Make It Monday #159

Today, I have some treat bag tags to share that I made using Papertrey Ink's

Make It Monday #159: No Sew Quilted Cards.

Here's what I did.

I chose some coordinating patterned papers from a Basic Grey 6x6 pad and 

cut them into 1.5" squares.

Then, I adhered a bunch of them to a 8.5x11" sheet of thinner white card stock, but at an angle.

I trimmed the sheet to two 11"x4.25" pieces and ran these through my die cutting machine with my

Papertrey Ink Tag Sale #7 die.

I stamped a sentiment from Wet Paint onto each tag.

Then, I wanted to impress the pattern onto each tag for the MIM challenge, 

but I couldn't decide which one to use.

So I used all of them. :)

This one is hard to see, but I used the Simple Stripes IP, the thin stripes side, horizontally.

And on this one, I used it vertically.

I used the other side of the Simple Stripes IP, but this time vertically.

And again on this one, but vertically.

I used one side of the book print impression plate on this one.

And the other side of it on this one.

For this one, I used my paper beads die with my embossing mats.

I used my Lil Inkers cover plate on this one.

And on this one, I used my PTI Centrestage cover plate.

And what are the treat bags for?

I took them to the high school yesterday for our parent-teacher conferences.

Just a little thank you for the hard work the teachers do.

In them is Butter Crunch, my favourite treat to share.

And I thought I'd share the recipe here, since I get requests for it.

Butter Crunch

Approx. 35 unsalted soda crackers

1 cup butter (I use margarine)

1 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1.5 cups chocolate chips

Skor Bits (optional)

Preheat over to 350˚F.

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with oil.

(I usually take the wrapper from my margarine block and rub it over the oil on the aluminum foil.)

Lay crackers on the cookie sheet until it's completely covered (I end up cutting 5 crackers in half to make everything fit nicely.)

In a saucepan, over medium heat, melt the butter and brown sugar.

Bring to a boil, stirring pretty constantly, until it thickens.

Remove from heat and add vanilla. Stir.

Pour over crackers.

Bake for 6 to 7 minutes. 

Remove from oven and pour chocolate chips over top.

Let melt (maybe 5 minutes or so) and spread with a knife.

Sprinkle Skor Bits over top (I omit this part if I'm giving it away, because there are traces 

of nuts in the Skor Bits.)

Place in fridge until cool. (A few hours)

Remove from fridge, peel aluminum foil off of the bottom and cut into pieces.

Store in fridge.

And that's it!

I'm also linking these tags up to this week's

  Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Easter &/or Sweet Treats.

Thanks for looking!

Baking & stamping

We have an apple tree in our backyard, so lately, I've been busy making different apple recipes: apple crisps, apple sauce, three apple pies, some apple pie pockets (that I made combining this recipe and this recipe. I made some shaped like apples and others rectangular) and apple nut muffins.

I've got to say, though, I used to enjoy baking a lot more when I could eat it! LOL!

I also made a couple more batches of butter crunch. These are for the secretaries at the school where I substitute teach. I start back on Thursday, so I thought I'd make some tags to "pretty them up" a little...

For the tags, I used this week's Make it Monday at Papertrey Ink: Cutting Stamps.

Here are close-ups of each one:

I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (rustic white), stamps (delightful doilies, wonderful words, happy day) and die (tag sale #3). For the MIM technique, I cut out the "year" from the "New Year's" stamp in Happy Day. I also cut apart some of my Wonderful Words sentences to make it easier to stamp just these words.



I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (rustic white), stamps (fancy flourishes, movers & shakers sentiments, wonderful words, happy day) and die (tag sale #3). Again, I used  the "year" that I'd cut out from the "New Year's" stamp in Happy Day & some of my Wonderful Words sentences.

I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (rustic white), stamps (leaf prints, happy trails, fillable frames #9) and die (tag sale #3).  I'd actually cut apart my stamp from Fillable Frames #9 last week to make some gift tags for my kids' teachers (see this post), so I decided to use it again, but this time, I paired it with the sentiment from happy trails that says "just a note" (I didn't cut that stamp apart though, since it was easy to selectively ink.)

Thanks for looking!

12 Days of Christmas Tags -- Day 8

I made some Butter Crunch for Jonah & Sage's phys. ed. teachers this year... and thought I'd share the recipe here:

Butter Crunch:

35 to 40 saltine crackers (unsalted works well, too)
1 cup butter (or margarine)
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1.5 cups chocolate chips
1/4 to 1/3 cup toffee pieces (like skor pieces or bits o'brickle)

Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and grease it. Line the foil with crackers, cutting them in half if necessary to cover the pan.

