Chocolate Chip Cookies

Oh so simple....

Chocolate chip cookies are simple, basic and homey so I wanted my recipe card to reflect that.

Of course, I HAD to use chocolate chip paper!
And the cherry cobbler just shouts HOMEY and WARM to me so I put in a pinch of that.
The cookies wouldn't taste right without vanilla, right?  so I added a splash of that.
The blue paper was the back of the orange paper I used on yesterday's pumpkin bread post - that was chosen because it was handy.
And my printer was in a good mood today and printing quite nicely on crumb cake cardstock.

Cookies are 1.75 circle punch in crumb cake, sponged with chocolate chip ink and the "chips" were stamped with the eraser end of a pencil.

Simple, easy and yummy - just like the cookies!

Note: This recipe is not the one on the back of the chip bag - it is one that was on the back of the 6 oz chip bag YEARS ago.  And my secret to the best cookies is don't cook them too long.  My oven cooks a little cool and I like my chocolate chip cookies better than any other I've tasted.  Has to be the oven - can't possibly be anything I do!
For another cookie post look HERE
For another great cookie recipe look HERE and HERE  (Eileen's recipes - YUM)

Pumpkin Bread

In some areas of my life I am VERY organized.

Most areas I have pretty much under control...

And, as you might guess, in some areas, all "h-e-double hockey sticks" has broken loose.

My recipes fall in the last category.  I don't like to cook.  I don't cook much.  So organizing recipes has never been much of a priority.

Notice I said I don't cook.  I didn't say I don't collect recipes.

I have them in books people have given me. 
I have them in books I've bought (with the best of intentions). 
I have the ones I have copied from friends after enjoying their delicious creations. 
I have the ones I snipped from the newspaper because they sounded good. 
I have the ones I've torn from magazines because they promise to be quick and easy. 
I have the 10 recipes I actually use.
I have a few special holiday ones.
AND best of all I have the PRETTY and yummy ones I've gotten from 6x6 recipe card swaps.

I realized I know exactly where the pretty ones are because I have them all together with easy access on one great holder.

So...., I am making the recipes I use into 6x6 cards (even though I'm not in a swap) so I can find them when I need them.

And here is my favorite one to lose (but not anymore)

I tried to not put a pumpkin on the page because that is so "obvious" but I couldn't help myself!!

For the 2 of you who have never punched a pumpkin - just layer 3 large ovals, use a scrap for the stem and curl a very thin strip of paper around your paper piercer (or stylus) to make the curly vine.

Paper craft ideas you can take from this page:

When you have an "empty" spot and nothing to put in it - pull out your word window and wrap it around the edge of your page:

I added some tiny buttons from my stash but you could leave them plain or add a brad.  This used to be one of my fave tricks on cards and pages that "needed something" but somehow I stopped using it.  It popped into my brain after I spent about 10 minutes pawing through my embellishments looking for the RIGHT THING to finish this page.  I should have KNOWN the answer would be in my punch drawer!

Another thing you might not realize is that you can run chipboard through your Big Shot with texture plates!  I suspect this wouldn't work with embossing folders (and I don't want to mess one up trying it) but texture plates work well as you can see with my "P"

The "b" is textured also but it is just paper, not chipboard, because I needed to layer the other lettering on top of it.

My last tip involves the paper the recipe is printed on.  I tried and tried to get my printer to take so saffron cardstock (sometimes it will - sometimes it balks at the weight of SU cardstock).  Last night was a night to reject it. My solution was to print on whisper white and take the ink-pad directly to the paper.  This gave me great distressing which matches the background paper I had chosen.  I like it better than if the so saffron had worked. 

This recipe came from Janis Boyd, a WONDERFUL cook, who once upon a time worked with my hubby.

Here is the recipe if you don't want to struggle to read the photo:
3 cups sugar
1 cup oil
4 eggs
½ tsp salt
1 tsp nutmeg
3 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp soda
1 cup nuts (optional)
2 cups (1 can) pumpkin
2/3 cup water

Cream sugar, oil & eggs. Add the rest and mix well.

Cook in greased and floured pans at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

(Makes 3 of the throw away loaf pans) Freezes well.

Waiting on the recipe....

Yes, another unfinished project... just WAITING on me to add the recipe.  Waiting... Waiter...  You knew I couldn't resist that one.

