Snowbody Warms my Heart

A fun "Christmas in July" card.  You can't really see it in the photo but this card has a lot of shimmer.  The edges of the snowman and his hat have a touch of glitter for a snow effect and the HoHoHo background paper is also shimmered "Hos"  LOL

Hope your day is Fabulous

Just a fun card for any occasion

A baby Shower card for Logan

For my son, Alex....

Just a Card

I made this card with some scraps from an old paper pack.  It's pretty simple, but I like it.

  The inside says "I'm so grateful for you"

Love Birds

Not one of my favorite cards, the color scheme was better in my mind.

Cupcake Icing ???

For all of you wonderful cupcake makers... I have one thing to say.. "It ain't as easy as it looks!"  I just love looking at all the fun beautiful cupcakes you see all over the place now and I've even watched a video or two of how they just pipe the icing right on top and it looks so easy and professional.  This morning I couldn't wait to get up because I had planned on making my very own beautiful cupcakes.

I researched recipes for both the cake and the buttercream.  I decided I would make white cupcakes (my favorite) and I found the buttercream recipe that had great reviews. Now to get started.  Everyone will be "WOWED" when I am done, they will wonder where this amazing decorator came from!!

My intentions were good, my heart was in the right place.... wasn't it?  Look at my sad little cupcakes.  My icing didn't just swirl into a perfect Dairy Queen tip.  I really want a sweet little Dairy Queen top on my cupcakes... doesn't everyone??  I think maybe I need a bigger tip???

Nevertheless, they taste really good.  If you have any pointers for me, I'd love to hear them.  I want a pretty cupcake! :( 

Now excuse me, I've got 20 some cupcakes to eat so I can practice on the next batch. Want one?

Birthday Wishes

Another card from my leftover SNOWMANLOVER Stampin' Up card kit.  I just love this paper, it's so bright and cheery.

Breakfast Pizza on the GRILL!!!!

The hardest part was transferring my round crust to the grill grates... apparently the ROUND got lost in the transition!

This was a lot of fun and pretty simple, I can't wait to try traditional pizza on the grill.  This was a pizza made with pizza dough, eggs, mozzarella, parmesan cheese, bacon, chives and flat leaf parsley.  It was really good.  As we were eating we were concocting a million possibilities... tomato, arugula, mozz, spinach, sausage... the possibilities are endless.  The recipe follows:


Preheat Grill 1/2 grill on High and 1/2 on Medium

1 Pizza Dough (For convenience sake I used a Betty Crocker Pizza Dough Box mix)
1 C Shredded Mozzarella
1/4 C Parmesan
7 strips cooked bacon, crumbled
3 large eggs
2 shallot cloves chopped
2 scallions
Chives
Flat Leaf Parsley
Salt & Pepper

Place prepared dough on a baking sheet with olive oil.  Gently stretch the dough to desired shape making sure that the dough is well oiled on both sides.  Do not stretch the dough too thin, 1/8 to 1/4 inch is ideal.

 Place the dough on the grill over the high heat side.  (This is not as easy as it sounds, next time I will try adding some cornmeal to my platter to make sliding the dough off easier).  Cook the dough without touching for about 2 minutes or until grill marks appear on the bottom side.  The dough can then be flipped over and put on the medium heat side to be dressed.

Gently crack open three eggs on the top of the pizza and close the lid for 2-3 minutes until the eggs begin to set.  Once eggs are set, add cheeses, bacon, shallots, scallions, salt, pepper.  Slide the pizza over to the high heat side and cook an additional minute or two.  Top with Chives and flat leaf parsley before serving.  VOILA... ENJOY!

This card was made with digital Stampin' Up Elements/Paper.  It is really cute in person, though I should have added a bit more to the "white" part.  The inside looks like this.

The owl was a punch and stamp, the paper again was digital

Friends to the End

I pulled out an old Stampin-up card kit that I had gotten from Snowmanlover and threw this card together.

Tweethearts Card

I have this thing where I get paper out to make a card and then I just keep making cards with it because it's out.  So here's another one in same color scheme as the last couple.  I put the rest of the scraps in the drawer, I promise the next card will be different!

