Friday, August 31, 2012

Talk of the Town

I had so much fun putting together the September Scrapbook Circle Kit, Talk of the Town. Choosing paper and embellishments for the kits is the best kind of shopping.


Opening up boxes of scrapbook products as they arrive is a bit like Christmas. Only difference is that I'm lucky enough to get to open packages year round.


This kit includes hot off the press items from American Crafts' new Amy Tangerine Ready Set Go line, some Lily Bee Persnickity plus goods from Glitz, Maya Road, Bella Blvd plus some exclusive Scrapbook Circle quote bubbles and a custom printable.


The last of the kit items just arrived today, so I don't have any layouts to share. I have plans for pages though and promise to share really soon.


Stop by and check out the Talk on the Town kit. There are also a few Say It Like It Is add-ons and cardstock add-ons too.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

1st Day of School...One Month Later

Our kids started school at the end of July. Yes, it's an early start to the school year. Yes, it's still very hot. We love our school schedule though because they get 2.5 week breaks in the fall, December and spring.

Of course, on the first day of school I made the kids pose for a few quick pictures before heading off to school.


I dug into my Fancy Pants Off to School line for this page. Love the colors in this line!


Time is flying by. I can't believe my oldest is now in Junior High!

Friday, August 24, 2012

Happy, Happy Birthday Cards

Since our house was broken into last week, I've been without my camera, but I'm happy to report that today our replacement camera arrived. Hooray! Hopefully I will have time this weekend to take pictures of things I've been working on over the past couple of weeks and will share them next week.

Two of my kids have birthday parties to attend this weekend, so this afternoon I put together a couple of cards to go with their gifts.


I used my Silhouette to cut out the 8 and then layered up paper and stickers and mounted the text sticker on pop dots for a little dimension. One of my favorite crating embellishments is stickers. On this card, I used a couple of border stickers plus the yellow chevron layer is a sticker too. They make embellishing quick and simple.


This was a fun card to make that came together pretty fast. I cut and layered up several layers on paper, added a little stitching and finished it off with the balloon and cupcake.

Hope you have a fabulous weekend!

Card Supplies

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

6 Week Bran Muffins

While we were visiting friends in Baltimore over spring break we were treated to some really delicious bran muffins as part of our breakfast one morning.

One of the great things about these bran muffins is that the batter makes a large amount and will store in the fridge for up to six weeks. You can just scoop out what you want to bake and always have fresh baked muffins.


Want to make these?  Here's the recipe...

Mix and let stand for 20 minutes:
6 cups bran cereal
2 cups boiling water

Then add:
1 cup butter, softened
2 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 quart of buttermilk

Mix the following dry ingredients and then add to wet batter:
5 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
5 teaspoons baking soda

Bake at 375 degrees for around 12 minutes.

Dough can be stored uncovered in the refrigerator for up to six weeks.

Let me know if you give these a try!

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Beach Scrapbook in a Jar

This summer our family and some friends spent some time at the beach in Mexico. I wanted to create a little album that could hold my favorite pictures from the trip. While we were at the beach, we collected a bunch of seashell and I thought that it would be cool in incorporate those into my scrapbook project. I had an empty jar sitting in my scrapbook room and the idea came to me that I should combine the shells and a little scrapbook into one project.


I built the mini album in the jar using a few different Happy Travels Glitz Designs papers. Here's a look at how the project came together.

1. The base of this album was built just using pieces of patterned paper. Each page was cut to 5" X 2.5". (The finished album size is 2.5" X 2.5".)


2. After cutting the pages, I scored them down the middle and folded them in half.


3. Next, I punched holes along the center creases of each paper. The holes are about 1/3" from the edge of the paper.


4. To bind the album, I stacked all of the punched papers on top of each other and threaded a piece of baker's twine onto a needle. I then used the needle to thread it through the holes and tied the twine to hold the pages together.