Couple of retired things here - Key Tag which as we have discussed before you can get from a rectangle and a corner rounder - and the slot punch which you really can't get but you can substitute little straight scraps.  I really can't imagine why SU retired that one and I think they should bring it back - even ladies who don't do punch art used it to put ribbon on cards...

I won't keep you WAITING any longer (giggle)
Here's the recipe for the waiter:

Hair - small tag punch shortened
Face - key tag (retired)
Eyebrows and moustache - slot punch
Eyes - a standard hole punch in white and black
Nose - small circle (itty bitty punch pack) trimmed on sides
Mouth - small circle next to small circle hole (just need that sliver)
Shirt - key tag (still retired) punched at top with key tag and I inserted the bottom into the ornament punch to get the point (you could cut with scissors)
Tie - Full heart next to full heart hole (just need a sliver and then trim to shorten
Arm - small tag  - trimmed (hint - the elbow is the small top part of the tag punch)
Gloved hand - wide heart to heart
Tray - scrap
Serving Cover - Wide oval end and a standard hole punch

Remember you can change his expression by moving the mouth and eyebrows!

Unfinished Share

I don't want to face that Angry Blog Reader so here I am again - sharing something unfinished. 

The punch art is finished - I just don't have it on the recipe card...

Base - modern label - just 2 "bumps" worth
Stand up part (technical name, I'm sure) - modern label
Top - wide oval trimmed flat
Buttons - dry embossed using the mat in the good old paper piercing kit as the template
Beater - thin strip and word window repunched in brushed silver cardstock- use pen or marker for "holes"

VERY easy and applicable to so many recipes!

Seasonal Recipe Cards

Yesterday I shared my Cheeseball Season recipe.  Today you get to see what I got from my Upline, Sidelines, and Downline friends.  These are all recipes they make during the Holiday Season.

This is a jello salad that Jenifer's mom made - the cherries are the 3/4 inch circle and the stems are the branch from the Two Step Bird punch.

Eileen swears that EVEN I can make these squares.  I'll let you know when I do.  The lesson here is in the border.

Not a Stampin' Up! punch but this idea may come in handy for you - she had us punch the border - then punch the leaves and put them back in the leaf holes - but we left the acorns spots empty so the brown would show through - and if the leaf didn't get "fit" into the hole perfectly - you get a great shadow effect.

Here is Becky's Pumpkin Roll - I've never made one of these either.  I used to have a neighbor who made me one each year.  Gosh I hate it when the good cooks move away....

This is Samantha's stuffing recipe - it sounds yum.  Notice how she mixed different stamp sets on this page - looks great huh?

This recipes sounds fabulous too.  I love Madeline's idea with the YUM tags.  I wish I had threaded the cord through the buttons instead of "tying" behind.  I think I can use this idea many times for different recipes - way to go Madeline!

Football? No, it's CHEESEBALL Season...

There is baseball season, football season, basketball season and CHEESEBALL season. 

I have a cheeseball recipe that we make EVERY year for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  We limit it to that time for 2 reasons

1) to keep it "special"
2) the Roka cheese it called for was only in the local grocery store seasonally.

Last Fall there was a CRISIS!  Kraft totally quit making Roka blue in the little jar. 

OH NO! 

I had a kid coming home from school expecting her favorite cheeseball and I really didn't want to disappoint.  I emailed Kraft and they suggested a substitute recipe to replace the Roka so I cut it in half and merged it into the original cheeseball recipe.  Four ingredients to replace one little jar of cheese - but you do what you gotta do for TRADITION and for your kids.

And now, I can make the cheeseball in the "off season" since I don't have to hunt down the jar of Roka.  Which makes this little story another example of "every dark cloud has a silver lining...."

Cheeseball - So Saffron 1.25 circle repunched with small circle punches - sponged edges with so saffron ink
Baseball - Whisper White 1.25 circle - use "hole" as a template to draw the curved lines - add tiny dashes
Basketball -Whisper white paper, pumpkin pie ink, retired Just Basketball stamp - you could punch a pumpkin pie circle and add white lines with gel pen - sponge edges with pumpkin pie ink
Football - soft suede 1.75 circle repunched with same - sponge edges with chocolate chip ink - draw laces with white gel pen.

