Friday, December 6, 2013

Yummy Cookies!

Ashley and I usually make sugar cookies at Christmas.  We have tried many different recipes with good and bad results.  I have a new recipe to try this year that I got from a DIY website.  Maybe you'd like to try it too.  If so, here it is - put it in a safe place so you can find it!!

SUGAR COOKIES

Dry Ingredients:
6 cups of Flour
2 teaspoons of Baking Soda
1 teaspoon of Salt

(mix together is small bowl)

Wet Ingredients:
1 cup Shortening
2 cups Sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup Sour Cream

(Blend wet ingredients until smooth in large bowl)

Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients.

Cover and place in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Roll out cookie dough. Use your favorite/festive cookie cutters.

Bake at 400 for 7-8 minutes.  Let cool.

 In the meantime, make the frosting.

Blend all together:
1/2 cup Shortening
1/2 cup Butter
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
4 cups powder sugar
2 Tablespoons milk

Dye the frosting whatever color your heart desires.. and taste the beaters if you like :)

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Where Does the Time Go? Paper Craft Crew Challenge #70!

Wednesday already and I haven't posted yet and Wednesday is going fast!  Where is the time going??  My December is going by and according to my date book, will be going by in a flash!  I think I only have about 4 days free until we go to San Antonio Dec. 18.  I had to make an unexpected dentist visit and was lucky to be able to schedule it in the late afternoon after my bridge party next week.

Today was our Newcomer's Christmas party and, WOW, was there a lot of food.  But not as much as in the past.  Usually everyone brings a dish and it is overwhelming with about 100+ people all bringing food!!  This year the alphabet was split in half.  The first half brought a dish to share and the second half brought a bag of canned goods for the Soup Kitchen.  I was in the second half but I took pity on one of my friends who doesn't cook and volunteered to make a dish for her.  Another gal was supposed to do it but she wasn't able to come today.   We loaded three cars up with food to take to the Soup Kitchen pantry!!  Along with the food we took, we also made baskets for the seniors in the community who are not as well off as some and we brought toys and/or clothing for the children who are in need.  These items were loaded on a Christian Missions truck for distribution at Christmas.

Toys for the children

Children toys

Some of the clothing for the children

Senior baskets

More Senior Baskets - think we counted 68!!
Starting to load the items onto the truck - a really foggy day!

Plenty of food for everyone and more being brought in!

OK - on to my Paper Craft Crew creation for this week.  I turned to MDS and Season of Style Pocket Card kit to create this festive card:



Tuesday, December 3, 2013

More of Ashley's Creations

Thought I'd share the rest of the cards Ashley made while she was here.  Not too bad considering we were only in my craft room a day and a half!!  Wish I could say I got this much accomplished!


Framelit Card she made for a friend who is getting out of the Army in a few days trying to decide what is next in her life.

Framelit card closed

Simple card using Apothecary Accents sizzlits

She had a hard time with this one but finally got the rectangle cut out in the center with my exacto knife.

Very similar to the previous card - just didn't use the knife!!  Uses Delicate Doilies stamps.

Monday, December 2, 2013

Ashley's Creative Cards

Ashley was here for a fast week and we stayed pretty busy, as usual.  We stayed home on Friday and most of Saturday and played around in my craft room.  Ashley made some great cards and I managed to take pictures of them before she packed them up.

Beautiful Butterflies!  She got the inspirations from this framed picture.

This is a mask Ashley used to make the flames on the card below - Gorgeous Grunge stamp

Candles and flames using Gorgeous Grunge

A simple but elegant wedding card for one of Ashley's best friends from medical school.

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Paper Craft Challenge

This was my sketch challenge for last week's Paper Pals Challenge.  I decided instead of doing a card this week, I would do a scrapbook page to represent fall and our recent trip to Greenville.  I used the Wonderfall kit for this.


 
 

Saturday, November 30, 2013

A Card for Kimberly

Here is a card I made using My Digital Studio.  One of my Stampin' Up fellow demonstrators is going through a tough time and I made the card for her.  Kimberly Van Diepen's (StampinByTheSea) husband suffered a stroke last week ... actually he had two strokes suffering the second one after he was moved from ICU to a regular room.  He is doing better now - still hospitalized - but making progress as he was able to sit up for 3 hours today.  Hug your loved ones - you just never know.  Kimberly's prince (that is what she calls her husband - their's is a true love story!) is only 43 years old - too young for this to happen!

Friday, November 29, 2013

Greenville Mouse Hunt


We picked Ashley up last Friday night at the Greenville/Spartanburg airport and spent the weekend in Greenville.  It was a lot of fun.  She ended up bringing Bogart (her cat) with her and didn't get charged for him.  He was in his carrier and she draped her coat over it, got on the airport and slid it under the seat.  Bogart is a mute cat so he didn't make any noise.  Sammie was not excited to see Bogart when we got home Sunday night though!  Hopefully, they will start getting along soon.