5. Now that the base of the album was assembled, I printed out 25 of my favorite trip photos so that they were each 2 X 2 inches.


6. The fun part was adding the pictures and embellishments to the pages. I added some stickers, used stamps and did a few patterned paper embellishments.


7. With the mini album assembled, I added a background picture to the jar and backed it with a piece of patterned paper so that the jar would look pretty from all sides.




8. After the background picture was added to the jar, I added a few of the seashells that we collected with on our trip to the bottom of the jar. I didn't fill it too mach because I wanted to leave room for the album plus a bit of the picture to show through.


9. The finished project with be something fun to display and I like that it is interactive because of the little album inside of the jar.


This was such a fun project I think I'll do it again with another vacation. The jar would be a great place to hold brochures and ticket stubs collected on a trip and the mini album can highlight a few favorite photos.

Supplies

Glitz Designs Happy Travels Patterned Paper:  World, Polka, Flower, Stripe
Glitz Designs French Kiss Patterned Paper: Hats
Glitz Designs Happy Travels Epoxy Stickers
Glitz Designs French Kiss Glitzers
Glitz Designs Happy Travels Stamps
Glitz Designs Happy Travels 6 X 6 Paper Pad

Other: Jar (IKEA), Tape (Target & Bella Blvd.), Twine (Whisker Graphics)

Friday, August 17, 2012

One Crazy Week!

Our week started off different than planned on Sunday when we came home from church to find this:


The kids walked in the house ahead of me and said there was glass all over. I told them to get out of the house and we called 911. Yes, someone thought it would be a good idea to break into our house Sunday morning. They also got into two other house on our street that morning.

Total bummer.

So this week has been filled with things like filling our insurance paperwork.


We've also been choosing new glass to replace the broken glass.


Plus we got to have a carpet cleaner come to get out the fingerprinting dust the police left behind on our bedroom floor.


Luckily, I was also able to squeeze in some creative time. Once we replace our SLR camera that was stolen, I'll get a better picture of the layout and share it.


I also spent some time sketching out the September printable for the Scrapbook Circle kit. Totally excited about this kit and can't wait to share peeks soon.


I put my Silhouette to use today and cut out a little gift box for my daughter to give to her friend tonight. Love that machine!


Looking forward to spending the weekend with my family. Hope you enjoy your weekend too!

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Happy Day

It's been a while since I've put a card together. Its seems like I've been a little lazy when it has come to cards lately, but yesterday I had a few extra minutes and put a birthday card together for a friend.


I think you'll agree that the big yellow blossom steals the show. It's from my friend Tessa's Precocious Paper etsy shop. She made one for each of the Scrapbook Circle August Kits and I'm so thankful for all of her beautiful work.

Supplies /// Scrapbook Circle August Kit /// Maya Road Paper Doily

Friday, August 10, 2012

Pinterest Inspired Cooking

This week I took our dinner inspiration from ideas found on Pinterest. I figure that since I'm pinning so many delicious looking ideas, I should at least make a few of them.

On Monday night we tried this baked Chicken Parmesan dish. It was really easy to assemble and I put put it together early in the day and stored it in the fridge since I knew I'd be driving to piano lessons during dinner prep time. The great thing about this dish is that there is not any breading or frying. The secret ingredient is croutons added to the top of the chicken. Brillant and delicious.




On Tuesday night, I took inspiration from this Chile Colorado Burrito recipe. I used a port roast and covered it with a can on red enchilada sauce. So I didn't exactly follow the recipe, but the idea came from this pin. We just rolled the meat up in burritos and served it with some fruit.



The great thing about both of these meals was that there were plenty of leftovers for two more meals.

Wednesday night we buttered and toasted rolls and used the leftover chicken parmesan on them. I just diced up the chicken, heated it in a skillet and filled the rolls. Everyone in our family agreed it was better on the toasted rolls than the spaghetti we'd used on Monday.

