Creative Cucina

This is a 4 1/4″ x 4 1/4″ square card I made using the Level 3 Hostess Set Goody Goody Gumdrops. For the layout, I was inspired by the sketch I saw on the Mojo Monday Blog. It’s not the exact sketch, as you can see, I turned it on its side and made a few changes, but that was my starting point.

The base is made from Baja Breeze card stock. Then, I layered a piece of Chocolate Chip (which I paper pierced) with the Parisian Breeze DSP. It’s textured and really thick–more like cardstock than DSP. Next, I took another piece of Parisian DSP and cut it into a 1 3/4″ x 4″ strip. I wrapped some Baja Breeze 1″ stitched ribbon around it and using my crop-a-dile, embellished it with 2 decorative circle brads. The strip was adhered to the base with dimensionals.

Finally, the image and sentiment, both from Goody Goody Gumdrops, were stamped on Shimmery White Card stock layered on a square of Baja Breeze and Chocolate Chip. I paper pierced the shimmery white all around the edges and adhered it to the base with a double stack of dimensionals. The ink used for the owl was Chocolate Chip and the sentiment was stamped in Baja Breeze.

This was a last minute card I made today and I love how it turned out! It’s March, which means I need a LOT of birthday cards ready to go. My husband and most of his family share March birthdays. Seriously–my husband, his brother, his brother-in law, his step brother, his stepmother, AND his mother!! I don’t know how that happened, but it’s a crazy time for me.

And, since it is snowing in March (which doesn’t make me happy), I am homebound with nothing to do except make cards. My daughter has taken a liking to going through my little pieces of scrap paper or a container of buttons while I make something. It keeps her quiet for longer than I care to admit. I was able to get 4 cards done today in one sitting!

As for this card, the base is Basic Gray, layered with Kiwi Kiss and a piece of Urban Oasis DSP. I love polka dots entirely too much-I know, but I can’t help it! Next, I wrapped a piece of Baja Breeze Stitched 1″ ribbon around the Kiwi Kiss/DSP layer. The flower image is just a square of DSP from Urban Oasis! It looks like the  Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set, which I don’t have, but the DSP works perfectly here. I matted that on a piece of Kiwi Kiss and Basic Gray again. Finally, I actually stamped something for this card–the little “be happy” image is from the Hostess Set Darling Dots. I stamped it in Kiwi Kiss on Whisper White card stock, paper pierced around the edge, then punched it out with a 1″ circle punch. That was matted with a dimensional onto a Baja Breeze 1 1/4″ circle and a Basic Gray 1 3/8″ circle. Then I adhered the whole thing to the card base with dimensionals.

It’s so cheery, I know it’s gonna be a hoarder. Someone REALLY special is going to have to come along for me to part with this one!

I made mini banana bread loaves as favors for my sister’s baby shower a couple weeks ago. The recipe was very easy and very tasty–I highly recommend it! (See below). I’ll have more detailed pictures of the favors posted soon.

Ingredients

• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup mashed overripe bananas
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter 9″x5″ loaf pan or 5 mini loaf pans. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs to combine.
2. Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to the butter mixture, and combine. Add mashed bananas, sour cream, and vanilla; mix. Stir in nuts and chocolate chips. Pour into prepared pan.
3. Bake until tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes for loaf pan, 35-40 minutes for mini loaves. Let rest in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto rack to cool.

The paper mini loaf pans were from www.target.com, see them here.

I needed 57 favors for the shower, it took me about 9 batches to get there. I made double batches each time, baking them 2 trays at a time. All told, it took about 3 hours to bake all the mini loaves! That does not include wrapping and decorating them. My kitchen was a disaster for a while there!