Little Red Wagon Challenge # 22 - Spring

Happy Wednesday! Almost through another work week and time for another Little Red Wagon challenge!



Deanna picked the theme of spring this week so I turned to my Papertrey Egg Hunt paper/stamp set and whipped up this card. With papers this pretty, it is very easy to create a pretty card, I just added a bit of my own ribbon and lace.


As always we love to see what you create so be sure to link up your creation over at Little Red Wagon. And check out all the other creations too!

Popcorn is Good for You!

Here's an article from Real Age on why:

It's long been a favorite of midnight moviegoers, and research now shows that it could give your gastrointestinal (GI) tract the red-carpet treatment, too. It's popcorn.

An 18-year study suggests that eating a couple of servings of the stuff each week could do nice things for your colon, like reduce the risk of diverticulitis by 28 percent.

Popcorn Not a Problem?
For years, doctors have warned patients with diverticulitis to avoid popcorn, thinking that the undigestible bits could cause serious complications. This new study has many wondering if that thinking could be a little off track. But don’t make any changes to your diet without talking to your doctor first. For people who do not have diverticular disease, a couple of servings of popcorn a week could be just the ticket to avoiding the painful condition down the road. Nuts also seemed to lower diverticulitis risk in the study.

More Popcorn Pros
Some of popcorn's good GI deeds may come from the inflammation-fighting lutein in the kernels, as well as the magnesium content. And eating popcorn is a great way to bump up your fiber and whole-grain intake -- two more things your GI tract loves. So go ahead, pop away! Whip up some guilt-free Cheesy Popcorn with this recipe:

4 cup(s) hot air-popped popcorn
1/2 cup(s) freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Cayenne pepper, to taste

Toss all ingredients together, enjoy!

Cheerful....

....flowers on a grey,rainy day!

Pile It On Challenge # 13 - Animal-riffic!

Its time for another Pile It On challenge! This week we are being sponsored by 2 Cute Rubber Stamps. Thet gave the Design Team a choice of a few digi images so in the spirit of Easter I picked a cute bunny! And its free to anyone who downloads it from their blog.

I paired the bunny up with cute Egg Hunt paper from Papertrey to create this card:



And I tried my hand at using Prisma pencils to create the grass, the rest of the image is coloured in with Copic markers


It meets the following challenges:
Pile It On - Animals
2 Cute Rubber Stamps= - create something with their image
Crafty Ann - someone special will receive this card
Our Creative Corner - sketch
Paper Play - Easter
Stamp Simply - Easter
Stamping for the Weekend - Easter
Cuttlebug - Easter
Hand Full of Stamps - sweet

Bellarific Friday - Shabby Wildflowers

I'm back with another card I made this past Tuesday that was featured on the Stamping Bella blog today.

I'm calling it Shabby Wildflowers with the colour inspiration taken from the floral Melissa Frances paper used as an accent.



I stamped it in brown ink rather than black then coloured it up and used one of my new favourite things on it, Sweet Pea Flowersoft! If you look closely you can see the dimension the Flowersoft gives. I also added a bit of glitter on top on the Flowersoft which grabs the light a bit (in IRL).

I ink-distressed all papers and also stamped the sentiment in brown. Oh, and I added a bit of PTI twine as well! I'm really liking how it turned out.

And if you compare it to yesterday's card, you'll see its the same layout, same image but totally different colours with a totally different feel.

I really love how versatile stamps can be!

Papertrey Ink Bloghop - Buttons

Its time for another PTI bloghop and this month the theme is buttons! Its no secret that I love the PTI button bits stamp sets so I thought about making a card with one of the stamp sets but instead made this card:



I used some buttons from PTI's Holiday Mix of vintage buttons to accent the stamped image and scalloped trim. Simple but I like it.

Bundle of Joy

Tuesday nights seem to be my night for cardmaking lately, I made a few cards last night!

Following CPS sketch 159 I made this card for a woman at work who's having a baby.



Love those PTI Baby Button stamps and the cute Earth Love paper by Cosmo Cricket too!

Little Red Wagon #21 - Inspiration Photo

Happy Wednesday! Almost through another work week and time for another Little Red Wagon challenge!




Its my turn to set the challenge this week and I thought it would be fun to use a inspiration photo from which you can design your creation and so I picked this photo that I found on the Better Homes and Gardens site:



I think its fresh and feminine and I'd love to crawl into that bed!

