Cherry Pie Reipe

Happy Tuesday my Blogger Friends - I'll be sharing this little project on Thursday - but just have to give you one more sneak peak of this upcoming project that I've made for my granddaughters. As you can see.....this project involves....Flip Flops.....and some yummy fleece.......do you have any idea what I'm going to do with both of these items? Please check back on Thursday - when I'll be sharing this ADORABLE project. But for TODAY.........I want to share my May Ranch Recipe Swap with you. Our challenge in May was to make a dessert recipe. I decided that I wanted to share my Cherry Pie recipe and I just so happen to have a fun idea for a pie .... and came up with this FUN Cherry Pie recipe.... I just love how this recipe swap turned out. Seriously.....It was a LOT of work - but SO WORTH the time it took to create. I cut my "Cherry Pie" words out with my Cricut......glued them to a 1" red squre and lined each of the words to the side of the actual recipe. Here's the pie pan and crust that I designed......I free hand both and inked up the edges to give it lots of shadowing.....added a cherry on top - a glossy heart to the center of the pie pan and even added some teardrop images to the top of the crust.....too stinkin cute! I added lots of layers and dimension to this recipe swap and think the design turned out great. The cherries I made using my 5/8" circle punch and adding crystal effects to each of the cherries to give them a high gloss look. I even popped them up with dimensionals to give them a real rasied look. I love how this recipe layout turned out and have to say that it's one of my favorite layouts to date. I'll be taking a little break tomorrow from my recipe swaps and sharing with you a project I designed for Craft Junkie Too http://CraftJunkieToo.blogspot.com. I'm on the design team for Tracy and she requested that her team make a summer project for our June post. That is going to be my share tomorrow (both on my blog and CraftJunkieToo's blog http://CraftJunkieToo.blogspot.com). Hope you can join me tomorrow for that post. Keep Living Your Dream!

Recipe Swap

Happy Monday my Blogger Friends! It's going to be another Grand & Glorious Week in Arizona and we are expecting HOT....HOT...and then a little more HOT weather this week. My pool is at the perfect temperature - so image I'll be sitting in my floating chair and soaking up some rays this week. Today I'll be heading up to the Ranch to meet with my Scrapbooking friends - we are going to be working on our upcoming recipe exchange (which is due the 15th)....but before I share with you my April recipe exchange - I want to give you a sneak peek at what I was working on over the weekend....... I snapped this close-up of the project I was working on for my two granddaughters in Wisconsin. It involves flip-flops and fleece material....any guesses at what I'm cooking up? I'll be sharing that fun little project with you later this coming week. But for today....It's all about my April Recipe Swap.........

Our theme for April was a main dish and I decided to do a fabulous recipe I have for Chicken Enchiladas. I spiced it up a little because I live in the Southwest........Here's my Tex Mex main dish recipe for April.

Here's a close-up of the Tex Mex....don't you just love how I tied linen thread to the "x's"?

I used my Cricut to diecut out the rope borders....I used the Old West Cartridge and after they were cut out....I added some linen thread to the center.

Here's aother close-up of the linen thread. This was a totally fun recipe swap and I had so much fun creating my first exchange for the Ranch ladies. I'll be sharing the May swap with you tomorrow - Our theme was dessert.

Thanks for stopping in today and visiting....Hope you can return tomorrow.....Keep Living Your Dream!

Three Little Cards

Hi my Blogger Friends and Happy Sunday to you! I want to start out by saying - Thank you for your sweet comments you have been leaving for me - I love hearing from you and appreciate you taking the time to chat with me. Yesterday I mentioned in my blog post the term DSP and wanted to clarify what that stood for. It's a Stampin Up term and just refers to the 12x12 Designer Series Paper that we sell. So in short - It stands for Patterned Paper! Hope that answers a common question that I receive and I'll try to get better to clarify my words.......SO....On to my post for today...... Here's a little card I received from my BFF that was paper pieced. After yesterdays post of Jan's paper piecing class - I thought it was fitting to start todays post out with yet another Paper Pieced card. Here's a close-up of the sweet sweet ittle vintage girl that Jan paper pieced. Because I come from this generation - I just love love love this little girl image. (Jan - when you return from Colorado - I have to come over to your place and stamp a few of this sweet little girl to do some fun cards up using her image) Next up is a card I made a zillion years ago.....Okay...maybe not a zillion or when Dinosaurs roamed the earth......but it was a few years ago and it's one of those go to cards that the recipe is super easy and super fun to make. Here's a close-up of the three little lady bugs that I just stamped three times and added a sweet little "thank you" message. I used my stamp-a-ma-jig to guarantee that I got my lady bugs (and thank you) lined up perfectly. Here's another fabulous recipe that I use alot. I ended up making a book mark for this card using a Sale-a-Bration set from this year and the SU BigZ tag die. Here's a close-up of the bookmark. This card is seriously one of those cards that you can change up the DSP (designer series paper) - add some ribbon - a bookmark and by switching up the message on the bookmark - you've got yourself a fabulous card for just the right occasion (be it birthday - thinking of you - feel better - congrats - friend). Hope you enjoyed my cards today - I've been busy working on a few projects for several of my clubs and groups that I belong - I'll begin posting many of those this next week. Today.....I'm going to be busy trying to get a project finished for my Granddaughters....with any hope....I'll be able to post that next week. I promise to give you a sneak peek in the next day or two. Please keep your eyes open for that. Thanks again for stopping by and visiting me today. Enjoy your Sunday - and I have plans to spend time in my pool today and soak up some good old fashion Arizona sun. It's suppose to get up to 102 degrees today in Arizona and about the only way you will find me outside on days like this are if I'm sitting in my pool. It's official.....It's Summer in Arizona! (But....It's a Dry Heat!) Keep Living Your Dream!

Paper Piecing Cards

Happy Saturday my Blogger Friends! Today's post is most fitting - because it's a class that my BFF taught the SaddleBrooke Stamping Group a month ago......and since she left to go back to Colorado for the summer....and because I'm already missing her (even though it's not even been a full 24 hours since she left Arizona).....I dedicate this post to her today. Here are the three cards that Jan had us make.....and even though they look simple and pretty self-explanatory....let me give you some background to each of these cards.

First up is this adorable little vintage girl - who's dress we paper pieced and used the same gingham patterned paper that we use to mat the image ..... for her dress!

Here's a close-up of her adorable blue gingham dress.

Next up is a card that I just love to reproduce when I'm needing to make lots of one particular card. We pinked the edges of our DSP and then used another scrap of that same DSP to create our paper pieced flower. Truly lovely results.

And here's a close up of how the flower turned out.

And last is this little chair number.....and you might be thinking...Okay Kadie...what's so special about this card.......well....the DSP is not DSP....it's a throw that Jan keeps on the bench in her master bedroom and she placed the throw on top of her copy machine and ran colored copies off to act as DSP. FABULOUS IDEA and the results ended up creating one of my favorite cards in this workshop.

Check out this close-up of the chair we created with a single stamped image. HOW FUN!

This was a fun and informative class that Jan taught us......we walked away with lots of tips and ideas and made three fun cards that for all purposes....could be used for anything. LOVE IT!

So for the rest of the day I'm going to chip away at my "To Do List".......Hoping that I get lots done and off my studio desk this weekend. Hope you can return tomorrow and see what new card projects I've got to share with you. Keep Living Your Dream!

Who Makes YOU Smile?

Happy Friday Friends! It's time to sit back and ENJOY this fabulous weather and bring it down a notch or two. I plan to spend some real quality time in my studio this weekend and CHIP AWAY at my ever growing list of things to get done. I'll be sharing many new things with you over the weekend. But for today - it's bitter sweet.....My BFF is leaving for the summer and I'm sure I'll be crying up a storm when I drop her and her hubby off at the airport this afternoon. It will be sad to see her leave - but know that her grandbabies are waiting on the other end and they (and she) deserve to be spoiled a little. I'm planning to get TONS of stuff finished while she's gone.....SO....WISH ME LUCK! Today, I'll be sharing the sweet sweet card Jan made for me before she left........Check it out! Now if you opened a card up and saw this message written across the top of your card....wouldn't you SMILE? Here's the card Jan made for me.......First up.....I merely mentioned (in passing) that I love love love this retired SU paper and Jan found some in her stash and seriously came up with this card. Funny how the two gals kind of look like us! (okay...maybe in our eyes they look like us!) I LOVE how Jan paper pieced the umbrella and then used dimensionals to give it some height. Such a great little tip for this card. And here is one last view of Jan's card........It has seriously made it's home front and center on my studio desk........so I can look at it while she's gone and it WILL make me smile (and think of Jan). Thanks for popping in today - I have some extra special cards to share with you tomorrow - so hope you can swing back and check them out. Until Saturday......Keep Living Your Dream!

