This way to the North Pole...

I LOVE the simplicity of this card. A little fluff, a little sparkle, and just a simple little image. Sometimes less is best. I used the adorable Lizzie Anne Designs set called Way Up North.

Have a great weekend!

OCL Scavenger Hunt Time...

Welcome to my blog today! Today starts a week-long ton of fun to celebrate the one year birthday of Our Craft Lounge. The scavenger hunt starts today; there will also be challenges, sketches, sneak peeks and a new stamp release next Friday.

However, today I have two little projects from the Holiday Release. My first is a simple card using the Merry Wishes set and the Snow Sayings set. I also used a Felt Fusion snowflakes border from Queen & Co and pretty pattern paper Eskimo Kisses from Basic Grey.


In my next project, I used the set called Gingerbread Fun ~ such a cute little set just filled to the brim with images to piece together to build a gingerbread boy or girl. I'm not sure if I put this card on the OCL Blog or not, which by the way started this year on July 31, 2009. Check over there for daily inspiration & all the details for the upcoming week's celebration events.

Have a wonderful day & good luck on the OCL Scavenger Hunt!

Christmas Bling

Another simple Christmas card using the Lizzie Anne Designs Demask set along with the Holiday Script. It seems that I just can't stop using these two sets together!

Mixing up more Christmas fun!

The week is flying by and I have a few more Christmas treats to share with you using my Lizzie Anne Designs Monthly Mix. On my first set of projects, I used the November Mix (called Christmas Wishes) on the bag label. I simply stamped the label on the kraft oval and then stamped it again on red cardstock then cut it out.

For my card, I used the Fancy Flourish set as the background because it matches the label so beautifully. Then I paired it up witht he Holiday Season sentiment and the same May Arts ribbon so they would coordinate.


My next project also uses the November Monthly Mix and this time I used the Lizzie Anne Sketch challenge from last week. The pattern paper is from Imaginsce.

I hope you have a great Wednesday!

Ginormous Birthday Greetings!

Here's a fun little birthday card using the new set by Chicken Girl Design Stamps called Birthday Wishes! This set will be available only from i{heart}papers on November 16th.

Supplies from i{heart}papers: Stamps ~ Chicken Girl Designs (Birthday Wishes); Ink ~ Palette, atyou Spica glitter pens; Nestabilities.

My Favorite Recipes, part 2...

I'm back with recipes today. Sorry I didn't include them yesterday, but I just ran out of time and the post was getting so long! So here was the first page of my book ~ Twenty-four Hour Breakfast Souffle & Easy Beef Burgundy.

Twenty-four Hour Breakfast Souffle
3 cups cubed French bread
3 cups cubed sharp Cheddar cheese
3 cups cubed ham
Place in layers into a 9x13 glass baking dish.

Combine & pour over layers:
4 beaten eggs
1 T. dry mustard
3 T. flour
3 T. melted butter
3 cups milk

Let stand in refrigerator overnight. Bake at 350° for one hour or longer until brown and bubbly on top. Cover with foil if top browns too quickly. This dish holds well in the oven on a low temperature.
Excellent for a brunch dish & perfect for Christmas morning!

Easy Beef Burgundy
1 ½ pounds of stewing beef
1 package dry onion soup mix
1 can mushrooms
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
½ cup red wine or burgundy wine

Combine meat with all other ingredients in a 2 quart casserole dish & mix well. Bake in 350° oven for 3 hours (cover half the time).

This dish can also be put into a crock-pot and cooked on low for 8 to 10 hours. The gravy will not be as thick, but it’s still super yummy! Serve over cooked noodles or mashed potatoes (both if you really want to be bad!).

Now here are the Sweets ~ Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting...

Carrot Cake
2 c. white sugar
1 ½ c. oil
2 c. flour
2 t. baking soda
2 t. baking powder
2 t. cinnamon
3 c. grated raw carrots
1 c. chopped pecans
4 eggs
Dash of salt

Sift flour once, add baking soda & powder, salt and cinnamon. Sift again & set aside. Mix sugar & oil, beat 1 min. Add 1 egg at a time & beat. Add carrots & mix well. Add dry ingredients gradually. Add pecans, beat 3 minutes. Pour into 3 (9 inch) layer pans. Bake 20 minutes at 350°. Spread with Cream Cheese Frosting. Serves 12 – 15 people.

Cream Cheese Frosting
Beat Together:
1 (8 oz.) and 1 (3 oz.) package of cream cheese
6 cups of powdered sugar
1 stick of butter
2 t. vanilla

Spread on cooled Carrot Cake, top with chopped pecans and refrigerate. This is THE BEST frosting EVER!

Sorry I didn't get these included yesterday ~ hope you enjoy these.

My Favorite Recipes...

