Happy New Years!! 2011

Hi everyone, hope you all had a great time last night, if you celebrated. We stayed home as I have a bad cold! I wish for all of you a new year filled with love, peace, health and wealth. I will be making our traditional food of black-eyed peas with bacon in it or what is called Hoppin' John, some kind of greens and cornbread, YUMMY!

Hopefully I can get back into posting on the blog, but will have to wait and see, I have to report for jury duty on Monday, I hope when I call the night before to see if it is still being held, that the recording will say that they don't need for us to show up!

Hope to see more of you next year! Until than, have a crafty day....Mary

Merry Christmas To All

Hi to all of my blogging friends! Sorry that I haven't posted anything for the past week, life has been very busy around here and we had a friend and neighbor pass away, both were in their 80's. We will miss them very much. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families.

I want to share with you a cute video that I found on YouTube, hope you enjoy watching it as much as I did: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sUL0KCIc48

Hope your day is filled with love, laughter and happiness with whomever you are sharing your day with.

Merry Christmas !!!!

Oh and if your day allows, have a crafty one! Mary

Sugar Coated Pecans

HI to all my blog friends!! Hope you all have your Christmas shopping done, all your packages mailed and all your cards sent too.

Today I'm going to share yet another recipe with you that I found on Allrecipes.com back in 2006. These pecans are so good! My oldest said that they are like eating crack, once you get started you can't stop! In fact one year I had to hide them from her so she wouldn't eat them before I could take them to a party we were going too! One of her co-workers ask her a couple days ago at their office Christmas luncheon "where are your Mom's pecans?"

Sugar Coated Pecans

1 egg white
2 teaspoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 pound pecan halves, buy the best ones you can afford, it does make a difference
1 cup white sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Grease one cookie sheet with sides. In a mixing bowl, whip together the egg white, vanilla and water until frothy. In a separate bowl, mix together sugar, salt and cinnamon. Add pecans to egg white, stir to coat the nuts evenly. Remove the nuts and toss them in the sugar mixture until all coated. Spread the nuts out on the prepared baking sheet. Bake at 250 degrees for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Cool before serving.

Now it is important to let the pecans cool completely before serving or eating. If you try to eat them before they are cool, they will not taste good.

You can use 1 cup Splenda instead of the sugar.
You can use 1/2 cup white sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar, in place of the 1 cup white sugar.
You can use almonds, walnuts in place of pecans.

Enjoy!! Mary

Sweet Party Mix

Well, in keeping with the Chex Mix that I shared with you a couple of days ago, I thought I would share a sweet mix with you today. This is so good and it is hard to stop eating once you get started! I found this recipe 5 years ago on Allrecipes.com, they have so many good recipes and I like to read the reviews first before I decided if it is a recipe I want to try out.

Sorry about posting only recipes lately, we've been super busy here and recipes are easy for me to share with all of you and besides everyone is always looking for recipes around Christmas and for New Year's too! I will share the original recipe first and than at the end share with you how I do/make it.

Sweet Party Mix

1 (12 oz) package crispy corn and rice cereal
5 ounces slivered almonds**
6 ounces toasted, chopped pecans**
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup dark Karo syrup
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Lightly grease large roasting pan. In a large bowl, mix cereal, almonds and pecans. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and mix with dark Karo syrup and light brown sugar (I let the mixture come to a boil and boil for one minute). Pour the mixture over the cereal/nut mixture. Stir and shake to coat all. Pour the coated cereal mixture into the prepared roasting pan. Place in oven; stirring every 15 minutes. Cook for 1 hour. After baking, pour out onto waxed paper and store in airtight containers.

** I use my favorite nuts, peanuts or cashews or both and I use a total of 4 cups when I make this. I also bake mine on two large cookie sheets that have sides to them, I spray them with PAM. I also stir the mix, after it is done baking, while it is cooling on the cookie sheets. **

Traditional Chex Party Mix

Good day to everyone! I hope your day is off to a Great start!

I would like to share with all of you today my family's version of this popular snack mix. This particular recipe that I have is from the 1970's and I do believe that is was the first version of this recipe. Nowadays you can find many different ones, but this is the one that my family will eat, if I try a newer, updated one, they don't like it. I will be making some of this soon to give to one of my husband's co-workers, she always requests a sack of this every year!

Traditional Chex Party Mix

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
2 1/2 teaspoons seasoned salt
6 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 2/3 cups Rice Chex cereal (I use Cheerios)
2 2/3 cups Wheat Chex cereal
2 2/3 cups Corn Chex cereal
2 2/3 cups Pretzel sticks (my family addition)
1 cup salted mixed nuts (I use two cups) **see note at end**

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Heat butter in large shallow roasting pan (about 15 x 10 x 2-inches) in oven until melted. Remove. Stir in seasoned salt and Worcestershire sauce. Add cereal, pretzel sticks and nuts. Mix until all pieces are coated. Heat in oven 1 hour, stir every 15 minutes. Spread on absorbent paper to cool (I skip this part and just let it cool in the pan, less mess this way). Makes approximately 9 cups of mix.

** I use a 16 oz container of Planter's cocktail peanuts when I make this OR a container of cashews. They seem to be the most favorite two nuts, so that is what I use when I make this.**

Helpful Measurements:

one 14 oz. box of Cheerios makes 5 single batches
one 14 oz. box of Corn Chex makes 5 single batches
one 12.8 oz. box of Rice Chex makes 5 single batches

Thanks for stopping by and I LOVE to hear your comments!! Have a crafty day.....Mary

Merry Christmas Dog Card

Hey everyone, how are you all doing? We are all doing well and I've had some time to play in my room, so I thought I would share with all of you.

