Tea Cup Memories - a HUGE collab with The Urban Fairy and Sweet Nothings

Hey all.  I am so excited to share a couple of new layouts with you that I put together for the Tea Cup Memories Collab that the Urban Fairy just finished with Donna at Sweet Nothings.  This picture is my absolute favorite.  This is my sister hanging out in Paris near the "Tour Eiffel".

The next is a picture my sister took of a couple of my grandmother's teacups.  I am sure this is from one of my sister's tea parties.

And the third is using a newly released template from the Urban Fairy called BolderVol1.  This picture was taken by my sister of her friend Jess at some gardens outside of Versailles.

" Imagine a quaint social gathering…hot tea and delicious light refreshments are served…cupcakes….fragrant flowers surrounding the fanciful place settings,…soft lace doilies and satin ribbons…dainty tea cups..polished silver.. and the best of friends to make memories with…"

This collab is huge.  There are tons of coordinating products: edges, stacked papers, journal papers, shabby stock, linen stock, stamps, word art,an alpha, clusters, frames...the list goes on!!  It is amazing. Take a look at some of the products:

 

 

 

You can find all the products here at The Urban Fairy's Store at the Digital Scrapbooking Studio.  You can read more about the collab here on The Urban Fairy's Blog (where there is even a FREEBIE quick page)  and on The Urban Fairy's Facebook page you can find this adorable FREEBIE cluster.

Oh and the BolderVol1 templates were also released today.  I made this cute LO of Jack wearing Daddy's sunglasses. This LO also uses papers by JenC Designs (So Happy Glitters), Manda Lane Scraps (Lucky) and Gennifer Bursett (In Good Company Collab) and WordArt by The Urban Fairy JournalWordBits.

Here is the preview of the templates. I am not usually a fan of templates but these are pretty, well, BOLD!  I love adding shadows to the layers to really give them a nice feeling of depth.  These are fun!!!  You can find them HERE at the store.  

That's all for now!  Enjoy!

Coming Soon and digital scrapbooking FREEBIE

Just a quick post to share the new freebie cluster from the Urban Fairy. She is collaborating on a big kit called Tea Cup Memories with Donna of Sweet Nothings.  This is an awesome vintage kit and I can't wait to share my layouts with you on friday. Until then, you can get a feel for this cool kit with a FREEBIE found here.  Enjoy!

Stuff to do with gobs of basil

Well it's getting to be that time of year. Do you get a CSA basket of fresh veggies each week? Do you often have more than you can use before it goes bad?  I was recently gifted a gob of basil and I needed to find some ideas of things to do with it before it tanked.  Oh, and I am not really a pesto person.  Here's what I did!

Sautee zuchinni with basil and garlic and olive oil
Make a Basil Simple Syrup
Make basil extract
Make a basil-infused olive Oil.

The first is pretty self-explanatory. It was tasty, especially cold. It would be a great side salad for a summer picnic.

Basil simple syrup is pretty easy. Chop up a half cup basil.  Add 1/2 cup sugar and 1 cup water to a small pan and add basil.  Bring to a simmer over medium heat just until the sugar dissolves and then take off heat. Let cool and strain into an airtight container. Store in the fridge. There are some great suggestions on what to do with basil simple syrup here at Oh My Veggies.  I am having it in Strawberry lemonade as I type!

Basil Extract is also pretty easy. I chopped up a cup of basil and added it to a glass jar that has a tight fitting lid (I used an old salsa jar).  Add 3/4 cup vodka (you can also use grain alcohol).  Cover jar with plastic wrap and screw on the cap.  Shake to mix and store in a cool dark place for 4-6 weeks, shaking every couple of days.  After this time period, strain out the herb and you will have basil extract.  More information can be found here at Mountain Rose herbs.

Basil-infused Olive oil is pretty straightforward. I hope to use this to make a basil salt scrub next week.  Add 1/2 cup ripped or chopped basil to about 1 cup olive oil in a small pan.  Warm the oil over medium heat but don't let it boil.  Transfer to a glass jar and cover. Store in a cool dark place for a week and then strain out the herbs if desired.  You can also find a similar recipe using garlic in addition to the basil here at Boston Food and Whine.

