Stampin' Mama: A mama that stamps

Bake it, Make it & Take it.....Ready for Strawberry Shortcake??

My mom and I realized that it's been WAY to long since my last Bake it, Make it & Take it post. Almost a month, in fact. To be honest, it's been so hot here lately that I haven't really wanted to bake anything. The hot and humid streak we had going on broke last night with a few storm fronts that swept through. If every day could be like today, I'd be in heaven! The perfect temperature, no humidity.....I even sat outside today on my deck to shoot the tutorial I just released today for my Stampin' Mama Tutorial Program. It was so perfect that I felt like turning my oven on because I was in the mood for something no summer can be without.

So....what did I bake today?

Why, Strawberry Shortcake, of course!

With strawberries just coming into season, this is the perfect time for baking up a batch of homemade buttermilk biscuits and serving them up with fresh, juicy strawberries.

My mom (Donna, from Spatulas, Suitcases & Corkscrews) created the most amazing buttermilk biscuit recipe EVER. I also love her recipe for fluffy homemade whipped cream (which is so easy to make!). You can check out her recipe here: Strawberry Shortcake.

I doubled the recipe and got 24 biscuits...and made sure to buy extra strawberries so that we'd have round two for dessert tomorrow night. (Oh....and for breakfast, I ate a couple biscuits with butter and strawberry jam right after they came out of the oven this morning!) Wednesday night is poker night here at the house with my brother, hubby, brother-in-law and grandfather (and they've even got me playing now!) and I always make sure to have something yummy on hand for dessert. Everyone loved it and I even sent my brother and grandfather home with an extra helping in a little container so they could have a round two of their own tomorrow.

When I was thinking about baking these biscuits yesterday, I had planned to bring some over to our neighbors. They're a cute young couple that bring us fresh farm eggs every now and then and I show up with treats on their doorstep when I bake. They brought over some eggs last night and today, I stopped over and handed them the cute package of biscuits you see in this post.

I did a couple things different with the recipe so I thought I'd tell you about them before I get into telling you about the packaging.

1) I didn't have any buttermilk on hand so I used 4 teaspoons of lemon juice (for a double batch) to my 1 1/2 cups of regular milk. This sours the milk when you let it stand for about 15 or so minutes and creates your own homemade buttermilk. You couldn't even tell the difference!

2) Because I doubled the recipe and my food processor is rather on the smallish side, I didn't use the food process at all. Instead, I cut my cold butter into more like shavings and then mixed the dough by hand, making sure to rub handfuls of the mixture to break up the butter and shortening into the mixture.

3) I was too lazy roll out the dough onto my counter and make a mess with flour all over the place, so I rolled balls of dough in my hand and then flattened them out a bit to make a round biscuit shape. Much less clean up this way and they still fluffed up very nicely.

So....on to the packaging. I couldn't really package up the strawberries (though I'm sure I could have found a way if I wanted to go that far), so I chose to package up just the biscuits and give them to our neighbors with a tag on the front explaining what to do with them.

I stacked 4 biscuits in a tall cellophane bag and tied it off with a pretty ribbon. I didn't want the biscuits to just be sitting in the bag without it looking all nice and colorful, so I made my own crinkle grass to go inside the bag. I cut some strips of Pretty in Pink and Certainly Celery and ran them through (three at a time) my crimper tool. I rolled them all together to create a ball and then flattened it out a bit and placed it at the bottom of the bag and stacked the biscuits on top. I love making my own custom made crinkle grass. I never have to worry about having crinkle grass that doesn't match and the paper grass doesn't get all over the place like that plastic grass does. Also, it's a great way to use up those long, thin strips of cardstock that you're hanging onto but don't quite know what to do with.

I wanted to create a tag that had some strawberries on it but realized that I don't own not even ONE strawberry stamp! Not one! I started thinking about what I could use to improvise and found exactly what I needed in one of Kitchen Sink Stamps' newest sets. I used the image that looks like a finial from the Plaid Plus set and turned it upside down to make it look like a strawberry (with Regal Rose ink). I then used one of the small swirled accent images in Wild Wasabi to serve as the stem on top of the strawberry.

On the front of the tag, I used one of the long plaid-maker images from the set and crossed it in the bottom right corner going vertically and horizontally with Pretty in Pink ink.

The new Other Important People stamp set came in VERY handy for the greeting on the tag. Both the words, "fantastic" and "neighbor," came from that set. And because the Whole Family set matches the font used in the Other Important People set, I could use the "For" without it looking like it didn't belong with the other words.

I created a border of strawberries on the back of the tag, along with directions on what to do with the biscuits in the bag.

The striped/polka-dotted ribbon came from a big box of ribbon that my friend (and muse), Jen, sent me. That ribbon is what gave me the inspiration for the colors that I used with this project. I used a piece of Moss gingham ribbon through the hole on the tag and then tied and secured onto the top of the bag.

If you wanted to do the whole shebang, you could tuck this cute package of biscuits in a basket with a pint of fresh picked strawberries and a can of whipped cream (since it would be hard to put a tub of homemade whipped cream in the basket). It's a great gift to bring along to a BBQ so that the host and hostess can have it the next night.

Here's the link for the recipe again: Strawberry Shortcake

Writing about all of this makes me hungry for round two tonight! Is it tomorrow yet???

Happy Creating!

-Stampin' Mama

Bake it, Make it & Take it.....Muffins with a Paper lunch bag package!

With all the running around I did last week to pick up the doggy, then try to find him a new home, plus having the kids off of school for two days, I didn't get a chance to put up a new Bake it, Make it & Take it Post. In fact, I didn't get much done last week at all.....that's how crazy it was.

