PTI Friend card challenge

Yet another card challenge at PaperTrey Ink!

Here is one of my favorite card designs I created for a friend. This has all the elements she loves - flowers and butterflies!



EDIT: The bloom flower is made from different sizes of scallop punches. I cut the "petals" to the center, shaped them, then glued them together. Paper used is a sheet from a DCWV pack - one that I didn't particularly like as a background paper but it sure looks great used for this flower. Leaves were handcut after running folded cardstock through a crimper. Butterfly punch used is from Punch Bunch (cut from DCWV cardstock) and sentiment is from PaperTrey Ink. I believe the ink I used for the sentiment is SU Bayou Blue (??not sure if that is what it's called!).

100 Day Project, Not a winner and Scone recipe

This is my daughter's 100-day project last week in kindergarden. What a milestone! She loves butterflies so we found a creative way to display 100 paper butterflies and to use up dollar store silk flowers. This will hang in her room when it comes back home this week. The lettering was done with Cuttlebug die cuts (Olivia font) and used a K&C company Valentine's paper. Double click the photo for a closer look.

Must not have been lucky enough to win any of those terrific prizes at PTI...wonder if the winners would want to share any of their loot with me :-)))

Here's my Mom's great scone recipe (thanks, Mom!). If I find the time next week when I make more of these at home, I will take photos of how the dough should look at each step.

NOTE: Please do not sell or pass this recipe off as yours. My Mom spent a lot of time tweaking this recipe so please give credit to this site if you are sharing the recipe with others.

Buttermilk Scones
Combine the following ingredients in a large mixing bowl:
3 c. all-purpose flour (12 oz)
1/3 c. granulated sugar
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt

Add to flour mixture, using a pastry cutter:
3/4 c. unsalted butter (make sure it's cold, straight from the refrigerator), cut into little cubes
-- combine until mixture is mealy and no chunks of butter left

Make a hole in the middle of the flour mixture and slowly add:
1 c. buttermilk (I use lowfat buttermilk and they still taste divine)
-- use a fork to slowly incorporate the flour mixture with the buttermilk; mixture will be very sticky.

Optional: before rolling out the dough, add 2 generous cups of chopped assorted chocolates and dried fruit (I used leftover chopped up Kiss chocolates and dried cranberries - be creative! You'll be surprised how good and different each batch will taste when you use up different kinds of leftover chocolates from your house).

Use a rubber spatula to mix in the chocolates. However, do not overmix! Think biscuit dough!

Dust your countertop or work surface with flour then scrape the dough onto the surface. With floured hands, pat the dough to about 1" thickness and use desired size biscuit cutter to cut the dough. NOTE: don't twist the cutter when cutting out the scones - otherwise they won't rise very high. Put on parchment lined baking pan, about 1/2" apart.

Bake at 400 F degrees for about 15 minutes or until slightly golden. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Paper purses instructions will have to wait later next week, as I'm struggling to get the PTA books balanced! No matter what I do, I'm off by about $84!! Also, even with my 8 yr old son doing vacuuming around here, I still run short on time!

450+ Yards of Ribbons!

Ok - am obsessing with trying to win something (since am not earning any money selling anything on my Etsy shop) so here's another card am submitting to PaperTrey Ink for their Ribbon challenge. Prize package is $280-worth of ribbons!

I took liberty with the sketch that Nichole designed...the sentiment is from PTI, embossed rectangle was done with a Cuttlebug folder (can't recall what it's called), butterfly is also a Cuttlebug die, gold organdy ribbon is an OLD, retired ribbon from SU and bling are from Jo Ann fabrics and cardstock are SU.



Mini Paper Purses Instructions: Will post them tomorrow

Scone Recipe: Will also post tomorrow

Meanwhile, there's PTA Treasurer work to be done and assisting my son with some Wolf badge requirements for Cub Scouts

I hope I win! and Please help us pray

Ok, this is totally self-serving and posting the following pictures so I can have a chance to win a contest at PaperTrey Ink.

These paper purses and bags are my own creations. If you're dying to get a hold of how I made them, you can leave a comment and I'll send you the instructions.

Here we go!

This first one is my version of the paper hat box. As you can see, it's very small but large enough to put a few chocolate eggs inside!


This suitcase is also a mini-version. What's inside? Look at the next picture - a few "shirt" bookmarks (thanks to Martha Stewart for the idea - I made mine out of patterned papers and used mini brad buttons for the buttons and textured paper for the ties).