Challenge Card

Hi Friends! Today is Thursday - which means yesterday was weigh in day at Weight Watchers. I made Lifetime Goal two weeks ago and weighed in last week with a loss of 1-lb 4-oz and this week I weighed in with an almost 2-1/2 lb loss. I've given myself some wiggle room so with my upcoming vacation back to Wisconsin I will be able to enjoy a few bites of some of the YUMMY YUMMY things that I left behind (and can't get out here in Arizona). Having this 4-pound wiggle room will allow me to indulge and NOT HAVE the Guilt Monster riding me BIG TIME. So........let's take a look at the card I'll be sharing with you today. This is my May SaddleBrooke Stampers Challenge card....... Our challenge card was to make a card using fabric and our favorite flowers. This was going to be a snap for me because I just picked up some fabric bundles at Scrapbook Etc and I also had a recent flower die out for a previous project I was working on.....so.....here's what I came up with! I had some yummy ruffled ribbon in my stash (from Hobby Lobby) that I ran across the center of my card.....add layed three flowers made with the prettiest pink fabric ....... and made up a sweet little Thinking of You greeting and I was pretty much done! Here's a close-up of the fun fun fabric flowers. I joined them together with a pretty white brad and attached them down to a squared piece of cardstock. Here's another pic of my finished card......totally girly and totally me! I'll be saying good-bye to my BFF tomorrow afternoon....she'll be leaving the Tucson area to fly back to Colorado for the summer - so can only image how sad it will be here in SaddleBrooke with her gone. We have plans to chat on the phone at least once a week and thank goodness we both have high speed internet and that will keep us connected. (missing you already Jan) I have some cards and projects to share with you this upcoming weekend......Hopefully you'll be able to return and check out what I have planned. Keep Living Your Dream.

What's in Your Garden

Hi Blogger Friends and Happy Wednesday to you. Today I'll be sharing a NON-PaperCraft post for you......It's actually everything that Jack and I planted in our yard this weekend. We were busy planting some fun color in our yard and I want to share that with you today..... Here are the three boxes of flowers that we picked up at the nursery last week. Because I was busy all the first half of this past Memorial Day weekend - Jack waited till Sunday to plant everything....and that way I was able to help out.

I will admit......I have ALMOST no clue to any of the names of the flowers/plants that we planted - all I know is what I like and without a doubt......I LOVE COLOR! These cosmos were just screaming our name as we were getting ready to check out........

Can't even tell you where everything ended up getting planted in our yard - just know that we set out to add some color to our backyard....and we manage to do just that.

Most of these - ended up going into smaller pots around the back wall of our yard......

These went across the back wall because of their height (and color)......

Orange is Jack's favorite color.....and these look fabulous in medium sized pot - and arranged under the palm tree by the pool.....

More pretty pretty flowers for the stair step planter boxes in the back yard.

This is a Mexican Bird of Paradise that is in a hanging basket and found it's new home right outside the kitchen window......I love looking at it every morning when I wake up and make my espresso........

There is something extra special about having white and yellow daisy (like) flowers in my yard. Totally reminds me of my childhood and makes me smile when I see them. These made their new home in a large pot which is located right in front of my view when I sit on our patio and look into the back yard. Seriously BEAUTIFUL!

And I leave you today with Jack's favorite color (orange)....and my favorite color (pink)....these two flowers have settled into their new homes and are making the time we spend on our patio so much prettier these days.

It's hard to believe that you would find this much color in Arizona....I always thought that the SouthWest was Brown.....Dirt and LOTS of HEAT. But seriously Arizona has lots of color and some of the most amazing sights that I think I will ever see. SO SERIOUSLY HAPPY living in the SouthWest.

Thanks for joining me today - I'm going to head off to Weight Watchers today and plan to do a weigh in. I was down another 1.5 pounds last week - so will have to see what I do today. It's all going towards a safety-net for when Jack and I go back to Wisconsin this summer.....I'm planning to eat at both Culvers and Michael's frozen custard while we are back there. Need to have some reserved weight loss in my back pocket so I can go back and enjoy some of the yummy places we use to go eat before we moed out to Arizona. I'll keep you posted tomorrow on what my new numbers look like. Keep Living Your Dream!