Friday, August 28, 2009

Lime Meltaways

No crafty stuff today, but I do have some yummy baking goodness! I finally had the urge to bake yesterday after a long break from my beloved stand mixer. I have always wanted to try the Lime Meltaway cookies from the Martha Stewart's Cookies book. I've never had lime in a cookie and since we are approaching the end of citrus season and the limes were on sale I thought now would finally be a good time to bake them!

It was hard to get a decent picture of these, so I apologize for that! Not only are these simple to make, but they are pretty darn tasty! They don't have a strong lime flavor but when you bite into the cookie you do get that hint of lime.


They are also very tender, almost like they can melt in your mouth. Basically you put the dough together, roll it into a log, and then refrigerate it for awhile to chill. Then after about an hour, you cut the logs into 1/4" thick cookies and bake! Once they cool for about 8 minutes you just shake them in some confectioners' sugar.

Ahhh, it felt good to bake again. I have so many recipes I want to try out and I just keep finding more. At least we are approaching fall, and I usually start baking more once the weather turns cooler. My boys also love it when i start baking more...


This was my first attempt at taking the picture, and the little munchkin had to get into the picture to get a closer look. All the while asking me when he was able to get a cookie.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

More on ink pad organization

A while ago I posted about how I store my ink pads, and since they were mainly the small little squares or cats eye I just stored them in a sterilite drawer. The only problem was that I would store them upside down and could never see the color I wanted to use! It was quite frustrating to have to turn each one over just to see which one it was. So I thought I would change that!


To solve the problem, I took some leftover rubber from my Stampin' Up! stamps and cut out a circle. I mounted it on a little peg thing from one of my sons' broken toys. I then took each color and stamped it on plain white paper. Next I wrote the color of the ink on the colored circle and then punched it out with a circle punch.


Then I just took some photo squares and adhered the circle to the back of my stamp pads. Now when I look in my drawer, after referencing my swatchbook, I can find the color I am looking for easily! Much better!

Of course now that I have Stampin' Up! ink, I need to come up with a way to store those. Right now I actually have my husband working on something for me based on a lot of ideas I have seen around. I just wish he would finish it!!

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Coming Attractions

Ugh! Would you believe I have a cold?? I finally started working out again...today in fact, and not 5 minutes later after getting off the treadmill I started sneezing. And it didn't stop. Blech...

Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know a little bit about what is coming up starting in September. On the first of the month I will announce a couple of things that will be going on for that month. One of the things I will be doing will be a Cricut Cartridge Spotlight. I will take 1 of the cartridges I have and I will share ideas that you can make using that particular cartridge throughout the month. Right now I am thinking I will show those ideas every Monday, but I reserve the right to change my mind on the exact day!

Monday, August 24, 2009

A Cricut Thank You: Part 2


It's time for part 2 of my Cricut thank you notes, and I have 4 more cards to show!


Brown cardstock sized at 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" with the top pink layer cut to 5 1/4" x 4" and embossed with the Swiss Dots cuttlebug folder. The saying"how kind" was cut from the Lyrical Letters Cricut cartridge and that was glued onto a bookplate also cut from the Lyrical Letters cartridge. I actually cut a couple of the bookplates and glued them on top of each other to make faux chipboard and give it some dimension. The ribbon is from the craft store, can't remember the brand.


This one actually came out a bit different than what I envisioned, but I didn't feel like starting over so I just went with it. This card was cut from the Wild Card cartridge as well as the Thank You sentiment. I put an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of cardstock on my mat and hit fit to page when doing the card, and it cut it to the size of 6 1/2". The window was part of the card and the frame that goes around the window is an accent piece to it. I then placed the "thank you" sentiment so it showed through the window.
I then just took some floss thread and threaded it through the buttons and used glue dots to stick it to the front of the card.


This one is another standard A2 sized card with black as my base. The top layer was made using Faded Jeans and Dusty Concord Distress Inks. The "thank you" is from the Storybook cartridge using the accent/frame option.


Yet another A2 sized card, but I used Chatterbox patterned paper as the top layer. The thanks was cut from the Mini Monograms cartridge and I glued that on top of a bookplate cut from the Fabulous Finds cartridge. I added 2 pink brads and stuck the whole thing on my card!


Another A2 card with a white cardstock base and some old patterned paper I had for the top layer. "You're the Best" is from Lyrical Letters. There isn't much else to say about this one! lol


So there you have the next 4 cards in my Cricut Thank You series. Here you will find part 1 and first 4 cards I posted. I believe I have enough cards for 2 more parts and then I should have a good collection on thank you notes!

