Just in time for the holidays, Paper Crafts is releasing a new book called PC Gourmet. It combines two of my favorite things - food and paper crafting! Paper Crafts shared an example of one the recipe/project combos that you will find in the book. This Cheesy Garlic Drop Biscuit and Halloween Tag combo was designed by Alisa Bangerter. Recipes for the biscuits and instructions for the tag are provided below. I made these biscuits this week, they were super easy to make and tasted very yummy, they would be excellent with warm soups and stews. I'm really looking forward to the release of the book and seeing the rest of the recipe/project combos.

Cheesy Garlic Drop Biscuits

INGREDIENTS
2 c. flour
2 tbsp. granulated sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2/3 c. butter or margarine
1 1/2 c. grated cheddar cheese
1 1/4 c. milk
Chives (optional)

DIRECTIONS
Mix together dry ingredients. Cut in butter with pastry cutter until mixture is fine. Add cheese and mix well. Add milk and stir until just moistened. Drop by spoonfuls onto greased baking sheet. Sprinkle top with chopped dried or fresh chives if desired. Bake at 400 degrees for approx. 15 minutes.

Enjoy Halloween Tag

SUPPLIES: Cardstock: (ivory) Dye ink: (Black) Stewart Superior Corp.; (Summer Sun) Stampin’ Up! Specialty ink: (Mango Lemonade color wash) Stewart Superior Corp. Color medium: (black chalk) Craf-T Products Accents: (black brads) Making Memories; (chipboard bat, moon) Melissa Frances Fibers: (black striped ribbon) Pebbles Inc. Font: (Black Family) www.dafont.com Adhesive: (foam tape) Finished size: 3" x 4 1/2"

INSTRUCTIONS: 1 Make tag from cardstock. 2 Crumple tag and smooth out. Spray edges with color wash; let dry. Apply chalk. 3 Ink chipboard moon; let dry. Chalk edges and adhere. 4 Ink chipboard bat; let dry. Adhere with foam tape. 5 Print sentiment on cardstock; trim and tear edges. Chalk edges and adhere with foam tape. Attach brads. Attach ribbon with brad.

I joined the Doris Castle Creative Team!

I couple of months ago I joined the Doris Castle Creative Team, I met her through PrimaHybrid. She is fabulous and her designs are really soft and pretty. You can find her products at scrapbookgraphics.com. Here are couple cards I made this weekend using a couple of Doris' kits (Explore Your Passion Kit - Papers and Words and the So Loved Kit - Papers and Flowers).

Some Recently Published Cards!

The latest issue of Paper Crafts (October 2008) is full of great fall/halloween projects. I was fortunate to have some of my cards included in this issue! :) One is shown below:

This following card was included in this issue as an on-line bonus project. You can get instructions to make this card here.

This makes three posts for me in three days. Maybe a new trend?!?

Thanks for stopping by :)

One of my cards was on TV!

That's what the email said that I got from Bandy at CKMedia! They took a few cards to feature on a Salt Lake, Utah local morning show to promote World Card Making Day and Card Creations 6. She also included the link to the video clip of the TV segment (see below). It was so cool to see my little card sitting on the studio desk. The segment is worth watching, Susan Neal from Paper Crafts Magazine takes you step by step through making a very cool birthday card made by Ana Cabrera: http://studio5.ksl.com/?nid=61&sid=4392920

Today is World Card Making Day!!!

I've been an awful blogger and I have lots of projects to share from the past couple months. I am going to work on getting that stuff up this week, but today's post is all about World Card Making Day! It is held on the first Saturday of October and there are lots of ways to join in the fun today. There is lots of info at the http://www.worldcardmakingday.com/ website.

Paper Crafts Magazine was the founder of World Card Making Day, and as such, they are always a big sponsor of the Day. Their annual World Card Making Day Card Contest has great prizes, they pick 20 winners, and your cards need to be postmarked by October 20. Last year, I was one of the lucky ones with the card below. (The card shown in the large box below is the one Paper Crafts selected last year, the ones shown in the smaller boxes are the others I had made as part of this set.) Paper Crafts publishes the winners in their magazine, it was very exciting for me, it was the first time I had anything published! So I hope you all give it a try, this year it could be you!

Studio finally ready for action!

I am very excited that my studio is ready for action! It took a few weeks to get it done, and I still have some things to do (wall art, covering some storage boxes with cool paper, and making key sheets for my stamps - I put them all in CD cases). But, for the most part the room is ready. I managed to get a day to play in the new room (I made some quick and easy hybrid cards - see below) before I had to go a week-long busniess trip. So, now that I am back I'm really looking forward to this weekned and spending some time creating. Hope you get to do something creative this weekend too!

These are my latest cards. I used a couple quick and easy hybrid techniques. One technique is to use a digital scrapbook quick page, just reduce it to card size, print, attch to card and embellish. The other technique is combining a digital paper with a digital element (flowers, swirls...) in photo editing software, print the graphic, crop to card size and embellish.

