Happy Hour

I don't know about you but the summer time keeps me hoppin'. With ballgames and practices 3 nights a week, kids spending the night, the flower and vegetable gardens, birthday parties, July 4th planning, more meal prepping....it makes for some busy days and late nights. Sometimes we just need a break, right?

I thought this card would be fun to send to a friend who needs a girl's night out. I used Just Rite's new Girl Time Borders and Centers stamp set along with some fruity tooty drink patterned paper from my stash. The circle border sentiment was stamped with black ink onto white cardstock. The center image was stamped onto patterned paper and colored with a Copic marker and highlighted with Ranger Stickles glitter. I cut out my images using Spellbinder's Circle and Scalloped Circle Die Templates.

I wanted to play up the fruit punch colors in the patterned paper, so I finished off my card with some colorful sentiments from Papertrey's Day At The Beach stamp set....tied Vintage Buttons and bright pink polka dot ribbon.

A fun little card that will surely brighten a friend's day! Hope you take some time to relax and just hang out with a girlfriend. We all need a little break now and then.

The most refreshing drink ever!

Edit: If you cannot find Fresca where you live, I suggest Squirt soda or Shasta Grapefruit Soda. If you don't have those, you can use 7 Up or Sprite, but the taste will definitely be different. The cranberry cocktail is a little sweeter than regular tart cranberry juice. You can certainly substitute but again the taste will be a little more tart.

Whew, it sure gets hot and muggy in Kansas. One step out the door and my straightened hair just curls right up! I might as well just give up on it! As I showed you in my patriotic post HERE, I had place settings with empty glasses. Many of you thought that I be putting drinks or my favorite margaritas into my pint canning jars. Nope, I'm saving those for something else. But today I just have to share the drink I'll be serving at my summer picnics. The photo belows shows my beautiful beverages....doesn't it just make your mouth water????? It's so simple and delicious, you'll want to make it all summer long. I've made gallons and gallons of this already, as my family just loves it!!

No more waiting, let's get to the recipe. I found this recipe in a recent Weight Watcher's cookbook but I've changed the name to make it more Mishie like. I named it Easy Squeezy Cranberry Lime Coolers. Here is all cold and fizzy in my nice glasses.
And here it is more country like, all jarred up to go home with some special guests. Of course I had to make a recipe card. I used these Copic Sketch colors to do some coloring on my project:

I knew the little drink glass with ice cubes from Day at the Beach would be fun to color for my recipe card. I took color cues from my first photo above, coloring the bottom of the drink darker, then getting lighter pink at the top and then almost a green (from the Fresca) at the very top. I used a Colorless Blender (0) to blend and soften my colors. I stamped the ice cubes over my colored image using Fresh Snow ink then cut my image out using fine tip scissors. The layers of my 4" x 6" recipe card are PTI Raspberry Fizz (for the cranberry juice), Spring Moss (for the limes) and Stamper's Select White cardstock. I stamped the small lime image onto my white cardstock using Spring Moss Ink. The fun Raspberry Fizz swirl exploding out of the drink is from Fancy Flourishes and has been glitterfied using PTI Glitter. I added a little glitter to the glass to represent glistening drips of goodness! Recipe card was finished off with stitching from my sewing machine.

If you try one new recipe this summer, make it this one!! I buy ingredients for this each time I hit the grocery store. And make sure your ice is crushed. It's soooooo good......I have to go have one NOW!!

Recipe for you to print/copy:
Easy Squeezy Cranberry Lime Cooler
1-1/3 cups light cranberry juice cocktail, chilled
4(12 oz) cans Fresca
4 lime wedges
Combine cranberry juice cocktail and Fresca in a pitcher. Pour into 4 tall glasses filled with crushed ice, and squeeze a lime wedge over each glass. 4 servings. For individual serving, fill glass half full of crushed ice. Fill 3/4 full with Fresca then top off with cranberry juice cocktail. Squeeze lime wedge on top. This is Michelle’s favorite drink....along with a good margarita.

