Butterfly Pictures

I decorated these frames for our baby's room. I was trying to keep it simple, but I think they're missing something. Maybe buttons along the bottom? The walls in the room are celery green.

I bought plain wood frames, painted them white and sealed them with a semi-glossy varnish. The images are SU's A Reason to Smile, and the colors are Lavendar Lace, Certainly Celery and Pink Passion. The ribbon is pink with white dots.

Taco Seasoning

I know, I know - this has NOTHING to do with stamping! But one of my other favorite things to do (well, was until this pregnancy, but I'll be back!) is cooking. I made taco salad the other night and thought this would be a worthy thing to share.

We LOVE mexican-ish food, but I always feel guilty using store-bought taco seasoning because it's mostly sodium (and I really have to watch that now anyway). So I started looking online for recipes and came across this one on allrecipes.com. This is really good, I think it tastes better than the store bought. I have slightly modified it from the original, but it's pretty close.

Taco Seasoning:
1/4 cup dried minced onion
1/4 cup chili powder
1 tablespoon kosher salt
4 teaspoons cornstarch
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons beef bouillon granules
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano

Combine all the ingredients and store in an airtight container. To use, mix 2 Tablespoons seasoning with 1 lb cooked ground beef and 1/3-1/2 cup water, depending on how saucy you like it!

Scrapbook Borders!

It is so nice out today, but here we are inside cleaning...and posting while I make lunch because cleaning is not all that fun anyways.

I love making (and using) border sets in my scrapbooking! Here are a few I made recently.

This first set is a pirate theme. I LOVE the glimmery card stock for the borders and the journal box (can't see it by the picture though). The pirate ship is cut using the Paper Dolls Cricut cartridge. I also use SU's Ahoy, Matey set for the journal accent and the treasure box. The other colors are SU's Ruby Red, Creamy Caramel and Night of Navy.


I couldn't resist making this second set:) We are having a little girl come September, so I'm getting in girly mode already. The borders card stock is DCWV and the rest is SU's Pretty in Pink and Certainly Celery. I think the DP is Heidi Grace - it's double sided and oh-so-adorable.I used stamps from SU's Tiny Talk and Bold Butterfly (the flower). The journal box is highlighted with stickles around the flourish. The center of the flower is a dew drop, and I just used some misc buttons and pink ribbon.

This last set is a spring theme. The borders papers are DCWV and the flowers are just 2 cut and pieced together with a gold brad from a flower punch. The journal box is pretty much the same as the above one, the other two accents are cut with the Cricut from the Walk in My Garden cartridge. The ladybug's spots are filled in with black stickles.

Whew that was a lot! Thanks for looking!

CCC8

Here is my creation for Crafty Critters Challenge #8! I thought of my son for this one. He loves trucks. The challenge was to use a digital image using this sketch layout. Digital images are great because once you download them, you can resize them and print them out as many times as you want. The digital image is a freebie from Dustin Pike (you can download a new free image almost every Wednesday.) I had a lot of fun with this one. The paper is SU Summer Sun, Pumpkin Pie and Brilliant Blue. I used Bic Mark It markers to color in the image, and hightlighted the windows and headlights with clear Stickles.

Thanks for looking!

Catching up on Recipes

I really like making these 6x6 recipe books. Here are some I've recently made.

I used SU's Fresh Flowers and a fruit set I don't remember the name on. Colors are Pink Passion and Gable Green. Some square brads to accent.


I absolutely love the DP on this card. It's so cool and retro. The blue paper is DCWV and the red is SU Ruby Red. The "yum" is from a clear cupcakes stamp set highlighted with Stickles. I used my corner rounder on the recipe.




This last one is pretty simple. It reminds me of fall. Stamps are SU Darling Dots and the "delicious" is from another clear stamp set. The button is from a pack of misc mini buttons from Walmart.


Thanks for looking!

More Cards...Again

I really wanted to post something, but I am so tired! So here's what I've made lately, but it's going to be short and sweet!
I've been really looking forward to using this Riley stamp - it looks so relaxing! I did use Stickles on the water, but you can't really tell by the picture.

I made this card from a card kit (I added the sentiment and the solid color papers. I think the image is so adorable!

And finally, I made the above card for a card flood. It's (another) criss-cross card (I think I've made enough to last me a while now!) These papers are great. I like the unique color combo.

Thanks for looking!

Double Layout

I made this double layout for a swap on SCS. The theme was to make a double 8x8 layout showcasing stamps.

I love these colors for boy pages. It's pretty straightforward. The truck windows are highlighted with clear Stickles, and the wheels have these sticky metal dots for hubcaps.

Thanks for looking!

Riley Galore!

I just recently got my first Riley stamps. They are so cute, and I've enjoyed using them. This first card I made as a general card, and I can always use masculine cards! The background stamp is SU's Crosshatch, and the image is colored in with SU markers. I thought the buttons were a great find- got a big pack of them at Walmart in the sewing section for just a couple dollars. I like how they went with the colors on this card.

The second card was for my husband on Father's Day. I used up some scrap designer paper from my stash, but it's one of my favorites. It's hard to see, but the coffee and the cherry on the cupcake are accented with Stickles.

This last card I also made for Father's day, but for my dad. Again, I used some scrap DP for the striped paper. The FATHER stamp is from Papertrey Ink's Mixed Messages set.

Thanks for looking!

CCC#7

Two challenges back to back! This is the second challenge for our blogger group by Tracy. It had to be a 3-D item that screamed summer. I think this is pretty summer-y (at least the colors!) It's a post-it holder.
I took an acrylic 4x6 photo holder, decorated white cardstock with the flower from SU's Darling Dots and accented the centers with clear Stickles. I used some pink ribbon and cut out the scalloped circles with nesting punches. After sliding it inside the frame, I used double stick tape to adhere the post-it notes on the outside.

Thanks for looking!