Cards and Chocolate

So I found this easy easy recipe to make pepermint bark at the Honey & jam blog. You don't even need a double boiler, just a microwave! I made a few zip lock baggies full, but I'm not sure if everyone in my family likes chocolate with mint (because I cannot stand it)...I do know that my dad and I both love almond joys and that gave me an idea! Why not create my own yummy bark? Here is what I used:

1/2 bag dark chocolate, 1/2 bag of milk chocolate (you can find these at AC moores or Joann's for 2-3 bucks each), shredded coconut, sliced almonds, wax sheet, bowls, baking pan, and a spatula

1. line a baking pan with wax paper. Set aside.

2. melt the dark chocolate in the microwave at 30 second intervals on the defrost setting until complately melted (stir after each 30 seconds).

3. When fully melted use the spatula and pour choclate on wax sheet.

4. While chocolate is still melted sprinkle coconut on top, and gently pat down with the spatula. Put tray in freezer

5. While the dark chocolate sets and hardens, melt the milk chocolate using same method as you did for the dark chocolate.

6. When milk chocolate is completely melted, take the pan out of the freezer and layer the milk chocolate on top of the coconut.

7. Take almond slices and crunch in palm of your hand and sprinkle over melted milk chocolate, pat down with spatula so it stays on! Put in freezer for about 20 minutes (though it hardens pretty quickly).

8. After it is completely hardened, break it up- I used my hands, but you could also use a hammer (just remember to put a ziplock baggie over it so it is sanitary!). If you decide to use the hammer, it is easier to lift the bark from the wax and knock off chunks.

9. Eat..it's delicious! :) Or I suppose you could give them as gifts...mine didn't last long enough so I need to make more!

I also made some more cards. I have been playing around with heat embossing, and my favorite color lately is brown. Here's what I came up with!

I got these stamps (music notes and angel) from Hero Arts. I want a full sheet of music stamp now though, because I am by no means musical soo I made up a really bad tune. But I don't care because I love the colors and how the whole card came out :)

I heat embossed the music notes, and embossed the dots to add some texture

I went into JoAnns to buy some new Christmas paper, and ended up with 2 pads of paper and a set of stamps. I couldn't resist tea mug stamps! Also while in Micheals (..my poor boyfriend was sooo nice and took me to all three that day :) ) Alan found a stamp that was just flat rubber on a wood block- it is so you can reverse an image! How cool is that?? I didn't buy it but I have a circle stamp from Hero Arts that is just a flat rubber circle. That is how I ended up with two mittens (or some reason the set only included one) and matching mugs! :)

The third is simple, but I really enJOY it...ok sorry, that was stupid but I couldn't resist!

The last but not least is one I created for my mom. The text is French Script, but I had to spell out Joyeux Noel, because I don't yet have french sentiment stamps. But soon!

The flower is tissue paper which I cut out using different sizes of Spellbinders scalloped circles

ahhhh this is fun :)

until next time!

D

Christmas spirit!

It must be because I've started making gifts, but I have been in such a Christmas mood lately! I even got a couple cds! (which, in my 23 years I have never owned). Though, even if I'm making gifts now, I refuse to decorate or play the songs until it is December. So far I've only made one thing, and I'm not quite sure how it is turning out. I found a website to make soap crayons and it is so easy! You can find the instructions here. Though, careful if you want to make purple...mine came out looking really gross, so I don't think my nephew or kids I babysit will get those ones. On to cards...

Remember the yucky card I made and was so frustrated with? Well! I bought me a heat embossing tool! Its so fun and I cannot believe I have been making cards without it all these years! Since the glitter wouldn't come off from the first card I re-made the entire thing, and here is the final result!

Isn't it sooo much better looking?! I love how the embossed snowflakes came out :) Here's a closer view of them:

There's a few that look sloppy, but that is because I used the wrong powder at first- I thought the glittery white powder would come out white with glitter in it, but when I put the heat tool over it, they just turned transparent with glitter! But the nice thing about that is you can stamp over the already embossed image and put a different color over, and its barely noticeable!

Here is another card using embossing:

This is one of my boyfriend's mother's stamps, and they are so cute! Its a bird delivering two turtle doves. The clouds are embossed, and I might add some flock to their hats to make it just a little bit better :) I like the result, though.

And lastly, here is a card that I made without embossing, but I still like it anyways...

I got this big santa stamp at the Salvation Army for just a buck! My boyfriend says he looks evil, and that the list of naughty and nice children looks more like a hit list :( but I don't think it does! His name shoulda been put on the naughty instead of the nice list! :-p okay, that is it for now...possilby more coming, but school is getting crazy, as well as me making gifts. Until next time!

D

killin' time...

