Another Mothers Day Card....

Yeah! Finally I have posted something all Close to my Heart. Those little Magnolias just crept up and took my heart and I just haven't been able to get away from them until today. It helped that I got a package in the mail today full of some of the new line coming out in 2 weeks for CTMH.

I am going to keep this short and sweet because I have some friends in town from Michigan and I plan on taking them out for a night on the town. It's ladies night at a local club and we plan to dance, dance...dance!

I decided to go outside the box on this next card using a circle for the base. The papers are from the Creative Basics, Veranda pack. The stamp is CTMH, .Enjoy Every Moment. I used the loop punch from Martha Steward for the border. I cut slits in it and strategically went around the edge. I had ALOT of trouble getting the flower colors to match!!!  A while back ago I remember telling my friend, Lisette, that I really thought having more than 36 colors of Prismas was SUCH OVERKILL! HAHAHAHA  I am totally eating my words. Her reply was...No, you can't have enough.  Boy was she right! 

I am having a Workshop next week, with the money from it I plan on placing a hefty Carpe Diem Art order....COPICS and PRISMAS!! lol  Because Lisette was right...you can never have enough!

So what do you think????

By the way, be forwarned.....the loops are fragile!!!  But cute.....the things we do for cuteness!!!  So be honest, how are the colors?? I just couldn't get the blue....to be more like the juniper in the patterned paper.  I still think it turned out adorable though. Here is a closeup....

Thanks for looking! Tracy

They just keep rolling......

I don't have much to say today so I will keep this short and sweet!  The stamps are from Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps, I love them all, they are unique and fun!  There are some new ones coming out and I can't wait to get my hands on a few of them!  She is colored using Copic Markers. The paper is a mix of cardstock including CTMH.  The felt flowers are from CTMH too. Sentiment is from SU.

I made this card for Cute Card Thursday, but I totally think I missed the date! ;-(  See what happens when your having fun!  It's still post worthy!....

Cheers
Tracy

Finally....

First let me apologize! I have been extremely busy lately and I have cards sitting here that I did for challenges but I haven't had the chance to post them. 

The other night my other stamping friend Lisette, you can view her blog Totally Inkspired, came over to check out all my new goodies from the Stamp Shak and to pick up her new goodies!  She brought over some of her new Magnolias so I stamped a few of those and this weekend I plan on playing!!  My hubby will be gone most of the weekend, so it will just be the kids and I. So hopefully next week I will have lots of cards to share. I also have to get prepared for a workshop that I am holding on Thurs for Close to my Heart.

I made a Mothers Day card for the Just Magnolia Blog hop. I wasn't really thrilled with the layout, but it came out ok.  The Magnolia is courtesy of my friend Lisette, thanks!  She is colored using Prisma Color Pencils and Copics.  The papers are from Close to My Hearts, Miracle Kit.  The picture isn't a great one, I may replace it later. It came out quite dark but I didn't have the natural light available!! ;-(

Here is the sketch from Just Magnolia

Copic Certified!!

It was a rainy, gloomy day here in South Floriday yesterday. What better way to spend it than with Colleen Schaan, Copics new Instructor. She was FABULOUS! Loved her...so full of energy and she knew her stuff!  At the end of the class she let us know that we were her FIRST certification class!!  Wow! You would have never known. It really shocked me, she really was great. 

So I am now Copic Certified, what does that mean? Well it pretty much means I know my copics, I may not know how to use them great yet, but if you want to know the history or what you can and can not do with the, I'm your girl!  I also can go into local stamp or scrapbook stores and teach others (Not certify others) but I can teach others on the world of Copics.  Pretty neat, huh. I did learn some nice pointers and had some "Ah Ha" moments. We got to play with the air brush, which I hadn't done yet. I really liked it, not sure how much I would use it, but it was a great tool. It would be great for backgrounds or used with templates.

So when I left the certification class I stopped at the Stamp Shak in ft lauderdale. I spent way to much, but she had Magnolias in!!  So hopefully I will get a chance this weekend to play and post some new pictures.  I do have 2 cards at home that need to be posted, I just haven't gotten a chance to take the pictures and do so. 

Until then..........

Strangest Cake Ever!!!!!!!!!

A couple of days ago I was on my favorite Blog - The Pioneer Woman.  Every so often she takes a random recipe off her Tasty Kitchen site (where ppl can post their recipes and you can search for darn near any kind of recipe you can think of).  Well this weeks recipes was different, and I really mean different. I have heard of people making cupcakes and putting bacon in them, I have heard of having bacon in cookies or frostings...I think that is strange....but this....well you be the judge.

Here are the ingredients.....now close your eyes if you don't want me spoil this!! lol

Did you take a double take???? You saw right TOMATO SOUP!!!! How can tomato soup be part of a cake recipe???  (actually it took 2 cans, I just didn't post both on the picture)  To me the other strange thing about this cake was there are no eggs, butter or hardly any Oil in it. I thought for sure it was going to be dry, but The Pioneer Woman assured me that it was moist and delicious.

