Happy (Jewish) New yr

Monday night was the start of Rosh Hashanah, The Jewish New Yr 5769. Traditionally you eat something sweet in the hope of a sweet yr to come that is why I made this Challah bread with raisins.
Normally the Challah is braided like this but for the Jewish New Year it is round to symbolize a universal wish for well-rounded fullness and a wholesome year. I was trying to figure out how I was going to package the bread when I looked up and saw my husbands record collection and had an Ah Ha moment. He uses clear plastic covers to protect them. I went and got the bread to see if it would fit inside of one and it did. Then I called him at work and asked him if I could have one of the covers in exchange for the bread. I pretty much knew he would say yes because he loves this bread but I still thought it would be nice to ask. After that I ended up stamping on the plastic cover with the stamps from the Papertrey Mazel Tov set using white Stazon and was really happy with how it came out. I tied the bag shut with some silver organdy ribbon.
For the card
I started with Mary Jo's lunchtime sketch this week . I embossed the Shofar image and the Happy New Yr saying with silver embossing powder. The paper is the new Silver and Night Sky Shimmer Cardstock
which I love. I finished the card off by drawing a SU Night Of Navy border around the inside of the white cardstock and then used some Silver Sheer Metallic Edged
ribbon to do the twisted edges ribbon technique on the left side that is in the new Technique Junkies newsletter.
That's it. I hope you like it If you are interested in the Challah recipe feel free to email me and I would be happy to share it with you. Thanks for stopping by and have a great night.

An Award and some facts about me

I got this award from Beth at Nana's Memories.
I also got tagged by Pam at Pamela's Gallery
Thanks Ladies!
Here are the rules:

1.) Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2.) Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3.) Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4.) Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Here are 7 facts about me.
1. I was homeschooled for high school. I got my high school diploma from The University Of Nebraska's Independent Study High School.
2. I started my own baking business after I graduated high school and ran it out of my parents home for 3 yrs with my moms help but she couldn't bake. I quit because the neighborhood association would not allow us to put a commerical kitchen in the garage and we could not afford to get commercial kitchen space elsewhere. I was also burned out from all the baking I had done.
3. I became a nanny after that for 6 yrs before I started doing nails full time.
4. I met my husband by answering a personal ad he wrote.
5. I can sing. I sang You Light Up My Life to my husband at our wedding reception. People that attended the wedding still talk about it.
6. I got very sick with something called HELLP syndrome after I had Emilia. That is why she is an only child.
7. I am terrified of mice.

I am going to tag these ladies and they can play if they want to.
1. Barb
2. Shirley
3,Ret
4.Mary Jo
5.Ann
6. Shelly
7.Leigh

If you are still with me thanks for reading. I hope to be back soon with more stamping projects to share.

September Blog Hop

Tonight is another Papertrey Blog Hop
The challenge this month was to share our best holiday inspired projects. This is what I came up with.

I am Jewish so we celebrate Hanukkah. Sufganiot are deep-fried jelly doughnuts that are traditionally eaten then. The oil used to fry the doughnuts is reminiscent of the oil that miraculously burned, according to the Hanukkah story, in the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. Here is the recipe I used to make them:
Ingredients:
3 4gm pkgs of yeast
1Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. flour
3 cups flour
1/4 cup margarine, melted
dash of salt
3 Tbsp. sugar
2 egg yolks
1 1/4 cups water (110 degrees)
Strawberry jelly
oil for frying.
powdered sugar
Directions:
Combine the first 3 ingredients adding enough warm water (110 degrees) to make a thick liquid. Let sit until it rises and foams.
In another bowl mix 3 cups of flour with the melted margarine, salt, sugar and egg yolks. Combine the yeast mixture with the flour mixture. Slowly add the water while stirring. When the batter is smooth, cover the bowl with a towel and let it sit and rise.
To make the doughnuts: After the batter has risen,pour it onto a floured surface and add flour until it is not sticky anymore. Roll the dough out. Cut circles with a small glass. Place a drop of jelly in the middle of each circle. Brush water on the bottom circle then cover it with another circle of dough. Make sure the 2 circles attach well to form a closed ball with jelly in the middle. Cover the doughnuts with a towel and let rise again.
To fry the doughnuts. Heat at least 2" of oil to 350 degrees in a deep pot. Drop the doughnuts into the oil and fry on both sides until brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

My friend Linda found the directions for making the box to put the doughnuts in here. and shared it with me. I started with a piece of plain white cardstock and did the Metallic Stone Technique which is one of the bonus techniques on the new Technique Junkies CD 6 using Denim and Mushroom alcohol inks. When I was done with that I stamped the menorah and the Happy Hanukkah saying from the new Mazel Tov set on each side of the box and lid with Versamark and then heat embossed them with fine detailed black embossing powder. I tied a silver organdy ribbon around the box to keep it closed and then added a small tag I made with my circle nestabilities. I stamped the images from the Boxes, Bags and Tags set with Versamark again and heat embossed the outer circle image with silver embossing powder this time. That's it. I hope this inspires you to make something like this for your Jewish friends and family for Hanukkah now.

