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

Chewy Sticks

I always like to take a little treat to the kennel...and I'm sure all the dogs will appreciate the cute topper I made.  I stamped the pumpkins and leaf using the Thoroughly Thankful stamp set (SU) and coloured it in with my Copic markers.  I layered some Autumn Vine dsp and sprinkled my image with glitter.  My dog Sam will always come in from the back yard if I yell "chewy stick?" so I'm hoping the boarders will at least like the contents, if not the packaging.

Of course, I had to bring some chewy sticks for the human as well (I'm thinking the boy who helps with the dogs won't mind a little goody bag for himself!  And hey, tootsie rolls and bubblegum are sure to beat raw hide sticks!)

The stamp is from the Cute & Curly set and I made the flower using the Boho Blossoms punch and a brad.

Happy Halloween!   

Grateful for You UTE Button Card

Once I made those beautiful UTE buttons I showed you yesterday, I wanted to make a card with them right away.

I started with a Very Vanilla 5" square card and layered it with dsp from the Sweetpea stack (SU).  When I cut layers of paper for my cards, I always make each one 1/4" smaller than the one before.  To me, that just makes an eye pleasing border, but of course sometimes I like to have more of the dsp showing.

In this case, I also added a small piece of Old Olive card stock punched with the Scallop Trim border punch (SU).  I wrapped some lined thread around my last layer of dsp and then affixed my UTE paper buttons to it with glue dots.  The sentiment, a rub-on from the Chit-Chat rub-ons pack, is on card stock punched with the Word Window and then on dsp punched with the Modern Label punch.  I think my buttons are showcased nicely on this card!

UTE Paper Buttons

I am so excited!  Remember the Button Punch I showed you last week?  Well...I had an idea and decided to make those little buttons a little more dimensional...and it worked!

First, I punched out the three buttons using Very Vanilla card stock (Stampin' Up).  Next, I stamped right over them with my new Old Letter Writing stamp (Hero Arts) and Old Olive ink.  (They looked good already!)  Finally, I triple-embossed them with VersaMark ink and UTE (Ultra Thick Embossing powder), melting the layers with my heat tool.  I threaded them with linen thread, trimmed the ends, and sealed them down with some Glossy Accents.  They turned out amazing and almost look and feel like real buttons!  I can now make them to match any project I'm doing and have them in my hands in minutes.  (They were a lot of fun to make too!)

Inspiration...

My mother loves to go book shopping and picked up the Card Making with Cricut book I had been interested in while she was on her last trip.  Although it's a nice paperback book with over 40 projects outlined, to me it was not worth the $14.95 price tag.  Any of the simple cards shown could be created using the Cricut by a new crafter once comfortable with the machine.  There are no operational tips or instructions, just basic ideas and cutting steps.  With all the awesome crafters out there on youtube and blogs, who are willing to share all their information and creativity - FOR FREE - there is plenty of inspiration to be had.  However, if you want some very simple ideas to get you started with card making using your Cricut, and have money to spare, you could pick up the book and try some of the editor's examples.

One publication I really enjoy receiving is the Creating Keepsakes magazine.  It's quite expensive on the newsstand but there are good savings by ordering a subscription.  It is chock full of ideas for scrapping and card making, plus I just love the new product ads and reviews - I get to see what's up and coming in the crafting gadget world and add to my shopping list!  I've picked up some great tips and tons of inspiration from this magazine.  The only real downside is that it's only published 8 times a year...I want more!

Really though, most of my ideas stem from the actual products I use.  A scrapbook page builds around the colours and themes of my photos.  Cards evolve from the papers, stamps, and embellishments I'm using.  The Cricut cartridges offer great starting-off points for so many of my projects.  And of course, all the great blogs I read give me so many ideas, and reading (and watching) definitely makes me want to get into my craft room and create some projects myself!  That might be the biggest challenge for a lot of people: you may have all the ingredients on hand but allowing yourself the time to actually use them is a wonderful gift you can give yourself...and the act of getting started becomes the most inspiring thing of all!  

School Days Scrapbook Page

I can't believe we've got this year's school photos already and that I'm down to two kids left in high school!

This page was really fun to put together because I had great paper to work with and a school-themed Cricut cartridge.

I started with the spiral book designer print 12x12 paper from the Creative Memories Primary High School pack.  It makes the perfect background and I can even journal right on the lines.  I also used the other papers in the pack for both my title and photo mats, and the barrel of the pencil.

The title was cut using the Locker Talk Cricut cartridge.  There are so many great Phrases to choose from, but I picked School Days in the end.  I cut out the Layers for it in a co-ordinating colour and popped up the stars with dimensionals.  The pencil can also be found in this cartridge, on page 37 of the handbook.  I added the cute layers to piece it together - adding the lead, wood, metal eraser holder, and the pink eraser.  It looks so cute!  The final touch was the spiral edge on the photo mats which I just made myself using the Spiral punch from Stampin' Up.