Thursday night we used up the extra pork on tacos. We like using this "Inside-Out" taco cooking method that we made up because the corn tortilla stays soft while the toasted cheese on it is so delicious.

I also made a couple of other Pinterest inspired things this week. On Thursday, the Pinterest group I'm in got together and I made these Southwest Egg Rolls for my contribution to our lunch. They were good and I plan on making them again. I think the secret is the great avocado ranch sauce that goes with the egg rolls.



Finally, today I got together with some friends for brunch and I tried out this Blueberry Biscuit recipe. It came together in under 5 minutes. I was thinking I'd forgotten to do something because it was so easy. The biscuits were soft and had a nice flavor.



I think I've done my share of baking/cooking for the week. I'm thinking we should eat out all weekend!

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Project Life: July 1 - 7

This past week I've done some serious Project Life catch up and I'm excited to be almost current on my pages. I know that I don't have to stay current, but I'd really like to create each week as time goes on so that everything is fresh in my mind. Plus it doesn't hang on me when I just have a week to work on. When I have 5 weeks waiting to be finished, the project isn't so fun.


Today I am going to share our 4th of July week. Somehow, I took very few photos this week, but luckily there were enough photos to fill the pages. Luckily I had movie tickets and a Diamondbacks baseball ticket to use too.


My family was still in town on Sunday because of the anniversary party and we all took pictures after church. We did take a full group photos, but since it wasn't taken on my camera, I didn't have a copy of it. Hopefully I will get that soon and can add it to the page.


We had a great 4th of July at my parent's neighborhood parade, seeing Brave at the movies and going to my aunt and uncle's house for dinner and fireworks.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Layout Supplies

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Mangoes & Skating

We were able to fill our summer up with a few getaways that were prefect for escaping the intense heat here in AZ and a great time to collect a bunch of new photos along this way.

While we were at the beach in Mexico, a guy pulled up a cart with a big rainbow umbrella and parked it pretty close to where we'd set up camp. We saw him carving up mangoes and turning them into a beautiful flower on a stick. How could we resist??





Keeping with a bit of Mexican food flair, he added chile powder and lime to one of the mangoes. Such a cool combination. Of course, the kids liked it plain, but I was up for the new flavor combo.


Another fun thing we did this summer was to ride a gondola up a steep mountain at Squaw Valley, CA to get to the site of the 1960 Winter Olympic Games. There was a roller skating rink at the top of the mountain. How cool is that?

We even had the rink to ourselves for most of our skating time. I'll be honest, I didn't lace any skates onto my feet. I wanted to be injury free for the rest of our vacation and I wasn't sure I could trust myself out on the rink. There were a few falls, but luckily, no major injuries. Success!






 I'm lucky to have the new Glitz 6 X 6 paper pads, so I mixed in a bit of the new Cashmere Dame line with the Happy Travels line on both of these layout. I'm loving how well these lines go together. Teal and yellow together are one of my favorite color combos! Can't wait to get the full new lines!




Mangoes in Mexico Supplies
Glitz Designs "Happy Travels" Patterned Paper: Stripe, Bicycle
Glitz Designs "Cashmere Dame" 6 X 6 Paper Pad
Glitz Designs "Happy Travels" Large Rhinestones
Glitz Designs "Happy Travels" Epoxy Stickers
Glitz Designs Teeny White Alpha
Glitz Designs "Happy Travels" Layered Stickers
Glitz Designs "French Kiss" Paper Layers


Roller Skating Supplies
Glitz Designs "Happy Travels" Patterned Paper: Bicycle
Glitz Designs "Cashmere Dame" 6 X 6 Paper Pad
Glitz Designs "Happy Travels" Epoxy Stickers
Glitz Designs "Happy Travels" Layered Stickers
Glitz Designs "Happy Travels" Epoxy Stickers
Glitz Designs Teeny Black Type Alpha
Glitz Designs Teeny Black Round Alpha

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