Thinkin' and Feelin' Green! St. Patrick's Day is the Next Holiday!

Today was a Holiday so I didn't have to go to work today! We had some errands to run but I actually had time to work on sketches early this week! I was in the St. Patrick's day mood as I had just gotten out all of my St. Patrick's day paper. I usually make some cards for the food drive for every holiday so this is a fun one! It is fun to make things green! So here are some green cards! The first one is Kazan's Sketch 20 for the week of 2-16-09. I turned it upside down. The shamrock is made of the irish blessing printed on cardstock. I made the pattern after seeing a card a few years ago on scrapbook.com. The shamrock brads are from Oriental Trading. The little love charm is from Michael's (found it in the wedding section). The green patterned paper is imaginisce (I've had it for a couple years!). The little tag thing with lucky me on it is a quickutz die and Lucky Me is one of those cool $1 stamps!

The 2nd card is for Julie Campbell's bonus sketch. The patterned paper is from my stash. The stamps are also $1 stamps! The poem I found somewhere on the internet and typed in. The circle is a quickutz cookie cutter and the leprechaun is an original 2 X 2 quickutz ~ I'd cut out a bunch one year when I was making cards and they never fit quite right on what I was making so now I have a bunch ready to go!

I found another cool sketch web-site this morning called Card Patterns - see the blogs that I follow for a link! Kristin Swain who was on 2 Sketches 4 You design team before is now on their design team! This is only the 2nd week of their sketches so it is very cool to get in on it early! I used the same poem and some more paper and stamps from my stash!

The last 2 pictures are of some shakers that I did using the same poem and the cute leprechauns! Just having a good time with green today! And shakers are so fun!

I've still got more green paper in my stash and still a month to St. Patrick's day so you can bet there will be more green cards coming!

Recipes!

It was totally cool that I got a mention at 2 Sketches 4 You about the food I posted about a week ago. The lava cake has a link to the recipe but the other 2 don't have the recipes posted! So here goes:

Breakfast Egg Bake
6-8 slices of bread with crusts removed
3 cups grated cheddar cheese
12 eggs (I've used "fake" eggs and it works just as well and is lower in fat)
1 1/2 cups milk
3/4 tsp dry mustard
1-2 lbs sausage, browned and well drained (I've used turkey sausage to cut the fat down)
1 small onion chopped and browned
salt and pepper to taste

Grease a 9 X 13 pan. Line pan with bread slices, covering the entire bottom of pan. Sprinkle with cheese and sausage/onion mixture. Beat eggs, milk, salt, pepper, mustard together. Pour over everything. Refrigerate covered overnight. Bake, uncovered, at 325 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until eggs are done.

Overnight Maple French Toast
2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 syrup
1 TBSP margarine or butter
10 (1 inch thick) slices french bread
4 eggs (again you can use "fake" egg if you want)
1 1/2 cups skim milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups sliced strawberries
1 to 2 TBSP's powdered sugar

1. Spray 9 X 13 pan with nonstick cooking spray. In medium saucepan, combine brown sugar, syrup, and margarine. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil 1 minute.
2. Pour syrup mixture evenly in the bottom of the pan. Arrange bread slices in even layer over syrup mixture. Set aside.
3. In large bowl, combine eggs, milk, vanilla and salt, beat with wire whisk until smooth. Pour evenly over bread in pan. Cover; refrigerate at least 8 hours or overnight.
4. To bake, heat oven to 350 degrees. Uncover pan; bake 30-35 minutes or until lightly browned. (I usually use a temperature between the 2 recipes and just watch them - that way I can bake them together).
5. To serve, top each serving with 1/4 cup sliced strawberries; sprinkle with powdered sugar.

5 servings

Yogurt Pie
This pie is a weight watchers pie I've been making for years so I really just make it from my head!

Reduced fat graham cracker crust

boil 1/4 cup water and whisk in a small package of fat free/sugar free jello
After that is melted, whisk in 2 8 oz yogurts (fat free) of the flavor (as the jello)
Then fold in a small fat free cool whip

put all in the crust and put in the fridge for a few hours. It is such a tasty and low fat treat! You can try it with lots of different flavors!

150th Birthday Party for the State of Oregon

Here are some pictures from the big birthday party at the Oregon State Capitol today! Alot of Oregon products made a presence. Milk, the beverage of the state of Oregon! There were Tillamook cheese samples (always yummy) and some butter called Rose Valley butter from McMinnville, Oregon. It was tasty too.







Umpqua ice cream had a special ice cream made just for the 150th birthday with hazelnuts and huckleberries. It was so delicious. I'm sure that my dad will love it, so when he comes to visit I will need to get some!

The first 500 kids got goody bags. Here is Shaina with a "farm bureau" fan!

This is a picture of the 3 of us with the live "Gold Man." On the top of our capitol is a gold statue and this represents the statue. My son said he smelled like spray paint! But it was cool!

Valentine's Day is Oregon's Birthday! This year it is 150! Here is a picture of the cake that serves 3,000. We actually go a piece of it and it was very tasty!

Happy Birthday Oregon, Happy Valentine's Day, and 2 Sketches 4 You!

