Fruit Kebabs

We are just back from a few days in a hotel where we had a great time. One thing that pleased me was that the kids' menu was more imaginative than most of places we've been. It had all the predictable stuff but a little bit more to tempt the adventurous. The menu had a choice of starters and my children tried fruit kebabs the first night, loved them and had to have them every night. Easy to make, bits of fruit in a skewer, fruit coulis and a pastry case with sorbet.

I didn't take any photos (bad scrapper!) but it looked more or less like this:


That shows that a little bit of imagination does wonders for children's appetite. I'll definitely make them at home.

US

I wanted to make a layout with photos of each one of the 4 of us taken in 2007. I am a clean & simple girl at heart, but sometimes I find it very hard to get it right. I punched the circle as a way to unify the layout (stole the idea from Ruth @ Scrapwest), which I am very happy with but my photo is totally disconnected from the other three. It would look much better if the ribbon extended to touch my photo, but now it is too late. Any suggestions?

Coxinha de galinha

Coxinhas de galinha (literally chicken drumsticks) are present in any Brazilian party, from kid birthday parties to posh cocktail parties. They are actually a sort of a croquette with chicken filling.

It is also one of my favourite fast foods. This time I had a helper when I decided to make coxinhas for Lucy's birthday party.

I don't follow a recipe, I just try to repeat what I remember my mother doing it, but I found this recipe online.




The layout is based on a class by the talented Audrey Barret @ Scrapwest.

Jackie's Challenge

Jackie posted a card challenge in the Cara Craft Supplies forum: it had to have use a nature photo and some kind of flourish. Here's my response to the challenge:




The flourish is hand drawn. I drew it with the versamark pen and the embossed it. It was a bit like drawing blind as the versamark is clear, and you can see the flaw in the corner where the lines don't meet. It was only after I had finished it that it occurred to me that I could have first used a pencil and later traced over with the versamark pen. Dooh! Having said that, there is something "fresh" about drawing that get lost if you trace over.

It was my first time using the pen and I really loved it, any silly doodle looks great once you emboss it.

Catchlights

I've always wanted to make one of these layouts with a single photo, some embelishments and lots of white space. When I saw a cushion in a magazine which had a bird and a tree branch I though I could use it as a starting point for a layout. But it is very possible that it would end up being a never-tried idea if it weren't for some godies that Lara (Claire) from CS send me. It had an assortment of felt flowers and some lovely die-cut little frames.


The photo is from one of last week's challenges in the 2peas photo course - the task was to get catchlights (the little glint in one's eyes). I asked my children to pose and got some photos I am happy with, including this one, and although Luke is looking down, I love it.

Photo Editing II

This is not exactly photo editing but it is something I have been playing with since I did the altered canvas.

Sometimes there are photos that I like but that are a bit boring, or the colours are a bit off, or a bit blurry. If no amount of photo editing seem to improve a photo there is always the alternative to try to get an interesting result using filters. You need to experiment with the parameters until you get a pleasing result but it is really great fun and the results are worth it.

In PSE, you can find the Filters by clicking on Filters->Filter Gallery or, on the right hand side of the screen, under Artworks and Effects, choose filter in the first drop down menu, and artistic on the second.

Here's some before&after pics:


Watercolour Filter, parameters set to 10/2/2.



Coloured pencil, parameters set to 2/12/25. My favourite filter and one of the few ones that work well with portraits too.


Poster Edges filter, parameters set to 4/3/3. Very subtle change, but somehow it improves the photos by 100%.

Cards again!

I made these two for Lucy's birthday. My intention was to make an slider card, but it took so long to find the image for the card that I run out of time and I took the lazy approach. They are plain digital. With this, I'll retire for cardmaking for a while :-)

The first one is from my son, the second is my husband and I.