Note: Fonts used for recipe card and recipe size are listed at the left side bar, just scroll down.

And here's a few photos from my Inspiration File of some cool ways to dispense your drinks. Look at all these fun jars!I love the lemonade in the jar at the left, below. You can find those at The Container Store. And if you zoom in below and look to the left, you can see a clever way to keep individual drinks iced down in a tray of ice. I love that!

And look at juicy fruit in the jars below of what looks like a sangria of sorts. Fun stuff! All it takes is some clever thinking and you can turn anything into a serving container. Have fun! And...I haven't forgotten about that Mason jar contest I have going on. I finally got two winners from the comments section of what's going in my jar. So two of you that left comments are winners! Stay tuned for the big reveal!

Get Well Slippers

Happy Father's Day to all the dads today!

It's time for more mass production cards for my stash basket. My *get well* section is GONE, not a single card left!! I always love to reach for Karen Lockhart's images for my get well cards. Her slippers, robe, socks and sentiments are just perfect for get well type cards. Today, I paper pieced the slippers using October Afternoon patterned paper. Simply stamp the image with black ink, cut out with fine tip scissors and adhere to your cards with pop dots. The slippers are very simply drawn so that you can use them for male or female or even kiddy slippers. Zoom in on the photo below to see the Polka Dot Basics background I stamped on white cardstock, then cut and embossed layers using Spellbinder's Rectangle and Scalloped Rectangle Die Templates. A little vintage looking lace finishes off the focal images.

I added some shading to my slippers using the Copic Sketch marker colors below. The shading and grey shadows add just a little depth to the images.

Here's the trio of sentiments I used below. The top two are Lockhart sentiments and the bottom is a combo of two sentiments from Vintage Picnic Sentiments. Tied buttons finish off my cards.

I love to just sit and look at my little stacks of cards when I'm done. It feels good to replenish my stash of cards....it means that cards are being sent out to friends and loved ones! I recently saw the girls' hair stylist and she said she received at least 5 or 6 of my cards for her baby showers. I love to hear that! I hope you get some time to stamp soon.......make 'em and mail 'em girls!!

Pretty shoes cure the blues.....

I took a break from my patriotic posts today to show a card that I made for my stash basket. I'm getting very low on my cards...I always love it when I see empty slots because that means I NEED to stamp.

One of my most requested type of cards is the *hang in there* type cards. I think with today's sucky economy and busy life styles in general, things can get a little hectic at times. So I like to keep some good girlfriend type cards handy at all times.

Today I made a shopping themed card using Just Rite Stampers' Girl Time Borders and Centers stamp set. It's got some really fun centers and borders that are just perfect for girly cards. The border sentiment on this particular card reads *pretty shoes sure can cure the blues*. So true! This set would be perfect for creating an entire set of cards for a friend and wrapping them up with pretty packaging and ribbon. I stamped the images onto white cardstock and then used a scalloped square punch to cut out my image. I used a couple Copic markers in the BG tones and some light greys to add just a little color to the image. You'll be seeing lots more images from Just Rite that can be colored, a real bonus for us Copic lovers. And I really loved the layout of the card, it's one that I'll be adding to my sketch book for future reference.

To pretty up my card, I used Papertrey's Polka Dots Basics on my Kraft background, Vintage Buttons tied with ribbon and Rustic Twine, October Afternoon cardstock, EK Success border punches and machine stitching. I like this layout so much, I think I need to go into mass production mode a bit and make some more.

Hope you have a Happy Day!! We're headed out to Washunga Days in downtown historic Council Grove, Kansas. My mother in law has summed up our day pretty good...each year she always says *yep, let's go watch the parade, eat greasy vendor food (I prefer Indian Tacos), sweat our butts off, go home, have diarrhea and take a nap*. Yep, that pretty much sums it up and I love every minute of it!! There's a flea market full of good junk too. Eric sees it as just that....junk. And my dad calls it the Crap Show. But I love my treasures. :)

Note: Looking for the hard to find October Afternoon paper? My cool friend Cindy, from Star Lit Studio, carries a good selection. Get it while ya can, but save me some okay?!