Here is a card that I made to send to my daughter who lives in Columbia, MO. As you know, we are all big dog lovers in our family. When I was on Splitcoaststampers awhile back I saw this card and just knew I had to CASE it (copy and share everything). It's such a happy card. Oh, here is the one I saw:http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1839341
I didn't have any ribbon that small with Christmas colors in it, so I went to Michael's to hunt some down and was going thru the sticker section and just happened to see these Santa hat stickers, of course they jump right into my hands, has that ever happened to you??! I added some glitter to the tree and snow, click on the picture to see better.

Here is what I used;
Stampin' Up; D is for Dog, Short and Sweet stamp sets; word window and oval punch; markers
Northwoods; tree stamp
Martha Stewart glitter
glue pen
sponge dabber
Versamark ink (blue)
Recollections stickers; Santa hat
Bazzill cardstock

Almond Roca Cookies

Now this is not the best picture of these AMAZING cookies!! I found this recipe on Splitcoaststampers and the recipe submitter, Shaela, said that every single cookie cookoff she enters with this cookie, she wins and I can taste why. I will be adding these to my cookie platters that I give to my neighbors every year. This was my second baked good that I took to the church bake sale.

Almond Roca Cookies

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup butter, room temperature
2 eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 package toffee bits
1 cup coarsely ground almonds
4 ounces milk chocolate
1/2 tablespoon vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, blend sugars together on medium speed. Add butter and mix to form a grainy paste. Add eggs and vanilla and mix at medium speed until light and fluffy. At low speed, slowly add the flour mixture and then the toffee bits. Mix until just blended; do not over-mix.

Place ground nuts in a small bowl. Using hands or small scoop, roll balls of dough into 1 to 1 1/2 inch balls, then roll in the gound nuts. Place on cookie sheets several inches apart. There is no need to flatten them. Bake approximately 20 minutes and than transfer cookies to a cooling rack.

Melt the chocolate with the vegetalbe oil in a double boiler or in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Drizzle melted chocolate over cooled cookies. Place cookies on a cookie sheet and place in freezer or refrigerator until chocolate is firmly set. Store in tightly covered container.

Yields: 5 dozen (when I made them, I only got 4 dozen, must have maded them to big).

I used my Silpats when I make cookies, I think I would grease the cookie sheets just to be on the safe side when making these because of the toffee bits.

Cherry Pound Cake

Today I want to share with you one of the recipes that I made for our church bake sale. This bread comes from robinhood.ca and boy is it delicious!! Now it says to bake it in a bundt pan but I have made it using two loaf pans and also the mini loaf pans too. I have found the baking time to be about 55 minutes when making it in a loaf/mini loaf pan. My daughter is always asking me to make this for her.

Cherry Pound Cake

1 1/4 cups butter, softened
2 3/4 cups sugar
5 eggs
1 teaspoon almond extract
3 cups Robin Hood All-Purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup EVAPORATED milk, undiluted
2 cups quartered maraschino cherries, well drained (I use 3 - 10 oz jars)

Beat butter, sugar, eggs and extract in large bowl on low speed of electric mixer until blended, then on high speed 5 minutes until light and fluffy.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt.

Add dry ingredients alternately with evaporated milk to creamed mixture, mixing lightly after each addition.

Fold in cherries.

Turn batter into greased and floured 12-cup bundt or tube pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes.

Cover loosely with foil, shiny side out; continue baking 15-20 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Let cool in pan for 5 minutes; invert cake onto rack and let cool completely.

Dust with powdered sugar just before serving (I skip this part).

VARIATION:

Chocolate Chip Pound Cake: Omit almond extract and use regular or miniature chocolate chips instead of cherries.

Make: about 16 servings

Stylist Blog Award

Oh my look what I found in my comments section one day! A wonderful award from someone who just found my blog, her name is Marg and here is a link to her blog:http://auntiemargsblog.blogspot.com/

Now I have to send this on to eight new blogs that I've found and tell you eight things about myself too, than I have to contact the eight bloggers to let them know so that they can send it on to eight more bloggers. They need to tell from whom they received it from and add a link of that persons blog. So here we go,

1).http://www.stampingwithbev.blogspot.com/

2).http://stampinwithsuzee.blogspot.com/

3).http://craftsbybeth.blogspot.com/
4).http://meandmypinkmixer.blogspot.com/

5 ).http://totallytutorials.blogspot.com/

6).http://fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com/

7).http://www.salad-in-a-jar.com/

8).http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/

Now for the eight things about myself.

1). At one time had a job at the dental school in the computer room

2). At one time I worked for the United States Marine Corps in the computer room

3). I love all kinds of music, whatever sounds good at the time, I like

4). Dogs and horses are my two favorite animals, I lived on a farm as a little girl for about 5 years

5). My favorite color is BLUE!!!

6). I really love to do anything crafty, really I do, it's very exciting, relaxing and fun

7). I'm good at doing home improvement projects, I've had alot of experience the last 32 years

8). I like finding answers to questions or facts about things I don't know, great way to find information is to "google", LOVE IT!

There's some of the things about me in a nutshell. Oh and I love nature too, go for a walk daily with hubby!