Since the kids have been in kindergarten I have added their school photos to a progressive frame.  I am so stunned when I look at it to realize one has completed the entire "clock" and the other two only have 2 more photos to come!  It is so fun to see the yearly changes in their appearance - how they grow and mature, turning from little kids to adults, all the while making me so proud!

Dill Blossom Card

My blog-buddy Steph sent me a bundle of goodies, including a gorgeous paper stack from s.e.i. called Dill Blossom.  Did she know that it features some of my favourite colours - green, brown, and orange?  Of course, I had to make her a thank-you card using the paper and I also managed to incorporate one of the tags from her swap.

I wanted a larger card base so I could showcase a big square of the patterned paper, layered with a strip of textured card stock (also provided in the stack), which I ran through the Cuttlebug to emboss using the Swirls folder.  Then a co-ordinating striped pattern strip across that made an excellent background for my popped-up tag.  I used the Creative Memories Tag Maker to reduce the size of the office tag so it would fit on my card.  The butterfly stamp was already on the tag as shown, I just painted it with my Twinkling H2O paints (super shimmery in person) and distressed the edges with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Peeled Paint (which I actually sponged on all the card layer edges).  The final embellishment was a string of fibers (which Steph had tied around my goodies), looped through the tag - the colours were perfect!  I love how the card turned out and I hope Steph enjoys seeing her gift 'in action'!

Cranberry Muffins

These muffins can be made with either whole cranberry sauce or fresh cranberries, whole or coarsely chopped.  I love using the fresh ones when they arrive in the produce section this time of year - so tart and flavourful!

This particular recipe makes nice, light muffins but they are not overly sweet, especially when you get a bite with the whole cranberry.  I tried the first one right out of the pan but it was even a bit tart for me so I brushed the tops of the warm muffins with melted butter and sprinkled sugar on top, as suggested in the recipe.

If you decide to use whole cranberries in place of the cranberry sauce, you just might want to add a bit more milk to the batter so it's not too thick.  The recipe says it makes 18-24 muffins but it yielded 12 good-size muffins for me! 

Cranberry Muffins

2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup milk

1 cup whole cranberry sauce (or fresh cranberries)

Topping: melted butter and granulated sugar

350 degrees for 25 minutes.

Ice Cream Container & Mother

When I made the Baked Alaska last week I ended up buying a carton block of ice cream.  The perfect way to store it is in this Ice Cream Freezer Mate from Tupperware.  I'm not sure if they carry this exact model any more (I've had it for years) but they probably have something similar or it can be found on e-bay.  I love how these containers are just the right size for the cartons of ice cream and it is so much easier to serve and protect!  No more sticky, goopy, flappy carton lid and sides, and no protective ice layer on top of half-eaten ice cream. 

That reminds me of one of my all-time favourite comedies: Mother.  Have you seen it?  It's an Albert Brooks movie with Debbie Reynolds as the title character and it is hysterical!  There are a couple of scenes that I still quote (and it came out almost 15 years ago!) and will have you laughing out loud...especially if you can identify with John!*

These freezer containers are also essential to me when I make my own homemade ice cream...yes, I sometimes make my own homemade ice cream!  Next time I do, I will make a video and show you how. 

 

 

Stamp Press

I picked up this inexpensive Fiskars' Stamp Press to help position unmounted clear acrylic and cling stamps when stamping.  The grid lines are useful for aligning greetings and sentiments and the large surface allows for arranging multiple stamps for a customized collage of images.  The sponge feet compress when the press is pushed and pop up gently when released.  This makes for very clean, even stamping, with no slipping - especially useful when using a sticky craft ink, VersaMark, or Staz-On on a slippery surface such as acetate.  You can see a really good example of how to use the Stamp Press on this Hero Arts Video.  

Twinkling Maple Leaves

Having said that I prefer to only draw inspiration from others, rather than duplicate their projects...here is an exception!  This spectacular maple leaf card was entirely cased from Jennifer McGuire, and I link with her permission (she is so generous, inspiring, creative & exceptionally talented at what she does!)  I posted yesterday about the products used on this card: Hero Arts stamps, and the luscious Twinkling H2O paints.  As these water colour paints were new to me, I chose to follow Jennifer's instructions and process to get the hang of how to use them.  I love her card and I love how mine turned out too!  My first attempt yielded a very faint stamping of both the leaves and background, but as I learned, there is a bit of a manufacturer's coating on the stamps which impedes the ink or paint from adhering well the first couple of stampings.  Once I stamped and cleaned them a few times, it worked much better.  After I followed Jennifer's steps to painting, misting, and stamping off - and then created the card images - I distressed the edges with Tim Holtz distress ink.  I added the linen thread and a single leaf cut out and popped up.  Now that I have the techniques down for using these shimmery paints (it's difficult to see the full dramatic sparkle in a photograph, but trust me...the metallic finish is gorgeous!) I can branch out and come up with my own ideas on incorporating them into other creations.