It's a Gypsy New Year Project

The Gypsy Spot is back from the holiday break!! The challenge this week at the Gypsy Spot was to create a round card and include welded numbers 2010. I tweaked the requirements a bit and created an oval card where the zero (0) is the card shape.

I used Gypsy Font for my basic card. I welded 2010 at two inches, but increased the size of the first zero to four inches, making the cut in black cardstock. I then used the blackout shadow of the zero to create the welded card base, cut in white cardstock. Next I welded the blackout shadow of 2010 and cut it in gold metallic paper.

I found the word Happy on the Christmas solutions cartridge and added the word to the front of the card, in black and gold. And finally, I took the party horn from the Celebrations cartridge and again using metallic papers, I used pop dots and attached the horn to the front of the card.

I hope that you all had a happy new year... and that 2010 is a wonderful year for each of us.

A whole new Bitten By The Bug 2!!!!

Well, the week has reached it's end, and I have to go back to reality tomorrow. My first day back to work since before Christmas Eve. I have surely enjoyed my time off! :) There's some exciting news for Bitten By The Bug! Regina, the OH SO TALENTED ladybug that founded Biten By The Bug two and a half years ago, has decided to move on and concentrate on her fabulous business, The Cutting Cafe'. If you haven't checked out Regina's digital stamps, then please do yourself a favor and go have a look around. We were all afraid that Bitten By The Bug was going to dissolve, but the fabulous Heather Binnie stepped up and took over the group, and thus - the birth of Bitten By The Bug 2!!!! Thank you sooo much, Heather! This week, our challenge is from Heather herself, and it's to use the "in style" phrase from the Graphically Speaking cartridge.

This is yet another digital stamp I've had forever from Mo's Digital Stamp Too. And this was the perfect challenge to use her. She's colored with Copic markers. DP is by 3 Bugs in a Rug and cardstock is Bazzill. This is one HEAVY card. I used tons of paper in it. If you click on the pics to take a close look, you'll see tons of layering on this one. And of course the layering is continued on the inside too. I added some machine stitching, and some beautiful silk ribbon, along with a cute purse charm (sorry - can't remember where I got the purse charm. Wish I could cause I need more of them!!).

This card will be for sale in my etsy shop if you happen to be interested. The link is on my side bar. Please be sure and visit Bitten By The Bug 2 to take a peek at the rest of the designers fabulous creations, and please don't forget to congratulate Heather and thank her for keeping this fabulous group together. I would also like to thank Regina SO MUCH for all the years she put into Bitten By The Bug. She's done such a fabulous job, and it truly breaks my heart to see her go. But I know we're going to see some amazing things from her in the near future. Thank you my dear friend. I love you and appreciate you more than you will every know! HUGS!

Happy New Year - And New Design Team (Sort-of)

Happy New Year!! I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season and are ready to get back to some serious crafting!!!

I enjoyed my time off, but found that I felt guilty about not scrapping. Santa brought me some new scrapping toys and I so enjoyed getting my room reorganized and ready for the new year. I will share more on the new additions later. Now I will tell you about the design team.

Bitten by the Bug has experienced some changes during the holidays. Regina decided she need to refocus her energy on her business and family but the team wanted to go on. So the wonderful Heather stepped up and is taking charge of the design team. We will now be Bitten by the Bug 2. Click the name and you will find most of the usual designer and their amazing projects at the new BBTB2 blog.

The featured cut this week is from the Graphically Speaking cartridge, In Style. The timing was perfect as I spent part of the weekend teaching my daughter how to sew. She chose a project that was a bit advanced so at times I feared my wonderful Bernina would end up being tossed out into the cold... but Bethany made it though with minimal misadventure. I suspect she will not be sewing again too soon though!!

Sweet Potato Biscuits

Tender pull-apart biscuits that are gluten-free and vegan.

Detox schmeetox. Am I the only one eschewing the perennial pressure trend to buckle down and face the new year (new decade!) with a tidy, self actualized list of "healthy" resolutions sprinkled with key buzz words like fat-free and detox and no sugar and low calorie? Really? Am I the only gluten-free goddess out there craving the homespun comfort of warm tender biscuits instead of a drink-it-fast-because-it-tastes-like-shag-carpet-shampoo-but-it's-good-for-you spinach-kale smoothie?

It's January, people. It's still winter. Some folks are shoveling snow. Enough already with the bunny food. Dump the word cleanse from your vocabulary. Have a biscuit.

Continue reading

Gingerbread Hostess Cupcakes

Do you know what search term brings people to Bake at 350 more than any other? "Hostess Cupcakes" or "Homemade Hostess Cupcakes."

I made them last year for Valentine's Day. They were so good that the 3 people in our family ate all 20 of them. :)



For Christmas, I decided to make Gingerbread Hostess Cupcakes. Made even easier by using a boxed gingerbread mix.


It worked with one minor hiccup...more about that later.