Halloween Punch Trifecta

Yes that's right ladies - today is the Halloween Punch Trifecta - you get 3 simple fun Halloween punch ideas all on one project.  And I sure hope you think they are all winners!

First I will reveal my own genius - using the new fabulous OWL punch, I give you the letter "e" as a cauldron!

So simple - punch your Owl - trim his feet down to one toe/claw per foot - and punch off  the top of his head with your handy dandy 1.25 circle punch.

Second, I will reveal someone else's genius - problem is, I can't remember whose!  I saw this in the last ten days or so - even left a comment and now I can't find it again (sob!) so if it is your idea PLEASE come claim the credit because it is so cute.  A clever someone gave us a  broom from the medium jewelry tag punch! I LOVE IT!  I used about 1/2 width word window for the broom handle.  Snipped the jewelry tag with scissors.

And the third thing is not as new and exciting but still handy - a witch hat.  You can make it with any piece of a circle and a scrap triangle but for sizing purposes this it the bottom of the owl breast (it was lying there after I punched the cauldron) and since it made a fine brim for the detective hat - it makes a fine brim for a witch hat.  Your witch hat can be a regular triangle - and pointed - or you can bend it over and cut a slit in it - reminiscent of the sorting hat in the Harry Potter tales. 

This recipe page uses the basic recipe for La Madeleine's' Tomato Basil Soup - altered for the Halloween theme into Bloody Basil Brew.

The spillage from the cauldron is a bit of the scallop oval punch.

Letters "r" and "w" are brought to you by the alphabet simple letter dies that SU sells

The letter "b" is brought to you by a combo of the broom AND the ring from a 1.75 circle punched around a 1.25 circle HOLE.

OF COURSE, this "brew" idea could easily be made into a recipe card for an adult beverage - or a coffee drink - or punch - whatever you like to serve at Halloween!

Not Rabbit Stew...

I am lucky #27  (Twenty seven is your lucky number, isn't it?) on the VC Rocks blog hop this weekend.  Which is almost the tail end.  We have 29 ladies on this 2nd ever VC Rocks Blog Hop.

You may have come here from Brandy's blog or you may be a regular reader.  Either way, if you want to start at the beginning of the hop or if you get lost along the way - you can find all the links HERE.

One day this week, kid who lives at home (boy, does she need a better name) and her best buddies were BORED so I suggested they grab a cookbook, pick a new recipe, do some grocery shopping and cook my dinner.  (My $ for the shopping, of course)

It was a great idea. They learned something new and I didn't have to cook. They made me a very nice dinner.  But that got me thinking about recipes and then recipe cards and well, of course, a punch project.

He isn't hard - here is the "how to"
Head - modern label

Hat - scallop circle trimmed -look at the photo,count the bumps at the top - that is how much you leave when you cut.

Nose - wing from two step bird

Moustache - curly label next to curly label hole - (if you have your punch upside down you can see what you are doing)

Arms - pieces of oval ring (large oval punched around a small oval hole)

Hands - circle from itty bitty shapes pack at the tips of the modern label

Body - 1.75 circle snipped at neckline with circle punch (size not that important -1 inch or 3/4 inch - it won't matter)

Soup pot - approx 2 inch by 1.75 inch rectangle - stuck bottom corners as far as possible into 1.75 circle to round them - Let me clarify - I have the biggest SU circle punch upside down and I put the rectangle into the circle's opening so that only a corner is "in the punch" - push in as far as you can and PUNCH.  Repeat for the other bottom corner.

I really was just going to have the chef adding carrots to the pot...

But being near the "tail end of the HOP" - I couldn't resist making a rabbit tail end.

Rabbit rear - 3/4 inch circle in soft suede
Rabbit tail - puffy from itty bitty shapes pack in very vanilla
Carrots - narrow Heart to Heart cut in 1/2 in tangerine tango
Carrot tops - leaves from Two Step Bird in always artichoke

Base of recipe card is Riding Hood Red and Cherry Cobbler (both available July 1) - Don't all these food names make you hungry when you craft?  yum, cobbler sounds really good right now.

When I do get around to adding a recipe to this card, I can just rename the recipe I choose  "Not Rabbit Stew".  Oh don't groan at me - it will bring out a chuckle every time I look at it.  And lord knows, I need a chuckle if I am having to cook something.

