I'm going to mat and frame some of these.

Covered Bridge Scene from Impression Obsession and the woodgrain embossing folder is from Tim Holtz.

Rubber Cottage stamp, Prismacolor pencils, vellum paper

Daylilly Barn G1155

Impression Obsession

Northwoods

Stampin' Up! stamped on vellum, Prismacolor pencils.

Designer Frames

I've bee playing around with Stampin' Up's Designer Frames, and having such fun:) I'm in the process of building up my stock of Stampin' Up card stock, and I still have quite a bit of the Hobby Lobby brand left so I am currently using both. I love the poppy stamp set from Flourishes, but Stampin' Up now has a set of poppies too that you could use if you like this look.

The card base is Hobby Lobby's brown, with a tan layer on top. The decorative paper is Mocha Morning and the yellow is So Saffron both from Stampin' Up. I colored the poppy with Prismacolor pencils, and inked the background with Distress inks. The ribbon is from my stash as is the Italian paper clip.

This card base and the orange are Hobby Lobby, while light green layer is Certainly Celery and the yellow is So Saffron from Stampin' Up. This poppy was done like the one above, the ribbon and button are from my stash. I used the Swiss Dots (Paper Studio) embossing folder on the orange layer and the Flourish embossing folder(Paper Studio) on the light green layer.

Cardstock: Stampin' Up Red Rose, Paper Studio purple
Ribbon: Paper Studio
Italian paper clip
Stamp: PSX pansy letter
Embossing folder: Paper Studio flourish

Yep, they are the same card. The one above was done using my scanner and shows the colors accurately, but blurred the text, while the one below was taken with a camera and does not show correct color but there is no blur. <Big sigh> Life was so much simpler before lightening made mince meat out of my old Epson scanner. That thing could capture color beautifully and never produced a blurry image with the object was not flat.

Rose Red - Stampin' Up
dark and light blue - Hobby Lobby
button and ribbon - my stash
script embossing folder -
lace border punch- Martha Stewart
text stamp - Happiest Birthday Wishes, Stampin' Up
Victorian lady stamp - 

Sharing Links

Here's a free online utility for mixing and matching Stampin' Up! colors to find trendy color combinations for your work. http://www.mycreateink.com/

All kinds of free templates http://www.paperscrapz.screentastic.ca/templates.html

No Name Chicken

I came up with this quick and easy meal yesterday. My husband took it to work for his dinner and loved it. It doesn't have a name... got any ideas?

1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/3 cup milk
5-6 chicken tenderloins
1 jar sun dried tomatoes (drained)
1 tablespoon olive oil

Brown chicken in oil on medium high heat. Mix can of cream of mushroom soup and milk. After browning, remove any excess oil, then add soup and milk mixture and stir. Add sun dried tomatoes and stir then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

I've used sun dried tomatoes in a foil package before, but I like this brand MUCH better. They are packed in oil and they have a lot more flavor:)

Recipe and a book review

 Recipe

As my friend AnnMarie would say, this recipe was "yummo!"  I had three recipes in front of me and kind of smooched them together. I'd never had lamb until I went to Ireland a couple years ago. Wow, the lamb stew I had in a Dublin pub was awesome! I had to order it a couple more times while we were there and it was just as good at a restaurant in Killarney and at Cabra Castle. I finally decided to try my hand at  lamb stew today and it was heavenly!  My husband thought it would be good with rice, but of course being half Irish, I boiled potatoes:) The meat was so tender it quite literally fell off the bones. I think adding potatoes to the crock pot would have been even better.

Lamb Stew

1 Tablespoon olive oil

2 Tablespoons flour

2/3 cup beef broth (or chicken broth)

loin lamb chops

1 can diced tomatoes

1 clove garlic, minced

1 scant tablespoon tomato paste

1 green chopped, chopped

1 Vidalia onion sliced into rings

1 tsp. salt

freshly ground pepper to taste

chopped parsley

Heat oil in frying pan. Coat lamb chops with flour and brown quickly. Transfer chops to crock pot. Add remaining ingredients to pan and bring to a boil. Pour over lamb and cook on HIGH for 30 minutes, then on LOW for 5-7 hours. Taste to check seasoning and sprinkle with chopped parsley. 

Book Review

I like this author, I just knew I'd like this book... but sadly I did not. It is a romantic suspense set against a backdrop of archeology and Mayan artifacts, which sounded perfect for a history major right? Well, I got to page 84 and finally gave up. I found it tedious and there were innuendos and subtle humor and witticisms that I just didn't 'get.' The story moved too slowly for my taste as well. I want a book to grab me and keep me on the edge of my seat waiting to turn the page, and this book did not deliver.

Birthdays

I love the way you can make flowers with petal punches. Aren't they fun? This is a different look for me, kind of cutesy instead of artsy, but they are super easy and no coloring. I made the envelopes to match. The punch and the Happy Bday stamp are from Stampin' Up. the paper came from my stash.

 Keeping up with birthdays in a large family can be daunting. A while back I made a type of envelope calendar-book to keep up with birthdays and store the cards Card Minder. After I've used it while, it's not really working for me. I keep a large basket of cards on a bookshelf in my studio, so I don't really need a place to keep birthday cards and putting the book where I will see it and remember takes up space. This is a better solution for me. I simply listed the birthdays by months in a table on a Word document.  I cut each month into the same size square and attached them with paper fasteners. The where to put this is easy, on my new bulletin board! It looks pretty, and is always visible in a room that I visit quite often!

Daddy

I wish Heaven had a phone so I could hear your voice again. 

I thought of you today, but that is nothing new. 

I thought about you yesterday and days before that too. 

I think of you in silence, I often speak your name. 

All I have are memories and your picture in a frame. 

Your memory is a keepsake from which I’ll never part. 

God has you in His arms, I have you in my heart.

Wilbur Beattie 1924-1985