Happy Birthday, Son!

     I'm finally back in my craft room after more than 2 weeks away!! We flew into San Francisco on September 8th and then "sailed away" on the Sea Princess for a 10 day Alaskan cruise. Once back in San Francisco we toured this fascinating city - and also visited Napa and Sonoma Valleys for some wine tasting delights!

 STAR BIRTHDAY! 

It was my younger son's birthday yesterday and these are the two cards I made for him - one from DH and me and the other from his older brother.  

I made my own background paper by using PTI's Star Prints on the top and and Distressed Stripes on the bottom portion of the card front with a purple and green colour combo!! 

The Spiral Notebook Page Die was stamped with the lined page from School Time and then sentiments from Star Prints and Fly Away were added. I "tucked" this into the Library Pocket Die and then added the rest of the details - faux stitching with a gel pen, a stamped and cut star, a sentiment and the small Stamping Bella white Dot.The circle of purple card stock was added to the top left hand corner in order to highlight the white 'star' button that has been tied with purple ribbon.

Supplies:

Stamps: PTI Star Prints, Distressed Stripes, School Time, Fly Away

 Inks: CTMH Clover Meadows,  SU Lovely Lilac.

Card stock: Recollections

Other: PTI Sprial Notebook Page Die, Library Pocket Die, Stamping Bella Dot, button, ribbon, white gel pen.

 SURF'S UP ........ 
Ian lives and works in Halifax Nova Scotia on the east coast of Canada. When he first moved there he started surfing - - -  I still can't believe that he surfs all year long - - - even in the coldest wintery months!! This card certainly celebrates his adventurous spirit. 

Stampin' Up  "Extreme Surfer" and "Surf's Up" were used for the front image and sentiment. After stamping the image I added a fine glitter to the 'waves" under the surfer. The red saddle stitched ribbon and Stamping Bella 'dots' add some colour to the front of the card. I also used a button and some embroidery floss from my stash.
     

On the inside of the card I used PTI's Just the Ticket stamps and border die leaving a space on the right side for his brother to add a comment. The lower section looked a little 'bare' so I added the wave stamp from Surf's Up and matted it with the Ocean colour.

Supplies:

Stamps: SU Extreme Surfer, Surf's Up, PTI Just the Ticket

 Inks: CTMH Holiday Red, Ocean

Paper: K & Company, Brazill card stock

Other:  PTI Just the Ticket border Die, circle punch, corner rounder punch,Stamping Bella Dot, button, Dots & Dashes ribbon, embroidery floss, DecoArt Glamour Dust, glue pen, white gel pen.

Vintage Inspiration Notebook

Happy Sunday to Everyone!!

     It's Labour Day Weekend here in Canada, so everyone I know is in great spirits ... Monday is a "sleep in" day!   Even though I have retired from teaching, Labour Day still means the end of summer's lazy days and the beginning of cooler, shorter ones.  We're having family over for a barbeque today - just hope the weather is sunny and warm. It's been very cool, rainy and windy here the last few days.

     I wanted to update my Inspiration Notebook - I've been collecting card sketches and other ideas for cards in a little notebook that I bought at the dollar store. The only problem... it was getting full and I had no way of expanding it. So I cut it apart and used binder rings to create a notebook that I will be able to expand over time. 

     I started by covering two pieces of heavy cardboard (6 1/4" x 9 1/4")  with brown paper  
(inspiration from  PTI August Blog Hop Challenge).  This patterned paper has been in my stash for a long time, but I've never been able to make it 'work'. Since I have quite a few 12" x12" sheets it was a good choice...if I 'messed' up I wouldn't be destroying my only piece of patterned paper!!   As you can see it's fairly subtle with very muted colours.  It just needs some zing!

Back of Notebook

     I was was so impressed with Betsy Veldman's  botanical collage and her Moxie Talk on the Moxie Fab blog, I decided to experiment!! 

  

Front of Notebook

     
     I don't usually make cards and paper projects with a 'vintage' look, but I kind of like it... I want to try it again, now that I have figured out some of the techniques!! 

     Betsy comments that this trend is "popping up in home decor, stationery and paper crafting products" and  "the look is layered, full of details...lots of times with text and ledger backgrounds".  

