Spellbinders Nestabilities Giveaway!!!!!!!

Yup, it's "Why not Win Wednesday" again!  Head over to the Canadian Scrapbooker facebook page here and leave a comment under the 'why not win' thread to be eligible to win these fabulous nestabilities.  I want them!  LOL

You can use 'em with a Cuttlebug, BigShot, or Wizard and these shapes are so versatile for labels, cards, all sorts of things!!  Good luck!!!

Mmmmmm, waffles

Waffles or pancakes are a Sunday morning tradition in our household.   It's just something we've always done, and the kids love it and look forward to it.   Our waffle iron is an old one that my mom passed on to me.  I think we've used that thing for over 20 years, but it is looking very decripit and finally starting to act its age.  I saw a nice Cuisinart model on sale at amazon.ca a few weeks ago and ordered it in time for Father's Day.

Here's the one I bought (we like'traditional' waffles, as opposed to the Belgian ones that have the mega deep holes in them). 

I've used it only once so far, but really loved it.  And the waffle recipe that comes with the Cuisinart was super yummy.  I substituted in some buttermilk which makes them even yummier, but one does not always have buttermilk around.   When I do use buttermilk though, I reduce the baking powder by about half and double the baking soda.

Basic Waffles
2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-3/4 cups reduced fat milk
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 large eggs

Place ingredients in a large mixing bowl and combine until well blended and smooth. Let batter rest 5 minutes before using.  Cook on waffle iron as per your machine instructions.
 

The traditionalists in the household like to eat their waffles with Roger's syrup.  Yum.  We buy maple syrup occasionally, but there is nothing like Roger's on pancakes and waffles.

Marty prefers his waffles with whipping cream and strawberries.  Lots and lots of whipping cream.  I usually keep one of those aerosol cans of real whipping cream in the fridge just for him.

 
Make your tummy happy!  If I have extra waffles, I freeze them so we can have homemade Eggos. 

A Baby Card

My friend Charlene just had a gorgeous baby boy and I whipped up this card to give to her.  I used some very old Melissa Frances papers and embellishments (which I have been saving for a special occasion ;-)) and some pom-pom fringe from Bazzill.   A stamp from the Stampin Up set Teeny Tiny Wishes was the perfect size to add the sentiment.

Happy Father's Day

I hope all the dad's out there had a wonderful day yesterday!   This is the card I made my dad.

It started with a 'gears' Cuttlebug embossing folder and some Coredinations cardstock.  I sanded the pattern, added some stitching, some wooden buttons and some rickrack punched from cardstock using an EK success punch.  Love that thing.  You always have rickrack in the exact matching colour to your project! 

Puffed Wheat Squares

Quick, simple and delicious.  A favourite in our house and perfect to make for occasions when you need to send a homemade snack to school or for a potluck.  I'm not sure if this is a western Canadian phenomenon or not?  But I grew up eating puffed wheat squares and have had friends from other parts of the world who have never heard of them.

Puffed Wheat Squares
1/2 cup butter or margarine (I usually use the hard Parkay margarine since it is nicely premeasured)
1/3 cup honey
1 cup brown sugar
3-4 tablespoons cocoa (use 4 Tbsp. if you like them extra chocolatey)
1 teaspoon vanilla
7 cups puffed wheat
1 cup sunflower kernels, if desired

Melt butter in large saucepan.  Add honey, brown sugar and cocoa.  Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring.  Remove from heat, let cool for a minute and stir in vanilla.  Stir in puffed wheat and mix to coat evenly (and sunflower seeds if desired).  Press into buttered 11x17 pan with the back of a spoon and let cool before cutting into squares.

A couple of tips: Don't boil the mixture for too long.  I take mine off of the heat as soon as bubbles form and the sugar is dissolved.  I find the puffed wheat squares get hard if the chocolatey mixture is boiled too long. 
Also, don't try to add too much puffed wheat.  The squares are better and stick together much better if there is enough chocolate syrup to go around, if you know what I mean.

