Close To My Heart Artbooking

Here are some cards I made using the a-ma-zing Artbooking Cricut cartridge from Close To My Heart. I just can't get enough of this cartridge. All cards made using CTMH products.
This cute camera was cut out of solid cardstock and then the inside of it was cut out using a background and texture paper.

This camera card has an overlay also cut out of the Artbooking cartridge.

 This card was taken from a cute card I found at www.missgingerdots.com

 This fun card was cut out again with the same cartridge. Idea taken from www.courtney-lane.blogspot.com

Enjoy your day,
-D

Tomato Jam

So I have come to the season of my garden where I finally have more tomatoes than I can keep up with. After giving several batches away, I still had a plethora of tomatoes. They are so so sweet and while I eat while I am picking, and still continue to snack on them, I have just way more than can be consumed before they would go bad. That also is because out of the 5 of us in my family, I am the only one who likes tomatoes. Strange to me that no one else cares for them, but happy because I can eat to my hearts content. Or till I get canker sores. Which ever comes first. :-)
I ran across this interesting website called Food in Jars, and she has a delicious looking recipe for tomato jam. Who'd a thought?
I have never heard of it before, I'm sure most of you have, but it intrigued me to save up 5 lbs of tomatoes, (not hard to do with my jungle of a garden) and give it a try.
It turned out so amazing, I will definitely be making more. Man is it good!
So, I thought I'd share with you how to make it also. Even store bought tomatoes would work if you had to in pinch.
First up, my 5 lbs of Sungolds, Sweet 100's and Early Girls.

 

 Then I had to weigh them. My pail weighed just over a pound, so that's why the scale says 6 1/4 lbs.

Then measure out 8 TBS lime juice

Measure out 2 tsp freshly grated ginger

In a large pot, put in 3 1/2 cups white granulated sugar, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground cloves,       1 TBS salt and 1 TBS chili flakes ( I wimped out and only used 1/2 TBS and love the subtle heat it gives)

Add in your lime juice, ginger and tomatoes and stir it all up over medium heat.

Stirring often, simmer (not boil) 1 1/2 hours - 2 hours till all the tomatoes are broken down and it is a sticky yummy mixture.

These above still need at least an hour to cook to thicken and cook down.
You want to leave the skins on and seeds in to give it great texture when it's finished.
When it's the thickness you want, (mine is a little runnier than syrup), ladle into sterilized canning jars, add a seal and screw top and process in a boiling water canner for 20 mins.
Here is what the delicious goodness looks like all canned up.

I had some of it nice and warm on some toast and it was delish! It is sweet and spicy and savory.
It smelled like Fall in my house for a few hours while it was cooking because of the cloves and ginger.
Enjoy!
-D

Close To My Heart Washi Wonder

Out of the new Autumn/Winter 2013 catalog is a new stamp set called Washi Wonder. I am loving it!
It is to make faux washi tape on your projects and while I do love the real stuff, this makes it fast, easy, ANY color ink you already have and much more inexpensive than the real tape.
Here is a card using Lagoon cardstock, embossed in clear embossing powder over black pigment ink.

 And here is a layout I made mimicking the layout Close To My Heart has as a sample on their Facebook page.

And last, a gift card holder I made using a retired paper pack. The bow is from the Artiste cricut cartridge from Close To My Heart.
It is hinged on the left side using a brad as the hinge so it can open and close easily.

Enjoy your day,
-D

Close To My Heart art

My Aunt had surgery this month and I wanted to send her a card to cheer her up.

This was made using a retired stamp set, but I love the 3-D effect. I stamped the image and then stamped it again and cut out some of the flowers and water colored them, then used dimensional tape and popped them on top of the coordinating flowers.

Enjoy your day,
-D

More garden

Just wanted to share an update on my garden. It is still out of control. But, we deal with it the best we can.
Here are some of the sunflowers that have finally opened up. The fence is about 6 feet tall and these guys are still growing!

Here is my sweet cat Gracie. She's an indoor girl, so this is where she sits to be close to us outside.

And here are some pumpkin photos. Growing about a foot everyday it seems.

I can't wait for fall for these to be picked. So fun!
And here is an overall shot of the garden. Still bigger than a few weeks ago.
It just doesn't stop! lol

Enjoy your day,
-D

Close To My Heart Card Holder

I made this card holder tonight with some paper I absolutely love. The teal color is Lagoon and the chevron paper is from the For Always paper set.
This is what we will be making for our project this month.
My workshop is on Monday July 22 from 6:30pm-8:30pm. Cost is $10.00  If you live in the Pacific Northwest and would like to join us, please leave a comment with your email address and I will contact you soon.

 Another option if you cannot make it to the workshop, but still want to make this project, you can purchase the project and everything will be cut and instructions printed for assembly. Shipping will be added if you would like it mailed. Thanks for stopping by!

Enjoy your day,
-D

Garden explosion!

Oh man, has my garden gone crazy! We've gotten a lot of rain these past few days, well, I guess more like the past week. Today is day one of very warm days to come. 86 degrees. Pretty warm for me. Next week is supposed to be in the 90's. Yikes.
Well, one thing will be for sure. My tomatoes will be super happy.
Do you remember what my garden looked like a few weeks ago? Well check this out after a week of rain.

 Fennel is in the middle there, all bushy and happy. It is not bulb fennel as I thought, but just to be used as an herb. The red onions are on the four corners.

 These are all tomato plants. The large leaved plant in the back is a sunflower that will grow to be about 6-8 feet tall.

 These large leaf guys are beets. They were poking up through the ground so I decided to pull them. Not bad size if I do say so myself.

I was able to pull up three beets

These are a few of the sugar snap peas that are now full of flowers.

Enjoy your day,
-D