Hope you have a crafty day.......Mary

Bookmark Calendars for Craft Show

Ok, so today will be the last of the craft show items that I donated to our church's annual craft/bake sale. I found the file to make these bookmarks over on Splitcoaststampers. One of the ladies always shares her calendar files with the rest of the community, YEA!! I just stamped a few random flowers around, mounted it on card stock and than laminated them, very fast and very simple too.

Here is a link to the bookmark calendars:http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/templates-f143/cats-2011-bookmark-calendar-template-t483297.html

Have a great day! The next couple of post I will share the two recipes that I used for the bake sale items, OH are they ever YUMMY too!!! Mary

Magic Reindeer Food for Craft Show

Well did you all make it thru Thanksgiving? My husband and I had a very quite one, just the two of us. We did this last year and enjoyed how quite and peaceful it was, so we decided to do it again this year too.

Now on to the post! In the picture above is a cute idea that I first saw on Angie Kennedy Juda's blog. Here is a link to her video:http://chicnscratch.typepad.com/chicnscratchlive/2008/11/reindeer-food.html
You use oatmeal and cookie sprinkles (some use glitter but there could be a problem if the birds are attracted to it and eat some, that is why she used cookie sprinkles). I used my Stampin' Up Top Note die to make the bag header and a retired stamp set called "Deer Friends". I put some Diamond Glaze on the nose to make it shiny. This would be a nice little item to give to the kids or grandkids on Christmas eve, so Santa knows where to drop off the presents!! Click on the picture to read the poem.

Thanks for dropping in to see me, have a wonderful week-end......Mary

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope you all have a wonderful day filled with good food, warm memories and family!!


Oh and if you can, have a crafty day too!! Mary

Cocoa Cards Craft Show

Hi all! Here is another craft item, could use this too for co-workers and would not be hard on the budget either. Also got this on the craft thread at SCS. You cut your cardstock like you would if you were going to make a card. I put a medium glue dot in the back center (inside of card) than put a packet of hot cocoa mix on it so that is would not fall out. Than I decorated the front. I used a retired Stampin' Up set called, "Like It A Latte". Than I put a small glue dot on a Bogdon's Candy Stick, they are peppermint flavor and made right here in Kansas City, and attached it to the front of the card, ran ribbon around the whole card. I used some old cardstock and designer paper, good way to use it up and help at the same time too!

Elf Pillows Craft Show 2010

Here is another craft item for the church craft sale. I do wish I had a elf stamp, this really needs one, oh well. I've priced this little bags of candy very low so that the seniors at church will be able to buy them, we have a large senior population. This too was found at SCS in the craft show thread. Hope you are enjoying seeing all of these cute little items! Mary

Rudolph's Spares Craft Show 2010

Ok, here is the craft item that I put together using the red M&M's for the craft show at church. I used Stampin' Up's retired hostess set called, "Deer Friends", what a cute set it is too! The Rudolph Spares I typed up on the computer and use SU oval punch to punch them out with, very easy and quick this way. I colored in the deer nose with red marker than applied some Diamond Glaze so it would be shiny! Found this on SCS's craft thread too. Have a great day and take some time to play too! Mary

Grinch Pills for Craft Show 2010

Happy Wednesday to all! It is cold and raining here, brrrr.

Today I want to share with you this cute little craft item that I'm going to donate to our church's annual craft/bake sale that will be held this coming Saturday and Sunday. The president of the ladies club at church sent out a letter asking for new ideas for the show and I thought to myself..."hmm, why not just make some stuff up and donate it". I'll just drop it all off at church when I drop off my two baked goods. Money is going towards the "new boiler" fund. I used Stampin' Up's Top Note die cut for the bag cover. You are suppose to put this on a container of Tic-Tac's but I could not find any green ones, so I bought a sack of Christmas M&M's and used those instead. I'll show you in a couple of days what I did with the red M&M's. My friend Chanda, re-sized the cute Grinch image and poem for me, I found that over at SCS on the Craft show thread, I get alot of "crafty" ideas from SCS, COOL site!!

Blue Christmas Card

Hi, well are you getting sick of seeing Christmas cards? Hope not, here is my third attempt at some cards. On this one I use Stampin' Up's embossing folder called Northern Flurry, and the stamp set called, Christmas Greetings. I also use Heat & Stick powder and Dazzling Diamonds on the snowflakes (click on picture to see the glitter better). Than I tried sponging the background, very soft and subtle. The hardest part on this was removing the extra heat & stick powder, otherwise this would have been a super fast card to make.

Well this is what I have so far for Christmas card ideas, I may try a few more and make a decision on which one to go with. I usually try and have them done by mid-November as I have an elderly lady that I buy, address, sign and mail all of her Christmas cards for, as she can no longer do it. Maybe I'll show you some Thanksgiving images that I used for Thank you cards, I don't normally send out Thanksgiving cards, except for one.

Hope you have a crafty day.....Mary

Embossed Christmas Tree Card

Well here is my second attempt on my trial Christmas card run. I love the clean and simple design of this card! It is my favorite, so far! I used another stamp from Archiver's that I purchased last year. They had a sample card at the store that I really liked, but this card is not based on it. I also embossed two lines, one above and one below the sentiment to help draw your eyes to that part of the card. The "peace" is from a retired Stampin' Up set called Wonderful Words-II. Now I cut the cardstock that the tree is stamped on, thru my Big Kick, with one of my Nestie shapes to cut and emboss the shape. Than I used a Krylon Silver Leafing Pen to do the edges with. I need to practice that step some more! Here is a link to the Christmas card that inspired me to make this one:http://notimetostamp.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/2010/10/30/more-cas-and-many-new-things/ it is just BEAUTIFUL! I used silver embossing powder that has some sparkle in it, LOVE IT!