I had some fun with the sketch this week at 2 Sketches 4 You. My first card is another valentine to sell for the Governor's Food Drive. Patterned paper and journal page are Making Memories. The butterfly is one of those cool new 3-D dies from Quickutz (this one is for the revolution). I'm really liking these! "Kisses" is an imaginisce snag 'em stamp. I used stickles on top of it and to outline the heart.

I've been making so many valentines for the food drive that I have not had time to make any for my family and friends that I usually send them to so I was trying to figure out what to do at such a late time and then while I was looking at the sketch, it came to me!

Valentine's Day is not just Valentine's Day in Oregon! It is also Oregon's Birthday! In fact if you look closely at the state seal on the flag it is in the shape of a heart. And this year is Oregon's 150th birthday. Can you say, sesquicentennial? I'd never heard the word 'till recently. There is going to be a huge party on the Capitol mall on Saturday that is a huge family event and my kids are incredibly excited. Radio Disney is going to be there, a cake that feeds 3,000, and even a "live" gold man (the gold man is on top of our capitol building) among other things! So that is where my card idea comes in! I'm going to take some pictures of the kids at the birthday party and put them in these cards to send to family and friends ~ after all, next year they can get a valentine.

For this card I put the sketch on it's side. I made some back ground paper out of yellow-gold cardstock by typing in "oregon" words in a word processing software. The state shape and the word Oregon are cut using the Cricut 50 shapes. The number candles are 2 X 2 quickutz and happy birthday is a quickutz revolution.

I want to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day! I'm also a very proud Oregonian (for 25 years!) and am excited to be celebrating such a big event!

And.....More Valentines!

Here are some more valentines for the food drive! Several of them I'm using the little $1 stamps! These were very fun! All the paper was in my stash!

Sweet Valentines!

Every year at work there is a food drive during February. One of the traditions that I and another gal have started is to sell cards with all the money going to the food drive. February is a great month to sell valentines. I had made several (and so had she) but last week people were really buying them! So this weekend, I'm busy cranking out some more for the rush next week! I scrapped with my friends yesterday and finally finished the 2009 calendar and accompanying album for my parents so I spent the rest of the evening doing some valentines. Here they are!

The first one uses Bo Bunny polka dot paper and the other patterned papers are Making Memories Sabrina. I used the quickutz revolution 3-D butterfly (I'm loving this guy!) and the quickutz ticket. The tickets are stamped with Autumn Leaves stamps. The flower is felt cut with a sizzix die.

The 2nd card also uses Making Memories Sabrina with a doily from target. The round stamp is a Teresa Collins and the tag is a quickutz tag, stamped with quickutz sophisticate stamps (I had made several of these tags last year so they will come in handy to make some quick cards this week).








The 3rd and 4th cards also use Making Memories Sabrina. The 3rd one also uses the Teresa Collins Stamp.













The 4th card combines a lot of the elements from the previous cards. Love is cut with a sizzlet and the round circles are quickutz cookie cutters.










My favorite card of this group is the last one. All the patterned paper is Basic Grey Bittersweet. I used that wonderful butterfly again! I told you I loved this butterfly! The oval is cut with a quickutz cookie cutter and the love is a 2 X 2 quickutz.









I made some cool food for my friends yesterday and decided to take some pictures as I still have a dream of making a family recipe book for my sisters and mom that combines our favorite recipes with some scrapbooking so it is a family heirloom! When that will be, I don't know but I am going to start taking pictures when I make something would go into it!

This wonderful creation is a S'Mores Lava Cake. My sister sent me the recipe (see perfect for the book) and it comes from Everday with Rachel Ray. Here is the link: http://www.rachaelraymag.com/recipes/dessert-recipes/smores-lava-cakes/article.html



I made a sausage egg bake and overnight french toast for breakfast. (I could do better on my picture taking!)

And this is one of my favorite lo-cal treats. It is a weight watchers yogurt pie. I made an orange one and it was yummy!



Well, I'm off to make more cards!

3 Challenges in One!!! (2 Sketches 4 You, Card*A*Licious, and Non-Trad Valentine)

• I've been super busy this week (and next week will be worse!). I don't know if sub-consciously knowing I was busy, I came up with this card that combines 3 challenges:

>Kazan's sketch for this week (week of 2/2/09),

>Card*A*Licious Challenge (3 patterned papers + orange letter stickers),

>One of the February Card Challenges at Scrapbook.com is to make a Non-Traditional Valentine

The background paper is Creative Imaginations that I picked up at Craft Warehouse yesterday at lunch! The other patterned papers are Me and My Big Ideas. I actually used 4 patterned papers if you are really counting! The cute flower brads are Making Memories. The book plate is a sizzix and the butterfly is one of the new quickutz revolution 3-D Dies ~ so I actually through in using a new die in this card too! Kind of scary!

My 2 good friends will be here at 8 a.m. for a day of scrapping! Breakfast will be ready for them ~ a egg and sausage casserole and overnight french toast with strawberries! I've got a bunch of other yummy food ready and Gail is bringing pork tenderloin for dinner!

I'm going to try to finish the calendar I'm making my parents and then work on some more valentines. I make them to sell for the Governor's food drive in February and even though we had a lot when we started the week, the stash is dwindling! Which means money for the food bank!!! Yay! But more work for me!

Hope everyone is having an awesome weekend!