Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge

I was able to play along in the Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge this week. Here is the sketch:



I needed to make another Mother's Day card so that is what I made with this weeks sketch.

And here it is:

I decided to go with a 6x6 card which I rarely use but I couldn't get what I wanted on an A2 card which is what I the size I use most.

I used an aqua blue mat and inked it with Vintage Photo distress ink. Next layer was made with a round 6" Fiskars border punch which I have had forever and this was my first time using it. Yeah! I cut a smaller circle in a lighter pink and inked it with Vintage Photo. I had the Papertrey Ink die cut border in white cardstock leftover from a previous project and decided to use it.

I stamped my sentiment on white cardstock in Vintage Photo distress ink using Stephanie Bernards Stamps of Life and the crown is a Technique Tuesday stamp. I added pearls to the crown. I backed it on dark pink cardstock and inked the edges with Vintage Photo. The crochet flower is a purchase I made from an Etsy shop called Annie Designs. She has some beautiful crochet flowers in her shop. This card is for my MIL who loves to crochet so I thought she would like the crochet flower. I added some pearls to the middle of the flower and the leaves were made from a sizzix die that I embossed with the Swiss Dots embossing folder from Cuttlebug.

Here is the inside:

I used Hero Arts stamps and Vintage Photo distress ink. I stamped all three stamps at once by lining the stamps up the way I wanted on the card and then layed an acrylic block large enough to fit all the stamps on top and pressed. Then all I had to do was ink it and stamp once.

And that is my card.

Hope you enjoyed it and maybe learned something new.



Vintage Paper Flowers

Added another item to my Etsy shop today! A set of seven vintage paper flowers:

They look so pretty all nestled together. They are made from pages of a vintage dictionary and measure 2". I used two different flower punches and punched six layers from each punch for a total of 12 layers for each flower. I then inked each layer of the vintage paper with distress inks.
Here is a close up of the flower inked with Spiced Marmalade:

Here is a close up of the flower inked with Walnut Stain:

And here is a close up of the flower inked with Broken China:

I used pearls or gems for the centers of the flowers.

I also used Peeled Paint, Fired Brick, Tumbled Glass, and Scattered Straw distress inks. I loved how the flowers turned out and it was fun matching up gems and pearls for the centers. In fact I have a few more colors of distress inks that I could make another set of flowers. It was fun to see how each color turned the vintage paper into a pretty flower.

If your are interested in this set of vintage flowers you can visit my etsy shop at:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/jenneresa
My favorite is the Broken China with the pearl center. What color flower is your favorite?

Banners for You

I have a new item in my Etsy shop: Banners. They are die cut out of white cardstock and can be used on cards, scrapbook pages or would be a great little gift for a anyone that scraps or makes cards.

The large banner measures approximately 5"x1/2" and the small banner is approximately 31/4" x 1/2".

Each set comes with 32 banners. Sixteen large and sixteen small banners.

Here is a card that I used the large banner on.

And here is a card with the small banner. The cards are A2 size (51/2" x 4 1/4").



You can find my Etsy shop here: http://www.etsy/shop/jenneresa Take a look around and while your in Etsy visit some other shops. You can find all kinds of wonderful things there.
I hope to get more cards and other embellishments up in my shop soon. In fact the cards here are something I have been working on. I plan on making them a set of six, 3 designs, 2 of each and they will come with tags. I just need to get them done.



A Sweet Bunny

Edited: I just so happened to make tissue paper flowers for some of my Easter cards and couldn't resist playing along in the Tissue Paper Magic Challenge in the Moxie Fab World and I have a story to tell about the tissue flower.
I sent my daughter, who is away at college, one of these cards for Easter. I called her to ask if she had gotten her Easter package. She told me she had and that the tissue flower looked so real that she had to smell it just to make sure it wasn't. :)

I made a second Easter card using my favorite bunny stamp. I just think he is adorable and I like putting things under his paw so it looks like he is carrying something. In this case, a carrot:

Here is the card:

I used Creative Memories Custom Cutting System to cut out the large egg and the small egg shape in the middle of the large egg. I embossed and inked the outside and inside edges of the egg and punched a double loop border with a Martha Stewart border punch. The flowers are made out of pink and white tissue paper and inked the edges with Vintage Photo and Peeled Paint distress ink. I used 3 sizes of Papertrey Ink dies to cut out the flowers. There are fifteen layers of tissue paper for each flower layer and are held together with a brad. I seperated each layer and crumpled the tissue paper up towards the brad. I decided that the petals needed more ink so I gently brushed the ink pad over the entire flower and I think they look like carnations.

I stamped Happy Easter on the inside so it would peak out of the small egg cut out and added some pearls to the sentiment.

