So since today's posts were all about the PJ Party, I decided to share the recipe for the yummy (EASY) dish I brought. I call it Toffee.

Ingredients:

• 1 sleeve of Saltines (about)
• 2 cups brown sugar - I used 1 dark, 1 regular
• 2 sticks butter
• 12 oz pkg. Chocolate chips - I used mashed up Hershey's Kisses, so I wouldn't have to run to the store. (I have also used 1/2 chocolate chips, 1/2 butterscotch oooh yummy!)
• Finely chopped nuts (optional) - I normally don't care for nuts on my sweet stuff, but there is something yummy and crunchy about putting it on this toffee.

1. Lay crackers side by side in 10"X15" jelly roll pan (cookie sheet with sides on it.)
2. Bring butter and sugar to boil and continue boiling 4-6 minutes or so.
3. Pour toffee over crackers.
4. Bake at 400 for about 5-7 minutes. (Watch carefully so it doesn't burn.)
5. Sprinkle chips evenly over toffee. Wait a few minutes for them to melt.
6. Spread melted chips to edges and smooth over toffee.
7. Sprinkle nuts over the top.
8. Fast cool to set in refrigerator, or slowly on counter.
9. Crack a piece off and enjoy!



These went fast at the party and even faster when I brought the extras home.



Close up of the yummy layers!

I'm a Little Tea Pot

This is the other one I did at the PJ party Friday. I have had this picture since March, waiting to scrapbook it, but I was frantically working on the Anniversary project.



This was inspired from a sketch posted by Jen on my Meetup.com scrapbooking group.





The inspiration sketch:

Nudie Patootie

I attended a PJ Party crop Friday night. I was so looking forward to it, and it lived up to my every expectation. Don't you love it when that happens? So much better than getting your hopes up and then dashed.

Anyhow, I tend to eat and talk more than I actually scrapbook (& I'm okay with that, it gets me out right?), but this time I got 2 pages done.

The pink and minty colored paper are from the Sweet Stack. I love the tag from My Minds Eye, The Laundry Line. It says, "Oh how much better the sandbox can be when there's nothing between it and my booty." I got a bunch of Thickers on sale at Hobby Lobby. Score!! Little bit o' Sassafrass Lass paper strip and scallop. Then a sweet tag from the first tag swap with my scrapbooking group. (My sil, Heather, happened to make this one.) Credit to my friend, Mary, for helping me with the idea for the title.

Then Came Marriage

Another layout in the massive 35th Anniversary album. I have to say again how perfect this K&Co line of paper and stuff was for my theme.



This first page has my parent's engagement photos. Notice that the "Then" title has little wedding ring doo-dads attached to it. Super-imposed images were hot stuff in the 70's. Awww how sweet, she is on his mind... You should have seen the one where their faces are in the punch bowl. I even found an original wedding invitation, which I scanned to create a mini embellishment perfect for this "I do" set.

Ribbons, bows and pearls for detail. Then I left blank journaling spaces for my mom and dad to add their thoughts. I made them promise to write something or threatened I was taking the album back! :)

Tri-Shutter Card Tutorial

Welcome everyone to my first tutorial: (Sorta proud here.) :)





I made a version of this card for the most recent card swap (wedding/anniversary) for my scrapbook group. I enjoyed it so much and the technique was pretty fast, so I decided to share it here as a tutorial.



1. Cut a piece of cardstock to 5 1/2" x 12"





2. Score LIGHTLY* at 2", 4", 8" and 10" (I don't have a scoring machine tool thingy, so I used the groove in my paper trimmer and the fatter end of a stylus. It is important to score lightly because the folding may be reversed and you want your card to hold together.)




3. Place cardstock in trimmer at the 1 1/2" mark, with your blade at the 2" mark. Make a slice in the paper from 2" to 10"



4. Flip the cardstock over and make an identical cut on the other side at 1 1/2" from 2" to 10"

5. Fold the top, middle and bottom sections accordion style (basically) as shown below. Note: The front and back of the card are sideways "T" shapes and do not have folds at the middle score. The line will be covered up and enforced by paper.

Here are the folds shown with the card is standing up.

6. Cut paper (I love this Heidi Grace line, so girly) to fit the card in sizes as you wish. And of course... Ink to your delight and adhere to cardstock.