Most puffed wheat square recipes I have seen use corn syrup rather than honey, so if you don't have any honey you could probably substitute the syrup.  I'm not sure if they turn out exactly the same way?   If I don't have liquid honey, I just melt the solid stuff in the microwave and measure out a half cup.  Enjoy!

Chalkboard Paper

I really enjoyed playing with chalkboard papers in the last issue of CS.  Canvas Corp sells 12x12 sheets of the stuff, as well as various precut shapes and you can buy a great big piece of self-adhesive chalkboard paper from Stampin Up.    I think you are supposed to put it on the wall, since it is sold under Decor Elements, but is great fun on a scrapbook page and die-cuts beautifully.   And Pink Paislee has come out with such cute chalkboard stickers. I also picked up a roll 'adhesive blackboard' paper from Dollarama as well, but haven't had a chance to try it yet.  My experience is usually you get what you pay for.  The cheaper chalk papers don't seem to take chalk very well, and often don't erase well either.  I did a bunch of projects with the Stampin Up chalkboard decor elements which take chalk beautifully.

Nikki Sivils paper and stickers!  Love the beaver theme, and was able to use it for my little boy beavers.  I hand cut a few thought bubbles from the chalkboard paper and wrote on them with a white paint pen to add some journalling to the page.

My boys can't keep their hands off each other and are constantly wrestling, hence the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) layout.  Sometimes the wrestling is in fun, as shown in this photo.  Sometimes they are trying to hurt each other.  Sigh.  I used a Big Shot die cutting machine and a Spellbinders and Sizzix die to cut shapes out of the chalkboard paper on this one.  Background paper is by Kaisercraft and the flowers are made out of Stampin Up text paper that was in the last mini- catalogue.  I used a SU bigz die to cut out the flower shapes, then crumpled, spritzed and layered them.  Really easy but adds a lot of dimension and looks pretty fancy.

This used to be an ugly wooden plaque from Dollarama.  I covered it with the Stampin Up chalkboard paper and decorated the edges with some Prima flowers that had been sprayed with Smooch Spritz.  This is handy for hanging on a door knob or almost anywhere to leave little messages. 

And this one was published in CS.  I love the way it turned out.  I started with a 12x12 sheet of Canvas Corp chalk paper and used a piece of die cut Fancy Pants paper to put a fun edge on the bottom.  Then I took a piece of white kid's chalk and just doodled some sports type stuff on the paper to make a background.  To prevent the chalk from rubbing off, I sprayed the paper with a Krylon sealant, but I found that the chalk got a little lighter when sprayed, so I repeated this step a couple of times to make the chalk nice and bold (and sealed).

Crazy Busy......

Holy smokes, I don't know how, but time seems to go faster and faster as you get older.  It's all downhill from here?  LOL
I think I'm back up for air for a while - magazine deadlines have been met, the silly season at work seems to be largely over, at least for this month, the garden is in - of course, there is still a month left of outdoor soccer, but that's only four or five nights a week.  ;-)

The summer 2011 Canadian Scrapbooker came out a couple of weeks ago.  Love, love, love the cover!!  

This is one of my favourite layouts that I have done in a while - don't my mom and dad look sweet?  I was really inspired by the lovely black and white QuickQuotes paper - the line is called "Paint it Black".  If you have trouble finding Quick Quotes scrapbooking products in your local store, they have a great website and online store here.   I cut out bits of the leafy foliage pattern and popped them up on an identical sheet of paper for a nice dimensional look.   Then I stuck in a paper doily I had picked up at a dollar store, decorated it with a couple of Maya Road stick pins.  The layout needed a bit of colour, but a Prima flower I had that seemed to be the right size didn't seem to really go with the layout.  So I made my own out of tissue paper.  I just cut a handful of rough circles out of white tissue paper, crumpled them slightly, gave them a squirt of Tattered Angels glimmer mist and added some leaves and the center from a disemboweled Prima flower.  Most of us have tissue paper laying around in gift bags and such, and they make a really nice (and really quick and inexpensive flower).   Play around with different colours and try using a jewelled brad or other odds and ends in the center.