3 year old birthday card

I made this sweet little card for my nephew PJ, who will be three next month. Where the heck does time go?! It seems like just yesterday I was hogging all his baby cuddles and listening to him grunt and try to figure out the world.

Everything except for the 3 is from Create a critter, the 3 is from Plantin Schoolbook. Since there was so much going on with the train I had a hard time coming up with a background, so I settled for plain blue stripes. The bear and the 3 are pop-dotted from the page.

Since PJ is only 3, I guess this card is more for his mama (my sister), who also just got her first cricut a few days before I did! They live 500 miles away but someday maybe we'll be able to have a crafty get together! A girl can dream.

I've discovered so many new wonderful blogs this week that I haven't taken the time to post on my own. I just love the cricut community I've stumbled upon, everyone is so creative and supportive. It's just so much fun.

Hope you all are having a wonderful week!

Create a Critter!

Yesterday the mailman arrived bearing gifts:


Just in time for World Card Making Day! I'm so excited about this cartridge. To say I love it would be an understatement, I'm obsessed! It really does have a cutesy critter for every holiday and event. Love!

I made the two purple and pink cards yesterday, and the turkey today. If my Cricut mat hadn't lost all of it's sticky I'd still be holed up in my room today, but alas, I'm waiting for it to dry now (and crossing my fingers it gets sticky again!)

This is the last cartridge I'll be buying for awhile, at least until 2011. I have four now and I don't think I'll ever get to use all of the images I have!

Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend! I tried to send this post using my phone, but it failed. Pretty sure someone in my area code with a phone number that spells out "BLOGGER" is going to be very annoyed with me :)

Two Tier Cake

This is the first thing I get to cross off of my 25 before 25 list! and, I can safely say that I am not good at this, and have no desire to attempt it again, and this is good to know!

The top smaller cake is lemon cake, using this recipe. (just the cake, not the ganache) I put a layer of plain chocolate ganache in the middle and on the top of the cake and frosted it with my favorite chocolate mousse frosting (which is a BAD idea for a cake you're going to cover with fondant! The frosting slipped out the bottom of the fondant and made it lumpy and wrinkly).

The bottom layer is my black magic cake, also with a layer of ganache in the middle and on top and with the chocolate mousse frosting. It was divine! It was moist and rich and so delicious. I was happy with that.

I also didn't flatten the top of my bottom tier, so when I stacked the smaller tier on top there was a big fat gap between the two cakes! That's why my pink "ribbon" is folded around the middle of the cake.

So my first (and most likely ONLY) two tier cake was a little lumpy and lopsided, but it was tasty and a good experience. One I will NOT be attempting again!


Chocolate Ganache (adapted from several recipes)
1 c. heavy cream
12 oz bag semi sweet chocolate chips
2 tbs unsalted butter

Bring cream and butter to a boil, remove from heat, pour in chocolate chips and let sit for 5 minutes. Stir until smooth and cool to room temperature. So easy!

Z fold Halloween Card

a few nights ago I was trying to figure out how to make a z-fold card. I cut out my cardstock, folded it, and then got distracted by something shiny.
This morning I saw that the Cricut Cardz Challenge was to make a Halloween card in a Zfold shape, so there was motivation to finish my card.

I don't have any Halloween papers, but I did just buy the pumpkin carving cartridge, so I decided to use that, and green and purple for my colors. It's a little plain, but I think it's pretty cute and I love the non traditional Halloween colors!
Web and Trick or Treat are from Pumpkin Carvings Cartridge
Spider is from Potpourri Basket Cartridge
Ribbon is from Michaels 2 for $1 bin
Striped paper is from DCWV Summer Dream Stack (which is on major sale right now at JoAnn's! 180 sheets of cuteness for $7.97)
Purple glitter glue G company from JoAnns dollar spot

Bridal shower Card

I made this little card for D, whose shower was Saturday. I also made the cake, but realized too late that I forgot to take a picture of it! I'm waiting on the hostess-with-the-mostest, my friend Kimberly, to send me a picture she took at the party.

Anyways, I originally made this card larger, but didn't have an envelope for it, so I whipped up this one, in a A2 size, in just a few minutes using the same design. I love the veil! It's cut from a heart printed vellum paper that I've had forever and had never found a good use for.

I learned at the shower that the bride to be hates the color pink. Oops!

My Pink Stamper Challenge

Today My Pink Stamper issued a challenge: Make something with a bird in it.

Since I had no cartridge with a bird in it, I had to improvise. This little birdie is made from a pear! I cut off the leaves of the pear to make the wings, beak and feet. You can find this pear on the Potpourri basket cartridge.

What do you think, not bad, right? :)

Bird paper-Recollections "Garage Sale" line from Michaels-bird cut at 4"
Bird shadow-random cardstock cut at 4 and 1/4"
Leaves & shadow-Random cardstock cut at 2 and 3/4"
Sparkles for wings-dollar bin glitter glue from JoAnn's (Love this stuff!)
"Chirp" rub-on- miniMarks via Ross (10 packages for $3!!)

Go. Make friends!

If you haven't discovered Erin Lee Creative yet, go! She's a (super cute) crafter who makes mostly cards using her Cricut and Peachy Keen and Pink Stamper stamps. I'd never heard of either of those brands before, but I follow both of their blogs now too (and watch mypinkstamper on youtube!)

And when Erin hits 400 followers (she only needs a few more) she's giving away a set of Peachy Keen stamps. So go follow, because I want some of those stamps!

Michaels Make Your Own Sale Coupon!

I came across this coupon yesterday and had to share:

50% off coupon

it's a printable 50% off any regular priced item at Michaels, good through this Saturday. My Michaels is moving (yay!!), but that means that their selection is really picked over and sparse right now (Boo!).
EDIT: You can use this at JoAnn's too, if you have one.
I ended up getting some Wilton gel food colors (regularly 14.99- I paid 7.50 for 12 colors), four stamps ($1/ea. The new ones are so cute!), a versamark stamp ($7.99) and 10 very cute 12X12 scrapbook papers (5/$1!).
I think Martha Stewart knew about the sale, because her entire line was 20% off, so the coupon doesn't work for them. Too bad, because what I really wanted was this:
Martha Stewart Essential Colors Glitter Set

I just think the colors are gorgeous and would make for fun card accents. Oh well, some day, my sparkly pretties. Some day you will be mine.

Have fun with your coupon!

Tiding myself over

I've officially decided to join Team Cricut. I should have my new little friend by the end of the month! Until then, I've been playing with some of the old craft stuff my HSN loving ex-boss gave me. I found this tool called a Coluzzle, it's like an X-acto knife except the blade pivots and is very tiny. It's used with a hard plastic stencil, so the blade just glides along the cuts.
I used it to make the circles on this quick card:

And here is the Coluzzle:


It's pretty cool I guess. Just not nearly as cool as a Cricut!

Mocha Cupcakes

To me, there's really no better pairing than coffee and chocolate. Chocolate and peanut butter makes a close second, but chocolate and coffee is really where my heart is. A few weeks ago we had some leftover coffee after breakfast and I decided that a mocha cupcake would be the perfect use for it. Of course, I couldn't find a recipe that only wanted coffee, so I ended up going and buying instant coffee granules as well.
I found a recipe (and I can't remember where. Bad blogger! Bad! But I know it was not from any of the blogs I'm linked to because I would remember that.) and in the end, I didn't love it. It didn't give the vavavoom that I was looking for, and I think a store bought chocolate cake mix would have been better.

The frosting recipe was a keeper, though, and I'll happily share that. I decided to make these mini cupcakes since my mini cupcake pan hasn't seen any love since last Fall's pumpkin cupcakes, so I cut the recipe I found (from C&H sugar) in half, and then I altered it to make it more coffee flavored.

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp. instant coffee granules
• 1.5 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/6 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 teas vanilla
• 4 tbsp. brewed coffee (room temp)

Mix together first 5 ingredients, then add the brewed coffee one tbsp at a time until you get the consistency you want. Made enough to frost 30 mini cupcakes (with some left over!)

Seasoned Breadsticks

Ugly little suckers, I know, but so tasty!

