National Oatmeal Cookie Day

Today is National Oatmeal Cookie Day.  I bet most of you had no idea.  These oatmeal cookies are a staple around our house almost weekly as my son always wants to give the horses a treat after riding, and so we alternate between oatmeal cookies and gingersnaps.  This week is oatmeal cookies. 

The recipe for these oatmeal cookies follows below:

Oatmeal Cookies:

1 cup non hydrogenated margarine

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cups rolled oats

3/4 cup coconut

Mix ingredients together in order.  Drop by rounded teaspoon fulls on to cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F for about 10 - 15 minutes. 

Enjoy, and hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Two Minute Card a.k.a. Blog Filler

This project honestly took me two minutes to make.

The Island Indigo card stock cut to size was still sitting on my desk from yesterday's leftovers, so I folded the front back over itself put a piece of Summer Smooches Designer Series Paper along with Island Indigo Baker's Twine, and took out my Summer Smooches stamp set and used my Stampin' Write Markers to color it.  DONE!.

I like it, it's not over done, and what I call classically simple.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Look! I'm watercoloring...

Last week I attended a class Karina offered in which you got a fantastic price on the Summer Smooches Designer Series Paper, fabric brads, stencil and stamp set.  

At this class we made 4 cards that I will show over the next few days, but tonight I decided to try one on my own.  

I love the stencil set as the sponged on ink makes the graphic appear to be water-colored.  I LOVE water colors!

The base for this card is Island Indigo, and Lucky Limeade, Summer Smooches Designer Series Paper and Daffodil Delight and Whisper White.  I sponged the flowers with Island Indigo and Pool Party, and Lucky Limeade for the leaves.  

The ribbon is tied with Daffodil Delight seam binding.  

I simply love the water color aspect of this card.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Baby Quilt

Our Team Assistant left last week to start Maternity Leave.  I of course had to make a quilt because every baby needs one, right?  I should have had it done, but after seeing my physician and having to do some Range of Motion exercises with my shoulders (which I knew I could not do) I spent most of last week sleeping with my new friend Aleve!  Now just to wait for the MRI and ?surgery........

This is a quilt kit I picked up a while back at Quilt Essential Co, and the kit is based upon the Little Bits pattern.
I am not particularly pleased with how this quilt turned out as the quilt kits were assembled with less yardage than what is indicated on the pattern instructions as it was decided that you do not need the amount of fabric called for.  When I started to cut the pieces I realized that because of the obvious direction of the car print, I would need the entire amount listed,  I took it back to the store and showed one of the employees my concern, she understood, however the shop owner whom I have never found to be helpful or friendly, patronizingly told me how I was cutting the fabric wrong, and had the employee cut me more of the blue fabric (of which the direction was not important)! So, as you can see the cars are going sideways in two of the three pieces.  Hmmmmmm.  I won't be shopping there any time soon.
Hopefully, the baby won't mind, and Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

I LOVE Candy

Seriously, I LOVE the stuff!  I right now cannot think of a candy I do not like!

I bought these candy tubes last summer at Scrapbook Memories & More (I am so going to miss this place....), and used them for treats in my son's birthday party loot bags.

A couple of weeks ago I attended a VIP night at Scrapbook Memories & More and we made tubes very similar to this, my son ate the candy out of it before I could picture it on here, but I got out my Stampin Up stuff and made another version of it.  

The paper is the Sweet Shop Designer Series Paper, the flower on top is from the Blossom Punch in the Spring 2012 Mini Catalogue, the Wisteria Wonder is punched from the Triple Flower Punch and the center is the 1" circle punch with a Sweet Shop Designer sticker!

The inside is filled with Strawberry jelly beans.  

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Cut Once, Stamp Twice

Today I decided to design the basically the same card, from all the wonderful stash of supplies that I have lying about my craft room (except for the Melon Mambo I had to "borrow" from Karina - my own personal Stampin Up store ; ).

Both cards started with Melon Mambo bases and Whisper White run through the Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder.

The flowers on the left were cut with the Triple Flower Punch and the leaves are from the Owl Punch (heart) as I do not have any Stampin Up leaves punches.  The trim is leftovers (gasp and clutch chest now, then breath) from last spring's Mini catalogue.  The greeting is also a leftover from Sale-a-bration 2011!

