It's my mother-in-law's 70th birthday today... so I figured since my husband decided what she's having for her birthday supper, I'd at least make her a cake I know she'll love! I used this Chocolate Mousse Cake recipe, and didn't run into any of the problems mentioned in the comments section with the mousse part not setting. (And I even screwed up and added the salt & vanilla to the egg whites instead of the yolks!) I had everything put together & ready to go in the fridge at 6pm yesterday, and took it out around 9:30 this morning to add the ganache layer & the walnuts (even though the recipe says it needs to set for 1-2 days, and I wasn't really expecting to be able to do anything else until at least this afternoon, curiosity got the best of me, and I'm glad it did!). Keep in mind, I'm generally a 'grab a box mix & throw something together' kind of baker (because I never plan this far in advance - lol), so I'm pretty proud of how this turned out:
I added the chocolate covered strawberry to the top, because the cake looked naked without it... but since the top of the strawberry wasn't very pretty (the leaves were all gnarly), I cut them off, hollowed out the top of the berry a little bit, filled it with more chocolate, and sprinkled on some crushed walnuts. Not exactly what I had in mind, but it certainly seems to do the trick!
Now it's just the hard part left - waiting until after supper this evening to cut into this baby & find out how it tastes!
Laters!
Steph
*Pink Star Creations*
The inklings of a city girl turned farmer's wife...
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Rainbows!
So... I was rearranging some things in my office today. Conclusion: I'm pretty sure flowers multiply like bunny rabbits. You know it's bad when I actually seriously considered throwing some of them out! (lol)
I spent the rest of the morning pondering what I was going to do about the ridiculous amount of flowers in my stash... and then I remembered recently seeing THIS l/o on the DoodleBug blog... which reminded of my favourite l/o I've ever seen (which I can't show you because it's on the wall in the LSS and I don't have a photo of it) that puts the Doodlebug rainbow to shame... which reminded me that I've been meaning to make a wall-sized version of my own, minus the actual l/o part, because I'm totally not a scrapbooker... which reminded me that I had this frame laying around that the glass was smashed in (not too sure where my 'before' photo went. Crap.)...
Which all resulted in a couple hours this afternoon spent doing this (with lots of help from Lily!):
It makes me happy to look at.... Now to decide where to hang it (and then get Mr Jones to do so!)!
Laters,
Steph
I spent the rest of the morning pondering what I was going to do about the ridiculous amount of flowers in my stash... and then I remembered recently seeing THIS l/o on the DoodleBug blog... which reminded of my favourite l/o I've ever seen (which I can't show you because it's on the wall in the LSS and I don't have a photo of it) that puts the Doodlebug rainbow to shame... which reminded me that I've been meaning to make a wall-sized version of my own, minus the actual l/o part, because I'm totally not a scrapbooker... which reminded me that I had this frame laying around that the glass was smashed in (not too sure where my 'before' photo went. Crap.)...
Which all resulted in a couple hours this afternoon spent doing this (with lots of help from Lily!):
It makes me happy to look at.... Now to decide where to hang it (and then get Mr Jones to do so!)!
Laters,
Steph
Monday, February 20, 2012
CPS Sketch #253!
Well this is pretty exciting - not only did I manage to complete all 15 of the CPS Anniversary sketches, but I was able to play along with this Sunday's sketch, too! My mother-in-law's birthday is coming up soon, so this worked out just perfectly... even my girls played along!
My card:
My card:
I stamped the smaller violet cluster from Year of Flowers: Collection all over the Dark Chocolate panel, in Dark Chocolate ink. The focal violet is popped up for some dimension, and I went with slightly fancier shapes for the small rectangle & the circle in the sketch. The only thing that could have made the making of this card any simpler would have been if PTI would come out with dies for their Year of Flowers series of stamps! (*Hint, hint, PTI Powers-That-Be!*)
Next is Emily's card:
| Supplies are mostly the same, with the exception of cardstock colours; Scarlet Jewel & Raspberry Fizz were used on this one. |
Not bad for a 7-year-old! I think it's cute she had to slip a little teal in there with her pearls, as that's her favourite colour. She pretty much did everything on her own, with the exception of die-cutting the doily, as it's a pain in the butt to run through (I need to invest in the metal shim; I just haven't gotten around to it yet). Oh, and she suckered my step-dad into cutting out the flower & leaves for her. (Which is hilarious, because my step-dad wouldn't have done that for anyone else... it's not very manly to cut out flowers, you know. LOL!)
