Gingery Goodness

I was in a domestic mood the other day, and made these delicious cookies. They are my husband's absolute favorite, his mom's Gingersnaps. I had never made them before, but for my first try, I think they were really yummy. Don't they look delicious?



I have no idea where she found the recipe, but she has been making them forever.Here is her recipe:

Ginger Snap Cookies
2 cups flour
1T ground ginger
2t baking soda
1t ground cinnamon
1/2t salt
3/4 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
sugar for rolling

Set the oven to 350
Measure the 1st five ingredients. Sift them 2 times and then return them to the sifter.
Cream shortening in a medium bowl. Add sugar gradually and beat well. Beat in eggs and molasses. Sift 1/4 of the dry ingredients into the wet mixture and blend. Continue until all the dry ingredients are blended.
Take teaspoonfulls of dough and form into small bowls by rolling gently between palms. Roll the cookies in sugar to coat the entire outside.
Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 12-15 minutes until tops are slightly rounded, crackly and lightly browned.
*** According to my mother in law, the key to these cookies is to take them out when they are crackly but still puffy. Then you get a soft and chewy ginger cookie.

It is worth the extra time to sift these cookies. It keeps them light and chewy. I hope you try these favorite's of my hubby. Thanks for hanging out with me today :)

A la prochaine...

Michelle

Boy Birthday Bag

I don't know about you, but my kids seem to go to quite a few birthday parties! I am constantly trying to find and make appropriate cards, and spending tons of money on gift bags, and wrapping paper! We tend to give a gift card - usually from a book store like Chapters, or the movie theatres, and a little toy chosen by the kids - a couple of Hot Wheels, or a little doll, some gum or candy... It occurred to me that all I really needed was a cut little bag and a tag. So I decided to make one. Here is my "boy version":

The bag is cut from TBBM. I designed it on my Gypsy girl, and made it as big as I could using a 12x12 piece of paper. The car is from Boys Will Be Boys, and is cut at 2 inches.

"Happy Birthday" is from Paper Lace cartridge, cut at 2.4 inches.

The tag is just a layered circle for George and Basic Shapes, and the truck is welded to the small circle. It is from Boys Will Be Boys and is cut at .7 inches. The "To" and "from" are from My Pink Stamper Stamps, and the sentiment is from Simply Sweet Stamps. This was the first tag like this I made. I have since left off the sentiment and put it on the back. That left the kids more room to sign it, especially my 6 year old.

Here is the little bag all ready to go. It has 2 Hot Wheels cars in it and a Walmart gift card, which is what my son wanted to give his best friend. I have not needed a girl version yet, but as soon as I do, I will post it here. Thanks for hanging out with me today :) A la prochaine... Michelle

Subway Style Art

I have recently become a Pintrest addict. I have found some really nice ideas there. I have seen a lot of "subway art" which I thought was so interesting. I decided to try some myself, using vinyl and my Cricut.

So,one day, at Walmart, I found some wooden plaques - they were only $4! I decided to pick 2 up, and try to make some subway art... Here is what I cam up with:



My mum is a quilter and sewer. She makes the lovliest things. I decided to make a Subway Art style plaque for her room. I used my Gypsy Girl to lay out the plaque. I apinted the plaque with tole painting paint, cut out the vinyl, and that was it! I used the following cartridges to create this plaque: All Mixed Up, Baby Steps, Birthday Bash, George and Basic Shapes, Gypsy Font, Disney - Happily Ever After, Lyrical Letters, Makin the Grade and Robotz. Whew, that was quite a few!

I was so pleased how this turned out, and I love the potential! I made a second one for my sister, and I'll be sure to post that next week! Thanks for hanging out with me today :)

A la prochaine...

Michelle

Welecome 2012

Good morning everyone! Welcome to my first crafty project of the year. Today Mary challenged the Cricut Cardz Design Team to make a New Year's card, using any cartirdge and colors we wanted. Our New Year's Eve traditions are very simple. We order chinese from our favorite spot, and watch a few movies with the kids. However, as a young girl I used to babysit alot, and every New Year's Eve the couples got all dressed up and went to some sort of elegant party. I decided to make a card that reflected my old ideas of New Year's Eve - glamorous and elegant. Here is what I came up with...



It is a 4.5 x 4.5 inch square card. The layer is cut from Paper Lace, I love how it looks layered on black. The pink ribbon is from Stampin Up, and added that splash of color I wanted, and the stamp is from Close to My Heart.

I hope you all come over to Cardz TV, and play along with us.

A few challenges:
The Emerald Faerie Garden - flourishes and swirls
Creative Stamp Friends - New Years Cards
There She Goes - New Year
Addicted to Stamps - something new - new year, new baby, new house...
Come and Get It - New Year
Just Some Lines - new year


A la prochaine...

Michelle

Happy New Year!

Good Morning everyone! Happy New Year! I am happy to be back The past few months I have been feeling anti-crafting. I did a couple of craft shows, which were fun, but VERY time consuming and energy sucking! I decided to take a little break from the blogging world. But, now I'm back. I am planning to post here about more than just crafts. There are so many things I enjoy - cooking and baking, photgraphy, spending time with my munchkins and hubby, so this is going to be a bit more generic. There will still be lots of crafts, I do love crafting so much :) but there will be other things too.

In that spirit, here is a wonderful lemon loaf I made the other day. My parents were over for dinner, and this was dessert.





Doesn't it look delicious?? I had a really hard time finding a lemon loaf recipe that actually included lemons IN the loaf. This had a delicious, light and lemony flavor, and the glaze was perfect. I found the recipe HERE.

Be sure to come back tomorrow, to see my design team creation for Cricut Cardz Challenge. On Thursday or Friday, I will be posting a present I made - they are my new obsession :)

A la prochaine...

Yellow Pants, Grapes and Triqui Traquis - Venezuelan New Year

Venezuelans have been stocking up on yellow underwear, sparkling wine and grapes in the last few days, in the traditional build up to the celebration of New Year's Eve, or Fin de Año.

The locals love to welcome in the New Year with a massive bang so sales of fireworks or "triqui-traquis" have also been brisk - especially the annoying little firecrackers called "fosforitos", the bigger "

Wisemen Still Seek Him

The challenge today over at Cricut Cardz Challenge was to create a card inspired by your favorite Christmas carol. Here is what I came up with:



It is based on an old favorite of mine - Wisemen Seeking Jesus. I cut this using Inspired Heart. The sentiment, is one of my favorites. I have spent so long looking for the sentiment Wisemen still seek him. This year I finally found some, and decided this was the perfect cut for the sentiment.

I hope you all come play with us over at Cricut Cardz Challenge!

Some challenges:
Creative Card Crew - Tis the Season
Tuesday Throwdown - Celebrate the season
Come and Get It Challenges - Christmas
Clearly I Stamp - Christmas
Fairytale Challenge - Christmas
Jingle Belles - Christmas
The Poodles Parlour -Christmas
Raise the Bar - Christmas
Simply Create Too - Christmas
Sparkles Christmas Challenge - Nativity
Rainbow Lady's Challenge - Christmas carol


A la prochaine...

Michelle