The flowers on the right were cut at 2" on the Cricut from the Create a Critter Cartridge (Zebra shift), and the trim I found at what will probably have to become my new favorite scrapbooking store in the Edmonton area: the Urban scrapbook as I have recently found out that my favorite scrapbook store has been sold (very sad face here).......

Personally, I like the Cricut one with the pretty flowers best!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

What's In your Lunch??

Well, this is what is in my lunch for morning snack this week.  Again, cursed banana boomerangs fell out of the freezer on Sunday nearly crushing my foot - time to bake.  Oh, then there's that basket of strawberries in the fridge that some of us are to "delicate" to eat, put them in with the bananas and make:

Strawberry Banana Muffins

Mix together:
1/2 cup canola oil

2 eggs

3/4 cup brown sugar 

1 teaspoon vanilla
Add in: 

2 large ripe bananas (thaw the frozen boomerangs in microwave first)

1 cup strawberries chopped into small pieces
Final Addition:

1 1/4 cups flour

1 cup whole wheat flour 

3 tablespoons ground flax seed

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon (4 grams) ground cinnamon

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  Enjoy!

 

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Oh S"crap"! It's Monday

This adventure gets harder every week.  I cannot believe I have challenged myself to this.  I now know why so many Stampin Up demonstrators out there "give" away their leftovers to charity!  However, I still think that if I don't want it the less fortunate probably don't either....

For this I found a piece of Early Espresso on which in Early Espresso Ink I used the En Francais stamp.  Then a small piece of Everyday Enchantment Designer Series paper, a random brad, and some left over Baja Breeze seam binding from some great feit of genius my son was to embark on with his rocket.

Done for this week, might have to start looking at my selection earlier in the week...

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Waffle Sunday

It's Waffle Sunday.

This week I tried a new recipe as getting up early to make waffles, just seemed a little overwhelming.  So, I went to my favorite place for all things wonderful, Pinterest and searched for waffles.  

I found recipes for overnight waffles using yeast, and so the recipe I chose to use is Yeasted Waffles, I did of course make a couple of changes to this recipe, I used 2 cups whole wheat flour, and I also added 2 tbsps. ground flax seed to this recipe.  

The recipe made 8 waffles in my waffle maker and now my son is excited because he can have waffles for lunch this week!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Surprise!

This project is a total surprise for two reasons:

1)  ALL of the product used in the creation of this project is Stampin Up!!  Can you believe that I did not stray from their entire product line??  I know: SURPRISE.

The paper is the white packing paper that came in a shipment a while back, and so I ironed it and put it away, as it looks so much better than the usual brown paper.  The paper is sponged (an actual SU sponge - not dollar store) in garden green and the Cherry stamp is from the Mouthwatering stamp set.  The cherries are inked in Real Red and Garden Green.  The ribbon of course is SU.

2) On my pre-Christmas x-border shopping trip my friend Karina asked me to bring back for a stocking stuffer Cherry Coke Zero as we do not have it in Canada (at least not last time I looked).  So, while we were in Whitefish skiing, we went into Kalispell, MT and found the Wal-Mart and brought home a case as a surprise for Karina.  Now, I cannot give it plain to the Stampin Up Lady, so, hence, here is my artistic presentation.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Horse Scrapbook

If you follow my blog at all you will know my son LOVES animals.  For the past year and a half he has been riding horses at a local Equestrian Center, and so I finally got around to making a scrapbook layout for his scrapbook.

Almost all of the products came from Scrapbook Memories & More with the exception of the ribbon, twine and button that were in my Stampin Up stash.

The decoration horses are a rub on transfer, which was interesting to work with as I had never done that technique before.  My son drew the smiley faces on the sticky notes as he thought that looked better than just covering over his face : ).

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Doggie Biscuits

While looking for something to make for supper a while back I found this recipe for Dog Treats and decided to make some for my son`s dog.  The dog loved them, and now when I make them and he smells the treats baking he starts jumping up and down for them.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Give a Dog a Home

My friend recently decided to become a foster mom to a Second Chance Animal Rescue Society (SCARS)  dog and this weekend got her new beautiful dog.

To celebrate the arrival of her new family member I first made a card.

