Get Picky Sketch Challenge #3

My first-ever challenge! Here's my take on it:

Used papers from SEI's moonrise collection and Street Lace, 3D effect stickers from KCK and some dried flowers. I changed the orientation of the layout but followed the rest quite closely. Here's some close-ups:

Dried flowers and 3D butterfly

Folded accordion-styled floweers and added a button on top

Photos were taken during a recent trip to Cameron Highlands and I thought it suited this nature-themed design

Original sketch

P/S. I feel that I really need to rant about this. I took many pictures on my digital camera but when I wanted to upload them via USB, the battery died on me! Being the smart me, I took out the memory card from my camera and tried to insert it into this card reader slot on my laptop. Turns out that it got stuck inside the hole and my laptop cannot even start up now! Dear Lord. I quickly took new pictures from my iPhone and wrote this entry with my very slow-functioning notebook. Quality and colour of photos turned out to be slightly different. Alas, I'm indeed such a noob techie!! =(

Chocolate Lava Cake

Spent my afternoon doing something different today- baking! You got it. It's not something that I do often but I decided it's time to get in touch with my domesticated self, especially since it's the holiday season now. Haha :) A friend introduced me to this delicious-looking and more importantly, simple, Chocolate Lava Cake recipe from Noobcook and I decided to try my hand at it- for the second time. The insructions are easy enough to follow but I think the tricky part lies in catching hold of the right timing while baking the cakes. Recipe stated to leave the cakes in the oven for about 10 minutes, my friend took only 8 minutes. I, on the other hand, pop it into the oven for only 6 minutes during my first attempt and it turned out to be a little too long, hence no chocolate lava oozing out :( This time round, I tried for about four and a half minutes and it was just nice :) Could still cut it to 4 minutes though. I think the reason is because I used those chicken pot pie metal cups instead of ramekins and heat travels faster.


Fresh out from the oven!

 

Served with 2 scoops of vanilla ice-cream at the side.



Sinfully delicious :)



Choloate Lava Cake Recipe

Ingredients
(makes three 6-oz ramekin cakes)
- 100g dark chocolate (example, Cadbury Old Gold 70% cocoa), cut to small cubes
- 100g unsalted butter, cut to small cubes
- 2 eggs
- 50g caster sugar
- 20g self-raising flour

To decorate (optional)
- icing sugar and small sieve
- berries
- vanilla ice cream

Additional tools needed
- spatula
- electric whisk (hand-held)
- oven safe ramekins (6-8 oz)

Directions
1. Melt dark chocolate and butter using either the microwave (see cooking note 3), a hot water bath or a double boiler (note: do not use direct stove heat or the ingredients will burn).
2. In a large bowl, use an electric whisk (you can whisk by hand too but it’s more tedious) to beat the eggs and sugar till the mixture turns pale and frothy. This will take a few minutes.
3. Pour melted chocolate/butter you prepared in step 1, into the egg mixture prepared in step 2. Stir in the flour. Use a spatula to mix everything evenly.
4. Grease your ramekins with some melted butter (so that the cake will come off cleanly when it is baked). Fill the ramekin almost 3/4 full with the chocolate mixture and bake in a preheated oven of 180C (356F) for about 10 minutes. Mine took exactly 11 minutes. The cake is deliberately slightly undercooked so as to achieve its ideal consistency which is runny in the middle (hence the name fondant/molten/chocolate lava) but if you over-bake it, you will get a super moist chocolate cake which is yummy too.
5. When it is baked, remove ramekin from oven and let cool for 1-2 minutes. Use a spoon to gently loosen the edges. Carefully invert the cake onto serving plate.
6. Serving suggestion: Use a sieve to dust icing sugar over the cake. Serve a scoop of vanilla ice cream and some berries at the side.

A Winter Wonderland

Been rather busy with this little Christmas project of mine- inspired by Mom. Idea was to create this small, Winterland corner so I started making some ornaments- a pair of stockings, a snowman and a Christmas tree. I used glitter foam to sew 2 pairs of stockings and sewed a ribbon on top of each of the stockings. While I was wandering around Popular, I saw a snowman kit and couldn't resist getting one too.

The Christmas tree was made up of congregated board and Christmas deco stickers which I pasted onto foam bits for a more 3D effect. Also added cotton wool around the borders of the tree to create a more snowy effect. I folded a piece of cardboard paper into a box and used it as the tree trunk. Added strips of ribbon to it too.

I also bought some ornametal balls and added glitter on them. Did I forget to mention that I can't live without glitter glue? :) Oh, not to forget the reindeer plushie which I could not resist getting while doing some Christmas shopping. It has 2 faces! I gathered all the ornaments together and laid them on a wooden table with a layer of wrapping paper and creep paper on top. And... here's the end result!



Ever-first post

Hello! My techie-challenged self has relented and I've finally gotten around to starting a blog which chronicles my scrapbooking journey. *pleased smile to self* Have been reading God-knows-how-many SB blogs for the whole of today and I'm already going blurry-eyed. BUT they are all so inspiring and I can't wait to start!

Am going to first start gathering  the many-many scrap materials that I need, clear out a little scrap-corner for myself and start working on some simple layouts. Tried signing up for classes at MFL but the December slots were already all filled up =( Lady there told me that I would have to wait for the January classes. Meanwhile, I'll try to play around with whatever I have.

First Resolution for 2011: Post an entry at least once a week and stay committed.