Make gingerbread in muffin cups instead of in a pan. Just shorten the cooking time and let them cool before filling. Fill them and then dip the tops in melted white chocolate. Then, add the decorative icing on top (details & recipe below).

Here's the hiccup...the original recipe calls for ganache for the topping. I thought...easy, I'll just replace the chocolate with white chocolate. No, not that easy. The white chocolate was yellow and translucent! Yikes! Skip this step. :)


For the Filling
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 cup marshmallow creme

For the filling: Using a mixer, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Beat in 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar. Add the vanilla and 1 tablespoon heavy cream; beat until smooth. Beat in the remaining 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar and 2 tablespoons heavy cream in batches, alternating after each addition. Beat in the marshmallow creme.

Spoon the filling into a pastry bag with a medium tip; I used a star tip. Insert the tip into the center of each cupcake top; fill until the cupcake is heavier (do not overfill).

For the topping
1 box Baker's white chocolate, chopped
1 TBSP Crisco

On medium power, melt the chocolate and Crisco in the microwave, stirring after every 30 seconds until smooth.

Dip the tops of the cupcakes in the chocolate. Place in the refrigerator to set up for a few minutes.

For the Icing

1 stick unsalted butter
2 tablespoons milk
2 cups powdered sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla bean paste
1/4 tsp cinnamon
chocolate brown food coloring

Using a mixer, beat the 1 stick butter, 1/4 teaspoon vanilla, the milk and confectioners’ sugar and cinnamon until smooth, adding more milk if needed. Add food coloring if needed. Spoon into a pastry bag with a #1 tip pipe onto the cupcakes to decorate.

Store in the refrigerator.

The original Homemade Hostess Cupcakes are definitely my favorite, but these are a fun alternative for winter and Christmastime.

Happy 2010, everyone!!!

{PS...I am linking this up for Tasty Tuesdays over at Balancing Beauty & Bedlam...something I've been meaning to do for ages now!}

I love you forever!

Happy Sunday everyone! I wanted to show you this quick card I made combining Peggy Loves Vintage, The Cutting Cafe', and my Cricut and Gypsy. I started out by making a scalloped heart shaped card with my Gypsy and the Gypsy Wanderings cart that I got from Hallmark Scrapbook. I then added this adorable Valentine ducky (from volume 1) from Peggy Loves Vintage Valentine CD, and fiished it off with a cute conversation heart from a file called All About Valentines from The Cutting Cafe'. Thanks for stopping by to take a peek, and don't forget to check back tonight for my Bitten By The Bug project! hugs!!

Happy New Year! A new Magnolia-licious challenge for the month of January!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!! I hope you had a wonderful time ringing in the New Year, and wish you all wonderful blessings for the year 2010! Can you believe it's 2010 already? WOW! Since it's January 1st, it's time for a new challenge from the Magnolia-licious Design Team, and this month, it's my turn to pick the challenge. I chose an awesome card designed by the amazingly talented Claudia Rosa that she created for Papertake Weekly. It's called a frame card and if you love dimension, you are gonna LOVE this card!!!! Click HERE for the tutorial on how to make it.

I used stamps from the new winter club kit. Watch Magnolia-licious as Diana will have them up for preorder as soon as she gets the info from Magnolia. And believe me, you are going to want these stamps!! When you visit Magnolia-licious, be sure and join the Magnolia-licious Yahoo group to get special discounts and goodies. Diana is offering a whopping 10% off the Magnolia stamps for the month of January with a special code you get by joining the Yahoo group!! How cool is that??!!

I used three stamps from the club kit for this one. I used the hanging Tilda, the ribbon she's hanging from, and the heart. I turned the hearts into conversation hearts by printing on them and love how they turned out! They're all colored with Copic markers and cut out. I made my frame pretty deep, a full 1/2". The conversation heart inside the frame on the front is double popped up behind the hanging Tilda. I loved the depth cause it made Tilda really hang in the frame. The DP is Basic Grey and cardstock is Bazzill. I used a Martha Stewart border punch and scored it and glued it with Scor Tape to the inside of the frame. I also used a Martha Stewart heart punch to hide the seams of the punched borders. The flat backed pearls are by Kaiser.

After I colored her, I took my blender and went up the front of her pants from the highlight in her socks. I'm no so sure I like the effect from that. What do you think??

I rearranged the directions a little so I could get that depth. I cut my piece of paper at 5 1/2" x 11 1/2", then scored it at 5 1/2" from each end. So you end up with a 1/2" spine for your card. If you do this, be sure and reinforce your spine with some cardstock so your card is nice and sturdy. You can see how I did mine by looking at the inside of the card.

Please be sure and join us over at Magnolia-licious Highlites to get all the details of the challenge and to join in with the fun! Thank you so much for popping by to see me today, and I hope to see you back again soon! I wish a safe, happy, and healthy New Year to you and yours. And I also wish to thank you for a truly wonderful year! I gain so much inspiration from all of you, and appreciate the fabulous friendships I have forged over the previous years. I am truly blessed. HUGS!!!