Delightful Inspiration - From the Heart

I participate in a monthly challenge over at Delightful Inspiration and if you play along every month, you get a free stamp. May's Stamp of the Month was the "For You" mouse. I tried a few different colour combos and settled on this one which I think turned out great!
I have yet to add a sentiment (never know where to put them on the front) but I'll come up with something cuz the little rodent looks so cute handing over his/her flower.

Stitch Away!

Stitch away was the challenge this week at Sassy Cheryl's Digi Challenge Blog. I think this is the first time I have ever stitched on a card. By the time, I figure out a background and colour the image, I'm usually ready to have the card completed. I used the image; You Are My Sunshine and it turned out as cute as can be. I stitched around the sun, glossied up his eyes and her shoes and my card was ready to go.

Here's a close-up of Mr. Sun....

And my new sentiment circles from Your Next Stamp, a local company in Southern Ontario. I just picked them up yesterday, you can never have too many circle sentiments.

It was also a departure for me to put my image on an angle, I usually line everything up so I feel like I'm trying some new things. I hope you like it.

Sympathy Card

Unfortunately, this is a card that we need to have a few of on hand and while perusing the Net looking for ideas, I realized most people like myself do not gravitate towards making this time of card. I guess we all like to work with cute stamps and colourful, charming paper.

I like the simple design of this card. I embossed the flower with mini dots and used a rub-on sentiment and a Memory Box flourish and flower. I thought it turned out to be very tasteful.

Maya is SIX!

Where did this cute little puppy go? Miss Maya Papaya is 6 years old today. My how time flies.

13 in 13 April Update

Well, it's getting a little later in the month each time I do my update. Soon, I'll be a month behind if I don't catch up. It's been a busy month. The nicer weather is here, seems like there is lots to do and see. So how did I do? The goals seem to cycle up and down, one picks up and another drops off. I haven't been reading at all, what happened there? But I'm still chipping away at the afghan, working on my challenges, taking Lindor to Rally Classes.

I managed to use the Cricut TWICE! Once for the Mother's Day gift tags for the caramel corn and for this card. I think I used Base Camp to cut out the numbers.

I don't know why I settled on 29, cuz I don't know anyone in that ballpark but I thought it would be a good age to be stuck on. The card is a departure for me from my usual image colouring. Love the plaids and the coordinating papers.

I went to a couple live performances. Does baseball count? I saw the Toronto Blue Jays (they won), haven't been there in years. It was a fun night. Also saw David Wilcox, a kinda famous, Canadian Blues musician. SO there you go!

I made a few new recipes but I didn't use a cookbook. I hope to start my Heritage album this summer. Still working on the WIFI and other goals.

That's the update!

Lace and Handmade Flowers

This week's challenge at Sassy Cheryl's was #166 Lace and Handmade Flowers. I barely got it done in time for the deadline. We finally have some nice weather so there is lots to do outside.

 It is the holiday Monday here in Ontario and I didn't have any lace so I had to make do with my very useful Martha Stewart corner punches and coordinating borders. I used white to try and  make it look more lacey so it didn't stand out quite so well as I had hoped but I was happy to get it done and I love this little girl with her bathing cap. Somehow, bathing caps never looked quite so cute when WE had to wear them.

Elvis and Ellie

The last of Lindor's first batch of puppies; the E litter, born Oct. 2010 have gone to their placements.

Lovely Ellie, pictured below is a companion to a young man in Cambridge.

She looks just like her Mom in black.

Elvis is continuing his training to become a Post Traumatic Stress Service Dog for a War Vet. In the video he is having his first lesson that will eventually lead to him being sent into the home to secure it for his master and let him know that it is safe. What a blessing a dog like this will be for some individual who needs a friend. Elvis is a smarty pants, just like his Mom. He caught on extremely quickly to the lesson. You gotta love the Labrador Retrievers!

This is my first attempt to link up a video so I hope I did it correctly and you enjoy seeing these amazing dogs at work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Thbd_fZcT6A&feature=player_embedded

Lion's Club Fundraising Crop

The Cambridge Lions Club is hosting a fund-raising crop to raise funds for the MRI machine at Cambridge Memorial Hospital. The crop will take place in Cambridge, Ontario on Sat. June 15th, 2013 from 9-5 at a cost of $40. Lunch and snacks are provided and there will be goodie bags for the participants.
Email chlions@hotmail.ca to register.

Sassy Cheryl Challenge #165 GIRLS RULE!

For this week's challenge at Sassy Cheryl, I used the digi stamp, Bowlegged. I coloured her up with my Copics and used some bright spring-like colours to counter the freezing cold temperatures that we've been having today.Hope you like her.

Happy Mother's Day

For Mother's Day, I made up some delicious baked caramel corn and packaged it up in clear, icing bags. I used my Cricut to cut out little heart tags (Art Philosophy) and used a cute Stampin' UP sentiment; Happy Mother's day. I think they looked really cute but the popcorn didn't need any embellishing. It is very addictive.

Caramel Corn
1 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 tsp salt
2 cups nuts (peanuts or cashews)
1/2 tsp baking soda
5 Quarts popped corn (I used one cup unpopped)
1 tsp vanilla






Melt butter in small saucepan. Stir in brown sugar and corn syrup and salt.
Boil on low heat for 5 min (stir almost continuously, burns easily)
Remove from heat and stir in baking soda and nuts.
Gradually pour over popcorn and nuts.
Mix well.
Turn into a large roasting pan.
Bake at 250F. Mix thoroughly every 15 minutes.
Remove from oven and cool completely.
Break apart and store in covered container.

Funfetti Sugar Cookies

I whipped up a quadruple batch of these delicious buttery, sugar cookies last night. They are meant to be soft baked and stay moist and delicious for up to a week. Every cookie turned out to be uniform and held up well when I packed them up in a cute plastic bag in stacks of 6. The original recipe called for room temperature eggs and unsalted butter  and yadda, yadda, yadda but I just made them like I make all my cookies and they turned out great.

Funfetti Sugar Cookies
1/2 cup butter, soft
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp, cream of tartar (do not leave this out)
1/2 cup sprinkles plus more to sprinkle on top before baking

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla. You can use mixer or mix by hand.
Sift together dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Dough will be thick. Once combined, fold in 1/2 cup sprinkles
Roll with your hands into balls using about one tablespoon of dough. Add a few more sprinkles on top.
I baked for 9 minutes at 350F. The cookies will appear undone and very soft. Let them cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes and they will firm up. 

Pillow Box Gift Card Holders

I've had some computer issues again, so I haven't been keeping up with my challenges and blog posts, plus it's golf season, don't you know? I was lucky enough to get together for a weekend with my like-minded crafting buddies and I made up a few of these as gift card holders. I used the Tim Holtz Pillow Box die and embossed the textured cardstock flowers to add some dimension. I loved playing around with the colour combos and was able to use up single sheets of patterned paper that I've been saving for a rainy day. A cute idea just in time for Mother's Day.