     So I pulled out all kinds of stamps, punches, accessories and kept adding to the front cover until I was happy with the results.

I made a Pocket on the inside 

covers for both the front and the back.

Inside there is a section for different styles of 

cards with instructions and "mini" samples.

And another section has some card 

sketches that I would like to try or 

ones that I have made and really like.

Project Details:

Stamps: PTI - It's Official; Library Card; Mini Scrapbook Series: Tabs. Stampin'Up - Rough Type; Tiny Tags; Vintage Vogue. Close to My Heart (CTMH) Air Mail. Hampton Art- "K"

Inks: CTMH - Black, Cranberry, Olive, Indian Corn Blue. PTI - Vintage Touch Tea Dye Duo.

Papers: Recollections Olive & Cranberry. Patterned Paper - Karen Foster "Bouquet"

Other Supplies: Scalloped Border Punch; SU Tiny Tags punch; Boho Blossoms punch; circle punches. PTI- Spiral Notebook Die. Embroidery floss; binder rings; ribbons; Prima flower; brad; Marvy markers; cardboard; brown paper bag.

Baby Flower Power

     Happy Thursday to everyone!  I have a couple of cute cards today using Itzie Inkies Flower Power from C.C. Designs. Our local scrapbook store DAT'S has started carrying a number of stamp lines, so it's always fun to see what's new when I go in shopping!! I couldn't resist this image - several of my nieces and nephew are having babies and I knew it would see lots of ink!!

     I mentioned earlier that one of my nieces had her first - a little boy - in early August. She and her husband didn't want to know the baby's gender, so it was a surprise to all!  I wanted to be ready for the big day, so I made 2 cards for them - one for a boy and one for a girl. Here's the one I gave to the new parents of sweet little Nathan.

And here's the one I still have!!   Another niece is expecting her second child in December (it's a girl) so I have a card ready to pop in the mail!! 

      I started with a pastel plaid background paper that has greens, blues, pinks and yellows for both cards and just varied the colours for the card stock and the embellishments. I used this same pastel plaid for a retirement card I made for a friend (using PTI's Up, Up & Away). It's amazing how much mileage I'm getting out of this paper pack!

     I stamped and coloured the little monkey and flower with my copics and then cut it out with nestabilities. I then stamped, coloured and cut out the large daisy so I could pop it up on dimensionals. The little 'bug'  has glitter wings - I used a glue pen and DecoArt Glamour Dust for some sparkle! I also added a touch of sparkle on the daisy centers with some Stickles. 

      I found this sentiment on the internet and printed it out in a matching colour before cutting it and a coordinating mat with one of my nestabilities.

Card Details:

 Stamps: C.C. Designs Itzie Inkies Flower Power; Clear Dollar Stamp - sentiment; Stampin'Up Love Bug

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black; SU Pixie Pink; CTMH Garden Green, Blue 

Papers: SU; papers from my stash!

Other Supplies: Copic markers; Nestabilities; DecoArt Glamour Dust; glue pen; pearls; ribbons; circle punches; markers; Stickles.

All About You

To Nichole - Thank You for All You Do!

     I wanted to add my voice to all of  Nichole's fans - hooray for Papertrey Ink, Nichole and her fabulous design team. I've just started my "collection" of Papertrey Ink's stamps and dies and I'm looking forward to many more wonderful surprises!!   

  When I started this card I immediately went to Nichole's Blog to look at the cards she designed for the release of All About You Additions.  I "borrowed" a few ideas from Nichole and added a few of my own.... and voila!!

Thank You Nichole!! 

You are a superstar and you inspire me every time I see your designs. You have also gathered a great design team together - you should be so proud of all that you do!!


Card Details: 
Stamps: PTI All About You; It's Official
Paper: PTI Vintage Cream; Stampin'Up coloured card stock; vellum.
Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black
Other Supplies: Copic markers; Clear Gelly Roll glitter pen; DecoArt Glamour Dust; glue pen; brads, ribbon; 3-D Dots; Cuttlebug embossing folder.

