Blog Award

Hello crafters! Sorry I've been a little MIA. My 3yr old as of this week has been in summer camp (can ya hear my YEAH!! where you live?? LOL). My 9 yr old has reaaaaalllly been looking forward to one on one with me. And, I've been touching up paint etc on the house. My dh "thinks" he want to put our house up for sale to get a bigger one. He tells me "so, you might have to pack up your crafty stuff for a while and store it at my parent's." My thought...forget it!!! I ain't movin'!! LOL Although, it would mean I get my VERY OWN scrapbook room, rather than have the opposite end of our huge bedroom as my scrapbook area.

Ok, on to another surprise...a blog award..."The Irresistably Sweet Blog Award," given to me by the wonderful Leirad at:
I'm very honored to receive this! You must stop by her blog and check it out. She just found out she is on the DT for the new challenge blog Cricut 360.



Seven things about myself:

1. I didn't get married till I was 30. I traveled a lot when single for my job and never had time for dating. I have no regrets because I got to see so much of our wonderful country. And, what 26 yr old girl can say she actually played 9 holes of golf at Pebble Beach?
2. I am an avid couponer...not like a hoarder or the "extreme couponers" But, if I need the item and we use it a lot and I find it on sale, I will buy a few with a coupon at the grocery store. The money I save on my bill I transfer to the "fun money" account. That is used for vacations, bdays or Christmas.
3. I do my best creativity at night
4. My husband really wants to get a bigger house with 4 bdrms & an office or playroom. I'm the type that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I'm content with stuff, I don't mind change but I'm content and feel blessed with what we have. My DH needs change. It frustrates me sometimes.
   
5. We are in the middle of trying to toilet train our 3 yr old and he is very head strong and he knows it frustrates me if he does it one day and won't the next. And, yet he can go to his summer camp for 3 days this week and he does it all day for the teachers...go figure!!
6. I will be 45 in September and I'm already ready for menopause LOL
7. I'm a bad girl and love sweets tooooo much!
   

Now, I will like to pass this award on to the following 7 bloggers: there are so many awesome bloggers who are so creative that I wish I could have everyone's name below...

1. Terri at My Need To Craft
2. Emily at Cool Cricut Creations
3. Julietta at 4 Goofballs
4. Tina & Wendy at Two Chicks and a Cricut
5. Madison at Funky Cards
6. Deanne at Deanne's Creative Juice
7. Kristal at Getting Cricky

Ink it up Carzy Birthday Bash Giveaways

Go Visit Kassidy at Ink It Up Crazy for some birhtday giveaways. Today is Echo Park Paper

Challenge Card for Creative Cutter Room, Cricut Cardz #80, Whimsical Wednesday

This is a card for 2 challenges:

Creative Cutter Room-- God Bless America--Create a new project that includes a flag

Cricut Cardz Challenge #80--the symbol of our country's FREEDOM the American flag for our challenge #80 this week. You can use any Cricut cartridge for the flag for your new designed card.

Whimsical Wednesday Challenge #12--Let's Get Patriotic, Flag & use bling, buttons or brads



Details: 5x7 premade white card, all printed paper from KC & Co., solids from Core'dinations.

Airmail twine (isn't it cool!). Star punch for white stars, buttons from $1 bin at M's. Used glossy accents on the blue star on the flag. The star border that I cut was an EK Success American Girl punch I borrowed from my daughter. (from M's)

Carts: Car Decals Flag at 2.5"

Challenge Cards for-- Celebrate the Occasion #19 & My Sheri Crafts #62

This is a card for 2 challenges:

Celebrate the Occasion "Celebrating Summer" (must have a sun) by Sunday, June 26th.

