My Time Made Easy-Preview Day!!

Hi Everybody!! I can't believe it's the END of June already. Where is summer going?? But it also means that release day for My Time Made Easy is almost here...and today is my day to preview a new template. It's called 3-Tier and it's amazing!!!

Isn't this awesome???!!!! It's a 3-tier stack of wonderful circular boxes. It makes quite an impression, don't you think?

You can use these boxes to minic vintage hat boxes or stack them like a 3-tiered cake. The scalloped bottoms create the illusion of cake frosting and add such a great touch to these boxes. I used paper from the Serenity paper collection, a butterfly cut from the Bloom Builders cut file set for detailing, and the Abra-Bow-Dabra cut file for the top layer.

Lauren is also releasing a great numbers cut file set this month called Magical Birthday Numbers. I used the numbers for my 40th birthday card. I also used a sentiment from the new Magical Birthday Wishes stamp set.

This set will be for a dear friend of mine who is turning 40 very soon. I am looking forward to filling these boxes with all of her favorite things!! I hope this project gets you excited about the July release. And you can probably guess a theme for this month...what do you think it is?

Please check out more great projects from these DT members:

Lauren

Lori H.

Debbie

Linda

Farida

I will be back tomorrow with a group post!! Thanks for stopping by today!

Snickerdoodle Ice Cream Sandwiches

My mom is visiting us this week and that means you never know what's going to be baking in the kitchen. I definitely get my baking gene from her and she's been baking all week with my kids. I came home from work one day to these...Snickerdoodle Ice Cream Sandwiches.

I don't really have a 'recipe' to share for these, because they are pretty self explanatory. Make snickerdoodles from your favorite recipe. Or buy some dough from the store and bake it up. Pick 2 cookies about the same size. Spoon your favorite ice cream on one cookie (these have Caramel Delight in the middle). Squish the two cookies together, wrap in foil or saran wrap and place in the freezer. Enjoy later!

A fun summer treat for everyone. You can use your favorite cookie/ice cream combination and make a whole freezer full if you so desire!! Enjoy!

Momenta + ScorPal Week!

It's Scor-Pal week at the Momenta blog this week!

Visit both the Momenta blog and the Scor-Pal blog to see tons of great inspiration this week. And there are prizes involved so make sure you visit their blogs all week long.

Here is a look at my projects. I used the Scor-Buddy to create some simple easy backgrounds for cards. I took a 4.5 inch x 4.5 inch piece of cardstock and scored it at 1/2 inch on all sides.

I took another piece of cardstock and turned it on the Scor-Buddy before scoring it at 1/2 inch on all sides.

I then used these 2 backgrounds to make 2 cards...

I used the Momenta Free To Be Me paper pad along with some Free To Be Me clear layered stickers and great Momenta alphabet stickers. The scor-pal background adds some fun and texture to the cards. I love using my Scor-Buddy!!

So please check out both blogs all week for inspiration and a chance to win some great prizes! Thanks for stopping by today!!

Card Kit Club June Reveal!

Happy Monday friends!! Today is the day for our June Card Kit Club reveal. It was my turn to send out a card kit and here it is...

I included some Momenta paper, Papertrey Ink sentiments, stars cut on my Cricut, twine, random ribbon and toothpicks. I wanted to include toothpicks in case anybody wanted to make flags...and I ended up going a bit flag crazy! My first card included 2 flags...

And my second card included a flag as well!

I was a little bit apprehensive to add flowers and flags together...but I did it anyway. What a rebel, huh?!

I cannot wait to see what everybody did with the kit! If you have a chance, go check out the girls and what they did with the kit.

Beth
Joni
Mary

Thanks for stopping by today and have a great Monday!

Happy Hello Friday!

Yeah for Friday! We are knee deep in dance rehearsals and performances over here right now. My daughter has 1 performance tonight and 2 tomorrow and had a marathon rehearsal last night. So I'm going to keep this short and sweet...

I still had my Bo Bunny Alora 6x6 paper pad on my desk and decided to use it again. The sentiment is from Unity, the rolled flowers are handmade and the doily is from my baking stash.

We have a full weekend of dance recitals, family, and hopefully a few cocktails. I hope you have a great one...thanks for stopping by today!!

Raspberry Mojitios

Happy Wednesday!! I hope your week is going well so far. I have a fabulous mojito recipe to share today. What? You've never had a mojito?? They are a great drink for the summer. It's a great mix of fresh mint, lime, light rum, and bubbles. For this recipe, you add fresh berries (I added raspberries) for a fruity delicious summery drink.