Hope you all are finding inspiration to make your cards with, have a crafty day....Mary

Diamond Dust Christmas Card

Hi to all! I'm going to share one of my trial run Christmas cards with you today. My friend Chanda sent this link to me http://stamping411.blogspot.com/2010/09/technique-thursday_16.html and I wanted to give it a try. First I had to order the supplies that I would need to make it. The stamp is from Northwoods and I found it last week, on sale, at Archiver's (it gave me another chance to color)! I used Stampin' Up's Heat & Stick powder, Dazzling Diamond Glitter and markers. I used a Dove blender pen to color the image with. Now I don't think that I will use this for my Christmas cards, 30 to color would just take too long to do, but I will send this to one of my special friends. You'll have to go on over and view the cards that they made, they are so pretty and sparkly too, just like, well, Diamonds!! You should see my craft room..it just sparkles all over!

I've had fun the last couple of days playing in the craft room and hope you like seeing my creations too! Have a GREAT DAY!!!! Mary

Painting With Embossing Powder Technique

I'm so excited to show you this card that I made yesterday! It is a new way to use your embossing powder. I found this new way over on Sandi MacIver's blog, you can see her post here:http://www.sandimaciver.com/sandi_maciver/2010/10/painting-with-embossing-powder-technique.html My husband needed a thank you note to send to a male friend, so I thought I would try this technique out and just love how it turned out! The stamp that I used is an old one that I won on e-bay, probably about 10 years ago, from Rubber Stampede. I also used Versamark ink. The "thank you" stamp is from Wonderful Words, a retired Stampin' Up set. I used gold, silver and black embossing powder. To see the card up closer, click on the picture.

I've also been working on designing my Christmas cards, so I'll be sharing those over the next week with all of you. Hope you have a crafty day...........Mary

Treat Box Card

Hi everyone! Today I'm going to share with you a card that I made with directions that my friend Chanda sent to me. You can see hers here, she decorated it for Halloween:http://www.onecraftymommy.com/2010/09/october-club-projects.html

I am able to get two cards out of one sheet of 12x12 card stock with the directions that she sent to me! Thanks Chanda, you're a peach and a wonderful friend!! The stamp set is from Stampin' Up called Tree Trimming. I used Versamark ink and than sprinkle on some gold, silver and copper embossing powder. As you can see I put Hershey's nuggets in the side. These would be cute decorated for Thanksgiving and than placed on each person place setting for Thanksgiving with a message to each person. Here is a link for directions/video on how to make one of these cards:http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/treatboxcard/

Hope you give it a try, they are easy and fun to make!

Hope you have a crafty day..................Mary

Faux Leather Techinque

OK, here is the other faux leather that I tried and I really like it much better with the tan fun foam. I know that the stamp set is not a manly stamp but I still like the look of it. I left off any sentiments so if I need a quick card, I already have one in the craft room ready! Here is the link again for this techinque:http://thestampcamp.com/blog/10/11/faux-leather-video/

The stamp is from Stampin' Up- Because I Care and the green cardstock is embossed with the Square Lattice embossing folder from SU. I used my Bow Easy to make the bow.

Suppose to get really cold tonight, hard freeze, hope it kills all those little things that make everyone sneeze! Hope you have a crafty day...............Mary

Crock-Pot Taco Soup

Hey everyone, hope you are all doing well. I made this soup yesterday and thought you might like the recipe for it. It makes a whole crock-pot full of soup, so make sure you have plenty of help to eat it, serves 8.

Crock-Pot Taco Soup

1 pound lean ground beef

1/2 small onion, chopped

1 - 16 oz. can chili beans, with liquid

1 - 15 oz. can kidney beans, with liquid

1 - 15 oz. can whole kernel corn, with liquid

1 - 8 oz. can tomato sauce

2 cups water

2 - 14.5 oz. cans diced tomatoes

1 - 4 oz. can diced green chile peppers

1 - 1.25 oz. package taco seasoning mix

In a medium skillet, cook the ground beef until browned, over medium high heat. Drain, and set aside. Place the ground beef, onion, chili beans, kidney beans, corn, tomato sauce, water, diced tomatoes, green chile peppers and taco seasoning mix in the crock-pot. Mixing well to blend. Cook on LOW setting for 8 hours.

I like to serve mine with sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese and tortilla chips. If you want it spicer, replace one can of diced tomatoes with 1 can of Ro-tel tomatoes.

I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com

Hope you enjoy it.......Mary

Fall Card

Well since Fall is upon all of us now, I thought I would share this card that I made last year for a swap I was in. This is a retired Stampin' Up set called, A Basket Full of Fun. The cardstock is from Jo-Ann's as are the brads too. I used Bic Mark-It's to color in the image. As you can see I LOVE to color! The grass is done free hand.

Hope you are all having a nice week-end, it's a beautiful, sunny day here. Bye for now....Mary

Baby Boy Card

Happy Friday to all of you! Today I'm showing you the card that I made to go with the baby quilt that I showed you. It is similar to this one here:http://maryscraftroom.blogspot.com/2010/05/baby-card.html Just like that one I used a retired Stampin' Up stamp set called, A New Little Someone. I used a Martha Stewart punch to make the border and ribbon from Jo-Ann's. The cardstock is also a retired Stampin Up product. For the background, I put it into the Dotted Swiss Cuttlebug embossing folder and ran that thru the Big Kick. To color the image I used my Prismacolor pencils and Odorless Mineral Spirits. You can click on the picture if you would like to see it up close.

