Poinsettia Joy & Poinsettia Merry Christmas

First I would like to thank my new followers, and welcome to my blog.  I thought I would try edging the first card using a punch and the second using the Card Deco frame.   I messed up on the size of the paper to be punched, of course that was after I was done and noticed the punch did not line up correctly.

Materials:
Elizabeth Craft - 1226 Garden Notes Small Poinsettia
Find It Trading - Card Deco Frame Card Fantasy scallop A5
Impression Obsession Joy
Martha Stewart - Eyelet Lace Punch around the page
Poppy Stamps - Small Blooming Poinsettia, Pine Sprigs
Nuvo Crystal Drops- Red

Materials:
Card Deco - Frame Card Fantasy Scallop A5
Poppy Stamps Blooming Poinsettia, Small Blooming Poinsettia, Climbing Vine & Vintage Merry Christmas
Nuvo Crystal Drops- Red

Santa's Sleigh & Christmas Star Bread

Thank you all for stopping by and leaving such nice comments on my previous design.

Today's design features the jolly of elf himself just out for a practice run.

Materials:

Elizabeth Craft - 1567 Santa Claus & 1568 Santa's Sleigh

Impression Obsession - Fir Trees

Memory Box - Miniature sled, Tiny Candy Canes, Swirled Lollipops & Holly Vine

Papertry ink - In the Meadow die set

Sakura 3d Crystal Lacquer to the shoes and runner of sleigh.

Christmas Star Bread

I have made this twice now and tried two different recipes.  I first used one off the web 

(swedish-cinnamon-star-bread-like-a-cinnamon-bun/).  Then used Half of the  Amish bread recipe that I make into cinnamon bread.  Both work and really there is not much difference.

The key is dividing the dough in 4 equal pieces, shape into a ball  On a floured surface roll out dough into a 10" circle.  

Place the circle on a piece of parchment paper, brush with butter and sprinkle 1/3 cinnamon- sugar.

Roll out a second circle the same size as the first, and place it on top of the filling-covered circle.

Repeat the layering process with the butter cinnamon-sugar, dough circle leaving the top layer bare.

Place a 3" circle cookie cutter or glass on top.  Starting at top near edge of glass/circle cutter, cut the dough in 4 equal places.  Then cut those 4 in half and finally cut the next pieces in half.  Now you have 16 pieces of cut dough.

Using two hands, pick up two adjacent strips and twist them away from each other twice so that the top side is facing up again. Repeat with the remaining strips of dough.  You will end up with eight pairs of strips.

Pinch the pairs of strips together to create a star shape with eight points. Remover cookie cutter/glass.

I let the Amish bread dough rise for about 45 minutes.  The Swedish cinnamon recipe didn't need this step.

I baked the Amish bread on a lipped cookie sheet  20 to 25 minutes at 350 degrees, depends on your own oven.

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Autumn

Greetings and thank you all for stopping by and leaving such warm comments on my previous design.

On today's card I added some glitter to the center of each flower and coated the autumn lettering with Sakura 3D Crystal Lacquer.  I really like scalloped frame to set off the pumpkin.

Materials:
Card Deco - Frame Card Fantasy Scallop A5
Elizabeth Craft - 1598 Garden Notes French Pumpkin, 728 Bunch of Flowers, 730 Curvy Leaves & 1030 Bunch of Flowers 4
Impression Obsession - Tiny Flowers
Memory Box - Autumn Greetings
Nuvo Crystal Drops - Grape & Yellow
Nuvo Aqua Shimmer - Glitter gloss pen
Poppy Stamps  Leafy Spring
Sakura 3D Crystal Lacquer

Autumn Leaves Are Falling

Greetings and thank you all for the wonderful comments about my super fun vacation.

Today's design is using my favorite and long retired Lady Dancing die.  I read on the web about using a piece of acetate paper and your cloud dies and making a mask from it.  You just place your die at the top of the acetate and run it through the die cutting machine.  Take another die and rotate your acetate and die cut and so forth.  I have 4 different dies now on the template.  When you use the acetate is works great and the ink cleans off right away with just wiping it off.

I added the Art Glitter Gala Glitz - Orange to the trim of the dress and hat.

Materials:
Art Glitter Gala Glitz - Orange  ( glittery trim on the dress)
Memory Box - Lady Dancing, Gentlemen Leaping (hat only) & Marvelous Maple Leaves
Poppy Stamps - Puffy Clouds & Village Lamp Post
Taylored Expression - Cloud Border Die
Spellbinders - Ribbon Banners ^ 5 X 7 Matting Basics B

Vacation Trip To Germany, Austria, Italy & Solvenia

Burano, Italy canal Famous for lace making. The water taxi are easy to hop on and off to visit Murano, Burano and Venice.

Beautiful Hallstatt, Austria

It is better to visit first thing in the morning before is gets crowded.