Basically the recipe by - Tanya Hollis (she was the one that posted the recipe that the pioneer woman tested!)  is:

4Tb Shortening
2 cups Sugar
2 cans campbells tomato soup (10.75 oz)
2 ts. baking soda
3 cups flour
2 ts. cinnamon
2 ts. nutmeg
1/2 ts. ground cloves

Mix up the shortening and sugar until creamy. In a separate bowl mix the baking soda and tomato soup (it will get foamy from reacting with the baking soda and acid in the tomatoes) Mix that mixture into the sugar mixture. Then add the remaining ingredients in this order. Pour into a well sprayed bundt pan or tube pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 55 mins.  Cool

Bake it at 350 for about 55 mins, turn over onto pan and cool completely and you will have this....

Then I took that bad boy and did as the recipe and Ree said,  frosted it with Cream Cheese Frosting.  I didn't go by the recipe for this. I used:

1 - 8 oz reduced fat cream cheese, softened
1 lb. confectioners sugar
1/2 stick of butter, softened
1 ts of vanilla

Mix all of that until creamy and spread it on the cake.

Verdict??? A spice cake best describes this. You can not tell at all that there is tomato anything in this cake. It really does taste like spice cake. It was so easy to make, simple ingredients, not expensive and relatively low in fat.  It was VERY moist even without butter and oil!!! (sorry but 4 measily tablespoons of Shortening seems so small for how moist this was!!)

                                

I made this to take to work. I'm personally not a big spice cake fan. I LOVE anything pumpkin and pumpkin spices, but spice cakes are on my good list but not on my favorite list!  I do think this cake was good and I think I will get some unsuspecting people at work to try it. Of course I am going to be mean and not tell them what it is!!  Same goes when I make Mayonaise cake....everybody thinks it is the best cake they have ever had if they knew Mayo was in it, they probably would have never tried it! So it is best that I do not tell them what it is until after they have tried it!

Btw, forgive my photography. I'm using my small point-n-shoot and just haven't gotten the "food" taking skills down yet.

Rain or shine, I'm gunna love ya!!!!!!!!

I recently purchased the "Rain, Snow, Shine" set from The Greeting Farm .  I love The Greeting Farms stamps they are just so girly and cute. I did this next card for the Friday Sketchers Blog. I did sew it, but it is kinda of hard to see. Oh well, I tried!  The sentiment is from a set from My Favorite Things. I used  Copics to color. I think I am a little heavy handed on the Copics. I'm not sure how to stop this from occuring, but I have noticed it. I guess practice, practice!  Here she is:

And here is the sketch......

By the way don't you just love those papers. Without getting my lazy butt up and walking into my craft room, I think they are from Basic Grey. I took a little trip to Everything Scrapbook and  Stamps in Lake Worth, Fl and picked up those lovely papers last week. I think I should have bought more....I can many more cards being made with those in the future.  Did I mention they are double sided. I just LOVE doubled sided papers...makes it so much easier to match up.

Thanks for looking and I am going to go check out some other challenges that this could be part of too! ;-) 

Weekend

I had such a busy but great weekend.  I did get a chance to complete one card (yes that is all) but I didn't get a chance to post it. I should have that posted sometime today or tomorrow.  I also need to enter into a few challenges! 

So my niece from Ohio recently moved down. I got to spend a few days with her over the weekend. We went out, had a cook-out and just hung out. It was pleasant and enjoyable. She is 21 yrs old and is trying to make a new life for herself. I wish her the best of luck and hope that she enjoys Florida as much as we all do.

I heard that 7 kids recently got there pre-orders in!!! I hope so...maybe Simon says will fall in line with them because I have a pre-order out on my Magnolias with Simon Says!! I can't wait to get my hands on them! Sometimes I wish there was no such thing as "pre-orders" it's such a tease and I get sooooo antsy waiting for them!!

Springbreak!

Today the kids and I took a little trip to West Palm Beach and went to Lion Country Safari. None of us had ever been before I have to say I was quite pleased. It's kinda small, but they loved that you rode through the park and the animals were so close!  We had Rhinos and Zebras stop us to walk in front. They thought that was pretty cool!  Afterwards we walked around the park and then played in the splash pad. It was a nice 83 degrees today and absolutely gorgeous. Most important, I told the kids that I was doing something for them and aftewards they had to do a little something for me. Lion Country is VERY close to one of my favorite scrapbook and stamping stores. I asked them to be good and behave and let me tell you they were seriously angels. If you knew my daughter, you would understand what this meant!! She is  lovingly and fondly called "Chatterbox"!

Stampavie Card Challenge / Mojo Monday

Hello! The last few days have been so hectic I keep falling off and getting back on my "Diet" or should I say my change in the way I eat. I tell you what packing on these extra pounds has got to be the stupidest thing I have ever done in my life. I was made to bake!  Thats what I do best.  Maybe my next blog post will  be some of the things that I have baked. I especially love cupcakes....needless to say that is why this little stamp by Tina Wenke had to be mine. I mean come on - a cute little mouse and a cupcake. Does life get better? It's adorable and I had to find a placeor it in my home. 

I came upon the Stampavie website recently and saw they had a blog (Click here)..they periodically post card challenges. This particular challenge called for a Stampavie stamp, 5 flowers, 2 different ribbons, a punch, or die cutl, and pink or blue. Well, pink is no problem for me. I do alot in pink, it's my color. It makes me happy. So here is what I came up with.  It was colored using Copic markers. Sorry I didn't right down which ones, I know there was a bunch! Oh, I forgot, I got a two-fer out of this card. It also is part of this weeks Mojo Monday Sketch which also happens to be Contest week because it's the first week of the month. You can see the sketch and info here - Mojo Monday Sketch

While browsing this evening I came across a challenge on The Pink Elephant, the only prereq, it had to have something to do with nature. I figure mice, ladybugs and chicks are included in that so I uploaded to that one as well.!

Mojo Monday Challenge

Let the Fairy in you Fly!

Here is another stamp that I purchased from Kraftin' Kimmie stamps.  She is called "Bird Fairy". I feel in love with her fairy stamps. They are so precious. I used copics to color her in and added some stickles on her wings. Not sure if I would do that next time. I guess if my hole in the stickles hadn't been so large it would have came out better. It was clogged and I had to cut the hole large now it's to large for any detailed work. 

Here is "Bird Fairy" -

Christmas in April?

Some new stamps that I purchased recently arrived today so I decided to do the Friday Sketchers Challenge using Antoinette from Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps. I did a Christmas card with it with non traditional colors. Here is the sketch from the challenge -

And here is my card -

I used a mix of Copic Markers and Prisma Color pencils w/Gamsol  The paper is from my stash. I used liquid applique for the "Fur" on her ear muffs and around her dress.

 

In the below picture you can see the liquid applique a little bit better.

Joy the Baker

Ok remember when I mentioned that I love to bake and cook. Well one of the blogs that I review regularly put up a post today that just made my day. I think you will find it too cute and so true. It's about baking and boys....."How to impress a boy by baking! lol  You can find it here - Joy The Baker

This hits me particularly close to home because when I met my husband I lived about an hour or so away. So I commuted for the entire 2 months before we got married (Yes, 2 months after meeting we were married, and yes I am still totally in love with him). Needless to say, a few weeks (like 5) into our dating I was asked to move in.  This meant going to a new city finding a new job, etc. What he wanted for "rent" was a peanut butter pie. I was...ha! I can totally do that, I make a mean peanut butter pie. Thats all she wrote! Snag him with that peanut butter pie!  After 11 years of being married I still make him his peanut butter pie, just not as frequently (not good for the waistline!).  I hope you enjoy Joy the Bakers post as much as I did! Joy The Baker

Hello Friends!

This next stamped image is a Tilda made by Magnolia stamps.  I just order more maggies but one didn't come in.....I loved it too. I was quite bummed about it. So I will be on the hunt tomorrow for it.

I have so many cards and I want to start sending them to people "just because" so I thought I would make a friend card. The sentiment is from Close to My Heart , which I am a demonstrator for. The paper is just some paper I had in my stash. I colored Tilda with Gamsol and prisma colored pencils.

I think the face could have used a touch more shading, she is slightly pale!!

I also noticed that I have been using a set of 3 flowers in most of my cards. I don't know why, but it seems to work and looks nice. So I'm going with it. Plus I'm using up old prisma flowers that I have collected over the years! I dont like to make my cards to busy because you lose sight of the image. To me more isn't always better!!  Sometimes it is.....but this time not so much!!  What do you think?

Tracy

These are a few of my favorite things....

When I was little....what am I talking about....still to this day in fact, one of my favorite movies is "The Sound of Music".  I find myself humming the tunes quite frequently. My next card made me think of the movie because it comes from "My Favorite Things".  Seriously, who can say my favorite things and not start singing..."These are a few of my favorite things from the Sound of Music.

I just recently starting buying Copic Markers. I have about 74 so far. I see all these other ladies who have hundreds and my mouth starts drooling. I could also say the same about when I first started scrapbooking 11 years ago. My mother in law introduced me and I was SOOOO jealous....she had 2 small iris cards FULL of supplies. I was so envious. Well after 11 years I no longer need to envy her for I have a entire scrapbook room overflowing the supplies. My point is, I'm sure in the future I will have copics coming out of my ears. I already have a list started of colors that I want for my next order.

This MFT stamp "Rainy Day" was one of my first images colored using the copic markers. I think it turned out pretty good. Shading wasn't too bad. I have some learning to do....but all in all I was pretty happy with it.