Yesterday, I was feeling the urge to have my house smell like baked goods and to have something with my morning chai, so I whipped up a quick batch of muffins. Zach and I both got to share them, as he's been home for two days with pink-eye. He'll be able to go back to school tomorrow, but he and I have shared muffins and chai for breakfast for the past two days. That kid loves that combo just as much as I do. He's a boy after my own stomach. *wink*

One thing my dad always taught me is that there's no calories in something if you eat it standing up. Now...whether you choose to believe that or not is entirely up to you. I like to think that if I make my muffins with organic flour and unrefined sugar, I don't have to worry about all the guilt. A muffin is only as guilt-free as you like to think it is. haha!

To make these muffins, you can use my mom's recipe here: Basic Muffin Recipe

(and if you haven't checked out my mom's blog yet, you can see it by clicking here ---> Spatulas, Corkscrews & Suitcases.....she's amazing and will make you drool just looking at all of the amazing things she creates in her little sailboat)

Paper lunch bags have become some of my favorite things to dress up. They're inexpensive and they fun to decorate.

I started off with a plain paper lunch bag and cut a few inches off the top. I then folded the top of the bag over about 1 1/4 inches. I trimmed across the edge with a pair of scalloped edge scissors.

I used a stamping sponged with Chocolate Chip ink to sponge around the edge of the bag (just on the front side of the bag), along with the flap that I had folded over.

I used my circle cutter to cut out a hole in the center of the bag front and then sponged around the hole with Chocolate Chip ink, as well.

I have that big box of acetate that my friend, Susan, gave me and this came in really handy for making a window in the hole that I cut. I just applied some adhesive around the square of acetate and then slid it into place and adhered it up against the inside of the bag.

I used one of the flower bouquets from the Framed Flowers set (from GinaK Designs) and stamped that around the bag with Chocolate Chip ink.

For the "guilt free" image, I used one of the stamps from the What's in Your Tin? set 2 (also from GinaK Designs). This image actually reads, "guilt-free goodies." I chose to only use the "guilt-free" so I used my Chocolate Chip Stampin' Write marker to ink up the words I wanted and then stamped it on a scrap piece of Pretty in Pink cardstock. I trimmed the bottom of the cardstock with scalloped edged scissors and then mounted it on a scrap piece of Creamy Caramel cardstock, which I also trimmed with my scalloped scissors.

When I put the muffin inside the bag, I set it on top of a crumpled up piece of white tissue paper just to give it some filler inside the bag. I also placed a piece of waxed paper underneath just in case the bottom of the muffin cup was a little greasy. I didn't want there to be grease spots on the bottom of the bag. 

I trimmed along the edge of a piece of Pretty in Pink cardstock with my scalloped edged scissors and then lined it up against the edge of the bag top so that the scallops lined up. I made it a bit longer so that I could trim the sides after I'd adhered it.

I fold the bag top down and then punched a couple of holes with the rectangle hand punch (I punched one on top of the other so that it made a longer slot) and then threaded a length of brown and pink ribbon through the front of the bag. I crossed the ends on the back side of the bag and then ran then ends back through the holes. This created a "faux bow." I trimmed my edges and adjusted them a little so that they laid flat across the flap of the bag.

This bag didn't take much time at all and the cardstock that I used on it were all scrap pieces. This packaging probably cost me all of 10 cents to make! Talk about quick and cost effective, but attractive packaging!

Happy Creating!

 

-Stampin' Mama

Bake it, Make it & Take it.....Cookies in a see-through box!

Wow......the week in between last week's Bake it, Make it & Take it post and this week's seemed to fly by! I certainly don't mind baking another round of sweet goodies in my kitchen, though. You'll never hear me complain about that!

For this week's BIMITI post, my mom (Donna, from Spatulas, Corkscrews & Suitcases) gave me her fabulous recipe for White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies.

Now, before I begin telling you all about this project, I'm going to admit (confess??) a couple of things.

1) I've never been a fan of white chocolate. I know a lot of people LOVE white chocolate, but I have tried and tried, since I was a kid, to like it but I just can't. It's like a food item that wants so badly to be chocolate, it strives to be like chocolate, it even calls itself "chocolate" but it will never be chocolate. I feel like a traitor to real chocolate if I eat white chocolate.  But besides that, I've never really "acquired the taste" for white chocolate.

2) I love my mom's recipe, but seeing that I don't care much for white chocolate, I tweaked the recipe to suit my tastes. First off, I cut the recipe in half. As much as I love cookies and as much as I thought I would lose weight with my mom living on her boat 5 hours away and not giving me tons of yummy treats to eat, I STILL find myself getting a bit tight in the waistband. I knew that if I made a WHOLE batch, I'd eat all of them! haha! Instead of doing white chocolate, I poured an entire bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips into the batch and I substituted chopped pecans for the macadamia nuts. I've had a hankering for pecans (I only like them in baked goods, never raw.....wow, I'm picky!) so I threw in a whole bag of those, as well.

So, now that I've gotten my confessions out of the way, it's on to telling you all about my snazzy little see-through box that I made for these cookies.

By the way, my mom's recipe is one of the butteriest tasting cookie recipes you'll ever try! They just melt in your mouth!

