Recipe for crazy fun

Best way to enjoy an evening. First, get a four year old little girl who is game for anything. Second, decide to decorate gingerbread cookies. Third, make sure you have matching aprons. (A key ingredient in happy baking.) Fourth, do NOT take your eyes of said four year old...the icing does not last if you do. Lastly, once the sugar high has ended fall asleep!

Here is a layout I did of my niece, Gillian, and I making cookies. We had an absolute blast. I pulled out the Apron Strings Smaller than a Breadbox December kit. Which had a sampling of my little shoebox. This is from their Winter Wonderland collection. This paper is so playful and naturally I am hoarding the rest. You may see it pop up here soon, but for now it is under lock down while I decide on my next holiday layout/ project.

Crate paper arrived!!!

I ordered the Crate Paper 6x6 pad of Paper Heart collection. Such fun!! It is so Valentine-ish and romantic with hearts and flowers and of course, polka dots. I could not resist and decided to use this pack as the basis for my Valentines. Here is the first round.

Hope that you enjoy!

last of the Valentine tags...i promise...well, maybe

Hello, my name is Jana and I am addicted to tagging. (Here is the part when you say, "hello Jana.") That is right folks, I am unable to resist the call of the scraps. I think I have manage to use up every bit of scrap that was left. For some reason, making tags seemed like a better use of the paper than making cards. Do I need to make more Valentine cards? Yes. Do I have plan for tags? No. Yep, definitely caught up in the addiction and not thinking clearly.

Although sometimes, you just have to pull out your favorite paper and just start cutting. And that is what I did. Another great day of ink, stamps and paper.

Hope that you enjoy.

Love is in the air and all over the paper

So, I am really on a Valentine kick. I cannot bear to toss the scraps from my favorite Valentine paper. Thus I am making super small Valentine tags. I cannot help myself. What purpose do they serve? No clue. But they are a lot of fun to play with.

Hope that you enjoy.

a little bit of love in your heart

Here is another round of valentines. And these were made with paper that I have been hoarding since last Valentine's day. I am a serious hoarder! Luckily, I was invited to participate in a Valentine swap and therefore had a great excuse/ reason to use up the last of my favorite heart paper.

I started out thinking I was going to make one kind of Valentine and duplicate it. But it was more fun to play with paper combinations and stamp sets. Sometimes I get carried away. There is a bit of bling on each though.

Hope that you enjoy.

A good start

Scraps again! I pulled out some old fun PEEP scraps and Stampin' Up's Life Cycles stamps and had a ball. Nothing like some magenta ink and bling to make my day!

Here are my first round of valentines. I had a lot of fun using the tandem bicycle stamp. It is so cute that I cannot resist using it whenever I get the chance.

A little bit of scrap paper to bring a smile to the lips and put a little love in the heart. Cannot wait to send them out!

Mini cards are my favorite

While mini albums are not always my bag, mini cards are my favorite!!!! I love to play with three by three cards and dress them up in layers and fun. I cannot resist the playfulness of scraps and stamps.

Luckily there are a million and one ways to use little three by three cards. This bunch I decided to make for a few friends of mine. Every Christmas I make them some fun paper crafts. This year I am checking that item off super early! Here is a small (pause for laughter at the pun) sample of the cards.

Like I said most of this was done with scraps, but I know that I used some of Cosmo Cricket's Togetherness line. Cosmo Cricket never stops being a good time!!

Mini albums...another attempt

I love mini-albums! I love how they look and how creative people can get with them. I love how small and cutesy they are. However, I really have trouble making them. It is always a struggle for me to get it together and make it look...well, decent. I have an incredibly talented friend whose mini-albums are incredible. She is fabulous. So, I tried to channel her and go for it.

One bright spot is that I started with a great theme- Hawaiian vacation! I had some lovely photos and some incredible additions. I had vintage postcards, maps, and delightful travel stickers. First, I created the chipboard covers and kept them simple. Next, I did all my journaling on the postcards that I had collected. Lastly, I assembled all the parts and put them together.

Hope that you enjoy the result.

