Inspired by our recipes

The current Hero Arts Hostesses are cooking this week, then making a card or project inspired by our recipe.  See our discussion for more details.  I kicked the week off with my Peanut Brittle. 

The recipe came from a friend of my mom's and I've been making it for 5 years, usually at Christmas but it's really a yummy candy treat anytime!  So I must thank Bev Thiede who gave me the recipe:

Peanut Brittle1/2 cup water
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 cup white granulated sugar
1 cup raw Spanish peanuts
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Combine first 3 ingredients in a sauce pan.  Heat on the stovetop to boiling (235 - 240 degrees F on a candy thermometer).  Add peanuts and continue cooking on medium high heat to 300 - 310 degrees F, stirring to keep peanuts from sticking to the pan.   Remove from heat, quickly stir in baking soda and vanilla and watch it foam!  Pour onto buttered cookie sheet.  As soon as edges get firm, pull and stretch the candy until it's thin.  Once it hardens, break into bite size pieces. 

And here's the card I was inspired to make:

I used Hero Arts stamps - floating flowers cling, cling dots, the Envelope pattern Design block and a sentiment from a clear set Celebrate Everyday.  I smooched the flowers, inked with Wild Honey Distress Inks, with the dots inked in Antique Linen Distress Inks.  Then I clear embossed for a glossy peanut brittle look.  For a great video on smooching, see Jennifer McGuire's post on the Hero Arts Blog.

Thanks for stopping and if you try making the peanut brittle I'd love to hear about it.

Wow - it's been a while!

Can't believe it's been over a week since my last post.  Lots has happened, including my birthday.  One of these days I'll try to show all the lovely cards I've received!  I had such a fun day, mostly spent with chorus (City of Lakes) activities - including our Singing Valentines.  Here's a photo of my "retired" quartet Chord Company with our former chorus director (retired for 10 yrs now), Mary.  Mary happens to be our lead singer's mom and has coached us for years; she is a dear friend!  She got a Singing Valentine from a former chorus member Maggie who happily lives in a warmer climate!

Oops - Jan forgot to wear her red shirt but she had red striped socks!  Don't ask me why the photo has all the bubbles... 

I was excited to get a cake and a box of chocolates from some coworkers and these lovely flowers from my lead singer, Heidi.

And now for a card.  I have a birthday twin in the Hero Arts Flickr group - the sweet Brenda.  Sent her this card for our birthday.

I just love these flowers from Hero Arts - Brenda got this pink one but I kept the purple for myself :)  Made this gate-fold card out of yummy Bazzill Dotted Swiss card stock but turned in horizontally for this one.  The label (by Tim Holtz from Sizzix) is glued just to the top 1/2.  Fun heart trim from May Arts and the sentiment stamp is from Hero Arts.  Thanks for stopping!

TV appearance!

Hi all - so excited to have been on TV today!  Watch us here on the Thursday 2/10 Twin Cities Live show!  They interviewed two of our members - sweet Kelcey and wonderful Janet and showed clips of the chorus City of Lakes & my "retired" quartet Chord Company.  Yesterday they had teasers for the show, featuring my quartet, and it was fun getting phone calls and emails from people who saw it.  Still hope to have time to make a card later today but probably won't get it posted here.  You still have a chance to order a singing Valentine by email if you're interested - my quartet recorded it for this fun chorus fundraiser.  Thanks for stopping and have a great night!

Misty's coming to visit!

Who's Misty? you ask.  Misty is my brother's cat who visits me periodically.  I loooove Misty - she's so sweet!  As you can see in this photo from her last visit, Misty makes herself right at home.  She loves to jump up on my Crop in Style and take a nap.  One time I had the lid open and she didn't realize it - fell right in!  Thankfully there wasn't anything in there sticking up to hurt her.

And now to today's card.  I wanted to create something using this month's Hero Arts contest technique of kissing.  See this awesome article by Shari Carroll on the technique.  Just about everything in this card is kissed - Clouds kissed with Envelope Pattern, Cityscape kissed with Floral Scallop, Row of Houses kissed with Envelope Pattern, "grass" Classic Fabric Design kissed with the notes from Musical Clef - all Hero Arts stamps.

Thanks for stopping!

Blog candy winner and another birthday card

Hi all - drum roll please - the winner of my blog candy is Linda van Vliet - congrats!!  I will Flickr mail you for your address, Linda.

I'm home sick from work today but after my doctor's prescription, I'm hoping to be on the mend within 3 days.  Life goes on though and I had to make a birthday card for my birthday twin, Lynn.  I'll need to put it into the mail later this week so she gets it on Monday. 

On Super Sunday Karen hosted a Scramble over on the Hero Arts Flickr Group which I missed due to our ravioli making.  Thought I would play along after the fact to make a card using more than one fold.  I made this gate fold card patterned after a cute card I made at a make 'n take by "We're Stamping Mad" in Osseo MN.  They used different materials, including punch hearts.  I thought a stamped heart would work great and used the scalloped one from Hero Arts new Valentine set Love Every Day.  Please ignore the inky finkers in photo 2! 

Funny how photos pick up odd colors - the hearts look purplish in photo 1 but they're pink.  The Bazzill Dotted Swiss (love it!) card stock is hot pink, not purple as it looks in photo 3, and I stamped the sentiment on a pale pink Basic Grey using Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  The birthday sentiment is from a favorite new Hero Arts set called Find Joy and the crystal hearts come from Hero Arts too.  The patterned papers are from BoBunny's Crazy Love Collection.

 

 

Super Sunday

Just got home from a fun afternoon with friends and am settling in to watch the Super Bowl - GO PACKERS!!  Yes, I'm a Cheesehead but that's another story.

