Ribbon Favorites

Here it is May already. Happy May Day!! Today I have a fun project to show you using Papertrey ribbon. In fact, the entire Papertrey Design Team has some clever ideas to show you using their favorite ribbon techniques too. Check the links at the end of the post for more creative ideas!Today, I will be using Papertrey's 1/4: wide White Silk ribbon and Copic Sketch markers for my project. Using two colors of markers, I simply drew lines down the center of my silk ribbon. I used BG13 for the darkest color and a lighter B00 color for a more muted, softer color.
The result is a beautiful, silky variegated color of ribbon.
Using some old lace and netting that I found at a thrift shop recently, I decided to make a pretty little circle doodad. I cut layers of circles and then found a Vintage Button for the center. Using a needle with a large eye, I threaded my silk ribbon.....
.....and tied up a pretty little bow to finish off my doodad.
Lovely, isn't it?
I added my doodad to my card front, the perfect finishing touch.
Front and center on a Vintage Labels stamped die on Kraft cardstock.
I also added some of the silky ribbon to a piece of Hawaiian Shores Saddle Stitched ribbon. Love the ruffly look.
And here's one more tip for you: Use Scor-Tape when adhering ribbon that does not wrap all the way around your card. It holds tight and seals off those cut edges.
Want more ideas of what to do with your ribbon collection? Check out these nifty blogs:

• Nichole Heady
• Heather Nichols
• Lisa Johnson
• Betsy Veldman
• Dawn McVey
• Ashley Newell

Coffee and a donut...

Hey everyone. Today is another busy day with a track meet for the girls. It's SOOOO windy in Kansas today. Blech.

I have a fun card to show you using a Hero Arts stamp set called Have a Donut and a few images from What's Perking. It's so fun and whimsical and perfect for paper piecing.
After stamping my images, I colored right onto the patterned paper with the Copic Sketch markers shown at the bottom of my post. I think Copics just make the images pop by adding a little extra color and shading. You can zoom in on the photo below and see that I added Glossy Accents to the coffee and the donut too.
Pretty ribbons finish off the card. Papers are a mix of Little Yellow Bicycle and The Girls Paperie.
And the fun continues on the inside of the card with the checklist that you can customize. So fun!Here's my Copic colors I used. I also added a warm grey under the coffee cup and donut for a shadow.
Hope you enjoy your day!!

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars

Edit: To find the other recipes shown in the bottom photo, please click on the RECIPE label at the end of the post. There are several pages of my recipe cards located there.

Happy Wednesday my friends! I have another yummo-dee-lish-ush recipe for you today. On the menu is Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars. My friends at Scrapbooks, Etc in Topeka served these one day in the shop and I immediately requested the recipe. They are super duper easy peasy to make. Bonus! Perfect, decadent bar cookies for all those upcoming graduation parties...or end of school teacher treats....or track meet snacks that make every kid wish you were his mother.......or butter up your husband so he takes you to a giant flea market this weekend kind of treats. I embellished my 4 x 6 recipe card with some of my favorite papers from October Afternoon and the Recipe Borders and Centers Set from JustRite. The stamp set is still on sale through April. And Cindy at StarLitStudio has some great October Afternoon papers. I'm not sure if the ones I used are available at her shop at this moment though. See the mini staple on my scalloped circle? It's from the Tiny Tim as I call it. The official name is the Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher...but I call it the Tiny Tim for short. The rick rack die I used is from Papertrey Ink. The scripty font I use on my recipe cards is CK Becky. Thanks for thinking I could write that small and that neat...but alas I cannot.
Now check out this last detail I want to share with you today. I used Copic Sketch markers to highlight all the text on my recipe card. It was looking a little bland but I had run out of space to add embellishments. Viola, my trusty Copics to the rescue. I simply used the pointy tip to highlight my lines, just like you would when studying for a test. I love the subtle color it adds to my recipe card. Way cool. Love. Love. I think that would be a fantastic idea for scrapbook journaling too, don't ya think?

Here's the recipe for you to copy/paste/print. If you can't find the Pillsbury cookie dough in a tube, you can substitute probably 2-3 cups of homemade cookie dough.

