A card and a recipe to share

Hi everyone! Sorry I haven't posted in ages.....just been very busy and had very little mojo the last month. My father in law was here visiting for 3 weeks (he's back home now) and I've had some out of town work as well.

I was rummaging around my craft drawers the other day and came across this fun image a friend had sent me......(this is  soooo embarrassing) .......years ago! Why the heck I never used it on a card before....I don't know- but I was in the mood to make a winter card.




I love how the image is covered in tiny clear microbeads- it sparkles so much and has fabulous texture!

I'm not sure how my friend got the microbeads to stick......maybe she sent it through a Xyron or possibly sprayed it with some sort of adhesive? I would love to figure this out...... and will probably play around with this over the next week or so myself.........if I come up with a wonderful way to get the beads to stick I'll let you all know how I did it!


Speaking of snow- it's snowing here for the first time this season!! Not sure if I'm ready for this or not......I've been really enjoying NO SNOW. It's not even the snow so much that is a pain in the rear- it's the fact that just getting around from place to place is so much more difficult.....and you have to have mittens....and a hat.....and boots.....and a window scraper........ugggh!

I do plan on taking my 7 year old skiing for the first time this winter- have to expose them  to all sorts of winter fun! I haven't skied in years......with my luck I'll probably break my ankle or something stupid like that. Once the lakes get frozen enough we will be out there ice fishing too- love to catch me some crappies!

Now for the recipe.......

This is my mom's fabulous turkey stuffing recipe. It's so moist and delicious and easy to make. Way better than anything out of a box!

                      Sausage Stuffing

1 loaf of wheat bread (sliced or unsliced)
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 pound breakfast sausage (I love Jimmy Dean- sage flavor)
1 tsp garlic
salt and pepper to taste

Directions: Tear the bread into small pieces and put into a large bowl. Pour water into the bowl- enough to completely soak into all the bread. If you get too much water in.....just squeeze out the excess. Brown the sausage with onion and celery and garlic. Cool the meat mixture and then mix in the bread- then stuff into your turkey! You can also just bake it in a casserole dish at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Feel free to use more than one kind of bread if you like- sometimes I add a bit of pumpernickel or rye bread if I have it on hand. The sausage makes it really moist- I just love it with gravy poured all over it!!

I have been trying to exercise extreme patience lately too. I won a $50.00 shopping spree at Hero Arts a few weeks ago......and I'm waiting for the new 2012 release to actually go shopping....in the mean time I still go look over all the stamps-inks-paper and make an ever changing wish list. I hope the release is soon, I can't wait much longer!!


Thanks for stopping bye and I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your friends or family!!


Inky Hugs...............................Anne

Color Q challenge #106- Spooky colors!

Hi everyone! I had to play along in this weeks Color Q color challenge - I can't resit using these great colors to make one last Halloween card.

I grabbed a Doodlebug gray and black card base I picked up at Archivers a while back and thought to myself "Hmmm.....I think I'll do a spider web card for this!"
I got out my favorite spider web stamp by Hero Arts and embossed it in clear powder- then to give the web some depth I used my Copic cool gray marker (C-3) to go around all the sections. Then I rummaged though my goodie box of Halloween items and found this big bat die cut a friend has sent my last year. I was really looking for a big old spider (swore I had some of these)...but found none. I die cut a circle for the moon- got out my distress inks in wild honey and spiced marmalade and edged up the moon. Used another Hero Arts stamp for the sentiment. A pretty quick and easy card to mass produce.





I don't know about you but I still have to get a few more Halloween cards addressed and  in the mail by this Monday......or I'll get too busy and they will be  forgotten or just be terribly late.......I hate sending cards out late!

Products Used:

Just thought I would ask...............what are your kids dressing up for this year for  Halloween? My seven year old boy is going to be the same as last year.......the "Grim Reaper"....unless he changes his mind at the last minute- which could very well happen.


Thanks for dropping by and hope you all have a great day and are enjoying fall! 





  Inky Hugs................................Anne

Recipes to share and a holiday card

Today I thought I would share some easy fall recipes with you all. I don't know about you but I am craving some yummy fall comfort food......especially anything with apples in it!

