A Teenager in the Family! whaaat?

Can't believe my beloved nephew is a teenager! Of course, I had to make a special card for this momentous occasion...

I didn't really have any electronic device or hockey type images but I thought this guy worked pretty well.

At the last minute, it was decided that a birthday cake was going to be needed because Life's Little Instructions says "everyone should have a cake on their birthday" so the famous rainbow cake was called into action once again. Here it is ready for transport, it is so tall I was worried it wouldn't make the drive but it was actually quite stable even without the skewers.

And the inside was beautiful..

Even with a large crowd of well-wishers at the party, we barely got though half the cake. A special cake for a very special boy.

Freshly Made Sketches

I love it when a new line of dog paper comes out. Usually the scale is too large for cards but as soon as I saw the bands of words and images from the new ADORNit, Hound Dog line, I knew it would work for a sketch I saw on Freshly Made Sketches. I particularly liked this sketch and I try to come up with quickly reproducible cards for my various dog functions and rescues (although I changed papers numerous times and still think it needs some background paper for the base instead of beige)

I can see using this sketch a lot. It's a little different but very versatile. Here's my take on it...

My photo is a little crooked but I was running out of time to get it photographed before dark.

From the Heart Stamps February Monthly Freebie

So far, I'm two for two with my monthly challenges, but its still early days. I decided to combine From The Heart Stamps Monthly Challenge with the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge. I guess you could say I was killing one bird with 2 stones (that's a reference to my favourite Birdbrain images in case you didn't get it)
This month's free image included several sentiments...

and here's the sketch I used....

Voila! The card...

I love my new zigzag circle dies and I wanted to put pearls along the bottom to match the pearls in the necklace. The background was screaming for a little cloud action but I was growing weary and didn't want to print and cut another image to mask for the background. I DID manage to put a sentiment on the inside of the card. I love the yellow and navy colour combo.

Happy Valentine's Day

I'm a little late but I was busy yesterday and I wanted to show off the final segment of the Senior's event. Apparently, they are quite fond of sugar cookies so I got my "team" together a couple days before the Event and we had so much fun decorating these cookies. Hopefully, there weren't any insulin problems after we left. These are basic sugar cookies with buttercream frosting and lots of sprinkles.

Date Filled Oat Cookies

I think that I have one or two more Valentine cards to post but who are we kidding? The star of the Senior's event that I ran yesterday were these Date Filled Oat Cookies. I have made them for years from my Mom's collection of recipes. They are from this ancient mini recipe book that was published, I believe in 1966.

Many of the seniors recalled baking these up when they had kitchens of their own or remembering their own mothers making them or making them for their spouses during many years of marriage. It was really rewarding to offer the Seniors a new activity to try. I had 16 attendees including 2 gents and a pair of newlyweds. The cards may not have turned out exactly as I planned but it was a really enjoyable afternoon and everyone enjoyed the activity AND the cookies. Here's the recipe if you would like to try making this classic yourself....

Date Filled Oat Cookies
1 cup shortening (part butter)
1 cup brown sugar packed
1/2 cup milk
2 cups Robin Hood oats (I think I used Quick oats, a little finer cut)
1 1/2 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Cream shortening, add sugar then milk, then oats.
Add dry ingredients to mixture. Stir thoroughly. Dough will be very soft.
Chill several hours or overnight.
Roll dough to 1/8 inch thick on lightly floured board. Cut with cookie cutters and bake at 350F 12 -15 minutes. Chill. (I put mine in the freezer until I was ready to use)

Date Filling
1/2 pound dates, pitted and chopped into small pieces (the original recipe called for 1/2 pound but I used 2 2/3 cups which is one pound and it turned out fine)
2/3 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
Add water and sugar to dates, Cook until thick, stirring well. Add lemon juice. Cool before using.

More Valentine Cards

Here are a couple more card samples that I made for my upcoming Senior's event....

This is from the Kraft paper pack that I picked up at Michael's. I wanted to highlight the patterned paper so I used a lot of it for the background. It's a really cute pack of paper and I love Kraft.

I had to have the heart doilies even though I already had a supply of round. Also a purchase from Michaels. The sparkly word was cut from patterned paper and I was able to use another embossing folder from my large stockpile that I hadn't used previously. Love the XO. Kept it simple with not too many layers for ease of assembly.

Valentine Cards

I volunteered to do a little social at a local Senior's home and thought that making some Valentine cards and eating sugar cookes and date oatmeal sandwich cookies would be the perfect event.

 I did a few prototypes and then I realized that maybe I would be dealing with amateurs so I scaled back a bit.
This card looks simple but there were quite a few steps... 3 pieces of embossing and I was cutting all the hearts with my Big Shot, so this card was abandoned. Too many pieces and too much prep.

Then at the suggestion of a friend, I decided to turn to the Silhouette for a simple card, that could be cut quickly and would be easy for my clientele to assemble.
How cute it this?

The XO is a chipboard sticker so there will be a variety to choose from. In all I came up with 4 card designs and with the help of my willing assembler, we put together 40 card packs, all prepped and ready to go. Check back for other samples. There is still time to whip up a few of these cards in time for the big day.

Loonies for Lindor- Save the Date!

 Another fabulous Scrapbooking Crop for Charity coming your way this June. I was able to secure the same venue that we used last year to host another all day Crop on Sat. June 13, 2015. The Event will run from 9-6 at Woodside Bible Fellowship Church in Elmira. Stay tuned for more details.

Also note, that I have added a follow by email to my blog page and now you can be notified whenever I make a new post (which should be often as my goal is 100 posts in 2015) by entering your email.