A Weekend on the Lake

Over the summer we took a weekend trip to see my mom's sister and her husband up at their house. They live on a lake in Northern Wisconsin. We had a great time with all of our cousins. This is the first of two layouts for our weekend. We really enjoyed jet skiing, swimming, boating, and of course, eating. My aunt is an awesome cook, and fed us well all weekend. We managed to cause a lot of damage on our trip. We broke the water pumps on both the boat and the jet ski. Talk about bad luck.

We really enjoyed swimming in the lake with the kids. They never swam past the end of the dock. This time we swam out "deep", which is classified as over my sisters head, but she is like 6 inches taller than me.  Even the dog enjoyed swimming with us. We tried to play with Shamu the whale, but he tips really easy with small kids on him.

This layout is inspired on the sketch support sketch:

Taco Soup

A new soup recipe! I am awaiting a nice snow storm that is supposed to be coming in this week. My trip back to school is really up in the air. I wanted to share one of my new soup recipes that has become popular. I have made this both on the stove and in the crock pot.

Ingredients:
1lb ground beef
1 small onion, diced
1 package dry ranch dressing mix
1 package taco seasoning
1 can chili beans
1 can fire roasted tomatoes
1 can corn (drained)
1 can tomato soup  (not condensed) (I use healthy choice tomato basil)
Toppings: Cheedar Cheese, Sour Cream

Directions:
1: Dice onion
2: Brown ground beef and onion together
3: Transfer to pot or crock pot dish
4: Mix all ingredients together
5: Simmer on the stove for an hour or in the crock pot on low for 6 hours. Top with cheedar cheese and sour cream.
Enjoy!

A Beautiful Butterfly

During my last weekend of summer vacation, we took one last trip up to Door County. I caught this beautiful butterfly on the flowers near our favorite beach in Egg Harbor. This was a really hard shot to get. It was super windy, and the flower was blowing around. I was so excited with how awesome this picture turned out! This is the final page on my Junior Year Album. I do all my albums chronologically by school year. I am not done with this book, but I really wanted to work with this picture.

It took three layouts to create the perfect layout to showcase this picture. I have never thrown out layouts in the past, but I just couldn't create anything I was in love with. I wanted to keep it simple, and focus on the picture. I was lucky that I had two awesome challenges to inspire me.

The first challenge was from Frosted Design. This weeks challenge was to only use card stock. There was no patterned paper allowed. I realized that the patterned paper was overwhelming my picture, and that card stock was the perfect route for me to take.

The second challenge was from Sketchy Thursday. They had a one picture, one page sketch, along with the challenge to use blue and silver. This was just perfect. I had the blue and purple mat to the picture, but I needed a little something more. I honestly would have been content putting nothing on the page but the picture, except that would have been a little boring. So I cut some flowers from my cricut, and used them as a mask. I shimmer misted over the flower to create a fun silver background on the left hand side of the page. I traced the flower outlines with  purple stickles. This page came together so well, and I love the outcome.

Sketchy Thursday's Sketch:

 My final layout:

Supplies: Paper: The Paper Company, Die Cuts with a View, Coordinations
Shimmer Mist: Tsukineko
Stickles, Liquid Pearls
American Crafts: Buttons
Dootle Bug: Twine
Gelly Roll: Pen
ATG, Glue Dots

My famous Potato Soup

This is my newest and favorite recipe. My roommate loves it so much, she has renamed it "crack soup". We make it so much, especially when we can't figure anything else out. It is really easy to make. I actually cook an entire package of bacon at a time, dice it up, and freeze the pieces. That way I always have bacon cooked when I make this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 6 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
• (3-14.5 oz cans)
• 6 cups potatoes, peeled and cubed
• (small cubes)
• 1/2 teaspoon seasoning salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese (low fat)
• 4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled 

Directions:
1: Empty chicken broth into soup pot, begin to heat
2: Wash potatoes
3: Peel potatoes
4: Cube potatoes, about 1/4in cues
5: When chicken broth is boiling, add potatoes, seasoning salt, pepper, and red pepper
6: Let boil for 30 minutes, or until potatoes are tender
7: Smash some of the potatoes with a potato masher, to release the starches for thickening
8: Add the cream cheese (I cut mine into chunks) and bacon
9: Stir frequenty until cream cheese is melted, let simmer as desired. (make sure to stir the bottom of the pan well)
10: Serve and top with cheedar cheese.

I do let mine simmer for up to a half hour. I think it tastes best when you let it simmer and thicken.

This is my amazing potato soup recipe. For any of my Club CK friends in the recipe swap, you are a getting a gorgeous recipe card with this recipe.

Sketchy Thursdays 12-29 Challenge

I am in love with this set of pictures. I did a layout for my sister's book with these pictures, and I knew this sketch was perfect for my book. These pictures were taken up in Fish Creek, WI (Door County) on our last weekend of summer vacation. We always find our way out to this little pier for pictures. We love the blue waters and the pretty backgrouds. We have years worth of pictures from this same spot.

Here is the Sketchy Thursday Sketch:

My take on the sketch:

Supply List:
Paper: Coordinations, Echo Park, The Paper Company
Buttons: American Crafts
Twine: Doodlebug
Ribbon: The Paper Studio
Brad: Recollections
Flowers: Imaginisce
Other: Stickles, Scotch ATG, Glue Dots

Sketch Along Tuesday Sketch

I am really excited to post my first challenge entry to Sketch Along Tuesday. This sketch was designed by my friend Ashley, who I know from Club CK. I was so excited that this Sketch worked with these pictures. This layout is for my own book. We took a few pictures at home prior to going to my sister's high school graduation this past spring.

The Sketch:

My Layout:

A Scrappy Start to the New Year

I had a productive first day to the new year. I worked on two different layouts for challenges from Frosted Design. My first page was the Fabulous Friday Challenge. This weeks challenge was to do or use something new. Twine is a newer product to the scrapbooking world. I used twine to make a border. I got my inspiration from my friend Ashley Horton on her layout "A Little Crabby". I love how the border looked, so I replicated this with Doodlebug Twine!

My other new thing was Shimmer Mist. I have used the Smooch Glimmer Mist in the past. The shimmer mist is different to me, in that it is more discreet than the glimmer mist which has a more vibrant rich color. It is less noticeably, but gives the paper a nice shimmery look.  This was my second attempt, and it went much better. I misted at the end, so I covered the pictures with scrap paper so they didn't get covered. I wanted to give the patterned paper a little more jazz so I added some stickles on the polka dots and the stripes. I really like how this layout turned out. It was from a trip to an indoor waterpark resort this past spring break.

Take note of the subtle shimmery gold look on the blue paper. I like that it isn't splotchy like the bigger glimmer mists :

Also, I altered and added to the patterned paper, this was not dimensional when I bought it: