Over the Kitchen Counter: Angie's Place for Cooking and Crafts

Biscotti For You

When you make something as delicious as Double Chocolate Biscotti, you just have to share.  I packaged up 3 similarly sized cookies in a medium cello bag and made a quick topper.  The lacy circle in the Vintage Label set (from the SU sale-a-bration flyer) stamps beautifully and punches out perfectly with the Scallop Circle punch.  The Scallop Trim Border punch adds a pretty edge and is becoming one of my favourites.  A delicious, chocolate treat bagged up in a special package is perfect to leave on someone's desk as a surprise - and that's the best part of sharing!

Peachy Keen

You may have noticed on my post on Valentine's Day, the little face on the scalloped heart popped up on my mom's gift bag.  Well, I was so excited to finally receive my set of Peachy Keen Stamps and try them out.  I had ordered this set a while ago and it was sent to my mother-in-law in Arizona, but then I had to wait for her to forward the package on to me.  I chose the PK-570 Basic Paper Doll Face Assortment Package, as I thought it was the most versatile.  I don't cut a lot of dolls from the Cricut Paper Doll cartridge but now that I have faces, maybe I will more often.  They are great quality polymer stamps (I'm sure most of you have already seen these) and they don't disappoint.  They are thick and sturdy and stamp very well...and are cute as a button!  I also bought the small set of acrylic blocks (they were under $5 bucks and fit the various sizes of faces perfectly) and they are beautiful too.  If I lived in the States I would surely be ordering all kinds of face sets from them.  Check them out at www.peachykeenstamps.com.  I predict that I will be trying to stamp little expression faces on all kinds of things! 

Be My Valentine

  I was looking for an icon on the Plantin SchoolBook Cricut cartridge the other day, and noticed that it not only has some great tags, cards, and envelopes, but...some cute bags too!  This is really a fun bonus since most people who have an Expression machine have this cart and thus can cut a variety of gift bags without buying the Tags, Bags, Boxes and More cartridge.  I cut this Roly Poly bag (page 80 in the handbook) at 5-1/2", the perfect size to hold a SU small cello bag of Hershey's caramel kisses.  I cut the base in Very Vanilla card stock and then again using Sweet Always dsp.  I cut the scalloped heart and shadow, from the Doodlecharms cartridge, at 2-1/2".  I glittered up the "Be My Valentine" layered tag for a little sparkle.  This is just a little treat for my mum, who will join us for a special dinner tonight and who deserves a sweet surprise!

Happy Valentine's Day!
 

Valentine's Goody Bags

Here are my Valentine's Day goody bags for my family.  I tried to only get pink and red treats for inside but somehow a chocolate Tootsie pop got in there too!  The topper was made using my new Love Struck border maker from Creative Memories and I just love all the little hearts it punches out (I scooped them all up and used them for confetti in the bag!).  I stamped and punched a full heart to cover the staple in the bag, and for "the boy friend" and "the best friend" who are a part of the family but didn't get a Valentine's card, I made little tags with the Happy Valentine's Day stamp, Tag Punch layers, and a heart from the Heart to Heart punch.  Can't wait for tomorrow!  (I have a few other sweet treats planned, including a heart-y breakfast!)

Seems I have a little visitor in the back yard...hope it's not the Easter Bunny...he's a little early.

Valentine Lifesavers

I wanted to share this Valentine treat with you now so you would still have time to make them up before Valentine's Day, one week away today!  I got the idea from Dawn's Stamping Thoughts.  She always has the cutest stamping ideas and this one was a perfect project since my teenage daughter has a lot of friends at school but doesn't want to make a big deal out of Valentine's Day.  These are small & sweet - perfect to hand out to a bunch of people throughout the day.

I didn't have the exact supplies as Dawn, but what's great is that you can adapt any stamping idea to the stamps and inks you already own.  I used Riding Hood Red ink from SU with the word Valentine from the Everyday Flexible Phrases set.  The little heart is from the Short & Sweet Set (one of my all-time favourites) and the big heart is from the Love You Much set and punched out with the co-ordinating Heart to Heart punch.  The topper itself was punched out with the Curly Label punch and I glued it on using my ATG gun.

Making multiples of this project goes pretty quickly if (just as in cooking) you do all the same actions on each item before moving onto the next step: cut all the toppers, stamp all the images, stamp and cut all the hearts, sponge all the edges, and glue them all together...assembly line fashion.  I could only get my youngest daughter to accept these little Lifesavers to hand out but I think I would have made them anyway even if she had refused as well - they were just too cute to pass up!

Workshop Treats

  I like to give my scrapbooking buddies a little treat to keep their strength up while cropping and these bags of chocolates worked perfectly.  They came nicely packaged in cello bags with pretty ribbon so I just decorated them up a bit with a Valentine's theme, using my new Small Tag Punch to layer the Valentine's Day stamp with some Candy Lane Designer Series paper.  I also had a chance to use my new Full Heart Punch and Lovely Letter Alphabet stamps for the ladies' monograms...but who cares about that, there must be 50 Hershey's kisses in there!

Stampin' Up Goodies

  Here's a peek into a box of Stampin' Up goodies I received for my birthday.

The Golden Globes are on tonight so I'm taking my mom to see "Up In The Air" at the matinee (it's got a lot of nominations)...sounds like a good way to spend a Sunday afternoon to me!
 

Birthday Treat

  Here's a little treat for Elvis Day: a chocolate turtle wrapped up in heart-embossed cardstock, decorated with an Elvis stamp on the outside, and "I'm All Shook Up!" on the inside! And what's a birthday party without a present?  Here's a special ornament I picked up for next year's Christmas tree!
 

Cupcake Holder

My mind is brimming with ideas about ways to use this adorable cupcake holder I cut with the Sweet Treats cartridge and the Cricut.  Each icon in the handbook has its own cupcake holder and different embellishment cuts for each.  You can't see in the photo, but this particular one has 4 borders that you cut and apply to the top of each side.  It took a bit of experimentation to get the right-sized holder: fortunately my son had one left-over, stale cupcake from a batch he made(!) and took to his class, so I just wrapped it in plastic and used it as a guide.  I wanted it to be secure in the holder yet visible at the top.  It turned out that 5" was the perfect size.  I think if this were a fresh, unwrapped cupcake you would be able to put it in (and take it out) without messing up the icing!

I just played around with decorating mine, and since I used the Delicate Dots paper I stamped a heart from the Polka Dot punches stamp set and punched it out with my new Heart Punch from Stampin' Up.  The Welcome baby is from the Short & Sweet stamp set and is just to show that you could use these for any occasion: baby shower, bridal shower, birthday party favours, Valentine's Day, anything!  Sooooo cute!   

Peanut Brittle Table Favour

I cannot resist homemade peanut brittle (ok, any peanut brittle!) so I knew I'd better pack up the batch that I made, fast, so I wouldn't eat it all!  I made these little cello packs as table favours for the "adults", since the kids are getting the Snowman Soup.  Using Garden Green ink and patterned paper was a nice change and I think it works well with the Close to Cocoa topper.  Yum!  Yum!