From The Heart Sketch Challenge #27

I barely made it in under the wire. For some reason, I thought I had more time on this one and I forgot my Copics when I got together to craft this afternoon with a friend so I had to finish it in a bit of a rush.
Here's the sketch...

And here is the card that I made using it...

 

The image is a digital stamp from the same website.

From the Heart Stamps Monthly Challenge

It's amazing what you can get done when you are waiting for service people to show up. Instead of twiddling my thumbs, I decided to do some housework and complete my card for my monthly challenge at From the Heart (Delightful Inspiration) Stamps. Every month if  you play along you get the next month's image free. They also have really great card maps on a weekly basis. So here's the image from this month...

And here is the card that I used with that image...

Corrina's Chicken Burritos

I had this delicious chicken dish one day when I was invited over for dinner to my friend Corrina's house. I think she invented this dish and it was so good. Later when I was invited to a cottage for a few days, I thought this would be the perfect dish to take. You can make it ahead and freeze it and it cooks up beautifully. Well, I ran out of time and not only did Corrina give me the recipe but she made the dish for me and I just had to pick it up. What a nice friend! I have since made this dish a few times for myself and I thought I would pass it along to you.

You can use a Burrito kit and a Rotissiere chicken to save time.

Fry up your onions and peppers.

Add shredded chicken and other ingredients.

Going into the oven. Didn't get a finished photo as I took this away with me.
Here's the recipe. Give it a try or if you're lucky, maybe you can get a friend to make it for you.

Corrina's Chicken Burritos
Fry up one onion and two peppers (any colour). Buy one roaster chicken, remove the skin and shred the meat.
Add to veggie mixture along with seasoning packet, water that is called for in the recipe and 2 Tbsp sour cream. Remove from heat.
Roll mixture into tortilla shells. Top with salsa mix and cheddar cheese (shredded). Maybe 2 cups or more if you like it cheesie. You could try the Tex Mex cheese too. I think that would be tasty.
Bake at 350F until it is heated through and cheese is bubbly. About 1/2 hour.

Show Me Thursday

Sassy Cheryl has been extending her Show Me Thursday Challenge to two weeks and therefore we can show off what we have been up to a couple times. I don't know what's with all the attention to Christmas in July, I guess it means that we're halfway there, but it got me thinking about working on a couple cards. I love the look of Kraft cardstock with everything. I started with a basecard and envelope in Kraft and went from there. Love my Poinsettia die!

I also was able to use my Cricut again, I believe I used the Art Philosophy cartridge for the snowflake.  The temperature has dropped about 10 degrees Celsius overnight so maybe Christmas is closer then I think.

Heat Wave

Well, the heat wave has finally broken with a violent storm this past weekend.

This damage was one street over. I am fortunate that there was no major damage on my street. 

 

Previously, Lindor enjoyed "cooling her heels" in the pool. This seems to do the trick in keeping her comfortable and spending plenty of time in the air conditioning.

I spent plenty of time in the air conditioning too but wasn't terribly productive. I HAVE been working on some kits and calendar pages, nothing original but nice to get things going. SO many cute images to work with, I think I will be inspired to do a few more cards this week.

Peanut Butter Cup Crack Brownies

You've probably figured out by now that I'm a huge fan of chocolate and peanut butter. I found this recipe when I was "browsing" around the Internet and thought I would give it a try. It's starts with a brownie mix (or you can make your own) and then adds a delightful combination of chocolate, peanut butter, Rice Krispies, peanut butter cups. You get the idea.

I did find the middle layer wanted to pull apart a bit from the other layers. I think the solution to this would be to chop the peanuts up more finely and/or add a few more peanut butter cups. I also forgot to add the peanut butter to the last layer so I think that would help as well.

These are delicious squares!!!!

Peanut Butter Cup Crack Brownies
1 Brownie mix for a 9x9 pan
1/2 cup chopped, salted peanuts
12 peanut butter cups, chopped
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 Tbsp butter
1 1/4 cups creamy peanut butter
1 3/4 cups Rice Krispie cereal
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt

1. Bake brownies according to package directions in a 9 x 9 pan lined with foil.
2. During last 5 minutes of baking, remove from oven and sprinkle chopped nuts and peanut butter cups on top. Return to oven for 5 min.
3. As soon as you pull them out of the oven, spread the melty mixture to smooth it out.
4. Melt chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter on stovetop or in microwave. Stir in vanilla and cereal.
5. Pour over brownies and smooth.
6. Chill until chocolate is set and cut into squares.

GOING into the oven after the initial baking time.

Don't you wish you had one right now?

Christmas in July

Nice to have a little more free time. I was able to create a card for another challenge. This week's Challenge 187 at Kraftin' Kimmie is Christmas in July. SO here is my first Christmas card of the year. Of course, featuring an adorable Lulu rubber stamp by Cheryl Alger.
Hope you like it and can see her "sparkles"....

TWO hundred posts!

In honour of my 200th post on this little blog, I decided that it was time to post a photo of myself. I just realized not that long ago, that I have never done that. I think its funny when you have a mental picture in your mind of how old someone is or what they might look like. It's not the best photo but the pickin's were slim. HAPPY 200th! post to me and I hope to have lots more in the coming months; (posts not self portraits!)

Peanut Butter Frosting

I have made these delicious cupcakes before (they have a surprise inside;a full peanut butter cup on the bottom of a doctored white cupcake), But I have never made peanut butter frosting. And now I have! and now I will forever more. It's SCRUMPTIOUS!! Not too over the top, just a light buttercream with a hint of the PB.

And I put a mini cup on top so people would know what the flavour is ahead of time.

Peanut Butter Frosting
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
3 cups of icing sugar (you can vary the amount to get the consistency that you like)
1 tsp. vanilla
1-2 Tablespoons milk or cream

Cream butter and peanut butter. Slowly add icing sugar, then milk, alternating until its the right consistency. Don't forget to add the vanilla in there.

Yum! I'd better get these out of the house quick!
Check the blog to find the cupcake recipe if you want to try those also.

Graduation Card

Just getting back in the swing of things after a great road trip to Lexington, Nashville and Memphis.
Before I left I was able to make (and give away) this cute grad card featuring a Sassy Cheryl image. She has a cap on so I decided to put it in this week's Challenge # 174 "Hat's On"

Looks like my Copic shading with the C's could use a bit of work but I think she's pretty adorable. Almost as cute as the gorgeous girl who received the card. Here's my beautiful "god"daughter after earning her Master's in Environmental Studies from Queen's University. I made this card especially for her to celebrate her achievement. Congratulations and well done, Riley!