Raspberry Mojitos
-mint leaves
-fresh berries
-white rum
-simple syrup (dissolve 1 cup of sugar in 1cup of water in a small pan on the stovetop, cool for use)
-diet sprite (or club soda)
-fresh lime slices

How to make a great mojito:

1. Tear 4-5 mint leaves and add them to the bottom of a glass. Add 1 oz simple syrup. Add 3-4 raspberries. Muddle the mint leaves, syrup, and berries at the bottom of glass. This is a key step, you want to bruise and crush the mint leaves and berries.
2. Fill glass with crushed ice.
3. Add 1-2 oz white rum.
4. Top off glass with diet sprite or club soda.
5. Squeeze 1-2 lime wedges into glass.
6. Stir, sip and enjoy!!

I enjoyed these at a barbeque and they were so delicious. We also added blackberries later in the evening. This is the perfect drink to enjoy outside on your patio, or while bbq'ing with friends. Enjoy!!

Casual Friday Challenge #57

Hi Everyone!! I hope you all had a great weekend and a great Father's day! I had the chance to sneak in this challenge this weekend for the Casual Friday blog. The challenge is 'Clear As Day'...create a card with acetate or vellum.

I immediately thought to create a window on my card. I hand cut the square with my exacto knife and added a scalloped frame that I cut on my Cricut. I layered the acetate behind the square to create my window.

I added some butterflies with a punch using some Jillibean Soup paper scraps I had on my desk. I love using scraps for punching shapes.

A stamped sentiment from Papertrey Ink and a simple tied baker's twine bow finished off my card!

I rarely start with a white cardstock for my card backgrounds anymore. I like the clean look even though I kept getting black fingerprints and smudges on my card from my ink pad and stamping block and every other mess on my scrap table!

Thanks for stopping by today, friends!!

3x3 Box Tutorial with Momenta

My friend Beth makes the most beautiful boxes. They are girly and pretty and lacy and glittery, I love them! She told me she found a great box tutorial on the Splitcoast Stampers site and I had to check it out. Today i'm sharing a tutorial for making this 3x3 box and it's a bit simplified from the one at SS.  I shared this on the Momenta blog as well.

Here is what you will need:
-7 1/2 inch square piece of paper (for box base)
-5 5/8 inch square piece of paper (for box lid)
-Scorpal
-scissors
-strong adhesive (I used a glue stick)
-matching embellishments for decorating

Please ignore the border punch! I ended up not using it. I did use the Cuddle and Coo 12x12 pyramid pad for my paper.

Score the 7 1/2 inch paper at 2 inches on each side.

Score the 5 5/8 inch paper at 1 inch on each side.

Fold all score lines. Using scissors, cut on all four sides creating a flap on each corner of the 7 1/2 inch paper.

Apply strong adhesive to the inside of the biggest flap. Fold the box up and together on each side.

This will create the base for your box.

Apply the same technique to the 5 5/8 inch square. This will create the top of your box. They fit together perfectly!

I added some ribbon to the box lid and I created some flowers using my Cricut and circle punch to add to the top of the box.

I free hand cut leaves from green paper. I crushed up the leaves in my hand, then flattened them out before adhering to the top. It gives them a little bit of dimension.

While the Cuddle and Coo paper pack is wonderful for baby projects, I decided to make this into a birthday box. I created a matching card and used Vellum Happy Birthday stickers for the sentiment and some purple tied twine to create a double bow. And the Momenta birthday clear layered stickers add a great focal point!!

Here is my project all together!! Can you believe how easy it was to put that box together??

This is such a fun sized box. You could add some 3x3 notecards, some sweet candies, a gift card, votive candles...so many great little gifts will fit inside. Thanks Beth for the inspiration and thanks Momenta for the great product!!

Hope you all have a fabulous Friday! Thanks for stopping by today, friends.

Brownie Cheesecake

Cheesecake is one of those desserts that I always thought was difficult. I've only made a few cheesecakes, one of them being this strawberry cheesecake. It turned out really well, but it was a lot of work. Since then, I tend to shy away from making cheesecakes. Until I saw this recipe for Brownie Cheesecake on the Brown Eyed Baker's blog. It looked glorious and the recipe looked...dare I say...fairly easy. Since I was headed to a BBQ, I decided to give it a try. And I am SO glad I did!!

This cheesecake had a oreo crust (which I doubled!), freshly baked brownies in the cheesecake, and a chocolate ganache topping. I was amazed how well this cheesecake set up and how yummy the brownies were inside.

It was a wonderful dessert!!! If you've ever wanted to try baking a cheesecake, this is the recipe for you. It's fairly easy and straight forward with no weird oven temperatures or water baths involved. And it's perfect for a big group of friends!

Here is the recipe at the Brown Eyed Baker's Blog: Brownie Cheesecake

Thanks for stopping by today Friends!!

