"What's Mom Cooking?"

Recently I did some major closet cleaning and while doing so I ran across a big black 3 ring binder that was full of recipes from my mother. When I was a kid she would clip and collect recipes from newspapers, friends and family. She had a box full of favorite recipes. One really cold and snowy winter she handed me the big box of recipes and this big 3 ring binder and asked me to sort and organize all her recipes. So I did and that 3 ring binder became a treasured source of favorite recipes for years. Now my mom is gone and those pages are becoming yellow and brittle. On some the ink is fading but it is still as valuable to me now as it was back when I organized the book for my mom.

This got me to thinking that I really need to record and put together favorite recipes of mine for my kids. I have attempted this project before but never have got too far with it but this time I am making it my Fall / Winter project. It is my plan to also incorporate this into my paper crafting by making 6 x 6 pages displaying my recipes. I thought I would share my recipes and pages with you...my crafty friends! So every Sunday I will post "What's Mom Cooking?".

I'm going to start with some recipes that I already have made into pages from swaps that I participated in and made an extra copy for myself. This first recipe is simple, quick and easy to make. When my son left for the East coast two years ago for college he had me teach him how to make some of my dishes. This was one he asked for first. He told me that on Thursday night a big group of his friends would get together and cook dinner and have family night to help with being away from home and missing their families. He quite often made this recipe for the dessert.

Above is the picture of my recipe page and here is the recipe for easier reading:

Hawaiian Cobbler

The cake that looks and taste like a cobbler.

Ingredients:

> 1 can (21 ounce) cherry pie filling

> 1 can (20 ounce) crushed pineapple in juice – do not drain

> 1 box yellow cake mix

> 1 stick butter or margarine cut into pieces

> 1 stick butter or margarine, melted

> 1 cup flaked coconut

> 1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Using a 9 x 13 pan, dump the ingredients into pan and spread or smooth in this order; cherry pie filling, undrained pineapple, dry cake mix. Arrange pieces of butter on top, evenly. Pour ½ cup melted butter over the top evenly. Top with the flaked coconut and chopped pecans. DO NOT MIX! Bake at 350 degrees for about 1 hour. Serve warm or cold. Great with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

This recipe is also known as Dump Cake and I have seen it made with different variations such as substituting the fruit with peaches or apples. I plan on trying it with mix berries one day too! This has been a family favorite for years and I hope you will give it a try too. Would love to hear if you have any other variations of this recipe as well.

Another family favorite is coming up next week for "What's Mom Cooking?" Baked French Toast!

Simple, Quick and Easy!

Hello my crafty blogging friends! These are just some quick and simple cards that I have made for some recent challenges. They worked up fast and quick and won't require a bank loan for postage to mail them! Mailing those cards with all the lumpy embellies can be quite expensive at times!

This first card (above) was made for two challenges. The first for a challenge on CardMakers Card Swaps forum requiring us to use newsprint on our card. The second challenge was hosted on ISC and the challenge was to use the color golden yellow on your card.

The next three cards were made for three different challenges for the recent online crop, "Summers End" on the CardMakers Card Swap forum. The first card was for a challenge that required you to follow a sketch.


This next card was for a challenge that asked you to make a card showing something you would see on a beach.


My last card was for a challenge that was to make a card using all white. I love all white cards. They can be so elegant looking.


If you would like to see all the challenges that were in the crop and everyone's creations, you can check them out HERE. The next crop will be coming up in November but if you can't wait till then....there will be a mini one on October 1st for World Cardmaking Day! Hope you will check it out and join in on the fun.

Thanks for stopping by!

Halloween Tilda - 2 Challenges

It's been awhile since I have joined in on any of the weekly blog challenges. So this was a nice treat to take a break and make a card for a couple of the current challenges. I am entering this card into the following challenges:

The Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge Blog - Sketch (shown below)
Paper Sundaes - Magnolia Image

When I saw the sketch over at the Sweet Stop challenge blog the first thing that popped in my head was this cute Tilda Halloween image. I don't really get into Halloween much but I like this image and had fun coloring it with Prismacolor color pencils. Cardstock is by Bazzill and DP is Die Cuts With A View.

Here is the sketch:

Thanks for stopping by!

A Card With A Drawer

It was another fun crop over at the Card Swaps forum on the CardMaker's site. As usual I did not get to complete near as many of the challenges that I would have liked to but it is a busy month this month here in this household. Not too much time for card making going on. I did host one of the challenges though and thought I would share it with all my blogging friends.

My challenge was to create a 3x3 card that has its own drawer attached. Perfect for holding little treasures for gift giving!


Here are the simple instructions for making one of your own:

Supplies Needed:

12 x 12 piece of cardstock for the base and drawer

scoring tool of some sort

a strong adhesive

paper trimmer

Printed paper, additional cardstock (optional), and embellishments of your choice to decorate your card / drawer.

Instructions:

From your 12x12 piece of cardstock cut one piece at 3" x 12" (base) and another piece at 5 1/4" x 5 1/4" for the drawer.

Score the 3" x 12" piece at: 3", 4 1/4", 7 1/4", 8 1/2" and 11 1/2". The 0.5 piece at the end is the part of the base where you will apply a strong adhesive when assembling your card / drawer.

Score the 5 1/4" square piece at 1 1/8" on each side. Please note: Scoring at 1 1/8" will give you a tight fit with your drawer. If you like a looser fitting drawer you can score this piece at 1 3/16" on each side and your drawer will still fit but will be a tad looser. Following the picture below, cut on the solid lines on your drawer piece. Be sure to only cut up to the score line. This creates your tabs for folding in to create your box.

I find the tabs are easier to fold in if you cut a small triangle piece out on all four of your tabs on your drawer as pictured below.

To Assemble:

Now you are ready to assemble your card / drawer. I like to decorate mine first before I assemble it as pictured below but you can do it any way you like. Fold along all your score lines and use a bone folder to get a sharp crease. For the base you will apply adhesive to the 0.5" tab at the end. You will bring that tab around and adhere to the 3" score line from the other end. You can see by the picture below just where the tab should be glued. That's all there is to creating the card base! For the drawer you will use a strong adhesive on the four tabs. Fold them in creating your drawer. Your card with a drawer is now ready to decorate if you did not do so before assembling.

You can decorate your card / drawer however you like. I have a place inside the card to write a short note. I used ribbon to make a simple drawer pull. Handmade my flower, added a stick pin and tag to decorate the top and it is ready to put some treasures in to give to someone!

This is such a simple and easy project to make! I think you would be surprised at how easy and quick it makes up. I hope you will give it a try. I also would like to note that although I wrote these instructions, I am not the creator of the original design. I originally found it on another site but unfortunately that posting has since been deleted and I can no longer share that link with you.

The next crop will be in November. Watch my posts for the date as we get closer to November and I hope you will join us for fun and inspiration.

Thanks for stopping by!

Summer's End Blog Hop, CardMaker's Card Swaps Crop

WELCOME!

You are on the CardSwaps Summer's End Blog Hop!

The theme of our crop and blog hop is Summer's End. We have hostesses that are going to help you spell out SUMMER'S END in products, techniques, embellishments, or anyway they can. You should have arrived from Ana's blog where I know she inspired you with her awesome creation featuring the letter "E". I'm next with the letter "R". I started out with coloring an image of a "R"abbit eating "R"ed apples. Used some "R"ed cardstock followed with some "R"ed plaid "R"ibbon and "R"ed brads for embellishments and I had a card with lots of "R"s going on!

When I think of Summer ending and Fall beginning I always think of picking apples, apple pies and apple dumplings. I thought this image was perfect for this memory and I hope it inspired you to start thinking of making your projects for the Fall season. Need some more inspiration? Then hop along to the next letter "S" which is Tina's blog. I know she has something special to help inspire you. When you are done hopping along I hope you will join us over at the forum for more fun, games, challenges, and.... PRIZES!! The crop is going on from August 10-13, 2011 and you have until 11:59PM CST on August 16, 2011 to get your projects uploaded.

In case you get lost along the way, here is a list of all the blog hop hostesses. Golda at the end of the hop will guide you with the link to the forum for the crop! Hope to see you there and don't forget to leave some love for our blog hop hostesses by leaving them a comment.

S-Lora
U-Jane
M- Ashley
M- Meredith
E- Ana
R- SusieQ (you are here)
S- Tina
E- Angelina
N- Jeanette
D- Golda

Thanks for hopping by and see you at the crop!

Sketch Challenge, House Mouse & Little Indy!

It's my turn this week to host the sketch challenge over at Card Swaps on the CardMaker site. Above is the card I made using my sketch. The image is a House Mouse image by Stampabilities. Designer paper is by Basic Grey and the cardstock is Bazzill and Die Cuts With A View. Image is colored with Prismacolor colored pencils. Want to join in on the sketch challenge and all the other fun activities over at CardMakers? You can find it HERE. There is another fun card crop coming up in August on the CardMaker site. Hope you will consider checking it out and join us for lots of fun and inspiration!

Below is the sketch I designed for the sketch challenge:

Also wanted to share with all my crafty blogging friends my news of our newest family member. Meet Indiana Jones who we are already calling "Indy"

We have been actively looking for another dog for the last month. We finally felt the need to fill the empty space left from losing our beloved Scout last November. Indy is nothing like what we were looking for. We were thinking a bigger dog...maybe another Aussie like our Scout was. ...but then we saw the picture below on the internet. Everything just started clicking and we knew we found our new fur baby! Isn't he adorable? He has been with us since Sunday and I am already smitten and in love with the little guy!

So now that our search is over maybe I will find more time to start crafting again. Indy has already found his favorite spot in my craft room to hang out with me!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope everyone is staying cool with this massive heat wave we are having across the states!

Ribbon Weaving

Last weekend was challenge weekend over at ISC. One of the challenges was a ribbon weaving challenge. You had two types of ribbon weaving you could pick from. I wanted to try both but my first card was actually entered into the pink and gray challenge. I cut the top layer with a heart shape "window" using my Spellbinders heart die. I then placed that onto my next layer in the position I wanted and traced the heart with a pencil. I then removed the top layer and wove my ribbon directly onto the second layer making sure I was weaving over the traced pencil heart shape. Here is a tutorial on how to weave the ribbon...HERE. In the tutorial a separate piece of cardstock is used to weave the ribbon but by doing it the way I did, I was able to cut down on some bulk. Notice the stick pin? That was made by Terrie who was one of the participants in a stick pin swap that I recently hosted on the CardMakers site.


This next type of ribbon weaving looked a bit tricky but once I got started I found it was super simple and fun to do. You can view a tutorial HERE. Once I had my ribbon woven I brought the ends together creating the circle to make a wreath for my card.

Once I had my card done I realized that I had actually weaved leather strips this way as a kid. One summer at camp during arts and crafts time we made leather belts weaving a long strip of leather. That was a long time ago!

It was fun trying something new. I hope you will give it a try too!
Thanks for stopping by!