Yummy, easy cookies!

I did something the other day that I normally NEVER do.  I sat down and watched TV in the middle of the day.  Fortunately for me I had recorded the Pioneer Woman program.  Have you ever watched that cooking show?  The star of the show is Ree Drummond and she has several cookbooks out, home schools her 4 kids, and has a cooking show on Food Network. This particular show she had a recipe for Strawberry Jam Bar Cookies that was so simple I literally stopped the program and went in the kitchen, made the cookies and threw them in the oven, then came back and finished watching her show.  The recipe is so simple I didn't even have to write it down.  If you haven't visited her site here is the link:  http://thepioneerwoman.com/.  She is an amazing woman and has some really terrific recipes.  This is Ree's recipe for those bar cookies:

Strawberry (or whatever flavor you like) Jam Oatmeal Bar Cookies

1 1/2 cups Quick Oats
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup of brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
2 sticks of unsalted butter, chopped into 1 inch squares
10 ounces of berry jam

In a medium sized bowl, mix together the oatmeal and the flour.  Add in the brown sugar, salt and baking powder.  Stir all the dry ingredients together.  Cut in butter with a pastry cutter or your hands.  Cut the butter in until the mixture resembles small pea shapes.  Pack one half of this dry mixture into a buttered       9" x 13" baking dish.  Spoon the jam on top of the packed mixture.  Spread carefully.  Cover the jam with the other half of the dry ingredients.  Pat this down gently.  Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30 to 40 minutes.  It will be lightly browned on the top.  I cut the bars while they were still hot and then allowed the bars to cool to room temperature.  It made 12 nice sized bars.  I gave some to friends and my husband enjoyed his with a cold glass of milk!

Stampotique DT Call!

Stampotique has a call out for DT members.  The commitment is to design for them from Aug to Dec 2012 so if you are interested (I am) just go to their website to read the requirements.  One of the projects I would like to show them is a card that I made using recycled materials such as a cardboard coaster.  This card is in the current issue of The Stampers' Sampler.  To make it I applied some blue acrylic paint to the coaster and then after it dried I put some Crackle gel on it.  I stamped the images of Marcie and Heart Boy, both by Stampotique, using Rangers Black Archival ink and heat embossed the images with clear embossing powder.  I colored in the images with Copic Markers and then cut them out.  They were adhered to the cardboard coaster and that panel was attached to a blank card made from white card stock.  I used Graphic 45 paper for the bottom panels and stamped the word Family by Hero Arts on a scrap piece of white paper.  After gluing that down I attached a tiny red rhinestone heart on the right side.  The finished card measures 5"x7".

Aqua Tag

I am in love with my new stamp by Hampton Art.  It says "Keep Calm and Carry On".  I stamped it with Ranger's Black Archival Ink on a scrap piece of paper that had been covered with Gesso.  I inked the edges with one of Ranger's seasonal colors called Peacock Feathers which looks a lot like aqua.  I mounted this on a piece of burlap colored paper and then glued the reverse side of that paper on either end.  I used my EK punch to give that torn notebook edging on both ends.  This panel was now attached to a size 8 black tag made by who else?....Ranger.  When I was at Absolutely Everything for Tim's classes last month I bought some really beautiful tattered flower trim.  I colored three of the flowers with Distress Markers using Broken China, Wild Honey and Spun Sugar.  Then I sprayed water on them and balled them up in my hand which helped to spread the colors throughout.  I glued those to the bottom of the tag.  I did the same thing with 6 more flowers and when they were dry I ran a threaded needle through them and turned them into one big flower.  After I glued that flower to the upper left side I decided to enhance it with grungeboard hearts  painted silver and randomly stamped.  I had a couple of stars that I did the same treatment to and attached those around the flowers.  I  then pierced the bottom flowers with two pearl headed corsage needles, glued a tiny black bow to those and added another silver gungeboard heart to that.  That little heart says "Be Brave".  That phrase is from Stampington's Love Lines by Kristen Robinson.  An aqua colored ribbon completes the tag.

Stamptotique Challenge::SD56: Twin Images

This week at the Stampotique Challenge the hostess is Willy.  She would like to see how creative we can get using the same stamp twice in a project.  This is my take on the theme of Twins.

I used a kraft colored paper to stamp my images on.  My "twin" image was Jo Capper Sandon's Mushroom Group.  I stamped the images with Rangers Black Archival ink on the left side and then again on the right, then I colored in the images lightly with Tim Holtz Distress Markers.  I used the following markers:  Shabby Shutters, Bundled Sage, Milled Lavender and Old Paper.  I tested all of the markers first on the kraft paper and actually will use the test paper as a legend in the future.  The pens colors are different based on the color of your paper so just doing the test one time and labeling the colors will save me time in the future.  I put a little dewy sparkle on the mushroom caps with a Gelly Roll pen called Clear Stah.  The phrase is also Jo Capper Sandons work.  I swiped a watered down splash of Gesso across the images, then took a cap and dipped it in Gesso to make a few circles and a border across the bottom of the 5"x7" card.
You should try your hand at this challenge.  Remember to use only Stampotique stamps and follow the theme.  You could win a $30 gift certificate from Stampotique.

I also entered this in the Simon Says challenge "A bit of brown".

Mail Art

I submit quite a bit of work to different magazines (The Stampers'Sampler, Take Ten and a couple of others).  Sometimes I like to package up work that is done using one particular stamp line and is going to one particular magazine.  My latest art "crush" is anything by Dyan Reaveley.  I love her stamps, her spray inks, her style......  So I am preparing a few cards to send off to The Stampers' Sampler using her stamps and I thought I would put them in this large envelope.  It won't actually go through the mail in the traditional way.  I will put all of my projects in a larger postal box and send it off.  That is why the postage is faux postage stamps and they are already canceled, in case you noticed.

The envelope is a kraft colored one made from recycled materials.  It measures 10 1/2" by 14 3/4".  I used Dyan's stamps:  Dependable Dotty, Talllulah Tripp and the border stamp in the Further Around the Edge collection.  I like the way the heads and bodies are interchangeable and wings can be added, etc.  The hanging hearts instead of hair is a Stampotique stamp turned upside down.   The faux Postage Set is by Lost Coast Designs.  I liked using my Tim Holtz Distress Markers to color things in and I used Distress Inks to shade the edges of the envelope (Fired Brick, Wild Honey and Rusty Hinge).  The little bit of twinkle is from my Clear Star Gelly Roll pen.

Less is More Challenge::Week 71

The sponsor for the "Less is More" challenge this week is Stampotique.  The challenge is to use a flourish.  Now if you are familiar with Stampotique stamps they really don't make you think of flourishes.  But, on the other hand, they do have some lovely phrases that are flourish worthy.  I chose their "BEAUTY" stamp and partnered it with a very nice flourish from Stampers Anonymous.
First I used tissue tape to mask off an area in the center of the card measuring 2 1/2" by 2".  (I did recycle that tape into my art journal.)  I gently colored the area with Broken China and Wild Honey colored Distress Inks made by Ranger.  I stamped the Stampotique phrase in the center using Ranger's Black Archival ink and allowed it to dry.  I stamped the flourish with Black Archival ink also and then sprinkled clear embossing powder on the flourish and heat set it.  Then I put a few drops of water on my fingers and dripped several onto the distress inks which are activated by water.  This blended the inks a little and left some tiny circles after I blotted the water off with a paper towel.

Copic Certification Class

I was very fortunate today to take a Copic Certification Standard Class!  It took most of the day and it was wonderful.  I need to practice for a while before I take the next step in certification.  My teacher's name is Marianne Walker and she did an excellent job, along with her two assistants.  We learned technique rather than producing a project so this is what I have to show for it:

So I am a very happy girl today!  I hope I can improve in the use of Copics after this.  We even learned how to air brush.  What a day!

ART JOURNAL CAFE INSPIRATION

My friend Marjie Kemper who has a blog called "She Who Stamps and Scraps" was recently inspired to do some art journal pages.  She visited the site "Art Journal Cafe" which has challenges twice a month and is really worth visiting, even if you just want to look.  The ladies there showed a type of "recipe" to help people to start art journaling.  Marjie showed her work one step at a time on her blog so that is helpful to look at if you feel like you don't know where to begin.  I love the look of her pages!  I do have a journal I've been experimenting with and I felt this recipe idea might just be what I needed to get me going.  This is what I've come up with, you might want to take a look at those other two sites for ideas.

First attempt!  Anyway, I did some packing tape transfers of my ancestors, including my grandfather as a young boy and all of his sisters.  The photo was taken about a hundred years ago and I just made photocopies of the picture and did the packing tape transfers with that.  It was fun but I can see I have a LONG ways to go with this technique!