For product details see my gallery.

Happy National Scrapbooking Day!

Happy National Scrapbooking Day!!! To celebrate, PrimaHybrid is having a crop party all weekend! And today, some of the PrimaHybrid Flower Girls are having a blog party where we are providing free layout templates. My template design is based on the layouts provided below, please download the template and enjoy! If you use it, drop me a line here, I would love to see your work! There are links at the bottom of this post to all of the other girls blogs where you can find a NSD template gift, check them out!!!

click on template below to download blog party gift

• Di Hickman - http://dihickman.blogspot.com/


• Andrea Gourley http://www.andreagourley.blogspot.com/


• Kristin http://wyowoman.blogspot.com/


• Jess Gordon http://scrapbookideas.wordpress.com/


• Cindy Gilchrist http://analteredstate.blogspot.com/


• Amy Martin http://alb52.typepad.com/


• Angel Hartline http://angeltown.typepad.com/


• Indah Permata Sari http://inskidahv.wordpress.com/


• Melinda Staley http://myscrapcorner.blogspot.com/


• Monika Martinson http://monma.blogspot.com/


• Cathy Pascual http://paper-cat.blogspot.com/


• Margie http://margiescreativity.blogspot.com/


• Heather http://designrecollections.co.uk/blog

Happy Spring (seed packet) Card

This is a fun little card I made for PrimaHybrid. It is a card with a little gift attached (the little flower head raised off the card is actually a little packet that contains seeds). The tutorial below was in the last PrimaHybrid newsletter. If you don't already get the newsletter you can sign up here, there are always great ideas in it!

If you like the concept of this card, there is a challenge at primahybrid.com (based on this card) to make a card or layout with some kind of interactive item. Fun stuff! Go over and check it out.

SEED PACK CARD TUTORIAL

1.) Open the digital papers and embellishments you want to use, I used Vera Lim's Vintage Garden for this card.

2.) Next, I opened a new file and using my ruler guides and the rectangular marquee tool, I selected a square area to represent the final size I wanted for the card. I made mine a 5" square (a little smaller than the 5.5" square pre-made cardstock card I was using for the base). After I had the selection I wanted, I used the "stroke" tool to create an outline around it. This outlined box represented the boundaries for my graphic.

3.) Then I brought in the digital elements I wanted to use, started playing around with the different papers and elements until I had a design I liked. But sure to include text somewhere on the card indicating the seed type and what sort of climate conditions are required.

4.) For the most part, I used the papers and elements as they were in the kit, with just some resizing and such. However, a few elements did get some alternations. On the flowers, I erased a leaf from each and moved the other leaf around on the stem until I liked their placement. On the tag, I created a darker green outline by using the magic wand to just select the outer frame of the tag, then used this selection to create a mask so I could "fill" the shape with the dark green paper.

5.) The flower closest to the seed packet text will serve as the packet to hold the seeds. To make the packet from the flower, you will need two extra images of this flower. They need to be mirror images of each other so they line up when attached back to back.


6.) So, the next step, is too plan out how to print the elements of the card design. This is based on how much layering you want on the final piece. When I know what elements need to be printed individually and which need to be printed together, I just turn the various layers on and off to get the views I need. As I turn the layers on and off I copy each of the views/elements I need for the card onto a new sheet for printing.


7.) Once this sheet is printed, I cut out all of the pieces. I left a white edge on the two flowers that will be used for the seed packet. I think it will make it stand out a little more on the card and provides some extra room for the seeds.


8.) Assemble all but the two flower heads (to be used for seed packet) onto the card. I attached the background image to a green card base and then attached the tag and flowers with pop-up dots. I added a second butterfly, which I only glued at the body so the wings could be folded up off the page.

9.) For the seed packet, add glue on the back edge of one the flower graphics, stay really close to the edge with the glue so you will have room to fill the shape with the seeds. Leave one side open so you can get the seeds into the shape. I was able to fit a whole pack of Cosmos seeds into this flower. Once you have the seeds in the flower, glue the shape closed and attach to card.

10.) Finally, add other embellishment to the card. I added some gems and ribbon.

NEW Ribbon Storage!

I love Ribbon Ring!!!! I previously stored my ribbon on chipboard cards within baskets. I liked the way looked, it was nice and tidy. But the baskets were packed tight making it hard to get the cards in and out and I was always sticking myself with the pins that help the ribbons on the cards. So, when I saw someone post this picture of the Ribbon Ring system on Scrapbook.com, I thought I would order it and give it a try. Well, I love it!!! I added some hooks to the inside of the closet door in my studio and now I just open the door and all this ribbon is right there! It is so accessible. It did take a couple of evenings to get it assembled, but it should be easy to maintain it now. I organized by color this time and it looks so pretty! (It was organized by manufacturer when I had in on wrapped on cards)

Also, I found some little labels at the office supply store that fit perfectly on the Ribbon Ring tags. I used these to add the manufacture name to each tag. Getting all of the labels printed and attached took less than an hour - it was totally worth it! And I printed some extras labels of each brand so I wouldn't have to print a just a few labels each time I get a couple pieces of new ribbon.

