Happy Halloween!

My daughter just came in and said, "This is the day for thrills and chills!" She's a riot. Have a great day!

Paper Crafts New Book

PC Gourmet

This books looks totally awesome. I have a little sneak peak to share today :). The book features over 50 original recipes from familiar designers. There are comprehensive ingredient lists and instructions for both the recipes and the paper projects in the book. Today I get to share a sample recipe and project created by Alisa Bangerter.

The recipe:

Cheesy Garlic Drop Biscuits

Designer: Alisa Bangerter

This is a perfect recipe to pull out if you are short on time because there is no rolling or cutting. The cheese and garlic add extra kick to a plain biscuit, and kids love them. They are the perfect accompaniment to serve with soups or stews, and are great served with a salad.

INGREDIENTS

2 c. flour

2 tbsp. granulated sugar

4 tsp. baking powder

1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2/3 c. butter or margarine

1 1/2 c. grated cheddar cheese

1 1/4 c. milk

Chives (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Mix together dry ingredients. Cut in butter with pastry cutter until mixture is fine. Add cheese and mix well. Add milk and stir until just moistened. Drop by spoonfuls onto greased baking sheet. Sprinkle top with chopped dried or fresh chives if desired. Bake at 400 degrees for approx. 15 minutes.

And the project:

Enjoy Halloween Tag

Designer: Alisa Bangerter

Supplies: Cardstock: (ivory) Dye ink: (Black) Stewart Superior Corp.; (Summer Sun) Stampin’ Up! Specialty ink: (Mango Lemonade color wash) Stewart Superior Corp. Color medium: (black chalk) Craf-T Products Accents: (black brads) Making Memories; (chipboard bat, moon) Melissa Frances Fibers: (black striped ribbon) Pebbles Inc. Font: (Black Family) www.dafont.com Adhesive: (foam tape) Finished size: 3" x 4 1/2"

1 Make tag from cardstock. 2 Crumple tag and smooth out. Spray edges with color wash; let dry. Apply chalk. 3 Ink chipboard moon; let dry. Chalk edges and adhere. 4 Ink chipboard bat; let dry. Adhere with foam tape. 5 Print sentiment on cardstock; trim and tear edges. Chalk edges and adhere with foam tape. Attach brads. Attach ribbon with brad.

And here is my interpretation:






Funny story: I discovered I am out of black brads unless I wanted to use Mickey Mouse ears, LOL! So I ended up stapling my "enjoy" and the ribbon. I also printed out my moon and bat onto cardstock and cut them out with a craft knife.

My daughter bit into one of the biscuits and her eyes got big. "Yummy!" she said. Talk about quick and easy. Start to finish was less than an hour for both projects. I can't wait to share with my neighbor when she gets home this afternoon :D.

So head over to Paper Crafts Magazine and take another look at this book. I don't think you'll regret it.

More Photography Class Homework

So I experimented with ISO yesterday afternoon. Barbie was a great model for me :). I found it very interesting that the first thing to deteriorate was the color. The ISO200 picture is much richer than the other 3. Check out the lesson and try your own experiment!

Home from Vacation

We just spend 10 days in Walt Disney World!!! Gosh I love that place. I miss it already. So the first thing I did when I got home was upload pictures. I've got about 1600 of them to play with. Over the next week or so I'm planning to edit and upload for family. Hopefully I can get together a slideshow for here, too :).

The second thing I did was check out Digital Scrapbook Memories to see what photography lessons I'd missed. This week's lesson is about choosing the right lens. A great subject and a great lesson to help you figure out where you want to go in your next lens choice. Here are the results of my homework:





I am quite happy with my lens choices right now. I have four lenses in my camera bag:
18-55mm kit
55-200mm kit
50mm 1.8
105mm macro

I think the next thing I'd like to have is a speedlight :D! I'm sure my husband will be happy to hear it. Said with much sarcasm, LOL!

I've still got to catch up with lesson 4 which is about ISO and grain. I'm sure I can find a few examples in those 1600 pictures, LOL!

Graphic 45 - October

Christmas before Halloween? Why yes :). I love Christmas and I love these papers. A perfect match. Don't forget, you can click them to make them bigger.

Catchlights

A subject close to my heart :). I love finding good catchlights in my daughter's eyes. Here are some examples from this week (so far). I could do this assignment for a long time and be quite happy!

At the LSS. There is a wall of windows out of the shot to the right.


At Burger King. The wall of windows is to our left.


Duchess Bentley, my friend's kitty. She is facing a wall of windows.


In front of the library. We are in deep shade and DD is looking out toward the parking lot.


My friend's other kitty, Mo. Again facing the wall of windows.


Here is the link to Lesson 3. Come try it out!