We have a WINNER!

Happy Saturday (at least for me)!  Hope you're enjoying your day and thanks to everyone who visited during the Hero Hostess Summer Picnic Blog Hop!  We had such a great time and thank Hero Arts so much for featuring us this past week on their wonderful Blog!!

Here are the links to start each day if you missed it:

• Day 1

• Day 2

• Day 3

• Day 4

• Day 5

My Hostess sisters really outdid themselves so check it out!!  Also, remember that Hero Arts will be doing a random draw for prizes from comments left on various stops along the way.  Watch the Hero Arts Blog for that announcement.

And now, for the big moment - DRUM ROLL, PLEASE - the winner of my prize:  #190

Research Randomizer Results:
1 Set of 1 Unique Numbers Per Set
Range: From 1 to 213 -- Unsorted
Results: 190

 Thalia said...

Cute card! Great idea and a yummy recipe. Thanks for sharing

July 24, 2013 at 8:35 AM

 

Thalia - please contact me by Saturday 8/3/13 to claim your prize.  Unclaimed prizes will be saved for future drawings, not necessarily on my blog.  Thanks for stopping everyone!!

 

Hero Hostess Summer Picnic Blog Hop

Welcome - it's day 1 of the Hero Hostess Summer Picnic Blog Hop!  When the hostesses hopped in January with new 2013 Hero Arts stamps, we had so much fun we decided to do a summer hop in July.  How time flies - before we knew it, we were planning our virtual picnic!!  Each day this week, at least 4 hostesses will share a project and a recipe!  Today's line-up:

Deborah Nolan

Emily Leiphart

Sarah Moerman

Linda Wetterlin (you are here)

Kathy Racoosin

 If you're following the hop in order, you should have arrived from the fabulous Sarah's blog.  You may have begun the hop at the Hero Arts Blog; if not, be sure to visit there.  If you encounter any broken links, please contact blog@heroarts.com to report it.  Hero Arts will award prizes from randomly drawn comments made on ANY of the stops on the participating blogs (including the Hero Arts Blog) ANY day this week.  The more comments you leave, the better your chance of winning!

 

When I think of a picnic I think of a colorful checked tablecloth and ANTS!  Where there's food, ants follow (despite what our banner says - LOL)!!  So, I created a card with a tablecloth background using a fun new brush stroke image from Hero Arts' new Stamp Your Story line.  Several sets have a brush stroke but I used the clear one in CL696 Notebook Essentials, one of my favorite sets in the new line.  It was super simple to create a full line by stamping from one side, then flipping the stamp and connecting it to the other side.  I cut the ants on my Silhouette SD using Design ID 12134 by Hero Arts.  The sentiment is from CL695 My Words - I just love the variety of words and images in this set (also from Stamp Your Story).  The speech bubble is from CG523 Psst! which has 6 bubbles and 3 sentiments.  The paper for the ants is from Basic Grey - I added some googly craft eyes from Michael's using Glossy Accents and popped them up with foam tape.

 





A Perfect Day for a Picnic!!

 

My recipe came from Dad's sister, my Aunt Jeanette.  Our family loves this salad and it's perfect for a picnic.  When I make this salad, I leave the dressing off - that way people can add as much as they wish and the leftovers stay crisp.

 

 Crunchy Salad - Serves 6

Dressing:

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 4 Tablespoons sugar
• 2 Tablespoons vinegar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Accent (optional - it's a brand of flavor enhancer containing MSG)

Salad:

• 1 head of iceberg lettuce
• 6 ounces sliced almonds
• 4 Tablespoons sesame seeds (I buy the jarred ones in the spice section)
• 5-6 pieces of bacon
• 1 cup chow mein noodles (the crunchy ones)

Directions:

• Combine dressing ingredients in a jar or other shaker, cover and shake vigorously to mix well.   Set aside. 
• Chop lettuce and place in large bowl.
• Fry bacon until crumbly, drain well and crumble over the lettuce.
• Toast the sesame seeds and almonds until golden brown (do them separately as the sesame seeds cook a lot faster than the almonds - I know this from experience!!).  Add both to the lettuce and bacon.
•  Add chow mein noodles to salad bowl just before serving so they don't get soggy. 
• Add dressing and toss well just before serving, or leave the dressing off for people to pour onto their own serving and just toss the other ingredients.  Some dieters may prefer a low-cal option so I usually bring along a ranch or fat-free French dressing - both taste yummy with this crunchy creation.

Hope your picnic doesn't have any ants - just hungry guests! In addition to being entered into the Hero Arts drawing, if you leave me a comment (one per visitor please) by midnight PDT on 7/26/13, you will also have a chance to win a Hero Arts limited stock Brush Strokes cling set and a Basic Grey 6x6 Carte Postale paper pad from me. I will do a random draw on 7/27 and post the results. 

Your last stop on today's hop is the amazing Kathy Racoosin's blog.  Kathy always impresses with her coloring skills and I can't wait to see what she's created for our picnic! 

Thanks for hopping with us today and remember to stop by the Hero Arts Blog for more Hostess Hopping tomorrow through Friday.  Have a wonderful day!!

Bowling for Barbershop

Hi everyone - most of the time my blog is about stamping but I have to include the singing part of my life now and again.  Today my chorus, City of Lakes from Minneapolis, participated in a Sweet Adelines International fund-raiser called Bowling for Barbershop.  What fun we had from 1 to 5pm at Pinstripes in Edina MN!!

