Here are some fun buttons and seamless pattern tiles for you.  The tiles are for Photoshop users or anyone who can open layered psd files.  There’s an animated gif at the end – let’s see if I can get it to work.  Images are linked and will open in a new window. If you’re a facebook fan, you just might see a coupon there. Have a wonderful weekend!  :)

As promised, I have to share this recipe with you, as it’s absolutely divine.  Check this out ( and no, it’s not the most attractive photo!):

Since this is Alton Brown’s recipe, I’m going to link you directly to it, HERE.  But, I’ll list my own time-saving techniques here:

• First of all, there’s no need to use a cast -iron skillet.  I use a non-stick cake pan.  Sooooo much easier.  I stick the butter and the brown sugar in the pan, then stick the pan in the oven while it’s preheating. Total time-saver. Just mix it once during the pre-heating process.  I’ve made this cake in the skillet, and it tastes the same as with the non-stick pan. 
• I usually double or almost-double the pecans.  Don’t skip the toasting.  You have to toast them.
• The course cornmeal of which he speaks is labeled “polenta” in the dry goods section of my Whole Foods. The recipe works fine with the regular cornmeal that you buy for making cornbread.
• If your toothpick doesn’t come out clean, the cake is not even close to done.  If you’re worried about the top getting too brown, cover it with foil before you stick it back in the oven.  I have to bake mine for the recommended 45 minutes, and then cover and bake for another 15.  Maybe it’s my oven.
• I almost always use fresh cherries as opposed to maraschino.  The cake in this pic has maraschino.  It would taste great without the cherries if you don’t have any.
• While the pineapple ring/cherry combo might remind you of Thanksgiving, I assure you this is a perfect dessert for summer as well.

Seriously.  You have to try this.  And, by the way, it tastes even better after it’s been in the fridge overnight. Enjoy!!

I mention craftermidnight here and there, in various places, but I don’t think I’ve ever really explained what exactly craftermidnight is.  The short story is, we’re a group of art-lovin’ folk who get together once a week to eat baked goods and make art.  Most of us are art teachers who thought “oh suuuuure, when I become a teacher I’ll still have plenty of time to make my own art”.  Right.  So, this is our way of creating some time to make fun stuff, share ideas, and most importantly, eat baked goods.

It’s awesome because I know that once a week, no matter what kind of week it’s been, I have this night surrounded with friends, laughter, and the creative spirit.   I thought I’d share some pics of some of the stuff we make – maybe it will inspire you to host a craftermidnight too  (or a crafternoon, if you’re not a night owl).  Here are some of the more craft-ish things:

Product  used:  Blog Boards #1

What’s here:

• a little woven bag (made from embroidery floss) that I made for Zoë to keep little treasures in
• some beaded things that were made with woven and/or braided beaded wire
• a bird made of paperclay (presently flying from the end of a ceiling-fan pull chain).  If you haven’t tried paperclay, you must!
• a flower that I usually make by the dozens, as they’re so addicting
•  a resin-filled pendant, similar to the photo jewelry here at SBS
• and  an ugly doll, made with love, felt, and buttons for my Zoë. These dolls are so much fun to make with kids – use them as a way to teach your kid how to sew. You really can’t go wrong with the result!

I was thinking it might be fun to post some crafty tutorials for some of these crafts, even though this is technically a digital scrapbooking blog.  Bah.  We’re all crafty if we’re here, right?  Let me know if you want a tutorial for any of these projects.  Maybe I’ll make one.  Tomorrow I’m going to post the recipe for the baked good we had this week. OMG.  It was divine.  See you then!

Your next stop is the fabulous Lynne-Marie’s  Blog.  Happy weekend!

ETA – I enabled comments because I’ve received a couple of lovely thank-you’s by email, with suggestions that I enable comments for this one.  So I will!  Thanks!

I *think* you can click on that to see it bigger.  Anyway, here’s what’s what:

• the cake.  First of all, I know it looks like a cake wreck.  (Have you see that blog/book? Hysterical).  But the reason I’m posting a pic of it (besides the fact that Z loved it) is that  I HAVE TO SHARE this amazing fondant recipe with you! OMgosh if you ever worked with fondant you know how gross-tasting, expensive, and difficult to color it is.  This recipe is none of those things.  It’s made with a bag of marshmallows and some sugar.  I made this cake about 2 hours before the party and believe me I know it’s hideous, but the fondant was so easy to work with and covered so many mistakes that I so wish I had taken more time with the cake, because I think it could have been really beautiful.  But anyway, HERE is the link to the recipe – you can read all the comments too – I found some of them helpful.

 

• more on the cake. I didn’t actually bake this cake.  Faaaaaar too much effort.  I always buy an undecorated, giant sheet cake from BJ’s.  These things are awesome. They’ve got a layer of buttercream and they’re frozen, so they’re very easy to cut.  I cut this one into three flowers (yes, those are supposed to be flowers stacked on top of one another) and just covered them with the magical fondant.  The best thing about this process is that there’s a ton of extra cake leftover.  It’s all in little bits and makes a PERFECT strawberry shortcake trifle.  You can use this as a second dessert at the party, or just eat it all yourself like I did.  Here’s how to make it:

1. Get a box of Instant White Chocolate Pudding.  make it.  Set aside.
2. Whip up some whipping cream with some sugar and vanilla.  Set aside.
3. Slice a bunch of strawberries.  Set aside.
4. Gather up your spare cake parts and chop them all up into bite-sized pieces.

