Exciting News from Aunty Vera Land.... What is this Journey you Speak of??

Hello Crafty Friends!!

We have some fun and exciting news for you!
You may have noticed Lolly doing a fair bit of hinting and teasing on facebook the last couple of weeks. Posting pictures such as this one....

What is this journey you speak of? I hear you ask....

Well it's time to reveal our big May challenge.... or get you thinking about it anyway.

Woohoo!! This coming Saturday is National Scrapbook Day! And for some of us (let's just say ALL of us, ok?) the month of May is really National Scrapbook MONTH!

Our theme this year in Aunty Vera Land is Love the Journey.
Take it figuratively. Take it literally. It's up to you..... after all - life is a journey!

We are celebrating a fabulous NSD Long Weekend. Starting on Friday the 5th of May, we will post one challenge per day, over 4 days. Each challenge will be hosted by a Creative Team member (Aunty Vera will even clear her desk and host one)....... with a special prize (by random draw) going to one winner in each challenge. Enter one. Enter them all. You'll have all month so have fun and GO TEAM VERA!!!!!! (lol) ALL entries in ALL challenges will go into a separate Mega Draw to win the Fiona Gibson Memorial Prize. More on that tomorrow!

The boring fine print:

* Each challenge will feature a different technique or style...... but the main idea is documenting the journey (it IS after all National SCRAPBOOK month)

* Prizes will be announced when each challenge is posted and the winners from each challenge and for our Mega Prize Draw will be by random draw.

* Challenge entries can be posted on our facebook page, or join our facebook group - Crafty Vera and Friends where we will have dedicated challenge albums that you can upload your photo into, or simply email it to us at info@auntyverascrapandcraft.com.au (please use NSD CHALLENGE and the CT member's name as your subject heading)

* Challenge ends at midnight 31st May (AEST) and winners will be announced on Friday the 2nd June.

* VERY IMPORTANT --> by entering this challenge, you give us the ok to post your challenge pic here on our blog and on our other social media channels.


So.... are we ready...???....

Clear some space on your craft desks and line up the supplies.

And watch this space!! It's going to be covered in glue and glitter and paste and .......

xx Aunty Vera xx

A Month of Christmas Crafting 2017 - Aunty Vera's Christmas Cards

Hello crafty bloggers.... another week is ending! WHAT?!! What is happening with time lately? I feel like I accidentally hit the fast forward button on my calendar!!

To try and slow the time down a little, I sat down the other day and just played! With inks and papers and fun little Christmas bits.... and made a few little Christmas cards.

Here are my stenciled cards using different mediums with the stencils -

Tim Holtz Grit Paste (inked with Distress Ink when dry)........

Heat embossing using Lindy's Stamp Gang 'Kind Midas Gold' embossing powder......

Inking with Tim Holtz Distress Ink......

 

And a couple of other cards I made for some work friends (yes, Aunty Vera also has a Proper Job lol)......

Feeling stressed with all the end of year "stuff to do"? Take some time out and just play! It works wonders!!
Aunty Vera :)

Aunty Vera's Warehouse

Hello Crafty Friends..... it's so good to see you all again! This blog has been very neglected the last few months as we went through the Big Move and all the issues associated with it, but we're back - bigger and better than ever - with lots of great new goodies to tempt you with (lol) and fabulous ideas and inspiration from our talented Design Team members.

Which brings us to my little warehouse problem.

We've been unpacking lots of fun boxes over the last couple of weeks......

Now this job is part fun (all "look at this.... WOOHOO... I forgot I ordered this"..... Christmas in every box!!) but it's also a lot of work - sorting, uploading to the website, putting products away onto the correct shelves, not to mention the added work of collating and packaging all our incoming customer orders.

All of this work is usually supevised by Scraption Man. But........ PANIC!!!!!...... Scraption Man is nowhere to be found!!!! I think perhaps he's gone on strike after having to single-handedly move our entire shop to our new premises.

So - our warehouse is looking like THIS....

We need help! And it seems that word has reached all the way across Australia as we have received our first Video Application from young Zayn (Amira's gorgeous son)...... do we see him as a potential future Arrival of the Big Box Opener? Or perhaps the next Tim Holtz?.......

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE

Lol - isn't he the best!!! Thank you so much Zayn..... I hope you get to play with some of those goodies too!

We'll be back real soon with more crafting ideas and inspiration

Have a fabulous weekend wherever you may be!

Aunty Vera :) 

Aunty Vera's Kitchen - Strawberry Swiss Roll

Hello Crafty Bloggers and Happy Bakers and welcome to this week's installment of.....

Today I (Aunty Vera) am in the kitchen, and I thought I'd make something gorgeous and fruity before summer truly disappears, taking all the yummy fruit with her.........

I had to borrow this book from Bill.
Bill's friends on twitter (the #bakinbears) are already very familiar with it...........

The Clandestine Cake Club is such a brilliant concept. Across the UK, happy bakers meet up at a location that is kept secret until the very last minute, each bringing with them a fabulous cake to share. You can find out more about it on their website or facebook page.

So now to the recipe. I decided to bake Lynn Hill's Strawberry Swiss Roll from the book.

1. Firstly, beat 3 egg whites (keep the yolks for later) and 30g of caster sugar until soft peaks form.
Set aside.........

2. With an electric mixer, beat the 3 egg yolks with 140g caster sugar until light, fluffy and doubled in volume..........

3. Mix in the scraped seeds of 1 vanilla pod.

4. Fold in 2/3 of the egg white mixture, then 100g of self-raising flour, and finally the remaining egg white mixture, until thoroughly combined.

5. Pour into a greased and lined swiss roll tin (32 x 23 cm) and bake at 180 for 10 to 12 minutes.....

6. Leave to cool in tin for a few minutes.........

7. Lay a tea towel on your bench top and then a large sheet of baking paper on top. Tip your sponge onto the paper sheet and gently peel off the sheet of paper from the bottom of the cooked cake.
Now beginning from the short side, roll up your cake so that it is rolled with the paper. Then roll the tea towel around the cake log. Leave to cool completely.

Making the filling........
You will need one punnet of strawberries (or 2 if you want extras for decorations)

1. Pop about 1/3 of a punnet into a food processor with a little icing sugar for sweetness, and whizz until you have a lovely pink puree (do you like my mini processor? It's perfect for jobs like this!).......
Pour through a sieve so you have a lovely smooth strawberry syrup.

2. Whip 300ml of cream with a heaped tablespoon of icing sugar and a dash of vanilla.
Spread the cream over your cold and unrolled sponge and then drizzle the strawberry syrup over the cream.......

3. Thinly slice the remaining strawberries and sprinkle them all over the top.....

4. Now the fun bit - roll that baby up! Because it has cooled in the rolled up position, this is really easy. If you find that you have over-stuffed it (like I always do....lol) just push those stray bits back in :)

Dust your cake with icing sugar and if you like, decorate with more strawberries......

I have a son who doesn't believe in dessert without chocolate, so for his benefit I added some chocolate dipped strawberries...... YUM! .........

And voila! A stunning looking dessert or afternoon tea that is really quite simple to make.
A big thank you to Lynn Hill and the Clandestine Cake Club, UK.

Does this put you in a baking mood?
We'd love you to join in our baking fun.
Please comment below and feel free to share your pics via our email (vera@auntyverascrapandcraft.com.au), on twitter, or on our facebook page or our Crafty Facebook Group

Wishing you a lovely, crafty and yummy weekend
Aunty Vera :)

25 Days of Christmas - Day 15 - Jingle All the Way

Hi Crafty Bloggers

Christmas is just around the corner and if you're anything like me, your Christmas Card Making is in full swing as you squeeze in those last few cards that you can make before you put away the Christmas papers...... oh, who am I kidding? The Christmas papers are ALWAYS out in Aunty Vera Land! (lol)

I saw this fabulous card on pinterest that I just HAD to scraplift... especially since I had purchased the Sleigh Ride Edgelits Dies from my favourite Stampin' Up Demonstrator.... the lovely Deb from A Time to Stamp. The card is from Carolina Evans' blog and it's just GORGEOUS!

I had some sheets of white vellum with silver stars printed on it, and thought it would be perfect for a card like this.
So here is my take on it.......

Oops - did you notice the ink smudge? Can I pretend it's part of the design? ;)
I cut the village layer from white glitter card.... I love that sparkly look (and feel!).....

I just adore the tree layer..... it can be used for so many occasions. Really cute!

And a little sparkle from another Stampin' Up product - Winter Wonderland Embellishments. I love them so much I'm sticking them on EVERYTHING!.........

...... I even used a few to embellish my phone case!

One card down...... now, how many more to make?

Thank you for joining us today.
Aunty Vera :)

25 Days of Christmas 2015 - Day 5 - Recycled Christmas Cards Folio

Happy Saturday Crafty Bloggers!

Yesterday, I showed you the upcycled Christmas cards and gift tags that I made for my neighbour using her old collection of cards that she finally decided to get rid of.

Today I'd like to show you the folio that I made to hold the cards and tags.
In keeping with my recycle theme, the folio itself is made out of packaging from a crafty product (the packing from a Kaisercraft 12x12 stencil in fact). I then decorated it using mainly papers and stickers from my "stash" ..... this is a "I'm not going to buy anything new" project. Well - almost. I was tempted to use a roll of the new Kaisercraft glitter tape. But more on that later.

Here's the folio......

(The cover paper is from Bo Bunny's Silver and Gold collection)

And here is an inside view. I kept it pretty simple as the cards and tags once put into the pockets will really busy it up...........

This is why I love label stickers......

The spine and edges I covered with Kaisercraft's new Glitter Tape.

SO - here's the thing with this glitter tape......... it's great if you are using it on a flat paper surface. It will stick, but is also very repositionable.
HOWEVER - once you start to use it on anything tricky, dimensional or folded....... like the spine of a mini album....... not so great! I found that it just kept coming unstuck. And not just little bits at the edges or corners.... the entire length would just pop right off. Even though it feels sticky when you touch it, the stickiness is nowhere near strong enough to hold the tape down for heavy duty use. Adding glue to the backing didn't work either. I ended up using X-press It double-sided tape and that seems to hold it down well. Though defeats the purpose of self-adhesive tape if you need to add adhesive to it. Just saying :-/

And here is my folio, stuffed full with cards and tags. I'm actually thinking of adding an extra little pocket to one of the larger pockets...... to hold postage stamps! What do we think?

So that's my recycling project all done.
I'd love to hear about YOUR Christmas recycling craft!

Enjoy the weekend
Aunty Vera :)