On Tuesday night, one of the girls in my downline (*waves to Susan*) brought me a box of transparency sheets that her company was throwing out. A WHOLE BOX! Since Stampin' Up stopped carrying their Window Sheets, I've been voraciously hoarding my little bits, pieces and scraps of window sheets. Now, I have a whole box of 100 sheets that I can use and they're thick, sturdy and clear! Well, make that 98 sheets because I used two for this project. But.....who's counting, eh? *wink*

Now, the wheels in my head are turning a mile a minute coming up with all sorts of fascinating and brilliant ideas on how to use these sheets. A small part of me feels that "hoarding instinct" kick in and makes me want to put the box away under lock and key, but I'm breaking free from that! haha!

For this box, I used a basic origami box design. One of the things that I do differently with my boxes is that I don't fold corner to corner like it shows in the directions. When you do that, you get two cross-ways creases on the flat part of the box. What I do is find the center point of the paper with a rule and draw an "X" in the center. I use that as my center point to fold my corners in to. With a transparency, you can't really do that, so I used a marker that would wipe off of the transparency and put a dot in the center point (which I found with a ruler) and used that dot to fold my corners into. This way, you avoid having creases on your box top. You especially don't want them on a transparency box top because it would really show and "peak" up on the creases.

I cut my box bottom at 8 x 8 inches and my box top was cut just a bit larger, at 8 1/4 x 8 1/4 inches.

I know that the Apple Cider Designer Series paper is retired, but I just can't help myself from using it when it comes to packages with cookies in them. The colors seem to go so well with chocolate chips.

I cut a strip at 12 inches long and adhered it around the sides of the box top. It was just long enough to reach all the way around and overlap slightly at the ends.

Because I used double-sided paper, I didn't end up with a boring white border showing through the inside of the box. I got a second pattern on the inside! How cool is that? Sometimes I feel like I'm wasting paper if I'm covering up an equally awesome pattern when I adhere it to a card. At least with this little box, I get to see BOTH sides of the paper! Yes, I'm easily amused! *wink* Honestly, it doesn't really take much.

I didn't go overboard with decorating my box because I didn't want to cover up those beautiful cookies inside. I was able to fit two cookies in the box, though you could start with a larger sized piece of paper if you wanted to fit a few more cookies in there.

I tied a length of Very Vanilla grosgrain ribbon around the box and crossed over it on the bottom and then tied a big bow on top. I trimmed the ends of my ribbon on an angle for a nice, clean look.

I made a tag to go on top of my box.....and in the top picture of this post, the angle of the picture makes the tag look HUGE, but it's not really that huge!

I stamped the words "I made this just for you," (from the What's in your Tin 1 set from GinaK Designs) on to a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock. To get the different colored words, I colored directly onto the rubber stamp with Chocolate Chip and Really Rust Stampin' Write Markers (from Stampin' UP). Those brush tip markers work fantastically on rubber!

I rounded opposite corners with a corner rounder punch and did the same thing with a larger piece of patterned paper from the Apple Cider pack. I used my paper piercing tool, template and mat (from the Crafters' Tool Kit) to pierce some holes in the corners of the cardstock for some visual interest. I then mounted the greeting on top of the patterned paper, then punched a hole in the top left corner with my 1/8 inch hole punch. I threaded a piece of the new Chocolate Chip (see? that color was MEANT for projects with cookies!) Poly-Twill ribbon (found in the Occasions Mini Catalog) through the hole and then tied that in a double knot over the center of the knot on the Very Vanilla grosgrain bow.

Don't those cookies look amazing? Yes, I had one for breakfast, complete with a cup of chai to wash it down. Like my dad would call it, "The breakfast of champions!" Champion of what, I'm not sure, but it sure was YUMMY!

And just to tempt you even more, here's a picture of some of those yummy cookies on a plate:

You can find my mom's recipe for these cookies here:

White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies

Now, I'm hankering for some Hot cross buns......I might actually get up the courage to make some of those today. I don't do well with bread doughs (unless it's a quick bread recipe), so we'll see how they turn out. If they don't turn out so well, I can see why they'd be totally cross. :)

Happy Creating and Baking!

-Stampin' Mama

 

Bake it, Make it & Take it.....Peanut Butter Cookies with a Yummy Belly-Band

This post is well over-due.......it's been a while since I've done my last Bake It, Make It & Take It post.

For this post, I used a wonderful recipe that my mother (Donna, from Spatulas, Corkscrews & Suitcases) posted. You can find it by going here: The Best Peanut Butter Cookies

Oh......and speaking of my mom and cookies....she's got an amazing Give-Away of her own on her blog! You can win Martha's Stewart's brand new Cookies cookbook! Go here to enter: Cookie cookbook Give-Away

So.....on to my post about these amazing cookies.

This peanut butter cookie recipe actually belonged to my Great-Grandmother Doris Thompson and then she passed it on to my grandmother, Beth. My parents used to make these cookies when they had their bakery/cafe. They're not overly sweet.....they're just perfect.

When I was trying to figure out how to package these, all that kept coming to mind was stacking them in a tall cellophane bag with a belly-band, so that's what I went with.

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know I have a huge love for chocolate and peanut butter together. When I made my cookies, I couldn't just make them as plain peanut butter cookies. They HAD to have chocolate chips in them. My kids have gotten to the point that they pretty much won't eat baked goods unless they have chocolate chips in them. They ARE their mother's children. *wink*

I stacked my cookies in a tall cellophane bag and tied it up with a length each of Very Vanilla grosgrain ribbon and the new Chocolate Chip Poly-Twill ribbon from the Occasions Mini Catalog (it's also available in Old Olive).

To create the belly-band to put around the package, I cut 2 strips of patterned paper (one a tad wider than the other) from the Apple Cider Designer Series paper pack (now retired) because I liked the muted warm earth tones......they reminded me of peanut butter and chocolate. I adhered one on top of the other and then wrapped them around the package, securing the ends with Sticky Strip (aka: Red-line tape).

For a simple stamped greeting, I chose the word that came to mind: YUM  - Talk about simple and to the point!

I used the Playful Alphabet set from Kitchen Sink Stamps to stamp the letters on a scrap piece of More Mustard cardstock with Versamark ink. I sprinkled them with Black embossing powder and then heated them up. I cut them out, leaving a small border of More Mustard cardstock around the edges of the letters. I mounted the letters over the front of my belly-band with pop-dots for some fun dimension.

It doesn't have to take a long time or take a lot of "stuff" to dress up a package of baked goodies. A belly-band is a really easy way to make your baked gifts look fun and tempting.

I've already eaten my share of those amazing The Best Peanut Butter Cookies so as much as I want to dig into that pretty package and eat them all myself, I DO have plans to pass this little bag of goodies on. I'm going to be bringing them to the girls that work at our little town post office. They love baked goodies and they're always looking out for me. The postmaster even passes on her insect and bird books on to Zach, has caught and held bugs for him until I go in to get my mail and always has a candy dish out for the kids. I love living in a small town. The cookies will be a good way to show my appreciation to them.

(the peanut butter cookies at left were made by my brother in his bakery.....he makes HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of cookies every week.)

Don't forget to enter my mom's Cookbook Give-Away!

Happy Creating!

-Stampin' Mama

Bake it, Make it & Take it.....Granola/Trail Mix to-go!

According to Wikipedia: Soul food is an American cuisine, a selection of foods, and is the traditional cuisine of African Americans of the Southern United States and of black communities beyond. In the mid-1960s, when the Civil Rights Movement was just beginning, "soul" was a common adjective used to describe African American culture, and thus the name "soul food" was derived.

I like to think of "soul food" as anything that makes my tummy, body and soul feel good. "Soul food" takes on a whole different meaning to me than what that term was originally intended for.

Granola and trail mix are two foods that get categorized as "soul food" for me. I love the combination of grains and sweet honey taste, along with added raisins, nuts and especially those chocolately M&Ms (because everything is better with chocolate).

Growing up, my mom always made the most delicious granola. She has an amazing recipe and that's what this Bake it, Make it & Take It post is all about!

You can check out my mom's recipe here: Honey Raisin & Nut Granola

And you can check out her website for more tantalizing recipes here: Spatulas, Corkscrews & Suitcases

By the way, if you're new to my blog and you're wondering what the BIMITI posts are about....here's a quick run down. Once a week, my mom provides me with one of her awesome recipes and I create the recipe, then find a fun way to package up the goodies that I've made. I give you a link to the recipe and provide you with the creative inspiration to put together your own packages.

The cool thing about granola recipes is that, with a few extra additions, you can turn it into a trail mix recipe without much work at all.

To create my trail mix, I simply added some raisins, peanuts and M&Ms.

You don't have to stop there, though. You can add other things like:

* shredded coconut
* dried pineapple
* dried cranberries
* almonds
* cashews
* banana chips
* dried papaya
* dried apricots

* sunflower seeds

and more!

I adore granola and trail mix. So does the rest of my little family. We take this with us on any camping or hiking trip. I eat a ton of it in the summer time because it just seems like the thing to eat in the summer. My son loves to pick out everything but the raisins....and makes sure to eat all the M&Ms first. Silly kid. I eat my trail mix with precision. Each handful has to be a perfect combination of oats, a couple peanuts, an almond, at least 3 or 4 raisins and the same amount of M&Ms. It just isn't the perfect mouthful if it's anything but this combination. Can you tell I'm serious about my trail mix?

For this Bake It, Make It & Take it, I chose to package up my trail mix in a little gable box for easy carrying....on the go!

I used a cellophane bag to package up my trail mix. I folded the top over and then tucked it behind and secured it with a piece of scotch tape. This makes a nice tight bundle of trail mix that is easily tucked into a box.

I used a small kraft colored gable box to hold my trail mix. You can find a ton of them HERE. I like to start with a "naked" box so that I can decorate it however I like. I especially like the kraft colored boxes because I don't feel like there's a ton of "white space" that has to be filled up. It also has a nice "earthy, crunchy, granola" feel to it for trail mix. Hey, what more could a dreadlocked hippie want than a kraft colored box, decorated in rainbow colors and filled with granola/trail mix? Now, if it were only warm enough to put my Birkenstock sandals on! So much for spring.....it was in the 30s today and we're supposed to see snow in the morning in the higher elevations. Blah!

I used one of Kitchen Sink Stamps newer stamp sets, the Playful Ovals set. I had thought about using an oval stamp around the window that I cut out of the gable box, but then I got stuck on those adorable little arrows stamps that come in this set. I HAD to use them. And the arrow inside the circle reminds me of the M&Ms. What can I say? It had to be done. It's just one of those things.

The box didn't come with an oval cut out of it.....I had to do that myself. It was extremely easy, though. I used my Coluzzle Cutting system with the oval template to cut my hole. I slipped the foam cutting mat that comes with the system into the box, then placed my oval template on top and cut with the cutting blade. To give the edge a nice smooth finish, I took a piece of fine grade sandpaper and went around the opening.

I used a sponge with some Old Olive ink and sponged around the edge of the oval opening, as well as all of the edges of the box. It softens it up and gives it a little bit of warmth, rather than having all those stark plain edges of the box.

