...and so it began!

You know the old saying, "you never forget your first!"  Well I think that applies to all things in life, including crafting.  I've always enjoyed trying new things when it comes to being creative - sewing, baking, cooking, photography, knitting, cross stitch, home decor projects, etc.  I like the challenge of creating something and having it turn out like I pictured it in my mind.  Having said that, the one thing I never tried was Scrapbooking!

I have an addictive personality when it comes to anything creative..I can't just go all in and give it a whirl, no I have to collect all the supplies first in order to feel fully prepared to take on the task ahead and as far as scrapbooking goes I knew that could be a fairly costly venture.  So for many years I stayed away from it.  I tried my hand at digital scrapbooking at one point in 2004 because when my first son was born I wanted to capture his first year and I figured digital scrapbooking wouldn't be expensive at all.  To be honest it wasn't really my cup of tea.  Mainly because the program I had at the time was a little restrictive and slow so my end product felt a little simplistic (when I look back now I love that album for it's simplicity but it wasn't something I appreciated then).

Anyhow I finally took the plunge again in 2008, because I signed up for a Card Making club with a Stampin' Up Demonstrator in town.  I thought card making would be a fun and simple way to try Scrapbooking without the expensive tags attached, boy was I wrong!  Card making was like a gateway drug for me..there were so many pretty papers, stamps,  and tools to collect. The techniques kept introducing me to more products I just had to try and have.  Then a friend offered me her Lot of supplies that she wanted to get rid of and that was it.  I had become addicted.  Since then I've continued to collect tools, stamps, supplies, papers (I have a true addiction for these..the styles, designs, colours..oh my!), my husband finally had to build a craft room for me to work in because I kept toting my stuff upstairs and turning our dining room into my own personal work station.  I've delved in even deeper now by financing my addiction through my personal home business with Stampin' Up..such an easy thing to do since I love their products and I've met so many great people through Stampin' Up Card Clubs and Technique clubs.

I thought I would share with you the first Scrapbook Layout I completed.  I was pretty proud of it.  It had started as a digital sketch but that just didn't give it enough life for me, so I decided to try creating it with actual paper, adhesives, chipboard, etc. and I am so happy I did.  It turned out great and like anything else I do creatively, it opened a doorway for me to express myself, challenge myself, and share my life with others.

Blogging and Baking

I can't believe I have just one more day of work (with my day job) and then the summer is mine to create, craft, and of course..bake!  I love baking but I have to be in the mood for it or creatively motivated.  In this case I am being creatively motivated to do a lot of baking for my Uncle's 60th birthday party on Saturday.  I love my uncle Doug and I'm happy to contribute however I can to making his party a success and in this case that means baking up a storm over the next couple of days! 

I've been spending the last few days getting my baker's "hat" on, figuratively speaking, and trying to figure out what's best to bake, what I should store it in, where will I store it, and again..what to bake?!  I am one of those people that, before I do anything, I have to be mentally and physically prepared to complete the project from start to finish.  On the upside this makes me a great multitasker, but on the down side..I am one hell of a procrastinator too!  I should have started my baking process on Sunday but here it is Wednesday and I'm just getting started..but that's okay, I work well under pressure!

Anyhow, I thought I would share with you one of the yummy ideas I'm planning on making.  I've only made these once and I'm still amazed by how well they turned out the first time.  I'm crossing my fingers they will turn out just as well, if not better, the second time around.

French Macarons!  I'll include the link for the recipe at the end of this post if anyone else wants to try them. 

 A few tips I will note, as I learned from my mistakes the first time around..1) make sure you have a good mixer or hand blender for when you are making the meringue.  My mixer does not do well with small amounts so I was pretty much just stirring around the egg whites instead of whipping them and it took me 10 minutes to whip them by hand. 2)  The recipe says to use paste food colouring and I highly recommend this..I used regular food colouring and while the cookies still looked okay and tasted just as good..as you can see by my photo - the colours came out more pastel than bright!

 I made sure I understood the directions well before I started and that I had the right baking tools on hand.  It paid off to be prepared, because in the end the recipe is actually very simple to make, as long as you are using the right equipment.  For example, I made sure I had a good sieve for sifting the icing sugar and ground almonds..it made it so the cookie batter was nice and smooth.

Also it is very important to let the cookies dry before baking and to make sure you adjust the heat as directed on the recipe so you don't burn your cookies and so they are able to rise properly and develop the 'claws' on the bottom of each cap.

I'll post pics soon of my second attempt, unfortunately I won't be able to let you taste test them..but I can do that for you :)  hehehe.  Just teasing..here's the link for the website where I got the recipe (Giver's Log).  I'm very happy to send more people to this blog..it's got some fabulours DIY ideas!!  http://www.giverslog.com/?p=1089

Have a great day!

Creatively Challenged!

It's a beautiful Friday morning here in High Level, Alberta..which isn't saying much because our weather is so typically Albertan that by this afternoon we could have thunder showers or even (dare I say it) snow!  You just never know.  Despite all that I love my hometown and I've always been proud to say that I hail from here. 

I've had a few other blogs and they just haven't seemed to stick so here's hoping better luck with this one.  The others weren't for me I think because they limited me, or rather I limited myself with themes, topics, and/or just used them to vent.  Not saying that I may not vent a time or two on here but for the most part I want this to be a positive virtual space where I can share all my many shades of creativity with you. 

To start I thought I would show you a project that creatively challenged me and was inspired by Susan Lui's 'Little Darlings' Mini Album on the G45 blog, you can see the post here.  http://g45papers.typepad.com/graphic45/2012/06/marvelously-magical-mini-albums-a-tutorial.html#entries

I loved the look of the mini album and wanted to figure out if I could do it myself.  I think that's where a large chunk of my personal creativity comes from..trying to figure out how things are done, put together, how different elements fit, and to be personally challenged to create something wonderful is truly a gift in itself.  I get so giddy when the end products actually look like I want them to or have worked out similar to the original inspiration.  I still doubt my skills a lot and I never seem to believe my stuff looks as good as the original but in the end, who cares.  I made it!

Anyhow here is the project I made, my very own 'A Ladies Diary' Mini Album.  My version is an 8x8 album made from the Graphic 45 'A Ladies' Diary' Paper Collection. I also made all the paper and ribbon flowers for the cover and I was very happy with the end result.  The album was made from scratch using Stampin' Up's Very Vanilla Cardstock, G45 papers, and various embellishments from Prima Marketing and Webster's Pages.  I love how it turned out in the end, now I just have to figure out what I'm going to add to the inside pages or who I'm going to gift it to..decisions decisions.

That's all for now, see you next time!

Tammy