I do a ton of cooking and baking. During the cooler months I have my oven going at least a few times a week it seems. I usually don't buy a lot of baked goodies I make them instead. So I am always trying new recipes. I found this one last week. These are called Choco-Zucchini Cupcakes. They are so delicious. I had some shredded zucchini in my freezer that needed to be used. I wanted something different usually I just make zucchini bread. I wanted to use the zucchini and some chocolate and I found these and they fit the bill. Anything chocolate always does! You can find the recipe here. Make sure if you make them that you also make the peanut butter frosting to go on them. I also added the chocolate pieces and they are absolutely divine with it. If you don’t like zucchini don’t worry you really can’t taste it. It just helps add moisture to the cupcakes. If you grow zucchini keep this recipe on hand. Trust me they do not take long to disappear from your kitchen. You might even have to hide them. Give this recipe a try and let me know what you think.

Spring Crafts

I don't know about where you live, but we still have snow on the ground and Easter is only a few weeks away. So it's funny to be thinking about making Easter and spring crafts, but here we are. I decided to make some more little treat bags. I seem to be on a kick with those lately. These are made using the new line of paper from Papertrey. The cardstock is great to use for these types of projects. It's a heavy weight cardstock that holds scoring well, but is still pliable. Great stuff. I used some more Papertrey goodies to make the pattern on the paper. They are the Beautiful Blooms stamp set stamped with Versamark's Watermark stamp pad. Again one of my favorites lately. To fill the windows so the M&M's don't fall out I just used some acetate that I saved from stamp sets. I always keep a health stash of it for things like this. If you save the clear sheet that stickers or clear stamps come on this is a good use for them. I think that's crafting "Green" don't you? The Easter stamp on the tag is also from Papertrey. I think they turned out cute. I am loving that Beautiful Blooms set. I don't think the M&M's will last long in my house though. Too many little fingers to dig in. Well I'm off to work on some more crafts. Thanks for taking a look.

the goods:
cardstock: Papertrey
punch: Marvy
tag: Making Memories
stamps: Papertrey
ink: Versa mark (Watermark)
glitter: Stickles (Crystal)
other: ribbon, pop dots, scalloped scissors, M& M’s, clear gem

Monday Already?

So here it is Monday morning and I am left scratching my head trying to figure out where the weekend went. It certainly was a blur. Don’t you hate it when that happens? So no project to share today, but coming up this week I will have some non-card projects to share, recipes and some things that I am loving right now. However if you are into scrapbooking here are some new challenge blogs you might be interested in. One is OVERLOOKED a blog that challenges you to document those everyday things that might otherwise get overlooked. The other is Scrap Your Crap. The name alone just makes me laugh. The blog is about getting all that stuff that we hoard out and onto our pages. They are just plain fun blogs to check out. So since I can’t make a post without a picture here is some chocolate.Yumm! I need a little everyday especially on Mondays to get me going. This way you can have some too, but calorie free! So find some time this Monday to do some crafting. I’m sure going to try! Thanks for stopping by.

Use Your Stash

One of my creative goals for the year is to use up some of the product I have in my collection. Get the older stuff out so I can make room for new things that are inspiring me. So out the stickers came. I have a pack of these flower stickers that have been sitting around for a while. I’m not even sure where I got them or who makes them. I ended up using them on two cards and one layout. Here is one of those cards. This card is not something I would normally do. Not really my style, but I felt the need to push myself to do something different. I liked the results how about you? Just another basic card. The patterned paper and tag is from an older Christmas paper pack. So I used up some of that paper collection as well. Never be afraid to try a style or technique that may not be “you”. You never know what you might discover in the process and you might end up even liking the final results. Now go make something today.

the goods:
cardstock, patterned paper
3D stickers
stamps: PaperTrey Ink
brads: the Paper Studio
ink: Colorbox

A Birthday Card

Another card I made out of scraps. I randomly scored the brown cardstock and added a square of that patterned paper I made. I then added a smaller white square of cardstock on top of that. The sentiment and small flower were stamped directly on the white square. The butterfly was stamped on a separate sheet of cardstock, cut out and added with a glue dot. Amazing what you can do with leftovers isn’t it? So before you throw out your scraps take another look and see if you can make something with it. Thanks for stopping by.
the goods:
cardstock
square dies: Nestabilites
stamps: PaperTrey Ink

ink: Palette (Noir)

Snow Day

It’s snowing here. Has been all day. So today is a perfect day to put on a pot of soup and fire up the oven and make something tasty. This is what I have been doing today. A crafty girl has to keep up her strength right? So I will share with you the muffins I made. They are so good, fast and easy to make.

Coffee Cake Muffins
¼ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup chopped pecans
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1-½ cups of all purpose flour
½ cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 egg
¾ cup milk
1/3 cup of vegetable oil
Glaze
½ cup confectioner’s sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, chopped pecans and cinnamon; set aside. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, beat the egg, milk and oil and stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.

Spoon 1 tablespoon of batter into paper-lined muffin cups or a greased muffin pan. Top each with 1 tablespoon nut mixture and about 2 tablespoons of batter. Sprinkle with the remaining nut mixture. Bake at 400 degrees for 22-24 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack.

Combine the glaze ingredients; spoon over muffins
Yield: 1 dozen

As you can see from my picture above I did not add the glaze simply because these don’t last long enough. As soon as they are cool to eat they disappear and the glaze never makes it on them. So they are just as delicious with or without the glaze. I will post a cute “junk” project later today.

Clear Purse

A project using product packaging that was meant for the garbage. I got the idea from Nicole's blog. She has a great tutorial on her site if you want to make one. These would be great for presenting small gifts in or as favor bags for parties. You could customize the paper to match the occasion.

the goods:
clear box from a stamp set
paper: American Crafts
Twill: Martha Stewart
Adhesive: Terrifically Tacky Tape

Inspiration or Garbage?

One of the many things that inspire me is the left over bits and pieces left on my desk (or the floor) from one of my many crafting sessions. I have a hard time wasting things and throwing things away that have so much potential. Sometimes it’s those leftovers that make me think of new color combinations or to combine products that maybe I would not have otherwise thought to do. So I take those left over bits and see what magic I can make with them. I affectionately call them my junk projects.
Out of the mess on my desk I created this card. I took a scrap piece of lime paper and randomly scored it. Then I took a left over sheet of some patterned cardstock I had made using markers. Add in a few other things, and you have a cute card to pass along to a friend.
Take some time and check out the place where you create and see what you can make with your leftovers today. You might be surprised at what sparks your creativity.

the goods:

Cardstock: Unknown

Die: Nestabilities Small Square

Punch: Corner Rounder

Stamps:PaperTrey Ink

Ink:Palette (Noir)

What INSPIRES you?

More to come later.

Happy Valentines Day!

Diving In.....

Welcome everyone to my blog. I don't have much to share right now, but hang tight I'm working on it. Lots of inspriation and creative goodness to come.