Current Project-Painting

I was encouraged today to paint more, so I decided to complete my Sister-in-law's painting that I started months ago. My objective behind the painting was to give her something colorful to hang behind her couch. She has decorated her apartment with very colorful accessories and I thought that a really large, colorful painting would bring everything together. The painting was supposed to be a surprise but then I got stuck, so I decided to show her the painting and see if she could direct me into any sort of direction. And that she did... Sally is really into vintage pinups, infact her next tattoo is most likely going to be a large pinup. Since the painting has taken on a "tattoo" like quality, I thought that a pinup would look great! I was trying to get it done for Christmas present, and I was SOOOO busy before Christmas that I just didn't have the time. Actually, I don't really have the time now either, but I am super motivated so I am just going to have to make the time! Here are a few pictures of my progress (not much right now but I am pretty confident that I will get this painting done soon). I am also thinking about making prints of several of my paintings and selling them on Etsy!

Completed Project- Invitations

O.k. here are the baby shower invitations!!! I used Paper Source cards and envelopes that I bought at Urban Arts + Crafts. The 4 Bar folded card in strawberry, the 4 bar flat card and coordinating envelope in blossom. The scrapbook paper on the front is a 12x12 by My Mind's Eye which I cut to size. I also used acrylic stamps from Autumn Leaves.

Resolutions

One of my New Years resolutions is to be less of a space case and finish some of my projects. I have about 10-15 projects that are in some stage between conception to completion. According to Feng Shui a cluttered house is a cluttered mind, and even though those projects are organized nicely in their respective places, it is still clutter that I need to get rid of in order to maintain my sanity. One of those projects is my "antique" sampler. I have always been extremely attracted to very ornate antique samplers, but since I seem to share that attraction with a lot of other people... a real antique sampler is WAY out of my budget. So, I decided to make my own. I don't have a specific pattern that I am following. Some of the text and borders I have seen in books and magazines, and the house is a pattern that I made up to look like my house. Anyway, I have been working on this sampler for about 2 years, off and on... more off than on. So I decided to just work on it until it is done!!! So far that has been going pretty well, but we shall see how that goes!!! Any new projects are going to have to take up space in my sketch book until I an get this completed.

Completed Project- layered cake

So, I have been in this baking mood lately. After the Christmas season, I didn't think I would see the day that I would want to do that much baking again... but that day has come. I am throwing a baby shower for my sister-in-law next month, I know that I want to make the cake, so I decided to do a test run. I used a cake recipe that I have never tried before so I just needed to make sure that it wasn't a flop. I made this white cupcake recipe from Martha but I made it into 3-8.5" layers for 1 cake.

I cut the tops of each layer off so that each later was flat. I cut each of those 3 layers in half. The fist layer, I pipped a white chocolate mousse that I made, around the edge and filled the inside with raspberry jam.

The second layer I pipped the white chocolate mousse around the edge and then filled the inside with the same mousse. I continued to do this until the cake was complete.
I also found a really great use for my Pom Tea Jars. It is great to hold your pastry bag when you are filling it.
I ended up icing the cake with a very basic vanilla buttercream that I colored pink. It turned out sooooo hideous that I didn't even take a picture!!!! For the actual baby shower cake, I found another Martha recipe for a white chocolate buttercream, and I might just forgo the pink food coloring. I found some pink fondant, that I don't have to make, and I was considering using that for decoration... but I haven't made my final decision yet. The cake was delicious!!! The icing wasn't quite up to my standard as far as taste as well as its appearance and I think that when I make this cake the 2nd time, I am going to put less jam in between the layers. I think that the jam make the cake a little too sweet, and I think that if I just use less, it will turn out perfect. I will take pics of the official cake and post them after the baby shower.

Completed Project- Candy

I lovelovelove to make candy; I like cooking in general, but my favorite thing to make is candy. I recently stumbled onto Amy Karol's blog; Angry Chicken and she had made homemade marshmallows dipped in Chocolate and sprinkled with hazelnuts. I thought that was GRREEAAT!

I usually make hard candy or peppermint patties, but I have never attempted marshmallows. Sooo... I did it and they turned out wonderful. I am not a big fan of hazelnuts so I sprinkled mine with Heath Bar pieces and they were superb!!!

I also used some of them for a S'more concoction that Martha had on her website. They were very rich, but very good!!!!

My next project: Baby Shower invitations.

Completed Project: Sally's Scrapbook

Like a good Sister-in-Law, I took Sally out for her 21st birthday. We were originally planning a trip out to Las Vegas (my home town) for the event, but there was a shortage of funds. Although we weren't able to go out to LV, we still went out for a night on the town and I took LOTS of pictures so that I could fill up what was supposed to be the Las Vegas scrapbook... I figure no matter what she should still have a book with all of her 21st birthday pics! I worked really hard within a limited amount of time, and I got it done just in time for Christmas.

I bought a kit for a 12"x12" scrapbook almost a year ago with this scrapbook in mind. It had a Valentine's Day theme so everything was black white and red, which is soooo Sally. I started by using just the stuff that was included in the kit and half way through the scrapbook I started to get bored!!!! They say that poverty encourages ingenuity but in this case it was definitely boredom. I started making my own photo corners, paper, embellishments and much more!! I really like how the book came together as a whole but I am more proud of the 2nd half! I also found out that my favorite tool to use when scrapbooking is puffy paint!!!! Here are some of the layouts: