Summer Camp Blog Train

Well, I think I am a little early with this, but we're leaving today to go camping (neat how that worked out, I should have some more cool pics to use with this great kit when I get back!!) so if I don't post it now, I won't get a chance to later as we'll be "unplugged". So I didn't want you to miss out on my quick pages, so I'm posting it now. Have a great weekend everyone! And thanks for stopping by my blog :)

Wow, I am so excited for my first ever blog train! The great people at Stuff to Scrap put together this great blog train, follow all the links and collect all the pieces and at the end you have this great kit! The theme for August was summer camp. I love Maurine's designs, and she asked if I'd like to make quick pages with her portion of this huge freebie kit, so of course I said yes!! Here is a preview of her portion of the kit which you can grab on her blog (all the links are listed below as well).

And here is the preview of my contribution, three quick pages created by little old me.


This first page, has my son roasting marshmallows at a bbq at my in-laws house. On this page, I extracted the marshmallows on the marshmallow stick, and the tree trunk from the tree to make the corner frame on the one picture. So while they aren't in the kit in that form, they are in the kit for you to extract if you want to! Also if anyone is curious, the font I used on this page is called Drift Type, which I found for free on Dafont.com, and the Marshmallows word art is part of the kit. Click on the image to grab this QP.

This layout is my favorite, I recolored the stitches to make them yellow for around the layout, and I used the yellow paper to create stars, and reduced the opacity on them to around 50%, then added a drop shadow. I used the green paper to make the hills, and used the same tree, made different sizes (and I lightened one for color) for perspective. The font I used is called Night Sky, also from Dafont.com. Image is linked.


On this one I used a paper tear that is not in the kit, and it's not listed as a freebie anymore on the site where I originally got it. You can find some similar tears on Gunhild's site (plus she has lots of other cool freebies too!). The paper tears are about 2/3 of the way down the freebie page #2. I used the yellow paper to create the beam for the flashlight, and again reduced opacity to about 50%. The font I used for this page is Alpha Wood (again from Dafont). Image is linked.

So that's it for my part, I would love to hear if you liked what I did with the layouts! Also please let me know if there are problems with any of the links or downloads! (I've crossed my fingers as this is my first run at it, but I am human, so please forgive me if there are errors!) Special thanks to Maurine for letting me use her kit to play with, and inviting me to join in the fun. I love scrapping! Also thanks to my brother and sister in law, who star in my bottom two layouts. Have fun riding the train and grabbing all the parts to this great kit!

Nibbles Skribbles
Always Be Neighbors Designs
Elegantly Funky Designs
Scrappin' Serenity
Scraps by Andrea
Ginger's House
Seal Scraps
Saphira's World Scrapdesign
Scrap Attack
Let Me Scrapbook!
Shel Belle Scraps
Scrapping Rainbow
Noelle's Little Corner in Scrap Land
Strawbeary Designs
Nita's Things
Mommy Me Time Scrapper
JW Digi-Scraps
3s_enough
Flower Scraps
The Scrappy Kat
Tonisha's Playground
Digital Scrap Fun
Digi-designs by Nicole
Rants N Random Ramblings
Designs By Mel
Samantha Scraps
A valóság tükre
Serenity Scrapping
Scrap in a Can
Stuff to Scrap
My Digaddiction
Mad genius Designs
A Whittle Whimsy

Giveaway!!!

The lovely Rachel of P.S. I Quilt is hosting a fabulous giveaway! Check it out on her blog if you must, but just keep in mind that if you actually enter that means less chance of me winning :(
Hahaha, seriously though, it is a great chance for anyone that quilts to build up their stash, and Rachel also has a great blog with cool tutorials and beautiful quilts. So what are you waiting for? GO check it out!

