Embellish Color Challenge

I absolutely love the color combo from Embellish Holiday Color Challenge (see here). It reminds me of the colors in a land of holliday candy, for some reason! I didn't know what sort of "project" that I will make. Just a few days after I saw the challenge, I had to throw away the empty cracker box to the recycle bin, BINGO! There's my project! I used the bottom half of the box and recycled it!

I took out my Two Houses stamps and stamped the houses in Espresso, pink and green for the trees. I also colored part of the tree dots in red. I colored the houses with minimum Prisma color pencils. I think leaving some white space is a good idea!

I stamped last year's Christmas tree set (also from Hero Arts) for the background. A little masking and coloring, gluing, taping...

For the handle, I trimmed a long piece of card stock and used the Fiskar paper punch for the borders and added the green ribbons on top. Then I added the brads for the swivel handle.  

Thanks so much for stopping by. I'm gearing up for the week 3 cookie and card series on Wednesday! It's going to be a yummy post :)

...Wee Memories... Challenge # 33

If you are her for Etsy Inspired Challenge, please click here or scroll down.

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Hello! So glad that you stop by for my guest designing at Wee Memories. This will be my LAST guest DT at Wee Memories (sniff sniff ). The DT at Wee Memories are super talented and extra sweet! I really enjoy working with all of them! Please do check out their awesome work!

Theme: Bowtiful Ribbon (use ribbon)

Sponsor: Charelston SB Co.

Prize: Bow Maker
Here's my card with a BOW

The bow sure helps to make a "statement", huh? I hope you have fun creating your project/card with a bow! I can't wait to see what you come up with! Have a fabulous weekend!

Etsy Inspired Challenge # 116

So glad that you stop by! It's Etsy Inspired Challenge time!

shop of the week is Heartsong. This shop specializes spiritual artwork, upcycled and eco friendly crafts.

Winner #1: Free box of Fine Art Notecards (example picture here ). GOOD news: TO ALL PLAYERS/FOLLOWERS - A 20% discount in the store! Use the coupon code INSPIRED at checkout.
Sponsor is Karber Digital Images.
Winner #2 : receive 2 Free Digi's of Winner's Choice. Here's a card that I made with the Karber digital image. LOVE the images on the clothesline! I used pattern paper to bring out the colors and used a string to for the clothline.

I looked through the Heartsong shop and found these items very inspiring!

I realized that I have an item ( wired butterflies) that I save for YEARS and it's still fresh in its original package! I guess I never think I could do it justice back when I bought it.

At that time, I was just beginning to explore the world of card-making after the kids got a little older. THAT was 10 years ago. I'm glad that I saved it all this time. That pink butterfly has been patiently ...waiting...

Don't you just love that? The blue butterfly is the other one in the pack.

Please check out the DT's awesome work!

Ashley  Heart Hugs Designs

De  Bella Luna {Paperie}

Emily B. branch out designs

Emily N. Emmie-Lou Who Stamps &You

Joy  Crazy for Daisies

Kerry Capturing Creativity

Savannah  Savannahland 2

Stephanie Ingenious Inkling

Angie B. (Nov. Guest Design)

Virginia Yes, Virginia... (me)

Please link back your project here

I'll be back for my 2 post later today for my guest design for..Wee Memories.... It's my last one as a guest designer. Till later! Also there's a DT call for Etsy Inspired Challenge (see here).Yes?

Wednesday's Cookie/Card Series (Week 2)

Are you ready for our week two cookie/card inspiration yet ? I decided to make Pizzelle cookies!  I have long been intrigued by this type of cookies. The intricate design of the Pizzelle iron is just amazing in itself. It's almost like using a super fancy stamp, except in this case, you stamp on your cookie!

The imprint from the cookie press make you feel that you are the "master" of this beautiful creation. I think, in a way, it's very much like stamping! 

