hello

I'm back. Just returned from a fabulous relaxing scrapbooking weekend retreat. I have not scrapbooked since last February. It was nice to switch gears for a while and get some things accomplished. I don't know why I have not done scrapbooking is such a while. I got near 40 pages done- got very little sleep but still enjoyed every minute.

I have made a goal for myself to try to get a few pages (at least) done per month. I hope that I can stick to it.

My husband made it home while I was gone. I'm glad to have him home. He had the house cleaned, laundry (1/2 ) done, kids tended to (sports and food), and my dog back at home by the time I got home. It was a good weekend.

Here are samples of cards made with SU! sweet treat cups (heart and circle). I used SWEET CENTERS #116521 from the Holiday Mini along with the SCALLOP SQUARE PUNCH #112081, 3/4 POLKA DOT REAL RED RIBBON #115608, Misc. DS PAPERS, SCALLOP TRIM CORNER PUNCH #118870, and filled the cup with heart shaped chocolates.


Used SWEETHEART #120780 (clear mount) from the Valentine Promotion flyer, Misc. DS PAPERS, HEART SHAPED CUPS #120435, 3/4 REAL RED POLKA DOT RIBBON #115608, PINK PASSION and REAL RED cs, and filled with cinnamon hearts.

Hello

Hello bloggers, I'm still here... just not been stamping/ crafting lately. We've had some very unfortunate events happen this week and I have not had time, energy, nor a desire to craft. I know the MOJO will return sometime.
My aunt (mother's sister) passed away on Monday after a illness caused by a bacteria (difficult to treat) passed to her while in a hospital. I've heard about these type of cases/ situations on TV or through community events but never thought this type thing would happen to smoeone in my family. She was a very kind, loving, adventurous woman whose life was cut short and it is true when they say "only the good die young". I will truly miss her. The whole family will miss her.

We have received our 2nd "bizzard-like" storm of the winter season last night after the funeral. I would guess that we have more than 12 inches and they are expecting more storms on Monday and Tuesday. I am truly thankful that my neighbor was able to help "dig us out" today. My poor 14 year old lab, the snow is up to her nose, and she is having a hard time walking in it. Thank goodness I have a JEEP and I was able to get to the store for milk, bread, soda, eggs, etc before the next batch comes in. We may be snowed in for a couple days.

My husband (electrician) was called out to Virginia to assist the people with power line difficulties. He was stranded by himself on I76 for 8+ hours last night. There were accidents and the highway was closed for many hours. They refused to let people continue to drive until late this morning. He finally was allowed to move around 11:00am. I hope and pray he gets to his destination in one piece and gets some desperately needed sleep before going on to his final destination (somewhere near Baltimore). Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

Ok, Im off to check on my girls and see if the laundry is ready to switch. Have a great weekend and try to stay warm.

I made an adorable Vintage "shabby" banner using the Pennant Die from SU! and some vintage (free) images from the internet. LOVE IT! Distressed with cocoa and choc. chip inks. Added glittered letters from a banner I've had for years, the rest of the old banner was trashed. I recycled, didn't I? Although the font does not match up perfectly with the style and look I'm pleased with how it turned out. Great way to go "green". Thanks for stopping by.

MINI MILK CARTON

The pink milk carton is one of the projects that the ladies made at my Valentine Workshop yesterday. They filled them with pink M&Ms and finished them off with red or pink ribbon and clips. They all turned out so cute. Most the ladies loved their cartons. I did get a few grumbles about folding and putting the cartons together (the hardest part) but most got the hang of it and completed them with their own adorable little touches.
The second picture is made from the mini milk carton but the top is removed. It was folded the same way. I added a scallop trim border (to resemble lace). Placed two lip glosses in the small SU! flat cello bag. Added a epoxy sticker. Tied a cute ribbon on top and stuffed some bag filler in to finish it off.

PAN ROASTED CHICKEN AND VEGETABLES

Here is another easy and yummy recipe I came across in my cookbooks. I made it this week and everyone enjoyed it. That is a good thing, it s hard to please everyone. I enjoyed it because it reminded me of summer flavors. I miss the grilled taste of meats and vegetables. We grill almost every meal when the weather here in Ohio is warmer. From Spring through Fall we use our grill. My husband has really become a good charcoal cook. He makes a mean BBQ chicken.

Sorry the pictures are not the greatest. I tried to get a decent picture to show all the yummy goodness. Make sure you cut your squash thick so that it does not get "mushy" while the potatoes are cooking.