Now keep on hopping to see what Kelly Mayou, the Weekend Stamper, has created for you!  It is the weekend - she is bound to have stamped something (unless her blog name is an evil lie and she punched something instead).  You won't know unless you go check it out right HERE.

Looks like we have a missing link - so after you check out Kelly - click HERE to see the final blog on the hop - Loni Holt.  She has blog candy so you don't want to miss it.

Enjoy the HOP!

A Chicken in Every Pot?

I realize this might not have widespread application but it is the first thing that came to me after my little break from punching - and ya gotta start somewhere...

Perfect for a recipe card if you have a Chicken Pot Pie recipe.

Which I don't.

Because I eat the frozen kind - the ones loaded with sodium and convenience.

That is just the way I roll.


Details:
Couple of new colors on her for those of you interested.  The crown is the new cherry cobbler  - it is absolutely yummy and I can't wait to get my hands on some pattern paper with this color in it!  The beak is a new "in-color" called peach parfait.

Neck feathers - itty bitty shapes punch pack (too much - gonna be "itty bitty"  from now on around here)
Crown - itty bitty
Eyes - small heart (the stand alone heart - not Heart to Heart)
Wings - small oval repunched with scallop oval
Body - scallop oval repunched with wide oval to get smooth side
Pan - large oval
Beak - 5 petal punch right at the corner of paper so you get a point on both ends of the beak (the corner of the paper goes into the punch so you are just snipping one petal)
Neck - my way arrow - strip of paper will work fine
Feet - narrow heart to heart cut in 1/2 lengthwise to get 2 feet - trimmed with scissors to separate toes
Legs - narrow strip of paper


Do a little sponging, outline in black and add a few pen markings and you are ready to bake.

April Recipe Swap

I have FOUR recipe pages for you today - I know some of you come looking for them.

I think our little swapping group is burning out on recipe pages...  No one did punch art this time (not even me) and we ALL used retired or non SU supplies on our pages.  But you can still get the recipes AND great ideas for making pages with your own recipes - so take a look.

First up is Eileen Flannery's Cowgirl Cooler. 

(You could use water instead of booze if you need a 'virgin version')

Eileen used current SU In-colors but this is not an SU stamp and we colored with alcohol markers.

Second is Jenifer Lange's Easy Pasta Salad.

I still love this retired paper and am hoarding my last few bits for special projects - very glad that Jenifer is willing to share what she has left.  I love the way she used the top note die.

Third is Madeline Escareno's Orange Chicken.

Madeline says even I can cook this one (I'll let you know)

This designer paper is retired but don't you love the wavy lines and the tiny pearls?

And finally mine:

Retired paper - old in-colors - still love these!
The letters are on chipboard using the SU Alphabet Simple Letters die - LOVE THIS DIE!
And I love this recipe. I made it to take to a party last year- it is yummy yummy yummy and not hard at all.  I have become a HUGE fan of cilantro so add plenty if you try this recipe.

Rest of the Recipes

I am partial to punch art (well, duh) so, of course, my favorite of the recipe swap is from my upline, Jenifer Lange, because she designed these cute cute CUTE punched veggies:

Not exactly "Veggie Tales" but close.  I love them. 

Makes me want to sing "Oh, Where is my Hairbrush?" and "You are his Cheeseburger"

And here are the rest of the yummy recipes: 

(Click on photos to make larger)

Eileen Flannery:

Becky Adams:

Madeline Escareno (still trying to get her to join as a demo):

Sheila Garcia (former demo):

Pastor Tom's Tortilla Soup

I don't personally know Pastor Tom (although he appears to be from Texas) but I L-U-V his soup. 

I stumbled upon this recipe a few years ago and have fixed it many times.  It is YUMMY! 

So, for this month's recipe swap with my upline and sidelines, I decided to use Pastor Tom's Tortilla Soup.

Here is a video I found of Pastor Tom making his soup.