Earlier today I made some Apple Crisp but I changed up the recipe a bit.....just wanted to expirament with the crispy topping ! I used steel cut oats instead of rolled oats....basically because that's all I had on hand......and I wanted to try to add some chopped pecans to it as well as I really love nuts.

The topping turned out great- a bit crispier than usual which made my mouth very happy! If you don't have steel cut oats on hand no worry.....just use regular rolled oats. I chopped the pecans in my food processor and added it right to the topping mix. Here is the recipe!

Apple Crisp

4-5 medium apples
3/4 cups brown sugar
1/3 cup flour (unbleached)
1/2 cup rolled or steel cut oats
1/4 cup finely chopped pecans
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/3 cup softened butter

Heat oven to 375 degrees, peel, slice and arrange apples in an 8x8 lightly greased pan. Mix dry ingredients in a medium bowl and cut the butter into the dry ingredients to form soft small clumps. Sprinkle this mixture over the apples and bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown on top and apples are tender. Serve with vanilla ice cream or whip cream....whatever you prefer! YUMMM :)
Serves 6-8.....or less if you are really hungry- ha ha!


Next up is a sweet Halloween treat recipe that my son brought home from school. I have yet to actually make it but plan on doing so as soon as I get all the ingredients. Are ya ready for the name of it?

Bat Poop- eeeeek!

What a gross name (kids will LOVE that)!  I promise it is really good and no actual bat poop is in the  ingredients! It sounds very simple and quick and older kids can even help you with it.

Here it is!

Bat Poop

1-  12 ounce package of chocolate chips
1- 12 ounce package of butterscotch chips
1 cup cashew nuts (chopped or broken into small pieces)
1 cup banana chips
1 large can/bag of chow mein noodles

Dump the chocolate and butterscotch chips into a microwave safe dish. Microwave for 1 minute- stir it up- microwave for 1 more minute or until melted. Stir again.  Make sure you use oven mitts as it will be hot! Break up the banana chips while the chips are melting in the microwave. Remove the melted chips using your oven mitts and dump in the banana chips, cashews, and chow mein noodles. Stir again. Drops clumps of the bat poop onto a cookie sheet (I would use wax paper here). Place the cookie sheet into the fridge until the bat poop is firm. Then lets those kids eat em up- I bet they will get a kick out of telling their friends they ate bat poop- ha ha!!

Sounds like great recipe for a spooky Halloween party :)


I did happen to make a card a few days ago......my first Christmas card of the season- wohoo! I played along with this months Hero Arts challenge to make a holiday card using non-traditional stamps.Some snowflakes, a pine tree stamp, and the cute snowman....and then of course a holiday sentiment!





I stamped the snowflakes using distress ink and white pigment ink and the trees got embossed with polysparkle embossing powder. They really shine in the right light- too bad it doesn't show up in the picture. Just a simple little winter scene for someone I know who isn't into the religious aspect of Christmas!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Inky Hugs........................Anne 

Blog Candy winner!!

Wohooo- the winner of my blog candy is...................................JOY!! 

Joy- if you could please email me (just click on my profile for that) I will get your prize package mailed out to you as soon as possible!!  Congrats and I hope you have fun with your new goodies! 

Thank you everyone for entering and all of your wonderful comments on my blog. 



Inky Hugs.............................Anne

Happy fall

I made one more card for the CR84FN color challenge to use the colors yellow, orange, and brown.

I dug into my stash of patterned papers (which I hardly ever make use of)...... and I used up the last of my Hero Arts felt leaves for this card. Super quick and easy!! I'm not sure who makes the "Happy Fall" stamp- it's super old and has no markings on the wood. I colored the acorn in using 2 shades of brown markers.The card base is a Hero Arts layering paper from the yellow pack......and the papers are by DCWV (polka dotted) and Imaginisce. The card measures 5 X 5 square.



Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a great fall weekend! We are enjoying exceptionally warm temps right now- yipeee!  :)

Inky Hugs.......................Anne