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars

8 oz. cream cheese

1/2 c. sugar

1 egg

1 tube chocolate chip cookie dough

Spread half of cookie dough in bottom of greased 8 X 8 pan. Soften cream cheese & mix together with egg & sugar til smooth.Pour over cookie dough. Crumble remaining cookie dough on top.Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes. Can double recipe & bake in a 9 X 13 pan. Can also use regular size muffin tins, with cupcake liners (Still doubled the recipe). Press half of cookie dough in bottom of cupcake liners. Fill 2/3 full with cream cheese mixture & crumble remaining cookie dough on top. From Scrapbooks, Etc.

Ahhh, another fun recipe card to add to my recipe book. I got the recipe book a long time ago so I don't know the source. I'm sure a google search can help you out though if you're interested.

Burst 0'Lemon Muffins

Hey, how about this late night posting? Lots to do so I'm burnin' the midnight oil. By special request, I'm posting the lemon muffins that were in this post. I had to make up a cute little recipe card...and it had to be yellow....and just full of cheery accents....because that's what lemon muffins are....cheery! And yummy.

I love making recipe cards because they're like tiny 4" x 6" scrapbook pages. There's a tiny area to add embellishments so it's quick....but oh so fun to find just the right little something that works. For my recipe card I used JustRite's Recipes Borders and Centers stamp set. And good for you, it's on sale this month along with all the 1-3/16" stamps. The rest of my recipe card uses paper from The Girls Paperie along with circle punches, Prima flowers and brads from Cindy's shop...StarLitStudio.

Here's the recipe for you to copy & paste or print. Recipe from Taste of Home 2000 Annual Recipes. Note: I added about two teaspoons of poppy seeds to my recipe, totally optional. And this recipe was a little dry, I had to a little bit of milk to moisten the dough mixture up a bit. It's still a sticky dough that you have to spoon into the muffin tins. I doubled my recipe. Oh, and it fill the tins more than 2/3 full...my muffins had big ol' muffin tops....which are Jordan's favorites. Every time we'd go to grab a muffin, the muffin tops were missing!! These are best eaten warm, on the first day. :) Oh, and use only fresh lemon juice from real lemons. That stuff in the bottle is gross.

Burst o’Lemon Muffins

1-3/4 cups flour

¾ cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

¾ teaspoon baking soda

1//4 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1 (8 oz) lemon or vanilla yogurt

1/3 cup butter melted

1-2 T grated lemon peel

1 T lemon juice

½ cup flaked coconut

Topping:

1/3 cup lemon juice, ¼ cup sugar, ¼ cup toasted coconut

Combine flour, sugar, b. powder, soda & salt. In another bowl, beat yogurt, egg, butter, lemon peel & juice til smooth; stir into dry ingredients til moistened. Add coconut. Fill greased muffin tins 2/3 full. Bake 400 for 18-22 min. In saucepan, cook lemon juice & sugar til sugar dissolves. Stir in coconut. Using toothpick, poke 6-8 holes in each muffin. Spoon topping over muffins. Makes 1 dozen.

Edit: No need to send me emails that I misspelled sugar on my recipe card. My spell checker didn't catch it and neither did my 40 year old eyes til I pasted the recipe into my blog post. :)

Edit #2: A viewer wrote "I hate coconut...so do you think they would still be good without it?" *gasssssppppp* Be careful how you talk about the coconut....it's a personal fave. But if you don't dig it....the muffins would be fine. How 'bout a few white chocolate chips on top just for pretties? Seriously. You don't like coconut?

New Kit...Robin's Nest

Hello friends, I hope you are having a nice, relaxing weekend. I have a fun new kit that will be going up in my Etsy shop shortly after this post. It's called Robin's Nest. I was inspired by the three nests we have attached to our house! I think last year's offspring came back and they all built a nest on the house. After they travel so far and actually remember where to come back to, I don't have the heart to tear down their nests. And Eric has strict orders to leave them alone. I love my little birdies.

Here are some goodies that I created with items from the Robin's Nest kit. For this ensemble, I packaged up some White Chocolate Popcorn in a cello bag and tucked it into a berry basket. I tied it up with some Robin's Nest Wrinkle Ribbon and added some embellishments from the kit onto the front of the berry basket.
Here's a card that goes along with my sweet little gift, using a Crafty Secret image. The images in each kit vary but all have a bird theme.
The card was made very simply by adhering the egg image to the front, tying on some Bird's Nest Wrinkle Ribbon and attaching a Tiny Tag along with a Aqua Mist Vintage Button. The *Hello Friend* is from Papertrey's Birds of a Feather stamp set. I just love that sentiment.
The inside of my card uses more images from Birds of a Feather. Love the nest with the little eggs nestled inside.
Here's something fun to try: I included a handmade circle doodad in the kit that is made some from very old quilt scraps. I added a punched circle from the 2008 Bitty Box Basics patterned paper collection and an old button. In the kit, you'll receive a skein of embroidery floss.
Thread up a big needle and try some hand stitching on the doodad like I've shown below. The quilted doodad looks a little puffy now because it has some batting between the layers. Fun stuff!! I tied the doodad, a piece of brown lace and the strip of polka dot fabric around the berry basket. Such a fun little gift.....and very easy to re-gift.
Kits will be in my Etsy shop very soon. I also have some leftover Wrinkle Ribbon that I'm selling as singles.....please note that some of the same colors are used in the Robin's Nest kit. Thanks for stopping by! And remember.....everyone loves a little gift now and then. Everyone loves homemade goodies. Why not package them up in something cute!? Here's a link for the White Chocolate Popcorn. Today I just used white almond bark instead of the candy discs. I added some toasted walnuts to this batch...heaven on earth. Enjoy!

Gift Basket Transformation

Hi everyone, Happy Weekend. Boy, do we love the weekends around here. Tonight we're going to a supper and live auction at a local church. I was asked to donate a gift basket so I thought you might like to see my goodies transform into a pretty gift basket.

From this:
To this:
My basket theme is Tea for Two: One for me, one for you. I had the daffodil cards in my stash so that started my basket idea. The rest of the items I had to shop for. I found a great little place to shop in town that has all kinds of homespun goodies.

The key to making a gift basket look great is to fill it FULL. Don't be skimpy....use a basket or container that fits your items, don't get it too big. For my basket, I added a bunch of wadded up paper below my sewing pattern tissue paper. This helps the items to just burst out of the basket.
I put two of everything into my wicker basket. Two homemade Lemon Poppyseed Muffins wrapped in cello bags and tied with my Wrinkle Ribbon.
Two pretty amber colored tea cups with saucers. A great deal at the thrift shop. Be sure to wash up vintage finds. I checked for nicks and cracks before purchasing too. I tucked in two lemon yellow candles and two seed packets with yellow flowers. I also found a whole stack of yellow cloth napkins. Those got tossed in the washer before they went into the basket. If you're going with a color theme, don't worry about being too matchy-matchy. Mix it up a bit.
These were the cards on had on hand. I tucked two into one of my Pretty Paper Pouches and tied with Wrinkle Ribbon and added a Tiny Tag....all items from my Etsy shop. There's two sets of these in the basket.
Then I snapped this photo showing ideas for how a place setting can be arranged at the tea party for two.
I added the photo to a piece of cardstock, listing all the items in the gift basket. People like to see what all is tucked inside.
And if you're putting in baked goods, please oh please add some homemade goodness. Not any store bought stuff. Hire a friend to bake up something special....head to a nice bakery....but don't go fake on me here, peeps.
I can't wait to see my pretty little basket of yellow goodness at the auction. That is.....after we chow down on some fried chicken, mashed potatoes and some yummy dessert. I love church food, don't you??

Hope you are having a great weekend!!!

Stitched with love.....

TGIF....thanks for all your Etsy orders, friends. I'll have more shop updates next week!

JustRite has some fun, new stamps coming out this month, available for pre-order right now. Today's card was made from the Applique Decorative Border & Center Set 2" Square. There are four centers and four borders with this set. I layered my images to create a pretty focal point for my sewing themed card. Copic Sketch markers made for easy work, using colors that match the Cosmo Cricket Material Girl patterned paper. I adhered a tied button to the center to complete my hand made look of the card.
I finished off my card with some loopy bows from some of my Wrinkle Ribbon and a big clear button and green/white baker's twine. Sentiment is from Papertrey.
A pretty little card perfect for a birthday...or any day. Hope you have a wonderful weekend, my friends.

Strawberry Patch Kit

Hey peeps. Guess what? I have a new kit going up in my Etsy shop today. It's one of my all time favorites. I've even saved one for myself so that hopefully I can get to scrapbooking this weekend. I thought this little kit would be great for some collage type pages of my new bicycle (Rose) and some other strawberry goodness I have photos of. There's a BIG auction I want to go to though if the weather clears up so we'll see. I love the photos of the kits all lined up. I've these piles of goodness on my tables for weeks now, just adding little items here and there.
And during Survivor and American Idol this week, I've whipped up these homespun morslets of goodness. Sweetness for sure. My mom found some old cutter quilts for me and I have been loving them! I think I should have been a pioneer woman.

And four bundles of my Wrinkle Ribbon are included: Little Red Wagon, Oatmeal, Fresh Pear and Rose Garden.

I added lots of snippets of vintage laces and seam binding....a strip of red polka dot fabric.....and 3 little stamped strawberry pennants with red/white baker's twine for an adorable banner to go across a scrapbook page or card. I can't wait to create something sweet!
The kits will be up in my shop shortly. Then I must go work on some design team projects today.....before the tornadoes start popping up in Kansas. You can reach me in the corner of the basement this afternoon.....complete with flashlight, blankets, water and 2 reds.

Fabulous flowers..

TGIF everyone! I have drawn Karen as our prize winnter today. I've sent you an email Karen!! Congratulations. Thanks to everyone else for playing along, I loved reading your comments.

Karen said...
I'd love to see tutorials with specific recommendations for groups of markers that work well together for blending.

Hey everyone, kind of a cloudy, misty day today...just waiting for the rains to settle in for the week. I'm putzing around the house today, ran a few errands.... a little of this, a little of that.

Today I have some pretty cards to show you using Papertrey's Year of Flowers: Violets stamp set.
This pretty version reminds of a variegated version that I saw online while checking out various Violet varieties. I colored them with my handy dandy Copic Sketch markers. I can remember how fun it was to color in a new color book with a new set of Crayons. Coloring with Copics is just as fun!!

The sentiment from my card is from Signature Greetings from Papertrey. I finished off my card with some paper from My Mind's Eye, Vintage Buttons tied with Rustic Cream Twine and some pretty ribbon from my stash (source unknown).

At this time, I'd like to extend a warm welcome to the Copic Certification Team. The wonderful and talented Jenn Balcer is on board now. Please visit Jenn's blog and give her a big warm hello!! To celebrate, Copic is giving away an empty, 24 piece Copic marker storage wallet, pictured below.

To be entered for the Copic prize, please leave a comment on THIS POST, giving me an idea of what sort of blog posts you'd like to see using Copic markers. I will leave the comments open until Friday, 8am Central Time. Anonymous entries will be tossed. Good luck!

JustRite April Release Blog Hop

JustRite has some new stamps being released this month. The Design Team is having a little blog hop to preview some of the images. You can check out all the stamps HERE.

Today I'm using By The Sea for my project. I thought this sail boat image would make a nice card for my brother who has been in the hospital this week.
I stamped the border and center image onto cardstock then colored the image with Copic markers. (Company came and I didn't get to snap a photo of my markers, I'll try to update soon with the marker colors). Copic has the most beautiful shades of blues and greens that make coloring water and sky images so fun. I cut my colored image out with a Spellbinder's Oval Nestabilities die template. All edges of my focal piece and base card were distressed with distress ink. In keeping with a masculine theme, I kept my card design simple. I added a few buttons and wrapped some twine around the card front. Patterned papers and background stamp are from Papertrey. Such a nice, serene image to work with.

Be sure to check out the following blogs for even more inspiration:

JustRite Inspiration Blog

Debbie Olson

Becca Feeken

Michele Kovack

Kazan Clark

Heidi Blankenship

Michelle Wooderson

Kellie Fortin

Sharon Harnist

Sankari Wegman

Kathy Jones

Angela Barkhouse

Please note the new pre-order policy for JustRite:

New JustRite Easy Pre-Ordering – JustRite bills pre-orders when it ships!

· If any of your items are not in stock we will create a backorder. We will only bill you for items as they ship.

· We will bill you your entire shipping charge on your first order and we will pay all the additional shipping charges on any backorders.

· If you would like your order held until it can ship complete, Please write “Ship Complete” in order Special Instructions.

· PayPal orders require immediate billing (This is a Pay Pal Business Policy, not a JustRite Policy).