A Card for Mom

Gee...I'm sorry that it has been so long between posts, thing get busy during the summer around here, I bet it does for all of you too! :)

Here is a birthday card that I made last year for my mom. She told us that she doesn't want us saving her flowers for her funeral, but she would rather have them while she can still enjoy them. So each year, I try to give her a card with some kind of flower on the front and I also give her flowers to plant for Mother's day too.
I got this stamp at Archiver's and used my Prismacolor pencils and mineral spirits to color it with. I also used a Cuttlebug embossing folder and lightly inked the background so that the embossed flowers would stand out alittle bit more. Nothing really fancy but I think it turned out well too!
The weather here is really nice this week, low humidity for a change, but we are to have a possibility of some rain on the 4th of July.

Happy Birthday Flowers

Here is a little pot of flowers that I made yesterday when I got to play in my craft room! I got the flower template from Skip To My Lou, she show it at Valentine's day, but so many people requested the sentiment be different that she made a whole lot more, like Happy Birthday, Thank you, Get Well, etc. Here is a link to her site, the template is FREE:
http://www.skiptomylou.org/2009/03/19/printable-lollipop-butterflies-and-flowers-for-spring/
I "borrowed" some Tootie pops that my daughter had stashed in her office at work. I used a pail that I purchased from the dollar spot at Target (you can get some really neat containers there)! So for under $2.00 you have a "sweet" gift for someone!

Thanks for stopping by to see me to day, oh and if you like some of my ideas, please leave me a comment, I LOVE THEM!!!

Mary

I Received The Sunshine Award!

WOW!!!! Look what I received from my good friend, fellow SCS pal and Expert blog buddy (she help me set up my blog or I wouldn't be here today.....Chanda Stehlik!! You can go and visit her blog here:

http://www.bellevuestampingclub.com/

I believe that she should go into business of making and selling cards, seriously, they are that good and so pretty! She really knows how to put color, paper and embellishment together. If you need any Stampin' Up supplies, she is also a demo and you can order from her, even if you don't live in her home town, I do!

Thank you, Chanda, for your kindness, but especially your friendship...it means the world to me in many ways!

Here are a few that I've passed this on to:

http://stampshacklady.blogspot.com/

http://www.starlightstamper.com/

http://www.addalittledazzle.com/

http://stampinwithsherry.blogspot.com/

http://helenmade.blogspot.com/

http://creationsonpaper.blogspot.com/

Extra Fancy Flower Bookmark

Hello to all of my blogging friends! Hope that your Friday has been a wonderful day for you so far. It has been for me!! I got to play in the craft room today, even got the front yard mowed too!
I found this cute bookmark on Monica Weaver's blog yesterday and just had to try my hand at making one. Seriously, I think it took me all of 10 minutes to make this as I had everything on hand. Here is a link to Monica's blog:
http://www.addalittledazzle.com/my_weblog/2010/04/fancy-flower-bookmark.html

Here is a link to how to make the bookmark:
http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/paper_clip_bookmark/

I got the silver jumbo paper clips at Wal-Mart, the pearl brad at Archiver's this morning on clearance (YEA), paper that I had on hand and the Extra Fancy Flower punch from Stampin' Up, I used E6000 glue to hold it all togther.

Summer Flowers

Today I'm going to share pictures of one of our hibiscus plants from our backyard. My husband is the one who takes care of these beauties, in fact, we have a grow light in our basement so that they can winter over each year. He had one plant that was over seven years old when it died this past spring. I believe the name for this one is "Cotton Candy". It's been a real bloom producer too, in fact, right now there are about 10 to 15 buds on it

Of course, the plants are loving this hot humid weather we are having right now too. It's so nice to look out the back kitchen window and see how "happy" the plants are. We have three hibiscus plants right now.

I hope that you are all having a "blooming" day today!! Thanks for visiting with me,

Mary

Dessert Cake

Get yourself ready for a really good recipe today!! This stuff is so good, that you'll want to get a BIG spoon and eat the whole dessert by yourself! I got this recipe many years ago from my mom and I do believe that it is the best thing, EVER! When you are eating this, you'll find yourself saying over and over, "man this is so good".

Dessert Cake

1 package of yellow or Golden yellow Jiffy cake mix--follow the directions on the box to make and bake BUT bake in a grease 9 x 13 inch cake pan. Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees; cool.

After the cake is cool, add on top :
1- 20 ounce can crushed pineapple, drained well (doesn't matter what kind of syrup it is in)

Then mix in a small mixing bowl:
1 - 8 ounce package softened cream cheese (you want this softened, no lumps that way)
1/2 cup milk, alittle at a time
I use my hand held mixer to do this, makes it very easy
set aside for now

In a large mixing bowl, mix:
2 1/2 cups milk
2 small packages of vanilla instant pudding mix
Mix these together for about 2 to 3 mins., or until you can see it start to thicken some

Now add the cream cheese/milk mixture into the pudding mixture, gentle mixing until well incorporated. Now pour this over the top of the pineapple/cake.

