A Dinosaur Train Birthday Party - Gluten Free Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Brownies/Fossil Dig Slice

Benjamin wanted a Dinosaur Train themed birthday party and since it was his day, I wanted to treat him to be able to eat anything he wanted.  I have posted A Dinosaur Train Birthday Party - The Food & Healthy Eating showing the foods we chose and knew would be eaten by everyone.  The following posts are the recipes we used to enhance the theme of a Dinosaur Train Party, complimented with character specific food labels designed using Stampin' Up! My Digital Studio. 

The Fossil Dig Slice was Gluten Free Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Brownie, the nuts looking like fossils buried in mud...

The Fossil Dig Slice was one of the Gluten Free foods offered at Ben's Dinosaur Train Birthday Party.

This recipe is one of my own, so I do hope you enjoy it

INGREDIENTS
180g organic butter or Nutlex softened
225g Dark chocolate or dairy free replacement
         (we use Lindt 85% and it does not seem to make us sick)
1/3 cup organic Rice Milk
3 lge organic Eggs
1 cup organic Gluten Free plain Flour
1/4 tsp Gluten Free Baking powder
1/2 cup organic Almond Meal
1 cup organic Rapadura or sugar of your choice
1/2 organic Cacao powder
1 cup Organic Raw Macadamia nuts chopped into quarters

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 150 - 180 degree Celsius (depends on your oven really and if it is fan forced or not)
2. In a double boiler melt chocolate and butter together until smooth and there are no lumps
3. Combine to a uniform dry ingredient mix,  flour, nut meal, sugar, baking powder and cacao in a bowl
4. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add eggs and milk
5. Lightly whisk the eggs and milk together without adding too much of the dry ingredients
6. To the well add the melted butter and chocolate and mix well
7. Add Macadamia nuts and mix through the mixture until evenly distributed
8. Pour into a prepared square cake tin
9. Bake for 40 mins or until cooked
10. Cool on wire rack

This is Pete's sister's favourite brownie recipe, hope this becomes one of your too.
Love and kisses

A Dinosaur Train Birthday Party - Gluten Free Chocolate volcano cakes

Benjamin wanted a Dinosaur Train themed birthday party and since it was his day, I wanted to treat him to be able to eat anything he wanted.  I have posted A Dinosaur Train Birthday Party - The Food & Healthy Eating showing the foods we chose and knew would be eaten by everyone.  The following posts are the recipes we used to enhance the theme of a Dinosaur Train Party, complimented with character specific food labels designed using Stampin' Up! My Digital Studio. 

The Exploding Volcano Cakes were Gluten Free friands with coloured icing dripped from the tops...


Gluten Free Chocolate volcano cakes

This recipe is one from my dearest friend Sue.  She inspires me in the food department... inspires or corrupts, you tell me after you have tried these beautiful Gluten Free Chocolate cakes.

INGREDIENTS
150gms organic butter or Nuttlex melted
1 1/3 cup pure gluten free Icing Sugar sifted
1 cup organic almond meal
1/3 cup hazelnut meat
1/2 cup cacao
5 egg whites whisked until peaks form
1 tsp Pure Vanilla extract

METHOD
Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius (fan forced)
Mix icing sugar, cacao and nut meals in a bowl until well combined
Mix through melted butter and vanilla
Gently fold through whisked egg whites
Pour into friend / muffin tin
Bake for 10-15 minutes or until cooked
Ice or dust with icing sugar or cacao.

These were my sweet chocolate treats I lived on for many years before having the confidence to experiment with cooking.  Enjoy and let me know what you think.

Reverse Masking with Stampin' Up! dies

Stampin' Up!'s "Beautiful Butterfly Bigz"die enables the crafter to cut out four different sized butterflies.  This was my favourite die as it the enabled the crafter to cut out the butterfly shapes out of various materials and use them in various creations.  The negative - material left over after cutting out the butterflies can be used as well;  as a mask to use in reverse masking.  If you have not undertaken reverse masking before than please watch THIS You Tube video by Deb Valder.


A Crafty Cat: Stampin' Up! Beautiful Butterfly BigZ

These cards were created by stamping Whisper White cardstock with the Stampin' Up! background stamp En Francais and then reverse masking using the butterfly negative and sponging in the void with coordinating Stampin' Up! colours.


This beautiful card was created in class was by Rose Christian

A Crafty Cat: Stampin' Up! Beautiful Butterfly BigZ

 This card features the colours of Rich Razzleberry cardstock and Perfect Plum stamping...


