Saturday, December 29, 2012

More 34th Street

Here are some more layouts I made using the SC kit 34th Street and addons. For the first layout I used this pin for inspiration:


The circle stamps come from various SC kits, and the badge is from this Etsy shop.

The second layout I made for the Sunday Sketch challenge at SC, last week.



For those of you who don't know anything about the Swedish Saint Lucia celebration here's a silly little instruction video!

/Magdalena

Friday, December 21, 2012

December Daily days 8-13

I have been caught up digitally but have been waiting for the 34th Street kit from Studio Calico to arrive. I needed the handbook and the smooth cardstock for printing. Now it's here and I've been able to print out what was already waiting in my PC.










 For more details and close ups, see this post in the SC gallery!

/Magdalena


Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Start Here class

Who else is taking Lisa Truesdell's Start Here class? I downloaded the files the same day the class was released on Two Peas and I just love it. So many great contributors, too! For me the design part is what I need the most. That is where I usually get stuck. I made this layout from the art journal sketch that Lisa and Marcy Penner used.




Materials: SC 34th Street kit, Penn Station add-on, 34th Street printable labels and Gold glitter Zing!

/Magdalena

Friday, December 14, 2012

Spicy nuts

I make these spicy nuts every December. They are so good!They're not hot, just spicy. If you like them hot just add more cayenne pepper.


Ingredients:

  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1 tsp chili powder (I use ancho)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 eggwhites
  • 2 cups mixed nuts
How to:

Heat oven to 200 C or 400 F. Mix the spices, salt and sugar in a bowl. Lightly whisk the eggwhites and pour over spices. Add the nuts and stir. Put a baking sheet on an oven tin and spread the mix out over the sheet. Roast in oven for 15-20 min. You need to stir the nuts a few times during roasting. I set my timer for every 5 min. Let cool.


/Magdalena

Thursday, December 13, 2012

DD days 5-7

Here is another December Daily post! I feel confident I will finish this mini before the end of January. That is the deadline I have set up for myself. Right now I'm held back by my SC December kit arrival. I need a new pack of More Solar White cardstock. Don't miss out on that cardstock in the Card Kit section. It's perfect for printables, stamping and photo printing. 





/Magdalena

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Saffron buns

I have been asked to share my recipe for traditional Swedish saffron buns. These are a must at every Swedish Christmas dessert table but also with the four Sundays of advent and our Saint Lucia celebration ofcourse, which is December 13th. They are often served with gingerbread cookies. I prefer those undecorated with a slice of Brie cheese on top. Try it if you haven't! Blue cheese works well, too. I drifted off topic... Here's my saffron buns recipe - not be served with Brie!

For Swedish readers, I use this recipe: (click on picture)


For the rest of you here it is:

Ingredients: 
  • 50 g fresh yeast
  • 150 g butter
  • 1 g saffron
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 cups milk (pref. high fat)
  • 250 g  1%fat quark (read about it here)
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • approx. 7 cups of flour
For baking:
  • 1 egg
  • raisins
Comments on ingredients: I'm sure you can use dry yeast too, but I haven't tried it. Just read the package for amounts and instructions. Quark is a type of smooth, unsalted soft cheese. I'm sure you can find something to use instead, if you can't find it. Maybe sour cream? The amount should be about 3/4 of a cup. Read the link above and see what you can make of it. About the raisins, they are supposed to be used for decoration. Noone in my family likes raisins so we just leave them out.

Instructions:
  1. Crumble the yeast into a large bowl. . Melt the butter. Add the saffron to the melted butter. Add the milk and heat until body temperature. (That's 37 C or 98,6 F)
  2. Add a bit of the fluid to the yeast and stir until dissolved. Add the rest of the fluid, sugar, quark and salt. Add most of the flour a little bit at a time until it seems managable. You'll have to judge this for yourself! Add more flour if needed, but as little as possible. The less flour you use the better the buns will turn out.  Run it in you kitchen aid for 5 minutes OR if you don't have one call in help. I hold the bowl down and my husband beats the dough like a madman until all energy runs out. That works just as well! Sprinkle some flour on the dough and cover with a kitchen towel. Let the dough rise in the bowl in a warm place until it's doubled in size. That takes about 45-60 minutes. 
  3. Sprinkle some flour on your baking table and work the dough some more. Divide into equal parts (makes about 30 buns). To make the traditional Swedish saffron buns you roll the piece of dough into a sausage shape maybe 8 " long. Then roll each end inwards anti-clockwise to make a curled up reversed S-shape. (Look at the top left of the picture above) Put baking sheets on your tins and let the buns rise under a kitchen towel for another 30 mins. Heat up your oven. The recipe calls for 225 C but I only heat it to 200 C. You know your own oven best!
  4. Beat an egg with a fork in a drinking glass and brush allover the buns. (If you want raisins add them in the middle of the curls before brushing with the egg.)
  5. Bake in oven for about 8 minutes. They should be lightly brown on the surface, look at the picture above. Let cool on a metal grid between kitchen towels. 
If you ever try this recipe I'd love to know how it went! Share on Insta perhaps?