Finally, here's Lily's take on the sketch:
Well, I'm off... Laundry needs folding, and then I need a shower! (This only having 4 shirts and 4 pairs of pants that fit business kind of sucks - but I can't be bothered to spend more money on maternity clothes that will only be worn for roughly 8 more weeks, when that money could be spent on important things, like stamps! I'll just suck it up & keep doing lots of laundry - or raiding my hubby's closet! HA!)
Laters!
Steph
Steph
Labels:
Card Positioning Systems
Saturday, February 18, 2012
CPS 5th Anniversary Celebrations - Day 15!
CPS Day 15 - Sketch #231:
This has to be one of the 'scrappiest' cards I've ever made (and one with the fewest supplies!). Totally loving how easy it is to put cards together out of a collection kit; I made all 4 of these last night in about an hour!
Anyway, that's it - all 15 of the CPS 5th Anniversary Sketches have been completed - YAY!
Have a great day!
Steph
| Cardstock: PTI Vintage Cream Patterned Paper: Echo Park "Country Drive" Collection |
Anyway, that's it - all 15 of the CPS 5th Anniversary Sketches have been completed - YAY!
Have a great day!
Steph
Labels:
Card Positioning Systems,
Crt
CPS 5th Anniversary Celebrations - Day 14!
CPS Day 14 - Sketch #45:
One more to go!
Steph
One more to go!
Steph
Labels:
Card Positioning Systems
CPS 5th Anniversary Celebrations - Day 13!
CPS Day 13 - Sketch #121:
More to come,
Steph
More to come,
Steph
Labels:
Card Positioning Systems
CPS 5th Anniversary Celebrations - Day 12!
Here's my entry for Day 12 (Sketch #118) of the CPS 5th Anniversary Celebrations:
Back soon with the last three cards!
Steph
Steph
Labels:
Card Positioning Systems
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
PTI's 5th Anniversary Celebrations - Day 4
This one doesn't use any sketch in particular that I'm aware of... but it seems to be a common-ish layout in Blogland, so correct me if I'm wrong.
Last, but not least, we've got Maile's Color Combo (Smokey Shadow, Classic Kraft, Spring Moss, Aqua Mist & Canyon Clay)!
Simple & sweet.... a perfect finishing touch to a full day of card making! (Now here's hoping Random.org loves me, and my hard work pays off!)
Have a great night!
Steph
Last, but not least, we've got Maile's Color Combo (Smokey Shadow, Classic Kraft, Spring Moss, Aqua Mist & Canyon Clay)!
| Cardstock: PTI Classic Kraft, Canyon Clay, Smokey Shadow, Spring Moss Patterned Paper: PTI Dotty Biscotti Dies: PTI Heart Prints, Small Scallop Border Impression Plate: PTI Canvas/Linen |
Have a great night!
Steph
Labels:
Papertrey Ink
PTI's 5th Anniversary Celebrations - Day 4/Deconstructed Sketch #37
Card #9 for today pairs Deconstructed Sketch #37 with Jessica's Color Combo (Aqua Mist, Dark Chocolate, Canyon Clay & Harvest Gold):
One left!
Steph
One left!
Steph
Labels:
Deconstructed Sketch,
Papertrey Ink
PTI's 5th Anniversary Celebrations - Day 4/FTL #176
I really love the sketches they post over at Clean and Simple Stamping, and I've used them many, many times... I just never actually get around to linking anything up. This actually may be the first one I've ever linked!
I paired Heather's Color Combo (Classic Kraft, Spring Moss, Aqua Mist, & Vintage Cream) with FTL #176:
The photo is crap (as in, worse than usual) but this is my absolute favourite from today's efforts.
Two more to go...
Steph
I paired Heather's Color Combo (Classic Kraft, Spring Moss, Aqua Mist, & Vintage Cream) with FTL #176:
| Cardstock: PTI Classic Kraft, Spring Moss, Vintage Cream Stamps: PTI Heart Prints Ink: PTI Aqua Mist, Spring Moss, Dark Chocolate, Tea Dye Duo Die: PTI Small Scallop Border |
Two more to go...
Steph
Labels:
Fall-To Layouts,
Papertrey Ink
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