A Crafty Cat: Stampin' Up! Beautiful Butterfly BigZ

Reverse masking gives such a beautiful soft effect, and is so easy to do.  Leave a comment and let me know what you've used as a reverse mask!

Thank you for dropping by, hope to see you again soon. 
Happy crafting,
Love

Stampin' Up! Tag Punch

The "scalloped tag topper" punch from Stampin' Up! is s versatile and a must have tool in your crafting kit as it can be used in scrapbooking, as a highlight or focal point on cards, a small gift bag or as a tag.  Decorate it as you wish and be inspired by these gift bag and tag creations by my A Crafty Cat customers...

In Marina Mist and Night of Navy, the tag bag and coordinating tag are beautiful creations by Rose.

Rose's tag was just enchanting, so a closer look...





 

Rose moistened the card and scrunched it up before colouring with sponges to create a beautiful background on which her flowers and butterfly sat.

 

Affectionately called "the kid" made this set...

Rich Razzleberry is always a popular choice...

 



 Tammy created this set...

Marina Mist ink and card stock made for a lovely matching set.



The tag was distressed and inked with Stampin' Up! Marina Mist.

 Coupled with Papillion Potpourri butterfly highlights amongst flowers created by using "Flower shop" and "Petite Petals" you can create gift bags and tags as gorgeous as these and those presented in my previous post that you can see HERE.

Happy crafting as you stay warm,
love

Stampin' Up! Ahoy Matey Boy's Birthday Card 2

Pirate parties are so much fun, and thanks to Stampin' Up! Ahoy Matey stamp set, you can create a variety of cards for your child's pirate friend.  This set can also be used to make cup cake toppers, banners and more...

Our son attended a 4th Birthday party earlier this year and here are just some of the cards I created, the rest detailed in the first post of this two part post.  To see the other cards click HERE


Stampin' Up! Ahoy Matey on Pool Party

The background card was embossed with Stampin' Up! exclusive embossing folder Alphabet Press and then lightly sponged over with Soft Suede...

Stampin' Up! Ahoy Matey

I used the gorgeous new Stampin' Up! chalk markers to colour the sails in white - do love these

Stampin' Up! Ahoy Matey

A close up of the effect of the Stampin' Up! Aplhabet Press embossing...

Stampin' Up! Alphabet Press Embossing Folder

 I used Stampin' Up! Cloud and Wood-grain Embossing Folders for the background of this card...

Stampin' Up! Ahoy Matey

Stampin' Up! A Fitting Occasion, is a purrrfect addition to any Stamp collection as it enables you to add a greeting in a different way...

Stampin' Up! A Fitting Occasion

I love to pull out my "golden oldies" from my retired boxes and create a suit of cards.  Which is your favourite of the cards in the two posts - I would be interested to know.

Happy crafting

Stampin' Up! Ahoy Matey Boy's Birthday Card 1

Young boys love pirates and several years ago Stampin' Up! released the purrrfect pirate stamp set - "Ahoy Matey."  My son's best friend Julian turned four earlier this year and I made a suit of pirate cards from which I chose one to give to him.

This was the one our family gave to Julian...  the set's accessories were stamped on Pool Party and the coordinating rollergraph was run on Very Vanilla and sponged roughly to give the appearance of an aged map.

Stampin' Up! "Ahoy Matey"

The pirate and ship was stamped on Whisper white and confetti white respectively and coloured with Stampin' Up! markers.  I thought the parrot was cute and the treasure chest with map... 

Stampin' Up! "Ahoy Matey"

I added sand dots to the greeting using the fine tip of the Stampin' Up! markers. 

Stampin' Up! "Ahoy Matey"

 

I embossed the Pool Party background with clouds and woodgrain Stampin' Up! Embossing Folders  to achieve this card...

Stampin' Up! "Ahoy Matey"

From a different angle and a different light source...

Stampin' Up! "Ahoy Matey"

I wanted to use a different greeting  format and came up with this - Stampin' Up! A Fitting Occasion for the greeting and the accessory of the Ahoy Matey for the centre highlight...

Stampin' Up! "Ahoy Matey"

 

I embossed the background of Crumb Cake again with clouds and the woodgrain embossing folders to achieve this card...

Stampin' Up! "Ahoy Matey"

Colouring is so effective...and love the banner for the greeting...

Stampin' Up! "Ahoy Matey"

Creating boy's cards is so easy, use earthy and bold colours and one stamp set cam be transformed into a suit of wonderful cards.  So many so be sure to check out the next post as there are more card creations with the Ahoy Matey set.

 

Happy crafting