Just in case you had not heard...

For the locals...

Great American Scrapbook Convention

The convention, that for the past several years has been held in late June in Chantilly, has been moved to Charlotte, North Carolina on October 25 and 26.
No idea as to the reason for the change...but just passing it along.

Not sure when stamp camps will resume at the house...the kitchen ceiling still has 2 holes in it and things are just super busy with the family going in every direction.  By the time Friday night roles around if I am not out of the house with someone's activities, I  just want to collapse and enjoy a few hours of "downtime".  I will post (with enough warning) when I am ready to resume...please keep on stamping/crafting in your spare time!

Recipe time - Quick and Easy No Peek Beef Tips!

I tried out this yummy recipe Sunday from mommyskitchen.net.  It was posted 4+ years ago, but I just found the recipe this weekend :)  It tasted wonderful and the house smelled awesome!  We served it over rice, along with corn, salad and crescent rolls. 

No Peek Beef Tips

Ingredients:
2 lb - Beef tenderloin tips; (Use Stew Meat, Chuck Roast or Chuck Eye, cubed)
1 - 10.5 oz can cream of mushroom soup
1 – packet brown gravy mix
1 - packet lipton dry onion soup mix
1 – 4 oz can mushrooms (can be left out if ya' don't like shrooms!)
1 - cup water or ginger ale soda

Directions:
Add cubed meat to a 9 x 13 inch pan.

In a large bowl mix the remaining ingredients together and pour over the meat.

Add mushrooms and stir to coat. Cover with foil and bake at 300 degrees for 3 Hours.

Do not remove foil until done.

Serve over rice, mashed potatoes or egg noodles.

Servings: 6 - 8

Valentine Treats

Here are the valentine treats that we made for J's class earlier this week.  We used the Campfire Giant Roaster Marshmallows....seriously...these things are HUGE!  We dipped them in melted chocolate, then into some festive sprinkles.  I was thrilled that we got to "break in" my new Wilton Chocolate Pro Melting Pot from Christmas - it worked like a charm and I was so thankful that my hubby was able to step in and oversee most of it with J. as I became very ill about 2 hours before we needed to start dipping these.  (I was basically incapacitated the rest of the night laying on the sofa with dizziness and extremely horrific stomach pains... except for the few times where I felt well enough to sit up and tell family members where things were and how to do it - LOL.)  Not sure if it was food poisoning, flu/stomach bug, appendicitis flare up or what, but it was seriously painful and not something I had ever experienced before and it lasted for about 30 hours and I am all better now!)

We made 54 of them and then put each dipped marshmallow into a heart themed cupcake liner, then put 2 marshmallows for each person into a heart themed treat bag with a simple computer generated tag tied onto the bags.  Fun, Fun, Fun!  This weekend we are doing chocolate covered bananas (the plan is to dip and freeze them) and some strawberries.

 

Christmas Cards for 2013

Yes, you read that correctly.... I am working on my Christmas cards for 2013!
For those that are unfamiliar, I decided over a year ago that I would start work on the next years holiday cards in January of the following year and do "about" 10 a month.  That way, by October I should be done with my requisite 100ish cards that I need and I can focus on everything else that needs to get done and not have it "looming over me.".  It's a system that worked tremendously well for me this past year and I have continued with it.  Here's the first design (of many to follow throughout 2013!)  Enjoy!

This card features a silver foil snowflake accented with glitter, 3 beads to create a "tail", plus a red bow at the top and circle with a cute red gem.  It doesn't photograph too well due to the silver foil, but hopefully you get the idea....it's so much prettier in person!

Butterfly Gems card from a past kids class

This is a card that never got posted from awhile ago featuring gems and shaped cards.
A nice hint of Spring to come for those not liking all of the cold now!

Card # 5

With markers, inkpads and daubers this butterfly card was a snap to create!
The camera did not pick up the glitterfied accented butterfly wings and bee wings...much prettier in person!!

Card # 4

Stampers were able to easily change the sentiment to whatever they liked on this card.

Card # 3

Card featuring an adorable ladybug and butterfly.

Card # 2

This card also had 2 different background papers to choose from....this one and one that was a glittery XXXOOOO :)  I love the simplicity of this one with the oversized glitterfied heart. 

Card # 1

Playing catch up with past classes/camps...here goes....

There were 2 different decorative papers to choose from for this card featuring a Riley Moose Heart balloon image :)

LOVE BLOCKS

Been super busy these past weeks teaching tons of classes plus prepping classes (not to mention life in general), plus my blog stopped allowing me to post pictures, so I don't know what was up with that. At first I thought it might be a quota thing, but it just magically fixed itself, so it must have been a blogspot thing.  The suckiest news of all is that my gallery site decided to shut down after it merged with another company and so 10+ years of pictures/projects are no longer available free online.  Thankfully I was able to save the pictures until I figure out what to do about it (I lost all the data/info posted with them from the website but at least have the picture files)...still weighing my options there.

So, onto other things....here is a recent kids class project I did called LOVE blocks.  I think the name speaks for itself.  Mine are the red ones.  My DD really wanted some pink ones so she did hers in that lovely shade.  I really like both sets and love how they can make a mantle or window sill or even a locker festive for Valentine's Day.  The kids loved painting and the parents went crazy for them too....yay!