Patriotic Picnic Place Settings

Wow, another Mishie update today! My friend Daisy SPARKS, from Eclectic Paperie, just emailed me. She's another July 4th/patriotic fan.....with a last name like SPARKS, she's gotta love the fireworks too! She's adding to the fun by generously donating TWO $20.00 gift certificates to the Eclectic Paperie online store! Thank you Daisy! So keep guessing.....here's a hint: You're all WRONG! :) Not even close. If I don't get any winners by the time I post my Mason jar reveal, I'll open up a drawing on that day and pick two winners.

Hellooooooo again my friends! Some of you are getting really excited about what's going to happen with those pint sized Mason jars. Let's have some fun....if you can guess what's going in my jars, I'll send you a Mishie original, hand stamped *something* using Vintage Picnic. I'll limit it to two winners.....IF you guess correctly. I might just stump you on this one. You have to be very specific with your answer too, I'll be the judge of your anwers. :) I don't have a date yet for my Mason jar post but it will before July 4th. (insert evil, making you wait anticipation smiley here!)

Welcome! The fun continues with the new Papertrey Vintage Picnic stamp set as my Patriotic Picnic takes shape. Today I want to show you some cute tags I made for my picnic place settings using Guidelines 1 Grid Cardstock, miniature bingo cards and images from the Vintage Picnic set. Come along for some summer fun!

I've really been intrigued by the Guidelines 1 and Guidelines 2 Grid Cardstock and all the possibilities it offers. The cardstock is pre-printed with light grey lines...you can stamp images from the Guidelines 1 & 2 stamp sets but there's sooo much more in store for you. You all know that I love to stitch on my cardstock right? Well what better way to get straight lines than to stitch right over the guidelines provided on the cardstock. I chose to create stitched squares on my cardstock. To do this, you simply stitch the entire length of the cardstock, skipping every other line. Sew both the vertical lines and the horizontal lines and you'll end up with an entire sheet of stitched cardstock.


Then it's up to you and your imagination as to what you can create. I'm starting my project with some punched squares using the Mega Scalloped Square punch. I wanted to get the nice square stitching in my punch out shape..you can get about 12 per page this way or more if you punch randomly and don't mind where the stitching ends up.

My next step was to stamp the little plaid napkin from Vintage Picnic onto scraps of Spring Rain 2008 Bitty Star Basics Patterned Paper for some paper piecing. I cut the top of the napkin with straight scissors and then cut the angled sides of the napkin with pinking shears. Repeat for as many tags as you want to create.
Next up was coloring the fun food topper image from Vintage Picnic. When you get your set, you'll be amazed at how well the toppers stamp on top of the basket images. You'll get images that look like one stamp every single time. Nichole, you did good!

Now. I want to talk a little bit more about the Copics. I get comments all the time like *you choose your colors so well*...or *I would have never chosen those colors but they look great*....and *how do you choose your colors for a project*. I have a tried and true method that works for me. First off, I have a color chart that has the actual marker color for each Copic I own. I created a simple 4 column table in a word document...wrote down every single color of Copics offered...and then fill in the color by the marker number each time I get a new marker. And before you ask, I'm sorry but I lost my word document due to a computer crash so I can't offer it to you here on the blogaroonie.

How I select colors: I take cues from the image I want to color. I know for the food topper image, I want some tans/browns for the bread, some purples for my grapes, blues for my cupcake, reds for the jam jar, etc. I get out my chart and look for colors that look pleasing. I then grab 1-3 colors of each tone...(for example V06, V93 and V95 for the grapes). Before I do any coloring on my actual stamped image, I test my colors by creating a little palette on scrap cardstock. You can see below, that I grouped together my bread colors, my grape colors, my cupcake colors, etc. I know exactly what the colors will look like when paired together before I start to do any coloring. It's just like mixing paint colors together, same concept. Then it's just a matter of coloring each separate little image within the big image. By using 1-3 colors of purple, for example, I can apply the light tone first, then do some shading with the next darker tone, then use the next darker purple if needed. (We'll do more on shading another day). But overall, it's just a matter of *painting by numbers* once you have your color palette selected. Practice, practice, practice...you can do it!

