountable for them!  And that was kind of the point of today's prompt.  If we set a goal in a public forum like a blog, we can drop back in every now and again and update our readers about our progress.  Intriguing idea, but what goal should I set? If I even decide to take up this challenge?

So I woke up this morning and was blog hopping.  Last week I wanted to make Swedish Meatballs and The Princess and I found this site with a great recipe.  Today they featured a recipe for Zucchini Cake and it was the writers Grandmother's recipe.  I loved how at the end they included a picture of the original recipe in her Grandmother's hand.  It made me think of my Grandma's recipies.  I then ended up at this blog post and suddenly inspiration hit!  My cousin is getting married in 6 months and I want to make her a Family Recipe album!!!

We come from a slightly unconventional family and we are spread around the world.  What a better surprise for her than if I get everyone involved and fill an album with the recipies and stories.  I am excited just thinking about it!  So, I now have another project, but this one MUST be competed in 6 months and it gives me something else to play with other than holiday photos :-)

So stay posted and I will update you as I go!  I am off to start emailing family and begin my collection.

Chipper