In a pot, bring butter and brown sugar to a boil over medium heat. Boil for 4 minutes stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour over crackers and spread it out evenly.

Bake at 350F for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and top with chocolate chips. Let the chocolate chips melt and then spread them evenly over the surface. Sprinkle toffee pieces over top. Put in fridge for several hours. Remove from fridge and remove foil backing. Cut into pieces. Store in fridge, with waxed paper between the layers.

And even though the butter crunch is perfectly fine on its own, I decided to dress up the bags with some tags using this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink: any die into a folded tag.






I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (rustic white), stamps (Holiday Lights) and die (tag sale #5). For the inside, I used my Fillable Frames #9 stamps.

I used some glossy accents on the lights to give them a little shine.

Thanks for looking!

Apple pies

I thought I'd share my recipe for making apple pies...

My grandma's no-fail pie dough recipe:

5 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 lb. of Tenderflake lard
1 egg
milk
1 tbsp. vinegar

Mix together the flour, salt and b. powder. Cut up the lard and add it, mixing until it resembles course crumbs. Crack an egg into a measuring cup and beat it with a fork. Add milk until it comes to 1 cup. Add vinegar, beat and add to flour mixture, mixing well.

Now for the pies.

Wash your apples (I picked mine from my Goodland tree in my backyard.)



Peel and core them, cutting them into bite size pieces. I put them in salted water so they don't get too brown.



Roll out your pastry and put in the bottom of a pie plate.



Add apples.



Mix together 1/2 cup of white sugar and 1/2 tsp. of cinnamon. Pour over apples. Dot with butter.



Roll out more pastry, cut some vents into it and cover the apples. Flute the edges.



Sage asked if she could take a picture of me, baking pies.



Put it in the oven and bake at 450 degrees F for 10 minutes, then at 350 degrees F for 35 to 40 minutes.



(I made 15 of these today. :)
Four will go to the kids' teachers and 10 will go in my freezer.
And the last one will be enjoyed by our family this evening.)

Thanks for looking!

Friday stuff

I was prepared for a call in to work today, but it never came. So I guess my weekend started early. :)

Here's what I got done today:

Laundry.

Cleaned my house. (Well, the main floor anyway. The basement, I'm leaving for another day.)

Went for a walk with my wonderful friend, Val. She's so great.

Baked some banana bars for my family, which were a hit.



Here's the recipe:

1/2 cup margarine
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups bananas, mashed
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup cocoa

Beat together margarine and sugar. Add egg & vanilla. Beat in bananas, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Spread half of mixture into a greased 9x13 pan. Add cocoa to remaining mixture and mix together. Pour over first half of batter. Swirl with a knife. Bake at 350F for 25 minutes. Cool. Cut into bars.

I also managed to get a layout done this afternoon, inspired by a challenge at My Scrap Shoppe. It's their monthly online crop (to see more challenges, click here.)

The challenge was to use the following on your page....
- a flower
- a label sticker (or diecut)
- a scripted font
- 5 brads

Here's what I came up with:



I didn't have a label sticker (or diecut) that went well with the new Bo Bunny papers I was using, so I made my own in Word.



How is your Friday going?

A good end....

...to a great week!

I ♥ Spring Break. I always have, but this year, with going back to work, I actually get a holiday, too, which was nice. Before it started, I had big cleaning plans for the house, but then once it arrived, I thought, what's the fun in that?

So, we spent our days hanging out, going for bike rides, practising "our" poems and piano for festival (which is coming up in a couple of weeks! Eek!) We went to a matinee in Winkler on Wednesday, had some family easter gatherings, a couple of playdates and I even got some scrapbooking done, too.

Today, however, I was ambitious and the kids worked with me to clean their rooms and go through their clothes-- putting away winter stuff, taking out spring/summer stuff, trying it on, seeing what fits, etc. I even got my closet done, too. ;)

I bagged up over five bags worth of stuff we no longer need and took it to the Thrift store in town. What a great feeling!

And then, I felt a little ambitious at suppertime, so I made this meal for my family: steak, stuffed potatoes and sunshine salad (my absolute favourite!)



Sunshine salad recipe:

Lettuce, sliced strawberries and toasted (or caramelized) almonds

Dressing:

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp poppy seeds

Mix together and pour over dressing just before serving.
(Warning, it doesn't taste great as leftovers (too soggy!) so I just pour the dressing on my plate if I'm not making it for a large group.)

And tomorrow, it's back to school for all of us. Sigh.

;)

Thanks for looking!