I have three friends with February birthdays.  We usually gather sometime during the month to celebrate with some fun activity.  Today we made handmade ravioli!  My friend Linda is part Italian and has made several trips to Italy and Sicily to visit relatives.  She has some amazing recipes, including today's pork roast pasta sauce with ravioli.  I was surprised how easy it was to make (of course, I wasn't running the pasta press).  I brought a cute little strawberry and chocolate mousse cake (from Kowalski's bakery) to celebrate.  Here we are with the cake - Linda 2/7, Mary Jo 2/2, Lynn and I both on 2/14.

And here's the card I made for Linda's birthday (forgot to keep a copy of Mary Jo's card and Lynn's isn't made yet!):

I was bound and determined to use this beautiful lace by May Arts, even if it didn't really match the shade of paper I embossed.  Basic Grey paper - can't remember which pack as they get all mixed up in my pile - embossed with Tim Holtz Patchwork folder (Sizzix).  I covered up the 13 in the upper corner - didn't like the unlucky # - with a bitty EK Success punched butterfly.  Hero Arts flowers and gems and sentiment, stamped on vellum.  Just got this sentiment at JoAnn yesterday - maybe a classic design (1995) being brought back by Hero Arts?  It had one of the new green HA stickers in the corner.  Just loved the large size of this sentiment but didn't want to fully cover up the embossed background so decided to stamp on the vellum. 

Wish you could've all been there for yummy pasta.  Manga, manga!

A Blog Feature .... and some blog candy

My friend Lin (quilterlin on Flickr) let me know that my Hero Hostess Blog card was featured today on the Simon Says Stamp Blog!  How thrilling - I really enjoyed making that card (see my post from 1/31/11 here too).  I just had to share this with my Hero Arts Flickr group and decided to offer some Blog Candy to announce this new blog 'o mine, just started last week.  So here's the blog candy:

Forgive the bad photo as it's dark here already!  I had a fun day shopping with a crafting friend - we visited four stamping stores, including Archiver's and Anchor Paper where I picked up these fun items for my blog candy:

• Hero Arts Whimsical Houses clear set
• Hero Arts Art Flowers
• Hero Arts Mixed Accents
• Basic Grey Pyrus 6x6 paper pack

Just leave me a comment on this post by midnight Monday night (my time - North America CST) to be included in the random draw.  I was so excited to figure out how to use a randomizer - no need to pull names outta the hat anymore!!  Thanks for stopping and sharing the end of an exciting week for me!

Final two Hero Hostesses added!

My friends Sharon and Sally were announced today on the Hero Arts Blog as the final two Hero Hostess of our group!  Big Congrats to both of them!!

Heather, Anita, and I are so excited to have them joining us!  We have all selected our apron colors - Hero Hostesses traditionally have their Flickr icon changed to a colorful Hero Arts apron image to denote their status in the Hero Arts Flickr group.  It's very easy to spot an active hostess who can help people with questions and provide inspiration.  Our apron colors in Flickr are Purple (me), Green (Heather), Fuchsia (Anita), Aqua (Sharon) and Pink (Sally).  Our friend Sarah Jane put up a challenge Love that Color Combo over on Flickr to create a card using those colors.  I just had to quickly respond to celebrate this amazing week with my 4 other Hero Hostess friends.  Here's my card:

Another Valentine

The Hero Arts contest this month involves the themes of Love and Friendship.  Made this card with the heart in the fun new clear set Love Every Day; the sentiment is from another new clear set Celebrate Every Day.  I just love Bazzill Dotted Swiss card stock and Core'dinations stock that comes pre-embossed!  I just bought the Eyelet Square Nestabilities by Spellbinders and this was the first card I made with it, using the smallest square.  Thanks for stopping!

Anita joins Heather and me as Hero Hostesses

Today my friend Anita, whom I met at the '09 ScrapFest at Mall of America, became the 3rd Hero Hostess of the Class of 2011.  See her beautiful card here.

Anita is the bubbly one of the group - she likes to plan fun get-togethers and activities.  That's how I first met Anita, over lunch at MOA during my first ScrapFest.  She organized a Christmas card (2010) and Valentine card (2011) exchange over on Flickr - both were so fun.

So, big congrats Anita!! 

And now for a card - just made this tonight.  I get together with two friends weekly to scrapbook or make cards.  I had a birthday card to make for Karen, a gal who sang in a quartet with me years ago - Rhythm and Rhyme.  We had lots of fun together and I wish her a wonderful birthday coming up on Saturday.

This one uses some new Hero Arts stamps I just love - the Classic Fabric Design and the Musical Clef (set of two) and the Envelope Pattern (like the inside of a security envelope).  The latter was stamped on kraft card stock and then overstamped with the treble clef.  I stamped the Classic Fabric on a piece of Basic Grey paper and overstamped with the musical notes.   Off I go to get this ready to mail! 

Another Hero Hostess Joins Me!

So happy to report that my friend Heather donned a green apron today to become the second of this new class of Hero Arts hostesses.  Please see her lovely friendship card here.  She tells me the purple panel stamped with music is for me - I'm honored!  And it'll be such fun working with her on the HA Flickr group!  Announcements will continue the rest of this week so I'll be sure to post each one! 

And now for a couple of sympathy cards using the same Hero Arts Delicate Leaf Cluster set  in different ways.  I made these to sympathize with Bridget (wife) and Hero Arts coworkers of Mike who passed away in January after a battle with cancer.  Jennifer McGuire hosted a card drive to offer condolences.  I love this leaf image - it makes such serene sympathy cards.