We had our first frost for the season, the trees will really start to turn colors even more now! Thanks for stopping by.......Mary

Testing Out a New Technique

Well I'm sharing two cards that I made over the week-end with a new technique called Faux Leather. You take some Fun Foam and heat it up with a heat embossing tool until it get warm/hot, than you place a inked up stamp on it for about 30 seconds, while applying some pressure and it will leave an impression in the foam. Now I, in all my craftiness, got the hair brained idea to use white foam instead of tan because I don't have any manly stamps to play with (oh that doesn't sound to nice, does it)! Well, I'm just not to sure if I like it with the white foam. What do you all think?? The brads on the right card are some that I tried to make the same color as the flower with some glitter added to it, but I'm not impressed with them either. Oh well, live and learn. Click on picture to see up close. Here is a link for a video on how to do this:http://thestampcamp.com/blog/10/11/faux-leather-video/
I will show you what this same stamp looks like on tan foam. If you try this, let me know, I would like to see your creation! The stamp set is from Stampin' Up-Because I Care, scallop punch is also from Stampin' Up, cardstock from Archiver's, ribbon and rhinestones are from Michael's.

I hope you have a nice day......Mary

Ice Cream Shoppe Birthday Card

Hi everyone! I'm so excited to share this cute card with you that I made Sunday while I was playing in my craft room! I wish you all could see this in real life, it is so cute! Click on the picture and you can see the glitter that I added to the "cream" part of the card. I saw a video on how to make this card here:http://dostamping.typepad.com/dostamping_with_dawn/2010/06/sweet-scoops-ice-cream-shoppe-awning-card.html I didn't have the scallop border punch that she had, so I cut the rectangle part of the awning so that my little scallops would just hang over the bottom edge and it worked just fine. The border punch I used for the little shelve part was punched with a Fiskar punch, the ribbon is from Michael's and the rest is from Stampin' Up.

I got caught up on making some cards and did get my craft table cleaned up, will be showing you another card in a couple of days. Thanks for dropping in and I hope you take some time to play today.....Mary

College Team Bag/Purse

Below is a closer view of the bag.

TGIF to everyone, hope you are having a wonderful day today.

Today I'm going to share with you a simple bag/purse that came my way via e-mail last week. When I watched this video:http://www.thediydish.com/2010/10/episode-5-how-to-make-the-diy-dish-basic-handbag/ I knew that I wanted to try my hand at making one. So I used this left-over material from some other projects. I thought my daughter who lives in Columbia, MO. would like to use this bag when she goes to the football games on Saturdays, shows some extra support for the team! I hope she likes it. Now to be honest the written directions for this bag are not the greatest, so be sure to watch the video, I had to watch it for a total of three times to get the information that I needed to make the bag. I would still print off the directions and make notes on them for future reference. The bag itself is not very hard to make at all, you will need some sewing experience to make, maybe beginner and up. I will have to try this again with some different material. Oh, I did add two pockets on the inside for keys and cellphone.

Thanks for dropping in to visit with me, have a crafty week-end......Mary

Breast Cancer Awareness

Hello today to all of my blog followers!! I hope you all are having a great day today. I've got Beef Stew in the crock-pot (recipe on my blog) and also the bread machine going too, making Tangy Buttermilk Bread (this is also on my blog).

I wanted to share with you a little holder that I made to hold some special Tic-Tac's that only come out once a year. They are always sold in the month of October, for a limited time, to help raise awareness about breast cancer. I hope you all follow the guidelines on having your mammograms, this also includes you guys who have a family history of breast cancer.

I found this holder here:http://chicnscratch.typepad.com/chic_n_scratch/2007/09/tic-tac-tutoria.html They are very easy to make (will show you some more when it gets closer to Christmas). I found the ribbon stamp at Archiver's last year (yes, these were around last year, I'm always late on showing stuff)! Click on the picture to read what it says on the circle,tee-hee.

Thanks for taking the time to stop in to visit with me, I appreciate it so much and would love to hear your comments too! Have a crafty day.....Mary

Halloween Candy Bar Sliders

Hi everyone, hope your day is off to a good start. The sun is out here and it is on the cool side today, fall is starting to come more and more each day.

I thought I would share with you a small candy bar slider today. These are decorated for Halloween and would be nice to give to your "special" trick-or-treater's that come by your house. I found the directions for them here:http://www.juliabettencourt.com/blog/?p=1286
They are made using the snack size candy bars instead of the larger size bars. You can find these snack size one at Wal-Mart in a package of 8 for $1.00. They are very easy to make. For mine I use two different punches, the spider punch is made by EK Success, and the bat picket fence is a Martha Stewart punch. I found both of these at Archiver's about a week ago. For the spider one, I used a stamp that I had from last year that I also found at Archiver's in their $1.99 bins. The little ghost on the other one is made with the Owl punch from Stampin' Up, you just trim off his feet and turn him upside down, instant ghost! Most candy bar sliders have ribbon that you use to pull the candy out with, but I omitted it on these. I'm going to have my husband give these to the gals that work at the credit union, they are always helping us. For a closer look, click on the picture.

Hope you all are having a crafty day.........Mary

Strawberry Pretzel Salad

Hmm....doesn't this look YUMMY!! It sure was yummy to eat!

