My Sweet Stampin Spot

Sharing a Labor Day book giveaway for my fellow bibiophiles! https://www.facebook.com/SkyeJordanAuthor/photos/a.233502810136784.1073741829.162429137244152/677857985701262/?type=3&theater

Youth fundraiser cake auction

It's that time of year again - our annual church youth fundraiser cake auction. My DD is getting to be quite the baker! I helped a little with the intricate parts of cutting and frosting, but she did the heavy lifting on her cake. 

Due to my son's egg allergy, we only bake egg free. For DD's cake we used our all time favorite Crazy Cake. It's cut down from a 9x13 cake. 

The frosting is classic buttercream with brown and black coloring. For the halter, we used a mock royal icing recipe and made it extra stiff. I drew a horse head outline based on a pic she found, then she traced and cut the cake. I'm so proud of her baking skills!

 

I always look to do something a little different for my cake entry. This year I wanted to try my hand at an anti-gravity cake. If you've not seen them before, they basically employ some type of stick - dowel, straw, wire, etc - that is then covered to look like part of the cake. Since the auction took place on Superbowl Sunday, I decided to go with team colors using orange and blue Sixlets candies. The candies were attached with stiff royal mock icing dyed to match. Coordinating treat bags for the pouring.

Since Crazy Cake is a little too delicate for good stacking, so I tried a new to me recipe: Minimalist Baker's Simple Vegan Chocolate Cake. It's denser cake that withstood the stacking better. Chocolate cream cheese frosting and stiff mock royal icing for the lacing. To get the football shape, I baked a 12 inch round, then cut about a 2 inch strip from the center and pushed the 2 halves back together. 

If I try my hand at another anti-gravity cake, I think I'll use larger candies! Getting those little sixlets to stick was very fussy. And I'm not a fussy kind of girl! I didn't like how much of the icing was visible. 

Related articles

Ombre Cake

Clean and Simple Card Class

Here are the other 3 cards from my recent card class. This group is new to me and I wasn't sure about their experience level, so I kept them simple but classy with room for embellishment. These cards are easy to reproduce, but lovely. I love it when class participants go away with a big feeling of accomplishment.

 

1. The simple design leaves the focus on the sentiment, which can be easily changed to suit the need. The color scheme also works perfectly for any gender. A basic all around greeting card that's adaptable. 

Supplies: Sassy Salutations and Work of Art stamp sets, Wild Wasabi and Early Espresso ink, Wild Wasabi, Early Espresso and Naturals Ivory cardstock. 

 

2. I love this classic color combo. It's just oh so elegant and perfect for Clean and Simple designs. It's kicked up just a notch with the addition of rhinestones and paper piercing, but looks equally classy without. 

Supplies: Everything Eleanor and Another Thank You stamp sets, Basic black and Very Vanilla cardstock, Basic Black ink, Modern Label punch, Stampin Dimensionals, Essentials paper piercing, Basic Rhinestones.  

3. Fun new stuff! The designer paper comes from the Occassions catalog. The button and ribbon embellishments are a Sale-A-Bration freebie. I love the colors on this. Deep and rich, but they just pop. Also perfect for any gender. I mailed out several of these this month to fellow church members.  

Supplies: Petite Pairs stamp set, Night of Navy ink, Night of Navy, Calypso Coral, Whisper White cardstock, Birthday Bash Designer Paper, Best Year Ever Accessories Pack, Circle Punches, Stampin Dimensionals. 

 

Thanks for looking! If you're interested in purchasing any Stampin Up! items, but sure to visit my ONLINE STORE.

Ombre Cake

Our church youth group is hosting a chili lunch and cake auction tomorrow. I created this Orange Almond cake with Orange Whipped Cream frosting. I bake only egg free due to my DS's egg allergy. The cake recipe was inspired by this Eggless Vanilla Cake. The Whipped Cream frosting recipe is in the Safe Eats Recipe Database on Kids with Food Allergies.org. 

 

Not to be left out, my DD also decided to make a cake for the auction. I supervised and helped hold things, but did no actual work. It's all her! Hers is a cake mix hacked to be egg free. It's vanilla almond with a vanilla buttercream. 

Full of Love

I recently was asked to do quick demo for the lovely ladies in my mother-in-law's Homemaker's Group. Several were interested in an additional card class. This simple love card is my nod to a Valentine card. I love the classic color combo of Real Red, Whisper White and Crumb Cake. More interest is provided by the embossing and off-center placement of the red layer. Sometimes just a little change from the straight forward make a card look fresh. This simple card is so easy to recreate that you can whip out 1 or 20 in no time.  

If you play along with the weekly SUO Challenges, you'll see that this week's theme is Valentine Wishes. Join the challenge and post your creation on the blog! Check out the blog here: http://suochallenges.com/?p=4399

Supplies: Real Red, Whisper White and Crumb Cake cardstock. Big on You stamp set. Real Red Ink. Big Shot, Chevron embossing folder. Stampin Dimensionals

A Herd of Thanks

Oh my goodness, it's been ages and ages and ages since I've posted to my blog. The poor thing has fallen the way of my many as yet unopened boxes from our move last year. One of my New Year's goals is to be more consistent and proactive in my stamping business. 