Cedar Plank Salmon...YUM

UPDATE: It looks like you need to save my file to have it print off properly...and to download it you need to be signed in to Scribd. It's free, and a great place to upload all your documents to, sort of like photobucket, but for pdf's. I tried printing it off but it keeps printing out mega-sized and the wrong layout (portrait instead of landscape) instead of the little 4x6 card that I made. I'll try to figure it out, seriously! If anyone has any tips, I could use some here! Thanks ;P

So inspired by Des and her post about her cedar plank salmon, I decided to share my favorite recipe for this yummy dish. I originally found this recipe in a Kraft Canada magazine, and you can now see the recipe HERE on the Kraft Canada website. You can also download my fancified version HERE. Remember yesterday, how you had to click on the image and then right click on it and blah blah blah? Well, I went back to that link Des had given me and they actually recommended using a site called Scribd, and here I was able to upload my recipe (which I had saved as a pdf from my scrap booking program) and when you click on the link, it takes you to the Scribd page with my document, and you can click to download it or print it out. Please let me know if you print it how it comes out, I don't want it to be all pixely or blurry. I made this card using the scrapping kit "Cooked to Perfection" by Lindsay Jane Designs. The font is DJB Journal Bits. I seriously think it's the best salmon recipe I have come across so far. In the words of P-Dub on many of her recipe posts, "the cast of characters:"
1/2c KRAFT SIGNATURE CALORIE-WISE Sundried Tomato and Oregano Dressing
1/4c finely chopped fresh parsley
1/4c oil-packed sundried tomatoes, drained, finely chopped
1 salmon fillet (2 lb./900 g), 1 inch thick

1 untreated cedar plank (available at most grocery stores.) Immerse the plank in water for at least 4 hours, or overnight, if you're a planner, which I'm totally not. I threw mine in the sink this morning with a can of pineapple on it to hold it down. (Pineapple is totally not in this recipe, it was just a random can that I grabbed from the pantry to weigh down the plank.)
Preheat the bbq to medium heat, and mix together the dressing, parsley and tomatoes.
Look at that color! Beautiful.
Pull your plank from the water and dab dry, brush the surface with 1tbsp (or more if needed) oil.
Top with salmon. Grill 10 minutes. Brush with dressing mixture, and grill another 10 minutes or until fish flakes easily with fork. Mmmm. Yummy oily tomato-ee-ness.Tips: Keep spray bottle handy in case of flare ups. Our board totally caught fire at the very end of cooking, as they do dry out, but the salmon was fine! Tasted out of this world. Fish can also be grilled on heavy duty tin foil instead of a cedar plank (but it just wouldn't taste the same!)

Also, if you'd like to see a video of Cedar Plank Grilling Basics, click HERE. Sorry for all the link ups today, but I just love to share when I find something cool.

You still here?? Ok, well then in that case, in other news, I'm going to be in my first ever scrap booking blog train! I will be offering up a freebie on my page, so stay tuned for that! Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Exciting things...maybe

So I wanted to share a recipe with you, I was recently introduced to it. We were at a family bbq for fathers day, and our in-laws had invited long time friends of theirs whom I had never met, and Marilyn brought this fantastic salad, I absolutely loved it. It has a wonderful flavour and the texture is what totally gets me, it's chewy but crunchy, and the strange combination is just so terrific. So I made up a little recipe for you, and DES helped me along to find a link on how to host documents to make them download-able. The link she directed me to is HERE.

So this is my recipe, it's for Mandarin Barley Salad, and I absolutely love it. It will not last more than two days in my house (and not because my husband is gobbling it up!) And thanks to Des helping me with the link, I can create fancy-schmancy recipe cards (using Kristin Aagard's "Lil Bakery" kit) and you can download a copy HERE. (When the large image comes up just right click on it and select "save image as" to save the image.) If you want, no pressure hehe.

See? Wasn't that nice? I just love it when I'm able to make technology work for me. SO big thanks to Des for leading me to that link, it was exactly what I was looking for! And to anyone and everyone that downloads the recipe, enjoy! And if you make it, I would love to hear how you liked it!

