Clean and Simple One Word Thank You Card

Hello my crafty friends! Wow, it has been a long time since I last posted. It was a busy holiday season for me. Finally starting to unwind though and looking forward to some serious crafting time in the coming new year.

I am entering my card for this post into two challenges:
Less Is More Challenge Blog - the challenge is "one word" on the front of your card.
I have been following the Less Is More challenge blog pretty much since the start of the blog but this is my first time to enter one of their challenges. I have plans to enter many more in the coming new year. If you haven't checked out Less Is More, you should. The talent and inspiration is amazing. Every Saturday I look forward to a cup of coffee and checking out the new challenge for the week. I am always amazed at the beautiful cards that are posted for the examples. Then I enjoy going back during the week several times to see all the wonderful cards that are posted for the current challenge. I hope you will take some time to check them out. Here is a link to Less Is More and you can also find a link to them on my right sidebar.

I am also entering this card into the weekly member challenge over at CardMakers on the Card Swaps forum. This week the challenge is hosted by Golda and she asked us to make a clean and simple thank you card. You can find the challenge HERE. While you are there checking out the challenge, check out the info about the upcoming crop in February. The theme is "Winter Warm Up". There will be loads of challenges, fun , inspiration, games and prizes. Oh and did I mention that the crop is being sponsored by Elmers and Spellbinders? You won't want to miss the blog hop that also will be going on during the crop. It's over a month away but time flies by fast so be sure to mark the date on your calendar, February 8 - 11th.

The details on my card:
For the exception of the flower which is cut out and pop dotted, there are no layers, just the card base. The blue flower image is Fresh Bloom by Stampendous. I colored it with Prismacolor colored pencils and used some gold Stickles on the stamen. The spray of swirls and flowers are a clear stamp by Heidi Grace and stamped with Memories Ink. The flowers are colored with Prismacolor color pencils and a yellow Basic Grey rhinestone glued in the middle of each. "Thanks" is computer generated and cardstock is by Bazzill.

I hope everyone had a happy and wonderful Christmas. Wishing you all the best for the New Year and may it be a crafty one!

Thanks for stopping by!

Bare Trees Christmas Card

The current weekly challenge over at Card Swaps on the CardMakers site is being hosted by Ana and she asked that we add glitter to our creations.

I am also entering this into this week's challenge over at Paper Sundaes Challenge Blog. The challenge is Winter Wonderland.

I was inspired to dig out my brass stencils and rediscover them when I made my card in my last post for the Autumn Blessings blog hop. So for this challenge I pulled out one of my all time favorite brass stencils by Dreamweavers designed by Lynelle Harlow. Her brass stencils are my favorite. This one is called Bare Trees.

I started by dry embossing the image then I stenciled it using Colorbox pigment inks. I then added glitter to the snow part of my image which succeeded in me getting glitter everywhere....my face, hands and clothing. It was even in my hair! The cardinal is a clip art image I found online and printed out.

Stores have their decorations up and the sales have begun. Many people have put up their Christmas trees this weekend. My son commutes to the city (Chicago) for school and he came home the other day and told me that Michigan Ave, was all lit up and looking festive. He said as he walked down the street to the train , the song Silver Bells was playing and people were ice skating at Millennium Park. The magic of the season has begun!

Now to get all my Christmas cards made...addressed and mailed!

Autumn Blessings Blog Hop

Welcome!

You are on the Autumn Blessings Blog Hop. You should have reached here from Angelina's blog. If not you will want to go back and start at the beginning with Lora's blog. You won't want to miss any of the creations that all the talented hosts of each stop has created for the blog hop. The hop goes along with the Autumn Blessings Crop over at CardSwaps. The crop is from November 16 - 19th. You have until November 22 to post your creations to the challenge threads and be entered into the drawings for prizes. Continue along the hop and at the end you will find a link to the crop at CardSwaps where I hope you will join us for fun, inspiration and prizes!

The theme for our blog hop is, "I have been blessed". While I have been blessed with many things in my life, I wanted to focus this post on certain family members in my life. Which is also the theme for my card. I have many family members who have served in the military. Great grandfathers, grandfather, my father, uncles, cousins, stepchildren and step grand children. All who have sacrificed to honor and protect our country. I have one particular cousin whom I am very close to that has made the military his life long career. In doing so he has had to make some sacrifices which include leaving his family every time he is deployed. Just recently he was deployed to Iraq shortly after the birth of his daughter resulting in him missing her first year of life and her first birthday. He is home this year for Thanksgiving and will be spending it with his family for which I am grateful.

I wanted to make a card to send to my cousin to let him know how grateful I am for all he does for our country and to let him know how blessed I am to have him in my family. So my project for this hop is a thank you card I made for him. I kept it clean and simple keeping in mind that it is going to a guy....so no flowers, pearls and other girlie embellishments. I knew I wanted an eagle on my card but alas I had no rubber stamp of an eagle. I started to search online for a digi image when I thought of something even better! An original piece of art drawn by my stepson. I was so pleased to use his drawing for my card. He also served in the military for 6 years. I then took two different brass stencils to stencil the stars around the eagle and to dry emboss on the card base. The ink I used is by Colorbox and I used a Krylon Gold Leafing pen for the fine thin line of gold. My sentiment on the inside of the card is computer generated. Using some of the same paper I used on the inside of the card I lined my envelope to coordinate with my card.

I feel blessed to live in this country. I am very grateful to all the men and women in our military who protect, serve and defend our country. Thank you to each and everyone of them.

Your next stop along the hop is Tina. You won't want to miss her post or the rest of the hop! So hop along and should you get lost, here is a list of the entire hop in order. When you are through hoping be sure to join us for the online crop over at CardSwaps on the CardMaker site!

Lora
Meredith
Judy L
Golda
Ana
Tracie
Angelina
SusieQ (you are here)
Tina
Teresa
Ivanka
Jane

Moos!

Hello my crafty friends! It's been a couple of weeks since I posted last. Also behind on posting my weekly recipe pages :( With the holidays fast approaching it may be awhile before I get caught up and back to posting on a regular basis.

Today though I would like to share some "Moos" with you. What's a moo you ask? A moo is a piece of art that measures 1 1/8" x 2 3/4"...half the size of a business card. Just like the ATCs, they were made popular by artists who would create small pieces of art and then supply their contact info on the back to give out to people. I'm currently hosting a swap for moos over on the Card Swaps forum on the CardMakers Magazine site. The first one above is a clothesline with clothing folded origami style. Below are balloons I punched out and then added glitter to them.This next one is a Christmas ornament. I used metallic cardstock in green and red for this one but it was very hard to get a good picture without a glare.





Next up is a moo made from clear acetate. Also very hard to get a good picture of. This one is reversible with the same design on front and back.

The last one is a flower that I colored with markers directly to the rubber stamp then stamped and did some distressing.


Want to try making your own moos? Check out this fun blog for inspiration HERE. It was once an active challenge blog for moos but no longer is active. The site is still up for you to view the moos and get tons of inspiration.

I'll be back on Wednesday with a post as one of the stops on the Autumn Blessings Blog Hop for Card Swaps / CardMaker Magazine site. The online crop also starts that day. Hope you will join in for fun and inspiration. You can check out the details HERE.

Thanks for stopping by!

"What's Mom Cooking?"

It's apple season so for this posting of "What's Mom Cooking?" I'm sharing my fried apple recipe with you. If you have ever been to a Cracker Barrel Restaurant then chances are you might have tried their delicious fried apples. If so you might think this recipe tastes just like theirs.....or pretty close to it! I grew up with fried apples being served as a side dish and still enjoy them today as much as I did as a kid. However they are just as good for desert with a scoop of ice cream or for breakfast over pancakes or waffles.

Here is the recipe for easier copying and printing:

Fried Apples

Serve 4

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups apple cider
4 large Golden Delicious apples peeled, 1/2" wedges
1/2 cup apple cider
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 tablespoons sugar

PREPARATION:

Combine first measure of apple cider and apples in a medium skillet. Simmer gently and turn apples often with spatula until fork tender but not mushy. Remove with a slotted spoon to oven dish. In blender puree 1/2 c apple cider, cornstarch, cinnamon and sugar. Blend a few seconds until smooth. Stir into hot juice in skillet and cook, stirring constantly on med-high until it bubbles and becomes thickened and smooth. Turn heat off. Pour over apples.

Serve warm as side dish or dessert. Refrigerate to use in a few days or freeze.

Variation: Sometimes I will use Granny Smith Apples in place of the Golden Delicious Apples. When doing so I double the amount of apples as the Granny Smith run smaller.

Enjoy and thanks for stopping by!

Pig Tent Topper Card

Hello! I am entering this card into two challenges.
Charisma Cardz Challenges - the challenge is stitching , real or faux. I hand stitched the card and the matching envelope.

CardMaker's Card Swaps Forum Weekly Challenge - Hosted this week by Deirdre who challenged us to make a matching envelope to go with our card.

The image I used is by Stampabilities and is called "Precious Pig". I colored the image with Prismacolor color pencils. Designer paper is by Basic Grey and the cardstock by Bazzill. I challenged myself to go one step further and make a style of card that I have never tried before. I chose to try the tent topper card. Super simple and a fun style to do. I will most certainly be making more cards with this style in the future. If you would like to try the tent topper card you can find instructions HERE courtesy of SCS. Their tutorials are awesome!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!

"What's Mom Cooking?"

This week for "What's Mom Cooking' the recipe is Pineapple Upside Down Biscuits. This is a more recent family favorite and is a recipe courtesy of Paula Deen , restaurateur and author of several cookbooks. This recipe is like a quick mini version of pineapple upside down cake...yummy!

Here is the recipe for easier copying and printing.

Pineapple Upside Down Biscuits

Ingredients

• 1 (10-ounce) can crushed pineapple
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, at room temperature
• 10 maraschino cherries
  
• 1 (12-ounce) package refrigerated buttermilk biscuits (10 count)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Grease 10 cups of a muffin tin . Strain the can of crushed pineapple, save juice for later. Combine the pineapple , sugar, and butter, and mix well. Divide the pineapple mixture among the muffin cups. Place a cherry in the center of each muffin cup, making sure cherry hits bottom of cup. Place 1 biscuit in each cup on top of sugar and pineapple mixture. Spoon 1 teaspoon reserved pineapple juice over each biscuit. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden. Cool for 2 minutes. Invert the pan onto a plate to release the biscuits . Serve warm.

Super simple, quick and easy! Hope you will give this recipe a try.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Sparkly Glittery House Mouse Christmas

Back with another post for today. I am entering this card into four challenges:

House Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge Blog - Christmas Sparkle - I have glitter on each of the bows on the heads of the mice. The green , red and gold cardstock is metallic and the bows / ribbon are also metallic. Had a difficult time getting a good photo to show all the sparkle so please believe me...the card sparkles in real life! :)

Simon Says Stamp Challenge Blog - Sparkle and Bling with an option to use a Stampalibility stamp. I did use one...House Mouse

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge Blog - Anything Goes as long as it sparkles - I have that going on!

CardMakers Card Swap Forum Weekly Challenge - hosted by Golda this week - Golda challenged us to make a Christmas card using something you wouldn't usually see on a Christmas card - hopefully I have that covered with using mice! :)

Images are House Mouse by Stampabilities. As shown below they are one image but I stamped each mouse separately and then colored with Prismacolor color pencils. Cardstock and ribbon are from my stash and not sure of the maker.

Hope everyone is a having a happy and crafty weekend!

Rolled Ribbon Flower / Christmas

Last Saturday, October 1st, was World Card Making Day. Most online paper crafting sites were hosting some kind of event in honor of WCMD including CardMakers Card Swaps forum. There were several challenges and games as well as prizes to be won. I was only able to participate in one challenge due to a family emergency but there are a couple of others I hope to do when I have time.

The challenge I was able to do was hosted by Ana and her challenge was to make a card using a rolled ribbon flower. Very fun challenge and a fun and easy flower to make. I know I will be making many more in the future! Click HERE for a tutorial on how to make rolled ribbon flowers by Ana. Click HERE and HERE to see two videos that show how to make this same flower using fabric strips in place of the ribbon.

Hope you get a chance to check out these tutorials and try making these flowers. Also hope you were able to make a card for WCMD and send a card to someone special in your life or someone who needed a smile in their mailbox.

Thanks for stopping by!

"What's Mom Cooking"?

Time for another recipe page. This week my recipe is called 7Up Salad. This recipe has been in my family for years. Originally my mother was given this recipe by another church member years ago before I was even born. The original recipe called for shredded cheese to be sprinkled on top. We have eliminated that step years ago as everyone seem to like it better without it. Although this is a cool and refreshing dish for the summer months, we have enjoyed it year around in our house.

Here is the recipe for easy copying and printing:

7up Salad

Ingredients:
2 (3oz) boxes of lime Jello gelatin
2 cups boiling water
2 cups 7-Up soda
1 large can crushed pineapple well drained, reserve juice
1 cup miniature marshmallows
2 bananas sliced
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup pineapple juice (reserved)
1 egg beaten
1 8oz container Cool Whip

Dissolve jello in boiling water. Add 7 - Up and cool until partially set. Add crushed pineapple, miniature marshmallows and bananas. Place mixture in 13" x 9" pan and refrigerate.

Topping:
Mix sugar and cornstarch in medium pot. Add pineapple juice and beaten egg. Mix well and cook over medium low heat till thickened. Cool to room temperature. Mix Cool Whip into cooled topping mixture and mix well. Spread over top of jello mixture. Keep refrigerated.

I use a glass 13" x 9" pan which shows the colors of the jello and pineapple making for a pretty display.

Hope you will consider trying my recipe and wishing you all a great week!

Autumn Tilda - 3 Challenges

I received this image from someone as a gift for a swap I hosted. Isn't she cute with the Fall leaves swirling around her! I am entering her into the following challenges:
Just Magnolia and Hangler and Stangler Challenge Blog - Fall or school theme
Paper Sundaes Challenge Blog - Anything Goes
The Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge Blog - A sketch which you can see below

Cardstock used is by Bazzill and Core'dinations. Designer paper is by Basic Grey. Image is Tilda by Magnolia Stamps and is colored with Prismacolor color pencils.

Thanks for stopping by!

"What's Mom Cooking"?

It's Sunday and that means it is time for another "What's Mom Cooking"? I'm still working my way through recipe cards that I made for swaps in the past. Today's recipe was for a Christmas cookie recipe swap. As far back as I can remember my mother made these every year for Christmas. We had a week in December that was dedicated to making all kinds of cookies for the holiday and this was always one of my favorites. When I was little my job was to do the rolling in powdered sugar part and to try not to eat them all while doing so!

My recipe page was made using designer paper from DCWV and cardstock by Wassau. Below is the recipe for easier copying and printing should you like to try it!

Honey Pecan Balls

Ingredients:

1 cup butter
1/4 cup honey
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 to 3/4 tsp grated orange rind
2 tsp. vanilla
3 cups flour
1 cup finely chopped pecans
Powdered sugar

Cream butter and honey till smooth. Stir in salt, grated orange rind,vanilla and flour. Mix until well blended with mixer. Stir in pecans. Shape dough into one inch balls and place about one inch apart on buttered baking sheet. Bake at 300 degrees until cookies are a pale golden brown, about 20 minutes. Let cookies stand on sheet till cool enough to handle. Roll warm cookies in powdered sugar to coat all over. Set cookies on rack to cool completely.

These look so pretty on a plate or in a Christmas tin and are nice to give as gifts too!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you consider trying my recipe!

Party Preparations / Gruffie - House Mouse

This must be a super Sunday because I'm posting twice today!

I am entering this card into the following two challenges:

House Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge: The challenge is to make a birthday card with the option of adding flowers. I chose not to use that option as I just couldn't seem to get flowers to looking right for me on this card. House Mouse and Friends is celebrating their 3rd year as a challenge blog with not only this challenge but also with prizes and a blog hop! You can check out all the fun HERE.

CardMakers CardSwaps Forum Weekly Challenge: The current weekly challenge is being hosted by Linda Jo and she challenged us to make a multi panel card using a pattern by Dawn's Stamping Studio. You can check out the challenge and other participant's creations HERE. To view the how to tutorial and video to make this multi panel card, click HERE.

The image used is a Gruffie by Stampabilities called Party Preparations. I colored it with Prismacolor color pencils. Designer paper is the Lime Rickey collection by Basic Grey. Cardstock is DCWV. Sentiment is by Studio G clear stamps. Below is a side view of how the card is folded.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a fabulous week!

"What's Mom Cooking?"

It's Sunday and time for another family favorite recipe! This week the recipe is baked french toast. Very rich, sweet and delicious. It also brings many happy memories to mind as we usually make this for breakfast on holidays and special occasions. It's super simple to make and can be made ahead of time as well. If your schedule is busy you can pop it in the refrigerator the night before or the freezer a few days ahead and it will be ready to pop in the oven for baking on the day you want to serve it.

Our favorite way is to make it the night before and let it sit in the refrigerator over night. For the last ten years my son has been helping me with preparing the french toast. As I'm making the egg and cream mixture he gets the pan ready with the brown sugar mixture. We then cut the bread, dip in the egg mixture. place on the brown sugar glaze and then my son sprinkles the cinnamon on top. I enjoy moments like this, cooking and sharing with my son. I know one day he will be making it with his kids.

My recipe card was simple and quick to make. My son drew the shape of a piece of bread for me. I printed the recipe directly on to it and inked the edges before applying it to the designer paper which is by DCWV.

Below is the recipe for easy copying and printing:

Baked French Toast

Ingredients:

· 2 cups light brown sugar

· 1 stick butter or margarine

· 4 tablespoons flavoring of choice: vanilla, hazelnut or almond

· 4 eggs

· 1 ¾ cups Half & Half or milk

· 1 loaf Italian or French bread cut into 1 inch thick slices

· Cinnamon

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375. Place brown sugar into 13x8 inch baking dish. Melt butter or margarine in microwave. Blend brown sugar, melted butter and 2 tablespoons flavoring until it makes a glaze in the bottom of the baking dish.

Whisk eggs, milk and remaining flavoring in a bowl until well blended. Dip each bread slice into egg mixture, soaking both sides.Set bread slices on top of brown sugar mixture in baking dish. Sprinkle evenly with cinnamon to taste. (at this point you can refrigerate or freeze till ready to bake). Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Flip each slice of bread over so glazed side is up. Serve hot. Serves 6.

We usually enjoy the french toast with some warm maple syrup drizzled on top. One year though I had my entire family over for Christmas brunch and I made a couple big trays of baked french toast to pop in the oven when my family arrived. While it was baking we got some bacon, sausage, eggs and hash browns going. When all was ready to serve I had warm maple syrup, warm apple, blueberries and cherry fruit compote as choices to have on top of the french toast. The cherries and apples were a big hit with all the kids!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you will give my recipe a try. I will be back next Sunday with another family favorite!