Saturday, October 23, 2010

Crash Landing!

Yikes! We had a crash in our  
front yard! We heard all this racket 
and discovered that the Wicked Witch 
of the West had crashed landed in our 
bushes! She even lost one of her 
ruby slippers!!!
 Download these freebie
ruby slipper postcards and 
email them to your friends


Artistic Inspirations to help you create!

Friday, October 22, 2010

Broken Heart?

I've been driving by this heart shaped 
bush and finally remembered to take 
a picture...it looks like its actually a 
broken heart!


Artistic Inspirations to help you create!

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Picture of the Day 10-19-2010

Today I took my son to the dentist and 
they had this lit up sign on the counter.  
It truly made me laugh out loud, 
I love their humor! :-)


Artistic Inspirations to help you create!

Monday, October 18, 2010

Crafty Blogger Blurbs





Crafty Princess Diaries 
There is a call out for professional crocheters, scrapbookers, and quilters. 

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world 
This week at Craftside there is a chance to win the new big and beautiful book Quilts Around The World by Spike Gillespie, a knit boxed eyelet pattern, a bunch of ways to get a "handle" on your books and journals and tips on painting realistic blood just in time for Halloween. 

Carmi's Art/Life World 
Carmi figures out how to use paper to decorate an apron. 

Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter 
Madge muses about choices, consequences, regrets and living out loud. 

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery 
See how to make paper pom pom pumpkins inspired by the book Page Maps 2 

Mixed Media Artist 
Cyndi has a really fun book to give away this week: Create Colorful Aluminum Jewelry 

Eileen - The Artful Crafter 
Calling all totes! Eileen is looking for tote bag decorating examples. If you need some inspiration first, watch the video on how to make a recycled tote bag. 

About Family Crafts 
Sherri is hosting a Make-It-Over crafts challenge and is calling for people to submit their Halloween crafts made using recyclables! 




Artistic Inspirations to help you create!

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Pumpkin Scones

  Delicious Whole Wheat Pumpkin Scones
2 cups (260 grams) Whole Wheat flour (You can use regular flour)
1/3 cup (70 grams) light or dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (113 grams) cold butter, cut into pieces
1/3 cup (50 grams) raisins
1/3 - 1/2 cup Vanilla Flavored Coffee Creamer
1/2 cup (120 ml) fresh or canned pure pumpkin (if using 
canned pumpkin make sure there are no spices or sugar added)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, spices, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or two knives. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. Stir in the raisins and pecans, if using. In a separate bowl mix together the vanilla coffee creamer  , pumpkin puree and then add the pumpkin cream mixture to the flour mixture. Mix just until the dough comes together. Do not over mix.
Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead dough gently four or five times and then pat the dough into a circle that is about 7 inches (18 cm) round and about 1 1/2 inches (4 cm) thick. Cut this circle in half, then cut each half into 4 pie-shaped wedges (triangles). Place the scones on the baking sheet.

** If you find that your scone dough is too sticky or maybe too dry?  The cause of this is your flour. Flour absorbs different amounts of liquid depending on the weather (how humid) or its freshness. So if you find your dough a little too sticky or dry, try adding a little more flour or liquid.


Streusel Topping:
1/4 cup (55 grams) brown sugar
1/4 cup (35 grams) all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons (30 grams) chilled  butter, cut into pieces

For the Streusel Topping: In a small bowl whisk together the 
sugar, flour, and cinnamon. With a pastry blender or two 
knives, cut in the butter until crumbly. Top each scone with a 
teaspoon or two of the streusel mixture.

Place the baking sheet inside another baking sheet to prevent the bottoms of the scones from over browning. Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.  

Optional Icing Topping
1/3 to 1/2 C. powdered sugar
1-3 Tbl. of Flavored Coffee Creamer
Add creamer to powered sugar little by little until it's a creamy 
mixture.  Once scones have cooled drizzle icing over scones.

Bon Appetit

Artistic Inspirations to help you create! 

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Fall Special

FALL SPECIAL
15% off your order of $15.00 or more 
(includes sale items)
Use coupon code "fall" at the time 
of check out.


Happy Creating!

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Halloween Boo Banner

  Boo Banner
I created this boo banner for my niece.  
I used some Halloween papers I picked up 
at Michaels this year.  I dug out the plastic 
spider rings I bought last year (click Here to see 
last year's project using them) and cut the 
backs off and glued them on to the fronts and 
added a little sparkle with extra fine glitter dust.   
I added some skull beads to finish it off.


Click Here to view previous banners


Artistic Inspirations to help you create!
 

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

WOW!

  Our newest grand baby picture! 
It's really amazing how far the sonogram machines 
have come since I had  my youngest son 17 years 
ago.  I remember them not showing such a defined 
picture as the one above.  I just love this picture 
Iwill have to think of something creative to 
make with it!
So far so good 10 fingers and 10 toes!

Artistic Inspirations to help you create! 

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Crafty Blogger Blurbs

 I can't believe another week has flown 
by and it's Crafty Blogger Blurb Links 
once again!

  About Family Crafts
What is the most unique Halloween costume you have ever worn or seen someone else wear? Share your ideas and read about others...

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi experiments with her own images to make a 3D card embellishment.
Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
This week at Craftside there is a chance to win a copy of the new book Creating Glamorous Jewelry with Swarovski Elements, info about getting involved with conservation work with your dog and the upcoming ReuseConex event, and a recipe for cognac Cherries.

Crafty Princess Diaries
Tammy gives you the low-down and her favorite picks from Drew Emborksy's new crochet book.

Eileen - The Artful Crafter
If you’ve been hesitant to try decoupage on wood, check out Eileen’s tips for beginners.
Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter
It's 'fallish' and Madge has created a fabulous fashion friendly fall jewelry set for Jewel School.
 
Mixed Media Artist
Cyndi finished up her series on altered books with a flourish ;-)

 Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery
See how to crochet a bead and Soft Flex bracelet inspired by Heidi Boyd's new book Wired Beautiful


Artistic Inspirations to help you create!
 

Friday, October 08, 2010

Retro Halloween

 
 I invite you to jump in my Wayback Machine 
(anyone else remember Mr. Peabody?) 
and lets revisit a past Halloween Card 
tutorial HERE  I created a couple of  
years ago

Artistic Inspirations to help you create!
 

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Free Halloween Postcards from Herm & Ethel

  What a fun surprise we had yesterday when we discovered Herm and Ethel had arrived and set up camp for a visit! 
They regaled us with their travel adventures and were most pleased with the new bench, just their size, that we had ready for them!
As always Herm and Ethel are most gracious posing while we took pictures.  Feel free to click on each picture to enlarge, download and save it to your computer to send to a friend!


Click HERE to view
past Herm &Ethel  Postcards


Artistic Inspirations to help you create!
 

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Calendar Grlz September 2010


I manged to finished up 3 spreads for the Calendar Glrz 
Round Robin I'm in. This calendar is French themed and 
for some reason I was really having a hard time getting 
inspired.  It's my second go around with this calendar.
I used a Paris map I picked up somewhere along
with one of my whimsical characters.

Here I combined gouache paints with water soluble oil 
pastels. I tried to incorporate the image that was on 
the page already to give it a billboard look.

Here I used French music I downloaded from Somerset as 
the background and along with French themed postcards
 
Click HERE to view my previous pages.


Artistic Inspirations to help you create!
 

Monday, October 04, 2010

76lbs and Counting!

Happy Fall!

I'm thrilled to share that as of this morning 
I've lost a total of 76lbs since January. I was 
stuck on a plataue for awhile but I finally broke it. 
I still have a lot more to go and sometimes 
it seems surreal when I think about how 
much I've lost.  


I've been following Weight Watchers.  I'm  
asked sometimes if its hard and about 90% 
of the time it isn't. WW for me is easy to 
follow.  I do have times where it's hard,
but when I started this it was more then 
just to loose weight it was to also eat 
 healthier and I am definitely doing that.
There are times I get weak and want to 
just splurge on what ever, but I have a 
really hard time doing that if I am able to 
read the  package and can visually see how 
many fat grams, sodium and calories 
something has in it and that pulls me back 
from the edge! 

When I'm needing to splurge I treat myself to a 
McDonald's frosty its only 2 points though maybe 
not the healthiest, I can think of worse things 
to eat.  To me its like eating clouds, 
76I love them! LOL


Artistic Inspirations to help you create!
 

Sunday, October 03, 2010

Crafty Blogger BlurbsC

 This weeks crafty links are 
really getting me in the fall spirit!
 
About Family Crafts
If you are thinking of having a Halloween party this year, 
Sherri has some great ideas and resources for you.

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi's latest art cards feature an accidental colour palette.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
At Craftside this week you can enter to win a new Singer sewing machine 
and a copy of 1,000 Clever Sewing Shortcuts and Tips, see how to draw 
12 facial expressions, use and clean a kneaded eraser, make a silk lotus 
flower and a bunch of fun fashion sketch poses.

Crafty Princess Diaries
Tammy talks about crafting for charity and the simply
"thank you" concept.

Eileen - The Artful Crafter
The Artful Crafter receives lots of questions about whether different 
media can be used together. Here are some tips for sorting out the 
issues yourself.

Mixed Media Artist
Foil lettering adds a nice touch to your altered books or 
collage projects!

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery
Check out a cute origami penguin in Plaid from the new 
book-Origami World By Didier Boursin.

The Crochet Dude
Drew throws a wrap tour to celebrate his whirlwind blog tour! 
Check out his list of stops along the way and discover "new 
to you" crafty bloggers!

Artistic Inspirations to help you create!
 

Saturday, October 02, 2010

Whimsical Nurse Designs!

I just finished new designs 
for the nurse in your life!

You can choose between magnets, 
tee-shirts, totes and even a 
bumper sticker!
 Click HERE to view all my Nurse Designs


Artistic Inspirations to help you create!