To assemble:  If you’ve got a trifle bowl, great.  Use it.  otherwise any old roundish casserole dish would be fine.  So, first spread a bit of the pudding on the bottom.  Then add a layer of cake.  Then more pudding.  Then add some strawberries.  Add a layer of the whipped cream.  Then more cake, more pudding, more strawberries, more cream.  Decorate the top with some cut strawberries.  Et voila, a quick, easy, and deeelicious dessert.

• the sugar flowers.  So, here’s another thing you can do with the magical fondant.  Again, keep in mind that I threw these things together in like 5 minutes with whatever I had laying around – imagine what you could do with a little planning?  So, I took my purple fondant, rolled it, dipped a flower cookie cutter in crisco and powdered sugar, and used it to cut these shapes.  Then I draped the flower over a gumdrop and let it dry. I’ll totally be doing this again – except I’ll add dried egg whites to the fondant so it dries quicker.  Love these!!

 

• the fairy crowns.  these were so easy and such a hit.  I did some prep work here before I gave them to the kids.  First I created a twisted circle of wire (you can use pipe cleaners too) and then I wrapped it in a strip of felt so it would be more comfortable to wear. (hot glue the ends in place).  Then I unstrung some leis that I bought at the dollar store, and put them in some bowls along with some pink pipe cleaners.  The girls strung the flowers onto pipe cleaners and then wrapped them (with help) around their pre-made crowns.  We then tied long strands of ribbon to the crowns.  They came out so cute – and what an inexpensive thing!  We made wands too, but I don’t have a photo of that.  We just hot-glued unfinished wood stars to dowels and gave the girls adhesive gems and paints and whatnot.  They loved that too.  All of this, by the way, was done at my dining room table on top of a disposible tablecloth for easy cleanup.  There was a second tablecloth underneath so the table wouldn’t be un-festive after removing the craft-ridden tablecloth.

 

• the favor bags.  well, here’s where you might think I’m a little crazy, but I sewed 11 of these bags and made the braided handles out of torn strips of the pink canvas. I based the pattern on a tutorial from Martha for a no-sew bag.  Except I sewed them.)  I then made a pretty fabric flower for each, and for the centers I made buttons with each of the girls’ names. Too bad only 6 girls showed up.  Why don’t parents RSVP these days? That’s another blog post.  Anyway we filled these with the usual junk, but the bag became part of the favor and hopefully something that the girls will keep and use.

 

• the decorations. (no photo – oh well)  We simply hung loads of crepe paper streamers in shades of green from each doorway, floor-to-ceiling.  I also made those giant tissue paper flowers ( the ball-shaped ones) and hung them from various places.  Simple, but it looked really cute.

 

• The thank-you’s.   My favorite part!  As the girls arrived, I took a photo of them on the couch.  I told them I had borrowed my camera from fairyland, and that it was a magic camera. It would magically turn them into fairies sitting on flowers, like the picture on Zoë’s invitation (see photo below).  After the party, I did some quick photoshopping with the layered file I saved from the invitation, and in no time each girl was transformed into a flower-sitting fairy. I then printed these onto the 3″  magnets and stuck them in the thank-you cards.  The girls definitely loved them.  Here’s what the invitation looked like – please don’t mind the absolutely cheesy poem:

Product used:  Worn Photo Overlay – Set One

 OK that about wraps it up.  I hope you’ll find some of these ideas useful for your very own crafy fairy party.  This’ll be the last year I can pull off a fairy theme – and 6 years old was pushing it.

Maybe soon I’ll actually post all the new products I’ve released since my last post.  Hmm.

Have a great week!  Off to watch LOST.

 I’m calling the series Altered 365, and I’m filling the kits with lots of painty, doodle-y, grungy and stampy things.  Here’s what January looks like (you can click on the image to see it bigger):

And here is a bit of a closer look (click to see bigger pic):

You have to see what TDD team did with this kit!  I love the layouts!!!  Check out the post HERE.  Also, TDD is the only place you can get this kit until February. If you buy it now, you’ll be supporting a fantastic site and getting yourself a bunch of additional stuff from a bunch of other amazing designers.  Believe me, TDF11 is jam-packed with awesomeness.

Lastly – don’t miss the sale that is going on at SomethingBlue, in celebration of my time at The Daily Digi.  And…shhhhh…if you head over and read the post, you might just find an additional coupon there.  Bargain!

Here’s what’s in this one:

• One nifty solid paper
• three vellum snowflakes
• three flair thingies
• a drippy glittery 2010
• some glitter stars
• a glitter rounded-edge border
• a glitter JOY.  gosh that’s a lot of glitter.
• a printable gift tag.  I printed these on sticker paper and used some as gift labels and some as mailing labels.
• one cluster frame with 7 openings.  good for 365 and everything else.

Here’s what it looks like:

You can download it HERE.  Hope you like!

I’ll be back tomorrow with a preview of my newest kit, which is included in The Digi Files this month!!  I’m so excited!