The base is Sahara Sand, on which I used the P is for Paw roller wheel inked in Early Espresso.  I used my Spellbinders dies to cut out the Early Espresso and Whisper White Card Stock.  The dog is cut at 4 1/2" on the Cricut from the Just Because Cards Cartridge.  The "bark" and the "bowl" stamp are from a stamp set my son decided we needed to purchase from Michael's.  I used my Copic Marker to color the bowl, and my son put in the D-O-G on the red bowl (and I laughed) because in the Henry Huggins book, Henry does not want his new found dog eating just out of any old cracked bowl and buys for Ribsy a new shiny red bowl with D-O-G on it!  The leash was an add on also by my son from a small piece of 1/8" Real Red Taffeta ribbon.
The clear plastic bag is stamped with a dog paw from the same dog stamp set, however, I used Black StazOn ink.  Inside the bag are dog biscuits that I make for my son's dog (post for this tomorrow).
I am so excited for my friend's family and their new dog as it makes me so happy when people choose to share their lives with a dog, and especially a rescue dog...
Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Banana Coconut Muffins

While playing on Pinterest the other day I can across this recipe for Banana Coconut Muffins ( I was looking for another Banana Muffin recipe as my husband buys lots of bananas when at the Safeway - never eats them, and I will only eat bananas when the are green - so our freezer is always full of frozen boomerangs - OUCH).

I did modify the recipe as I never use butter in muffins (I think that's a waste for my moderate trans-fat intake - only acceptable for shortbread cookies), so I used 1/2 cup canola oil instead (only will use product of Saskatchewan canola oil ; ), and only 3/4 cup coconut, but I had found colored coconut at the Bulk Barn last week, so I used colored coconut instead.  My son's response to these was "Yum".  Good enough.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Oh S"crap"! It's Monday...

I found a handful of those chocolate wrapped eggs on the cupboard today and asked my son if he wanted them.  His response, "nah, not really".  Now, what to do with these, as I certainly don't need them?

Ah Ha.  Creative packaging.

My Easter 2010 Cricut cartridge has this pillow box die cut in it, so I used a piece of left over Certainly Celery and a small piece of window sheet and filled it with the left over chocolate (truly all scraps)!

Once presented to my son in this fashion, it was much more of a hit, and I think by tomorrow the last of the Easter candy will be gone.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Sunflower Sunday

I made this card just for fun today.  I got this sunflower stamp a while ago (not really sure where), because I love to color and at the time I was going to use my watercolor pencils to color it.  However, since I now have Copic markers, I used them!

The card base is Early Espresso, Daffodil Delight run through the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, and the image stamped on Whisper White and then distressed with my distressing kit after colored.

It's very bright, and cheery I think, since it has now been rain/snowing for the past couple of days.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Goin' Fishin'

I bought this Gillian Roberts Fishing fun stamp set at Scrapbook Memories & More the other night because for the past week since the snow has melted (? almost - and dependent on how big a dump we get tonight) my son and his dog sit in the boat in the back yard waiting to go fishing with Daddy.

The base of the card is Early Espresso with Frostwood Lodge Designer Series Paper (YES! It's left over's from Christmas), Garden Green for the scallop edge and Whisper White for the stamped image surface.  The image is stamped on with black Memento ink, and colored with my Copic markers (son helped with coloring).

The knot, is something I tied (not scout worthy), using the hemp twine from Stampin'Up.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Cupcake Birthday

I bought this Sweet Cake stamp set because in theory it looked great!.  Unfortunately, I saved money and bought the clear mount set which of course are optional as to whether or not they stay on the block, especially one this size (#@$%^&*)!

For this card I used Poppy Parade card stock over which I put Whisper White card stock and a piece of Sweet Shop Designer Series Paper.  There was green thread in the sewing machine smiling at me, so I ran the card through the sewing machine. 

I inked up the Sweet Cake stamp set with Early Espresso ink, and after a couple trials of it falling off (maybe it's not the stamp - it's Friday the 13th!!!), managed to get an image down.  It was not inked evenly on the page, so I got out the Stampin' Write markers and colored it in.  Probably the best I can do!!!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Easter Table Runner

I purchased this kit on our Family Day weekend ski trip to Canmore at The Sugar Pine Company Quilt Shop.  My son had originally wanted me to get it when we were there at Christmas, but Easter seemed so far away at that time.