RECIPE:

2 large potatoes, unpeeled

1 medium zucchini

1 medium squash

1 large red onion

1 large red bell pepper

4 T olive oil, divided

2 cloves garlic, pressed

1 tsp. rosemary, divided

1/2 tsp. plus 1/8 tsp salt

1/8 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs

1 egg beaten slightly

4 boneless, skinless, chicken breast halves

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Cut potatoes, zucchini and squash in half lengthwise then cut crosswise. Cut potatoes into 1/4 inch slices and squashes in 1 inch slices. Cut bell pepper and onion into 1 inch chunks, Place vegetables into a Bar pan and toss with 2T olive oil. Press garlic over vegetables. Sprinkle with half the salt, pepper, and rosemary. Toss well and place around edges of pan. Combine bread crumbs, rosmary, salt, and pepper in a small bowl, set aside. Lightly beat an egg in a shallow dish. Dip chicken breast in egg and then into bread crumbs and arrange in the middle of the bar pan. Bake 25-30 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink in center. Makes 4 servings.

Valentine Matchboxes

Here are a couple pictures of some Valentine matchboxes I made for an upcoming workshop. The ladies will be surprised when they see what is hiding inside- I hid some candies in all of them and put a gift certificate in a couple of them. Yeah!
There are so many things that you can put in these little boxes. They would be perfect for: weddings, showers, classroom parties, church get-togethers, hanging on the Christmas Tree, Secret Santa office gifts, presenting wallet sized pictures, giving a pair of earrings, mini photo albums or gratitude books. The possibilities are endless.


I think they all turned out so adorable. I love all the mix-matched color patterns and textures. I can't get enough of the pink and red these days. I used up some old SU! papers in shades of pink and red. They shades of colors worked out perfectly.
I have really got good use out of my SIZZIX, Dies, and punches these past few weeks. The dies are sturdy, and nearly indestructible. I love everyone I own.

Material:
SU! Exclusive MATCHBOX Bigz XL Die (#114890), SCALLOP SQUARE PUNCH (#112081), HEART TO HEART PUNCH (#113694), misc. buttons in red and pink tied on with white string.

If you don't already have any of these items listed above (in pink) I highly suggest you purchase them for your Valentine goodies. I consider these "Must Haves". The purchase of all these would qualify you for a FREE SAB set from the pink catalog at the right of this blog. Email me if you have any questions. Thanks for stopping by. Have a great week.

MOJO123

I played around with the MOJO Monday sketch again today. I thought this sketch looked clean and crisp and wanted to keep my image the same. I used string to hold the two buttons together and put a small piece of the ribbon between the two and pulled the string tight. I like the way it turned out. I had never done this before.

Material:
Razzleberry Lemonade DS paper. Melon Mambo card base. Melon Mambo ribbon. Triple Heart Punch. Non SU! buttons.

I am in the Valentine mode. I have been making cards, pennants, tags, bookmarks, treat bags, boxes,clothes pins, and lollipop covers. I still have a few more things to make. I got another SU! order delivered today- yippee!
Here is a photo of one of the bookmark styles I made. I was inspired from the bookmark found on page 64 of the main SU! catalog. I punched the hearts with the FULL HEART punch (#113693). I stayed with the traditional Valentine colors and used mostly scraps- wow, this is a great way to use up some scraps. I'm already thinking of ways to use spring color scraps for Easter. I have a tone of scraps that really need to be used.
I have a workshop this weekend and I marked one of these bookmarks for an attendee to win a small goody bag filled with Valentine themed die cuts, punchies, buttons, eyelets, paper strips, and mini incentive stamps. I also have some other clever ways to win small prizes. I will post them later.
Please stop by this week and next to see some more Valentine projects I have been working on. I will be uploading them in the near future. Have a great Monday.

Italian Sausage Casserole

I just love casseroles in the winter. I found this recipe in a cookbook that has easier/ speedy meals for the working mom. It is a perfect cookbook for me. I have a large cookbook collection and have been very bad with using them lately. They are just sitting on a shelf in my pantry collecting dust. I made a goal for myself (since Novemeber 2009) that I would pick 1-2 new recipes each week. I have done fairly well keeping up with my goal.

I have made baked potatoe soup, seafood lasagna, cranberry/cornbread stuffed pork chops, baked salmon with honey glaze, pita pizzas, chicken salad, white chili, and pasta primavera to name a few. So far all have been a hit with the family. My oldest (15.5 years) is the pickiest and she has liked most of them. . She used to be a better eater than she is now, I wonder if teenage years have anything to do with this. :0 This contemporary casserole is a mixture of Italian and Frech cuisine. The savory custard dipped bread comes from the France and the other ingredients are definately Italian. I tried to get a picture before my family "dug in" but obviously that did not happen. This casserole is perfect by itself or perfect to serve with a mixed green salad with Italian cheeses and a vinegrette.