Much of my time is also spent cooking and baking. One of my host duties as a volunteer for Kids with Food Allergies is to help families learn to cook with dietary restrictions. I've learned so much in our decade+ long journey and love to pay it forward. So I plan to start adding some food posts as well.

So on to today's project. I'm heading out to a church board retreat this weekend. One of our members has graciously loaned us their lake house for the retreat. I knew my brand spankin new From the Herd stamp set was perfect for a thank you card for this occassion. Have you seen it yet? It's in the Occasions Catalog (please bear with me the next little bit as I dust out the cobwebs of remembering how to update all those widgets and links!)

Supplies: From the Herd, Lots of Thanks stamps, Basic Black and Wild Wasabi Ink, assortment of markers, aquapainter, Early Espresso, Whisper White and Wild Wasabi cardstock, Adventure paper stack, label punches. 

Sale-A-Bration

Earn FREE, exclusive products during Sale-A-Bration, our annual sales event with perks for shopping, hosting a party, or joining Stampin’ Up! You can take advantage of all Sale-A-Bration has to offer from January 28−March 31.

 

Make sure you don’t miss out on your FREE gift with each $50 US! We’ve made it easier than ever to get your free gift; just order one of our Sale-A-Bration bundles and then pick your exclusive gift!

 

Contact me today to get in on the action.

Here's a little fun demo about the Party, Party Party Bundle from the Stampin' Up! Youtube channel. Subscribe today and you'll get all the up to date information about products. 

 

 

A Hundred Years from Now

Flipping through the radio channels one day in my van this week I stopped to listen to Garrison Keillor. My dad got me started listening to Prairie Home Companion and now I stop when I hear his voice. I was really struck by a poem he read. You can read or listen to it on The Writer's Almanac website, but here is the poem. 

A Hundred Years from Now

by David Shumate

I'm sorry I won't be around a hundred years from now. I'd like to
see how it all turns out. What language most of you are speaking.
What country is swaggering across the globe. I'm curious to know
if your medicines cure what ails us now. And how intelligent your
children are as they parachute down through the womb. Have
you invented new vegetables? Have you trained spiders to do your
bidding? Have baseball and opera merged into one melodic sport?
A hundred years....My grandfather lived almost that long. The
doctor who came to the farmhouse to deliver him arrived in a
horse-drawn carriage. Do you still have horses?

No Layer Birthday

This week's SUO Challenge is to create a card with No Layers! I am a clean and simple girl, but I find myself generally having 1 layer. So to truly do a no layer card took some restraint.  I'm loving all the watercolor themes lately so I wanted to try my hand at that. I played around with several coloring techniques and finally ended up with a usable card ;)

I placed drops of 3 colors of ink (Melon Mambo, Real Red, Calypso Coral) on the Stampin Up C acrylic block and with a light hand blended them together with my aquapainter. I worked my way from right to left stamping the block. For the 3rd pass I added a bit of rubbing alcohol with my aquapainter to get it wet enough to stamp again. This ended up giving the colors a bit more definition and "bubble" effect. 

Again with a birthday card since we have so many in the family this quarter. I wanted a candle image but couldn't find a current one. I ended up pulling out one of my oldest stamp sets - Perfect Party. This set came in my Starter Kit way back when. I only have a handful of retired stamps and this is one of them. The top edge is torn to add to the watercolor vibe of the card. I painted a stripe of color on the inside of the card for contrast. 

Supplies: Naturals Ivory cardstock, Real Red, Calypso Coral and Melon Mambo reinkers, Stazon Black ink, Aquapainter, Sassy Salutations and Perfect Party stamp sets, Simply Rhinestones, Acrylic Block C - all by Stampin Up. 

Weekend Baking

A couple of months ago I started the Artisan Bread in a Day method of bread baking. I have my lovely buckets of gooey dough in the fridge and when I'm ready for freshly baked loaf I just pull off a piece and bake :YUM: Our big meal this weekend was a turkey dinner thanks to me stashing the post-thanksgiving sale turkey in the freezer. So of course we had to have some fresh bread for that. 

 

 

 

Today I got a craving for cookies. I go to cookie is always chocolate chip, but I opted to go for a slightly healthier cocoa oatmeal raisin. Due to my son's egg allergy, I either use vegan, egg free or susbstitute traditional recipes. This one is from my well loved Bakin' Without Eggs cookbook by Rosemarie Emro. I've been tweaking it slightly as the cookie is not a chewy cookie and is fairly crumbly. 

Want to know the secret to making yourself not gorge on the cookies once you've made them? Just forget to add the sugar <smacks head> I was so focused on my changes that I completely missed adding the brown sugar. I did get the white sugar added so they're not completely horrible. I salvaged them by drizzling with a powdered sugar glaze.