I did finish this project in time for the Easter Table as it went together quick and easy and even the backing was included!!  I think this project was originally intended as a wall hanging, but that would mean having to hang something on my walls (OMG holes, and uneven fading of paint color on my walls), so I placed this on the table for Easter Dinner and that's where it still sits. 

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Lemon Meringue Pie

My son requested the usual Easter Supper dessert again this year.  Lemon Meringue Pie.

Of course, I obliged.

A few times a year I will make a full batch of pie crust and roll into 10" (approximate) circles and freeze between pieces of parchment paper for emergency pies.  I use my grandma's favorite pie crust recipe (found on the side of the Crisco box ;- ).

After defrosting and fitting the dough into the pie pan bake at 350 for about 15 minutes.

The filling recipe is below:

Lemon Pie Filling

1/4 cup corn starch

1 cup sugar

- mix together in a sauce pan until no lumps

- carefully add:

1 1/2 cups water

3 egg yolks

- cook over medium heat stirring constantly and then boil for 1 minute

- remove from heat and add:

1 tablespoon grated lemon peel

1/3 cup lemon juice

1 tablespoon butter

- fill pie crust with lemon filling

 Meringue

- beat at high speed until frothy

3 egg whites

- add carefully:
1/3 cup sugar 

- beat until stiff peaks

- cover lemon filling with meringue to edges of pie crust and return to oven to bake for another 20 minutes.

Leave at room temp for about an hour and then refrigerate at least another 3 hours.

Enjoy!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Stamp of the Month Club

This is my last Stamp of Month Club set (sad face), but wait.....Karina is going to offer it AGAIN!!!

If you are interested in it, give her a call.

I love the simplicity of this set, I think it is classic, and I LOVE the card on the left the most because it is blue, monochromatic, and the design is so fun!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Oh S"crap"! It's Monday

Today's version of  Oh S"crap"! It's Monday uses Poppy Parade card stock, Early Espresso card stock, and a small piece of Everyday Enchantment Designer Series Paper from Sale-a-bration, and the ribbon is also from Sale-a-bration.

The stamped image is from the the You are Loved stamp set (Holiday 2011 Mini), and is stamped in Poppy Parade.

The Early Espresso card stock was run through the Perfect Pennants die to get the scallop circle and the DSP was punched with my scallop punch.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Happy Easter!

On Easter Sunday after brunch is finished, we get in the car and go for a drive to Prairie Gardens & Adventure Farm in the metropolis of Bon Accord, Alberta.

My brother once described this place as "your crazy aunt's farm", and that is probably one of the best ways to describe it.

There is an eclectic collection of junk there that is the fascination and delight of any child (brings back summer memories at the crazy aunt's farm).  

Easter in Alberta is usually muddy, so after about a mile walk from the field where you park and hope not to get stuck, you walk in your gum boots to the farm proper, where your admission provides you a bead necklace (reminiscent of Mardi Gras), and then the fun begins.  There are straw bales to climb on, random ducks and geese wandering, an old Ford tractor parked (might have broken there) in a pile of random straw with the corresponding old clothes pile  to make a scare crow out of.  A swing set from the '70's, a menagerie of animals, calves, goats, sheep, chicks, and of course baby bunnies (a sign lets you know the bunnies are a perfect Mother's Day gift and will be ready for the mother's day weekend), a small straw bale maze for children, an area with small ride on pedal tractors, baskets, and random plastic eggs.  When your basket is as full as you want you can trade it in for a piece of candy.

My son loves this place, and I have to say we own a season pass to this fun every year!

As for the craft, I decided last night I better get the scrapbook page for last year made since I will be taking lots of pictures today.

The background paper and sheet of stickers was purchased a while back at Scrapbook Memories & More, the bases for the pictures is Certainly Celery card stock from Stampin Up.

If you look closely you will wonder how I got scrapbook paper to stand so nicely.  I did not have any card stock in the house in a size that would be fitting for a backing, so I used the 12 x12 sheets of cardboard that come in the back of the Designer Series Paper sets!

The bunny, egg hunt, and basket all have foam dots behind them to elevate off of the page, so I will leave them out to dry for a while (til the sticky is gone).

The letters are cut with the Cricut Plantin cartridge at 2" size.

Hope you're having a great Easter, and Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Paska

My son recently had the opportunity to go on a field trip to the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village.  While there the children got to make Paska.  

