Saturday Sketch Time

Hope your weekend is off to a great start.
Here's Lauren's sketch for today...

I decided to rotate the sketch like this...

Here's what I came up with...
Isn't this image adorable? And fun to color too!
It's called "Precious Moments" from the Sarah Kay collection.
I just got it from Little C's a few days ago and had to ink her up right away.


The patterned paper background is from SU's "Le Jardin" pack and the rest of the paper is from the Kim Hughes Mocha Chica pack. To finish it off, I added a sentiment from the $1 bin at Michael's and some purple flowers from All Natural Accents.

I hope you play along with us!
You can check out what the rest of the gals did here:

Alicia, Dawn, Kim, Kirsten, Kristy, Maria, Kendra & Tamara

I'll be back Monday.
Until then...

Fool Your Family Friday!

Wow! This week flew by!
I can't believe it's already time to Fool Your Family again!

BAKED EGG PUFFS

Nonstick cooking spray
2 large eggs
4 large egg whites
1/2 cup yellow squash OR butternut squash puree
2 tablespoons shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

1- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat 4 (1/2 cup) ramekins or coffee cups with cooking spray and set on a baking sheet.

2 - Whisk together the eggs, egg whites, squash puree, cheese, flour, baking powder and salt until combined. Divide evenly among the ramekins or cups and bake until the tops are puffed up and the eggs are no longer runny when pierced with the tip of a knife, 13 - 15 minutes


I'll be back tomorrow with a peek at Lauren's new sketch.
See ya then!
Hugs,

She's a treasure and I want her to know it!

I had a very good friend call me yesterday with some upsetting news and wanted to send a card her way to let her know I was thinking of her.

When I saw Kristina's color challenge today, all I could think of was the cute pirate parrot from the "Ahoy Matey" set by Kim Hughes.Here's what I came up with...
I used a Sizzix die to make the jungle leaves out of green cardstock and felt.

Well, I'm off to pop this baby in the mailbox.
I'll be back tomorrow with a new recipe to Fool Your Family!
Hugs,

ENABLER ALERT!

I've got TWO great things to share with you today!

1. Hambo has 39 NEW designs and sentiments now available!
You can check them all out here. Adorable doesn't even begin to describe these new designs!

2. Little C's is have a HUGE sale!
35% off their entire inventory!!
But hurry, because the sale only runs today through the 28th!
In honor of Jen's birthday enter code BDay36 at checkout to get your discount.

Happy Shopping!

Class Project #1

As most of you know, I host a Stampin Up workshop at my home on the first Sunday of each month. My March class falls on the 1st, which is this Sunday and we're doing three cupcake cards. I've also got some yummy cupcakes on order from a local bakery, so we'll be munching on those as we create!

I'VE STILL GOT A FEW OPENINGS IF ANY OF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN COMING!
(I'm in the Rocklin / Roseville area of Northern California)

Send me an e-mail or leave a comment with your e-mail address and I'll forward you the info.

This is one of the projects that we'll be doing on Sunday.

For this card, I used the "Crazy for Cupcakes" stamp set and "Candy Lane" patterned paper pack. The card base is Close to Cocoa and the main image was stamped on watercolor paper and colored in with ink pads and an aqua-painter.

I decided to add some 1 1/4" Pink Pirouette ribbon to the top of the main image to mimic a window treatment. I think it came out pretty cute!

Here's how I did it:

I started with a 5 inch piece of ribbon and added red sticky tape to the back. Then I folded over the edges so the ends would look finished. All I did after that point was bunch it all together and smack it on top of my cupcake panel. Easy-peasy!Thanks for stopping by!
I hope some of you will be able to make it to my workshop. We're also having a craft garage sale that day where everyone is going to bring their old stamp sets and other treasures to sell. There will be ALL KINDS of ways to get into trouble!
Hugs,

Little C's color combo

Hey kids! Are you ready for a challenge?
This weeks color combo is brought to you by Diva Designah Rina Farrer. Okay...I'll admit it. This was a tough one for me!
Here's what I came up with.
The base is Very Vanilla and the main panel is Wild Wasabi with a strip of red from the Bella Rose paper pack. I decided to go a little, ehem...I mean ALOT out of my comfort zone on this one and not use any stamps. Instead I used some Bazzill chipboard letters and embellished them with some rhinestones.

Are you up for the challenge??
You can leave a link to your creation and check out what the rest of the design team did by going to the Little C's blog.
Until tomorrow,

Happy Trails...

Happy Monday!
Hope you all had a fab weekend.

While my hubby was watching golf yesterday I snuck up to my workshop and put this card together. The cute cowboy image is by Hambo, and I colored it in about 10 days ago. I let it sit on my desk until inspiration whacked me in the head! The card base is Kraft and I accented with Kiwi Kiss and Blue Bayou cardstock. Did you notice the large brown brad on the left side?
Here's what that's all about...

The top half swings open to reveal a sentiment, which is also by Hambo.
To finish it off, I added two kinds of ribbon and made a border with my "pokey thing".

Isn't this little guy just the cutest? You can see two other projects I've done with him here and here.

Thanks a bunch for stopping by!
I'm off to the school library to decorate a bulletin board for Dr. Seuss's upcoming birthday.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for a new color challenge from Little C's!
Hugs,

Saturday Sketch Time!

This week Lauren had us go back though all of the past sketches and choose a favorite to play with again. She called it "So Long Ago Saturday Sketch" and starting in March, we'll be doing this on the last Saturday of each month!