Spread 1 - 8 ounce carton of thawed Cool Whip over the pudding layer. Refigerate for at least one hour before serving or overnight. Refrigerate any leftovers.

This seems to get better the day after it is made, holds up well for several days, if it last that long!!

I made this for dessert for our Father's day gathering and today there are only three pieces left! So YUMMY!!!

Thanks for dropping in and I hope your enjoy this recipe as much as my family does....Mary

Happy Birthday card for Dad

My dad's birthday falls three days after Father's Day this year, so I wanted to share the card that I made for him

This is a punch art card that I saw on Splitcoaststamper's about two weeks ago. Isn't this dog too cute! Here is the link to the one I followed:
http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1629500?&cat=500&ppuser=98383
He is made mainly with Stampin' Up punches and is really not to hard to do. Here is what I used: wide oval, large oval, word window, full heart, 3/4" circle (feet) and 1/2" (eyes) circle punch for the eyes. I didn't have the small oval punch, so I put the large oval punch piece back into the punch and made it just a tad smaller and I didn't have the heart to heart punch, so I use a small heart punch that I've had for many ears. Paper is some from Michael's and Jo-Ann's. I use pop dots to pop the paper behind the dog up.

My dad loves dogs, wish he could have a real one, so I'll send him the next best thing!

Hope you all have had a great day today also, and thanks for stopping in!!

Mary

Father's Day Card

Well I finished my Father's Day card last night...so glad that I have it finished and can now work on his birthday card. I found the directions for this card at ustamp4fun:
http://ustamp4fun.com/mens-shirt-fathers-day-card/
It was really an easy card to make! The sentiment stamped on the front is from Stampin' Up, Well Scripted set. Paper is some that I had for sometime and I used Making Memories brads that look like little buttons! (click on picture to enlarge).

Thanks for stopping by to visit with me, I appreciate it!!

Mary

Fluffles Card

You all know how much I love dogs, but I do like this stamp! I used it to send a "thinking of you" card last year. I colored in the image with Prismacolor pencils and mineral spirits. I love to color, how about you? I found this stamp at Michael's and I believe it is called "Fluffles", will double check the next time I go into the craft room. I ran the background thru my Big Kick with the dotted swiss folder by Cuttlebug.

Well today I'm not going to whine about any rain!! Boy oh boy, is it ever hot and humid though! As hubby would say, "it's a steam bath out there"!!!

All Occasion Card

I thought I would share a card with you that I made for a card swap last year. You would make three cards each month and send a card to three people who's name were drawn for that month, than when your name was drawn for a month you would receive a "flood" of cards from the others. It was fun to see what you would receive for your month, I believe that I received 32 cards for the month I was in!

The stamp, paper and ribbon were found at Jo-Ann's. I think I got the gemstones from Archivers. You could easily make this card work for just about any occasion you would need one for.

Yes, we've had more rain since the last time I posted!! Our total is now up to 12.3 inches of rain!! The backyard is so soggy, that it squishes when you walk in the grass.

Fourth of July Card

Ok...it's official, I need an ark!! We had another thunderstorm last night and had an additional 3.7 inches of rain with more coming tonight! We've had 11 inches of rain in six days!! There is alot of flooding happening around town too.

Here is a fourth of July card that I made for two of my friends who live in assisted living. I hope that by sending them cards each month that it brightens their day. I got the two stamps at Archiver's. Now I need to make my dads' father's day card and than his birthday is three days later. I'm having him and mom over for a simple bb-q on Sunday....hope the rain shuts off for a week, but it sure doesn't look like it from the long range forecast.

Mary

Happy Birthday Aiden

Good afternoon to all of you! Well it has been another rainy weekend here again. We've had a total of 3 inches since yesterday...so that makes 7.3 inches since Tuesday!!! I think we need an ark here!

Today I'm going to share a birthday card that I made for my little buddy! He will be two on Wednesday and he is getting to be a very tall boy! He is very much into cars this year, so I tried my hand at making a punch art VW bug. I found the directions for the bug on this blog:

http://flowerbug.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/05/punch-art-vw-bug.html

Flower bug has some really neat punch art items on there, you'll have to "cruise" on over and take a look!! The only thing that I did different than Flower Bug, I put pop dots under the headlights to raise them.

The paper is from Stampin' Up as well as all of the punches that I used to make the card.

Awesome Slow Cooker Pot Roast

Hi everyone! Hope you are having a great day today. Since it is hot out, I decided to get the old crockpot out and make this roast for dinner tonight. It is so good with mashed potatoes and a green vegetable, I will use the leftovers to make hash with, just add some cooked cubed potatoes for the hash. My husband likes to take a couple slices of meat and put it on top of a slice of buttered bread, and spread some gravy over it. He calls it "gravy bread". I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com

Awesome Slow Cooker Pot Roast

2- 10.75 ounce cans condensed cream of mushroom soup
1- 1 ounce package dry onion soup mix (Lipton)
1 1/4 cup water---I don't add this, I like my gravy on the thick side
5 1/2 pounds pot roast**

Spray a crockpot liner with Pam. Than mix in liner, cream of mushroom soup, dry onion soup mix and water. Place pot roast in slow cooker and coat with soup mixture. Cook on High setting for 3 to 4 hours, OR on Low setting for 8 to 9 hours.