We had this salad recently at a funeral luncheon, my daughter has been begging me to make it since August, so I finally put it on the menu of things to make. I found the recipe at Allrecipes.com. It has been years since I've had it and it is still just as good as I remember it. Now some people serve this as a sweet salad and some as a dessert. Either way, it's just plain GOOD!

Strawberry Pretzel Salad

2 cups crushed pretzels
3/4 cup butter, melted (this equal to 12 Tablespoons)
3 Tablespoons white sugar
1 - 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 - 8 oz. carton Cool Whip, thawed
2 - 3 oz. packages strawberry Jell-O
2 cups boiling water
2 - 10 oz. cartons frozen strawberries ( I use the sweetened ones), don't thaw

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Stir together crushed pretzels, melted butter and 3 Tablespoons sugar; mix well and press mixture into the bottom of a 9" x 13" baking dish. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until set. Set aside to cool. In a large mixing bowl cream together the cream cheese and 1 cup sugar. Fold in the Cool Whip; combine well. Spread mixture onto cooled crust. In another mixing bowl, dissolve Jell-O in the boiling water. Stir until Jell-O has dissolved, than add the still frozen strawberries and allow to set briefly. When mixture is about the consistency of egg whites, pour and spread over the cream cheese layer. Refrigerate until set.

Serves 12

Now the next time I make this, I'm going to halve the recipe, as this makes too much for just two people to eat.

Try it and see for yourself how delicious this is and than you can decide, is it a salad or a dessert.

Thanks for dropping by......Mary

Baby Rag Quilt

You are probably wondering why I'm showing you piles of material cut into squares. Well this is the start of the baby quilt that I made for my husband's co-worker who was having her first baby, of course, you can tell by the colors and pattern that it is for a little boy. I use the Sizzix scalloped square die (4.50 inches square) to cut these with it makes for fast work. You can cut eight layers of fabric at one time, which is four squares total. Each pile has 20 complete squares to it. I used 6 different colors/patterns. You could also use a ruler and a rotary cutter too.

After I hand cut the cotton batting for each square (3.25 inch square), I than sewed each one with and "X" to hold the batting in place. After that I laid the squares out and arranged them in the order I wanted. Than I pinned each row together to get them ready for the machine again. The seam allowance that I used was to make sure that I sewed below the scallops, I'd say between quarter of an inch to half inch, I didn't want a huge seam.

Here the squares are all sewed together. You also have to sew around the whole outside of the quilt too. I than had to snip each row (I snipped at each scallop or about every quarter of an inch) so that when it is washed it will start to "rag". I must admit that this was the my least favorite thing to do and it seem to take forever. Flip corner shows what the back looks like.

Here is the quilt after it has been washed, it is starting to "rag" some but will need more washings. Click on the picture to see it better. Well after seeing it come out of the washer and dryer, I probably would make another, just not real soon, lol! Oh, the flipped over part shows you what the back of the quilt looks like, I like it just as well, so she will have two different ways to use it. I started with one yard of fabric for each color/pattern, I do have some left of each, so I'm guessing that I used half yard of each.

I found this video on YouTube for you to watch, explains the "how to's" very well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-LQfYXrG_Q

Hope you all are having a fun, crafty week-end.......Mary

Happy Halloween Card

Hi everyone!! Long time no see, lol! Today I'm going to show you a card that I made for my friend who lives in an assisted living place. I don't get to see her as much as I use to, but I do try and send her a themed card once a month to let her know that I'm still thinking of her.

I don't know who makes this stamp, I received the image thru a swap I was in, but isn't that the cutest witch! She just makes you want to smile! The spider web paper is from The Paper Company, Jeepers Creepers line. The ribbon is some that I've had for a long time and the sentiment stamp is from a set that I found last year at Archiver's in their $1.99 bins.

Hope you are having a spook-tacular day!!

Be back soon with another crafty idea......Mary

Happy Birthday Molly

Happy 12th Birthday, Molly girl! You've been a wonderful dog to have, I'm so lucky that we got you!

Now why this 70 plus pound lab is laying in Bella's (who is all of 20 pounds) bed is beyond me, but that is where she decided to lay one day about 5 months ago. Molly is so mellow and laid back, my one daughter says "she just plain lazy" and I think she just may be! I hope she stays around for awhile, but only if her health stays good. We call her are "ageless wonder" as she has hardly any gray hair.

Love girl, you are my best friend!

Happy Card Making Day

Happy Card Making Day!

I'm going to share the card that I made for my daughter, Kelly, when she got Bella, the parti-colored Cocker Spaniel from one of her co-workers. We dog sat one week-end about 18 months ago now and Bella just decided that she liked Grandma better than Kelly!! No, Kelly didn't mistreat her in anyway, Bella just decided that she wanted me to be her "human". I CASED this card from my friend, Chanda Stehlik, on SCS. You can see her card here:http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1156829?si=chandapie&perpage=12&thumbsonly=0&thumbcheck=

I used paper that I had for some time and cut the dog face out using heart shaped Nesties. Add some rhinstones to a strip of cardstock to look like a collar and added a flower too! Since Bella is black and white those are the colors I used for this card.

Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty day! Mary

Sympathy Card for a Female, #3

One of my husband's cousin's wife recently lost her mother. Here is the card that I made to send to them to let them know we were thinking about them.

I used the stamp set called "Thoughts & Prayers" from Stampin' Up. I also used their scalloped oval punch and regular oval punch and their markers to color in the stamp. Cardstock is Bazzill and ribbon is from Jo-Ann's. I also used Versamark ink and lightly sponge the edges with a sponge dabber.

