Dahlia Fold Fan

Good morning!  Well, it's been awhile since I've posted...again...but I haven't been sitting idly by doing nothing. I've been reading other blogs and getting ideas in inspiration. One of my favorite blogs to read is Juliet A's Ballpoint Bliss.

One of Juliet's posts was a tutorial for a dahlia fold fan. This was something I wanted to try. I'm not totally sure I did it correctly, but I like the results anyway.

In retrospect, I wish I had used a different background paper. I think the red patterned paper is too much, since I used it on the geisha's robe, the fan and the backgound, don't you? The stamp is by Sparkle N Sprinkle.

Ah, well, I will probably make more of these, so I can change the colors then.

Hope you have a great day!

Spring Fever

Yes, I admit it.  I have (and have had) Spring Fever.  My Muse has been gone for a little while and I'm having withdrawals.

So, in the meantime, here is a little something I put together for someone dear to me as a get well card.

My granddaughter got her tonsils out yesterday, and I wanted to cheer her up.

The piece of cardstock behind the imp is a leftover piece that I made with alcohol inks on glossy cardstock. I ran it through the cuttlebug with an embossing folder, then highlighted the raised part with a dark brown inkpad.  The little sparkles don't show it, but they have glitter on them. I used Copic markers to color the image.

Image: Magic Imp stamp by My Paper Moon

Hope you enjoy.

Oh, and if you see my Muse out wandering around, please send her home....

Neutral Shadows - with a twist

Hello, once again.  The weather today is absolutely gorgeous.  In the 70's, blue skies...  If it would only stay like this forever, I would be in heaven.

This month the Technique Junkies newsletter had a technique called Neutral Shadows, where you embossed an image with white embossing powder on white cardstock, then added shading with a neutral color.  I fell in love this this technique.

But I wanted to change it up a bit, so I embossed on black cardstock with black embossing powder (or you can use clear).  Here is what I came up with:

After embossing the image, I used Brilliance Moonlight White pigment ink to stipple around the image, giving it an aura or halo.  I matted the image on white cardstock. 

For the background I used white cardstock, then a layer of black, then a piece of black and white patterned cardstock.  I punched a piece of black cardstock with a scalloped border.  I used a white gel pen to make circles and adhered it to the background.  I put my finished layer on top and, viola, I was done.

A pretty simple card.  Please leave a comment here and let me know how you like it.

Have a great weekend!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!  I hope you are enjoying your day.  My wonderful husband took me out to dinner Saturday night, and gave me the money to get a Kindle E-Reader.  How sweet is that?

Here are a few cards I made for my sweetie and my children/grandchildren.  Hope you enjoy them.

This one was for hubby.  Something a little more masculine than I made for the girls.  The heart that the little boy is cutting out is covered with red glitter.  Very shiny.

 This one doesn't have a black dot on it in real life.  I guess it was on the scanner and I didn't catch it.

And this one has watermarked hearts on the last red layer, which didn't show up in the scan.

I decorated small paper sacks with Valentine's images and punched out hearts and heart doilies to hold the treats I bought my granddaughters.  I didn't get them much candy (except a few Hershey Kisses...what's Valentine's Day without kisses and chocolate?), but I got them some drawing tools, paint by numbers, small notebooks, etc.  

Have a happy day!

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