Fool Your Family Friday!

TGIF!

Here's today's recipe to fool your family.

Mashed Potatoes

1 pound baking potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cauliflower puree
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/2 cup lowfat buttermilk (1%)

1. Put potatoes and salt in a large pot and cover with water. Cook until tender, about 15-20 minutes.
2. Drain well and mash with a potato masher or potato ricer.
3. Add the cauliflower puree, butter and buttermilk. Combine until smooth.

I think this recipe would even work with.....dare I say? Instant potato flakes!

Have a fun and safe Halloween!

I'll be back tomorrow with Lauren's Saturday sketch.
See you then!

November class spoiler - #3

The third request I had for this months class was to do a Fall card.
I thought SU's "Autumn Harvest" set fit the bill.

I used the masking technique to fit both pumpkins on the vanilla circle. If you're not familiar with that technique, you can click here to see a tutorial I did on it a while back.

I embellished with some 1/4" pumpkin pie ribbon, my scallop border punch and my paper piercer.

CARD RECIPE:

Cardstock - Kiwi Kiss, Pumpkin Pie, Very Vanilla

Ink - Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip

Markers - Pumpkin Pie, Garden Green

Stamps - Autumn Harvest

November class spoiler - #2

Hey kids!
Here's the second project that we'll be doing at my class this weekend.

Okay.....I'm quoting here. One of my regulars said she "wanted to play with nuts" at my next workshop. I think she was in an "Autumn" mood and it just came out wrong!

Here's what I came up with to satisfy her nut needs...

It's a mini fry box that I thought would make a cute place setting for Thanksgiving. It would even make a great gift for a teacher or hostess during the holidays.

The images and sentiment are from SU's "Owl Together Now". After I had it all put together, I thought it needed a little color so I used my chalks.

Hope they like it!



RECIPE
Cardstock - Kraft
Ribbon - Felt Ribbon Originals (holiday mini)
Stamps - Owl Together Now
Misc - Stampin Pastels (chalks), Nuts are from Costco (4lb bag for $8)

November class spoiler - #1

Here is the first project that we'll be doing at my Stampin Up class this Sunday. One of my "regulars" asked me to come up with a card using "Full Calendar" and "Mark the Date". She bought them awhile ago and has had a really tough time using them.

I decided to pair those two sets with "Spotlight on Christmas" and make a Christmas card. We'll also be using some of the gorgeous new ribbon from the holiday mini catalog and those cute mini library clips.

I tried to keep it simple so it could be easy mass-produced if anyone wanted.
I'll be back tomorrow with another class project that you'll be nutty for!
Hugs,

CARD RECIPE
Cardstock - Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Kraft
Stamps - Full Calendar, Mark the Date, Spotlight on Christmas
Misc - Ribbon Originals, Mini Library Clips, Paper Piercer
Ink - Old Olive, Riding Hood Red
Punches - Spiral, Scallop Border

A proud Mom moment

About a week ago, my five year old came home from school and announced that her class was collecting items to send over to the troops.

When I asked what she wanted to give, she said that
she wanted to donate cards for the soldiers to send home to their families. Ahhh....what a proud mommy moment!

I let her go through all of my cards and told her that she could pick out 100 to donate.

While we were going through them, I came across a pack of these Halloween cards that I made last year and never used.

Not my FAVORITE card that I've ever made, but good enough to send out to the kids friends right??

Be sure to check back tomorrow because I'll be sharing the projects we're doing at my next class on November 2nd.

Until tomorrow...

Saturday Sketch Time!

It's Saturday and that means another sketch from my buddy Lauren! Here's my take....
I used my favorite little gnome from Stampin Up's "Knobbly Gnomes". Normally he's sitting on a mushroom, but I decided to cut him out and have him sit on a little chipboard frame instead.

The patterned paper is called Angel Island and is from the "Phoebe" collection by Basicgrey.

Are you feeling inspired yet? Have you figured out what YOU'RE going to make yet?
If you decide to play along, be sure to link here so I can check it out too!

And don't forget to check out what the rest of the design divas came up with this week!
Alicia, Dawn, Kim, Kirsten, Kristy, Maria & Tamara

Fool Your Family Friday!

Hey kids! Ready for another recipe to Fool Your Family?
Chicken Alphabet Soup

Here's what you'll need

3 quarts reduced-fat low-sodium chicken broth
1 chicken breast on bone, rinsed and dried, skin removed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup alphabet pasta
1/4 cup cauliflower puree
1/4 cup sweet potato puree

1. Bring the broth to a boil in a large pot. Sprinkle chicken with salt and carefully slide into the broth. Immediately turn off the heat, cover the pot and let sit until the chicken is cooked through, about 25-30 minutes.

2. Remove the chicken and let rest until cool enough to handle. Pull meat off of the bone, cut into bite size pieces and set aside.

3. Bring the broth back to a simmer and add the pasta. Stir in the cauliflower and sweet potato purees and simmer until the pasta is cooked, about 6 minutes. Stir in the chicken pieces and serve.


"The sweet potato and cauliflower purees provide kids with vitamins A and C - good for vision, skin and healthy immune systems."

This recipe will be great for all of that leftover Thanksgiving turkey!

Have a great Friday and be sure to stop by tomorrow for the Saturday Sketch.
hugs,

You know your a Mom when...

you're totally rockin' out to Dora The Explorer for a good ten minutes before you realize that you've already dropped off the kids at school and you're alone in the car.

Don't ask me how I know that......

Okay...on to something stamp related.

So here's a card using vellum cardstock - a first for me. The image is from SU's "Batty For You" set and the sentiment just cracks me up.

This was a project from my SU stamp club, but being a gal who never follows the rules, I just used the same supplies and came up with my own little design.

Quickie post tonight - I'm wiped out!


See ya tomorrow!

For a special someone

I picked up a few sets by My Favorite Things at the scrapbook expo this past weekend.

I got this one, this one and this one. Let's just keep that between us though okay?

This image is from the set called "Going Places".

I needed a card for a special someone who lives really far away and thought this sentiment was just perfect. Her favorite color is purple, so I tried to incorporate as much as possible.

I colored in the main image with my Copics and paper pieced the dress to match the background paper.

The layout is from a sketch challenge at SCS.

That's it for me today. I'll be back tomorrow...
Hugs,

My daughter made me do it...

While we were perusing the aisles at Michael's a few days ago, my daughter spotted this in the clearance bin for 99 cents and HAD to have it.While she was sleeping that night, it magically turned into this...
I just picked through my scrap bins to put this together for her and then added one of my all time favorite embellishments....sushi grass.
The spider webs and little trick-or-treater are by Hambo. I colored in the pumpkin container with my Sakura glaze pens so it looks like real plastic.

Altered items aren't really "my thing", but this one was quick and easy - my favorite!

Stamp Club Challenge

I'm in a fun Stampin Up club that meets once a month and at our last get together we were issued a challenge. We each got a piece of patterned paper that was die cut with the new SU "Top Note" die.
Here's the piece that I chose...This double sided paper is from the new Autumn Vine Designer Series collection from the Holiday Mini Catalog. I chose this particular pattern because the colors are WAY out of my comfort zone.

Being the strange little scramper that I am, I decided to use the negative part as well.
Here's what I came up with..
Isn't that little owl the cutest thing ever?!

He's from "Oliver & Friends" by Sassafrass and has been sitting on my shelf collecting dust for the last two months - tragic...I know. The sentiment on the bottom right is by Hambo and was perfect for this card. It was SO hard to not add ribbon to this, but when all was said and done, I didn't really think it needed it.
Now I just need someone to send this to....


Hugs,


CARDSTOCK: KRAFT, REALLY RUST, SAGE SHADOW
PATTERNED PAPER: AUTUMN VINE DESIGNER SERIES
INK: VERSAMARK, CHOCOLATE CHIP, REALLY RUST
MISC: PAPER PIERCER, FOAM DIMENSIONALS

Saturday Sketch Time!

Is anyone else REALLY glad that it's Saturday?!

