Neumann Family Session, 2016

Family fun with the Neumanns! A beautiful winter session with this lovely family! It was cold but we moved quickly and captured some fun images for their family. Enjoy their favorites from the session!

Goodies!!!

I think I've gone on a butter overload cooking spree today....yikes! I love to do Christmas goodie cooking and baking and today I did quite a few tasty treats!
This first one is one of my favorites, vanilla caramel...yum! What's not to love about butter, cream and sugar, right?!

I love Peanut Kiss cookies and they are one of my husband's favorites. I'm so thankful for my convection oven because baking 3 pans at a time makes this process go SO quickly!

This recipe is a new one for this year and if you like chocolate and peppermint, then it's truly a recipe for you to try. Start with 3 ingredients: 1 bag of semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips and 1 bag of white morsels along with 2 boxes of candy canes (I used the .98 box from Wal-Mart). Melt the chocolate in the microwave for 60 seconds, stir and repeat. It will be melted now and you spread the melted chocolate on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Place in the refrigerator for 20 minutes and then melt the white chocolate chips in the microwave just like the others. Once melted, add 1 cup of crushed candy cane pieces and save the rest of the crushed pieces for sprinkling over the top. When the chocolate layer is cold, then spread the white chocolate layer over it and sprinkle with the candy canes. Place back in the refrigerator and once it's hardened you can take it out and break it into bite-size (or larger) chunks. They taste great and work wonderful in small gift bags!

I made 2 batches of this yummy treat! It's called Fantasy Fudge and this is how you make it:

What You Need
3 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter or margarine
1 small can (5 oz.) evaporated milk (about 2/3 cup) (Do not use sweetened condensed milk.)
12 oz. BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate, chopped
1 jar (7 oz.) JET-PUFFED Marshmallow Creme
1 cup chopped PLANTERS Walnuts
1 tsp. vanilla
Make It

LINE 9-inch square pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides. Bring sugar, butter and evaporated milk to full rolling boil in 3-qt. saucepan on medium heat, stirring constantly. Cook 4 min. or until candy thermometer reaches 234°F, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

ADD chocolate and marshmallow creme; stir until melted. Add nuts and vanilla; mix well.

POUR into prepared pan; spread to cover bottom of pan. Cool completely. Use foil handles to lift fudge from pan before cutting into squares.

So I'm not creating any fun cards or pages but I am making gifts for friends and neighbors. Let me know what you're cooking up this Christmas season!

Tag-filled Tuesday

I've been very inspired by Debbie and Jackie who are making really fun Christmas gift tags and thought I'd try them out. They will be perfect for adding to gifts or small cellophane bags filled with goodies. Check them out and you'll want to create some too!!!!

All tags are cut at 3" with the CTMH AP Cricut cartridge. Some are run through my Big Shot with various embossing folders for more texture.

This tag has a scallop circle from the AP cartridge cut at 2 1/2", a gingham ribbon and button were added and the Noel sentiment is from the "Say It In Style" set. The holly leaves are from the set "A Holiday" cut at 1 3/4". The To and From are from the Cricut AP Celebration Set that is included in your initial AP Cricut purchase.

This tag has the button and gingham ribbon and the scalloped square was cut with my Nestabilities, the red shape was cut from the AP Cricut cartridge, the snowflakes were cut at 1" and 1/2" and stamped with a snowflake from the Oct. SOTM and some bling was added for sparkle!

This 3" tag was run through the Big Shot, the holly leaves were from "A Holiday", the shape was cut at 2 1/2" from the AP cartridge again (there are so many options it's hard to choose), the numbers are cut from the AP Cricut cartridge as well and I added a red snowflake ribbon and button.

Just a couple more tags. These were also cut out of colonial white cardstock at 3" and then I cut an additional tag out of B & T paper and glued them together. The 3-D ornament was created by cutting 4 ornaments from B & T paper and then scored in the middle and each half was glued together (hopefully that makes sense)! The Merry Christmas sentiment is from "Say It In Style" and the additional tag was cut with the AP cartridge on my Cricut. Hope you try this out for yourself!

Early Christmas Card Idea

This card is called a "Swing (Flip Flop) Card and the tutorial can be found here. I used the retired Background & Texture paper called "Mistletoe" from CTMH, olive, cranberry and colonial white cardstock. The stamp sets were "Holiday Cheer" (B1381 for only $9.95) and "A Holiday" (A1115 for only $6.95). A few folds in the right place and some cutting, some bling for a bit of sparkle, a ribbon and you have this unique Christmas card.

This is the front view of the card:

This is the view as you open the card:

Then you open it fully and you have the inside greeting!

There you have it....how fun is that?!!!

Happy Stamping!

Season of Joy

I went for a unique color combination on this tri-shutter card. You can watch the tutorial here. The paper used for this card was CTMH "Believe" B&T paper, sky cardstock and holiday red. The flowers, leaves & tree were cut with the Art Philosophy cartridge. I used a scalloped circle from Nestabilities for the front. Stamp sets used were "My Acrylix Art Philosophy Seasons" (included in the Cricut Art Philosophy Collection (Z1686 for $99.00) & "Say It In Style" (D1283 $17.95) The embossed paper pieces were run through a Big Shot and some Sizzix embossing folders. Thanks for stopping by!