Yesterday my son and I made Paska for Easter.  

I got out my Ukrainian Daughters Cookbook that my friend Lora (also from Saskatchewan) gave me as she had two copies and found a recipe for Paska.

This is what the dough looked liked when ready to rise:

After about an hour the dough had doubled in size and it was time to shape the bread.  

My son did all the decorations on the top as he wanted to show me all the skills he had learned from the ladies at the village.  The left over dough was shaped into Easter Egg shaped buns and baked along side the Paska.

And now, almost ready for Easter.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Good Friday

It's Good Friday, and I always find it hard as to how to "celebrate" today.  As for making a craft, that is even harder.  While looking at my crafting supplies I realized my Cricut Solutions Easter 2010 cartridge had a cross in it.

The background for this card is Daffodil Delight, the Whisper White was run through the lattice embossing folder (it has crosses in the center of it).

I sponged Lucky Limeade for the grass, and pool party for the sky.

The cross is cut at 3" on the Cricut. 
In keeping with "The Cross" theme I have attached links to versions of two of my favorite singers, singing The Old Rugged Cross; Brad Paisley and Alan Jackson.

 Have a Blessed Easter, and Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Happy Easter

While looking for something else I found this old retired (from Stampin' Up) Sock Monkey and Sock Monkey Accessory kit and thought since it looked fun, I would play with it (can't remember by now what I was looking for...DOH!).

The card base is Old Olive with Old Olive Designer Series Paper.

The sock monkey and his basket of Easter Eggs are colored from ink pads with the use of my Blender Pen.

The greeting is from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Easter Bunny Sugar Cookies

Today my son and I made sugar cookies.  I used the recipe off of the back of the Wilton cookie cutter I bought recently.

These cookies worked amazingly well with switching the butter to non-hydrogenated margarine, and the cookie stamp did not stick at all!!

I cut the round shape with a biscuit cutter and then stamped the image on just prior to putting in the oven.  Ten minutes later, delicious cookies!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Easter Treat Totes

 To make this Easter Treat Tote you will need:

- a piece of card stock cut 9 1/2" by 5" (now you'll have left overs for Oh"Scrap"! It's Monday ; )

- score width wise at 1", 4", 5", 8", 9", 91/2"

- turn paper and score length wise at 1", and then at 4" (the picture is opposite as I have too many south paws in my life and I do everything backwards!!!)

 - punch hoes in the sides of the box if you want to put in a handle.

-assemble box

- I used my Coloozle to cut out the oval, then attached a small piece of window sheet with glue dots from the inside.

 - I placed a small treat bag inside the box and filled with Easter candy, and sealed the box with Sticky Strip after attaching the ribbon (left overs from Sale-a-tion 2011).

- the outside is decorated with sprinkles from the Create a Cupcake stamp set, and the Easter Egg is from the Gift Givers stamp set (Christmas 2011 Mini catalogue).

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Oh S"crap"! It's Monday

Oh S"crap"! It's Monday AGAIN.... (does anyone like this day...)

For today's version of this mission to deplete the scrap box I used a piece of Whisper White card stock, a green piece of Designer Series Paper (old olive I think), another small piece of white which I dry embossed with the Perfect Polka Dots embossing Folder, and then stitched around it with some green thread that happened to be staring at me from my sewing machine.

The flowers are all random pieces of paper from the scrap box put through the Cuttlebug (with my new extended cutting pads..YAY - almost thought might have to get a Big Shot), using the Fun Flowers Die.

The flowers still looked boring, so I tried to make them better with a couple of buttons (random collections) and some of the new Lucky Limeade Bakers twine.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Happy April!!!

I thought long and hard yesterday what to do for today's post.  What kind of joke could I do for today.

Well, mother nature provided me with a joke of the day.....

This is my front yard this morning, and it's still snowing!

Today's card is made with Lucky Limeade card stock for the base, Cheerful Treat Designer Series Paper, more Lucky Limeade and Whisper White card stock cut with my Spellbinders Die and then dry embossed with a Cuttlebug Embossing Folder.  

The grass and leaves are stamped in Lucky Limeade from the Precious Butterflies Stamp Set and the Triple Treat Flower I colored with my Stampin' Write markers and then punched with my flower punch.

The ribbon is Pear Pizzazz Pleated Satin Ribbon.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy