No Butts About It...

I've been gone for awhile, I know. Last week I went to the One of a Kind Rubber Stamp and Scrapbook Show. It has been awhile since I have done much of anything crafty, and my husband thought it would be good to go. Maybe spark a little creativity. Apparently he is in need of some cards to send out. :) I bought these adorable stamps and scalloped circle cards from the show.

Supplies Used: Stamps (Inky Antics), Cardstock (The Paper Cut), Ribbon (May Arts), Embossing Folder (Sizzix Dots), Markers (Bic)

Supplies Used: Stamps (Inky Antics), Patterned Paper (October Afternoon), Cardstock (The Paper Cut), Markers (Bic)

Supplies Used: Stamps (Inky Antics), Cardstock (The Paper Cut), Ribbon (May Arts), FlowerSoft (Toffee), Watercolor Pencils (Stampin' Up)
Thanks to everybody who has stuck with me and my blog. It is going to be sporadic for awhile yet, but will hopefully be back to creating and blogging soon!
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Old MacDonald Had a Farm...

E-I-E-I-O. Remember awhile back I showed you some invitations for a baby shower? Well today, I am going to show you the matching cupcakes that I made. I just recently joined Pinterest and just like everybody said, it is a wee bit addicting. But on the plus side, there are lots of great ideas. That's where I found the recipes for the cupcakes. You can see the recipes here. I had a hard time picking just 2 of the 33 different recipes she had. I made the Vanilla Cupcakes with Strawberry Filling and Milk Chocolate Glaze (however, instead of baking the preserves into the cake, I cored out the cupcake after and put it in then. That way it wouldn't sink to the bottom). And I also made (Jon picked this one out) the Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting and Chocolate Ganache. It tasted like a peanut butter cookie. YUM.

I was concerned that the malt ball on top didn't look quite...right. That's why I made sure it was placed in front of the animal and not behind it's backside...no animal droppings on my cupcakes, please! ;)
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1...2...Buckle My Shoe

I made these for my Etsy store and they sold quick! Just thought I'd share them here too. What do you think?

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How About Some Invitations?

Even though I have kind of given up the card making for now, I had a request from a friend to make some baby shower invitations for her. I decided since I had the stuff to do it, I might as well. She wanted a farm animal theme. Pretty much everything on the card was cut with my Silhouette (talk about easy).

Don't you just love the little tush on the back??
The hardest part was my Silhouette wouldn't read my registration marks on any of the cardstock except the yellow. It was weird. I tried manually setting it up, but it wasn't centering it very well. So here's a trick I figured out. I did the printing using a plain white piece of paper. Then I loaded that into the Silhouette and had it read those registration marks. Then I pulled out the white piece of paper and put in the colored cardstock and lined up the registration mark with the cutter. It cut perfectly almost every time. However, it was a pain. So you can see I used a lot of yellow cardstock. :) I tried changing my ink cartridge to a new one, I tried printing the thickest, darkest registration marks that I could, but nothing would work. Anyway, they turned out pretty cute anyway. I plan on making some cupcake flags using the little animals for the party too. I think they will be cute.
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How About Some More Recipes?

Since the recipe book is the only thing I've been working on lately, that's what I'm going to share. I have kind of taken a hiatus from cardmaking, so this is it for now. I have two recipes to share today. Apple stuffed pork chops and empanadas. I made a dinner of all mexican food one night and I served the empanadas for dessert. So yummy! I don't care for mexican food much, so I mostly only ate the dessert. :)

Supplies Used:Making Memories (apple patterned paper), Jillibean Soup (twine), Stampin' Up (Alphabet Appeal), Basic Grey (Lime Rickey patterned paper and alphabet stickers)
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Recipes...

Do your recipes look as bad as mine? All piled up in a heap? Crusty and gross from sitting on the counter? They were driving me a little crazy (some may say that I'm OCD. It's not true. I'm just particular. There's a difference. I think.) So I decided to do something about it. I have been working on a recipe book. I am making the pages 8x8 and printing out the recipe. Then in true scrapbooker style -- adding a little patterned paper and embellishment. Now these should be a little more organized and kept a little cleaner. Only problem is that I haven't been able to find an 8x8 scrapbook with rings. So here's one of my favorite recipes. Chicken Parmigiana for 2.

Supplies Used: Comso Cricket (Garden Variety), May Arts ribbon
Recipe from www.tasteofhome.com
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'Tis the Season for...

Sporadic blogging (whoops!), cookouts, fireworks, and my favorite -- strawberries! I made this Strawberry Crumb pie last night. I'm not a pie maker. Honestly, I have never made a pie crust before in my life. This was a little ambitious of me and it took a long time. The pie is very tart. It must be served with ice cream and/or whipped cream. I wouldn't be able to eat a whole slice without it (but who would want to anyway, right?!). I got the recipe from the June/July issue of the Food Network Magazine. You can find the recipe on their website. Add a little more sugar or a little less lemon juice to the filling. Trust me, you'll thank me for it. I made mine in a 9" spring form pan. It worked just fine. Although I would suggest putting a cookie sheet under it. I have to clean my oven this afternoon. :)

I hope everybody is enjoying their summer. I will be back soon with more blog posts. :)
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Sunshine!

Sunshine! There is FINALLY sunshine!! Hooray!! I'm not even going to jinx myself by saying that winter is over...however, for now I will enjoy the nice, warm weather. And in honor of the sun, I made a card. Unity has a new sketch challenge where you have to use a kit of the month. I am not a kit of the month subscriber, but I do have a whole bunch from when I use to be (and also, the grab bag I won had a few from kits too!). So this stamp is from an old kit of the month, a pocket full of... (July 2009!), but it's still a good one.

I used Jillibean Soup twine and Blossom Soup paper, EK Success scallop punch, and nesties for this card.

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Ribbon and Trims

Today I have a few cards that qualify for the Clear It Out challenge to use ribbon or trims on your projects. First, I needed a birthday card for a boy turning 10. Ten is about the age where a boy turns into almost a full panic mode when anything remotely girly is near them. You know how girls scream at snakes? That's how boys scream at ribbon. Okay, I'm generalizing a little bit -- but for the boy I made this card for, it's true. He does NOT like girly things. So I tried my very best to make a plain, no frills card for him. Instead of ribbon, I used some twine.

I also needed a sympathy card. So I made this card using some of my favorite May Arts ribbon.

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Another Mother's Day....

With Mother's Day right around the corner, I have been working on getting some cards made. When I was growing up, my dad would always get his mom something. Whenever somebody would ask him what he got his wife (my mom), his response would be -- why would I get her something, she's not my mom? So to me, it also seemed normal that you just got something for your own mom. What I've learned is that my dad is the exception, not the rule. There are many people that send Mother's Day cards to everybody -- aunts, Grandma's, Godmothers, and so on. I know this because my husband is one of those people. :) So here is another Mother's Day card that I made. This one uses CPS Sketch #216.

Supplies Used: Blooming with Love (Stampin' Up), October Afternoon 5 & Dime patterned paper, Circle and rectangle Nestabilites, May Art ribbon
So, whether you celebrate just your mom or all the moms, I hope everybody has a great day...and I'm sure I'll be back to share another Mother's Day card soon!
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Mix and Match

I made this card for Mother's Day using a whole bunch of different companies. Sometimes it's nice to mix things up a little. I also used the CardPatterns sketch #113.

Supplies Used: {Stamps}Blooming with Love (Stampin' Up), Giving It All Meaning (Unity), Notes to Mom (Gina K. Designs); {Paper} Nook and Pantry (Basic Grey); {Accessories} Circle Nestabilities, May Arts Ribbon, Water Color Pencils (Stampin' Up)
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A Woodsy Birthday Card

Today I used CardPatterns sketch #111 to create a masculine birthday card. I also wanted to post for FWF so I used the Ippity stamp from Life's Little Moments set. Then I decided that I would go ahead and do the inside of my card too, and enter it into the My Unity Place challenge. I didn't really use a lot of stamps since the paper is the star of this card, but I really like how it turned out.

Supplies Used: Ippity(Life's Little Moments), Nikki Sivils (Tree Love Patterned Paper), Jillibean Soup (Bean Sprouts), Nestabilities (Labels 1)
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Spring Birdies

This week is my spring break. I had grand ideas of working in my garden and planting some vegetables. Apparently nature had other ideas...winter isn't over just yet. Today the sun's shining (even though it's still cold) and the snow is starting to melt! So instead of working out in the garden, I decided to work in my craft room. I played along with the Unity theme challenge for the month. This month's theme is birds.

Supplies Used: Unity Stamp Co. (endings and beginnings), Ippity Stamps (Life's Little Moments), October Afternoon (5 & Dime), Nestabilities (Labels 1), Fiskars Border Punch (Apron Lace), Jillibean Soup (Bean Stalks Red)
I hope you are all enjoying your spring -- and don't have too much snow on the ground!
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I Fondue, Do You?

I have a fondue pot that is similar to this one.

I got it for Christmas one year during one of those parties where you exchange gifts. I was SO excited. It looked SO cool. I took it home, looked at the box, then put it away. When we moved, I decided to bring it with me (since it was SO cool). Then we moved again. And again. And again. (4 times to be exact). It moved with me every time. I had never opened the box. However I just felt like this fondue pot was much too cool to give away. Move #5 came and I put my foot down...kinda. I moved it with us. And I decided if I didn't use it before we move again (which hopefully isn't for a long time), I would give it away. Well, we moved to Wisconsin about 10 months ago, and guess what finally happened?? I opened the fondue box, I invited some friends over, and we USED it! And I was right. It was SO cool! So here is what I learned about fondue:
1) A "true" fondue meal consists of three courses -- cheese, meat, dessert.
2) I am much too lazy to clean the pot after each course, so I improvised and we really only used the pot for the meat course. It worked well for us. The cheese course I made in a bread bowl (DELICIOUS!) The second course was meat, which I used the pot for. And the third course, dessert, I used my crock pot.
3) The meat course is so yummy. I used this recipe, Fondue Bourguignonne (nope, can't pronounce it). The main point of the meat course is the dipping sauces. This was the hardest part for me -- finding good sauces. Some worked, some didn't. But it's fun to try new sauces!
4) The dessert fondue seized up in my crock pot. Next time, I'll probably leave it on low using a double boiler on the stove top. It was still delicious, it just wasn't that dippable (which is kind of the point of a fondue).
So...if you have a fondue pot that you have never used. Or if you have thought about fonduing...GO! Fondue it up! You won't regret it.
*Fondue pot shown is My Perfect Kitchen™ Stainless Steel Lazy Susan Fondue Set.
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Beautiful Balloons {and a winner}

I made two very simple cards for the Beautiful Balloon challenge over at Moxie Fab World. I used the hot air balloon from the Unity Stamp Co. Love in the Air set and the cloud paper is from the Basic Grey Mellow collection.

And the winner from my blog candy is Marcy H. (My Angel). Email me your address at katytipton at yahoo dot com and I'll send you the stamp.
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Let's Hang Out

Well, I didn't make anything yet...but I have a card that I made a little while ago that I still need to share. I had fun paper piecing the tiny little clothes on the clothesline. These stamps are from one of my favorite kit of the months, Perfect in Every Way. I don't get the kotm anymore, but this month's looks so cute and is a little tempting!

Supplies Used: Unity Stamp Co (perfect in every way), Jillibean Soup (Egg Drop Soup), Nestabilities (Scalloped Rectangle), Fiskars Border Punch (Threading Water), May Art ribbon
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Tick, Tick, Tick....

Do you hear that sound? Yup, it's my biological clock ticking away...because it's my birthday! And to celebrate, I am extending the giveaway that I have posted here for a few more days. Leave a comment on this post or the one I linked for a chance to win! I should have more creations soon...maybe. I still haven't even cleaned the stamps that I used in my last post, yet alone made anything else. WHOOPS! Thanks for stopping by my blog, I'll be back soon with a winner and a creation of some sort (promise!)

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Button It Up! (FWF)

Good morning! It's been awhile since I've been a part of the FWF hop. Today I made a card using the CardPatterns sketch #109. I kind of veered away from the sketch a little bit, but it's where I got my inspiration from.

Supplies Used: Bella Blvd. Calendar Month, Jillibean Soup Egg Drop Soup Patterned Paper, lots and lots of buttons, May Arts ribbon
You can find lots of Unity Stamps here, at {i heart papers}.
Thanks for stopping by my blog today on the FWF hop! You can go back to the Unity blog to continue on your hop. Also, if you are interested in learning more about my "new-ish" blog and winning an Itty Bitty stamp, see this post.
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A Birthday Card

Wow. How's that for a creative title, huh? Well, that's what I made today. A birthday card. I used the SFYTT sketch, which is being sponsored by Unity Stamp Co. this month. I needed a masculine'ish birthday card and I thought this sketch would work well. Here's the sketch:

And here's my card:

Supplies Used: Unity Stamp Co. (Sassy Alphabet),Nikki Sivils patterned paper (Tree Love), twine, button, brads, Nestabilities Rectangle, Clear Mini Stamps (happy birthday)

Check out my post here if you are interested in learning more about my blog and winning an Itty Bitty from Unity Stamp Co.

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