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

Strawberry Fields

Strawberry season is starting here and that means a lot of work but lots of treats at the end of it!  I gave up picking our own berries quite a few years back because we need so many, so now I just pre-order a couple of flats from a local farm and go from there.  I usually make about 4 or 5 batches of freezer jam, 2 or 3 batches of cooked jam, a fresh berry pie (sooo good: fresh berries piled up in a baked homemade crust, then covered with a homemade strawberry glaze), a cooked pie, plus lots of leftover berries to eat & freeze.

In anticipation of all that berry hoopla I made this 12x12 scrapbook layout in advance.  There's room for a nice 5x7 photo of the berries, plus three 3x3 photos of the end results - jam, pie, maybe a kid eating a berry!  I have been scrapbooking for almost 10 years so the things we do every year get more challenging to scrap in a new way.  This page is a cute reminder of the process of strawberrying in our home without having to do much journaling.

The Bachelorette: I am so excited and surprised that Ed came back!  He was my favourite from the beginning and I was really disappointed when he left...maybe this will work out after all!?

Cricut Cupcake

The highlight of this birthday card is definitely the adorable cupcake!  I cut it using the Hello Kitty cartridge with the Cricut, layering the different sections on the blackout feature base cut.  When you have several pieces to cut you can mount the different card stocks onto one cutting mat and do the whole thing at once - this makes it so fast and easy to make your own embellishments.

Another reason I like these icons formed from several layers is that you can use patterned designer paper for one or more of the cuts.  That means instant decoration, as on the cupcake wrapper.  I added glitter to the icing, which works perfectly to add some pizazz and it represent sprinkles or sugar!  The ribbon is taped onto the back of the pink layer of card stock which helps keep the bulk of the card down and the greeting is a rub-on, clean and sharp.

Cleaning day today and then hopefully time to scrapbook.  Baking and cooking has not interested me lately - my eldest resorted to whipping up her own batch of chocolate chip cookies yesterday!  (They were pretty good and I didn't help her at all!  "...Teach a man to fish..."

Bye Bye Birdie

I took this photo yesterday of the baby birds, so big they look like they will fall out of the nest!  (Last year we had 4, I have no idea how they all fit!)...then this morning there were only 2 birds and I went outside to see if one had fallen into the shrubs below.  In seconds, the father was in the tree chirping and the mother suddenly appeared and then there was a frenzy of squawking and flying and diving, and the other two babies flew out of the nest and off they all went!  I guess that's it for another year!

More than a Valentine

Even though the Happy Heart Day stamp set from Stampin' Up is intended for Valentine's Day, you can certainly find other occasions to use this really cute collection.  I love this little mouse and it was perfect for a thank-you card to someone special.  I stamped him with Staz-On ink so I could colour him in with markers with no smudging or smearing and simply left out the Happy Heart Day sentiment at the bottom of the stamp.  The butterfly "love you" is also part of the set and looks great on the envelope as a compliment to the card.  When you invest in sets of stamps it's great if you can use them for multiple occasions!

Has anyone seen "The Hangover"?  We went to see it last night and I thought it was pretty funny.  Quite clever considering the topic and of course I loved all the Vegas scenery!

Birthday Layout for Two

I made this 12x12 scrapbook layout for my twins' birthday page, with three spaces for photos: a close up of the two of them, opening presents and blowing out the candles on the cake (yeah, I only bake one cake!)  I used the So Chic Designer Prints paper from Creative Memories and the Cricut with the Graphically Speaking cartridge.  I cut the scallop circles, the Two of a Kind title, the arrow, and the brown semi-circle layer under the photo mats, which has a spiral-notebook edge on it.  I layered quite a few pieces of paper and used a sticker title bar (from the same collection) for the sub-title at the bottom of the page.  I'm going to journal on the two pink strips at the top.  This designer paper is perfect for my boy/girl teenagers!

Can't Thank You Enough...

I needed a thank you card and this pretty purple and celery card is perfect for my lavender-loving recipient.  You really don't need all kinds of bells & whistles on your cards to make them look professional (although I do love the toys that make the bells & whistles!)...but I do think it's important to keep the workmanship as clean and tidy as possible: glue down edges, trim overlap, keep lines straight, etc.  This helps make even the most simple of cards look elegant and thoughtful, like you invested the time to create it with care (even if it only takes you a few minutes).

I tidied up the house this morning, the last whip-round before all the kids are home for the summer.  I must say, I was practically giddy: I bought a new power-head for my vacuum yesterday and it is something I should have done about 15 years ago.  My old one was 18 years old and had been through the ringer.  I am not one for tossing things aside and buying new until absolutely necessary.  The old beast had lost its rubber bumper, the bearings had gone yet again, no headlight, compacted bristles, and wouldn't stay connected to the metal pipe handle-thingy any more.  I'd had it refurbished with new wheels and bearings about 4 times over its life so it didn't owe me anything.  The new one is incredible!  When I tried it for the first time it almost pulled me through the wall - these new fangled models are practically self-propelled and most exciting of all?  It left vacuum patterns on the carpet!  You know, the lines that show you where the vacuum has been?  The brush action on it is so much better and I could hear the dirt getting sucked up!  Ahh, the little things in life!  But really, making the nasty job of vacuuming any little bit more pleasant really does make the day a little brighter!  Now...those kids should be back any minute!  (Hope I can get them out at least once a week so that I can make you a video!)  Have a happy rest of the day!

I'm not the only one...

I'm not the only mother watching her babies grow up in a flash - mama robin has been feeding those chicks constantly - I don't know how she knows which one should get the next worm as the first mouth she feeds usually takes the whole thing!  They stretch their necks up so far, I'm sure this is nature's way of getting them stronger.  They have little feathers and spots now (there are 3) and are getting much cuter.  The mom didn't appreciate the photo op - you can see by the way she is perched in a protective, puffy, stance...and I think she was giving me the evil eye! 

Twin Graduates

My two "little ones" are graduating from middle school today so I wanted to make them each a little card to tell them how proud I am...and pop in a little cash for fun!

The Wild Card cartridge for the Cricut offers quick, ready-to-go cards for any occasion that you can leave "as is" or embellish any way you want to.  These cute graduation caps & tassels were perfect and super quick to make.  I ended up with 2 different sizes (6-1/2 & 4-1/2)...you have to make the envelope first, which is the larger cut, to make sure you can fit the card into it.

I am short on time so I just added the 'For the Graduate' phrase and diploma icon and then attached the tassel with a brad.  I put a little glitter on there too!  Next year the eldest graduates from high-school...do you think I could fit a new laptop in there too?

Computer Full

So sorry to have no post - my computer is full and I'm just getting a new hard drive...when things are up and saving(!) again I shall post!  I sure do miss my computer!

Vegas Vid