CAS-ual Friday #56

Happy Monday!! How was your weekend? I hope it was fabulous. Summer was in full swing here with beautiful weather, BBQ's, raspberry mojitos and sleepovers. It was a fun weekend. And I found some time to squeeze in a challenge! This week at the CAS-ual Friday blog, it's all about polka dots.

I immediately pulled out my polka dot basics set by Papertrey Ink. And I have been wanting to use this Unity popsicle stamp for a while. I tried my best to combine the two. I'm not sure I succeeded. This card didn't turn out exactly how I had imagined, but i'm not sure why? I attempted some paper piecing with the popsicle and some Jillibean Soup paper.

I love the stamp, I love the paper...just not sure I love them together. Oh well...you win some, you lose some!!

I hope you had a great weekend...welcome to another Monday!!

You're Sew Nice

Avocado Arts is turning 1 this month and is having a contest on their facebook page. They are giving away a 1 year subscription to their stamp club and all you have to do is post a project using their stamps on their FB page. I have a few sets by them and haven't really had the chance to play too much. I posted a card earlier this week using their retro chick stamp and I had the time to make another card.

Isn't that a cute spool stamp??!! I think it looks fun with twine wrapped all around it. Both the stamp and sentiment are Avocado Arts. The papers are Jillibean Soup and the doily is from my baking stash!

I hope you have a great weekend planned. We have birthday parties, BBQ's, and sleepovers this weekend. It should be fun. Hope you have a great Saturday and thanks for stopping by!

Funfetti Cookies

Last Friday was my kid's last day of school. My neighbor and I put together a big neighborhood pool party at our community pool for a whole bunch of friends. I wanted to bake something for the party, but I didn't want it to be complicated or time consuming. These were exactly what I was looking for...Funfetti Cookies.

Imagine a doughy thick sugar cookie filled with fun rainbow sprinkles sprinkled throughout. That is what these are!!

These were super easy to mix up, just one bowl is needed. I made these two night before I needed them and refrigerated the dough (only because I didn't have time to bake them). The baked up perfectly the next night and were great for the party! They were easy to bake and fun for the kids. And let's be honest, the adults liked them as well.

These would be perfect for an end of the school year party, a rainbow party, or just for everyday consumption. They were delicious!

Here is the recipe at the 2 Peas and Their Pod blog: Funfetti Cookies.

Thanks for stopping by today!

CASual Friday and Retro Sketches

Happy Wednesday! I had a chance to play with the CAS-ual Friday challenge AND the Retro Sketches sketch #14 this week!!

 

Here is my card...

Isn't that little elephant cute??!! It's a Unity Stamp and this is my first time inking it up. I used the Bo Bunny Alora papers for my card, first time i've used those papers! I paper pieced the elephant and added some bling around the sentiment. Easy, peasy!

I am happy to have snuck in some crafting time again. Hope you are all having a great week so far, thanks for stopping by today!

MTME June-A Year In Review

Hi Everyone!! Today is a fun day at My Time Made Easy...Review Day!! All the DT members revisit older templates and products and create a brand new project just for June. It's always cool playing with products you might have bought months ago and forgotten about. It's like shopping in your own scrap bag.

I created this gift set for our school librarian. She goes way above and beyond the call of duty with the kids and the library. She hosts a monthly book club that my son was part of. He really loved it, even though he was the only boy (wait...maybe that's why he loved it?)!! Their librarian is always so encouraging and urged my son to write his own book reviews for the library to use. Anyway...she was awesome and deserved something special.

This is my Strawberry Lemonade basket. The basket template is called Berry Sweet and it is a good sized basket! Take a look how deep it is.

You can leave the cut outs in the sides open or line them with pretty paper, like I did. I used the Orange and Strawberry Preserve It papers. I added the same papers to the handle and the tag as well. The sentiment is from the Round Off stamp set.

I made a batch of strawberry lemonade and transferred it to this fun jar I picked up at the Dollar Store. I used the Fine Finish tag cut and the Round Off stamp set to create the jar label. Photoshop was used to add the sentiment.

And while at the dollar store, I stumbled across some strawberry and lemon flavored gummy candies. I put them in these glassine bags and closed the top with decorated clothespins.

My son was very excited to take this to the librarian. And word on the street was she loved it.

Please check out everybody today from MTME...there are so many great projects!

Lauren Meader

Kristin Eberline

Debbie Marcinkiewicz

Farida Rone

Kimberly Morrow

Linda Hammerton

Lisa Kind

Lori Hairston

Lori Kalus

Mara Campbell <---you are here!

Pattie Goldman

Tangii Crain

I hope you find a project that inspires you to use some older products you may have forgotten about. Thanks so much for stopping by today!!