Apple Recipes

My Papertrey Ink August Blog Hop  Project showed the apple recipes that  are family favourites. Here are the complete instructions. Enjoy!!

 Finnish Baked Apple Pancakes

 We live in a city with a very large Finnish community, so everyone here knows the tasty Finnish pancakes that are served at the HOITO RESTAURANT Although this recipe is  not the traditional thin Finnish pancakes, I like them because you can prepare them and pop them in the oven and relax!! This dish makes a wonderful brunch served with bacon or sausage. It also makes a very nice dessert served with a good vanilla ice cream.

4 eggs

1 ½ c. milk 

½ tsp. salt 

2 Tbsp. sugar 

2 c. sifted flour

3-5 tart apples, peeled, cored, sliced

3 Tbsp. butter

cinnamon sugar:  (½ c. sugar + 3 tsp. cinnamon)

     

Preparation:

+ Beat the eggs until thick; add the milk, salt and sugar.

+ Sift in the flour, mixing it well. Let batter stand for 30 min.

+ Preheat oven to 375° F

+ Prepare the apples and cinnamon sugar.

+ Butter two 8-9 round cake pans; sprinkle with half of cinnamon sugar. Arrange the sliced apples in the pan.

+ Sprinkle apples with remaining cinnamon sugar and dot with butter. Pour pancake batter over apples, dividing it evenly between pans.

+ Bake for 30 min. or until the top of each pancake is golden and set. Slice each pancake into 8 wedges.     2 pancakes serve 8-10.  

Apple Pie Muffins

                                                    

2 ¼ c. all-purpose flour        

1 tsp baking soda              

½ tsp salt                             

1 egg                                      

1 c. buttermilk                     

 ½ c. butter, melted

 1 tsp vanilla extract

 1 ½ c. packed brown sugar

 2 c. diced apples

½ c . packed brown sugar

1/3 c . all-purpose flour

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 Tbsp butter, melted

Preparation:

+ Preheat the oven to 375° F.   Grease a 12 cup muffin tin.

+ In a large bowl, stir together 2 ¼ cups flour, soda and salt.

+ In a separate bowl, mix together egg, buttermilk, ½ cup  melted butter, vanilla and 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar .

+ Mix liquid into  flour mixture and then sprinkle  and mix in diced apple. Stir just until everything is blended.

+ Spoon into prepared muffin tin, filling the cups to the top.    

+ In a small bowl, stir together ½ cup of brown sugar, 1/3 cup flour and cinnamon. Drizzle in 2 Tbsp. melted butter. Toss with a fork until well blended. Sprinkle over tops of muffins.

+ Bake for 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the tops of the muffins spring back when lightly pressed.

Pork Chops and Apple Bake 

6 pork  loin chops

1 1/2 tsp salt 

1 1/2 tsp dried sage

vegetable oil

3 - 5 tart apples            

3 Tbsp molasses

3 Tbsp all-purpose flour

2 cups hot water 

1 Tbsp vinegar

1/3 cup raisins   

 Preparation: 

+ Season pork chops evenly on both sides with salt & sage.

+ In a large skillet, heat a tablespoon of vegetable oil over med. heat. Brown pork chops in hot oil on both sides; transfer pork chops to a shallow baking. Reserve drippings.

+ Peel, core, and slice apples 1/4-inch thick. Arrange apple slices over pork chops. Drizzle molasses over apple slices.

+ Sprinkle flour over skillet drippings; cook until brown, stirring occasionally. Slowly add water, stirring constantly, until smooth; then bring to a boil. Stir in vinegar, 1/2 tsp. salt, and raisins; pour mixture over pork chops.

+ Cover pan with foil and bake at 350° for 50 to 60 minutes. Serves 6          

Book Worm Notebook

     Here's a fun little notebook that I made using the Mini Scrapbook Series: Tabs stamp set and matching Mini Book Page Die and Tab Die from Papertrey Ink. I cut out LOTS of lined pages and plain card stock in varying colours of blue and bright green to make this notebook. The die sure made it easy to create all of the pages in a uniform way.