And here is my recipe for making the bowl of soup from punches: 

Soup - small oval
Inside of bowl - large oval
Rim of bowl - oval ring from large oval punched around small oval hole
Bowl base - 1 3/8 circle punch
Soup Spoon- modern label punch angled against edge of paper so you only get 1 bump and a slant.
Steam - swirly stamp from Priceless
Hearts - Heart to Heart Punch

Assemble as follows:
small soup oval on top of the "inside of bowl" oval - matching bottom edges
rim oval on top of that
if using pattern paper you may have the paper's white core showing on the edge - go around with a marker to darken edge
add all this to the bowl base
Stamp "steam"
position soup bowl
top with "spoon"
garnish with 3 hearts

Enjoy!

Two more recipes

No punch art on these two recipe cards from the swap - but I can personally vouch for these peanut butter cookies.  Eileen baked them for our meeting.  YUMMY!

She added crystal effects to the mixing bowl so it really looks like a ceramic bowl

Here is Madeline's recipe - I'm betting it is good too.

 Her parents own a restaurant - um-mm, I think I may have found a second source for great recipes.

Click on photos if you want to be able to read the recipes.

A little lovin' from the oven

This is the oven that almost wasn't....

My sideline, Becky Adams, had a vision of the oven she wanted to use on her recipe swap.  She just didn't have the time to pull it together.  In fact, she told us she wasn't coming since she wasn't finished with her swap but we talked that busy girl into showing up at the meeting.  Once we saw the start of her project we all threw out ideas and ta-dah!  We all left the meeting with an oven with a steaming pot AND a pie. 

You could add the name of your recipe on the top left corner and put the recipe on the back OR you could add "Ellen's Recipes" and use it for the front of a recipe book. 

Please don't use "Ellen's Recipes" if your name isn't Ellen - that just doesn't make sense.

And don't use "Ellen's Recipes" if your family has any experience with my cooking because they will think you are trying to poison them. 

But if you are making me a recipe book as a gift, please use "Ellen's Recipes" because all your good recipes will be mine since it is my present. 

Would you like for me to hush now and discuss the 'how to make it'?

For the oven:
Back rectangle 3 5/8  x 3
Front rectangle 3 3/8 x 2 1/2  round 2 corners
Retired key tag punch unto front rectangle  - use transparency or clear window sheet behind hole
1/4 inch strip of barely banana for top of oven - use 4 brads for knobs
word window punch (punch on edge so you just get part) for door handle (cut dimensionals into thin pieces and pop up handle)
word window for oven feet
piece of silver cording for oven rack
attach the door with adhesive on the bottom and with double stacked dimensionals on the top so the door is slightly ajar

For the pot:
Retired key tag punch in silver - cut (obviously)
Arrow from My Way punch for pot handle
Drew smoke by hand with going gray marker and went  back over the gray with a glitter pen (not SU)

For the pie: (strongly influenced by something I remembered from Andrea Walford's blog)
Scallop oval in creamy caramel - repunched with scallop oval for pie top - sponge with close to cocoa for "browning" and draw on three slits
Pie pan is the tip of the retired key tag in silver (again) (Isn't it nice how the cookware matches?)

This punch project reminds me of a "funny on me" story.  My dishwasher leaked - warping our faux wood floor a couple of years back - so I switched to tile (thank you Insurance Company).  An older man and his son came to do the tile installation and they moved my range/oven so the tile could be installed under it.  The son said "Wow, this is like a new antique!"  I guess my 25 year old range with the analog clock/timer does look pretty old and yet new at the same time.  It is so rarely used and it is the ONLY appliance in the house we haven't had to replace.  I like to quip that my children are the only ones in the world that think a stove top should be cleaned with a feather duster.  And that is only a slight exaggeration.

Recipe Swap - Jenifer's peach

I know - how cute is that peach?  This was designed by my talented upline, Jenifer Lange.  Looks just like a real peach huh?

Want to know how to make it? 

I knew you would.

It is a circle punch - 1.75 inch - so saffron.

Using the negative piece (the hole) - put that over your circle - offset about half way.  Using a q-tip inked in dusty durango, draw a thick-ish curved line along the edge of the hole. 

Lightly sponge (pounce) dusty durango on the right and left side of your peach (leave the inside of the circle alone). 

Take your sponge with so saffron ink and then rub all over the parts you just pounced - this smooths out the dusty durango. 

Finally take  just a little ruby red and add it at the very top of your peach (near the "line")  You can smooth this out with so saffron sponging/rubbing also.