Meat Mixture:

1.5 lbs of Italian sausage links, casing removed

1 medium zucchini

8 oz. mushrooms, sliced

1 medium red pepper, diced

1 jar (16 oz) Alfredo sauce. divided

Topping:

1/2 C milk

2 eggs

1 garlic clove, pressed

2 tsp. Italian Seasonings

1/8 tsp. salt

12 slices of firm Italian bread, 1-2 days old

1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, drained

2 T fresh parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Cut sausage into 1/2 inch pieces and cook in frying pan until no longer pink and well browned. Remove sausage from pan and drain.

While meat is browning slice zucchini and mushrooms thinly. Dice red pepper. Add 1 cup Alfredo sauce to the pan and bring to boil. Stir in sausage and vegetables and toss until all is covered with sauce. Pour mixture in 2.5 quart oval or square baking dish mounding in center.

Whisk remaining Alfredo sauce, milk, and eggs. Add garlic, 1 tsp of Italian seasoning, and salt.

Cut crusts off the bread and dip into egg mixture, coating lightly; overlap bread in a circular pattern over sausage mixture. If using square pan go around edges, evenly spacing leaving center open.

Drain tomatoes and add remaining Italian seasonings. Spoon tomato mixture over the open center. Grate the cheese ove rthe top of the entire dish (bread and all).

Bake 30-35 minutes or until edges of bread are golden and toasted. Serves 8 people.

MOJO WEEK #122

My husband took my youngest daughter to a sporting practice and my oldest is at a HS basketball game. I'm enjoying the peace and quiet and waiting for American Idol to start. Made Belgian Waffles for dinner- yum! Actually had time to do this week's MOJO Challenge created by a fellow SU! Demonstrator Mary Fish. I enjoyed this layout. Broke out a new SU! cling stamp set TOTE-ALLY TESS (#118595). Very ingenious- SU!!!!!! These clings rock! I absolutely love this idea. Can't wait to show my customers. I think they will love them too. I'm off to finish some matchbox favors for an upcoming workshop I'm hosting. I just love the BIGZ XL dies from Sizzix/ SU! (#114890).

YUM!

Yum! Doesn't this look delicious! It definately caught my attention. Thought I could definately create something with this as my inspiration. Although I wish I had a box of these to eat. hahaha. I came across this challenge at www.palspaperarts.com Come play along. (sorry my blog.google is acting up, I cannot do links at this time).

Here is what I came up with. I used a tomatoe red (non su!) color. I used a heart swirl embossing folder for further texture at the bottom. 1/2 inch chocolate grosgrain ribbon. SU! DS paper strips/ scraps and cupcakes from THE MORE THE MERRIER Hostess Level 3 (#115322) set. I popped 2 of the cupcakes up with STAMPIN' DIMENSIONALS (#104430). Colored images with PURE COLORS (retired) pencils. WORD WINDOW punch (#105090).

ALWAYS & FOREVER

Happy Saturday to all of you. Hope you are all staying warm. We (in Northeast Ohio) have had cold weather (20 degree and below) all week. The girls and I had a rough week trying to get back into the swing of things. I really enjoyed the Holiday vacation. The sound of that early a.m. alarm was not a pleasant one, that is for sure.
I finally got most of the Christmas stuff down and packed away. I am trying to get into the "VALENTINE swing". I am in a stamping/ design "rut". I have colored 20+ images, played with 5+ layouts, and have searched through many papers trying to find VALENTINE items. I did visit a Large Scrapbook retail store this week and found some adorable clear stamps, clearanced papers, and some rub-ons. Now I'm having a hard time creating something.
I did create a card using this week's MOJO120 Challenge. I love this weekly sketch challenge. It is my absolute favorite challenge. No stamping done at all on the card. Sticker chipboard and printed papers are all it contains. I love the vintage and distress feel of the design. Thanks for stopping by. Please come by and visit again.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I was totally inspired by the January 2010 online extra available through Stampin' Success (a SU! demonstrator only publication). When I saw the picture in the magazine, I knew I would have to give them a try. Although they took hours to make, they were so fun and so different than things I usually make.I love shabby, vintage, feminine styles. I made a total of 4 hats and will use them at a friend's house for New Year's festivities tomorrow night. I will give one to each of the girls at the party. I hope they enjoy them and will use them at least for decoration in years to come.