Monday Lunchtime Sketch 35

Happy Fall! It still feels like summer here though it is 79 right now. I am not complaining though. I much prefer this kind of weather over winter anyday. Even though it is still warm out I made a pot of my homemade chicken soup today.
I finally got a chance to do one of Mary Jo's Lunchtime sketch challenges again. This is my interpretation of it. I changed the bottom piece by moving it to the middle. All stamps are from Lasting Impressions with Panache. The colors are from Kristina Werners Color inspiration challenge #20 . I colored in the tea cup using the TJ marker water coloring technique using a blender pen.I then cut it out and attached it to the thank you circle with pop dots to give it some dimension. The Pretty In Pink layer was run through my Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots embossing folder. I stamped the Chocolate Chip layer with the tea bag stamp in Chocolate Chip ink. The ribbon is a piece of May Arts 3/8" white satin ribbon and I colored with a rose red (R85) Copic sketch marker. Finished size is 41/4x51/2. Thanks for stopping by and have a good night.

Checking in and some TV talk

Sorry for not posting anything for over a week. Homeschooling Emilia is taking more time now and unfortunately I have not have much motivation to stamp either. I ended up placing a big Papertrey order Sunday night for all of the new release stamps. I should not have bought as much as I did but I had to have it all. I am hoping the stuff I ordered will help get my motivation to stamp back too. My order is suppose to arrive tomorrow which is a good thing because the Blog Hop is next week so I need to get busy working on something for that. I just wish I was as good at using my stamps as I am about buying them.
In other news I can't wait until next week when the fall TV shows start again. In the meantime my summer shows are coming to an end. The Big Brother finale was the other night and Dan was the winner. I think he definitely deserved to win and played the game really well. America's Got Talent is coming to an end too. They are down to the final 10 now and after tonight it will be the final 5. So far I am not sure who I want to win but I think it is going to come down to Neal, Queen Emily, Eli, Nuttin By Strings and Jessica Price or The Wright Kids (Emilia's pick). I would be happy to see any of them win. This yrs show has been pretty disappointing though. I cannot believe some of the people the judges put through. Project Runway is getting down to the end too. This is the first year I have watched it but I am enjoying it. Top Design is back as well. I am not really liking the host but still like the show. My food network shows have taken a back seat to my daytime talk shows since all of them are back now. It is especially good to have the Ladies from The View back. I am starting to like the Bonnie Hunt show too. Rich and I also have a new show we are watching together as well, it is called Dog Town. It is about a wonderful place in Utah that takes in hard to place dogs. I wish there were more places like that in the world. Well that's it from here for now. I will leave you with this though.
Isn't she cute?
I hope to be back soon with something stamping related to share with you.

ETA: I forgot to talk about The Greatest American Dog. The finale was last week and Emilia and I were very disappointed that Presley won. We both agree Andrew definitely should have been the winner.

Mojo Maddness

This is my entry for Mojo Monday week 51/Mojo Maddness. I stamped the cupcake with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on hot press watercolor paper and colored it using the TJ makerwash technique. After it was dry I added some diamond stickles to give it some sparkle and matted it on Papetrey's Dark Chocolate Cardstock. The pink cardstock is SU Pink Passion. The light yellow cardstock is Papetrey's Lemon Tart. I used the SU corner rounder to scallop the edge on the top pink piece, then I ran it and the yellow piece behind the cupcake through my Cuttlebug using the Swiss Dots embossing folder. The ribbon is Dark Chocolate Satin from Papertrey. Finished card size is 41/4x 51/2. I hope Julee likes it. It would be awesome to win some more Verve stamps! Thanks for stopping by and have a great night!

Layered Collage

I have been working on this card all week. I didn't think I was ever going to get it done. I knew I wanted to do some sort of college with the images but everything I tried was not coming out the way I wanted. Thankfully I finally came up with something I could live with. I did not think it was ever going to happen though. I ended up doing The Layered Collage Technique from the recent Technique Junkies Newsletter using Tattered Rose, Fire Brink and Faded Jeans distress inks. All stamps are from the new Mermaids sheet from Alluring Impressions except for the background stamp. I had to improvise a little by masking the unicorn and then stamping the background stamp over it for the main image. Cardstock is Bazzill Typhoon, Basil Maraschino and SU Blush Blossom. Finished card size is 51/4 x 51/4.
Emilia started ice skating lessons today. When I was about her age my mom, sister and I all took ice skating lessons together. It brought back a lot of good memories for me. Emilia really seemed to enjoy it too. That's it for now. I hope the rest of your weekend is a good one.

Independence

I hope you are having a nice Labor Day. I got to spend part of it at my favorite place, The Denver Botanic Gardens with Rich and Emilia. Everytime we go, there is always something new to see and it is so relaxing. I just love that place! When we got home I was able to stamp for awhile and came up with this card. I wanted to make a card like this for the Fourth Of July but I did not get the stamp in time so I thought today would be a good day to use it and share it with you all. The stamp is from Lasting Impressions With Panache and is called Independence.I did the AI float technique from the Technique Junkies. June/July 08 newsletter for the background using Denim and Red Pepper alcohol inks. When it was dry I stamped the image on top with black Versafine Ink. I matted it with Bazzill Maraschino, Admiral and white cardstock. Finished size is 41/4x41/4. Tomorrow it is back to homeschooling full time for Emilia and I. Hopefully we still have some warm weather left to enjoy for awhile though. Thanks for stopping by and have a good night.