Thanksgiving Desert

Going to a Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday and going to bake Pumpkin Banana Mousse Tart, I do love Ina Garten's deserts and the reviews are excellent.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/pumpkin-banana-mousse-tart-recipe/index.html

This receipe was wonderful, it was better the day it was made than the second day but none the less fabulous. I still prefer her croissant bread pudding though, that is to die for.

Paraphernalia Book Swap

This was a project set by a group I belong to for twelve women to create an altered book in time for Christmas from a children's hardboard book. The book was to have 5 pages inside making a total of 12 sides to be altered inside and the front and back covers were to be decorated however we wanted. Each of the 12 women chose a subject for a page and my choice was Seasons. This is the front cover of my book which together with the back cover is covered with a napkin and decoupage medium,the paraphernalia letters are stickers and the 3 dimensional decoupage rose in the middle is cut from a design on a piece of heavy paper. Simple but very effective I think. I am eager to see the book that my swap partner has created. It took some time to alter all the pages but it has been fun and from the other images posted of books that people have swapped already the standard of work has been exceptional.
The rest of the pages can be seen on my flickr page
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulaexukatcs/sets/72157622717401057/

Christmas Holly - For No Bangles and Beads - just baubles

This bauble is made for the Christmas Bauble group I joined. Using the template supplied I cut 4 baubles out and embossed them all on both sides with red/gold embossing powder. A sash of Christmas Holly ribbon was added at an angle across one side of each bauble. I then folded each pattern in half and glued all 4 together to make a three dimensional bauble. Though it says no beads I added a red berry bead to dangle at the bottom and added red stickels to the berries on the ribbon to give them a 3-dimensional look. I inserted gold wire through the top and added a red ribbon bow. The whole thing folds flat into one layer. I hope my swap partner likes this bauble.

Key Holder

Just a plain wooden key holder bought from a local DIY store covered with torn pieces of patterned paper and decoupage medium. Gives a nice mottled effect I think.

Autumnal Notelets Wallet and Needle Books

The notelet wallet has been made as a gift for a friend. Inside are 4 notelets made with paper castings of fruit (see July for method) and 4 small matching cream envelopes. The cover is made from a napkin fabric paper lined with orange felt. The edge of the wallet is trimmed with maroon ribbon on the outside(to match the pomegranite on the front) the stitching and also serves to securely fasten the side pockets on the inside. The fastening is a pair of elastic cuff links that lock over each other. Finally all the fruit on the outside was embossed with a clear sepia liquid to make them stand out.

Using the same method I have made two Needle Books for relatives and put in self threading needles (a must have old eyes) some decorative pins and a needle pusher to save fingers when sewing thick material.

Silver Rose for MAMMA group

This is another ATC that I have done for this fortnight's MAMMA challenge to include at least one jigsaw piece on an ATC. I bought a reel of ribbon for a few cents at a garage sale that was so pretty and was exactly 2.5 inches wide. Perfect for an ATC. I covered 2 jigsaw pieces with the ribbon so that you can see what it was like originally. The background piece of ribbon I cut at 3.5 inches and covered with white tissue paper and gave a light coating of2 colours of Lumiere paints. I sewed along the lines in the pattern on the ribbon with gold thread and pearl beads, putting one too many beads for each stitch to create a wavy sprinkle effect. The areas where there are no jigsaw pieces are embossed with silver. I hope you like this ATC.

Translator

Hahahaha I just looked at the french translation of my page done by babel fish. It makes my gender masculine LOL. No matter, I hope that my international friends will get the gist of what I am saying on my blog and if they have a questions will email me or comment under the posts. Goodness knows what it is saying in Japanese???? or indeed what country the one to the right of the Japanese flag is. Does anyone know?

Harvest

Not feeling too well this weekend and been a struggle to do anything, thanks to my partner for sharing his cold with me sniff sniff. The challenge on MAMMA this fortnight is to include at least one jigsaw piece in an ATC composition. I again used a wonderful napkin to create a fabric paper for the background and another with grapes on it to cover the jiggy bit. I sprayed some glimmer mist on the background to give it some shine. The "H" for harvest is an old car part, not sure what car it came from, it was silver and I altered it with some adirondack inks to give it a copper hue. The stalk of wheat is covered with coloured gold leaf to give it a shimmer too. I mounted the whole card on some black cardstock to give it a bit more substance due to the weight of the car part. Of course this ATC represents my favourite season and colours. I hope you like it.

Post it Cover

Time for me to start thinking about gifts for Christmas, going to try to make a few this year. This was an experiment, to make a post it pad cover. I am really quite pleased with the results. Wish the pad had been pink though. Made a cover out of cardstock sandwiched between fabric paper and felt. The fabric paper was brought over the sides and stitched with gold thread to hold it all together. The heart is one of my tissue paper molds covered in gold leaf and the sequins are part of an earing from a garage sale. I used some specialty ribbon that I picked up in a sale at Michaels(I think it is organza)to secure the post it pad inside and to wrap around the outside to hold it closed. The post it pad kept on coming off inside so I glued a strip of this organza ribbon along the spine of the pad and underneath the back, this seemed to hold it together. I then glued another smaller ribbon along the spine to hide the 6000 glue that showed through. I tried to stamp on the back cover with glue and cover with gold leaf but it didn't work so I just worked the leaf into the glue that was there. Finally a small loop of fabric paper was glued at the open edge to hold a pen/pencil. I will have to look for a small pretty one to go in there. The purple one was made in the same way but with a silver embossed tissue casting flower in the centre, white ribbon attached to fasten the booklet and I finally added a border of ribbon diamonds LOL. I hope whoever gets them will like them and find them useful. The colours are much brighter on the pink one than it shows in the photographs.

Polar Cap Bound

Another box made for the GAS MAMMA travelling matchbox challenge. This one was inspired by a piece of white fake fur I had. This is a slightly longer and not so deep box made from a piece of blue cardstock covered with white tissue paper and Lumiere paint to give a cool feel to it. The drawer pull is an earing and the jewels along the sides are a piece of ribbon. The top of the box is decorated with a collaged tall ship and broken pieces of clear plastic beads to represent the polar ice cap ( I put the beads in a plastic bag and hit them with a hammer). Inside the box is a polar bear cut out of the fake fur fabric. I like to think that he hiding in the water under the ship. I hope you like this altered matchbox.