I'd Rather Stamp Than Cook

My sister-in-law Tracy shared this recipe with me. It takes almost no time to prepare, is delicious, and pretty healthy too. She did not have a name for it but I call it Southwest Crockpot Chicken. It will give you more time to do important things like stamping.

Southwest Crockpot Chicken

4 frozen boneless chicken breasts
1 can corn
1 can black beans - rinsed and drained
1 jar salsa (I sometimes use 2 if the jar is small)
1 block of cream cheese

Place 1st 4 ingredients in crockpot in the order given. Cook on high for about 6 hours. Remove the chicken breasts. Place the cream cheese into the crockpot to melt. While it's melting, cut or shread the chicken into bite size pieces. Give the crockpot a good stir until the cream cheese is mixed in. Return the chicken to the crockpot and enjoy over your favorite rice.

Asian Knot Card

Everyone that knows me, knows I love gadgets - kitchen gadgets, stamping gadgets, sewing gadgets. So here's a card I made with one of my more unusual sewing gadgets. Clover makes a series of little plastic templates for making Asian Knots. I suppose if you are cleaver and coordinated enough, you can just tie them on your own but these templates have groves, indentations, holes, etc. all numbered in the correct order to instruct you in wrapping your cord. They are (almost) fool proof.

Here's a link to the template I used on Clover's website Asian Button Knot. Click on Asian Knot templates to see the other 3 cool templates they have. I actually bought mine from someone on Ebay.

Stamps - Hero Arts
Asian Knot - Clover template

One More Mother's Day Card

This week's challenge was to make a card with no stamping, so here's my first card with stitching and my first card with Cricut letters. I've already sent out my Mother's Day cards, so I have a jump on next year!


Letters - Cricut
Paper - Making Memories
Embellishments - Cuttlebug

Tiger Lily Mother's Day Card

This card is shamelessly copied from Rose Ann at Paper Delitz. When I saw her Stargazer Lily card, I knew it had to be my mom's Mother's Day card. My mom is now legally blind so she can see things the best when there is the most contrast. So I try to do cards with black and white plus some textures that she can feel. Rose Ann's card was perfect except that I don't do the coluzzle very well so I used it as an element on a rectangular card.

Stamp - Tiger Lily from Stampendous, Happy Mother's Day from Embossing Arts
Ink - StazOn White overwritten with Signo Gel Pen
Other - paper piercing tool, plain old scalloped scissors, circles by Cricut, ribbons and brads from stash, glitter, white metallic rubons

Asian Split Circle

Here's a card I made this morning for a sketch challenge at SplitcoastStampers, It's really prettier in real life since the photo doesn't capture the silver background very well.

Cardstock - Confetti Black, Confetti Plum, Silver
Stamps - Stampendous and Hero Arts
Other - 1/2 inch punch, Cricut Circle, Nestabilities Circle

Another Stampin Up Make and Take - Wonderful You

Here's another card we made at the Make and Take on Saturday with Stampin Up's Groovy Guava and Soft Sky. It's soft and pretty stamped with The Wonderful You flowers and a strip of stems done with the jumbo roller wheel. I needed a Mother's Day card for my MIL and she loves flowers, so this is perfect for her. I did not have a Happy Mother's Day stamp in the right size or configuration, so I printed this out on the computer. I don't know why I don't do this more often, most sentiments are in black anyway and you can get any font, size, or configuration on the computer. How much money (and space) would I save by not buying so many word stamps?

Stamps - SU Wonderful You, Stems and Silhouettes Roller Wheel
Paper - SU Soft Sky
Ink - SU Soft Sky, Groovy Guava
Ribbon - SU Double Stitched Soft Sky

Stampin Up Blossoms Abound Make and Take

I went to a Stampin Up make and take yesterday and we made this really sweet 3x6 card with the Blossoms Abound set. I'm not a Stampin Up purist and did not like the way their words fit into the small oval so I brought it home and finished it with the great words from PaperTreyInks Faux Ribbon. Luckily, I have the small oval punch and found an ink that matched Stampin Ups.

Stamps - SU Blossoms Abound, PaperTreyInk Faux Ribbon
Papers - all SU
Ribbon - Stampin Up Moss Gingham
Inks- Stampin Up Elegant Eggplant and Orchid Opulence, Adirondack Eggplant