7. Embellish: I used more Heidi Grace paper, Spare Parts lace, Heidi Swapp large brads, and did some stamping and Stickles.

8. Finally, close your Tri-shutter card and just "Try" to give it away. :) You're gonna love it.

First Came LOVE

This is the first two page set in the album I did for my parents 35th Anniversary. How did I get the old pictures you ask? When my parents moved into their brand new house (that my Dad built) in Payson, I convinced them to give me all their old boxes of pictures; that I really wanted to "look" at them. Hee hee hee sneaky and devious right? Oh sure, that's totally me. Right. ;)

Anyway, that was back in November and I just completed the album (almost*) and gave it to them June 12th.

I took the original photos, many of them Polaroids, then I scanned, computer enhanced, and reprinted them.

These are my parents graduation photos. The LOVE note was on the back of my Dad's picture to my mom. I love having that bit of journaling in his own handwriting. I stapled a layer of printed see through acetate (with the pink flowers) over the top for dimension. I recycled it from the front cover of a Making Memories journal stack set I got from Michael's.

That's all for now, but stay tuned for a fantastic Card Making tutorial.

*The last two-page layout needed embellishments, and the final page was...well...missing. :) I tried.

Laugh with Me, Cry with Me

Tessa is all about her "twoness" lately.

LAUGH~ This morning I was picking up for an event at my house tonight. (I'm hosting a card swap first. Where everyone brings ten of the same handmade card then we swap. Then a tag swap afterwards. Where we actually sit and make different tags with our scraps then swap.) Anyway, I turn around from the wiping off the kitchen table when Tessa says, "Uh oh."

Now I use those two little words quite frequently myself, and I don't know about you, but when I hear them from the mouth of a two year old they strike fear and dread and that icky feeling in the pit of my stomach. :)

As I round the corner of Jason's easy chair, I see she has Izzy's leftover bottle from last night. And then my eyes span the destruction. Da, dun, dun (omminous music sound). Tessa had put her fist in the bottom of the collapsible liner bottle and sprayed the carpet, the couch, the leather chair and her 9 month old sister with a fine mist of sticky, day old formula. Oh joy. Izzy is grinning from ear to ear licking her chops and blinking like a doe with dew on her eyelashes.

So Izzy goes in the swing, Tessa goes in the corner and I get out the Nature's Miracle spot cleaner and odor remover and begin to scrub the carpet, the couch, the chair, and the sister (with water for now).

CRY ~ I get up off my hands and knees, satisfied with myself for the clean-ness, for keeping my cool and just shaking my head at the whole thing. I turn to the sink to wash my hands off and see Tessa with the bottle of Nature's Miracle pointed directly at her poor, defensless sister in the swing.

"Nooooooooooooo Tessa! Put it doooooooooown!" I shout to no avail. By the time I hurdle the play stroller, the piggy bank, the box of blocks and the dog, Isabella is now misted head to toe once again. This time with cleaner, and my eyes are misted with that anger that makes you cry.

Oh to be two again...

Labor of Love

Now that I have finished and presented this album to my parents for their 35th Anniversary, I can share it here. Yahoo I have something to post!

My mom didn't quite cry when she looked at the book, but almost. Mistyness was there, I guarantee it. Ha! Mom is more of a card maker, but she recently scrapbooked a layout for her teacher friends' retirement album. She said she realizes now scrapbooking is a great "Labor of Love."

This is the cover page when you open the album: And a close up of the detail (Thickers, lace, paper covered chipboard edged in Stickles, Making Memories tiny alpha, and zig zag rub on):

I used an Amy Butler designed K&Co paper pack and embellishments as my inspiration for the entire album. It has that look that screams 70's to me, so it works great because my parents were married in 1974. Stay tuned to see more Anniversary Album pics. Hugs and happy Thursday to you!

30 posts in 30 Days Challenge

My wonderful friend Mary (a fellow scrapbooker) and I have challenged each other to really keep up on our blogs. Check out her blog HERE. I always do better when I have someone to keep me accountable. Don't you?

THE CHALLENGE: 30 posts in 30 Days

THE RULES : No more than 3 posts per day if you need to catch up from a busy day or weekend.

THE INCENTIVE: Treating ourselves to lunch out and/or a scrappy class together if we find one we like.

So here it goes... Day 1, Post 1

I promise they will only get better (and more frequent) from here on out.