A good way to spend an afternoon

When I get a little free time and space on the dining room table, I like to play. I pulled out some old scraps from past kits, and a few extra embellishments. Then, I grabbed some buttons (hard to do any fun play without some buttons) and ribbon. And then it was good times. I worked on a few cards. A birthday card or two, a few thank you cards and a then just a few scrappy fun pieces. Nothing too adventurous but not too staid either.

Most of the scraps came from past Apron Strings kits. My Mind's Eye and Echo Park paper were the front runners in these endeavors. Sometimes it is just nice to have a great play date with glue, glitter and some dogs!

More scraps means more fun

I have found a way to enjoy when my beloved husband has to work late... I co-op the dining room table and craft like a crazy woman! It is a blast!

Once again the dining room table has been taken over with paper, heat gun, embossing powder, ink, stamps and paper. There is something about paper that calls to me, even in my sleep. :) I think my new weight loss plan needs to be paper crafting. I forget to eat and don't like to snack around the projects. This might work for me!

Hope that you enjoy the results.

My word for 2012 is SMILE.

Thanks to Scrapping Every Day Miracles and Sketchy Thursdays, I have a layout on my 2012 word.

Ali Edwards encourages folks to sum up what they want out their next year in one word. For the first time ever, I am finally doing it. Ali Edwards has been doing this project since 2006 and only now am I on board. I am seriously behind the times. But at least I am here.

When I decided what I wanted 2012 to be the first word that came to me was smile. I want to smile more. I want to encourage more smiles. I want to support smiles. I want to dream and smile. My dear husband refers to this as the smile-icious year. He never stops cracking me up.

I was debating whether or not to try and do a layout on my chosen word. When out of no where...okay, so in my dashboard on the blogs I follow came a prompt from Scrapping Everyday Miracles. It is a prompt encouraging us to scrap about our dreams for the coming year. That is right. My dream of more smiles is finally going to get some stage time. And thanks to Sketchy Thursdays, I have a layout plan to go with it.

Hope that you enjoy the results!

Experimental Challah

Several years ago, my sister in law gave me a fun Jewish cookbook which of course contains a tried and true challah recipe. This recipe comes from Bubby Irma's kitchen. And it makes four loaves of challah. On Friday, I sat down to make challah for my super husband only to find that while the recipe needed three eggs, I had two.

I decided to cut the recipe in half. First part of the experiment. Then I decided to use one egg and one egg white, leaving one egg yolk for brushing. Second part of the experiment. Next, I had some leftover dried cranberries and golden raisins. With the phrase "in for a penny, in for a pound" running through my head, I added them. Third part of the experiment. Lastly, Bubby Irma encourages half white and half wheat flour to make a great challah. Me? I just used whole wheat pastry flour and crossed my fingers. The fourth and final part of the experiment. How did it come out?

Dear husband was thrilled and finished a whole loaf within twenty-four hours. (He is so good for my culinary ego!) Hope that you enjoy!

Experimental Challah:

1/4 C olive oil

1/3 C honey

1/2 T salt

1 egg, 1 egg separated

1 C warm water

1 Packet of yeast

4 C of whole wheat pastry flour

1 C raisins and cranberries (or whatever dried fruit you have lying around the house)

1. Mix all ingredients together.

2. Dump out bowl onto a floured surface and knead. Bubby Irma says knead for 10 minutes, I go by feel. If it is elastic and smooth looking, I stop.

3. Let the dough rise in an oil bowl. (Place dough in bowl make sure all sides are oiled and dough is as well. Place a towel over bowl and let it rest.)

4. Punch down dough when it has risen. Let it rise a second time.

5. Then punch down and pull dough out to...that is right, braid it!

6.Braid dough. ( I wish I knew a trick, but I keep to the simple three strand bread braid.)

7. Brush with egg yolk.

8. Let bread rise on pan for another 20 minutes and then place into a preheated 350 degree oven. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

Getting ready for next year...

Okay, so January is here which means I have less than 12 months until next December. Seriously!! So, I am relying on Jingle Belles to get me up and moving towards a new Christmas card goal. This week's prompt calls for presents. We can have presents on the card or we can use wrapping paper. I went with a fun present stamp given to me by my good friend, Dara. I pulled out my Apron Strings kit and played with some Echo Park paper. I really layered on the paper. I could not seem to stop myself. Hope that you enjoy.