A Little Beauty - on the day after the Boston tragedy

You may or may not know this, but Boston is my home.  I lived there from age 10 up until last year when my husband and I moved our family to southern california for his job.  I am a devoted Pats fan and member of Red Sox nation. I have friends that run the Boston Marathon (and drink like fishes afterward) and we have partied on the sidelines of the marathon for many years, cheering on the runners while we sip tasty beverages.   Seeing the events of yesterday unfold from so far away is heartbreaking and I wish I could be closer to help the city grieve and regroup.  My thoughts go out to the wounded, the families of those who lost their lives and to those who witnessed such tragedy.  Boston, you're my home....

Now to hopefully make me feel better, The Urban Fairy released her A Little Beauty kit today.  What a sweet little kit!!


Here is the kit. Only $1.75 now at the Digital Scrapbooking Studio

Creative Team Layouts

Here are my layouts in larger form.

The first is a photo courtesy of my friend Tami and is of her adorable daughter a few years back in fairy wings. Precious!!!

The second is picture of a dragonfly I took last year.

Playing with Templates

Since I started digital scrapbooking, I have been hesitant to use templates. I feel like it's almost like cheating in that the template has taken all the creativity out of placement of certain features like the picture (s) and other elements.  But recently I have had a couple of fun opportunities to play with some templates and they can actually be quite fun.  Check out this template that The Urban Fairy created for the Digital Scrapbooking Studio's 4 year anniversary challenge:

I still needed to scrap up some ofthe picts of the kids from when we went to pick strawberries the other day so here is what I came up with:

I am not one for much journaling but it was fun to capture the memories of the kids. Other elements used in this layout are from The Urban Fairy's Little Bunny Love.

Another opportunity I came acros to use a template is for the Digital Scrapbooking Studio's Layout Artist Challenge Week 2.
Here is what the template started out as:

And here is my layout, in remembrance of my huband's great uncle Ron Schwenke, who passed away recently. Elements by Templation Lil Dude by Scrappy Cocoa, The Urban Fairy (A Little Moment, Flutter Fields, Butterfly Kisses) and ADB Designs (Enchantment).

Refilling GoGo Squeez Applesauce packets

Anyyone with toddlers knows about squeezies.  Basically they are the newfangled way of feeding toddlers soupy stuff like yogurt and applesauce with less mess than feeding from a bowl.  They are usually foil packets with some sort of spout or valve and they are, of course, disposable. Great for on-the-go but a lot of waste.  Well how about refilling them?  I have seen some refillable squeeze pouches on the internet that are designed for this purpose, like Sili, Squooshi, Yummi, and Beaba Babypote.

Sili

Squooshi

Yummi

Babypote

These are all very cute and I have not tried them because I thought, why can't I just refill the squeezie packets? They are foil and plastic so they clean up easily ( I just rinse with water and then pop in the dishwasher on the top rack with the spout over a tine of the dishwasher rack. I opened one up to check and it came out very clean) and the caps in the silverware holder.  I bought a cheapo condiment dispenser at the grocery store and filled it up with applesauce.  Then just squeeze to refill, cap and refrigerate.

refilling go go squeez

chewed spout

So that brings up a couple of the drawbacks of this method. 1. once the applesauce or yogurt is opened it probably should be refrigerated, so not ideal for on-the-go situations. 2. my kids sometimes chew on the spouts so the caps don't fit tightly. Again, not great for on-the-go but I think this method is great for refilling them to keep at home.  I am sure this is much cheaper than buying new ones over and over again or even using the refillable ones, but I haven't done the cost breakdown.

Note: I did try to use a pastry bag to do the refilling but apple sauce is so runny that it made a huge mess.  not worth it.

Little Bunny Love and more Easter pictures

Hey all. Today The Urban Fairy released Little Bunny Love, a very sweet little kit.  You can find it HERE for only $4.98 for a limited time. There are also come coordinating pieces that you can also find at The Digital Scrapbooking Studio.

 And here are the Layouts done by the creative team, including three of mine

Greyson sniffing some dandelions:

Greyson at the Eater Egg Hunt

A cute little girl at the easter egg hunt