If you ever see the little round container of "bread dipping spices" that has four flavors in one container, or the Johnny's Garlic Spread, buy it right away. I have used them countless times in the kitchen since getting them both a few months ago. My pizzas, bread sticks and even my toast have never been more delicious. Alas, my bread dipping spices are getting low, and I can't find them in my area *sob!*

Anyways, I made these simple and super tasty bread sticks one night when I was having a horrible carb craving.
I used my favorite pizza dough recipes, but added in 1 tbs of bread dipping spices. Then I coated them with melted butter mixed with Johnny's Garlic Spread before baking them. I've always been a bread stick fiend and these just hit the spot!

25 before 25!

I got this idea from another blog who was baking 25 things while she was 25. Well, I still have 11 months to go before I'm 25, so I thought it would be neat to have 25 things to make before I'm 25. These have to be things I've never made before, so coming up with 25 was hard, so this list is a little random. Bear with me! This will get me and the hub to branch out and try things we haven't tried before, too!

1. Cheesecake-Done!
2. Cream Puffs
3. Cake with multiple tiers-Done!
4. Peanut Brittle
5. Soft Pretzels
6. Pierogis
7. Artichoke Dip
8. Buffalo Chicken Dip
9. Hummus
10. Blackberry Jam
11. Pickles
12. Quinoa
13. Mahi Mahi-done!
14. Pear tart
15. French Onion Soup
16. Mochi
17. Falafel
18. Polenta-done!
19. Italian Wedding Soup
20. Baked Potato Soup
21. Banana Cream Pie
22. Beer Braised Beef with Onions
23. Bronzed Sea Bass with Lemon Shallot Butter
24. Taffy
25. My own birthday cake

I've linked recipes to a few of these things, and I'll come back and link more as I find the recipes I want to try (if you have a suggestion please let me know!). I'll also attach my blog posts to this as I (hopefully!) cross things off my list.
Wish me luck ;)

Spinach Pie

Really, I think it's more of a Calzone, but this is something my Mom made as I was growing up and she called it Spinach Pie...so it shall be named!

I start with my favorite Pizza dough recipe, but this time I add in 2tbs of Tuscan Original Bread Dipping spices. They make everything better.

Pizza dough
3 cups flour
2 and 1/4 teas. yeast (or one package)
2 tbs veggie oil
1 teas salt
1 teas sugar
1 cup warm water

After the dough rises I pile it high with fresh spinach, chunks of mozzarella (you want chunks, not shredded cheese. Trust me on this one.) sliced mushrooms, fresh garlic and a dash of salt. Then I pull one half of the pizza dough over the other half.
If it can fit, I think stuff even more spinach into the pocket that I've just created until it's packed full. Then I roll the edges over and cut a few slashes on top to let steam release.

This is one of the easiest, tastiest comfort foods for me, I love it so.

Birthday...cake!

I am so so very proud of this cake! It was my first time using fondant to cover cake and I had no idea what the heck to do with the corners (so I made a weird little fold) but I loved it so. And more importantly, my mom loved it.
And I took way too many photos of it, but that's okay because I want to remember my first attempt at fondant for ever and ever :)Also, I cut tons of fondant cutters, a cake decorating book, and a gift card that I used to get my own set of tips for my birthday...so I'm going to need to find more reasons to make cake! It's too much fun.

Good things are happening

in my kitchen right now! Tomorrow is my mama's birthday and I'm making her cake, lemon with homemade orange curd filling, buttercream frosting and fondant daisies. I'm really excited about it and can't wait to see how it turns out!
This was my second time making a curd (although I made lemon curd last time) and I was pleased that it was SO much easier this time! I used this recipe from Marthastewart.com and I love it. Seriously, can Martha do anything wrong? (aside from the interrupting of guests on her show, that is). I just substituted oranges for the lemons in the recipe as I thought it would contrast better with the lemon cake.

And then, Monday is my birthday. Mid twenties now. I feel....old, even though I know in the grand scheme of things, I'm still really young. oh well.

I leave you with a picture of the last cake I made for my mom's birthday in 2008 (8-8-8), so I made it in the shape of an 8...but everyone wondered why I made my mom a boob cake. I have come so far!