Anyway, so that's it, and it's kind of insane how happy this new ribbon storage makes me, but if you are in or have been in that crazy obsessive organization mode, you know exactly what I'm talking about. :)

Cherry Blossom Festival and Kite Festival

The weather is starting to get really nice in DC and that means...Cherry Blossom Festival! I went down the tidal basin the first weekend of the festival and the blossoms were really beautiful! I got some really good photos; they are going to be perfect for scrapping! :)

Also that day, The 42nd Annual Smithsonian Kite Festival was taking place, it was so cool to see all of the kites on the Mall, it was hard to get good pictures, but I think you can kind of get the idea from the one below. Anyway, that was my first really enjoyable weekend outside since last fall. Yeah for spring!!! Hope you all are getting to enjoy some good weather as well!

I've been tagged...

I was tagged by Simplegrl at scrapbook.com. Here's how it works: You post 7 random facts about yourself on your Blog. At the end of your blog list 7 people you are tagging. Let them know that they are tagged by leaving them a comment. I am tagging the following people and while you are checking out their responses, look at their galleries, amazing inspiration in there! Puppet, JBeans, Queen of Paper, MaggieMom, ScappySusan, Lizzy Wurmann G, and Tracy Jackson.

Here are seven random facts about me:

1. I can listen to Davis Gray all day and not get tired of it
2. Peonies are one of favorite flowers (I am not that fond of roses)
3. I dyed my hair once, I was in college and I dyed it black (of course)
4. The book I am reading right now is Giving by Bill Clinton
5. I have a slight addiction to Teavana tea
6. I think I will die without Diet Coke
7. I can be an obsessive organizer (especially with scrappy supplies – see some images below of flower storage)

Flower Storage

Storing flowers this way may seem a bit obsessive, but it saves me a lot of space. There are many, many jars and packs of Prima flowers in a single tray here. What do I do with this space I save, well, I fill it with more flowers of course. :)

Hope you had a nice Easter holiday!

Hope you all enjoyed your Easter weekend! We went to my family's near Pittsburgh, PA. It was a very nice time with lots family and lots of good food. My favorite is my mom's Easter cheese, not sure how many of you know what this is, but it is essentially eggs, milk and sugar. Some poeple think it is bland, but I love it with ham on homemade buns, yuummmmeee! My contribution to the food was the Easter eggs, I did have to do a little rushing around to get them done in time, but I think they turned out pretty cute.

Free Template!

If you are here for the party, WELCOME! If you are a scrapper that just happened upon this blog, you are in luck! Today, the PrimaHybrid Flower Girls are having a blog party. There are links in the previous post to all of the other blogs, they have free templates also, check them out!!! My template design is based on the layout provided below, please download the template and enjoy! If you use it, drop me a line here, I would love to see your work!

click on template below to download blog party gift

Prima Hybrid Blog Party

Prima Hybrid is having a blog party to welcome the new Flower Girls. I am so excited that I am actually one of them, the other girls are fabulous. You really should stop by their blogs (links below). Today each girl will be offering a free template on their blogs, you won't be disappointed. Also, on primahybrid.com they always have these great hybrid helpers that you should check out. They are digital templates to make boxes, baskets and such. The latest one is a great little basket, perfect for easter treats!

• Cindy http://www.analteredstate.blogspot.com/
• Melinda http://myscrapcorner.blogspot.com/
• Andrea http://www.andreagourley.blogspot.com/
• Jess http://scrapbookideas.wordpress.com/
• Cathy http://paper-cat.blogspot.com/
• Teresa http://www.teresavictor.com/perspectives
• Danielle http://www.danielleflanders.blogspot.com/
• Di http://www.dihickman.blogspot.com/
• Amy http://alb52.typepad.com/
• Indah http://inskidahv.wordpress.com/
• Julie Ann http://jshahin.blogspot.com/
• Monika http://monma.blogspot.com/
• Jamie http://twogirlsdesigned.blogspot.com/
• Kristin http://wyowoman.blogspot.com/
• Laura http://www.primahybrid.com/gallery/member.php?uid=125&protype=1
• Patty D. http://scrapbookdimensions.com/blog/?p=265#more-265

First Entry...Yippee!

I have really been enjoying hybrid design lately, so I took a chance and submitted to be on the Prima Hybrid Creative Team. I got selected...YEAH! Well, they wanted to have a blog party to welcome us new girls... which sounds fabulous right... well, there was one problem with that for me... no blog. It's been on "the list"... I'm sure you all have one of those "lists" as well. So, now here I am entering my first entry into the blog and trying to get something ready so I can use it for the blog party today. I am not sure how good of a blogger I am going to end up being, but I guess we're gonna find out. :)