Here's my team, the Bari Strikers:

I chose that name because I sing Baritone and we, obviously, wanted strikes in our scores.  Well, the strikes were few and far between but we enjoyed our time on the lanes.  There was no competition involved - no prizes awarded based on scores.  It was all for fun.  It only cost $10 per person to bowl three games, including shoes.  And what delicious food Pinstripes serves!  We ordered the chicken avocado flatbread - wish I had a photo of it - yummy!!

When I bowled on a league years ago, I had an average of 151.  Well today, I was glad I broke 300 for my 3 game series!  Guess I should've practiced a bit beforehand!!

After bowling, we headed over to the bocce ball courts - they have three at Pinstripes.  Heidi and I took on Stella and Mary (Heidi's mom).  Elaine had left us and Mary's team hadn't started bowling yet so she joined us at bocce.  I had never played and had a hard time throwing the ball gently!  Many of my throws ended up hitting the back wall - a dead ball - darn!  I got better with practice but Stella and Mary triumphed, reaching the magic 7 to our 2 points.  Here we are:

     

 

Thanks for stopping and I hope you visit the Hero Arts Blog this week for some special fun!

 

Stamping Fun in Bloomington MN

Hi all - I spent much of the day at the Bloomington MN Rubber Stamp Show.  Held at the Ramada Inn near the Mall of America, I had time to make a quick visit to the MOA Archiver's.  There I picked up a prize to offer for a fun event coming next week (be sure to start each day at the Hero Arts Blog). 

Before I talk about the show, here's a card I made for a friend who sprained her ankle last week.  Denise isn't usually a klutz so who knows what happened.  Luckily she didn't break anything and her new puppy she was carrying didn't get hurt at all!!

I'm showing this card as it contains a hint about the prize coming up next week....can you guess?  Anyway I used three sets from Hero Arts: CL613 Thinking of You Kite (sentiment), CL674 Circles (textured circle), and AC026 Brush Strokes (paint splotches) all of which are such fun sets.  I masked off the area for the sentiment on a lilac Hero Arts card base and stamped the circles and splotches in some fun Distress Inks - Salty Ocean, Shaded Lilac and Dusty Concord and a Hero Arts Neon Green.  Sentiment is stamped in Hero Arts Navy mid-tone ink - love it!  Then I stamped the heart from Brush Strokes on a piece of patterned paper and trimmed it, popping up with foam tape and adding a gem and Stickles.

So what did I buy at the show?  Lots of stuff I couldn't live without - LOL.  Here's my haul in two groups:

On left - Prima paper, Our Daily Bread bookmark stamps and matching Spellbinders, Memory Box butterfly dies and Crackbox Palace cling stamps (my mom's having foot surgery so I couldn't resist them).  On the right: Raisinboat clear set (darling gumball machine), vellum from Stamp-on-it!, Stamps by Judith & Heather in the upper right corner and B&J Art Stamps in the bottom right corner.  Lucky me - I won a door prize which got me the window from B&J.  The Raisinboat group offers stamp rentals, just like you get movies, through the mail!  They had some adorable sets that I wouldn't want to own but would like for a card or two!  Sorry - I'm too lazy to link to the sources... Hopefully I'll get inky with these soon, except for one which is a gift.

The show runs tomorrow from 11a - 4p if you live in the area and want to check it out.  Thanks for stopping and be sure to pop back next week for more fun!!


Card making and baking can mix - sort of...

My AZ sister and I spent today shopping, crafting and baking.  We had such a great time together!  Tami did the actual baking - her special chocolate chip cookies that she calls "cow pies".  Here she is moving the cookies from the baking sheet to a rack to cool.

 

The first batch wasn't completely cool when I grabbed one - yummy!

So while the cookies bake in the oven, Tami and I are both making cards.   A Papyrus card in the rack at Caribou Coffee inspired Tami to make a button covered heart for her grandaughter Anni.  Here she is making her card - notice anything?

Yes, somehow a pile of buttons found their way onto the hot pad meant to be ready for removing cookies from the oven!!  So when the buzzer sounded, she ran for the kitchen (we were crafting on the dining room table) without her hot pad and had to find another one - LOL!  Luckily there was another pad readily available - no burned cookies - yay!  Here's Tami's completed card - beside various buttons, she added some Hero Arts gems and sentiment from CL342 Everyday Sayings, an older clear set:

I love the sentiment on the diagonal!  Meanwhile, here I am adding Stickles to my one layer for the latest Hero Arts contest, SimpleSummer:

 

And here's my finished card - I used a fun new alphabet set CL699 Sketchbook Letters from Hero Arts Stamp Your Story line along with some graffiti stamps from a new cling set AC026 Brush Strokes from the same line.  Oh - also used some of the new daubers in 3 fun colors - Pale Tomato, Butter Cup, and Tide Pool.

 

 

I don't make many one layer cards so this has been both fun and challenging for me.  Can you see the bitty dots in the buttercup brush stroke?   The dauber ink had pooled on the stamp and rather than try to blot them off, I just let them dry like that - kinda cool effect.  I originally stamped the letters with the Tide Pool dauber but decided to overstamp them, offset a bit, with black for more definition.

 

Hope you're enjoying a crafty holiday week!  I'm off all week from work so am really enjoying time spent with friends and family.  Thanks for stopping!!