Banana Crumb Muffins

To celebrate the beginning of my semester break I decided to bake yesterday afternoon. Okay, I must admit that that was only half of my reason. My best friend had been boasting about his alleged "amazing Nigella Lawson's 'Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake'" he'd baked the day before, so of course I stepped up to the unspoken challenge, ready to trump his cake with my newly discovered muffin recipe - 'Banana Crumb Muffins'! I've shared the link for both recipes in the text above, and here is the full recipe for my delicious muffins - mine definitely trumped his cake :)

Ingredients

Muffin Mix

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 white sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup butter, melted (~80g)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Crumb Topping

1/4 cup white sugar
3 Tablespoons flour
1/8 cup butter, cubed (~30g)
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180'C. Prepare muffin tin with paper liners.

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.

3. Mash bananas with sugar, egg and melted butter in a large bowl. Fold in flour mixture, and mix until smooth. Pour batter into prepared muffin tin.

4. In a small bowl, mix together the crumb topping. Liberally sprinkle it over the tops of the muffins while the batter is still raw. (I'm all for the CRUNCH factor :D)

5. Bake for 20-25min (mine took less - keep an eye on them, but you want them golden to caramelize the sugar in the crumb topping mixture), or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let them cool on a wire rack.

6. Lastly, and most importantly, ENJOY!

This has been entered into Lisa's 'Sweets for a Saturday' party! Check out the others' recipes on her blog. Just click this link.

From My Heart

Here's the card I made today for the Mojo Monday sketch this week - 119. Haven't done one of these in a while, hence it's simplicity haha. I hope you drop by, leave me a comment and say hi, so I can do the same in return :)

Happy Tuesday!

Mojo Monday 105

This is a card I made for my closest friend's mum. My friend's 18th is very early next year, and so I want to get started on her present, and let's just say that her mum is AMAZING and hugely sneaky haha - she got me a bunch of photos I requested via my friend's brother + the exchange student from Germany (Elena) who was staying with her for the past 3 weeks. They are such a beautiful family and I just wanted to say thank-you for helping me out with the photos for the soon-to-be scrapbook :) I used the Eastern Blooms set on this card, and adapted my ideas into the Mojo Monday challenge for this week. What a great sketch it was!

Mojo Monday Turns 100

Mojo Monday Turns 100's last sketch for the week of celebration was by Mary. And what a great sketch it was! I am always so picky with cutting out a large number of squares to fit together, because I can never seem to get them perfect. So this time, I just estimated and snipped where I thought appropriate. They're not perfect, but now I can say that they were never supposed to be hahaha :)

PS: Thanks to Sammi for the cute image + paper - I think they have gone to good use!

Happy Weekend!

Mojo Monday Turns 100

This was a fun sketch by Janelle to use :) I created my second Christmas card for the year - I am wayyy behind haha! Find the blog here, and the sketch is below.

Mojo Monday Turns 100

A quick post today of my entry into Sarah's Mojo Monday Turns 100 sketch! And what a fabulous sketch it is. I encourage you all to participate in this weeks Mojo Monday celebrations - there is a new sketch every day until Sunday (I think!). Have a glorious weekend :)

My Grafico Challenge

Steph over at her blog, Papercrafterthoughts is promoting a card challenge for My Grafico to win this cute stamp set by Kelly Medina. All you have to do is create a card which is fruit-inspired. Simple, fun and with a chance to win stamps! What more could you ask for? Definitely take some time to look through Steph's creations...she is simply AWESOME! I know I say this about a lot of people, but I mean it. Steph is oozing talent and creativity. Go see for yourself :)

Here is my card.. I made it immediately as I saw her challenge! You'd better believe it hahaha.

Mojo Monday Week 95

Yep, you read correctly....Merry Christmas! I am not exactly sure why I made a festive card, but I just had a vision, and went with my gut. I really like it :) (I know.. I'm soooo modest LOL!) It was for Mojo Monday Week 95.

Enjoy your weekend.

Mojo Monday Week 93

Haven't done one of these in a while. Mojo Monday Week 93 can be found here. Sometimes the mind is just so fizzled and I'm feeling so uncreative, and mojo-less, that a challenge or in this case, a sketch is just what I need to kick start the card making juices again :) Not sure if the kick wan't good enough this morning, but there's something about this card. It's definitely not something I usually make - colours, patterns, layout, etc. It's not horrific I guess, but I'm not exactly fond of it either. Despite this, you guys ROCK and always find some constructive criticism for my less-than-loved cards!

Drop me a line, and enjoy your weekend folks :)

Mojo Monday Week 86

I had completely forgotten about the Mojo Monday sketches, and so I 'made' some time this evening to make a card for the Week 86 challenge. You can find it here. It is closed, but I thought I'd just have a play around with my inkpads, stamps and paper; items which I had lost contact with for some time now! I really like this card that I made; I feel that it's a bit different to my usual style. Here it is...

Of the cards that I took a peek at, I particularly liked these Mojo Monday submissions:

Tasha; simple lines and bold colours using the SU! Cheers to You set.

Alice; soft colour combo with a kitchen theme - so cute!

Dana; black card base with pinks and greens which pop off the card, quite literally with beautiful tulip stamped images. (definitely my fav!)