For my card I picked up on the colours blue(although mine is darker)and white along with the floral print, texture of the bedspread and the lace edging to the pillows:



As always we love to see what you create so be sure to link up your creation over at Little Red Wagon.


And in the creation of this card I also incorporated the following challenges:
sketch 56 at Card Patterns, lace at Caardvarks, and
the spring theme at Our Creative Corner, and Secret Crafter.

And The Winner Is........

........of my 1000th post giveaway is number 4! That would be Regan who said:


"your blog rocks and
hello...
that card is fab!!"

Wanna see what she gets?



Hmmm, what's in there? Some spring inspired scrapping/stamping goodies, a hand-knit dishcloth by moi and of course some chocolate!

I have a feeling I will be in Regan's neighbourhood later this week to pickup some PTI stuff, so Regan, is it Ok for me to drop off your giveaway goodies then?

Girly You Rock

Well I almost did not post this card:




I followed CardPatterns sketch 55 in creating it but the night I made it I wasn't happy with the stripe I drew(using copics)on the twill. Today when I looked at it I decided I was happy with the twill's rustic feel against the floral paper and embossed swirls and so here it is!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Blue Stamping Bella

Good morning everyone!

Looks like we are in for another terrrific day, I'm just loving this weather.

I played along with the Bellarific challenge again this week and created this monochromatic card in blues:



I like the fresh, clean look of blue with white!

Have a great Friday, thanks for stopping by!

Little Red Wagon Challenge # 20 - Copics

Happy Wednesday! Its time for another Little Red Wagon challenge!



This week Regan challenged us to use our Copics......well, ok, if she insists! LOL

I decided to create a card using one of the new release Bella stamps. I am a floral kind of girl and love fushias!



This image gave my Copics a good workout but don't look too closely or you'll see my mistakes!

I also followed sketch 158 over at CPS. I had to play along there as this week's sponsor is Stamping Bella!

And I hope you'll play along with us at Little Red Wagon, we love to see what you create!





PS: I've extended the time to enter my 1000th post giveaway here until next Sunday!

I made Crepes!

So remember this post way back here? I did receive the crepe pan and have finally gotten around to using it!

The idea of making crepes has intimidated me for years. I was quite convinced that they were very hard to make.

Well, this weekend, I proved myself wrong! They were not hard at all and quite yummy!Although mine may not have been quite thin enough, next time I'll make them thinner. And the Berndes Crepe pan helped too, a nice non-stick pan, that heated quite evenly.

I decided to use a recipe I received at a cooking class awhile back, it worked perfectly:

3 eggs
1 cup flour
1 cup milk or water
1 tbsp. oil
1/2 tsp.salt

Combine all ingredients in blender until smooth. Allow to stand 30 minutes or overnight in fridge. To cook, heat non-stick pan over medium high heat. When hot, brush or spray pan lightly with oil. Stir batter and make sure consistency is cream-like. Pour just enough into pan so that batter covers the surface thinly when pan is tilted and rotated. Cook until the top is set and the sides begin to curl away from the pan.

Flip and cook until lightly browned. Makes 10 eight inch crepes.

And while I like these crepes, my Mom has a recipe that she has used for years that I think I like the taste of a bit better, its from the Better Home and Gardens Bread Cookbook published in 1963.

1/3 cup sifted flour
1 tbsp. sugar
dash of salt
1 egg
1 egg yolk
3/4 cup milk
1 tbsp. melted butter

Blend all ingredients in blender until smooth, refrigerate several hours until thick. Then cook as directed in the recipe above. This recipe make 10 6 inch crepes.

I used the crepes to make Chicken Pot Pie Crepes. They were really yummy and very pot pie-like. In fact I'd use this chicken mixture with the addition of potatoes to make pot pies.

I substituted corn for the peas the recipe called for.

Then I used a few smaller crepes to make a dessert crepe with quick carmelized bananas. Simply melt 2 tbsp. butter, stir in 2 tbsp. brown sugar until the sugar is dissolved, add two or three sliced bananas and heat through. It was quick,easy and so tasty!

If you haven't made crepes, I would encourage you to, they really are quite easy! And so good too!

Our Body-The Universe Within

Yesterday Steve, Brittany and I went to see the Our Body-The Universe Within exhibit at a local Museum.

How fortunate we are to have such a world class exhibit available within our own city. It is an absolutely fascinating look at the human body.

If you have the opportunity I would highly recommend seeing this exhibit.

Pile it On Challenge #11 - Pastel Colours

Happy Sunday everyone! Hope the rainy weather isn't getting you down!

This week our challenge at Pile It On is to use pastel colours. So I decided to break into my new 'Dear Lizzie' paper by American Crafts and create this fun card!



I also used a decorative pin by Jenni Bowlin, love them! And I think this card qualifies for the following challenges!

Pile It On :Pastels Only

Cute Card Thursday : Celebrations

Paper Cutz :-Anything Goes

Secret Crafter :Anything Goes

Friday sketchers: Sketch 93

I hope you'll play along at Pile It On this week too!

PS: There is still time to enter my 1000th post giveaway here!

Mini

Happy very wet Saturday! I'm just back from a bit of retail therapy and thought I'd share this cute little card(that is under 3 by 3 inches) that I made for the challenge at the Cards blog.



It wasn't selected as one of the featured cards but I still think its cute!

You Crack Me Up!

TGIF!!!

Thought I'd share a fun card I created using a cute Stamping Bella stamp I just couldn't resist!




Its featured on today's post over at Bloggabella and you should see the new release stamps, I love the floral ones!

And don't forget to comment on my post below to win my 1000th post giveaway.......it will contain chocolate for sure and maybe a stamp or two!

Little Red Wagon Challenge #19 - Fabric and my 1000th Post!

Its hump day and that means its time for another Little Red Wagon challenge!



This week Avril chose fabric! So I dug into my fabric scraps and decided to create something that is hot right now, a pennant banner to add to my card! I cut little triangles and glue dotted them down over a bit of floss.



I kept this one simple and sentiment free. I like to do that sometimes so that I can adapt the card to whatever occasion arises.

I also roughly followed sketch 54 at Card Patterns in the creation of this card.

As always we love to see you what you create so link up your creations over at Little Red Wagon. Check out what the rest of the girlfriends created too!

And I happened to notice that this is my 1000th post! Little did I know when I started this blog in 2006 where it would take me and the friends I would make! So to celebrate I'm going to put together a little giveaway. If you would like to win it, just leave a comment here and I'll randomly choose a winner on Sunday, March 16th.

Two Appetizer Recipes

Last weekend I tried a couple of new appetizer recipes both of which were well-liked, I will definitely make them again

The first doesn't photograph well but they are yummy and so easy:

Roast Beef Pinwheels

4 large, thin slices medium-rare roast beef
1/2 cup cream cheese
1-2 tablespoons prepared horseradish, or to taste

Whip the cream cheese with a fork until soft. Stir in the horseradish. Spread the cream cheese mixture evenly over the slices of roast beef.
Starting at a narrow end, roll each slice tightly and wrap them individually in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
To finish the Pinwheels, unwrap the rolls and slice into 1/2 slices. Arrange them on a serving platter. Makes 36 to 48 appetizers.

Second is also easy, flavourful and quite impressive:

Stilton Cheese and Dried Cherry Endive Boats



1/2 Cup crumbled Stilton cheese
1/4 Cup plain cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 Cup dried cherries, cut into slivers
2 Tablespoon unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 Teaspoon balsamic vinegar
3 Heads small Belgian endive
1/4 Cup toasted walnuts, roughly chooped
1/4 Cup fresh chervil or fresh Italian parsley leaves

Using a wooden spoon, cream first five ingredients together in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper.
Trim bottom off each endive and separate leaves. There should be 24 individual leaves, each about 3 inches long.
Spoon 1-2 teaspoons of cheese mixture into lower half of each endive. Chill for 10 minutes.
To serve, top with toasted walnuts and garnish with tiny sprigs of chervil or parsley.

I hope you enjoy!

A Topiary and a Bit of Green!

I scrapped at home with a friend on Friday night and created a couple of cards for a few challenges.

The first is a topiary card that uses the colours suggested at Copic Colour Challenges,follows sketch 5 at Our Creative Corner and is girly at suggested at Stamp Something.



The next is a St. Patrick's day card that uses a border punch as suggested at Stamp Simply and features green as suggested at Cute Card Thursdays.




Hope you're enjoying your Sunday, thanks for visiting!