My personal favorite - a recycled coffee bag using one of my favorite coffees (Tully's)! The only problem with this is that all my coffee-drinking friends and family now save all their coffee bags for me so I can make more of these little coffee card purses. This bag can hold 4 mini cards and 4 mini envelopes.


Doesn't this remind you of the beach? This one uses lots of PaperTrey sentiments (along with a few SU! stamps - mainly the sand and the shell die cuts are Cuttlebug). The plastic mesh you see on the front of the mini purse is a garlic bulb sack from Trader Joe's (gotta recycle more plastic!). This little beach bag measures about 3" x 4" - yep, I LOVE miniatures! All those cards fit inside the little purse and I also made matching envelopes but didn't get a photo of them.


This last photo are all the different versions I've come up with for that mini 3" x 4" bag. All can hold those mini notecards. Patterned papers you see there are all Amy Butler.


On another note, my Dad has gotten more bad news. I don't think he'd want me to write here what he now has but suffice it to say that it is very serious. He continues to battle MDS and CHF but the latest is the scariest. My son said that he wished Pokemon is real so he can take his Grandpa to the Pokemon center and cure him. Then my 5-yr old said she wished her magic wand is real so she could just wave her wand and her "Boppa" would be better. We believe in the power of prayers so please help us pray for my Dad to get better; and pray for my Mom too to stay healthy as she is single-handedly taking care of him. It's times like these that make me wish that they just lived next door and not 3,000 miles away.

Random

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! Happy New Year! Happy Valentine's Day! Here are my 2 little ones checking to see if the flue is open so Santa can get in **grin**. I don't think my 8-yr old believes anymore though he did say that the Easter Bunny can't be real because rabbits aren't that smart but Santa is real because he is a real person :)) We hope he'll still feel that way next year!

Cookies they left for Santa. Didn't have a lot of time to make homemade cookies as we were headed for Florida so used some that were given to us by neighbors and friends:


The cupcake craze continues at our house...these cuties were knitted and actually little purses. Pattern purchased from a talented lady at Etsy - can't recall her name right now but you can do a search for knitted cupcakes and am sure her shop will come up. I changed the pattern a bit to make the chocolate base higher and added a few more rows for the top part.



These are mini cupcake purses, about 3" x 4" and come with intricately detailed mini matching cupcake notecards. I sold these at a craft fair - expected them to just sit there but the tween girls loved them.



The next images are more paper purses except these hold matching necklace and earrings made by my Mom. The jewels are in a handmade card. Most of the patterned papers used are Amy Butler and also SU! Designer papers.







Ignore the bad lighting...these are batches of assorted scones. I finally learned how to make scones for EATING and not for HOCKEY playing :-)!! My Mom's recipe is the best and these are really tender and not very sweet. I used chopped up leftover chocolate candy bars (believe it or not, we have leftover chocolate candy bars from Halloween - unwrapped them all and froze them for future baking use!) and chopped dried cherries and dried cranberries. My kids have been eating a scone a day for breakfast since returning from our Florida trip. Sure makes for an easy breakfast!

Can we move Christmas to July?

Hi all - I'm back. Believe it or not, I still have a partial bag not unpacked from my trip to Florida (yes, you read that right, Mom!). I came back with barely a week to prepare for 2 birthday parties, back-to-back.

But first off, my Dad is doing well and was very glad to be home after 3 weeks at the hospital and rehab. There are still many issues to sort out but we're hoping that he will get back into a "normal" schedule with his chemo soon. There are good days and bad days but we're hoping that with the right combination of medication, he can get to a level of comfort and enough energy to get back to where he was, physically, before summer. My Mom is doing a tremendous job being the only one there for him and praying that her energy level keeps up with all the demands. We will be joining them for Christmas in just a couple of weeks so it will be good for all of us to be together again.

Now upon my return I found a little girl on the verge of becoming a 13-year old. It must have been growing pains but our now 5 year old was really testing us and I'm sure part of it was that Mommy was gone for a week. Her birthday party was this past Saturday at a local kids' culinary school

with 14 attendees. It was an amazing place to have a party and so glad I didn't try and attempt this at our house:


The children frosted and decorated cupcakes; made Willie Wonka chocolate bars with golden tickets inside; and drank chocolate banana smoothies. It was an adorable sight with all of them wearing little aprons! Wish I could share photos of that but my policy continues to be a no-full-on-face-photos! Part of my before party preparation was putting their names on the party favor aprons with puffy paint and scouring the entire bay area for mini spatulas to include in their goody bags. I failed to take photos of those :-( but they did turn out adorable.

Then the very next day was my son's 8th bday party at OUR house! Twelve big boys total at our house! While I was in Florida, my wonderful husband was constructing the Lego race track and buying all the Legos necessary for building Lego cars. Each boy received a generous amount of Legos to build their own race car then it was off to racing them down the track. We had activities planned out for the entire 3 1/2 hr party and am so glad that we did because every time there was a lull in activities, the boys resorted to jumping, running, climbing and just being plain rowdy boys. Here are some pictures of that party:

These Lego blocks above are white chocolates. I bought the Lego mould from the Lego store. Attempted making a cake out of the mould but figured out very shortly after popping out the cakes that it would be a near impossibility to frost around those round knobs!





Will post picture of the Ugly Lego Cake later as blogger is having a hard time this morning loading pictures. So, now, there's still Christmas shopping to do (and we have relatives out of state so that means packing and mailing them too!). Our Christmas cards may have to wait until January too as we tried taking pictures of the kids at the museum last week and my son couldn't put on a normal face so that is still on our checklist to finish!

Now am off to run (great stress reliever) - am up to 4+ miles round trip! Not bad for an old lady!

Taking a break...

Hello blogging friends. It has been awhile since I updated as life just caught up with us.

First and foremost, my Dad has not been well and was hospitalized for a week for congestive heart failure. He has been suffering since summer but his cardiologist (who has since been replaced/fired) did not diagnose this condition correctly and it worsened and last Friday he was finally admitted to the emergency room. He also suffers from 2 forms of blood disease, in which he needs to get well and stronger soon to continue his chemotherapy.

Needless to say, it has been a difficult time for all of us and more difficult for me as I am not anywhere near them. I will, however, be finally flying down there to help my Mom out in getting things lined up for Dad's aftercare and any other necessary arrangements we need to make to get him home healthy, safe and comfortable.

My in-laws volunteered to come down early for Thanksgiving to be here for my children. My 2 little ones are the busiest children I know with all their afterschool activities so that alone will be a handful to handle. Right now I'm busy stocking up the pantry and freezer so they will have an easier time getting meals prepared. I've also gotten request from my kids to make sure i stock up on baked goods for the freezer (spoiled children - they only want home-baked cookies).

Also, if you've noticed on my sidebar that my Etsy shop is missing. That too had to be closed temporarily as I could not imagine crafting when I should be attending to my family. I hope to return to that wonderful place when time allows me some frivolity. I did have my last "hurrah" with crafting last weekend when I participated as a vendor for my son's school where a percentage of our proceeds from sales went back to the school. I had great success and am thinking that craft fairs are another fun way to make money (without the added headache of figuring out shipping or finding the right box to ship stuff out in).

Here are some fun photos for you all to enjoy. I will post again after I return from Florida and hopefully I'll have nothing but very happy and healthy news.

These are some things I made for the Holiday Boutique:




Snowman Poop tic tacs - the snowman is a Quickutz die cut; cardstock is all SU! and the ribbon is also SU! (may be retired); the stamped "Snowman Poop" was done with JustRight stampers.

Owl Post-It Notepads - inspiration for the Owls comes from here. This talented lady used nothing but punches to make these adorable owls. She also has on her website the instructions on how to make the notepads.





The felt candy cane mice were from a sample my Mom got from someone last year. I made mine a little bigger. The tag is stamped with PaperTrey clear stamps (I just love their stamps!) and used SU!
cardstock and retired silver cord.

The Santa Tags were also inspired by the same stamper linked above. I used mine to make tags and you can go check out her site to see how else she used the adorable Santa heads.

These last 2 photos were my attempt at crocheting. The stacked "Oreos" were made using a found free pattern on the Internet and the cupcakes were a pattern provide to me for free by an Etsy seller whom I purchased a pattern from (I purchased a crochet a tea set pattern). I've since found the cupcake pattern on-line - all for free. So, if you can crochet, try these! They are fun and quick to make. These I sold and they sold the quickest. I am now making a batch of both as party favors for my daughter's birthday party.