Easter Pennants

 

Yesterday was a croppin day for me at my favorite spot.. Our Lady of Lordes in Omaha. Tricia puts it on once a month. I love it because I get a 6ft table all to my self and can bring everything but the kitchen sink (without ladies saying wow-a sewing machine?) Not to mention 12hrs of creative time. Its a really fun and relaxed atmosphere too! I made eight of these pennants for a 2Peas swap. I send these eight in and get "Easter" back for a banner. The style was vintage using pastel green, blue and pink. I cut out the pennant from my silhouette on brown cardstock. I cut out lace from an old table cloth and sewed it on each pennant. I then adhered the pennant to a thick piece of chipboard for extra stability. I inked the "seed" packets and circle that's from K & Co before I adhered them to the laced pennant. I cut out the chocolate bunny and R from my silhouette. Lastly, I added buttons and bakers twine. It took me a long time to complete these, but I it think was worth it and I hope the ladies like them!

Happy Creating,

Melissa 



Valentines Day Hershey Nugget Mailboxes



My sister made these with her daycare kids, and sent me a picture of them. They were so cute! I decided I would make some for Ben & Jacks preschool teachers and the nurses where I get my iron treatments. I started out by I cutting a coordinating color of solid cardstock into 1 inch wide x 2 inch long strips. I used my corner rounder and rounded one end of the strip. I then glued that to the bottom of the nugget (it will be the open door of the mailbox). I then cut strips of patterned paper as wide as the nugget, and trimmed them into 2 inch little strips and put glue on each end. I wrapped the strip around the nugget. Then I cut the little "hand" (that signals the mailman to pick up the mail) and punched out a heart to glue to the top of the hand. I used my Silhouette to print and cut the Happy Valentines Day scallop. I think they were really easy and turned out so cute!

Gluten Free Lemon Bars

 



I found a conversion table for making gluten free flour and I wanted to try it out. For example if you need 1 Cup of regular flour then you would use 1/2 cup Brown Rice Flour, 3T Potato Starch and 1T  Tapioca Starch, and 1/2t Xanthan Gum. Happy to say it worked and these bars are the best, I had my good (gluten eating) friend Vanessa over today and she loved them! So, here is the much loved recipe:
Preheat oven 350.
In a food processor pulse together:

Above GF flour mixture

1/4 C Powdered Sugar

 3T Almond Meal (I use Trader Joes)

1/2 t Cinnamon 

1/8 t Salt

Add in the two below remaining items and pulse until mixture resembles course crumbs  

2 T Butter (Cut into small pieces)

2 T Safflower Oil

Press into an 8X8 lightly greased glass baking dish and bake for 25 minutes or until crust is lightly browned on the edges. Reduce heat to 325 degrees.

In a bowl whisk together:

3/4 C Sugar

2T White Rice Flour

1/2-1T Grated Lemon Zest (depending on how "lemony" you want your bars to be) 

2 Eggs

1 Egg White

Pour batter on top of baked crust and bake 325 degrees for 22-25 minutes. Let cool completely and then refrigerate 30 min. Remove dish from refrigerator and cut into squares, serve cold. (I topped with whipped cream) Store remaining (if there are any) bars in airtight container in refrigerator.

 

P.S

I haven't been crafting much lately :( It turns out I have low Iron for some reason which makes me insanely tired, cold all the time, and losing my hair at a faster rate then just shedding!? So I am now getting Iron via an IV treatment once a week for 4 weeks. Two treatments are done, and just two to go. Can't say I feel "so much" better..but maybe it will take till the 4th treatment. I also found out my dearest and only sister has breast cancer (she's only 3 yrs older than me!) She will be heading to surgery in the next week or two to have a double mastectomy. The hardest part is she lives about 530 miles away :( I am trying to take part in this awesome group called "A Documented Life" project on FB, so as soon as I get my butt in gear and get started on that I will post. Until then..

Happy Creating,

melissa