Sunday, August 23, 2009

My first Stampin' Up! card

I think I feel it....I think, maybe, possibly my mojo is coming back! At least I can only hope it is! Everything has been so hectic around here lately and my stress level is through the roof, but it seems like whenever I step into my little scrap corner all that tension just melts away.

I finally made my first Stampin' Up! card
I used the new Medallion stamp, which I just LOVE, and 3 of the new In Colors. The background cardstock is Dusty Durango, sized at 5 1/2" x 4 1/4". I then stamped the Medallion with Dusty Durango classic ink onto whisper white, which was cut to 5 1/4" x 4" The ribbon is Soft Suede and the was just tucked behind the whisper white and taped and then that whole piece was taped onto the card. I stamped the "just for you" sentiment from the Teeny Tiny Wishes set with Crushed Curry ink onto whisper white and punched that out with the word window punch. That was placed onto Crushed Curry paper cut with the curly label punch. Both were edged with Soft Suede ink around the edges with a sponge dauber. This was then placed on the card front using Stampin' Dimensionals.

Now in other news...I have been thinking and working hard on coming up with new ideas for my blog. I really want to post more regularly and I have a couple things in the works. I will talk more about what is to come another time, when I get all my thoughts together. But I think it is going to be a lot of fun! I know I haven't posted a lot lately, but I am hoping to change that so I hope whoever is still here will please stick around! Thanks!

Sunday, August 16, 2009

On a personal note...

I know I haven't written anything in a while, but lately I have been in a funk. I very funky funk. Things around here have been crazy and stressful and it hasn't left me a lot of time for creating or writing. I am really hoping to get back to it real soon, and hopefully with a lot more constant posts. I already have more of my Cricut thank you cards all done, but I just haven't been able to get them on my computer and posted here. I also have a lot of other ideas I would like to incorporate, and I really am excited about it all, it's just I have get my creative juices flowing again.

I hope everyone is having a great summer! Personally, I can't wait until fall! Autumn is my favorite season: apple picking and baking my apple crisp, baking more in general since it's not hot, pumpkins and pumpkin picking, colorful leaves, cool, crisp autumn air, halloween, my boys birthday, on those cooler days being able to snuggle under a blanket, fall season tv lineup, and so many more wonderful things I love about fall.

I hope to get back to my craft corner soon and get creating!

Sunday, August 2, 2009

A Cricut Thank You: Part 1

first 5 cards
After getting sidetracked by other things day after day, and dealing with technical difficulties, I am finally able to post the first part of my Cricut Thank You series!
I gave myself a challenge to go through all the cartridges I own and any that has a thank you type statement I would make a thank you card with it. This was for a couple of reasons. First, I needed to build my stash of thank you notes for whenever I need one. Second, I really want to make sure I use the cartridges I have and I like challenging myself to do so. Third, and probably most important ;), I wanted it for my blog so I could share it with everyone!
There is probably going to be 4 parts to this, containing 5 cards each. Most of the accents on the cards are from Cricut cartridges (except for ribbons, buttons, etc…). I have HUGE stash of old patterned paper and I try to use these up so you might see some from years ago…but that doesn’t bother me! We’ll just call them vintage!
LL thank you
This one is from Lyrical Letters. The size is 4.25x4.25 and the cardstock I used is Bazzill.
SB Thank You
This one is from Storybook. The size is 5.5x4.24. The cardstock is just plain black, don’t know the brand. I then sprayed white cardstock with Dew Drop Glimmer Mist and it gave it this shiny silvery look. You can’t really tell in the picture. The Thank You was connected, and I just cut off the piece between the Thank and the You. The little swirl is also from Storybook.
WC heart felt thanks1
This is from Wild Card. I decided to cut the actual card with one of the cuts from the cartridge as well. I loaded an 8.5x11 sheet of paper and hit fit to page and I believe it came out to be 8” tall! The cardstock is generic gray, although it’s hard to tell. Patterned paper is from an old stash I had.
I then took Ice Stickles and smoothed some over the heart for some sparkle. Here is a close up of that:
WC heart felt thanks2
Another one from Lyrical Letters:
LL Thanks
Size is 5.5x4.25, regular white cardstock, plain black ribbon, and patterned paper from old stash, which I believe was Provo Craft!
WC thanks for everything2
Another one from Wild Card, size is 5.5x4.25, regular white cardstock. The color cardstock and patterned paper is from a DCWV stack and the accents on the squares are from Accent Essentials.
WC thanks for everything

Well, that’s it for part 1! Be on the lookout for parts 2, 3, and 4 very soon! I better get busy…

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Technical difficulties

Hey all! I had a whole post I was working on and I lost it all!! So hopefully I can figure out these technical problems and post it soon!

In the meantime, if anyone has any websites that they know of that has a lot of good tips and tricks with blogger could you pass them along to me??
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