Originally I had planned to use a piece of acetate on the box to make a window in the hole I had cut, but then realized it wasn't really necessary because the trail mix was already in a cello bag. Plus, I like the look of a little bit of bulk from the bag poking out of the hole in the box.

I used the Playful Alphabet set (also from Kitchen Sink Stamps) to stamp the word, "food," across the gable above my hole. I used Real Red, More Mustard, Old Olive and Blue Bayou ink for my stamped images. The word, "soul," and the dragonfly beside it were stamped using Basic Black ink and a Hero Arts mini alphabet set.

Here's a view of the back of the gable box. I used the little circle-arrow stamp all over the sides and top with my four colors of ink in a random pattern.

By the way, there's a number of things that could be put in a little box like this. You can even go with a bigger box and fill it with cookies, caramel corn, chocolate covered pretzels, etc.

I added a tag to my box using an aluminum metal edged vellum circle. I punched a hole near the edge with a 1/16 inch punch, which is an ideal size to run silver cording through. I wrote the words, "for you," with a fine tipped black marker, since I didn't have any stamps that said those words that were small enough. Only after I wrote the words out with my marker, I realized that I could have stamped them out with my little alphabet set, but oh well. :) The marker worked just as well.

I added some "bling" to my tag in the form of buttons. I actually had buttons that match the Stampin' Up colors of ink I used on my box. The buttons are Stampin' Up buttons and I attached them to my tag using Mini Glue Dots. They carried over the theme of the colors I used, the round size of the circle-arrow stamp I used and the shape of the M&Ms. It's a simple touch but isn't subtle at all.

I tied the tag around the handle of the box using the silver cording that I threaded through.

If you want to see any of the pictures in this post in a larger size, simply click on the pictures themselves and a box will pop up with a larger view.

Here's that recipe again:

Honey Raisin & Nut Granola

You can opt to do this as trail mix or just as granola. I promise you that this will be one THE BEST granolas you've ever tasted. It's amazing in milk as a breakfast cereal. Most granolas have a very bland taste to them, but this granola will have you begging for another bowl. Even your kids will be asking for more!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Creating!

-Stampin' Mama

Bake it, Make it & Take it.....Muffin in a Basket!

I think I just might be the world's worst blogger these past few days. I promise that I'm still around, I haven't fallen off the face of the stamping world, I'm still creating, I haven't passed through the pearly gates of stamping eternity. *wink* Thank you for those of you that emailed to check in on me and make sure I was okay. That was so sweet of you!

It's been insanely busy here lately. I've got a huge list of creative deadlines that have needed attending to, plus I went "over the border" to Montreal on Saturday with a group of my wonderful downline girls for a Stampin' Up Regional event. I was able to meet some of my blog readers at this event and that was a VERY special treat!  (Just wanted to wave to Pascelle, Heather, Catherine & Jennifer!) This weekend, my  Go Scrap Yourself Retreat will be in full swing and I'm getting goody bags prepped and other odds and ends put together for it. The first and second wave of The Paper Bag Book Trilogy CDs were mailed out last Wednesday and Friday and those that ordered them should be seeing them in their mailboxes, if they haven't already.

I promised you all a new installment of my Bake it, Make it & Take It Feature for last week, but it never got posted. I DID make the muffins I had planned on making, but there were so many things going on that packaging up my yummy muffin never happened and they all got eaten. That was kind of a bummer until I realized I'd just have to make another batch of these beauties. Oh shucks.....more yummy muffins to eat. WhatEVER will we DO?

My mom (Donna, from Spatulas, Corkscrews & Suitcases) has an amazing muffin recipe that she's used for a long time now. I never get tired of eating these. They're light and fluffy and you can create so many varieties with the basic recipe just by adding different extracts and fruits to it.

You can find my mom's recipe here: Blueberry, Strawberry and Apple Cinnamon Muffins

My mom provides a basic muffin recipe, but she also gives you the recipe for making Blueberry, Strawberry and Apple Cinnamon muffins, as well.

The first batch that I made on Thursday ended up being Strawberry Almond. I didn't have any strawberry extract but I usually ALWAYS have Almond extract in the house. I love almond in anything. I put the extract in the muffin batter along with diced strawberries. I also sprinkled sliced almonds on top of the muffins before they went in the oven.

The batch that I made today had strawberries in them, but I had used up the last of my almond extract on Thursday, so I looked in my cupboard to see what else I could use. Another extract that I always have on hand (mostly for frosting) is coconut extract. So, my muffins today ended up being Strawberry Coconut muffins, sprinkled with some raw sugar on top. They were JUST RIGHT! I already have two muffins packaged in little bags to put in the kids' backpacks for school snack tomorrow.

When I was creating this little basket, the song, "A tisket, a tasket," kept going through my mind. Now I can't get that song out of my head!

I started with a basic origami box pattern and made the bottom of the box. Usually, I would make a top to go with it to create the box, but I wanted to do something a little different. This box pattern makes a really cute little basket when you add a handle to it.

I used a piece of Rose Red Prints Designer Series paper cut at 8.5 x 8.5 inches. This was a perfect size to fit a muffin into.

I used the same paper cut at 2 x 8.5 inches for the handle. I put a little bit of adhesive on the ends of the handles and stuck them inside the box to hold them there, then took a 1/8 inch hole punch to punch a hole through the handle and the side of the box. Normally, I would just use a regular brad to hold the handle in place, but GinaK's new Bling & Dazzle Mega Rhinestone brads were just the color I need to coordinate with the paper I was using.