/Magdalena

Saturday, December 8, 2012

December Daily days 2-4

I keep on working with the Paislee Press digi kit that I mentioned on an earlier post. It's so perfect and easy to use.





Thank you for visiting!

/Magdalena

Thank you cards

I'm not a cardmaker at all, but I wanted to send out a few thank you cards to the people that came to celebrate my birthday. I've Jen Jockisch' cards in the SC gallery very inspiring. Just adding a mish mash of things that look good together. A perfect way to use up scraps. Here are three of the cards I've made to send out:




Materials: SC Sock Hop kit and add-ons, November shop items (Dear Lizzy and BG),SC diecut frames and the SC kit Roller Rink printables

/Magdalena

Sunday, December 2, 2012

December Daily

Like I've written earlier I'm going very simple with this year's December Daily. I found these amazing templates and printables at Paislee Press.

Here's my December 1st spread:



/Magdalena

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Skulls on Etsy

There is a thread on the Studio Calico forum discussing gifts for  men. I decided to do a search on Etsy because I know some guys who like skulls. Here is some cool things I found: 
(clicking on the images will take you to the shop)

One quirky skull pillow

a vintage look pillow case

a chalkboard skull


a handpainted skull king poster

AND... one for the ladies too
a skull cut-out shirt


I've got what I need, now you go shop!

/Magdalena

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

November

Fall is my favorite photography season. I love the colors! I made a layout using photo strips with some random fall photos I took this month.



While searching Pinterest for December Daily inspiration I came across this pin. I started playing with triangles of paper and a photo I took at Halloween, but it changed into something completely different. This is how it turned out:


 
 
Materials: Studio Calico Sock Hop kit and addons 2,3 &4, Elle's studio tag, SC wood veneer circles, Prima chalk ink in Tin Can, Versamark ink in Onyx Black, Mister Huey's in Opaque White
 
 
/Magdalena

Monday, November 19, 2012

Neglected

This blog has been neglected lately. I have been dealing with severe stress and some health issues following that. I'd like to update a bit more often in the future. I have been a bit slow in putting my December Daily kit together. Some of the items I plan to use are in my cart at Studio Calico right now. Hopefully they will stay in there and arrive with my next kit in mid December. I'm planning to keep up, so I will have to do without those things in the beginning.

I'm going very simple this year. I made a page for my daughter's baby album that gave me a feel of what I want to do in this year's DD:



I have also come across some nice products while surfing around the web. Here are some: (all pictures are links)

 
 
 
 
I have also started a December Daily board on Pinterest. 

/Magdalena

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Halloween photos

Just a quick note on Picmonkey's Halloween features. Very cool effects to work with. Check out what I made:


/Magdalena

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Roller Rink

I shopped like mad this month with the new Roller Rink kit at Studio Calico. I decided I could have all the add-ons as a 40th birthday present. Plus a whole lot of shop items... Very unlike me, but I'll enjoy it for a month. The first box arrived in NINE days. Unbelievably quick! It contained the main kit plus add-ons 2 (Couple's Skate) and 3 (Crack the Whip). I sterted out making these two layouts:

This one has a quote I found on a piece of toiletpaper. I love how the pink chevrons look like feathers cut up.



This is a lift of a layout I made with the Summer of '69 kit:



/Magdalena

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

A conflict

I'm sure some people always get the most postive feedback on their favorite scrapbooking layouts. And then there are some others, like me, who rarely like the ones best that gets the most comments in the galleries. It's a funny thing. It almost never adds up for me. And I'll be honest and say that it causes a bit of conflict in me. I don't want to be on a DT ( I tried it and it was too stressful for me) and being published is nice, but not that important to me either. But I do like getting positive feedback. I love all the sweet comments I get in the SC gallery. And I love when people tell me exactly what it is they like about my work, because it's nice to find out what your strong sides are. So at times I struggle with the dilemma of making what I, and a few likeminded, enjoy looking at and what usually gets more attention.

What I like about a layout is when it really feels like me. I decided to look back at my SC kit layouts of this year, to see which layout got the most comments and which one is my favorite from that particular kit. It would be fun to see if ever the two are the same! So here goes:

County Fair
 most comments       my fave

Daydream Believer

Story Hour
most comments                           my fave

City of Lights
most comments          my fave

  35 mm    
most comments           my fave

So Cal
most comments           my fave

Elmwood Park
most comments         my fave

Summer of '69
 most comments      my fave

/Magdalena