We stayed at the Hyatt in downtown Greenville and spent Saturday just wandering around downtown and shopping.  I got a couple of Christmas presents bought so that was a good thing.  A lot of the trees were showing off their beautiful colors.




 
 
 

While we were there, we went on a mouse hunt!  For his senior project at Christ Church Episcopal School in 2000, Jim Ryan proposed the idea of installing a family of nine unique mice sculptures in surprising places along Greenville's Main Street from the Hyatt to the Westin Poinsett Hotel. His original idea spun from the book, Goodnight Moon, which he and his mom read every night when he was small. There are nine mice pictured in that story. Ryan made his way through the red tape involved in any city project and then raised the money, with the assistance of donors and the mayor, to complete his project.  Greenville sculptor, Zan Wells, actually created the mice. She and Ryan became a team, and Wells sculpted nine individual bronze mice, each one with his own look, character, and special place on Main Street.  Ryan and Wells placed the mice in their permanent places, thus creating Greenville's fanciful downtown scavenger hunt.


Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!!  Wishing you the happiness of  good friends, the joy of a happy family, and the wonder of the holiday season. Have a magical thanksgiving!  Hope you enjoy your turkey and all the fixin's today.  My family will be coming plus a few other friends to give thanks with us.  I love Thanksgiving!!  I just wish my son and his family could be with us but they will be in my thoughts all day.

Here's a chuckle for you today -

When I was a young turkey, new to the coop,
My big brother Mike took me out on the stoop,
Then he sat me down, and he spoke real slow,
And he told me there was something that I had to know;
His look and his tone I will always remember,
When he told me of the horrors of..... Black November;
"Come about August, now listen to me,
Each day you'll get six meals instead of just three,
"And soon you'll be thick, where once you were thin,
And you'll grow a big rubbery thing under your chin;
"And then one morning, when you're warm in your bed,
In'll burst the farmer's wife, and hack off your head;
"Then she'll pluck out all your feathers so you're bald 'n pink,
And scoop out all your insides and leave ya lyin' in the sink;
"And then comes the worst part!" he said not bluffing,
"She'll spread your cheeks and pack your rear with stuffing".
Well, the rest of his words were too grim to repeat,
I sat on the stoop like a winged piece of meat,
And decided on the spot that to avoid being cooked,
I'd have to lay low and remain overlooked;
I began a new diet of nuts and granola,
High-roughage salads, juice and diet cola;
And as they ate pastries, chocolates and crepes,
I stayed in my room doing Jane Fonda tapes;
I maintained my weight of two pounds and a half,
And tried not to notice when the bigger birds laughed;
But 'twas I who was laughing, under my breath,
As they chomped and they chewed, ever closer to death;
And sure enough when Black November rolled around,
I was the last turkey left in the entire compound;
So now I'm a pet in the farmer's wife's lap;
I haven't a worry! , so I eat and I nap;
She held me today, while sewing and humming,
And smiled at me and said: "Christmas is coming..."
          **Poet Unknown


After enjoying your Thanksgiving, take some time to look over the weekly specials!!

 

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Stamp Club Projects

These are the projects we made this week at Stamp Club.  The angels were a big hit using the Sizzix Bow Die.  I did a search on the internet and found several different versions and mine are a combo of several different ones.



This card uses the single stamp, "Be Merry" which is actually a tag.  I used a strip of DSP to cover up the "To/From".  We stamped the tag with white craft ink and then embossed it with white embossing powder.


This was one of my favorites.  I finally sucked it up and bought the Typeset Alphabet Sizzix Die.  I used cardboard that comes inside the DSP cut into 1 1/2" squares; then I stamped in Garden Green one of the stamps from Tape It.  I used the sticker tape from the Goody Goody set in between the green.  Next I die cut the "j" "o" and "y".  The ornament is from Mosaic Madness and "Christmas" is from the polymer stamp, Endless Wishes which unfortunately is sold out.

I just love these colors - Coastal Cabana, Pumpkin Pie and Brown Sugar.  I used the single stamp, Magnificant Maple and Gorgeous Grunge to make the background on the thinlit card.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Holiday SALE!

Dates: November 20-December 2, 2013 It's time for online holiday shopping! During these 13 days only, you can get incredible discounts-up to 50 percent-on some of your favorite products! This is the perfect time for you to stock up on some of your favorite items or get gifts for your crafty friends and family.

The Fine Print
  • This sale is the same as the annual Online Extravaganza sale of years past--just with a simpler name.
  • Discounts range between 20 and 50 percent-awesome!
  • Discounted products are available on all order types (customer, workshop, and online).
  • Hostesses who have earned a 50%-off item may not apply that discount to an already-discounted product.
  • There's no minimum purchase required to participate in this promotion. Sale on!
  • For product bundles, you need to use the bundle item numbers provided. If you use individual item numbers, you won't get the discount-bummer.
  • You can buy additional products from any of our current catalogs on the same order. 

Below are just a few of the items that are for sale.  To see the complete list, click HERE.