I used the new Framed Flowers set by Carolyn King, along with my Rose Red and Garden Green Stampin' Write Markers (from Stampin' UP) to color directly onto the stamp to get that two color look. I added a touch of glitter to the flowers to jazz them up a bit. The flowers were stamped across some strips of Whisper White cardstock and then trimmed with a pair of scallop edged scissors.

I used my 1 1/4", 1 3/8" and Scalloped Circle punches to create the focal image that I mounted on the handle with pop-dots. I added some silver mini brads and folded ribbon scraps to the right hand side for some extra embellishment.

To get the scalloped edge look on the handle, I used a trick I learned at the Montreal Regional event that I just came back from on Saturday.

We were shown how to take the "guard" off the Corner Rounder punch and then line it up along the edge of paper or cardstock and stamp across it to create a running scalloped edge. I thought this was such an ingenious idea!

I didn't realize it until I finished creating my little basket was that I ended up having 3 scalloped looks to my basket. I have the scalloped edge on the handle created with the corner rounder punch. I have the scalloped circle of the focal image on the handle that I created with the Scalloped circle punch. Then I also have the trim at the bottom edges of the basket that I created with my scalloped edged scissors. Funny how all of that just came together like that.

I added some pink tissue grass that I had left over from all the spring themed workshops I did at the beginning of the month. I placed that in the little basket and then tied up my muffin in a cellophane bag with a length of white grosgrain ribbon (to match the ribbon I used on the focal image). I had to trim the top of the bag down a bit to make sure that it fit inside my basket and under the handle.

These would make great little gifts for teachers or co-workers. Or even to leave on the doorstep of your neighbors house. Or to give as little gifts if your church has an elderly care ministry.

Here's that recipe again so you can try it out: Basic Muffin Recipe

And now it's off to bed for me. I have another big, creative day ahead of me tomorrow!

Happy Creating!

-Stampin' Mama

Bake it, Make it & Take it.....Lemon Tea Cake Welcome!

I wanted to have this post up last week, but you know how life is.....unpredictable. I was able to bake yesterday and made a batch of delicious Lemon Tea Cake <---click there for the recipe. I did a half batch with that recipe and got 4 mini loaves out of it. One of the loaves can be seen at left, all wrapped up and already given as a gift. The other 3.....well, that recipe is SO good that there's only half a loaf left. My kids took some for their snack at school today and we've all been picking at them since they came out of the oven yesterday afternoon. Those little loaves are ADDICTIVE! Next time, I'm making a FULL batch!

So.....we have new neighbors that moved into the unit in the front of our building (there's 5 units total). I wanted to make something to welcome them to our little "neighborhood" and so I made a batch of this Lemon Tea Cake. Of course, you all know me....I can't just bake something and wrap it up in plastic wrap and be done with it.

It became just what I wanted to share on this week's Bake it, Make it & Take it!

You can get 4 small loaves or 2 large loaves out of the half batch recipe. And if you want to put some in the freezer or give some as gifts, the full recipe will make 8 small loaves or 4 large loaves. This is my mother's own recipe and it's VERY easy to make, even though it's "from scratch." Make sure you save just a little bit of the batter in the bowl at the end so that you can lick it off your fingers or the spatula! That's one of the best parts!

I always have a variety of sizes of Cellophane bags on hand because they work really well for a nice presentation of a homemade gift. They're great for baked goodies! I put the lemon tea cake in a cello bag and the end of the bag wasn't long enough to twist and tie with a ribbon, so I twisted it, folded the end over and used a piece of tape to hold the end down.

I find that a belly-band works really well to dress up a loaf of bread. It fancies it up, but you can still see plenty of that yummy bread to make you drool.

I used a couple of strips of patterned paper from the Blue Bayou Prints Designer Series paper. There's never any question of your colors matching when it comes to patterned paper when you use the Prints papers. I love that they have 12 prints in each pack and they all are made within one color and have a ery nice monochromatic look to them.

I found a piece of ribbon in my stash that matched the flowers on the top strip of patterned paper and adhered that across the strip, then wrapped it around the loaf of tea cake and secured it underneath with a little bit of Sticky Strip.

For the stamped decoration on top of the loaf, I used Kitchen Sink Stamp's new Playful Ovals set. I stamped the large flower oval on Blue Bayou cardstock (see how well it coordinates with the patterned paper in the same color?) with Versamark ink and then embossed it with White embossing powder. The word, "for," comes from a pack of rub-ons and the word, "you," comes from the Never a Loss 4 words set (also from Kitchen Sink Stamps). The little diamond shaped image under the words comes from the Playful Ovals set. I embossed that, and the word, "you," with white embossing powder.

I forget, sometimes, that I have decorative edge scissors. Remember how popular those used to be about 8 years ago? I used to have TONS of them, but got rid of about 15 pairs about a year ago. I was running out of room in my tool turn-about. I kept some scissors that were "staples" to me. Like the scalloped pair. I took those out and used them to cut around the flower oval. I then mounted that on top of white cardstock and cut that out with the same scissors.

I "blinged it up" by adding some self-adhesive rhinestones. White ones around the oval and a small blue one in the middle of the diamond image. I added a flower rhinestone at the top and added a small white rhinestone in the center of the flower.

I made a cute little tag to hang off the side of the large oval. I stamped the small flower oval from the Playful Ovals set on a scrap of white cardstock with Blue Bayou ink and then used a black fine point marker to write a little greeting. I cut this out with scissors and then punched a hole in both the tag and the large oval with my 1/16 inch hole punch. I threaded the tag onto some thin silver wire, hooked it up to the large oval and curled the ends of the wire with my stylus. That nifty little tool is one of the best tools you'll get for $2.50. It's great for curling the end of wire AND for applying rub-ons with fine detailing.