Bone Chapel Hallstatt

I was so impressed with the history of why they created a bone chapel.

Ino Schaller paper mâché company in Germany.  This is a showroom of their products.

They are not really set up for visitors mostly wholesale customers.  But were nice enjoy to let me shop in their showroom.

Gorgeous Slovenia, wow what a charming country.  This is some of the formations inside the Postojna cave.

Gorgeous beaded necklace for sale in gift shop at Postojna Cave.

I wanted to share some of the fun places we visited while on vacation.

Halloween Wreath

Just got back from vacation and have come down with the flu.  I did get the flu shot already this year but I am guessing this is a different strain. 

Materials:
Impression Obsession - Wide Tree
Martha Stewart - Branch Punch
Memory Box - Scary Spiders, Ghost Trio & Spider Web Border
Poppy Stamps - Gourds & Pumpkins
Spellbinders - Grand Circles

Halloween Flying Witch Pop-Up

First so sorry about the picture, I just can't figure out how to take a good picture of a pop-up design.

I just purchased the Karen Burniston Pop- Up die set.  Super easy to use, she also has a nice you tube video to watch to see where to place the floating floor.  I like the fact that you could use the floating floor for any type of design.

Materials:
Karen Burniston - House & Fence Pop-Up
Impression Obsession - Happy Halloween & Flying Witch
Memory Box - Ghastly Ghosts, Swooping Bats, Perfect Pumpkins, Tiny Bubbles & Grim Cauldron
Spellbinders - Standard Circles Large

Hydrangea Stem

Hello, I hope everyone is fine and staying cool.  It has been ages since I used the Martha Stewart punches To bad they don't make them anymore.

I punched a lighter purple and used the bigger Hydrangea flower to create the shape, then punched out the darker purple and filled the flower in.  The centers are Nuvo Crystal yellow drops.
Materials:

Elizabeth Craft - Curvy Leaves
Martha Stewart - Punch around the page Eyelet Lace & Hydrangea Punch
Nuvo Crystal yellow drops

Walking In The Rain

Still hot here, so I thought it would be fun to create a simple silhouette card with rain showers.

Materials:
Impression Obsession - Girl With Easter Basket
Poppy Stamps - Stitched Umbrellas
Viva Glass Effect Gel

Pop-Up Birthday Design

This is the card laying flat.

Sorry about the picture but I couldn't figure out how to get a good photo.

Really what goes better than cake,  tea and flowers.

I have never made a pop-up design before and really it is so easy.  I cut the card stock 11" X 5"  then  folded the card stock in half, score the fold.   I actually had the card stock on my cutting mat and starting on the left side of paper scored at the 1" mark only score about 1" down. Then scored at the 1 1/2"   2 1/2", 3 1/2" 4" and 4 1/2".  You don't need to score the paper but I just wanted the cutting straight.  Then I cut down on each piece I scored 1" for small pop-ups,  1 1/2" for center.   When done it gives you three pop out pieces to work with.  Really you could make the pop up pieces any size and length.  I

Materials:
Elizabeth Craft - Curvy Leaves
Impression Obsession - Tea Set & Paper Cone
Martha Stewart - Balloon PUnch
Memory Box - Sentimental Happy Birthday & Fancy Blossoms
My Favorite Things - Stitched Rectangle Scallop Frame

Blowing Bubbles

Greetings everyone, it is super hot here so this card design made me think of summer days when I was a kid.  Just a simple silhouette design.

Materials:
Fiskars 1/4" & 1/8" punch
Fiskars 1/2" circle punch
Impression Obsession - Girl with Easter basket & Boy with Easter Basket
Poppy Stamps _ Garden Step Ladder
Spellbinders 5 X 7 Matting Basics B

My Lilies are in bloom and the yard smells so good.

Purple Pom Pom Dahlia

Tall Red Lily

Tall White Lily

Glittery Butterfly

Greetings and hope everyone if fine.  I have not used glitter in ages.  I used some double sided sticky paper for the glitter.

Materials:
Memory Box - Drifting Side Butterfly
Poppy Stamps - Bountiful Sunflower & Bountiful Sunflower Background
Elizabeth Craft - Transparent Double Sided Tap
Purple & Green Glitter

We took another day trip over to Mt Rainier

Gondola at Crystal Mountain Resort

Really fun ride up to the top of the hill.  We had lunch at the Summit House Restaurant which has a breathtaking view of Mt Rainier 

Picture of the glaciers on Mt Rainier

Elevation 14, 111'

Strolling in the garden

Hello and hope everyone is fine.  We took a day trip on Saturday just for something to do and drove over to eastern Washington.  Below are some of the highlights.

Materials:
Impression Obsession - Girl with Easter Basket, Tiny Flowers & Hollyhocks
Memory Box - Stitched Clouds
Taylored Expression - Arbor Accessories & Garden Arbor & Gate

Leavenworth, Washington

Leavenworth was a dying logging town that decided to re-invent themselves into the look of a Bavaria village.  If you are interested in reading about the history I have added the link.

Deception Falls, Washington

Wonderful little walking trails around the falls with picnic tables and bathrooms.

Lily Stem

Hope everyone is fine and enjoying the start of summer.

Materials:
My Favorite Things Die-namics Lily
Memory Box - Meridian Border& Dancing Tulips
Poppy Stamps - Climbing Vine

4th Of July fireworks (for those that live in the USA) , sorry about the picture but they are hard to photograph.

Red Bartlett Pear tree currently loaded with fruit until the deer and birds have their way with it.

Happy Birthday Balloon Delivery

Greetings,  today's design was really quick, I just punched some circles, attached them to string and die cut the truck for my masculine card.  Making masculine card designs are not easy for me, I always have to stop myself from adding flowers and such.


Materials:
EK Success - 1/2" circle punch
Impression Obsession - Classic Truck
Spellbinders Matting Basics 5 X 7
String
Assorted Glitter paper

Out For A Summer Stroll

Greetings and thank you for stopping by.  For today's design I used the Gentleman Leaping jacket and added a Martha Stewart Doily punch for the trim on the skirt.  I thought since the Lady was all dressed up her little dog should be also.

Materials:
Memory Box - Gentleman Leaping & Lady Dancing
Martha Stewart - Doily punch
Poppy Stamps - Frenchy & Stitched Umbrellas
Spellbinders Nestabilities - 5 X 7 Matting Basics B

Delivering Flowers & Double Rainbow

I thought I would share with you some fun pictures.  

On my card I used the Enamel Accents to color the girls hair, when it drys to has a wavy texture to it.  Even though her legs are really to short to reach the pedals,  I will just pretend she is climbing onto the bike.

Materials:

Elizabeth Craft - Curvy Leaves

Impression Obsession - Tiny Flowers

Memory Box - Vintage Bicycle

Poppy Stamps - Puffy Cloud Border & Large Garden Cart

Ranger Ink Enamel Accents

We had some wild weather the other day, thunder, lightening, hail and heavy rain.  Then the sun would come out and my husband took a fabulous picture of this pretty cool double rainbow.  

Double Rainbow

Here is a better picture of the double rainbow

Lilies and Peonies blooming

This gorgeous red Lily is about 5 feet tall.

Garden Vine

Greetings and thank you for stopping by.

Materials:
Elizabeth Craft - Curvy Leaves
Lawn Fawn - Stitched Rectangle Frame
Martha Stewart - Hydrangea punch
Nuvo Crystal Drops - White

I found a great bread recipe on Pinterest and have made regular bread and cinnamon bread using the recipe.  

  I have been taking the bread recipe and cutting it in half to only make one loaf of bread.  If you are making two loaves then you will have to increase the cinnamon sugar mixture.   For the filling I use three teaspoons of cinnamon and about 1/4 cup of white sugar and one teaspoon of flour.  After the bread has risen the first time I roll it out  22 x 5 inches brush the dough using a egg/water mixture.  Then sprinkle on the cinnamon/sugar/flour mixture, start at short end and roll it, sealing the ends and pinching the dough together.  Place it into the greased loaf pan and let rise until about 1" over the bread loaf pan.  

This is the best bread recipe I have ever used.

https://www.restlesschipotle.com/amish-white-bread/

Monochrome bird on a branch

Greetings, today's design was very easy, to get the bird to stand out I added a black die cut behind the white one.  I have been working in the yard.  Finally our weather has warmed up and my garden is starting to grow.  When we bought the property the garden boxes were already here.

Materials:
Dee's Distinctively - Chickadee
Memory Box - Perched Reed Bird, Nutty Acorn & Woodland Branch
Poppy Stamps - Pine Springs

Broccoli, sage, chives. mint and cauliflower

I used Solo Cups over my cucumber seeds because the birds are eating the seedlings.

Snap peas growing

Every year a Steller's Jay makes a nest under out deck

Rhinestone Birthday

Greetings I have not been making cards lately, ever since Spring arrived I have been busy in the yard.
I thought I would show you some of the plants that are blooming right now.

Too bad the picture does not show the fun rhinestones very well but it sure made a card with a lot of bling.

Happy Mother's Day to everyone and I hope your day is very special.

Materials:
Cuttlebug - Flower embossing folder
Elizabeth Craft - Curvy Leaves
Lawn Fawn - Large stitched rectangle frame
Memory Box - Sentimental Happy Birthday
My Favorite Things - Stitched Rectangle Scallop Frame
Poppy Stamps - Dianna Border
Orange Rhinestones

Blue Clematis 

Robin's Nest that fell out of the tree

Pink Dogwood Tree

Pink & Purple Rhododendrons