I stamped a flourish on patterned paper with versa mark. Covered images with Heat and Stick Powder and sprinkled with Dazzling Diamonds glitter- "Man, I used nearly an entire bottle". I cut the 12x12 paper in half diagonally then rolled the sides to form a cone shape. I used Sticky Strip to adhere all. I cut strips of paper and fringed the edges (like grass) and also added fringed newspaper behind the other paper strips. I made paper pinwheels (behind buttons), Butterflies (sizzix original diecut- SU! exclusive design), stamped word strips, and attached all with hot glue gun. I added felt flowers ( SU! flower fusion- retired), rhinestone brads (SU!), snowflakes, buttons, wire, beads, and more glitter (DD SU!) to finish everything.

Here's a close up of the paper pinwheel, one of the butterflies, a snowflake, and some of the paper fringe detail on the lower portion of the hat. Thanks for stopping by, Happy New Year!!!!!

I did some more baking today. I have baked a couple times this month but, all has been either shared or eaten. We needed more cookies for Santa tomorow. I mixed up a couple batches and made 2 kinds of cookies with each batch. I made peanut butter criss cross cookies and peanut blossoms, then I made chocolate crinkles and added almonds to make double chocolate almond cookies. I whipped up a couple quick breads and baked them in a mini bundt pans or mini loaf pans. I also made some candies; chocolate covered pretzels, chocolate covered oreos, and rice crispy white chocolate bars. The house has smelled delicious today. YUM!

Here is a little close-up picture of a small tree that I put in my craft room. I found these fluffy white snowflakes at a local Dollar Store and made the acrylic snowflakes (hard to see in the photo). I ran the acrylic pre- cut flakes through my embossing machine and added glitter, bling, ribbon, and a punched snowflake tag to the top. I had 3 mercury glass birds (found last year after Christmas super cheap) with real feather tails that I thought would look beautiful on a few of the branches. I did not have a tree topper so I used a few organza ribbons and tied them into a bow. Although the tree does not have lights, I love how it turned out.

Christmas Ornaments

Here are a couple of the star/ poinsettia ornaments we made at my workshop a couple weeks ago. They look harder to make than they are. We used a retired line of SU! paper. They work best when you use two sided papers.


Here is a picture of a paper bulb we made at the same workshop. SU! had a paper pack designed to make these last year in their holiday mini. I just cut strips on my own and they worked perfectly. I added a silk poinsettia and a SU star punch to the top. Attached all strips with mini brads. Viola! Super Easy!

A brief Sunday Post

Good Sunday to all. Hope you are all staying warm, dry, and healthy. My youngest has been ill all day. This is her fourth bout of illness since the end of Sept when she contracted Swine Flu. My oldest missed a day of school this week with an intestinal bug. My well- loved dog (14 years old this week) has had a hard time healing from a surgery she had at the beginning of the month. We are now going to the vet every couple days for treatments and bandage changings. My parents lost their dog last week- she got ill quickly and had to be put down. Its been a rotten December thus far. So busy...
I did meet a long time friend for dinner last night, although I was tired, I enjoyed the time out very much. We always pick up where we left off the last time we met. It always a fun time.

I went to a cookie exchange this afternoon with friends from High School. It was so nice to see everyone and hear about their lives and families. Life goes by so fast and changes occur all the time. wow, today proved that.I'm thankful for all their health and their friendships. Hope you all are finding enjoyment and time to spend with friends and family during this hectic time.

Merry Christmas.

The last day of 12 days

Here is my last tag in my series. I hung them all on my tree along with other bought, vintage, and homemade ornaments. They look great, I've got comments on them... people like them too.
I'm glad I made them.
This tag has more clutter than the rest. I used misc paper scraps to cover the tag. I colored (pencils) and inked (classics) the Santa image. I used the uniball white pen from SU to add detail on his beard. Distressed over the ink and it resisted the ink. You can see his beard still appears white. Love this Santa image from SU! This is my favorite holiday image this year.

Tags 10 and 11

Today is my mother in law's and my grandfather's birthday. We are going out to dinner tonight with my in law's and I am taking dinner to my grandparents for them to eat tonight or sometime this weekend. Happy Birthday Jackie and Harold!
This tag uses the same line of papers (misc.) distressed as I did the others. I came across an old dimensional sticker (topiary) and I distressed with ink and attached. The glitter was already on the sticker (bonus). I hadded the sentiment and "viola!"


I love this stamp set from SU! (last year's release). I have used these skaters many times and for many things- mostly tags. I added vintage chunky glitter on the snowflake, around the sentiment block, and the torn paper at bottom (snow). I used ink, pencils, and dabbers to color the skaters. Added shine to their skates with silver gel pen. I added bright white to the ladies fur on her hat and gloves with the SU white uni-ball gel pen. Thanks for stopping by.