I hope that you are having a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by, have a crafty one....Mary!

Cincinnati Chili

Top picture is the chili plain, the bottom picture is the chili with chopped onions and shredded Cheddar cheese sprinkle on top....YUM!! Serves four adults

Well with cooler weather soon approaching, I thought a good chili recipe was in order. I've been making this chili for about 15 years now. I found the recipe in a cookbooklet (you know, the ones by the check-out lane at the grocery store) called Fast and Healthy. The original recipe calls for ground turkey but hubby veto that ingredient ages ago, so I use lean ground beef instead. I don't know if they serve chili like this in Cincinnati, but we sure do enjoy it. It is not a overly spicy chili but you could easily make it more spicy by adding more cayenne pepper to it.

Cincinnati Chili

8 ounce uncooked spaghetti
1 teaspoon oil, only use this is using ground turkey
1 small onion, chopped
1 pound lean ground turkey breast, I use 93% lean ground beef
1 tablespoon sugar
3 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne)
1 - 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes, undrained
1 - 15 oz. can dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

Heat oil in large nonstick saucepan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat until hot. Add onion; cook 3 to 5 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently. Stir in ground turkey breast; cook and stir until no longer pink. Add all remaining ingredients except kidney beans. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer for 10 to 30 minutes. Add kidney beans; simmer until thoroughly heated. While this is simmering, cook spaghetti to desired doneness, as directed on package. Drain.
To serve, spoon spaghetti into 4 individual soup bowls or unto plates. Ladle chili over spaghetti.

When I serve this I offer chopped onions and shredded Cheddar cheese to put on top of the chili.

When I brown the ground beef, I add my chopped onions at the same time and omit the oil.

Hmmm...this is making my mouth water, now I need to go make some....talk to you later....Mary

Birthday Card for Friend

Hi! Today I'm sharing a card that I made last week. I forgot that we were going to a suprise 60th birthday party and I hadn't made a card yet. So I had to make one really fast as we were going to the party in less than an hour. It took me about 15 minutes to make this one. Now I don't like doing that but you do what you gotta do. The bad part is though, the party was for someone who works for Hallmark Cards here in Kansas City! YIKES!!! Talk about pressure to make a really nice card...I tried my best. I hope she liked it!

I used a stamp set called Watercolor Trio by Stampin' Up and also a scallop punch by Stampin' Up. The paper is from Archiver's. I used my Big Kick and Nesties to make the embossed square where the image is stamped and lightly sponged the background too. Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Thanks for coming by to see me....have a crafty day...Mary

Applesauce Bars

Hi everyone! Hope your day is off to a great start! I've got my dinner cooking away in the crock-pot and I mixed up some Applesauce Bars for my husband to take to work tomorrow for goodie day, they are celebrating the promotion of two co-workers! These bars a very easy to put together and are very moist. My husband prefers that the bars to be refrigerated but I like them room temperature (I like the cream cheese icing to be soft). You can add nuts or leave them out, they taste great either way.

Applesauce Bars

2 cups flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup nuts, chopped your favorite

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 eggs, beaten slightly

2 cups applesauce, I use the sweetened kind

1 cup vegetable oil

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Stir in eggs, applesauce, oil and nuts, until well blended. Spread batter into an ungreased 15" x 10" x 1" cookie/baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool. Frost.

Cream Cheese Frosting

2 - 3 oz. packages cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 pound box of powdered sugar

Cream together the cream cheese and butter; add vanilla. Gradually add powdered sugar until all added and well blended and a spreading consistency. Frost bars. Optional, sprinkle frosted bars with more chopped nuts.

These taste better is made the day before serving.

Hope you give these a try, they are oh so good! Mary

Ham Bone Soup

I think that I promise to post this recipe awhile ago on this post here:http://maryscraftroom.blogspot.com/2010/05/tangy-buttermilk-cheese-bread.html. Now that some of you are enjoying cooler weather in your part of the country (not here yet, yesterday is was 90 degrees), I thought you might like a good soup recipe. Why is it that we think we can only eat soup when it is cold outside? Haven't figured that one out yet. Anyway, I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com and have enjoyed it for a couple of years now. Hope you all will like it too, and I serve this with cornbread or the Tangy Buttermilk Cheese Bread, YUMMY!!!



Ham Bone Soup



1 ham bone with some meat left on it

1/2 medium onion, diced

1 (14.5 oz.) can diced tomatoes with juice

1 (15.25 oz.) can kidney beans, I rinse mine

3 potatoes, cubed I use medium to large one, depends on how much you want in it

1 green bell pepper, seeded and cubed, I don't add this so I'll put...optional

4 cups water *

6 cubes chicken bouillon *



Place the ham bone, onion, tomatoes, kidney beans, potatoes and green pepper into a 3 quart or larger slow cooker. Dissolve the bouillon cubes in water, and pour into the slow cooker. Cover and cook on Low for 7 to 8 hours.



* Now I get lazy sometimes and use chicken broth either in the can or those cardboard box thingys, I just make sure that it equals to what the recipe calls for, which is 4 cups and it works great for me. If I'm home on the day that I make this, I put everything in a large soup pot and let it simmer for an hour after it comes to a boil. After an hour, I pull the ham bone out and pull the ham off the bone and put the chopped ham back into the pot and simmer until we are ready to eat, maybe an hour more. I also add 1/2 to 1 cup celery, chopped, 1 cup carrots sliced, and a can of green beans, drained and some chopped garlic, about one teaspoon.