Happy Birthday Card

Just a card for my stash.  I went into my craft room today and found that sometime between yesterday afternoon and this morning my shelving had fallen off the wall.  Apparently I overloaded it...go figure.  Anyway, I had to get Doug to rehang everything and clean up what looked like an explosion of a mess.  Broken glass jars, my sewing machine and parts, colored pencils, stamps, atg... everything was all over the place.  When the shelves fell down of course it knocked not only the things on the shelves down, but everything from the desktop that was right below.  So, all things considered, I think I made a pretty happy card after the clean up.

Feel Better Card

Totally inspired by the cover of "Cards" magazine.  I really love this.

Happy Birthday to my Friend, Lisa!!

I made this card for my friend's birthday which is today!  I think you might know her as BUGJUNKIE!!!  The paper, sentiments and elements were all made digitally.

Happy Birthday

Made this card with some scraps left over from a card I made for a friend who's birthday is tomorrow!!  Happy B-day, Lisa!!  I'll post her card tomorrow.  The owl paper I made digitally in photoshop, the rest is just scraps from here and there.

BBQ Sundae

A few years ago, I went to Tennessee for work and we stayed at a resort called Blackberry Farms.  It was a beautiful, picturesque place in the middle of the mountains.  They served smores at night by the fire, there was very little cell phone signal (a fact which I didn't appreciate until after I left! LOL).  They also featured breathtaking views of the mountains, vineyards, etc.  Upon our arrival the restaurant wasn't quite open yet and we were all starving, so they directed us to go sit on the hill on these amazing huge wooden anarondak  chairs which were painted in a rainbow of colors.  As we sat there taking in the fresh air and nature all around they served us lemonade in mason jars.  It reminded me of my younger years at grandmothers house.  A bit later they let us know that they had prepared a little lunch for us.  That little lunch was a BBQ Sundae.  It was sooo good and so unexpected.  I tried to duplicate it tonight.  I think this would be so fun to serve for Memorial Day, 4th of July or Labor Day cookouts.  It's very simple.  A layer of baked beans, a layer of coleslaw and topped off with a layer of pork BBQ with a slice of dill pickle as garnish.  It may not sound all that great, but it is.  You start off with the hot BBQ, then you start to dip into that cold coleslaw and by the end the baked beans have a bit of all of the heaven that was on top.  I am not one that likes my food mixed up or touching, but really, you should try this.  Serve it in a mason jar or a glass with a fork, you guests will have fun and the best part... no mess! :)

Celebrate!!

This card could be used for just about any occasion.  You can't tell it from the photo, but all of the banners are flush with the card except the one that says "celebrate" which is pop-dotted so it stands out.  Very simple card.

Birthday Wishes, Masculine

I always find masculine cards, of any kind, are the hardest for me.  I made this one with scraps from Richie's book last night.  I really like how it turned out.  I will post a photo of the inside later, I've got to head to work.  It's just the same background with the kraft in the middle for the writing space.

Sweet Summertime!

I am loving summer.  It's been raining for weeks at least every other day, if not every day.  It appears, at least for this past weekend that summer sunshine is officially here.  We so need sunshine just to brighten everyone's outlook.  I spent the weekend doing nothing in particular.  Yesterday I spent the morning cutting down the volunteer maple trees that were growing all over the front landscaping.  Have I mentioned how much I don't like the helicopter thingies that maple trees produce... well I do and that is why.  We have volunteer maple trees coming up all over and it's a constant chore to keep up with them.  Sometimes, if we don't get the gutters cleaned out right away... my gutters appear to have fringe, which in reality is hundreds of tiny trees trying to grow.  Anyone need a maple tree?  LOL

I actually did make a card today, but it's for a friends birthday and I don't want to post it until after she gets it, so for now you get my favorite pics of the day.. lol

These are my new summer sandals.  Love these, they are so fun!  Normally I'm in Old Navy Flip Flops so I feel really uptown with these!  LOL

Father's Day Card for Doug

Here's the card I made for Doug... my Chef.  I think he will get a kick out of it.

Father's Day Card for Cliff

Here's the Father's Day Card I made for Doug to give to his dad.  I used the scraps from the book I made for Richie. 

A new Mini Album for Richie

Yes, I must confess... another Jessica Sprague/Heidi Swapp project.  This was supposed to be a Father's Day book, but I changed it up, and it was supposed to be made using really cute file folders with the tabs, but for whatever reason, when my pages printed they printed the wrong size, so I just improvized and changed it up a little.

