Mystic Bar Mix

Good morning.  During the Christmas holidays I told you that I was making some different treats for the holidays, and if any of them were keepers I would share the recipe with you.  Well, one of them as exceeded all expectations of being a keeper.  It is so good, in fact, that I have made 4 batches since Christmas.  I changed up the recipe, so I will share my altered version with you.  It's yummy!

What you will need:

• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
• 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup butterscotch bits
• 1/4 cup Heath bar toffee bits
• 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
• 3/4 cup shredded coconut
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1/3 cup butter

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place butter in 13 x 9 pan and heat in oven until melted. Remove from oven
2. Place dry ingredients in large bowl and mix well.  Add sweetened condensed milk and stir until well blended. Spread evenly in prepared pan.
3. Bake 22 to 25 minutes or until lightly browned.  Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars.

These bars remind me of bars I used to get at a bake sale when I was in high school (that's going back quite a ways). They were sooooo good, and I had never seen the recipe anywhere.  When I saw this recipe in a magazine, it was very similar but not quite.  The recipe in the magazine called for raisins and no butterscotch or toffee bits.  I'm not a big fan of raisins, so I left them out and reduced the chocolate chips so I could add the butterscotch and toffee bits. The result is fantastic.  Everyone who samples them wants the recipe, so I'm sharing it with you too.  If you give it a whirl, leave a comment and let me know how you like them.  

The Cat's Meow

Hello!  Good to see you again.

It's hump day and we're halfway through another week.  I'm a weekend person and love to spend it with my family, or crafting, so I live for Friday. I just found out there is a Hobby Lobby near me, and I'm cooking up a road trip. I don't have any craft stores really close by, so it's fun to have a girls day and spend it with my daughter and granddaughters going to craft stores. Of course, the times I have to take my hubby instead, he's pretty  good about hanging out while I shop. Usually I've let him shop first at the sporting goods store, so he's a happy chappy.

Anyway, today I wanted to share a special card I made for a special friend.

I love the Lady Catsby stamp, and for a special card she goes well with the Cat's Meow stamp. Another easy card with no lumps and bumps, since I'm mailing this card to my friend.

I stamped the cat onto glossy cardstock and colored with markers.  I cut apart the cat's meow stamp so I could put it on multiple lines, and stamped above and below the cat.  I used a ticket corner punch to trim the corners.  I layered it onto green cardstock and punched those corners as well.  I punched holes along each side of the white cardstock with my needle punch.  I used a pink lightly patterned cardstock for the background, and a scrap piece of floral patterned paper that I tore along one edge.  To give the card a little dimension, I used crystal lacquer on the parasol and the shoes. And I ended up with a stray black mark on the cardstock, so I covered it with a white bow. Pretty clever, don't you think?  I didn't want to throw it away and start all over. When I make a boo boo, I try to salvage the card if at all possible, since my time to craft and play is at a premium.

I'm happy with how the card turned out, and I'm sure my friend will be, too.

Hope you have a happy day...

Another Silhouette Lady

Good morning.  Hope all is well with you and yours.  Did you do anything fun this weekend?  We were invited to a bonfire at one of hubby's friends.  I made mystical bars and he made a huge pot of chili to add to the potluck fare.  We had a really great time.

For today's card I chose another Silhouette Lady.  This time it's Silhouette Lady #9.

Another easy card, but not so quick. Let's take a look:

The scan doesn't show it, but after I stamped the image of the lady on the white cardstock, I stamped it again, cut it out and layered it with pop dots. It took a little time to cut it out, with all the little nooks and crannies, but I'm glad I did. It looks really nice in person. I used a nestability die to cut the image into an oval, and a nestability die to cut the scalloped oval. I used my needle punch to punch holes in the scallops. I used a piece of the scrap paper from the scalloped oval to make a "ribbon", and used the needle punch to punch holes.

Happy with the results

Quick and Easy Thank You

Good morning!  Hope you are well this morning.  How is the weather where you live?  

I needed a thank you card for someone I don't know very well.  Gushy was out, and this little guy just begged to be used.  How could I resist?  

So, here is another quick and easy card, with no lumpy embellishments. Just perfect for mailing.

I used patterned paper for the background.  I stamped the little guy (Thanks) and colored using copic markers.  I punched out the oval using a nestability die, and did the same for the scalloped oval.  I punched holes around the perimeter using a needle punch tool.  I used an Angel Company stamp to stamp Thank You on scrap red paper and used a black marker to make the dots between.  For some bling I added glitter glue to the flowers.

I was quite pleased with the outcome.

Hope you have a creative week!

Silhouette Lady

Good morning!  I hope you had a restful weekend.  I had some obligations to take care of, then I got some time to play.

I recently released some Silhouette Ladies, and today I would like to introduce you to one of them.  I had a lot of fun making this card, even though it's a very simple card.  I like simple, easy to mail cards, without a lot of lumpy, bumpy embellishments.  I save that for cards I can hand deliver.

Anyway, here we go...

I chose Silhouette Lady #13 for this card.  She's very lovely and I thought she would look pretty in pink. The scalloped rectangles were cut using Nestability dies.  I added a little glitter to the flower to give them some bling. The background cardstock is textured.

For this card you can use any sentiment you would like on the inside.

Head on over to My Paper Moon to see the rest of the Silhouette Ladies.

Have a great week!

New Issue of Rubber Stamp Madness

New issue due out soon.

Start a subscription to RubberStampMadness, the original stamping magazine. The Spring 2011 issue has stories on tags, tips on coloring photostamps, using watercolor crayons with alcohol inks, combining iris folding with stamping, domino jewelry and more. Check out the artwork on two themes: Bunnies and She Loves. . . . If you love to stamp, check out RubberStampMadness. http://www.rsmadness.com

I can't wait to get my issue....Happy Stamping.

Winter Tag and New Images

Good evening. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year celebration. We spent Christmas at my daughter's, and we spent New Years there playing with the grandkid's Wii.  I think my hubby may be contemplating getting one.

I loved seeing Tim Holtz's Christmas tags. Alas, I don't have access to all his stamps and supplies, but using what I already have, I made this:

I stippled the tag with a couple different colors of blue.  I stamped the trees with black ink but didn't like how it turned out, so I overstamped them with green ink.  I think they turned out okay.  I used a swirl stamp to put a few swirls on the tag just to take up the open space.  I have a stamp that I love that is very similar to one of Tim's that is soooo versatile.  It's the Spatter Background Stamp and it looks like this:

You can use it for snow (like I did), or to add texture to a background. I've used it for rain and sand, and you are only limited by your imagination.

I punched some snowflakes and added glitter glue to give them sparkle.  I love snowflakes and love to make winter cards using them.  We don't have real snowflakes in Florida...lol.

And for the bottom I ran a piece of blue cardstock through the cuttlebug with an embossing folder, then ran my dark blue inkpad over the piece to darken the raised pieces.  I tore the bottom for added interest.

I stamped the "dream" stamp onto cream cardstock, tore it out and aged the edges with a dark brown ink.

I enjoyed making the tag, and I was pleased with the way it turned out.

And now, since we are in a new year, I wanted to introduce some new stamps.

There are 16 individual silhouette stamps. These stamps are approximately 1-1/2 x 2 inches each and are $3.50 each. You can see them by going to My Paper Moon and click on What's New. To celebrate this new release, I will be selling them for 10% off for a short time.

Hope you have a great week!