Good bye Gypsy... Sobb sobb!!

It is such a sad day yesterday when my gypsy was fedexed back to Provo Craft for replacement.  Customer service was very nice and quickly agreed to replace it.  The only problem is they will issue my new gypsy with my old serial number so that  will take them a bit to make that transfer.  Then I am told that my cartridges will work on the new one.   I was told the process could take a couple of weeks. 

Meanwhile, I will have craft without it.  I think that I will find I miss it even more than I had thought.

Repost of picutres for Oreo Treats

I keep running out of photo storage for my blogger account, so if you tried to view the Oreo cookie treat post, the pictures are now up.  I will need to remind my sweet husband to remove his family photos off our picasa web.  I am not sure why blogger accounts use picasa web for the photo storage, but apparently that is how at least my account is set up.  I just wish they would tell me I was out of room when I uploaded, instead of deleting my photos after I do my post.

Oreo Cookie Treats

I saw a link from a blog I follow (How does she) to another site called sugarblog that is mainly a cake decorating site. One project that caught my eye was these oreo cookies. I just had to make my own batch. So after ordering some sugar transfer sheets from Global Sugar Art. My sheets came today and well you can see how it ended. So fun. I will do this again soon. Let me know what you think.

MPS challenge Zebra Card

I have been making cards to give away as gifts. So when My Pink Stamper issued this challenge to use two colors of pink and blue, I knew this was what I wanted to make for her challenge and as part of my gifts. I made 9 of them today. The zebra is cut from Create a Critter. The strips at the top are 1 1/8 by 3 inches.

CCC # 55 Peace, Love and Joy Card

This week the Cricut Cardz Challenge #55 is to make  a card using a banner.  I have been wanting to make some of the houses on the Jolly Holidays cartridge and this was the perfect excuse.  All cuts came from that cartridge.  I think is turned out pretty cute.  I hope you join us this week for the challenge.  I can't wait to see what you make.

Candy Recipes and Blog hop winner

I want to thank everyone for all your great comments.  I really appreciate all your kind words.  I had a couple people ask for the recipes, and thought I would share with all. At the bottom of the post is the winner.

Peppermint Bark

This recipe and the next one are so simple.  Just melt vanilla Melty Chips  in double boiler and add crushed candy canes.  Mix  and then spread on a sheet of wax paper.  Sprinkle crushed candy canes on top and let cool.  

Almond Cranberry Bark

Just melt vanilla Melty Chips  in double boiler and add chopped  almonds and cranberries.  Mix  and then spread on a sheet of wax paper.  Let cool.  This is one of my favorites.

Mom's Best Peanut Brittle from All recipes.com

We love this recipe, and it has won first place at our local county fair twice.

Ingredients

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup peanuts
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions

1. Grease a large cookie sheet. Set aside.
2. In a heavy 2 quart saucepan, over medium heat, bring to a boil sugar, corn syrup, salt, and water. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Stir in peanuts. Set candy thermometer in place, and continue cooking. Stir frequently until temperature reaches 300 degrees F (150 degrees C), or until a small amount of mixture dropped into very cold water separates into hard and brittle threads.
3. Remove from heat; immediately stir in butter and baking soda; pour at once onto cookie sheet. With 2 forks, lift and pull peanut mixture into rectangle about 14x12 inches; cool. Snap candy into pieces.

English Toffee

Ingredients

• 1 cup real butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 tablespoons water
• 3 Hershey Chocolate Bars
• Chopped nuts ( I use just a touch of almonds)

Directions

1. Grease a large cookie sheet. Set aside.
2. In a heavy 2 quart saucepan, over medium high heat, bring to a boil first four ingredients. Stir constantly until mixture is the color of a brown paper bag  ( 300 degrees F)
3. Remove from heat; immediately pour onto cookie sheet. Spread mixture and add chocolate bars.
4. Once chocolate is melted, spread evenly and sprinkle with nuts. Cool. Snap candy into pieces.

Peanut butter balls

Ingredients

• 3 cups powder sugar
• 1 stick of butter
  
• 1 1/2 cups Jiff Peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon vanilla

Directions

1. Cream ingredients together.
2. Refrigerateat least 1 hours
3. Roll into balls
4. Dip into melted chocolate or chocolate melty chips.
5. Cool on wax paper.

Now for our blog hop winner:  Random.org chose #21

Congrats to Heather, who said... Great projects! I love the tree box!


Heather, I just emailed you.  
Thank you to everyone.  I appreciate your comments.

Thank You Gifts Blog Hop

Welcome to the "Thank You Gifts Blog Hop".  I am so glad you are here visiting my blog.  Thank you to Joy for hosting this hop.  If you are not starting at the beginning, please feel free to start with Joy's blog.

Today I am showing three different ways to creatively give candy. First is a house box.  Second the traditional  candy box that I made.  Finally, a tree box. 

Here is the directions for the house.  I used Winter Woodlands  building  # 3.  You can make this on any size bug, but I would recommend resizing it with DS or the gypsy.  For starters,  you can make the house taller than it would be on its own and I also resized the door to not have the step.

 Next I scored and cuttlebugged all that need to be done. 

 Don't those windows look cute?

 Here it is done.  I used part of a circle punch on the side to make it easier to pull the boxed out.