     I started with the Bookworm and apple stamps from Imaginisce and then coloured them with Copic markers and some regular markers. I only had a few copic markers when I made this. Next, I cut the two images out and used dimensionals to attach them to the limey green library card that I had downloaded from Heather Nichol's blog. (I have since purchased the stamp - love it!!)

     The library card is layered on top of a piece of card stock that has been stamped with A to Z letter background stamp from Stampin'Up. I used my EK success Stamp Edge border punch to add some interest .  The pencils were stamped using a little single stamp from Clear Dollar Stamps and Take Note is one of the sentiments on PTI Fillable Frames #1. The embellishments are Dots and Donuts from Stamping Bella.

     I decided to create a "spine" on the book by sandwiching an extra piece of green paper between two pieces of card stock on the front and back and leaving a 1/2" showing on the spine" of the note book. I used ribbon ties to hold it all together.

     Here's the first page with Tin types background stamp on the green paper and  a label made with a Disney alphabet stamp set  that I've had for a while (not sure where it's from!!)     I used the Tab die to cut 5 tabs and then stamped them with the matching border stamp and then various labels - ideas; shopping list; to-do-list; doodles and sketches.

Supplies:

Stamps:   PTI - Mini Scrapbook Series: Tabs; Tin Types; Fillable Frames #1.  Imaginisce - Bookworm.  Stampin'Up - A to Z Letter background stamp.  Clear Dollar Stamps - Pencil

Papers:  Recollections card stock;   Sandy Lion - patterned paper

Ink:   CTMH - Choclate; Ocean; Clover Green. Memento Tuxedo Black

Other Supplies:   PTI - Mini Book Page Die; Tab Die. Library Card download;   Copic markers;   Zig markers; Stamping Bella Dots and Donuts;   Stamp Edge border punch;  Ribbons.

Papertrey August Blog Hop Challenge

     Welcome to Rainbow Gardens for Papertrey Ink's August 2010 Blog Hop.  

This is my first blog hop.... (in fact my blog is less than 2 weeks old!I) and  I'm learning something new every day!! 

     When I read about the blog hop for August, ( a brown paper bag challenge)  I immediately thought of apples.  Our apples have ripened early this year and we've had a "bumper" crop. We had to get them off the tree since the deer have been  visiting every day to munch on them. My husband has already started several batches of apple wine and I have lots of apples in the freezer ready for cooking later in the season.  

     Here's my interpretation of a brown lunch bag card and recipe holder, using lots of Papertrey Ink stamps and dies, and other goodies!!. Enjoy!!

Card Front

Papertrey Ink Supplies: (for card front)

Vintage Picnic - basket and apples; Just The Ticket Border die and matching stamp; Just For You - sentiments; Vintage Cream Card Stock; Linen Impression Plate

Other Papers: My Mind's Eye Brown/Green Brocade; Brazzill card stock; brown paper lunch bag.

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black; CTMH Chocolate & Olive.

Other Supplies: Scalloped Square Nestabilities; Corner Rounder Punch; Copic Markers, Diamond Glaze; Marvey marker; ribbon; Stamping Bella Dots; sewing machine.

Recipe Cards and Sentiments

     I used my computer to print several of our favourite recipes - Finnish Baked Apple Pancakes and Apple Pie Muffins were tucked into the pocket on the left side of the card. (If click on the picture above you can see the little tree and the red stickle "apples).  The recipe for the Pork Chop and Apple Bake was attached to the pull-out tag on the far right side (shown below). I stamped, coloured and cut out the apple stamp; then added Diamond Glaze for added sparkle, before I attached them to the recipe cards.

Additional Recipe Pull-Out

Papertrey Ink Supplies: (for inside card and tag)

It's Official - order form & sentiment; Everyday Button Bits - additional sentiments; Spiral Notebook Page Die; 

Other Stamps: Stampin'Up Trees for All Seasons; ABC Images

Other Papers: 

My Mind's Eye Solid Brown and Red & Brown Dots;  Brazzill card stock; Recollections Kraft card stock

Inks:  CTMH - Black & Cranberry..

Other Supplies:  Copic Markers, Diamond Glaze; Red Stickles; Corner Rounder Punch; Scalloped Border Punch; Circle Punch: Cuttlebug Embossing Borders: Marvey marker;