**I've also have used a smaller roast, 2 1/2 pounds all the way up to 4 1/2 pounds with very good results. Tonight I used a 2 1/2 pound roast, I think it was a rump roast, with one can of cream of mushroom soup and we had plenty of gravy for our mashed potatoes. There was alot of hmmm..going on!! Enjoy!


Mary

Happy Birthday Cupcake

Sorry that I've been missing in action for awhile, things have been busy around here. Yesterday in the span of a couple of hours we had 4.1 inches of rain. One of our neighbors old walnut trees decided to crash into our backyard, so we will be busy cleaning that up for awhile now!

Anyhow, today I'm going to share two cards that I made using a die that I purchased from Archiver's last year, you may remember seeing the cupcake on the Nugget Cake from a past post. It is a simple card to make and could be used with many different designer papers for the cupcake paper. I used two different scallop punches.

College Team Rag Quilt Tote

I want to share with you today the rag quilt tote that I made for my daughters' boss. Her boss attended Kansas State, she is a huge fan of the school! My daughter requested that I make a bigger size for her, so that if she needed to bring things to work she would have something larger to carry it in. On this tote, I made pockets on the inside for her to be able to put small or loose items in. I had some leftover material so I made her a matching pin that she could wear if she wanted to.

In the picture above you can see the matching pin that I made. I also sewed Velcro by the handles on each side so she could fasten it shut. The pin was made using Stampin' Up flower foldz die. I cover the buttons, which is a very easy thing to do!

Corn Dog Casserole

When I first joined Splitcoaststampers website, I spent many hours (and still do) looking at all of the creative talents that is shared by the many members of this group. It is a free website and the people on it are a very caring and sharing group too. When I joined, I'd never made a card before so I was very imitated by the thought of sharing anything that I had made. Than I found the forum on there for recipe swaps! There are all kinds of different ones to choose from and you just sign up and make the required amount of cards, mail them to the hostess and you will receive cards from the others in the group/swap. Some of the cards you receive are so impressive and you can get some really good recipes that way too. The one I'm sharing today is from one of those swaps. The name on the back of the card is; VSbndr. I've made this recipe many times and we all like it. Since there are only two of us in the house, I just make half of the recipe. For the creamed corn, I just buy the small can (8.5 ounces) size. I hope you will try it and enjoy it as much as we do! You can click on the picture to enlarge it but I did type the recipe below in case you can't read it.

Corn Dog Casserole

2 small boxes corn muffing mix (I use Jiffy brand)
2 pounds hot dogs, cut-up
1 tablespoon butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 can creamed corn
1/2 to 1 pound cheese of your choice, Colby or Velveeta (I use shredded Cheddar cheese)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute hot dogs until they are brown (I'm lazy and skip this part). In a large bowl, mix corn muffin mix, milk, eggs and creamed corn. Mix in hot dogs and then cubed cheese. Place mixture into a well greased or sprayed 3 quart shallow baking pan (8x8 or 9x9", if doing half recipe) and bake until golden brown and no longer "jiggly" in the center, about 35 to 40 minutes. Serve with ketchup and mustard.


Mary

Final Our Heart #3 Card

Here is the last of the cards that I made for Gretchen Barron's birthday appeal. It was a new stamp set that I got from Stampin' Up, it's called--D is for Dog. The designer paper is some older paper that I've had for sometime now. Thank you for stopping in today!

Mary

ETA: The final count of cards that Gretchen received was 776 cards for From Our Heart.

From Our Hearts #2

Here is another card that I made for the From Our Hearts organization for Gretchen Barron's birthday card appeal. I hope the service men and women enjoy them!

Card Recipe:

Stamppin' Up stamp-Vintage Vogue

cardstock-Archiver's

pop dot use to pop the "F" up

deckle scissors-Fiskars

Have a great day!

Update: To date Gretchen has received 600 cards and that doesn't include the ones from over the weekend!! Hopefully she will have 1,000!!!

Mary

From Our Hearts #1

A couple of weeks ago, I was hopping around on the Internet reading different blogs for ideas and came upon Gretchen Barrons blog. On it she had a request for birthday cards for herself, she didn't care what you sent but she wanted the card inside left free of any personal sentiments to her. She was hoping to receive 100 cards so that she could send them all on to "From Our Hearts", a organization that sends hand-made cards to deployed service personnel so they can than send them back to their loved ones. I thought it was a wonderful idea and decided to send her around 10 cards with envelopes. Here is the first one I wanted to share, it is a very simple card, left blank, so whomever uses it can write a simple note home, if needed.

Card Recipe:

cardstock-Archiver's

Stampin' Up stamp set-Tart & Tangy

ribbon

pop dot to raise the strawberry up from the card

Thanks for stopping in today!

Mary