The Front Cover

There's a story here. Last year I bought Richie a store-bought Birthday Card (GASP) ! He has never ever let me forget it. This year I decided I am going to buy him another one... and then give him this. Hopefully I redeemed myself. His mother and I have been secretly passing pictures back and forth. I think he will like it and be very surprised.

My Favorite pages

Lotto Tickets and a Fun Pocket Covered with Words that make me think of Richie

The pocket contains more photos that swivel out.  There's about 5 more pics in there.

The back cover is duct-tape.. and if you know Richie, you know why this is perfect!!!

Bad Blogger

I've been a bad blogger.  Spring has sprung (FINALLY).  In Indiana when you come out of the long cold snowy winter and the weather changes, you want to be outside and there's so much to do.  We have to replant the flowers, clean up the yard from all the gunk that was under the snow, get the porch furniture out of storage, plant the gardens and well, just enjoy being outside.  So, that's what I've been doing.  I took this week off work just as a staycation and the weather has been gorgeous, Dahling.. :)

We had a cookout over Memorial Day.  Doug cooked pork tenderloins on the grill and we had his family over, it was a great day.

The Weightloss is going ok.  I haven't gained a pound, but am mostly maintaining.  I am ok with that.  Would still like to lose about 5--10 more pounds, but it seems everytime I set a goal and reach it, I still say that, so I'm trying to learn to be proud of the weightloss and enjoy summer grilling.  I can eat grilled veggies every day.  YUMMO!

Hope you enjoyed a few of the photos from the yard.  We filled in the pond this year (sorry Daisy, no more spontaneous fish baths this summer!) and made it a big planter full of flowers to attract more hummingbirds.  I've already seen a ton, but haven't managed to catch a photo yet.  I am determined and one will be coming soon! :)

Friends till the End

this card was inspired by one in Cards Magazine.  I liked how it turned out.  The color looks a bit off in the photo, its all Stampin' Up cardstock and Patterned Paper.  I took the photo in direct sunlight, I probably should have changed my settings a bit.

Congrats to the Grad

Yet another graduation party and another card.  This is simple, simple, simple.

Graduation Card #1

Tis the season of graduations!  I have a lot of grad party invitations covering my refrigerator right now.  I thought I'd better start getting some cards together.  So though, I am not finished, I got three done this rainy afternoon.   Here's the first one and probably my favorite of the three.  This one is for a high school graduate.  I made all the cards in the theme colors of each person's school.

This one came from another blog I came across this morning.  I only changed the colors and added the diploma, plus she had something that I believe was supposed to be cape, but I thought it looked like angel wings, so I didn't add those.  I also used a different sentiment. It's a cute folded card that makes a diagonal pocket on the inside.  Perfect for those cash/gift card gifts.

Graduation Card #2

 

This is a graduation card for a college graduate.  I think I should have reversed the red and white matting and made the base of the owl white... but I think it turned out ok.  I found a similar card on the internet this morning.  Not exactly the same, but the idea came from there.

Graduation Card #3

Last, but not least, one more graduation card for yet another high school.  This one is a little bit plain for my taste, but I wanted it to look like a cap.  I made a pocket on the inside.

My Tribute to Mom Book

If you regularly follow my blog, you may recall not to long ago I joined the Mouse Paper Scissors Mom class over at Jessica Sprague. We made the base of this book in that class, but since my mom has passed away, I didn't have a deadline to finish the book by Mother's Day, so today... I finished it. It's a tribute to my beautiful mother. I think I'm going to give this book to my brother, as I am the one with all the photos and I think he will love it as much as I enjoyed making it.

On the left is a postcard with a letter I wrote to my mother today.  On the right is a pocket with a mini file folder.  I have enclosed in the file a letter I wrote about my mom which was read at her funeral.  It's very personal, so I decided not to share that here.  It's between mom and me.  :)

This is my least favorite page.  It just doesn't have the same vibe as the other pages, which I felt were elegant.  I may still try and redo this page, if I can remove the items without ruining the base. 

I wanted to write something on the right hand side of the picture, but I think I may just leave it blank.

Love you mom.  I miss you each and every day.  You were such a beautiful woman....inside and out.    I wish the kids and  I could share our days with you.  I hope I make you proud.  You were such an inspiration and wonderful role model.   I know you are watching over me.   Mom, You are my angel today and always.  You are loved and missed.  XOXO