Ok, so this wasn't exactly the download feature I had hoped for, but it's close, and I'm working on it. Unfortunately when you download save the photo, it is much smaller in size than the original that I posted, so I think it would print out crappy :(

I'll keep researching and try again!

Digiscrapaholic

So I think I am a digiscrapaholic. I don't know if there is a 12 step program for people like me, but I need help. I can't stop taking photos. I can't stop downloading digital product (I luvs me some freebies!). I can't stop finding excuses to produce layouts. I can't stop thinking about the next time I get to create something! Or how many ways I can use a single element! Wanna see my latest layouts?? I know you do. I ♥ them. This one is with the kit from the daily download at Gotta Pixel. I used Kristin Aagard's half of the elements for this layout, and I am so proud of my extraction! This is the first layout that I have done like this, where the subject of the photo wasn't framed in a square or circle, and I just love how she looks like she's laying in the sand castle, (she IS a princess after all! lol). The alpha I used for the title is also from Kristin Aagard, one of 5 Alpha's from the Natural Alpha's pack that she has on sale right now. I love these alphas, you get cork, grass, sand, torn leaf and bark. I used the sand alpha. And next is a layout I did for a challenge on the Scrap that Idea blog. (If you win, you get gift certificates to the store, and I love that!) I used a mish mash of kits to come up with this one!
Stacey's Cherry Chocolate: Paper
Stacey's Owl Always Love You: rock and leaves
Stacey's Tutti Frutti: birdy
Sweet Blossom's Just Peachy: grassy element, wooden frames (one was extracted using elements in the kit), wooden border (also extracted from the elements)
Sweet Blossom's Love Me Forever: leaves
paper tear: Creative Memories (sorry, the link is to their freebies page but it doesn't look like the paper tear is still available) and last but not least word art by Ginger. She posts word art (for FREE!) pretty much every day. I also did a 365 layout for week 6 to post in the Weeds and Wildflowers challenge gallery. I used the Life 365 kit again (can you tell that I love it?!) and a free template they posted for the challenge. I added a couple extra photos to the layout (it was a 5 photo layout to begin with) so I could use it for my week 6.
Don't you just love Rayna's pony?! Too cute. And then she turns around and she has that cute bald spot. Hilarious. The font I used for the journaling was "socially awkward". And I apologize to those of you that are not into computers, digital anything, or even scrapbooking in general. I will get back to crafting one of these days, my posts are so all over the place, it depends what I'm into that day. I will be making this pattern from Make it And Love it in the near future though, so stay with me! Okay, that's it, I'm off to download some more freebies!! heehee. Have a great week!

Project 365

I don't know if I ever posted on here about me doing project 365, but I am. What it is, is that you try to take a photo every day, do a layout once a week, and at the end of the year, you will have a great set of pages of your year in review! Great for Christmas gifts and the like. I got a little behind, and have just recently started back in doing the layouts again. (And when I say a "little" behind, I use the term loosely). Here is my Week 5 layout (that's right, week 5 lol).I used the Life 365 kit from Weeds and Wildflowers, and template #117 from Scrapping with Liz. It was a freebie on her blog, and may be expired by now, but she sells them dirt cheap! She also posts free templates pretty much every day, so I follow her blog and download pretty much everything she posts. I also love the 365 kit, there are so many great elements, dates and borders and the designers are adding to the kit throughout the year. That's it, just a little update, TTFN.

Play Dough and Quick Pages

Well, I suppose the title says it all, and is a good example of how varied my interests are! First off, I am so excited about this layout:

The journaling font I used was from Fonts for Peas (Pea Natalie) and the alpha title was from Creative Memories.