The large oval is mounted on top of the belly band with pop-dots.

I've already knocked on the door of the neighbor's place and got to meet both of them. They looked happy when I handed over my gift. :) Smiling new neighbors.....mission accomplished for today. Now, I'm gonna go eat me some of that last piece of tea cake. :)

By the way.....my mom has an awesome blog full of great recipes and you can get on her mailing list for updates. Click here ---> Spatulas, Corkscrews & Suitcases

And here's the link for that awesome tea cake again ---> Lemon Tea Cake

Happy Creating!

-Stampin' Mama

Bake it, Make it & Take it.....Gourmet Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Brownies

It's that time again.....time for another post in my new weekly feature: Bake it, Make it & Take it!

When my mom and I were deciding what recipe and project to feature next, she mentioned her FANTASTICAL Gourmet Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Brownies and I knew exactly what kind of package I wanted to use for them!

Of course, I was also ALL OVER making peanut butter cup brownies! If you've been around my blog long enough, you know that I adore chocolate and peanut butter together. I'm always looking for a good excuse to make something or eat something that combines those two pleasures of mine. I have given God the Blue Ribbon of Excellence for creating both the cocoa bean and the peanut. I'm hereby also giving whoever thought to put those two together a Blue Ribbon of Excellence, as well.

Last week, I bought a big bag of Reeses Peanut Butter Cups to use for these brownies and put them in my file cabinet. This is where my stash of candies goes. Yes, I file my chocolate! *wink* My hubby and my kids know this stash is there and I keep it pretty full so it's usually not a big deal if some of it "goes missing." I did tell them, however, that these were for a special project and they weren't allowed to eat them all. I knew the bag was getting low so when I went grocery shopping yesterday afternoon, I picked up a regular package of PB cups to supplement what was at home in my filing cabinet. When I got home and made the brownies last night, I opened up my filing cabinet to find they were all gone. Even the bag was gone. I was part surprised and part NOT surprised. I was NOT surprised that no one listened to me. The call of chocolate and peanut butter is a hard call to ignore. Put out as I was, I totally understood the need, the insatiable hunger, the burning desire, to eat those PB cups. I WAS surprised, though, that the bag was thrown out. Usually empty bags and containers are left for me to deal with. Kind of like the toilet paper roll (bet you didn't think you'd read about toilet paper and peanut butter cups in the same paragraph, did you???). I'll go in to use the bathroom and the toilet paper roll will be empty, but still on the holder. Is it really THAT hard to change it? Is it really THAT hard to throw away an empty bag? Or to fill an ice cube tray if you've already got it out and you're emptying it? Or to put the empty apple juice jug in the recycling bag instead of putting it BACK in the fridge with nothing in it? Apparently so....for the most part. This time, though, the bag was thrown out. I suppose someone was paying penance for having ate the last of the forbidden PB cups!

And I was informed by each of the "suspects" that they "didn't eat ALL the PB cups....everyone else helped eat them, too." They always have to get me on those technicalities, don't they?

Anyway.......I normally would fold in a bunch of chopped up PB cups into the brownie batter and then sprinkle some on top, but because I only had two lone PB cups, they were mixed into the batter and I had to settle with just the PB swirl on the top of the brownies. They were still delicious even if they WERE missing some of the PB cups. I think I'm going to have to find a new hiding place. *wink*

I'm sure that many of you have seen these cute little window tins with the little Hershey's Nuggets in them. Many people call them "Nugget tins" because they're the perfect size to fill with decorated Nuggets. I wanted to do something completely different with the tin, though. I used my tin to hold a couple of these delicious PB Cup Brownies. Perfect fit! I laid a piece of waxed paper on the bottom of the tin and put the brownies on top.

I created a "belly band" to go around the tin. This can be slid off to open the tin, which makes the tin great for "re-gifting" once the treat inside has been eaten (which won't take long, I assure you....these brownies are ADDICTIVE!).

I used some striped paper from the Cutie Pie Designer Series Paper pack for the band. I adhered it to give it a nice fit, but not too snug so that it didn't slide off easy. It fits nicely on the tin, but easily comes off and goes back on without sliding around. I adhered a piece of black gingham ribbon around it for some nice black and white contrast on the color. The black and white really pops out!

I used my Coluzzle Cutting System to cut out the Bashful Blue cardstock circle and adhered that to the top of the belly band. I then punched out a Rose Red cardstock scalloped circle using the Scalloped Circle Punch.

I used one of the greetings from the Punchy Words set from GinaK Designs and stamped it with Rose Red Craft ink on one of Gina's new Bling & Dazzle Plastic Tags. People talk about using these tags with paper or fabric to decorate them, but I prefer to use them "naked." I used my heat gun to dry the ink (make sure to let the tag sit for a while after heating it so it can cool down and so that it doesn't warp because it'll be pliable while hot). I threaded a length of silver cord through the little hole in the top and tied it off and trimmed the ends. I mounted the plastic tag on top of the Rose Red scalloped circle with a big pop-dot.

If you look back at the first picture in this post, you can see that I decorate the side of the tin with black gingham ribbon. This was easily put on with some double sided adhesive.

Because there are brownies in the tin instead of something stamped (I suppose you could stamp brownies, but I'm not sure what kind of effect that would give you), I wanted something else to dress up the tin, but I didn't want to go overboard. I searched through my bins and remembered these awesome little diamond jewels that I found at the the *cough* big craft store *cough." They were quick to put on and gave it the finishing touch that it needed. I mounted them on the ribbon around the bottom of the tin, as well as on the belly band and on top of the tin.

