Crop Goodies

This weekend is our

Spring Weekend Crop at 

Dunkirk Camp and Conference Center.

We decided to have a Holiday Celebration theme.

Here are a few of the things we have going on 

for this weekend.

Every cropper will get a goodie bag that is a Christmas

Stocking with goodies in it.

Everyone gets an ornament in their stocking

along with some Ghiradelli

  peppermint bark, Lindt Lindor chocolates, a

ticket to win a prize and more.

For Valentines Day they will each receive a box

of Conversation Hearts. I was one short so I made

a little box for one person and filled it with 

Good and Plenty candies.

For Halloween they will pick up a treat for

trick or treating when they get their dinner.

One of the boxes has a prize sticker on the bottom.

They are filled with a variety of candy.

We're also having an Easter egg hunt, with

one egg containing a gold coin to win a 

prize basket.

A ring toss game for 4th of July,

a Christmas Trivia game,

Valentine's word scramble,

a New Year's Eve count down on

Saturday night

and lots of fun prizes.

I think it will be a great time.

By the time this is posted the crop will be over,

and we'll all be recovering from our 

time scrapping and crafting.

If you've ever been to a weekend crop,

you know that a lot of sleeping doesn't happen.

I'm sure everyone had a fun time.

Couldn't post this sooner and ruin the surprises.

Thanks for stopping in today,

come again soon.

Until then,

have fun crafting!

Make Up Stencils

Hi everyone.

Today I have something a little different to show you.

Y'all know I love my Silhouette Cameo,

I've found another use for it and vinyl.

These are "Make Up Stencils"

My daughter loves make up and although she hasn't

blogged in a while, she has put a lot up on Instagram.

She needed some stencils to use when she was doing

swatches of different make ups.

She wanted different shapes and sizes and these are 

a few of what I came up with.

The lips are, of course for lipstick swatches

Here's how she uses them.

She weeds out the lip part of the stencil,

She takes off the backing and sticks the vinyl to her hand,

Then covers it with lip color, and removes the stencil.

How cool is that?!?!

This is one she uses on her arm for 

eye shadows and blushes.

Again, apply the make up,

and remove the stencil and you have make up 

swatches.

For something like this, she asked me to make

stencils that have the same kind of shape as the 

make up pallet,

showing them in the same placement on her arm.

If you're interested check her out on instagram

#clumsy_girl_makeup

There are so many things you can do with a

Silhouette Cameo!

Keep coming up with more things all the time.

Thanks for visiting.

Come again soon, you never know what your find on

Kristie Kreates.

Vegan Lasagna

Hi All!

Today I have something a little different for you.

Vegan Lasagna!

One of the guys in my son's wedding party and his girlfriend

are vegan and since I will be doing the rehearsal party, 

I wanted to see what I could make that they would be able 

to eat.  I talked to Sara, Jaryd's fiance, and she said they

like lasagna and they make their "ricotta" with cashews.

I researched it on the internet and found a recipe for the

ricotta and decided to give it a try.

It was really quite simple.

I took raw cashews, soaked them for a couple hours.

after draining off the excess water, they went into the 

food processor.  I added some garlic cloves and other 

seasoning including nutritional yeast,

then gave it a good whirl.

I was surprised at how tasty it was.

The texture was not quite as creamy as ricotta, but 

worked nicely in the lasagna.

I didn't want to use pasta and love to use zucchini instead,

so that's what I did, no gluten in this baby.

I forgot to take a picture before I added more layers,

but you can see that ricotta, it's a beige color.

I did get some vegan mozzarella, so that went in too.

More zucchini and sauce and it was ready for the oven.

I filled this with lots of veggies, broccoli, cauliflower, 

mushrooms and the zucchini.

I should have kept some of the mozzarella for the top,

but there wasn't a lot of it.

Okay, I know, this doesn't look all that pretty.

Would have looked better if I had let it sit for a little

longer before serving it. Once it was cooled, it sure 

did cut and serve better.

How did it taste?

FABULOUS!

We both absolutely loved it.

What would I do differently?

I probably wouldn't use the vegan mozzarella at all.
I didn't think it added much flavor to the dish, the

various veggies, the cashew ricotta and the sauce were

plenty of flavor.

The other evening, I made some more of the cashew

ricotta from the left over cashews and made

some zucchini roll ups with it.

This time they weren't vegan, I use real mozzarella

along with the ricotta and rolled it up in

slices of zucchini added some sauce and it was delicious.

Here's the funny part. 

After all that research and trying out this 

vegan dish, I was talking to the kids and they

want to have a taco bar for the rehearsal dinner.

I don't need the vegan lasagna now,

but I'm glad I learned how to make it and 

we really did love it.
If I need a dairy free dish, I'll be able to make it.

Now to find a vegan taco filling and dessert.

I hope you have enjoyed hearing about my adventures

in vegan cooking.  I'll let you know how the tacos and 

dessert go.
Thanks for stopping in, come again soon,

you never know what you'll find on 

Kristie Kreates!

Dream

Hi all!

Is it spring like in your area yet?

Here in Western NY, as of the time I'm writing 

this post, we are just coming through an ice storm.