Using scissors, trim in a tiny bit on each side of the "line" on the bottom - and trim at the line (like an apple) at the top.

Add leaves from the 5 petal flower and a stem from some scrap and viola - delicious fuzzy looking paper peach!

I'll share the rest of the recipe swaps this weekend.

And I'm sorry but I'm having to change the blog to moderate all comments - someone has left nasty stuff in another language two days in a row.  If it stops soon, I'll change back but I just can't tolerate anyone posting awful stuff in the comments.  Isn't it sad that people feel the need to do that?

AND....

If you haven't seen Jackie Topa's new punched rabbit go right now and look HERE - it is the cutest thing ever!

Recipe Rooster

My upline held our monthly meeting this week and we did another 6x6 Recipe Swap.  I got a yummy recipe from Eileen to use but whoa! - it was way too long to put on a 6x6 page.  So, I gave them one of the few things I can make that is g-r-e-a-t.  It is my mother-in-law's recipe for cocktail sauce.

Last time I showed you recipe cards, I yakked about how your embellishments don't have to "match" your recipe (lemons on lemon pie, etc.)  But y'all know me and my stupid sense of humor.  Can you guess what is coming?



ready?




it is really stupid.....

See, I warned you it was dopey BUT this really is a great recipe - don't let the stupid page fool you.

Here is is for easier reading:

Nelda's Shrimp Cocktail Sauce

1 cup ketchup

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

2 tsp. salt

8 heaping tsp. horseradish

(the kind in the jar - what I buy says "prepared grated horseradish roots")

4 tsp. Worcestershire

6 to 8 drops Tabasco

Kemper tradition says that Christmas dinner MUST start with shrimp cocktail.  I was so nervous the first year it fell on my shoulders to make the cocktail sauce - but as you see, the recipe is simple.  The trick is getting the right amount of "heat" for the assortment of folks around the table.  We have wimps but also have family members with cast iron mouths - it is a delicate balancing act.

We did our swap shoebox style - which means you bring the parts but the swappers do their own assembly.  Punch art frightens some of these girls but our newbie/potential demo just jumped right in and had the first completed rooster.  Way to go Madeline!

large oval - old olive head
1.25 circle - natural body
two heart to heart - red comb
heart to heart - red wattle
Two Step Bird  (wing) - summer sun beak
(2) Two Step Bird (leaf stem) - summer sun legs
Flower trio - 1 petal cut off - summer sun feet
Small heart - natural eyes
Standard hole punch - black eyes
Wide oval trimmed with scissors - not quite navy breast feathers
Photo corners - old olive tail

To get the breast feathers just do random spikes and cut to the size shown - it should stick out over the circle body in front and stop about half way across the circle body.

To get the tail - cut each of the photo corners in half - stopping before you make the final snip.  So that the photo corners is still intact it just has a cut down the middle (long-wise, and yes you 'turned a corner' when you were cutting)

When you have the cut - you just fold one 'half' over the other.  Makes an odd shape piece. 

Repeat for the other size photo corner and then layer one over the other.  Makes this wonderful mess of cock tail feathers!  

Please Note:
This is not rocket science and it is just paper scraps - snip and fold until you get the look you want - it doesn't have to be exactly like mine.

Recipe Swap Part 4

Now I get to share what my fabulous upline and sidelines created for our meeting/recipe swap! And so in alphabetical order I give you....

Becky Adams

Don't you love this?  Becky got this idea from this invitation on Splitcoast.  And the recipe was from a column in Creating Keepsakes magazine.  Miss Lazy Cook (me) had already spied this easy recipe and dog eared the page but now I don't have to even write it down since Becky made this darling recipe card!

Next comes our best group cook...

Eileen Flannery

Eileen hasn't been with SU as long as the rest of us and she has an EXTENSIVE collection of  "other" product so we give her extra room to use all her toys on our swaps.  She paper pieced this darling apron. I think it is fabulous.  Her recipe was so long she put the directions on the back (clever huh?)

She had brought these oatmeal cookies to our September meeting so I can personally vouch for this recipe. The title is accurate.  OH YUM!  I kinda sorta cheated on the diet that night (and every night Eileen brings dessert).

And last but certainly not least is the swap from my upline, Jenifer...