I used my scorer to make the box insert.  I just measured two sides of the house and measured how high (tall), I wanted the box to be.  Then I just scored and cut and assembled. Now it is ready to fill with candy.  The ribbon holds the candy in the house pretty well, so it doesn't drop out.

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Now for the Candy box.  I looked all over for a box like this one.  I just couldn't find one I liked.  So I made my own, using my gypsy and George & Basic Shapes.  Here is how it looks before I folded it together.

My sides fold in double, so it is firmer and sturdier.    I used my ATG to put it together and the tape holds it perfectly.

 I made several colors.  The heavier the card stock, the better they look.

Your options are limitless for the goodies you can put in these boxes.  We did Cranbery Almond White Chocolate,  Peppermint bark, English Toffee,  Chocolates, and Peanut Brittle. Let me know if you want me to post the recipes and I will  if I get enough requests.  Lastly I added a pretty ribbon/bow to each.

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Lastly,  if you have the gypsy, then you should have Tags, bags, boxes and more.  This tree is there and is super easy. I use the window option and have now cut out over 30. I used acetate for the window.  I have filled them with various small Christmas candies, like M&M's,  gummy bears/ snowmen & trees, chocolate covered pretzels, candy corn. 

Joy	http://joyslife.com/
Ruthie	http://septemberninth.blogspot.com/
Angela	http://creativecraftin.blogspot.com
Carrie	http://thegreenbeanscrafterole.blogspot.com
Denise (that's me)	http://cricutmyway.blogspot.com/
Gale	http://www.thehappystamper.com/
Janis	http://pausedreamenjoy.blogspot.com
Jen	http://scrapaholicjen.blogspot.com
Jenny	http://crazyaboutcricut.blogspot.com
Jin	http://underacherrytree.blogspot.com
Julie	http://cricutchick.blogspot.com
Lori	http://scrappinmystressaway.blogspot.com
Mari (Momo)	http://madebymomo.blogspot.com
Misty	http://abusyplace.blogspot.com
Natalie	http://timelesslegacydesigns.blogspot.com
Raven	http://love4stamps.blogspot.com/
Theresa	http://www.thescrapbookingqueen.com/
Tracy	http://www.craftjunkietoo.com/
Yolanda	http://yoliebean.blogspot.com

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 Thanks for following this long post.   Gale is next click here to go to her blog.

 Please leave a comment for this blog candy. I love comment.   Followers are always welcome.  Thank you for stopping by.

Thank You Gifts Blog Hop on Dec 12th

Ever wondered what you can do inexpensively to say thanks to a teacher, mail carrier, a good neighbor, or the other many people who do so much in our daily lives? 

Well there are some talented ladies who are going to give you tons of great ideas on December 12th.   Thank you Joy for this great blog hop.

Santa bird Card

Jolly Holidays is a favorite of mine right now. This bird is so cute and fun. Here is a simple card I made with him.

Missing photos

Thank you Leslie for letting me know my photos were missing off my blog.  If you stopped by earlier, it should be working now.

M & M Tree Gift Box

I saw this box in Tags, ags, boxes & More. I was thrilled to make it. The shape is pretty straight forward. One could design this pretty easy with taller sides using basic shapes. I sized this to fit 11.5 inches wide. It is a pretty good size. I used almost the entire bag of M & M's to fill the tree. I think it turned out great. I am so thrilled to have Tags, bags, Boxes and More. Now I just wish I had the new one out, called Wrapped Up (or something like that).

Snowman Card from Smiley Cards

This snowman is from the Smiley Card Cartridge. I love this guy. He is soooo cute. I really like the cute little mouth and glasses. I was prompted to make this for a challenge at Techniques By Trish.  We were asked to use the Smiley Cards cart. and some twin.  I was so happy to find this snowman there, so I could continue making  Christmas cards.

'Tis the Season Card

This little girl from Winter Frolic reminds me of one of my daughters. So I had to make a card of it. I love these PKS. I just ordered my second set. Over time I hope to get a some more. Meanwhile I this is my favorite face to use. I think I have seen a set where the mouth is an "O" shape that looks like singing.  That also would have worked nicely here.  Well, I've got to make a few more cards in order to send them out this year. Hopefully I will be posting more over the weekend.

Snowman Card for Flaunt It Fridays

There is a new blog out there, that has a new challenge every Friday, based on a certain cut from a certain cartridge.  This week was their first challenge.  Use Winter Frolic, cut on page 29.  So here is what I came up with.  They also have a blog hop  going on.  I haven't done that yet, but was super excited to do the challenge.  So after I post this I am off to do the blog hop.  Hope you get a chance to hop along  too at  Flaunt It Fridays. These ladies are super talented and I am sure I will enjoy what they have today.

Gift tags CCC #53

This week at Cricut Cardz Challenge # 53 we were to either make a gift tag or a 3x 3 card.  I chose the gift tag, so I could be one step closer to being ready for Christmas.  I chose the tags above, because they will go nicely with the wrapping paper I have recently picked up.  I hope you will join us this week CCC.

The blue tags are cut using Winter Woodland tag option. I used packing tape to the back to add the glitter. Doodled and then added ribbon. I used ones like this last year. I just love them. I will experiment some more to see if I can find a new favorite this year, but this will be hard to beat for me. The last two sets in the green and red are cut from the tag option on Winter Frolic. I embossed  the "To" and used stickles in at the bottom.

I embossed the bottom tags. They are almost pretty enough to have by themselves.