Here's Lauren's sketch for today... This week I used the sketch for inspiration rather that my exact layout. I needed a card for a party that we're going to tomorrow for an 8 year old boy. I don't usually use a lot of ribbon on boy cards, but I just couldn't resist tonight.
I made the large square element a window for my little raccoon and then just went on from there.
Be sure to check out what the rest of the design team did!
Alicia, Dawn, Kim, Kirsten, Kristy, Maria & Tamara




Card Recipe
Stamps - SU Hip Hip Hooray, So Many Scallops
Cardstock - SU Pumpkin Pie, Bashful Blue, Whisper White
Patterned Paper - scraps
Misc - Riding Hood Red taffeta ribbon

Welcome to Fool Your Family Friday!

Here's todays recipe....

GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICHES

Here's what you'll need:
1/2 cup shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup sweet potato or butternut squash puree
1 Tablespoon soft margarine or butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 slices whole-wheat bread
Nonstick cooking spray
1 teaspoon olive oil

1. In a medium bowl, mix the cheese, vegetable puree, margarine and salt. Spread two slices of the bread with the cheese mixture and top with the other two slices.

2. Coat a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray and set it over medium heat. When the skillet is hot, add the oil. Put the sandwiches in the pan and spray the tops with cooking spray. Cook until the bread is crisp and the filling is melted.

Thanks for popping by! I'm off to the scrapbook expo in Sacramento today. Be sure to check back tomorrow for Lauren's Saturday Sketch.
Until then...

I'm hooked on Hanna!

Every December I host a Christmas cookie swap and thought this Hanna set would be perfect for my invitations this year. I picked these up at Little C's last month.....ehem....along with a few other things....

The patterned paper on the bottom half of the card is from the What's Cooking collection by Flair Designs and inspired my color scheme. I used one of the sentiments to stamp my SU twill ribbon to match, because it makes me happy when things are "matchy matchy".

Thanks for coming by today!
Be sure to check back tomorrow for the return of Fool Your Family Friday.

Hugs,

Everyone loves cupcakes..

It feels SO good to get another scrapbook page done! I made this as a sample for Green Tangerines to hang in the store.

All patterned paper is by Bo-Bunny and the yummy flowers in each corner are new from Prima.

A Bodacious Birthday Bouquet

Working on more birthday cards today. For this one I used SU's Bodacious Bouquet. Last year I saw a beautiful sample done with this set and knew I HAD to have it.

I finally got my hot little hands on it and it's been sitting on my stamp shelf collecting dust for months. Today was the first time it saw ink!

For the layout I used the sketch challenge over at SCS. Instead of paper strips for the row of three, I decided to use some fat ribbon I have. It's not so great for tying bows, so I thought it would work nicely here.

That's it for me today. If only there were 12 more hours in a day!

CARD RECIPE:
CARDSTOCK: ELEGANT EGGPLANT, WHISPER WHITE
PATTERNED PAPER: BO BUNNY
STAMPS: STAMPIN UPINK: ELEGANT EGGPLANT, PURELY POMEGRANATE, WILD WASABI
MISC: RIBBON, DOODLEBUG JEWELS

It's starting to feel like Fall....

I just love Fall and Winter and have been enjoying all of the wind and cold around here lately. When I saw Jen's sketch this weekend, I reached for my new image by DeNami Designs.I have a TON of friends with Fall birthdays, so I figured I better get started!
I went with a 5" x 7" layout and used SU's Not Quite Navy for the base. The patterned paper is "Deciduous" from BasicGrey's Mellow collection and then matted on SU's More Mustard cardstock.
The mini round sentiment is from Stampin Up and punched out with a 1" circle.
Thanks for stopping by!
Hugs,

Scramper's Saturday Sketch

I am SO glad that the weekend is finally here! And that means that it's also sketch time! Lauren needed to focus on her big announcement today, so I decided to draw up a sketch myself.
Here's the sketch I made...
And here's my card.

I decided to break in my very first Hanna set that I picked up in Hawaii at Little C's.
The card base is SU Kraft and all of the patterned paper is by BasicGrey. To make the panel behind Hanna, I tore a post-it note and sponged rows of dirt with Chocolate Chip ink.
If you decide to play along, be sure to leave a link here so I can check it out. And have no fear....Lauren will be back next week - promise!