Okay, next up is my finished colored images. I stamped the food topper right onto my punched, stitched squares of Guidelines 1 Cardstock and finished them off with the paper pieced napkins, stamped, punched circles and some Vintage Touch Inks.
I adhered my colored squares to some Jenni Bowlin miniature, patriotic bingo cards and then to some more of the Bitty Stars patterned paper. The edges were cut with pinking sheers.
I couldn't resist some of my favorite dressed up clothes pins, complete with matching Vintage Buttons in Scarlet Jewel and Rustic Button Twine.

And here's my individual place settings. I've used a wicker tray, patriotic cloth napkin, my good plates and glasses....with my little tags clipped onto the empty glasses....

...and here's a little close up shot.......I tied my silverware up with strips of old denim that I ran through the washer and dryer to make them fray. The painted, wooden firecrackers are some that my mom made when she did toll painting years ago....and the pint jars are stuffed with cloth napkins...for now.

I've got something very, very special planned for those pint, canning jars.....but you'll have to wait for another post. (insert bwa-ha-ha torture laughter here) :) Hey, my posts get long winded as it is, it's time for a breather! I hope you liked my little tags, I think they'll be the perfect little center of attention at my place settings. Stay tuned for more of my Patriotic Vintage Picnic...I've got recipes coming and more of my vintage decorations to show you!

Raspberry Cheese Spread Recipe

Edit: The fonts I use for my recipe cards are AFL Font Nonmetric for the typewriter-like print and Becky Higgins' CK Becky font. You can find Becky's font through the Creating Keepsakes website. Come back at 11pm Central Time for my Papertrey newsletter post. See ya soon!

Happy Hotter than Heck Wednesday! Someone turned up the temperature in Kansas that's for sure. It's so hot and muggy outside, ugh! And tonight we have two back to back softball games for the girls. Double UGH!!

I know how you all love my recipes so I wanted to share one that is in my Papertrey gallery for the June release. It's called Raspberry Cheese Spread....kinda funny ingredients but it's SO good. I can't wait to take this to a party!!Of course I had to make a pretty recipe card, you know me!! I used Candice's new release called Fruitful. There's also a coordinating stamp set called Fruitful Sentiments that you'll absolutely love if you're into making jams, jellies and homemade gifts.

I printed my recipe on Kraft Cardstock (4" x 6" finished size...click on Recipe label at the end of the post to scroll through other recipes and to find fonts). I stitched around my recipe card and layered it onto Papertrey Spring Moss Cardstock. The word *raspberry* is stamped in the new Scarlet Jewel ink, soooo pretty! I masked two of the raspberry images and stamped them using the rock and roll technique. I stamped the raspberry in Scarlet Jewel and then used a SU! purple ink to roll the stamp to create a darker purple outline on the raspberries. Stems are Ripe Avocado. Raspberry images are cut and embossed with a Spellbinder's Labels 4 Die Template. Ribbon snippets and Vintage Buttons are Spring Moss and Scarlet Jewel. I absolutely LOVE these colors paired together.

Hope you enjoy the recipe! Here's a little morslet of goodness for your viewing pleasure!

And here's the recipe that you can cut and paste or print. Recipe from Taste of Home.

Raspberry Cheese Spread
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup mayonnaise
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
3 green onions, finely chopped
1 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup seedless raspberry preserves
In small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and mayonnaise until blended. Beat in cheeses and onions. Stir in pecans. Spread into a plastic wrap-lined 9 round dish. Refrigerate until set, about 1 hour. Invert onto a serving plate; spread with preserves. Serve with crackers.

Note: The 1/4 cup of raspberry preserves is a little skimpy......I'd go ahead and add a good 1/2 cup or more to ensure that each little scooplet gets some raspberry goodness. ;)

You're hot...

