Mixed Up Saturday

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies,

The girls birthday weekend began last night, one thing Sophie & Lucy have wanted to try for a while is a Seafood Boil, like they have in the 'Deep South ' of America,  now ours wasn't going to be on a grand scale, mostly because we couldn't get King Crab legs or a couple other bits of Seafood,  we had a feast though, with Mussels and clams, large raw prawns, giant Black prawns, sweetcorn and baby potatoes.  You started by boiling the corn and potatoes,  when almost cooked you drain, the add melted butter Old Bay seasoning, salt & pepper,  then mix in all of the Seafood and coat everything in spice and butter and divide between 4 tin foil parcels,  seal them tightly and bake in hot oven for 15 - 20 minutes, it was amazing,  fish all cooked perfectly in the foil steam packets, we had some lovely juices left at the bottom of the foil packet that Paul and the girls couldn't resist eating with some fresh crusty bread. We will definitely be having this again on special occasions. 

Sue did us a Magazine Review.....

Simply Cards & Papercraft 

Issue 253

This month the magazine and the free stamps and die set have a bright and colourful spring feel with some pretty florals, three cute birds and several sentiment stamps of different sizes and fonts. The floral die set is from Spellbinders.

There are several cards using different styles and techniques here. They will all be quite quick and simple to make. I like the Make a wish card, love the white embossed floral stamp on the colourful background. 

I was really interested to read about shaped card fronts. The basic idea is to cut 2 rectangles or whatever you want as the back of the card shape. You then cut another rectangle that is nearly half the size of the back. Score a small hinge at one end of this shape and glue it onto the top of the back card base then fix the other large rectangle over the top to hide the tab and make the back tidy. Vanessa Hodgson shows us some pretty cards using flowers built up over the front of the cards. You must remember to use one or two hof the flowers or whatever you are using to sit level with the bottom of the card so that it can stand up on its own. I do want to try this technique, another one in my long list of “must try…..”

Sarah Jackman Read has designed 6 gift ideas using this months freebies. The gift box has a free download if you fancy having a go at it. It’s a nice size for a little thank you gift. I only use baubles at Christmas usually but I love this idea as a gift tag or embellishment. 

The third article using the freebies is designed by Nicky Gilburt and I love her makes. Using strips of card as the front of a card looks great as Nicky has on two of her cards. She also shares a How to: on stamping a mirror image using a gel plate which you need for the birds on the Happy birthday card. 

This article designed by Cathy Andronicou. It’s about adding more dimension with stepped up die-cutting. Basically you die-cut into the card and also layer die-cuts on top of the card giving the impression of more depth. A benefit of this technique is cheaper postage.

As always please ask if you would like any more info. 

Take care. 

Love Sue

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Thank you so much Sue for a fantastic review, this is a great Issue the free Spellbinders free dies are really handy, I like the font of the sentiment too.  Some great techniques to try too. XXX 

** Next Week ** Karen has done us a guide to using the 'Perfect Layers ' tool, I have one but have never been able to work out how to use them so I am very much looking forward to reading it and having a go. 

I hope that you all have a fantastic weekend, 

Love & Hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx