Cake Pop Tags

So I bought these heart cake pops from Williams Sonoma to give to my bff co-workers. Of course they couldn't go bare and screamed to be ramped up with ribbon and a heart tag. Using the QK doily die, some stamps and the Spellbinders heart die I made these tags. Two are adorned with flowers and two are adorned with K&Co expoxy hearts. I think they turned out pretty cute.

Candy Tag

I wanted to share with you a tag that I made to adorn some small tubes of candy. I made a few dozen of these and handed them out last year to my co-workers. Surprisingly a lot of the women were saving them to take home to their kids or more specifically their daughters to share because their daughters were into crafts. I thought that was very sweet of them and nice to know that kids are still involved in crafts which I think are a lot of fun and a great time as a parent to be involved with yours kids.

Used EK Success Broken Arrow punch, Spellbinders Open Scallop Circles, K&C Company epoxy heart, mini pearls (colored with copics), Cuttlebug embossing folder and stamp (sorry don't know the name), some ribbon and taffeta

Hello Kitty, anyone?

A little girl at heart I can't resist Hello Kitty and since I am lucky enough to have snatched up a cricut cart when they first came out and before everyone started selling them on ebay for $$$$ I was able to make these adorable cards, perfect for Valentines Day.

I really like the fact that this cart has a card option but the fault to that is it kind of shaves off part of the HK, so I actually mat a cut out on top of the card so you get the full image. And adorning them a bit gives a little 3-D pop to them.

And the baking continues...

So here we have a Cranberry-Orange bread where I added more of those macadamia nuts. I love the fresh orange taste. This recipe uses not only orange zest but also candied orange pieces (I purchased mine from King Arthur Flour). The macadamia nuts add a refreshing change from pecans and almonds.

I also love that you can still get fresh cranberries so if you didn't get any holiday baking done this year you still have some time to enjoy some of the seasonal goodies.

Recipe


4 cups (460 grams) sifted all-purpose flour

1 cup (200 grams) white granulated sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Zest of one orange or lemon (optional)

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) (56 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups (360 ml) milk

1 cup (120 grams) fresh cranberries, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup (90 grams) candied and chopped mixed peel

1/2 cup (60 grams) toasted almonds, coarsely chopped (can use walnuts, hazelnuts or pecans)

Cranberry Bread: Butter, or spray with a nonstick vegetable spray, a 9 x 5 x 3 inch (23 x 13 x 8 cm) loaf pan.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). (Note:  if you are using a dark colored pan reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees F (160 degrees C).)

In a large bowl whisk together the sifted flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and orange zest.  In a separate bowl whisk together the beaten egg, melted butter, vanilla extract and milk.  Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.  Mix in the fruit and nuts.  Pour into the prepared pan and bake for about 70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.  Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack.  Wrap in aluminum foil and store for a few days before serving.  It can be frozen.

Makes one - 9x5 inch loaf

Enjoy!

Christmas may be over, but...

Baking goes on or at least in our house. So I was lucky enough to have a friend who gave me a huge bag of macadamia nuts and knew I couldn't eat them all, so what do...make bark of course. White chocolate macadamia nut bark to be precise.

Making bark not only let me use up some nuts but I also was able to use my new toy that my son gave me for Christmas, a silicon mat.

This recipe is easy enough

2 cups semi sweet chocolate
2 cups white chocolate
1 cup toasted and coarsely chopped macadamia or almond nuts

Line a small 9 x 13 cookie sheet with enough parchment paper it hangs over 2 inches

Reserve 1/4 c of semi sweet chocolate and melt remaining chocolate in microwave for 2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds.

Spread melted chocolate in an even layer onto the parchment paper.

Reserve 1/4 cup of white chocolate and melt remaining chocolate (same method as semi sweet.)

Drizzle over semi sweet chocolate. Use a toothpick to swirl chocolates together to give a marbled effect.

Sprinkle with nuts and remaining chocolate, pressing toppings firmly into melted chocolate. Chill for 30 min then break or cut into bite sized pieces.

Candy Tins

Discovered these adorable heart tins from Papertrey Ink the other day so I knew I had to order them. They were quick and easy to alter. Just cut a strip of pp, added adhesive then adhered to the tin. Traced the lid onto some more pp, cut out the heart and adhered to the top. Then sanded all the edges and finished it off by adding some trim and embellies.

I used to use modge podge but since I discovered ATG I now use that for all my altering projects. And it even holds the ribbon to the tin suprisingly well. I plan on filling these with some Valentine M&M candies and giving to my bff's at work. I also bought some heart shaped cake pops from Williams Sonoma and plan on making a cute tag to add to with some ribbon so stay tuned for those.

Under the weather

Well one of those nasty flu bugs finally bit me and I haven't been able to do much other than cling to my Kleenex box while sitting firmly on the couch in front of the TV watching reruns. So with that I just wanted to at least have something new since it's been awhile and have a few projects I made last year.

The first is a heart frame I found at Michael's in their clearance section. Easy enough to spruce up and give to a loved one. The quote is from Winnie the Pooh.

The second is an altered gable box (purchased from Papertrey Ink) that got spruced up a bit.

Enjoy and I hope to have something new later this week, assuming I can get over this damned cold.

Thanks for stopping by.

Altered Canvas For Me

Haven't done one of these in awhile and after printing out a 5x7 of my youngest grandson which I didn't end up using for another project it immediately dawned on me to make a canvas with it. So here is my youngest grandbaby with some way older products along with some new ones. I am always estatic when I can use up my scraps and old stuff. I think it turned out pretty darn cute and definitely keeping this one for me.

Time for some V-Day cards

Here are just a few cards to honor the big romantic day.

Heart Album

Ok now that you've seen an album from the past, how about a current album? I used a Rusty Pickle heart shaped album that I bought when they went out of business during an expo. I couldn't resist and put it in my stash only to recently rediscover it. I did reuse a lot of the photos of my oldest grandson from the previous album but adding in the two newest additions as well. I am so disappointed I didn't have more photos of my youngest grandbaby but being he is only 4 months I guess I shouldn't be too upset.

I must say this went together fairly quickly by just adding Echo Park papers, some eye candy, lots of frills and heart stickers. I plan to give this to my daughter, after I take it to work for just a few weeks..LOL after all I should enjoy it for just a little while, shouldn't I?

Another Valentine Day Project

I am in the midst of making a new album for my daughter, her last one sadly was lost during a move. I love doing acrylic albums but I realized I bought a heart shaped chipboard album at an expo when Rusty Pickle was going out of business and having just bought some new Echo Park valentine paper I kind of realized I should use it up. So I thought I would show you the last one I did which I did end up teaching as a class at my local lss (I decided it's a lot of work to put together kits and instructions for classes).

I still want to do something in acrylic so I guess I need to go shopping so I can have one on hand when the time strikes, and I say shopping like its a bad thing.

Oh and all the photos are of my oldest grandson, he is 12 (soon to be 13 in what else but Feb) so this album was done way before my newest set of grandbabies.

How about a little Valentine's Day project

Happy New Year! Hope everyone enjoyed their holidays.

Can you believe there are only like 6 weeks to Valentine's Day. My month of February is full up with birthdays plus the heart day, it gets crazy busy around here, but I wanted to share a project I made a few years back that was picked up for publication. I still hang it every year in my entry way. It is simple enough to make and definitely will use up all those ribbon scraps you might have laying around.

Basically you just need to get some heavy gauge wire  (if it's too thin it just bends every which way, heavy tends to hold its shape better) and shape it into a heart. I used a leftover candy box (did I tell you I save everything) but you could use chipboard or do it free hand (print or cut out a heart and shape wire to fit) and just over lap the ends and twist together, then just tie on some ribbon and cut to size, the more you add the better it looks. Tie on some long Ric Rack to hang it and if you wanted, add in a little frame in the center. I just altered a metal frame from Tim Holtz (but you could even just use an office tag) with some alcohol ink and matted on a chipboard heart. Simple enough