My Sheri Crafts #62--Summer or Beach Theme














Details: 5x7 premade white card stock. Printed sky paper from paper studio/HL, solid card stocks are either DCWV or Core'dinations or Bazill. Cork (quickutz) for the sand was some I had for a while. Bo Bunny Paper for Palm Trees

Carts: LAB ( palmtree at 3, starfish at 1, crab at 1, chair at 2.25, umbrella at 2.5), Simply Charmed, (sun at 1.75) EDPD (towel at 1.1 & picnic basket 1.4)

Craft Junkie Too's T.G.I.F. Link Party

Here are a couple of things I'm linking up for the party

Oreo Cupcake Recipe:

I had a friend who made these for her little girl's birthday last week and they were YUMMO!!
This is her recipe. I have seen other recipes where the icing is cream cheese but I don't like cream cheese frosting.

The cupcakes:

24 Oreo halves, with cream filling attached 2¼ cups all-purpose flour 1 tsp. baking powder ½ tsp. salt 8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature 1 2/3 cup sugar 3 large egg whites, at room temperature 2 tsp. vanilla extract 1 cup milk 20 Oreo cookies, coarsely chopped Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line 2 cupcake pans with 24 paper liners. Place an Oreo halve in the bottom of each liner, cream side up. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt; stir together with a fork to blend and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar and beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Blend in the egg whites one at a time, beating well after each addition. Blend in the vanilla extract. With the mixer on low speed, beat in half of the dry ingredients just until incorporated. Add the milk and beat just until combined, then mix in the remaining dry ingredients. Gently fold in the chopped Oreos with a rubber spatula until evenly incorporated, being careful not to over-mix.

Evenly divide the batter between the prepared cupcake liners. Bake for 18-20 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pans 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the frosting:
1 stick salted butter-room temp
1 stick unsalted butter-room temp
1 cup shortening
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2 pds of powdered sugar
5 TBSP of cold milk
8 crushed oreos (no cream in the middle, just cookies)

Cream the butter & shortening in the bowl with mixer. Add vanilla & and sugar a little at a time. After all sugar is mixed in then add COLD milk, ONE tbsp at a time & mix well. Fold in the oreo cookie crumbs. Make sure cupcakes are cool and top with the frosting (either with frosting knife or pastry bag)and garnish with an oreo half.

Go check out Deanne's Creative Juice 500 Follower Giveaway!

Go check out my friend Deanne's awesome giveaway when she reaches 500 followers. If you aren't a follower, go check out her awesome blog!!

Here is what she is giving away... Cricut Best of 2006 and 2007

New Challenge Blog--Cricut 360

Yeah!! Another challenge blog. Go check them out because they are doing a giveaway!!

FYI about something I learned about blogger

I was having archiving issues on my blog. I had my settings saved to keep 5 days worth of posts on the front page. Well, it kept archiving to page 2 after 1 day of posts.
I found out why... When you click and drag, or use Microsoft Word to do your posts (copy and paste) or let's say that you want to post a picture of someone's blog candy in a post and you just right click on the picture and copy/paste into your new post...something bad happens. It will put a code into your html (Base64 encoded)that forces those posts you "copied and pasted" to to archive to page 2. So, if you have done this and you go to "Edit" your post and switch to html and look for where you would've copied and pasted something, it will say "Base 64" That is a no-no in HTML.

How do you remedy it you ask? You must "save" pics to your computer and then in your new post download it as you always would through blogger when you "add" pics".
I went back and corrected a few of my posts for some of the blog candy pics & posts and Bing, Bang Boom....my problem was solved.

Birthday card For Birthday Sundaes Challenge Blog #14

Hello Crafters! This is a birthday card I'm submitting for the Birthday Sundaes Challenge #14 --to create a shaped birthday card {no squares/rectangles allowed} and include birthday wording/sentiment on your card front.





Details: Frog is from CAC and at 5.25, Lily pad from CAC at 5. Flower from Kate's ABC's at 1"
Paper from various stashes--green dot for frog is KC & Co, lily pad paper (stripe) is BoBunny. All others is probably DCWV or Core'dinations.

Sentiment is from MPS--"Buggy Punnies" and Staz-On chocolate dye ink

How did I do it?: With my gypsy, I took the frog that should be the base (black) and duplicated and then welded at the top/eyes. Then the green dot was at 5.25. Then on layer 2 on my gypsy I took the layer 1 on the frog and the lily pad and welded the feet of the frog to the lily pad. That was cut in an avocado green (won't be visible anyway cause everything else gets glued on top. Then, created another lily pad and cut that in the green stripe (and glued on top)

Feel the Love Card Project for Madison at Funky Cards

If you haven't heard, the wonderful and thoughtful Madison at Funky Cards will be doing a special card project each month for someone who needs some special encouragement and love.
She calls it the

Our first project for June was to send cards to a special teacher in CA who is going through cancer/chemo/radiation. (for a 2nd time) Ms. Pentoney has just decided to stop radiation after 15 treatments because it's just too much. Read about it here
http://funkycards.blogspot.com/2011/06/update-from-ms-pentoney.html

Hope any of you can do some quick cards and send to Madison for this amazing woman!

Flair and Frills 1000 Follower Giveaway with $500 in candy

Brynn at Flair and Frills is giving away $500 in blog candy if and only if she reaches 1000 Followers by June 30th. Get a look at this huge load of goodies. So go check out her terrific blog
and follower her and sign up for some candy.

Card for 6 Challenges: CWC # 39, PKS #54, FCCB #65, ScrapaliciousUSA#8, My Craft Spot #13, Whimsical Wed. Color Challenge #11

Hopefully blogger will let me post this. This is a fun little card I did for 6 challenges:


**Peachy Keen Stamps Sketch Challenge 54 (ends 6/27) This sketch was the reason for my card. I just made it work for other challenges :)


**Cooking With Cricut #39 Watermelon Challenge
**Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Board #65 ( Summer Sun, include a sun on your project)
**Scrapalicious USA#8--Summer Cold Treats (create a cold treat on your project)
**My Craft Spot #13--Use some sweet treat on your card or project
**Whimsical Wednesday Color Challenge #11--use Yellow, Red and any other colors from a photo (I chose Green, yellow, red)



Details: 5x7 premade white card base, Paper used was WeRMemoryKeepers green dot paper from "Christmas Wrapping", cute watermelon paper (reversible to the pink gingham) from Pinkpaislee " Fruit Salad"
and red, coral, green and white Core'dinations. Ribbon from J's

PKS Princess face-- on the watermelon and Snow Cuties on the sun.
MPS sentiment--I used 2 different sentiments and just blocked off the words of what I didn't want.

Cart: Simply Charmed with watermelon & sun at 1.5".

Two Pink Peas Blog Candy

I just became a follower of a sweet little blog, Terri at Two Pink Peas.
She is doing some blog candy (to honor her Dad's Bday and F-Day)AND....she has a terrific blog. Go check her out!!

Link Up Love Party with K. Andrew/ Getting Cricky

Link up Love party is a way to get to know each other and find new blog inspiration.

You must visit and join 5 blogs before and after you! Then, name something you are grateful for, add your fav. project and link back to K Andrews blog-- Gettingcricky.com Then post the the link up code.

Here is one of my fav projects I will link up...a layout since I do so few of them.

And, I am so very greatful for my family. My kiddos (and DH) mean so much to me and I am so blessed to have 2 healthy kiddos. We always figured due to medical stuff my 9 yr old dd would be an only child but...God had other ideas (thankfully) and blessed us with our little guy when I was almost 41.

Made it Myself Monday's with You Had Me at Craft

Each Monday Alex, at You Had Me at Craft, will be having a "Linking Party." All you need to do is link something to her blog that you made yourself.

I entered some things.

Peachy Keen Stamps Patriotic Challenge Project & Simply Sunday with K. Andrew

Happy Monday Everyone!
I entered this card in Getting Cricky with K. Andrew's Simply Sunday Challenge AND also for Peachy Keen Stamps Patriotic Challenge (ends 6/23)
**Must be a new project & must include Peachy Keen Faces

Inside of Card

Details: Card is 5x7, printed paper is from H/L Paper Studio. Twine is sooo cool! It is red/white/blue that I got from someone on ebay.

Stamps: Peachy Keen Stamps Princess Faces and black dye ink

Insided of card paper is from KC & Co. and I used a quckutz "star" embossing folder in my cuttlebug. Stamped sentiment inside is alphabet lettering from Fiskars & black ink
Carts: Popsicle is from Simply charmed cut at 4" (cut 3x-- 1 ea. in red, blue, white)
Then used my MS Drippy Goo punch to make it look like a drippy popsicle.

Happy Father's Day and a Fruit Recipe

Hope everyone will have a fun and relaxing Father's Day with their favorite guy.
We will hang out, do breakfast in bed (remember the Breakfast casserole recipe I posted last week) and then my in-laws will come over to grill some steaks and corn on the cob and this yummy fruit salad I make with strawberries, blueberries, rasberries and blackberries and mint, ginger, vanilla and your favorite all fruit preserves. It's my FIL's favorite thing I make.

Here is a quick lowdown on the fruit salad I make. Measurements are approx because I tend to cook without recipes and by taste, smell. LOL

Summer fruits of your choice ( I do i package of fresh strawberries and slice, 1 small pack of fresh blueberries(leave whole), 1 small pack of fresh rasberries(leave whole) and 1 pack of blackberries(leave whole)

1 small jar of Smucker's blackberry preserves (or can use strawberry, I've even used peach)
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp ginger
1 tsp dried mint (or can finely mince some fresh) If ya like more then use it.
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
**I use honey in this too if I want it sweeter** maybe a tsp or so. And, I've even grated a little orange peel in this too for extra zest.**

Warm the spices, vinegar, preserves either in a microwave bowl or on top of stove just to disolve the preserves. DON'T boil.

Slice strawberries, mix in other fruit in a bowl. When the sauce mixture is cool, pour over fruit and gently toss with a big spoon. Chill and serve.

Scrapalicious USA #6 & My Creative Time #196 Card

I got the idea to do the sock monkey because the last few days my 3 yr old little guy has been carrying around a sock monkey my Mom made for him. It goes EVERYWHERE with us.
Sock monkeys have that goofy smile and Emma has the perfect sentiment stamps.
So, it all made sense to do this. LOL

Here is a last minute card I did for:
Emma's Throwback Thursday #196 (Use ANY "Cricut Lite" cartridge of YOUR choice & PLEASE incorporate some "BLING" somewhere on any project of your choice! Example, your project must have either, stickles, rhinestones, glossy accents, glitter)
AND
Scrapalicious USA #6 (June 15 is official Smile Power Day and therefore we would like to see a smiling face or smiley somewhere on your project. You can also use a sentiment that includes the word smile / smiling. )


Details:

Patterned paper from H/L The Paper Studio, Red Check is CM & all other is Bazzil.
Sock Monkey is from Lite B is for Boy.(2.5") I inked the cream rectangle in Distress Ink-Tea Dye.
Button from M's #1 bin. Twine from MS.
Stamped Sentiment is from Emma "Turn that Frown Upsdide Down"

For the "BLING" I used red MS glitter on the heart on the sock monkey and then used glossy accents. The eyes of the sock monkey I used Stickles--Black Soot.

Happy Birthday Card for 3 Challenges: Mojo 195, Bday 13 Sundaes & Paper Cutz 95

Hello Everyone! It is just so HOT in Oklahoma. With heat index, it is around 103/104. June is usually not this hot for us.
I did this card for 3 challenges:

Mojo Monday 195,


Birthday Sundaes:
Wet or Dry Embossed Birthday Card for Challenge #13
( word Birthday needs to be on the front)

Paper Cutz Challenge #95
Make a card, LO or craft project using any theme but using ONLY the colors pink, white and black.


Details:

5x7 card. Black paper with pink polka dots for mat and pink gingham is some from my stash. White & pink paper is core'dinations.

Carts Used: scalloped circle from lacy labels, circle from?? and cupcake/bon bon from sweet treats.
Stamp for "Happy Birthday" from MPS, used cuttlebug folder Once Upon A Princess Companion Set. Organza Ribbon is Offray. Pink Rhinestones and Pink Buttons from the $1 at M's.