July IHP DT Challenge: Charity Logo Inspiration

For this month’s IHP Design Team Challenge, we were asked to use the logo of a favorite charity as inspiration for our card or project. I doubt there’s anyone reading this whose lives have not been touched in some way by breast cancer, and my family is no exception. I used the logo of Susan G. Komen for the Cure® as inspiration for this cute little phone message pad.

I love their whimsical use of the ribbon image to represent a person running, since the fundraiser they’re famous for is the Mother’s Day Race for the Cure. I used the whimsical-looking telephone from the Just My Type stamp set by Lawn Fawn, stamping it in Memento Tuxedo Black and coloring it with Copic markers for the main image, and stamping it repeatedly in light pink as a background as well as on the bottom corner of each page of the note pad. I used a piece of yummy Light Fuschia Faux Suede ribbon around the bottom of the top panel to visually balance it and give it a little texture. It’s all mounted on a layer of light pink over a base cover of PTI Raspberry Fizz cardstock.

If you’d like to know more about Susan G. Komen for the Cure®, simply click on the logo above. If you’d like to show us how a favorite charity logo has inspired you, we’d love to see your work. Just post it to the SCS or PCP gallery using the keyword ihp0711 so we can find it.

Now go check out what Kate and the rest of the IHP Design Team did with this challenge:

• Deb
• Gretchen
• Kendra
• Loretta
• Lori
• Lynn
• Megan
• Tracy
• Kate

Thanks for stopping by!

Baby’s Birthday Weekend

OK, she’s not a baby. But she’ll always be MY baby, no matter how many times she celebrates birthdays! This year my youngest, Annisa, set a goal to move into her own apartment (and out of the one she shared with her sister) by her birthday, and she did it! She found a gorgeous studio apartment in Manhattan, and christened it with a double-header birthday celebration – one for friends and one for family – since it isn’t quite big enough to handle everyone at once. This called for two cakes. And one card. Very clever of me: offer to make cakes for both parties and you get to go to both of them!

Here’s Cake #1:
I tried to tie the colors in with her apartment (the sofa is orange, the rug is black and grey, table is white, chairs are black). This was a 9” chocolate cake filled with chocolate ganache, raspberry jam and fresh raspberries. Covered in orange and black fondant. Very yummy.

Cake #2 was a 6” carrot cake with cream cheese frosting:
Very yummy as well. I ate altogether too much cake this weekend. And drank too much wine. I think I’m gonna skip my weigh-in tomorrow.

And here’s the birthday card:

Because she is my beautiful, ever-evolving butterfly. Wish BIG, my sweet baby! And fly high. Love you, Annisa!

 

(isn’t she gorgeous?!!)

New Improved Storage!

I had a very full weekend! Took a little road trip with my sister down to New Hope, PA to see my brother play with an awesome Steely Dan tribute band, and to celebrate his birthday. And on the way back, we stopped at Ikea. I’ve been keeping all of my PTI stamp sets in CD boxes on a shelf in my craft closet, but somehow the ones I use most end up sitting on the desk, cluttering it up. I had some space on the wall in front of me, and I found these fabulous wall-hung CD racks at Ikea that would let me store all of my MANY PTI sets right in my face!

And see – I even have room for more! Each unit is about 34” long and holds 76 CD cases. It’s called Lerberg, and it was ridiculously cheap – like less than $6, I think! And they can be hung horizontally or vertically, whichever suits your space better.

If you’re wondering what is right below the racks, it’s a magnetic strip that I hung there so I could keep inspiration/reference things handy, like the printed out sketch challenges every week. There are little magnet circles holding the papers up.

To put it all in perspective, here’s what’s above my desk:
On the left is the ribbon rack that my Dad made me last year. The lower shelves are great for keeping my ink pads and Bow Easy handy, as well as my stash of buttons. Martha punches sit nicely on top of the unit, and a flex-neck lamp is clamped onto it. There’s another lamp you can see on the desktop at left. Can never have too much lighting, especially with these aging eyes!

Sitting underneath the ribbon unit are the plastic boxes with X-dividers that hold all my Copic markers.

It’s great to have everything at my fingertips. Now I just need to spend some time playing with it all!

Holy Macarons!

These little Parisian nuggets of decadence, made of ground almonds, egg whites and sugar, are all the rage in NYC now. I’ve heard nothing but how difficult they are to make, so of course I had to give it a try. And because it is the way I am, I researched the topic to death! Read every blog, every recipe, every tip sheet that I could lay my hands on that had anything to do with macarons over the last week.

Tonight, after aging my egg whites for 48 hours, I screwed up my courage and gave it a go. After lots of measuring, weighing, sifting and beating, the results are better than I expected for my first time. Slightly browned (they aren’t supposed to be), and slightly chewier than I think they should be, they are nonetheless BEAUTIFUL to me. Look at those dainty little frilly feet! They are filled with seedless raspberry jam. And for all that work, I only got ONE DOZEN out of it.

They’re supposed to get better, taste and texturewise, after aging a day or two.

Somehow I don’t think I’m gonna find out.