Look who’s hiding in my refrigerator…

Are these not the cutest little turkey cupcakes you have ever seen? I’ve been working on them since Wednesday, and they’re all tucked away now, chillin’ and waiting for their trip to the Philadelphia area to meet the family today. Too bad their lifespan will be only slightly longer than their poultry counterpart. Gobble gobble! They even look a little apprehensive, don’t they?

A few details for those who are curious: I got the idea here. I used Trader Joe’s Yellow Cake Mix for the cupcakes (first time – I’ll let you know…), and for the frosting, I made a Bittersweet Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream. Let me tell you folks, this stuff should be against the law. Never have I tasted anything so sinfully silky and deliciously decadent. Trouble with a capital “T”.

The tail feathers and beaks are made of fondant. Hopefully, the food coloring will have worn off my hands by the time you read this. I cheated and bought the eyes already made at NY Cake and Baking Supply, which is conveniently (and dangerously) located about a block and a half from my office.

Have a wonderful day. Catch up with you soon!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today, and every day, I am most grateful for my amazing, wonderful, loving family. I completely lucked out in that department. Every single one of them, whether related by birth or by marriage, is a true joy.

The favor boxes above will be on our family Thanksgiving table tomorrow. Yes, I said tomorrow. Our family has decided that when we can, we’ll celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas on the “off” days. No matter where we celebrate, there’s a great deal of traveling involved for most people, and celebrating on an alternate day makes that a lot easier. It also lets those with spouses celebrate with both families.

Here’s a close-up of the box. The image is made with the Happy Harvest set by The Petal Press, available exclusively from i {heart} papers. I drew the stem on the pumpkin, since technically I stamped it upside down. It’s colored with Copic markers, and a drop of Glossy Accents is added to each of the acorns. The greeting is from the same set, and it’s embossed with gold EP. I punched the whole thing out with a big oval punch, but you could easily use Nestabilities. I then ran a gold metallic marker around the edge to finish it off. The box itself is made with the Sizzix matchbox die from SU!. I don’t know how I ever lived without it! Most of them are filled with Hershey’s Nuggets (a few, like mine, are filled with Weight Watchers candies).

I sincerely want to thank those of you who actually follow my blog. I know there are a few of you out there, and I do appreciate it. I also know that I’m not as diligent as I’d like to be in posting. I hope you’ll stick with me anyway as I try to get better at that.

And make sure you take some time to check out Kate’s enormous Black Friday Sale at i {heart} papers. From Black Friday through Sunday (midnight EST) use the code black25dt for 25% off any order $25 or more. This is the biggest discount IHP has ever offered so take advantage of it while you can!

Then, in celebration of Cyber Monday, after the 25% off coupon has expired, there will be over 600 items on steep, steep discount - some up to 50% off! So shop early with your 25% off coupon to get what you really NEED to get and then come back on Monday to see all the fantastic savings that are left!

(The nitty gritty details - coupon does not apply to any previous orders or any items that are out of stock. Sale items are first come, first served and no rainchecks apply. And, no credits will be issued if you purchase something with the 25% off coupon and then it goes on sale at a later date. Sorry!)

Lights all Aglow – IHP DT Challenge

Glowing lights are something that all of the upcoming holidays have in common, whether you’re celebrating Christmas, Chanukah or Kwanza, so that’s the theme our Challenge-meister Deb gave us for our challenge this month.

I decided to create a trio of luminaria to meet this challenge. They are all made of heavyweight clear vellum, cut to 3” x 10-1/4” and scored at 2-1/5”, 5”, 7-1/2” and 10”. They’re all trimmed with strips of paper from the Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather 6x6 pad. But the vellum is decorated using a different technique for each one.

Photographing these was quite a challenge; I wanted to show you how they look when they’re lit from within, so the papers are kind of dark. I used little battery powered fake votives instead of real flame – a lot safer that way, and they even flicker! There are actually 2 little lights inside each of these to provide more dramatic light. I found a 6-pack of them at Walgreen’s for $5.

The first one is pierced using an Ornare template, and decorated with a few Zva red rhinestones to accent the design.

The second one is stamped with Iris Palette ink and one of Kimberly Crawford’s Very Square stamps. Look how nicely the pattern compliments the paper! 

For this last one, I ran the vellum through my Big Shot with the Vine embossing folder, although any embossing folder would be beautiful. Here’s a hint, though. Score and pre-fold your vellum before you emboss it. Depending on the vellum you’re using, it may crack if you try to fold it after it’s embossed. Ask me how I know…

If you’d like to make your own, please leave me a link – I’d love to see! Now go check out the rest of the design team’s blogs to see what they came up with for this glowing challenge.

Cathleen
Deb
Gretchen
Kendra
Loretta
Lori
Lynn
Megan
Tracy
Kate

Have a great day!

Moonrise Birthday

I wanted to share a card I made with a snippet of the gorgeous paper from S.E.I.’s Moonrise collection. I made this for my wonderful daughter – it’s classic and beautiful, with just the right amount of dazzle, just like her. Love you, Laila!

  The layout and the idea for the debossed rose in the corner are from one of the recent PaperCrafts magazines (always full of inspiration), but I can’t remember offhand which one. The crochet trim is from my stash – it used to be white, but I dyed some of it in coffee a while back so I’d have ecru.

Between the vintage elegance of the lace, the modern lines and glimmer of the foil in the delicious paper, and the texture from the debossing (SU! embossing folder), it really does have a very clean and simple complexity to it (how’s that for an oxymoron?).

I’ll keep this short and sweet – and hopefully be back later in the week with more cards I made with this yummy paper.

Library (Birthday) Card

Today is my dear friend Oliver’s birthday. I met Oliver years ago when working in a college library. He was a librarian who has long since retired, and I have long since left the library. And it has been a long time since I’ve seen him. But he loves getting my birthday cards, so it’s a good thing I made this long before I got so lazy about crafting and posting!

I had a heck of a time getting the colors right in this picture. The red is not quite as bright as it looks, and the foam letters (Thickers) are black, not bluish. The dots on the side of the pocket are from the Thickers package also. Here’s a shot with the library card out.
I used stamps from several different sets. The Celebrate stamp is from a Cornish Heritage Farms birthday set; the others are from various PTI sets. The card itself was a free download from Heather Nichols. Unfortunately I can’t find the post she attached it to. The houndstooth paper is from the Pink Paislee Bayberry Cottage pad. That and the red herringbone ribbon stapled onto the card are available at i {heart} papers.
I know I’ve been a really bad blogger. No excuses here. I’ll try to be better. Really.