Welcome to the first day of the Creative Cuts & More Mega Recipe Blog Hop, which will feature the 8”x8” Treasured Family Recipes Kit. We have 24 designers who will be creating wonderful pages to inspire you. Plus we all will be sharing some of our own delicious treasured family recipes. Make sure you check back at http://www.diecutdiva.com/ tomorrow for the Holiday Treats Apron Recipe Kit Blog Hop. We will also have 24 designers who will be showcasing their great creations and sharing holiday treat recipes.

If you haven't came here from Lila's wonderful blog on our hop, you'll want to start at the beginning of the CC&M Mega Recipe Blog Hop here at http://diecutdiva.com/

So here are some of the pages I made with this fantastic kit! The cover has a window cut-out so I printed the title of my album on the computer and placed it on the first page. Everything you see is included in the kit except for the paper flowers, button, alphabet stamps and ribbon.

As you open the cover of the book, this is what you'll see. I plan on writing a special message to the recipient of the gift on the inside cover.

The next pages share some wonderful recipes my mom made while I was growing up & that I enjoy making for my family. Everything on these pages (except for the cream cardstock), comes inside the kit. The following chipboard words come with this kit too ~ Family, Dishes, Recipes, and Sweets. I rearranged some of the letters for this first page ...

And the final pages I'm showing today have some sweet treats on them. Our family's tradtional Christmas treat ~ Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese frosting.

If you can't read the recipes in my book, I'll share them here on my blog tomorrow.

Now you'll want to continue with the blog hop with Chris Penaflor to see what fun she has to share!

Birthday Greetings from CGD...

Today is another big day at i{heart}papers! There is one more set being released from Chicken Girl Design Stamps on November 16th & it's a Birthday Set! Be sure to check out the design team blogs this week for new samples over the next week & I'll be back with a sneak peek tomorrow.

Check back later today for the big Recipe Blog Hop!

Jolly Little Ornaments...

For my Christmas creation today, I used the Jolly Ornaments set by Our Craft Lounge. This comes in both Crafty Cling Rubber and Crafty Clear.

Can't chat today ~ have a happy Sunday!

Snow Much Fun!

I'm just going to go on the record right now and say I DO NOT WANT TO SEE SNOW! But, I do love snowmen & this little guy from the Lizzie Anne Designs November Monthly Mix is adorable! Have a great weekend!

Supplies: Stamps ~ Lizzie Anne Designs (November '09 Monthly Mix - Christmas Wishes; Way Up North (sentiment and snowflakes); Pattern Paper ~ Lizzie Anne Designs (Deck the Halls Digital Paper Pack); Ink ~ Palette, Copics, atyou Spica glitter pens; Edge Punch ~ EK Success; Sparkly Fluff ~ Our Craft Lounge (Sugar).

Christmas Sparkle...

Woohooo ~ it's FRIDAY! It seemed like a pretty long week to me, but the weekend is almost here.

Today's little Christmas tid-bits are from Lizzie Anne Designs ~ the two new singles and the Digital Paper Packs called Way Up North and Deck the Halls. My first project are tags using the Gingerbread Man single. Doesn't that ribbon from American Crafts work perfectly for the Gingerbread Man?


And my second project uses the Holiday Season single along with the Deck the Halls Digital Paper pack and stamp set.

I printed these digital papers directly from the files; however, see the tutorial I posted the other day for altering digital paper colors.

Christmas Demask

I played a little bit the other day and I really wanted to use the Demask set by Lizzie Anne Designs as a background and I just added a simple sentiment from the Holiday Script set. I just love how this one turned out. In fact, I may make several for Christmas cards this year because it's such a simple (and fast) design.

Christmas Magic

Here's a sweet little Christmas sentiment called Holiday Season from Lizzie Anne Designs this month. I paired it up with the Fancy Flourishes set and one of the pattern papers from the new Digital Paper Pack called Way Up North (also by Lizzie Anne Designs).

The digital paper comes in a bright red color, but I changed the color to this pretty burgundy in Photoshop Elements. It's easy peasy to do ~ here's how: 1) pull up your file in PSE; 2) Click on Enhance in the top tool bar; 3) highlight Adjust Color and another menu will appear ~ select Adjust Hue/Saturation; 4) slide the bars around on Hue, Saturation and Lightness until you get the color you're looking for; 5) print your new paper. I use Southworth Linen Textured Cover Stock 65lb in white - available at Staples. See it's Easy Peasy!!! I love how rich the chocolate brown and burgundy look together & digital paper is so easy to change the scale and colors ~ try some!

Christmas Tree Mix...

I love this simple little tree ~ it's just perfect for paper piecing. This fun tree and the Christmas Wishes sentiment are both from the Lizzie Anne November Monthly Mix called Christmas Wishes. I also love the background circles from the Deck the Halls set ~ it's such a great retro background.

Supplies: Stamps ~ Lizzie Anne Designs (November Monthly Mix, Deck the Halls); Ink ~ Palette, Versamark; Nestabilities (oval and long rectangle); Gems ~ Unknown.