I used the "Grandma's Farm" kit from Maureen's blog, which is totally free and fantastically cute! Here is a preview of the whole kit:

And I made a Quick Page out of my layout, after removing my title, journaling and photos! You can snag this for free on her blog as well, so go check it out!
Also, I don't know if I've ever posted this recipe for play dough on my blog before, but it is seriously the best home made play dough ever. It's super soft, smells pleasant thanks to the Kool Aid, and cleans up easily. Simple enough to make that Chase can help me, and he loves playing with it.Word to the wise, don't use the gay little tupperware measuring cup that I bought with the kids little tupperware baking bundle. I ended up adding about 1/4 c more flour this time, and I think it was because of that little cup! It was very sticky this time around, and that's a first, as usually it mixes up perfect for me. So first off, put your 1c flour, 1pkg Kool Aid (any flavour although we used color changing cherry), 1tbsp cream of tartar, and 1/4c salt in a bowl, mix thoroughly. (At this point I had everything in the bowl except for the water and realized I could be blogging this! So pretend you don't see the oil already swimming in the bowl, and pretend also that I actually stirred my dry ingredients before adding the liquids hehe).

Add 1tbsp vegetable oil, then add 1c boiling water.

Mix well until it starts to firm up and form a ball. I usually work it up in my hands until it cools off enough for Chase to play with and the color streaks from the Kool Aid are worked in really well. Wrap in cellophane to store or in an air tight container. In the fridge it should store for at least a month. (The recipe says a few months, but I found that after a month it starts to get gunky.)I love this recipe for so many reasons! It makes a small enough batch that I'm using small portions of all the ingredients, so it's cost effective to make. You can make almost any color you want. You could even add glitter and make red and green for the holidays or make orange for Halloween. So many options. And it makes such a smooth dough, it works up easier than the real "Play Dough"

And best of all Chase loves it and it keeps him busy for hours. He had bits of it stuck to his jammies today, and all over the floor, but it was worth it! Give him some cookie cutters and he's a happy camper. For the printable version of the recipe click on the link above.

So that's it for today! Thanks for reading and have a great day!!!

Happy Canada D'eh?

Wow, there is so much stuff in blogland regarding the fourth of July I'm starting to wonder if I just follow a lot of American blogs, or if Canadians just aren't as patriotic, lol (which I am sure is just NOT the case.) I know this is a couple days late, but I still wanted to post it. I found a freebie collab kit from Dream Big Digiscrapping HERE and at Scraps of Ellay HERE that I altered a little color wise to make it work, and I found a word art at DigiDesigns by Denise HERE that was perfect! Canada day we took the kids and met the in laws downtown to watch the Canada Day Parade. I'm afraid I was a little disappointed with it this year, the floats were a little stingy with their candy for the kids, and there was quite the scrambling going on when candy did fly. Poor little buggers, although Chase came home with more than enough for my liking. Also, it seemed like more of a chance to do advertising than a celebration of Canada's birthday, so we saw a lot of plain old vehicles being driven through with advertising signs on them with no decoration or adornment of the red and white sort at all. I think if you're going to be in the parade, they should have to be pulling a real trailer (not the junky ones we saw going through) and they should have to be decorated with pom poms and long trailing sparkly junk. Festive?? They also have to have something "Canada" on the vehicle or float somewhere. I'm serious, there was actually a Dodge pickup that went through with a sign draped over the side that was advertising a liquor store, and the vehicle behind it had a guy hanging out the window holding a large plastic blow up beer bottle. For REAL??? No decorations or anything. I think standards have gotten a little low. Anyways, Chase still had a blast regardless, Rayna slept through it and we got to visit with the family for a bit. We went out to the in laws for a BBQ after the parade was done, and dinner was fantastic! Steak and mushrooms, potatoes and garlic bread...mmm. It's making me hungry just thinking about it again. All in all it was a good day. The kids were tuckered right out after all the excitement.So Happy Canada Day to any Canadians that may stumble across my post, (or that may follow it). Happy 4th of July to all the Americans out there as well, and hope everyone has a great weekend!