Jenifer Lange

OH SO CUTE!  They just love it when they out punch me!  Isn't he awesome?  I checked, she just drew the lines on his hat but I'm thinking that Bride paper might work too.  I don't have any so I can't say for sure.

Here is a close up so you can see this good lookin' hunk of chef (any man that can cook is a hunk in my eyes)

It was a fabulous swap!  We decided we will definitely swap recipes again and of course I'll share them with all of you.

How to Really Measure Up! Recipe Swap Part 3

This is the tutorial for the measuring spoons on this recipe card...

Punch 1 inch, TWO 3/4 inch, TWO 1/2 inch holes - throw the 1/2 inch holes away, throw out one of the 3/4 inch circles - keep one 3/4 inch and the 1 inch circles.

Go back and punch around the HOLES as follows:

1 3/8 around the 1 inch hole

1 1/4 around the 3/4 inch hole

1 inch around the 3/4 inch hole

1 inch around the 1/2 inch hole

3/4 around the 1/2 inch hole




Additionally punch
1 1/4 circle

1 3/8 circle
and FOUR word windows

So this is what you have ...

Sponge GOING GRAY on the solid circles (not the rings) in the middle but I only covered about 3/4 of the circle - NOT full coverage

Adhere the rings on the sponged circles

Add a highlight in the spoon with a white gel pen on the side that didn't get sponged.

Stack your word windows on top of each other and use your crop-a-dile to punch a hole near one end (punch all four at once) - I used the larger of the two hole punch options.

Adhere the spoon handles onto the spoons.

Cut a slit in the "ring" and feed through the holes in the spoon handles.

They really are hanging on the ring

Ta Dah!  You just manufactured measuring spoons!

Recipe Swap Part 2

Measuring Spoons from Punches!  Don't you love it?

I was weeding through some old embellishments and saw something I had bought years ago with tiny tiny little paper measuring spoons on a ring.  Ah ha! - perfect for the recipe card swap.  So I pulled out my variety of SU circle punches and the first punch I bought from Stampin' Up! (word window) and got busy.

I just love these spoons - but I'm never sure what is going to "float y'alls boat", so I took photos as I made the spoons for the swap but the directions are not written yet.  If you need/want a tutorial, leave comments letting me know and I'll type it up and post it tomorrow. 

The paper decision was easy after I created my basic gray spoons.  I grabbed my Nouveau Chic designer series and picked out a couple of pages.  (Of course, measuring spoons come in all colors so get wild and crazy if you copy this idea)

The accent piece had some apricot on it - but not on every inch - since some of the strips I cut were very "gray" I randomly sponged on some Apricot Appeal and Sage Shadow ink. 

The recipe itself is printed on vanilla.  The ribbon is sage shadow grosgrain and the black photo corners (from the punch) were paper pierced. **** Tip - I couldn't see to pierce the holes with the black paper on the dark piercing pad so I just grabbed a sheet of copy paper to put under my photo corner.  Much easier for old eyes to see! ****

Recipe Swap Part 1

Let me preface this by saying while I am NOT a cook, I have friends that are.  Do not hesitate to try the following recipe.  It is not mine.  The muffins are great.  I promise!

The first couple of times I tried 6x6 recipe card swaps I thought I should match the embellishments to the recipe - as in a chicken on a chicken casserole recipe.  This made for some funny stuff but I quickly found out that was not what was expected.

This past summer I did another recipe swap and got the recipe I used from my sideline, Eileen Flannery, who is an absolutely fabulous cook.  So good in fact, that we quit taking turns bring dessert to our meetings, we just give her cash and she brings something wonderful every single month!  Anyway, this was my recipe card...

Sadly, this great paper is retired but you could still copy the idea - Just use coordinating paper and use a chipboard letter that goes with your recipe.  This "B" for blueberry is the Serif Essentials Die.  I glued a scrap of paper to chipboard using my SU glue-stick - perfect adhesive for this - and ran it through the Big Shot.  Remember to always have the side you want to show face down against the die.

After seeing what I did with her recipe, Eileen wanted our group to do a recipe page swap.  I agreed on the condition that she give me another recipe.  The meeting is tonight so tune in tomorrow to see what I came up with  - it is punch creation for those of you addicted to them (like me) - and the recipe is for Amaretto Chunk Cookies.  YUM!