Here's a picture of the brownies inside of the tin.....now just imagine how much more divine they'd be if they had chopped PC cups on top. *licks lips and rubs tummy*

While I was opening up the package of Reese PB Cups for these brownies and I had to laugh at the little message on the piece of cardboard that comes in the package. It sums up my passion for the combination of chocolate and peanut butter so well (yes, I would consider my feelings for PB & chocolate to be a full blown "passion"). It said, "You shouldn't have to choose between chocolate and peanut butter." Talk about words of wisdom!

If you want to make the most delicious PB brownies, this recipe by my mom (Donna, from the Spatulas, Corkscrews & Suitcases Blog) is out of this world: Gourmet Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Brownies

My mom just put up a little Feedblitz box at the top of her blog, as well, so that you can subscribe to her blog and get an email every time she updates. You don't want to miss out on her recipes. I can attest that they're all WONDERFUL! I've eaten them all!

Happy Creating!

-Stampin' Mama

Bake it, Make it & Take it.....Birthday Party To-Go!

It's time for another post in my newest feature: Bake it, Make it & Take it!

(You can check out the first post I did in this feature by clicking on the link above)

My parents were up visiting for 10 days recently and, while they were here, my mother did her magic with cheesecake.

I don't think I've mentioned it here before, but I grew up in the food business. My mom worked in prestigious New England inns, upscale candy shops and then my parents started their own bakery/cafe when I was 12. I spent my mornings helping my father opening up the bakery before I went to school, then helped him close up at the end of the evening. My parents eventually went into the wholesale dessert business and we all helped out. Later on, my parents changed the focus of their business and we got into catering. My husband and I started our own catering business and worked that for almost 7 years before he finally went back in carpentry and I came home full time to work my stamping business 3 years ago.

Anyway......because we've all been steeped in food for so long.....it's always a guarantee that when my parents are around, we're gonna eat good. Last Friday, my mom came over to use my kitchen (my parents live in RI on their sailboat year round -going on 4 years now, so she enjoys having a real kitchen to work in these days) and my house smelled like glorious cheesecake! She made a total of 5 different kinds and then we all had to taste test them the next day....and again on Sunday! Oh, the horrors! (not really *wink*)

Mom had some cheesecake batter left, so we got to brainstorming and thought that we would use it up to make smaller cheesecakes! Muffin sized cheesecakes! (because, ya know, you can eat like 4 of those and not feel bad because they're small! hey - it works for me!) And because my mom and I have teamed up for this awesome feature, I have an all new project to share with you that's fun to make, will put a smile on the face of the person you give it to and it's good eatin'!

This project uses my mom's Chocolate Zebra Cheesecake Recipe.

By making mini cheesecakes in a muffin tin, and using a Large Round Tin with a window top (from GinaK Designs), you can create a "Birthday Party To-Go." These tins are a super deal at only $1.99 each and can be used for a multitude of uses. The possibilities are ENDLESS!

For the mini cheesecakes, we used one of the alternate options at the bottom of her recipe (my mom also gives directions on a marbled cheesecake, as well). We chose to go with the Mini Chocolate Chip cheesecakes. We lined a muffin tin with muffin cups and placed half an Oreo cookie in each muffin tin to use as the "crust." SO YUMMY!

To create the tin, I started out with a Large Round Tin with a window (from GinaK) and decorated it with a couple of strips of patterned paper from the Cutie Pie Designer Series Paper pack. I layered a length of  Pretty in Pink grosgrain ribbon around the tin. I also adhered a length of the same ribbon around the lid of the tin. I used some Sticky Strip to tack down the ends of the ribbon on the inside of the lid.

The little flowers that I used to decorate around the tin are also from GinaK. They're her new Plastic Flower Outlines from her new Bling & Dazzle line of embellishments. I pressed them into my Burgandy craft pad and then dried them with my heat gun to speed up the drying (make sure that if you do this that you don't move the flowers until they cool down because they'll be pliable and you don't want to bend or warp them and have them cool down and settle that way). I placed a mini gold brad in each of them and then attached them to the ribbon around the tin with mini glue dots. I used a total of 5 flower outlines around the tin. I also used one on top of the tin.

I used a greeting from Gina's How Sweet it is! set, which is one Gina's Stamps for a Cause sets. $7.00 from this set goes to help two Diabetes charities. I layered this on top of a piece of patterned paper from the Cutie Pie pack and then on a piece of Bashful Blue cardstock. This was put on top of the ribbon and tin lid with some pop-dots.

I mounted one of the Plastic Flower Outlines on top of the greeting to carry over the theme from the side of the tin.

Inside the tin, I used some white tissue paper to cushion the mini cheesecake muffin. I stamped the tissue paper with the little flower from the Tag, You're It! set with Purely Pomegranate ink. (by the way, that set was made especially to coordinate with the Bling & Dazzle Tag Assortment)

To complete the "Birthday Party To-Go," I placed a birthday candle on top of the cheesecake muffin.

This would be perfect to bring to work for a co-worker, to put in the lunch box for your hubby or significant other, for one of your kids' teachers, a boss' gift, etc.

Again, for this easy recipe (and alternatives), you can get that here ---> Chocolate Zebra Cheesecake Recipe

My mom also has a blog with some other recipes on it that you can check out here ---> Spatulas, Corkscrews & Suitcases.

Happy Creating, baking and eating!

-Stampin' Mama!