Here is the sketch that I wanted to play with again.... Here's what I came up with...
On Sunday were going to a birthday party for the younger brother of my sons friend. We don't really know him that well, but I remember that he was Superman for Halloween, so I decided to ink up my "Super Billy" image from Pink Cat Studio.

I used SU markers (Summer Sun & Not Quite Navy) to ink up the sentiment, punched it out with my 1 3/8 circle punch and inked the edges with Brilliant Blue. Then I layered it on top of a 2" star that I cut with my Cricut "George" cartridge.

I colored the image with my Copics, and then used my Sakura glaze pens for Billy's boots, gloves and mask.

I thought I was finished at that point, but once the card came together, it looked like Billy needed to be holding something in his hand.

Birthday balloons perhaps???

I stamped out the balloon image from SU's "Crazy About Cupcakes" set, colored them with my Sakura glaze pens and cut them out. Then I poked a small hole in Billy's hand, pulled a black thread through it and attached the balloon bouquet.

Thanks for stopping by today!
Here's what the rest of the sketch team did:
Alicia, Dawn, Kim, Kirsten, Kristy, Maria, Kendra & Tamara

Fool Your Family Friday!

Welcome to Fool Your Family Friday!
This one tastes just like mashed potatoes and if you use vegetable broth
instead of chicken broth, it's vegetarian.
CREAMY POTATO SOUP

Nonstick cooking spray
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, cut in half
2 (14 oz) cans reduced, fat low-sodium chicken broth
2 pounds potatoes, any kind, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup cauliflower puree
1 1/2 cups butternut squash or carrot puree
1 cup lowfat buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese (optional)
croutons (optional)

1. Coat a large pot with cooking spray and set it over medium heat. When the pot is hot, add the oil, onion and then the garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is soft but not brown, 5-6 minutes. (Be careful not to burn the garlic!)

2. Add the broth and potatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, partially covered, until the potatoes are tender, 20-25 minutes.

3. Carefully spoon the mixture into a blender or food processor and add the vegetable purees, buttermilk and salt. Puree until smooth. Ladle into bowls and sprinkle with cheese and croutons if you like.


Tomorrow I'll be on a road trip with three of my girlfriends! We're heading down to San Jose to check out the Rubber Stamp Expo. Maybe I'll see some of you there!
Hugs,

Another quickie!

Happy Thursday or "Survivor Night" as we call it in our house!

This is a card I made at stamp club earlier this month.
Janice provides a sample and all of the supplies and we get
to play. What could be better?

I like to take the supplies provided and make a totally
different card, so here's what I came up with... In addition to the yummy Baha Breeze ribbon, we also had
some pretty blue jewels to play with.

I've gotta run. My little one is still really sick and we've got
a Looney Tune marathon about to start!
Hugs,

5 minute card

Hey everyone!
I've got a very sick little munchkin, so todays post is a quickie.
I'm really loving the yummy SU "in colors" this season. I never thought I'd
get over Wild Wasabi, but then Pacific Point came along and stole my heart!

For this card, I used Pacific Point for the base, and paired it with Kiwi Kiss and Baha Breeze. The stamped flowers are from a retired SU set called "Bodacious Bouquet".

After I versamarked the flower image onto the main panel, I stamped one each in Baha Breeze and Pacific Point ink. Then I cut them out and added them with dimensionals.

To add a little extra somethin' somethin', I embellished with some beautiful leaves from Little C's. There are a TON of these little guys in the package, so I think I'm set for a while.

That's it for me today.
Hugs,

Little C's Sketch Time!

I hope you're in a comfortable chair because this is a long post!

Today I have the new Little C's sketch brought to you by
none other than the uber-talented Maria Bell.I really liked this sketch and came up with two cards to share
with you today.

Here's the first one....
The adorable image and sentiment are by Whipper Snapper.

As you can see in the photo above, I had a little fun and modified
the original image a little. It looks tricky, but all I did was use a black
marker to ink up the part of the stamp that I wanted to repeat. With the help
of my Stamp-a-Majig, it took less than 5 minutes to complete the main image panel.

Here's the second card that I made for the sketch challenge.

This was a fun one to make because I created my own background with a brayer
and used a marker to color the dots on my ribbon yellow. I also clear embossed a bee
image on the black background.

The image and sentiment are by Hambo - love them!

To make the ribbon match my bee theme, I decided to color
the white polka dots yellow. I used my Copic Y17 to do this.
They're actually pretty bright in person, but didn't show up well
in the photo.

To make the background behind the beehive, I used a technique
called "emboss resist". It's such a simple technique!

First you'll want to stamp out your image and color it in like you usually do.
Then take a Versamarker, color over the entire image and clear emboss.

Next, take a brayer and roll it evenly over your ink pad.
Working quickly, so you can blend evenly, roll your brayer back and forth
over your background.

After I brayerd the sky, I used green ink and did the grass area.
Then, take a tissue and wipe the ink off of the embossed area. Since it's clear
coated, the ink won't stick to it - just the background paper.

Here's a tip that I learned the hard way.
Always choose ink colors that are a shade or two lighter than what you
actually want your final effect to be. The inks appear much darker after brayering.

For my background I used Stampin Up Soft Sky and Certainly Celery. I don't
usually stamp with these images because they're so light, but you can see
how nice and dark they appear in the background after brayering.

Hope this was helpful!
You can check out what the rest of the Little C's Diva Designahs did for
the challenge by clicking here.

Hugs,