If you don't like kidney beans, use ones that you like, I've use butter beans before and it was just as tasty. Oh, and I have made this with honey baked ham and it doesn't make it sweet at all.

Wishing you all a great week ahead.....Mary

Sympathy Card for a Male

Well as you can see from the post title, I needed to make another sympathy card, this time for a cousin who loss her father-in-law. I tried to make this card more masculine. This card is made based on a sympathy card that we received after the loss of my husband's mother, thanks Chanda for your beautiful card. I used chalks for the background, this created a soft, muted look. I than used my Stampin' Up stamp set called "Thoughts & Prayers" for the image and sentiment on the front. Hopefully this will be the last sympathy card that I need to make for awhile.

Hope you all have a great week-end.......Mary

Sympathy Card for a Female

Hello to all of you today. Today I'm sharing a sympathy card that I made for our neighbor who loss his mother last week. Ask any card marker and they will all agree that sympathy cards are the hardest cards to make. While this is a part of life, it is still a difficult card to make as you know someone is mourning the loss of a love one.

For this card I used a Stampin' Up stamp set called "Close As a Memory". I used my Stampin' Up markers and color directly onto the rubber and huffed onto the stamp to re-moisten the ink, than I added some ribbon. I love the soft look of the pastel pink and green together.

Thank you to all of my blog followers for dropping in to see me, I appreciate it very much!

Mary

Oven S'Mores

Oven S'More's

Hershery chocolate bars
marshmallows
graham crackers

Today I'm going to share a recipe that I'm sure that we've all had as children growing up either as family campers or as scouts...S'More's!!! There is just a slight twist to this version of this treat, you don't need a campfire anymore to enjoy them! A couple days ago, I received this recipe in my e-mail mailbox from Our Best Bites (here is the link to her recipe):
http://www.ourbestbites.com/2010/08/candy-bar-oven-smores.html
Now when I made mine the other day, I did it the old-fashion way with the Hershery's chocolate bars, instead of the peanut butter cup or the Rolos. I didn't make mine like she did, I took my squares of graham crackers, laid six on my toaster oven tray, than my chocolate square on top of the cracker, than two marshmallows side-by-side on top of the chocolate. I put the toaster oven on broil and slid the tray into the toaster and let the marshmallows get brown on top (this also made the chocolate really gooey). When the marshmallows are to your liken, pull them out, transfer to a plate and place another graham cracker square on top and squish it together! What a yummy mess you will have!! Both my husband and daughter really enjoyed this simple treat!

Halloween Fry Boxes

Hello! Hope you are enjoying your week-end, mine is going to be very busy!

I wanted to show you some fry boxes that I made. These are just too cute and simple to assemble too!! I found the template on Splitcoaststampers,

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/templates-f143/qbees-fries-box-template-t227056.html The two middle boxes have Martha Stewart stickers on them! I mounted the stickers on a scallop punch piece and under the scallop I put a belly band around so the scallop would show up better. Of course I used some of my extra spiders, minus the peppermint patty. Would be a fun treat to give to your special friends or co-workers at Halloween! I've also have seen these fry boxes made up for different holidays to, think Christmas, Easter, for Thanksgiving place setting, etc.

Give them a try they are so very easy to make...have a crafty day....Mary

Frankie Pail and Spider Treat

Hi!! Well I'm on a Halloween roll right now! Today I would like to share two little items that I made last year. The first one is the Frankie Pail. I found this pail at Target in their $ spot, when I saw it I knew it would look cute as Frankie! The eyes and nose are made with circle punches, mouth free-hand with a Sharpie and his hair is a Martha Stewart punch-Drippy Goo. This would be cute to put on your desk filled with miniature candy bars for your co-workers! The spider is also made with punches. I used scallop punch, corner punch (Stampin' Up) and circle punches. The body of the spider is York peppermint patty (cover by the scallop punch). Last year I had alot of "spiders" on my mantle!!

Thanks for visiting................Mary

Treat Hangers

Hello everyone!!! Sorry that I've been gone for awhile, alot has been going on here lately.

Today I'm going to share with you some Halloween treats that I made for my daughter to give to some of the department heads where she works. As you can see you need a bottle of water (or wine) to hang it from, although you could hang these treats from the door handles too. I put a pouch of Kool-Aid and some pretzel sticks in each one. Now if you were giving wine as an open house gift you could put some chocolate sticks or cheese sticks in there too. I found the directions for the hanger here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/hanging_treat_box/

The mummy is made with circle punches and torn strips of cardstock, sponged with ink to make it look old. Frankie was made with circle punches and a Martha Stewart punch called "Drippy Goo".

You could use these hangers for just about any holiday or special occasion! Thank you for stopping by today to visit with me, I appreciate it! Mary

Quilt Square

Hi everyone, hope your Monday was a good one! Today I'm going to share a quilt square that I made using my Big Kick machine and a Sizzix die called 5-Point 3D Star. I used some scrap material that I've had for years to do a trial run on this, also, I entered a quilt square contest on this blog here:http://stampshacklady.blogspot.com/2010/08/quilt-square-contestplease-vote.html you'll have to pop on over and vote for your favorite quilt square, some of them are so creativity too!! Oh my poor wallet, I see some more dies that I could use....shh...don't tell hubby, OK?!! Thanks for dropping in to visit with me today........Mary