Hero Hostess Summer Picnic Blog Hop!!!

Welcome to the Hero Hostess Summer Picnic Hop!

Today is the forth day of the hop, I hope you have enjoyed it so far!!

I was thrilled to be asked to be part of another Hero Hostess blog hop, as they say 'once a hostess always a hostess' and Hero Arts are such a great company that its always a fun to be part of these events!!

 Hero Arts will be awarding prizes from randomly drawn comments. For a chance to win, simply comment on ANY of the stops along the hop on ANY day, including each day’s starting post at the Hero Club Blog. The more comments you leave, the better your chance of winning!

 If you find a broken link, you'll find a master list of the hop links at the Hero Arts Club Blog. Also, please report broken links to: blog@heroarts.com.

• Your next stop on the Hero Arts Hostess Blog Hop is the very talented Marcy

at http://enpapillotearts.blogspot.co.uk/

My card is more about the beautiful countryside in the summer rather that a picnic design, I thought the Painted Flower (K5767) stamp looked so like a poppy that I used it to make this one layer card.  I kept thinking of the ripened corn fields with all the gorgeous poppies that we see in the UK.  The one layer also reflects this months HA challenge.  I used low tac masking tape round the edges then stamped the flower with distress inks, masked the flower and added the Silhouette Grass (S5316).  I am going to add a sentiment when I use the card.

I got a bit carried away and made a second card featuring the lovely 'Kite' stamp in the Picnic clear set (Cl599)



I have paper pieced the kites and layered onto a base made from the Postcard Stamp (S5665) and Tweed Background (S5654).

And now for my picnic recipe, its a vegetarian pie that can be eaten hot or cold so perfect for those summer days when you take the family out. 

Goats Cheese and Walnut Tarts

Serves 6.

Can be made ahead and frozen as a raw pie, just cook when needed.

Ingredients.

125g (4 ½oz) spinach leaves

150g ( 5oz) soft goats cheese

2 shallots chopped

50g (2oz) walnuts, roughly chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

1½ tsp honey

500g pack puff pastry

120g log rinded goats cheese

1egg beaten

You will need a 4¾ inch pastry cutter

1. Heat oven to 200C, 180C fan oven or Gas mark 6
2. Wilt the spinach in a pan, squeeze out water and chop.  Mix with the soft goats cheese and season.
3. In a pan cook shallots and walnuts in the oil until softened, season and add honey.
4. Roll out pastry and cut 12 rounds, place 6 rounds on a large oiled baking sheet.
5. Spoon on the spinach mixture followed by a round of the rind cheese and a spoon of the walnut mix.
6. Put on the other six pastry rounds as lids and seal, brush with beaten egg and cut a slit in the top. Bake for 10 t0 15 minutes until golden brown.
7. Serve hot or take on a picnic and serve with a salad.
8. The perfect vegetarian summer pie!!

Lastly I would like to do a little give away to celebrate summer and to thank you all for taking the time to visit my blog and leave me comments. I would love it if you came a follower of my blog but its not essential. I will make a drawing on Saturday but as I am going on holiday on Sunday morning I will not be able to post it out till I get back.

Hero Arts Blog Hop!!!

I am so thrilled to be part of the annual Hero Arts Hostess Blog Hop again this year, Hero Arts have a special place in my heart as, finding the HA flickr group was the start of my passion for stamping!!  I hope you are having fun visiting my fellow Hosti's blogs and seeing  the amazing creations, all featuring stamps from the new 2013 release.

Hero Arts will be awarding prizes from randomly drawn comments.  For a chance to win simply comment on any day including each days starting post at the Hero Arts Club Blog.  The more comments you leave the better your chance of winning!
If you find a broken link, you will find a master list of the hop links at the Hero Arts Club Blog. Also please report the link to Tami.

 Its now Day three of this amazing hop and you should have arrived here from Lin's fabulous Blog.
I have had lots of fun creating cards for this hop so my post is quite long !!

My first card features the  clear set  "New Baby"  and also "Pinstripes "Background".  I have stamped and embossed in white the Pinstripes horizontally and vertically to create a check background which I have then coloured in with copics.

Next I made a set of Thank You cards using the new "Jumping Flowers" stamp the "Say it all " sentiment set and Shadow inks in, Orange Soda, Raspberry Jam, Tide Pool and Grape Juice.

Sorry for the poor photographs but the weather has be dark and overcast lately.

For my last two cards I have used perhaps, my favourite new stamp "Looped Flower Pattern" cling.

For the background I inked the stamp with Bundled Sage and Faded Jeans distress ink spritzed with water and stamped, I then distressed with the same inks and a Distressing sponge. The "Jumping Flowers " are stamped in Tide Pool Ink and highlighted with my Distress Markers. The sentiment is the C5594 woodblock sentiment stamp.

And for my final card I stamped and embossed in white the "Looped Flower Pattern" onto pale blue cardstock. The sentiment is from an old HA set CL148 "Happiness Messages" and the butterfly is from the "Antique Engravings" set.

I hope you have enjoyed visiting my blog,  now you need to hop along and visit Marcy's gorgeous blog.
Have fun and thanks for all your comments!!!