 Green ribbon is wrapped around the base of the green pattern paper. My sweet little bunny is stamped with Vintage Photo distress ink on white cardstock and is colored with Antique Linen distress ink. The carrot he is holding is stamped on water color paper with Vintage Photo ink and clear embossed. I then used watercolor pencils to color the carrot and cut it out. I made a slit along the bunnies arm and slid the carrot underneath.



  I was really pleased with the way the card turned out. Very spring like and a little bit on the shabby chic side which I love the look but find very hard to do.

Wishing everyone a very happy Easter and spring!



Colorful Little Guy

It turned out to be another sunny day today! Unbelievable that we have had two days of sun. Of course we have had rain but not during the day.
I spent almost the whole day out in the garden and it is really starting to look nice. As I was cleaning up leaves and pulling weeds I found this guy:

I ran into the house to grab my camera hoping he would still be there when I got back. I snapped all the pictures I wanted and he just sat there the entire time. I filled my bucket and he was still sitting in the same spot. I went and emptied my bucket and when I came back he was gone. I looked and looked but I couldn't find him anywhere.

In the 12 years that I have lived here I have never ran across one of these before.

Does anyone know what he is? I'll see if I can find him in one of my books.



Cheeseburger Macaroni

Found this recipe on http://www.kevinandamanda.com/ . This recipe reminded me of the Hamburger Helper version but much healthier and almost as quick.

1 lb lean hamburger meat
1 pkg taco seasoning
1 can Rotel tomatoes and green chilies ( or petite diced tomatoes)
2 cups beef broth (or water)
1 cup elbow macaroni

Meat Mixture

Brown and drain hamburger meat. Stir in taco seasoning, Rotel, beef broth, and macaroni. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat and cover pan. Simmer 12-14 min or until macaroni is tender.

Meanwhile, make the cheese sauce:

3 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

3/4 cup milk

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Cheese Sauce Mixture



Melt butter in a saucepan. Whisk in the flour and cook, whisking for 5 min until fragrant and light brown in color. Whisk in the milk and bring to a boil. Whisk until smooth and thickened. Remove from heat and stir in the shredded cheese  until melted. Add the salt and pepper to the cheese sauce. Pour the cheese sauce over the hamburger mixture. Stir gently to combine.
Serves 4

Cheeseburger Macaroni

The first time I made it I followed the recipe except I used whole wheat flour assuming they used all purpose flour. It was good but just a tad too spicy hot for my mild palate. The second time I made a few changes: 

1) I used ground turkey instead of hamburger

2) Used a can of diced tomatoes with green chilies instead of the Rotel to make it a little more mild and  

3) Used whole wheat macaroni.

It came out great. It was a bit less hot and it was even healthier with the whole wheat macaroni and turkey.





Dead or Alive

Last fall while I was pruning I was tired of my butterfly bush being in the way of the path even when I prune it each year. So I really cut it back. Waaay back!
This is what I saw this spring:

Oops! Maybe I killed it. I was feeling sad as I really loved my butterfly bush. But on closer inspection I saw this:

Yeah, signs of new growth! I'm sure it will be ok now and grow back even fuller than before. But we will be needing some warmer weather and sunshine for anything to grow around here.

Spring please hurry up!! 



It's Here Again...

the rain has returned. I knew the sunshine wouldn't last too long so I was up bright and early this morning and headed out to do some more weeding. Sure enough after  an hour later I noticed the sky was no longer blue but grey with dark clouds.

I still had quite a bit I wanted to get done so I hurried along and filled this 5 gallon bucket 18 times to finish the job without getting wet.



If you find a lot of these guys crawling around in your yard or garden that means you have healthy soil. I guess ours is pretty healthy because I see lots of them.

The sun did come back and it sprinkled a bit then the skies clouded back up. I went to the post office and it started raining. By the time I got to Safeway it was snowing. When I came out it was raining. The temperature dipped and the wind came up so it was back to winter again. So much for washing the car today.



Rain, rain go away. Come again another day!

Hope you are enjoying spring where ever you are!

Great Therapy Session...

...out in my garden today! Four hours of sunshine and pulling weeds can do wonders for a persons soul. Although I still have many hours of work ahead of me I made a pretty good dent in the biggest of my flower gardens. It also has the most weeds every spring for some reason. There are also lots of pine cones, needles and small branches that have to be raked up before I can weed. Did you know that a pine tree sheds 1/3 of its needles? And they all fall in my flower garden or so it seems.
I did find a few signs of spring:

These mini daffodils have bloomed every year we have been here. Don't daffodils just make you smile? 

The purple plant is heather I believe. This poor plant hasn't done very well in the garden and have thought on moving it somewhere else but it looks really good this spring. So maybe I will leave it alone and see how is it does this year.

I am hoping for a couple more days of dry weather so I can at least get the back garden done. In Feb. I did get my hydrangeas trimmed and the flower beds along the front of the house cleaned up and weeded so the front can wait a bit longer.

What are your favorite spring flowers?