Mojo Monday Week 82

I have now subscribed to the Mojo Monday email notifications so that I will be regularly informed of new sketch challenges. I decided to have another crack at a challenge, and created this card for the current Mojo Monday Week 82 sketch. I quite like the card that I made using a cupcake image I received from Marcia a while back, and the added shimmer from some SU! Dazzling Diamonds.

EDIT: New image of the card - sorry for the crappy original one.

Mojo Monday Week 76

This afternoon I was sorting through my VERY messy craft drawer in my desk, where I generally keep all of my 'basic cardmaking needs'. That includes my cutting tools, adhesives, etc.. but tend to be filled with a bunch of off-cuts, ribbon scraps, general rubbish...but today, I found all of the swap images I received last year!! How exciting! I have taken months and months to try and figure out how I could use some of them, but I really cannot find enough creativity to plan a card with them, so keep a look out in your mail boxes :) They're perfectly fine to use.. I mean they're only stamped images...and I would much rather see them go to some use than sit in my VERY messy craft drawer for another 6 months.

Anyway, this is the card I made for an old Mojo Monday challenge; one a few weeks back. I included a close-up shot so you can see the SU! Dazzling Diamonds I used on the bubbles and puddle. Enjoy :)

IDEA: Use the backing foam (which is also adhesive) from your 3D dots sheets. Saves money and actually works heaps better, making the popped up piece more stable.

Mandy Challenge

Every week Mandy sets her blog readers a challenge called, Change it up Tuesday. It is a fantastic idea and she asks you to recreate a card you have previously made, changing the colours of it, whilst maintaining its former glory. Essentially it is a 'CASE Yourself' type of challenge. Anyway, I haven't got around to playing along recently, so I thought that I would give it a go. I CASED a card which I created for Mel's challenge a few days ago. You can find the original card a few posts down. I hope everyone is enjoying their Easter Saturday (Aus) or Good Friday (US) :)

Mojo Monday Week 81

This was my first go at a Mojo Monday challenge, and it was a lot of fun. I have seen some of my favourite bloggers, including Marcia and Keesh participating, but the cards just looked so detailed and WOW that I must say that I was very intimidated. I took the plunge, and gave it a go this morning. I'm not sure if I like my card, with the colours and the combination of embellishments, so I would love your feedback on how I could improve it :) Happy Easter!!

Mel's CASE Challenge

I got it done! It was a lot of fun; one of my favourite challenges I think. Thanks to Mel for a fantastic and creative challenge, that definitely challenged me since I only own ONE set (my all time favourite, Eastern Blooms) from the new catty. But all is good, because I think I like this one :) I CASED the card from page 76 of the Stampin' Up! 2009/10 Idea Book & Catalogue. You can find Mel's challenge here, but be quick because it ends at 7pm Wednesday night!

Change It Up Tuesday

Thanks for another week of you challenge Mandy! Being the same guidelines every week makes it a great 'pick-me-up' for my mojo, because even if I don't make it over to your blog, I know what I have to do to play. Lacking inspiration is my number one problem at the moment, so recreating past cards is a lot of fun, and a lot easier than coming up with new ideas. The original card is >HERE<
I decided to make 2 cards from one of my past cards:


Details
Paper- Regal Rose, River Rock, unknown purple, unknown light pink, unknown sky blue
Ink- Basic Black, Pink Passion, Lovely Lilac
Other- unknown fushia and silver ribbons, SU! chalks (for cheeks and nose)

Melissa's Colour Challenge

Firstly I would like to apologise for the blogging drought on this blog. I have no excuse, except reasons including laziness, camera troubles, lack of creative mojo, laziness, laziness, and oh did I mention laziness?? Hahaha. Enough said, here is the card I made the other day. I thought I had bought a packet of photo tabs/squares, but accidentally bought photo corners...not sure what I think of them on this card, but they give it a new look. What do you think?
I used the blue theme for this card to take part in Mel's challenge. The challenge was to use the beach as inspiration, and for me I used the colour of the sea. Thanks for the challenge Mel!

Have a good one :)

Kristina's Colour Inspiration #36

These challenges always intimidate me...but I thought "well it's 11.47pm on the last day of 2008 so I might as well make the most of it and make the first card of 2009.". I completed it just after the beginning of the new year. Hopefully it sets the year off well :)

I hope everybody enjoyed celebrating the arrival of the new year, whether that was partying it up, watching the fireworks on tv, or catching an early night at 10pm. My plan was the latter, but the second became the reality.
Oh, and here is a dark example of my terrible photography....Carlydog sleeping with her eyes open and her tongue sticking out. She was snoring at the time :)

Have a fantastic first day of 2009!

Mandy & Melissa's Challenges

Today I decided that I would catch up on a couple of challenges. I fulfilled the requirements of Mel's colour challenge, by creating a Christmas card using non-traditional colours; and Mandy's challenge by recreating one of my previous cards, using a different colour scheme. I changed the card from >this<>

Have a fab week :)

Stamp Something Challenge

Stamp Something offers challenges for cardmakers every week. This week the challenge was to create a card using only one layer of cardstock. Yes, a very big challenge for some...aka me! This is what I came up with. It's different, and I made it so quickly!! Click on the image for a larger view :)

(sorry about the poor photo quality)

Have a great weekend!