Few new things

So this first thing is something I did for my sister-in-law's birthday. It was pretty easy to do once If figured out what I was going to do to it. The hardest part was finding the pictures to go in it, hope she liked it! (it says FRIEND if you can't see it)


Next is a card I made for some friends of mine I did three of the same style only in different paper, they turned out pretty cute, one of my favorites.



This is this months RS birthday card, I was into summery things so this just sounded like a good idea, not really birthdayish but oh well.


And finally this was going to be my card I was going to enter for our stamp'n up contest this month but found out I'd jumped the gun and didn't know we can only use stamp'n up products, oh well, I'll try again. oh and on the front it says "these shoes are killing me, they must look fabulous!"

Too Cute!

ok so i visited one of my favorite places, Hostess with the Mostess, and saw these way cute cheesecake pops. I really need to do a party to try these babies out. Thought I'd share if anyone else is having a fabulous get together.
Cheesecake Pops
Makes 30 – 40 Pops



Cheesecake Pops
Makes 30 – 40 Pops

5 8-oz. packages cream cheese at room temperature
2 cups sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
5 large eggs
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
¼ cup heavy cream
Boiling water as needed
Thirty to forty 8-inch lollipop sticks
1 pound chocolate, finely chopped – you can use all one kind or half and half of dark, milk, or white (Alternately, you can use 1 pound of flavored coatings, also known as summer coating, confectionary coating or wafer chocolate – candy supply stores carry colors, as well as the three kinds of chocolate.)
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
(Note: White chocolate is harder to use this way, but not impossible)

Assorted decorations such as chopped nuts, colored jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, dragees) - Optional

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F.

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer set at low speed, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well (but still at lwo speed) after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and cream.

Lightly grease a 10-inch cake pan (not a springform pan). Pour the cheesecake batter into the cake pan and place in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly goldenon top, 35 to 45 minutes.

Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight.

When cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchemtn paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours.

When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate. In the top of a double boiler, set over simmering water, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, heat half the chocolate and half the shortening, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and shortening are combined. Stir until completely smooth. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety.

Alternately, you can microwave the same amount of chocolate coating pieces on high at 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.

Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate. If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting color of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set. Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening (or confectionary chocolate pieces) as needed.

Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.
Introduction from Deborah & Elle

Chaos and Order

Ok let me explain, my craft room is apperantly the cold storage room, so in the winter it gets NOOOOO heat. So it's been really hard to get things done in there because it's been so cold, hence it's become the room that everything gets thrown into because no one goes in there. And when I did do my projects (cards) I'd take everything out of the room with me to do it and then just set it all back in there when I was done. Hence the build up of stuff as well.
Well, I had finaly had enough and the weather has warmed up so i thought it was high time to clean it out. It felt soooo good. Now ii just have to get Todd to lay the carpet thats in waiting in there (and carpet pad) and that will clean it up even more. One step at a time I guess. Since having cleaned it I've completed three projects, two of which I can't post yet. One of those is my sister-in-law B-day present that I still need to get in the mail, the other is a card I made for my Stamp'n up group that is in a contest that's suppose to be anonymous so i don't want anyone to see it yet, the third, well I just haven't snapped a picture of it yet so you'll just have to wait.