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One more for today...the current Fusion Card challenge.
The idea is you can use either the sketch or the picture to create a card, or you can combine any of the elements.
I chose the sketch to work with. I stippled some Nuvo Mousse over a stencil.
Then added the sentiment and a few tiny sequins.
Supplies used:
Playing along this afternoon with the most recent CAS Colours & Sketches challenge. Man, it feels good to play a little bit.
This is the sketch for the challenge,
and this is the card I made for it. I used some elements from a Simon Says Stamp card kit, including the paper and the sentiment die. That flower embellishment is old, old, OLD, but it work with the colors.
Supplies used:
We have another grandboy's birthday this week.
Our Isaac is turning 6 years old!
As always, when I go looking for some pictures to post, I'm amazed by the growth and change,
the cuddly sweetness,
and simply the passage of time at the speed of light.
This boy is exuberant and dramatic, active, boisterous and tender.
We love him as we love all our cute grandkids. Happy birthday to Isaac!!
Another Inspired By challenge card today. The prompt this week was...
....Inspired By Clusters, which I took very literally,
...and seasonally. The heart dies and frame die were all from Simon Says Stamp. The tag die is My Favorite Things, the sentiment is Birch Press, and the paper is Polkadoodly (?), which all in this month's Simon Says Stamp card kit.
This sweet grandboy turns 1 today!
And holy cow, that was a really fast year.
Despite the furrowed brow in this picture,
....he's generally a pretty happy camper, who likes crawling around, is just starting to take a few steps,
...and pretty much is best friends with the dogs.
We love this boy as we love all our grandbabies. Happy first birthday to John!
So around here this week...
Starting a new year of church reading, and sticking with it. This is a really important part of my morning and starts my day off in just the right way.
We all have our own personal foibles, right? You might remember that my husband is a stacker and truth be told, a bit of a hoarder, and it tends to drive me a little nuts. Me? I like a plan and have trouble when it changes suddenly. My husband doesn't mind things changing at the last minute, especially if he's the one doing the changing. I also don't like climbing into an unmade bed. It's just me. It's something that my mother insisted on when I was a child and has apparently stuck. My bedroom can look like a bomb went off in it and often does, but my bed will be made. So there's a little-known Catherine trivia fact.
I'm starting on the largest all-at-once wool fusing project I've ever done. The quilt blocks don't count even though the finished project will be larger than what I'm working on here, because I fuse them one at a time. As I finish one, I start another.
Sent to me from the kids and grandkids this week, I got this one from Evan of Edward and Quincy sitting in their barn. Oldest and youngest....kind of sweet.
From Eric, I got this one of the kids on a snow day they had last week. There was a little sliding in the yard.
These was also some jerky making going on, although I'm not sure exactly what protein was involved.
I got this video from John's mama. He was just starting to work on going down stairs when he was here a couple weeks ago. Looks like it didn't take him long to master the technique. His daddy used to start at the top of the stairs and push himself off and slide down as fast as he could backwards, on his belly. I used to be afraid he'd bounce his chin off a step and give himself a major rug burn.
From Jude's mama, this is apparently what's going on when they go grocery shopping. Little stinker won't stay facing the right way in the cart. She says it makes grocery shopping a little difficult.
And finally, some letter board wisdom from my sister for any of you cat people out there.
Today I'm playing along with the Perfectly CAS (Clean and Simple) blog's one layer card challenge.
The idea is to use only 1/3 of the space available on the card front and leave the rest as white, or empty space. Additionally, one layer means nothing physical added to the card in the way of more layers of card stock, or embellishments. It all has to live on that base layer.
This is what I came up with. I made a couple more onto which I stamped a "with sympathy" sentiment. I masked off all but the edge of the card, then ink blended with distress oxide inks. I stamped the wheat and sentiment with Versafine ink and that was it.
Supplies:
It felt really good to be able to play a little bit in the craft room this past week.
These January minis from the Primitive Gatherings subscription box have been done for a while. They're the only thing I was able to get done during the holidays. So fun to change these out every week on the little clipboard.
This past week I finished off these 2, 6" blocks from the same box. I will usually work from the smallest, easiest projects to the bigger projects when these boxes come. So I have a few more labor intensive things to do, but I'm happy that I've been able to stay current with the smaller ones.
I've started my 2020 Project Life pages. This is the title page.
Week 1 was a little short on pictures, and I'm not really sure why.
It worked, but I was glad the subsequent weeks had more to choose from.
This was the week my dryer broke and Collin's family arrived.
Loved finding this quote. It's exactly how I feel about winter.
Last week's pages.
Really good feelings when I look at these.
Hopefully, every once in a while I'm going to have time to post some card challenge offerings here. Today I'm posting a card for the CAS(E) This Sketch challenge #355.
This was the sketch we worked with.
And this is what I put together over the weekend. I used some My Mind's Eye patterned paper for the background and a Simon Says Stamp die to cut the leaves from Tim Holtz metallic paper. I echoed that on the envelope, embossing an Altenew stamp in rose gold.
I also borrowed a trick from my friend Julie. Last week she posted a card on which she clear embossed a pattern on a light background for a tone-on-tone effect. I did the same thing on my Pretty Pink Posh tag, embossing a Simon leaf background. Yep, I made a card....just for fun...and incorporated a challenge into it as well.
I guess it's really no surprise to anyone that I cook a lot. I also go through stretches when I try a bunch of new recipes. It's easier to do when I'm not cooking for just the two of us, so when kids come to visit I tend to stick a few of these new recipes in along with family favorites. Recently, there have been several "new tries" that will be appearing here over the next several weeks.
When Collin's family was here, I brought these to brunch at Evan's. I've been trying out baked donuts because I really don't want to do the whole deep-frying thing. I found the recipe here, and they turned out well enough that I brought home an empty plate.
Baked Apple Cider Donuts
Donuts:
Glaze:
In a large mixing bowl add flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt nutmeg, allspice and cinnamon. Mix until blended. Add in the apple cider, applesauce, eggs and vanilla. Beat for about 2 minutes until smooth.
Lightly grease a donut pan. Pour batter into a large Ziplock bag, seal the bag, and snip off the corner. Pipe the batter into the prepared pan, filling the wells about 1/2 to 3/4 full. Bake donuts at 325° for about 10 minutes. Cool slightly before removing from the pan.
To make the glaze, whisk together the apple cider, powdered sugar and allspice until completely smooth. In a separate bowl, mix the sugar and cinnamon. Dip each donut into the glaze (just the tops), then into the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Let dry on a cooling rack. You can see in the pictures that I dipped some of them into sprinkles and left some just glazed without any extra decoration. Basic recipe makes 12-15 donuts. I 1 1/2'd the recipe and ended up with 2 dozen.
If one of your grandboys happens to be awake a little early while you're baking these, he might want to try one out.
And then he might want you to take a picture of the toy he got from Wendy's on the way to your house for a visit.