My sister and I made yet another fun trip to Atchison, Kansas for a Nell Hill visit. It's our most favorite place ever to shop for home decor, decorating ideas, garden and party ideas. This time, we took a home tour of the owner's house and it was simply divine!! We ended back at the shop and boy did we shop! I always feel inspired to redecorate when I leave there.

Here's a few photos I took of some colorful, summer tablescapes. The ladies at Nell Hill sure have a good eye for putting the elements together. The colors in these two vignettes were so fruit punchy and fun!!

When I started to plan my project for today, I knew I wanted to imitate the fun colors on my card. I reached for some Wild Raspberry K & Company patterned paper and then selected my Copic Sketch Marker colors from there. I colored Karen Lockhart's Electric Fan stamp to match my papers......

...then cut and embossed the image with Spellbinder's Circle and Pinking Circle Die Templates. I love the glitter and shimmer and sparkle!
I finished my card off with Papertrey ribbon and Vintage Buttons tied with Rustic Twine.

I have a specific recipient in mind for this card, so I wanted to create a personal sentiment for the inside of the card. My sister (who I went to Nell Hill with and had so much fun), recently hurt her toe big time. She peeled back her big toe nail and had to make a trip to the emergency room to have the nail removed and to stop the bleeding (yes, you can pass out here like I did).....and she lost her prized pumpkin patch due to two hail storms. She had all of her grand kids help plant this huge field of pumpkins and had such fun plans for the Fall. We had a contest going to see who would grow the best pumpkins. Eric said, "We win"......I'm not telling that to Karen though!

So anyway, this card is for her. I just turned 40 this year and she turned 50. She's been experiencing some of the dreaded heat flashes that I call *personal summers*. I tease her all the time and she tells me........just you wait, Sistah!!! My time's coming I'm sure. So for the inside of my card I typed *You're 50....You're HOT (literally)........hope your personal summers are going great!!* I know it will make her laugh.

Do you know someone that could use a good, cheer up card? Or perhaps their own little pocket fan? Snort! Now is the perfect time to send them a card. You'll make their day!

Note: Did you know that Karen Lockhart now has a printable stamp registery that lets you keep track of your Lockhart stamp collection? Just to the link above and follow it back to the home page...you'll see the downloads. Cool, Karen!

Vintage Picnic...birthday flowers

Hey everyone! What a fun release this month at Papertrey!! I want to thank you all for the wonderful response to Vintage Picnic. I thought I'd show you a pretty little card using the flower basket topper to get your creative juices flowing.

There are so many options for Vintage Picnic. Many of you are joining the Copic craze...and all of the stamps in Vintage Picnic can be colored with Copics. I hope to be showing you lots of coloring tips to help you out. You can also paper piece the baskets with patterned paper like I've done here using Wild Raspberry K & Company paper. Here's a great tip for all you Copic users: Use grey colored Copics to add shadows to your paper pieced baskets. The patterned paper looks great by itself but you can add extra pizazz by adding some shading. You want to use light greys that won't overpower the patterned paper. For my project today I used T1. Just a little shading under the lid and basket handles...and a little more down the sides and bottom of the basket......and you're good to go. If the shading is too dark, lighten it up by using your Coloress Blender (0). Zoom in on the photo below to see the shading close up.

As for the other pretty details on my card: I love the greenish/blue of the patterned paper paired with Lemon Tart Satin Ribbon, Vintage Buttons in Lemon Tart and Sweet Blush, both tied with Rustic Twine. And be sure to scroll back up to the first photo. I love to add sentiments to little toppers I create by using a large Spellbinder's Scalloped Square Nestabilities Die Template. Just die cut and emboss a square and then cut off about 1" to use as a topper. Don't you just love the fonts Nichole chose for Vintage Picnic? The vintage looking typewriter font paired with script is so lovely.

I'll be thinking of all you girls staying up late to get your Papertrey goodies. Let me know what ya got, okay?