What is Pizzelle? They are traditional Italian waffle cookies made from flour, eggs, sugar, butter or vegetable oil, and flavoring (often vanilla, anise, or lemon zest). Pizzelle can be hard and crisp or soft and chewy depending on the ingredients and method of preparation. Pizzelle are popular in Easter and Christmas and are commonly served at weddings in Italy.

I chose to make vanilla flavored pizzelles.  And you have to have this pizzelle cookie press that was given to me by my talented sister-in-law Florence (no, she is not Italian, she is an Chinese American who really really know all things gourmet). Here is more about Pizzelle cookies

I tried them with Waffle machine...they may not look as pretty and delicate, but they worked!

Classic Pizzelle

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoon baking powder

3 large eggs

3/4 sugar

1/2 unsalted butter (melted)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Here's a Swiss version from Martha Stewart Bratseli. And if you still want to make cookies, but do not have the Pizzelle or waffle maker, you can try this simple Icebox Shortbread. So on to the card....I drew the inspiration from the textured look of the Pizzelle. I'm also entering this card for Get Sketchy Challenge # 65 . The challenge is to find inspiration from the house--PERFECT! (added note: This card was picked as Top 5, see here)

First I embossed the lace stamp from Hero Arts release Archiver's Lace and Doily set and added the red and green gems.

I used the paper doily for the big backdrop. I also embossed the sentiment in silver card stock and that's it! The silver plate was a my last year's birthday gift form my dear big sis from Hero Art Flickr Lin. She sent it all the way from Ohio! Thanks you, dear Lin! I hope the cookies do justice to the plate!

 I'd love to see how this inspired you in any way. Please add your cookie/card (or both) in InLinkz.  Have a SCRUMPTIOUS day!

Sarah's Visit

I have know Sarah ( Just Visiting) early on when I joined Hero Arts Flickr Group 2 years ago. It turned out she lives only one and half hour away. We had met last fall for the 1st time for a Scrapbook retreat. So glad that my blog post( here)  inspired Sarah to re-visit my area--the market, shops are enough to entice her and her Mom to visit me! We spend 4 hours in the market, antique stores, scrapbook store ( it took us the longest time and most $ were spent  there). I spent the most on local produce!Just sharing a few photos here with you....There's Sarah shopping!

Sarah's mom is just DARLING. I love her gentle tone and voice! She kept a great pace of shopping--love that!

It was cold ( around 5 C/40s F) and a bit windy...but I felt the warmth :)

My first time eating a Doner Kebab (beef). It was really yummy!

Cookies at the market....pretty SWEET, huh?

I find them very "inspiring"....and tempting...

These knitted wear are SO cute!

More browsing

Saw some neat antiques!

Lastly, the sight of these sock monkeys make me happy!

Thank you, Sarah and Margaret, for making this fun trip here! Lastly, a preview of the Cookie/Card Inspiration (week 2)

--coming here on Wednesday! See you then!

Wee Memories Challenge #32

If you come for Etsy Inspired challenge, please click here or scroll down.

Theme: Put a Little Pink (Pink theme)

Prize: Stamp Set of choice

Sponsor: Stamps of Life
Thank you for joining us for the blog hop at  ...Wee Memories ..Challenge #32 ( details here) . Isn't the theme fun? You can make PINK cards for birthday, anniversary, Mother's Day, Just Because, Hello.....themed cards/projects! I managed to make a Christmas card!

The bunnies and sentiment are from Robin's Kingdom of  Penny Black stamp (my 1st time using the Penny Black image! ). I embossed the bunnies in pink Zing embossing powder over brown Bo Bunny card stock and then added the embossed borders at the bottom. I also paper pierced the holes and then added the faux stitching with light pink gel pen. Hope you can join the fun and make something pink in your cards/project! Please check out the DT fabulous work and link up your creations here. Your next stop will be Vera's blog! Have fun hopping!
NOTE: I have started a new Wednesday's feature in my blog--cookie and card inspiration (see Week 1 ). I think it will help kick off your holiday baking!

Etsy Inspired Challenge #115

Welcome to Etsy Inspired Challenge!

