Speshal Blog Dare Week #38

Like I said earlier, I am so excited! I have been invited onto the DT over at the Speshal Dares blog. I have joined a lot of my fave UK Scrappers over there, such a talented, inspiring AND friendly bunch of girls. Thanks so much, it means a lot (especially after the demise of the mag Creative Scrapbooking).

The theme for this week was the Kitchen.

Now,I’m not very domesticated and I’m not the sort who goes all ga-ga over the latest must-have gadget – cheap and cheerful for me – so long as it does the job! I used to love cooking, pre-kid days, but since all three have learned to say ‘NO!’ to different foods, getting a meal together that all five of us will eat in (almost) totality, is incredibly hard. One of the few is a good traditional roast dinner. I totally fail at roast beef so we mainly stick to lamb or chicken, occasionally with a wonderful ham thrown into the mix. Regardless of what meat we have though, the kids insist on having Yorkshire Puddings to accompany. You know. Simple recipe. Nothing to it. A cinch. Not me!

So I decided to take a light-hearted approach to this week’s theme and created a layout, complete with journaling in the form of a letter to celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s column in a newspaper supplement.

The journaling is a central part to this page so I have copied and pasted it below:

Dear Jamie

Help me please! I am a desperate woman! I am 42 and can still not make Yorkshire Puddings.

I have resorted to shop bought ones over the last few years, but, recently, empty shelves and insistent kids, meant I tried to make my own yet again. I have followed the recipe in my Be-Ro book to the letter and yet mine still come out of the oven all flat and sad and undercooked on the inside, even though they are a lovely golden brown on the outside.

Is there any salvation for me after all this time, or should I revert to buying them from Sainsbury’s?

Products and Techniques:

Cardstock, Paper Adventures Two Toned (blue) and Bazzill (brown and cream)
Patterned Cardstock, SEI, Winnie’s Walls collection
Patterned Paper, Making Memories, ledger collection
Phrase Stickers, Making Memories
Letter Stickers, American Crafts, Boxer Industries, Doodlebug
Chipboard Letter, Heidi Swapp
Ribbon, All My Memories
Stamp, Rhonna Farrer for Autumn Leaves
Ink, Stazon and Colorbox
Paint, Making Memories
Buttons, brads and flower, various

I used my circle cutter to make an off-centred circle frame, decorative scalloped edge scissors to shape around and finally my faithful hammer and hole punch to create all those holes. The over-sized bracket was handcut from chipboard, painted, sanded slightly then raised on foam pads. Just a couple of flowers were handcut from patterned paper and the edges defined with a journaling pen. And of course, no layout of mine at the moment is complete without the odd button scattered around!

The tag behind the photo gives the Yorkshire Pudding recipe on one side and, on the other, a bit of information on Jamie Oliver.

I had such fun with this theme; it's definitely not something I would have thought about commemorating without the challenge - so roll up your sleeves, put on your pinny (crafting one, of course) and cook up something yourself (groan at the pun, sorry, but it was just begging to be made :D)