I'm dying my hair for the first time ever! It's not a dramatic change...I have- or, had- dirty blond hair but I've wanted chocolate brown since middle school so why the hell not? Right now I'm (im)patiently waiting for the 30 minutes to be up sooo to kill time I decided to blog! :) Last weekend I again didn't get too much done card wise but I thought what I came up with was pretty cute. I can't take all the credit though. I got my inspiration from the Hero Arts card blog . They have awesome ideas and they update frequently so check them out (if you haven't already!)

After my hairs done I'm gonna get started on this weekends cards...probably going to continue the holiday/Christmas theme. I know, its so early but I can't help it! I used to hate Christmas (okay, I'm still not completely warmed up to it but I'm getting there!) mostly because of the pressure to buy people things. It should be about family and friends and love and NOT about spending all your money on things people are going to toss in the closet and forget about anyway. Last year I got so many easy gift ideas from stumbling crafts and I'm starting to enjoy the season again. My dad used to always tell me when I was little that when someone makes a gift it means so much more and I agree completely. OOh! Times almost up! Ok here's my last week's card:

Okay that's it! I gotta go wash this gunk outta my hair and hope I didn't screw it up!! (which is most likely the case...)

More cards to come after the weekend!

D

frustrated

So, I have been following various blogs for card ideas and techniques and one of those blogs is Hero Arts (which you should add to your list right now if you haven't already!!). I have been wanted to participate in their challenges but I didn't have any of their stamps because I'm poor. BUT...they had a couple deals I couldn't resist. The first was if I spent $50, I'd get a free gift, and the second was a discount on the featured stamp of the week...long story short, I now have 3 clear stamp sets, two cling stamps and a wood block stamp from Hero Arts :) :) yayyy! and let me tell you, I never knew that there could be such a thing as a great quality clear stamp! They're thick and peel really nicely off the backing (some of my other brand's clear stamps I really had to pull and felt like I was going to rip it in half), so they were worth the $15 per set. Even though they are almost all christmas stamps I couldn't resist playing!

NEW STAMPS!

Free stamp set

Here's where my frustration begins. I've had a glue pad for awhile now, but I absolutely hate working with glitter. Yes, it is pretty but it gets everywhere and is impossible to clean off hands or clothes. However, I pushed my differences aside and decided to at least try it because it would make some of my cards look really nice. Here's the thing: if you just put the stamp on the glue pad, you'll get too much glue and it will stamp as a blob (i was using snowflakes, which was probably not the best to start out with), but if you use too little, there's not enough glue for the glitter! I finally found a somewhat happy medium and stamped my snowflakes and put glitter on and left it over night. I was informed by Martha Stewart's blog to lightly brush away the glitter using a paint brush, so I took out a small fan brush and pushed the remaining glitter off....but the darn thing took my stamped image with it!! There was no way to get all of the glitter off of the card without ruining the image. I tried a second time and the results were a bit better but some still look like blobs or just parts of snowflakes. If anyone ever reads this blog, could you give me some advice? I seriously need help. I might instead switch to heat embossing but don't have the money yet to invest in the embosser its self or the powders. Heres how the card looks:

See how some look okay and then others look like blobs of stuff? I can't seem to separate the loose glitter from the image without taking the image off completely! :( I might brush it all off and just buy white ink, but I really like how the glitter looks. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

Since this card took so much time to mess with, there are no others...but next weekend I'm hoping to get a lot done :)

This weekend's cards cont...

new toys!

I've had a cuttlebug for a few months now but couldn't afford any of the folders or die cuts until recently..and I finally got Spellbinders! :) Here's a few cards I made this weekend using the Spellbinders dies....

Just bought this lil' guy in the dollar bin at AC Moores. Isn't he so cute?

I haven't had a chance to figure out the embossing, but that will have to wait until next weekend. :( I'm not sure how much more fall cards I'm going to make...Christmas is just around the corner and I want to get a head start...but it still seems too early. But Jo-Annes already has Christmas cardstock out! So tempting...

For some reason blogger won't let me post more pictures in this post, so more to follow....

Fall is here!

Fall is probably my second most favorite season (after summer, of course). It's not so cold that I need a jacket and boots, but cold enough for sweaters and sippin' hot chocolate next to a cracklin' fire :) Here are my fall cards so far!

The pictures aren't the best, but I'm workin' on it! More fall to come :)

Manly cards

This is my first stamping blog, so it's not gonna look pretty or be filled with very much but I hope to continue to post my new creations throughout the summer :)
So the other day my boyfriend and I went on date night and saw Iron Man 2 (amazing!) and because he loves me oh so much we went in to A.C Moores n' bought so many goodies :) DCWV has finallyyy made manly paper! my search is over! I got straight to work when I came home to create what I find my best manly card ever done....aside from a toolbox card I made for my dad a few years back (it had a magnet so it would open and shut like a tool box, very creative if I do say so myself). Anyways, heres the final product:

more to come soon!