Luckily it wasn't as bad as they predicted, but still,

it's mid April, it should be more spring than winter.

This is what it looks like outside my kitchen window right now.

That isn't even really snow, it's frozen over ice pellets. 

At least it isn't solid ice, right?!?!

So, today I'm going to bring something bright, cheerful 

and springy to my blog.

I wanted to try out the water color markers that

I picked up a while ago.
I bought an inexpensive set at 

Michael's that were on sale.

I believe they are Artist Loft.

I've seen several videos recently

using markers, so thought I'd give it a try.

I stamped the image onto watercolor paper with

VersaFine Onyx Black Ink

using my MISTI stamping tool.

Using the MISTI is a great help, because the 

watercolor paper has texture and is more difficult

to get a clear crisp image.  With the MISTI I could 

stamp it as many times as needed, with no problem.

I found the I really enjoyed coloring with these 

markers, they blended nicely using an aqua pen.

This is the sentiment I stamped on the inside of the card.

I love how this card turned out and I'll

definitely be using those watercolor marker 

again soon.

Things have been a little hectic around here lately,

I'm working on designing and making the 

invitations for my son's wedding,

so forgive me if I don't get things posted 

as often as I like to.
I'll try to give y'all a sneak peak of what I'm

working with for the invitations soon.

Thanks for spending some time with me,

I hope to 'see' you again soon.

Until then,

try something new!

Note the links are only to give a reference so you can

see what the products are.
I didn't necessarily purchase from these sites,

except where specified,

and you may find better prices elsewhere,

I am in no way promoting any particular site.

Easter Favors

Hi blog friends!

I know I'm late with an Easter post, but I wanted to share 

with you the favors I made for my Easter guests.

As usual, I decided pretty last minute that I would 

make something for each place setting.

I don't know why I do this, I know I like to have something

for my guests, but always decide to make it at the last minute.

A couple days before Easter I picked up some things for 

the favors and the day before I decided that I would make

little tags to go on the bags.

I did a few different designs, all stamps from my stash

from when I was on a few design teams.

I've been playing with ink lately and making

background sheets to use when I need them.

This was what was left after I made the tags.

I used alcohol inks on some glossy paper

and I love the results.

Each goodie bag had a little package of 

chocolate chip cookies, some orange chocolate

sponge candy, and a few Reese's cups and Cadbury mini eggs.

Here they are all ready to go on the table.

This one is made with 

Daydreaming Bunny

This one is 

Happy Duckling

This one is

Bunny with Flowers

There were 3 of the guys that love hot sauce

and since we had ham and they love it on ham,

I thought it would be the perfect little favor for them.

All the images were stamped with VersaFine, Onyx Black ink

colored with colored pencils, fussy cut, then adhered to the back

ground piece.

The sentiment is from a set that I got on clearance, 

because it had no outer wrapping, so I have no idea what

company it is from.

This is what each place setting looked like.

We had a wonderful Easter and I hope you did too.

Like I said, I know it's late for an Easter post,

but this kind of favor can be done for any 

dinner or event, it can be pulled together 

very quickly.

You don't have to stamp, color and fussy cut

everything.  You can just as easily, stamp a sentiment,

trim it down and put it on a little goodie bag, candy bar

or whatever you like.

I love doing this for my guests.

Thanks for stopping in today,

I hope you'll pop in again soon.

Until then,

create something beautiful.

Note the links are only to give a reference so you can

see what the products are.
I didn't necessarily purchase from these sites,

except where specified,

and you may find better prices elsewhere,

I am in no way promoting any particular site.

Unicorn Envelope

Hi everyone! 

Have you ever been out shopping and see something

that you know you just have to pick up and send to a friend

or family member?
That's what happened one day when I was browsing around

in Michael's.

I found the cutest stickers that had unicorns,

I had to get them for my little God Daughter, Andrea.

She absolutely is all about unicorns, I guess at 6 yrs old

that is pretty normal.

My problem was that I didn't have an envelope that they would

fit into.  I wanted to send them to her rather than wait until

I saw her again.  Doesn't everyone love to get mail?

So I made an envelope to fit them.

I have a pad of paper that I picked up at Hallo's, 

which is a paper store in Brunswick, Ohio.

They have all kinds and sizes of paper and this pad 

is large, sturdy paper.

I made the envelope and stamped and heat embossed 

images all over it, leaving space for the address, return

address and stamps.

I think it turned out pretty cute and I'm sure she'll 

love getting this in the mail.

I had a lot of fun making this for Andrea.

Have you ever decorated any envelopes?
I love doing it, but don't do it all that often,

need to take the time to decorate them more.

How fun to get something pretty in the mail?!?!

Thanks for stopping by today,

I hope you'll give mail art a try,

if you need some ideas, a great place to get 

inspiration is from
Kristina Werner,

she does a mail art video every month.

Kristina is one of my favorite artists,

check her out, you won't be disappointed, 

she does beautiful cards too.

Until next time,

give mail art a try!

Note the links are only to give a reference so you can

see what the products are.
I didn't necessarily purchase from these sites,

except where specified,

and you may find better prices elsewhere,

I am in no way promoting any particular site.