Our shop: Queen of Art Cakes. Winner from the shop: free holiday edible images on wafer paper for home bakers to make their own Christmas cookies at home using one dozen unique images . Hope you are getting excited about holiday baking with all these possibilities! These are just a few of my favorite images.

Our sponsor: Inchie Arts. Here are some info from sponsor: "I wanted to take a minute to talk about how everyone should refer to the products. It's funny because many people loosely call them chipboard...but in reality they anything but. By definition they are matteboard squares, albeit the highest quality artist grade, solid core matteboard available in the industry. It is because of this quality that the material is unique in the marketplace and why you can use wet mediums from watercolor paints, stains, inks etc without the surface deteriorating. Conversationally, and in casual writing, everyone refers to the sizes as inchies, inchie plus and twinchies. If you are going to refer specifically to our squares we do own the names Inchie Square, Inchie + Square and Twinchie Square. We included a little bit of each size and color from white through ivory, dark cream, wheat, light gray, dark gray and black. Be sure and invite everyone to browse our blog for different creative ideas. We are REALLY looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with!" Here are their shop and blog.

We would love to see your creations made in inchies/squares (optional). Here's what I made with the square.

Please check out the DT's work and link up your project here! !
Ashley  Heart Hugs Designs
De  Bella Luna {Paperie}
Emily B. branch out designs
Emily N. Emmie-Lou Who Stamps &You
Joy  Crazy for Daisies
Kerry Capturing Creativity
Savannah  Savannahland 2
Stephanie Ingenious Inkling
Angie Blom (Nov. guest design)

 Virginia Yes, Virginia... (me)

 I will be back later today for my 2nd posting for ..Wee Memories..Challenge!

Moxie Fab's Tuesday Trigger

I was very impressed by the new rising star the talented Carey Mulligan after seeing her movies in "An Education" and the recent "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps". Her stage performance is engaging and mature for her age! She is classy yet so modern in many ways. Her gorgeous photo shoot with Vogue is the reason I am bracing myself for another challenge with Tuesday Trigger

When I made my card, I felt like a seamstress...so this is the look I came up with

Hope you have a GORGEOUS day! Thank you for checking out my ongoing Wednesday's Cookie and Card Series. I'm baking more cookies this weekend...wonder what kind it will be?

NEW Series--- Wednesday's Cookie/ Card (week 1)

Do cookies and cards mix? Apparently YES! At least they do co-exist in my blog. This has been an idea slowly brewing/cooking in my head. Thanks to my DD Stephanie, she complained several times that I don't make cookies like I used to any more...thanks to my avid card-making (well, something's gotta give!). So the clever girl suggested : "Why don't  you make cookies FIRST and then take the inspiration from the cookies and make a card/project!?". BINGO! Since holiday season is coming fast and furious, I am taking this chance to make cookies for people we appreciate throughout the year-teachers, friends and neighbors, just like I always do. This new Wednesday's feature will motivate me to make cookies and cards. Sounds good? I plan to do six Wednesdays up till Dec. 22. Hope you will support me in this endeavor and you can also reap some tasty benefits.

So let's get on to the cookie part...the recipe is from Martha Stewart's Chocolate Thumbprints. I was a little rusty on making this batch..so my cookies appeared to be way bigger than the suggested size (easier to eat, right!?). I started with the dough and then used my thumb to make the indents.

The making of the chocolate sauce

Fill in the sauce....this is the yummiest part :)

What do you think? Give it a try? It's really not that hard. I didn't have quite enough of the chocolate sauce, so I filled two with some jam that a dear friend brought from France (you can use ANY jam).

Do make sure you read through the entire recipe beforehand. Last but not least...the cookie-inspired card! 

I thought of circles, light brown, cream, red and pink.

I hope this post will inspire you to try the recipe or to make a card!  I'm thankful that I have this creative outlet to share my love of cooking and card-making with you. I would love to see what you cook up as well, please link your cookie-inspired card or card-inspired cookie (or BOTH) with the Inlinkz ! You can say this is the NEW cookie/card swap.