PIN IT FRIDAY FAVS: Tea Party Time and the Very Best of Pinterest Pins

One of my favorite things to do is have a tea party! Here's a table set up from a tea party my neighbor and I hosted for a neighbor recovering from surgery: 

This weekend, I'm having a tea party for my mom, a coworker and her mom, so I wanted to make a tea party favor that would serve as a candy holder and place card, too. Based on a previous post on my blog, I made these teacup favors:

You can click HERE for the tutorial referenced on my blog.

Once you make one cup, it becomes easy peasy to make these lovely little cups! It's so fun to use up some of my treasured DSP paper and each teacup only requires a piece of paper that measures 8"x 5 1/2". I added a sampler of Hershey chocolates in each cup along with a tea bag from this box below which is now one of my favorite decaf teas:

Each tea sachet is individually wrapped in a clear cellophane bag and looks so pretty in each of my paper teacups! I recently bought these Chamomile Citrus tea bags at Safeway after a friend served it to me at her house...now...it's a regular evening treat!

Below I have highlighted some of my most favorite tea party pins:

Original Pin HERE

Original Pin HERE

Original Pin HERE

Original Pin HERE

Original Pin HERE

PIN IT FRIDAY FAVS: Paper Divas and the Very Best ofPinterest Pins

I'm so lucky to be in a group of talented paper crafters and we call ourselves the Paper Divas. I hosted our last meeting and here are some of the items we created and shared:

The inside of my card was the result of

this Pinterest pin:

Original Pin HERE

I made a Pilgrim version like this for each person 

and put it at their place setting for a good laugh!

I got the idea from this pin:

Original Pin HERE 

Katie taught us how to make these lovely

card boxes that held 4 cards with envelopes:

This is the SU embossing set for the outside flap:

The flap closes thanks to a little

circle of Velcro that Katie brought

on Amazon.com.

She even made a template for each of us!!

...and here were her 4 cards inside the box:

Using SU products, Katie made these two

cute Christmas cards, too:

Alice Brown let us make this stunning card:

This was a Starbucks gift card favor I had

at each person's work area:

These holders were so much fun to make thanks to

a pin that includes a fantastic how to video:

Original Pin HERE

...and here was the Taste of Home dish that we feasted upon.

I made the whole thing in my cast iron skillet, but a

a casserole dish works well, too:

Cornbread Taco Bake

TOTAL TIME: Prep: 20 min. Bake: 25 min.

MAKES: 6 servings

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 pounds ground beef
• 1 can (15-1/4 ounces) whole kernel corn, drained
• 1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup chopped green pepper
• 1 envelope taco seasoning
• 1 package (8-1/2 ounces) corn bread/muffin mix*
• 1 can (2.8 ounces) french-fried onions, divided
• 1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• (I added 2 cloves of finely chopped garlic once the ground beef was browned.)

• Directions

  1. In a large skillet, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Stir in the corn, tomato sauce, water, green pepper, garlic and taco seasoning. Spoon into a greased 2-qt. baking dish.
  2. Prepare corn bread mix according to package directions for corn bread. Stir in half of the onions. Spread over beef mixture. Bake, uncovered, at 400° for 20 minutes.
  3. Sprinkle with cheese and remaining onions. Bake 3-5 minutes longer or until cheese is melted and a toothpick inserted into corn bread layer comes out clean. 
• *Try experimenting by adding various items to the cornbread mix such as olives, green chilies, etc.

PIN IT FRIDAY FAVS: My Halloween Card and the Very Best of Pinterest Pins

I found this DSP with a metallic silver design and

when I sponged black ink around the edges,

it made the silver pop even more!

Inside Sentiment

Bat Punch = Martha Stewart

(Sentiments Done on My Computer)

...and here were the cards that gave me inspiration:

Original Pin HERE

Original Pin HERE

Check out this fall treat:

Original Pin HERE

I made them for a party, put them on a metallic tray and they were a big hit! So easy, too!

HAPPY HAUNTING!

PIN IT FRIDAY FAVS: The Very Best of Recent Pins on Pinterest

CALORIE-FREE CUPCAKES
Last week, Splitcoast Stampers featured a cupcake box project for their Wednesday Tutorial HERE by Caroline Hallett. She included this photo of her cupcake boxes in the tutorial: 

Original Pin HERE

Since I had just reorganized my stamping supplies recently and re-discovered my stash of paper flowers that were quite the trend many years ago, I knew they'd be PERFECT for this project! I went to Michael's and bought a package of six 3-inch (76mm) balls, and thankfully, I already had the perfect size of paper cups to cut down to make the cupcake wrapper/base. (Cups were cut down to about 2" to 2 1/4" high.) Here are some of the boxes I made:

 

I used pins to hold the yellow flowers in place...then I tried

something different on my next two cupcake boxes:

After attaching the flowers to the foam ball using hot glue,

I used 3D Shiny Bright Yellow Paint by Scribbles

for the centers in the above two cupcake boxes.

The tops come off and open to reveal a space that can be used to hold a small gift. The inside of the foam ball cut in half is covered with a circle of medium weight DSP. (Circles were cut with Classic Circles Nesties.) To adhere the DSP circles, I used a 1" glue dot to cover the cut surface on some and I also used a low temp hot glue gun on others. Both worked just fine:

Check out the gallery on SCS dedicated to these cupcake boxes HERE...and for cupcake cards to give with this cupcake gift box, check out these Pinterest ideas HERE and my Pinterest cupcake board HERE. Plus....for the ultimate theme in gift giving, you'll want to make up a set of black-bottom cupcakes to go with your box and card! Check out these recipes HERE and my family's favorite recipe for them below and HERE! I also like to add 1 t. of orange zest into the cream cheese mixture because we're big orange chocolate fans and it also looks nice with the orange flecks! No frosting needed for these decadent treats full of deliciousness! I've provided the recipe with the orange zest modification below:

Ultimate Cream Cheese Black Bottom Cupcakes

Yield: 18-20 cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Filling:
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips
• orange zest, 1 t. (optional)

Instructions

1. Make your filling first. In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese, egg, sugar and salt until smooth. Stir in chocolate chips and orange zest. Set aside. 
2. Combine flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and cocoa in a large mixing bowl. Add in remaining ingredients and mix until smooth. Line a cupcake/muffin tin with liners and fill cups 1/2 full. Add one heaping tablespoon of filling into center of each cupcake.
3. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven 25-30 minutes. Do not over bake. Let cool in pan for 20 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely. 

My boss's wife made these for me when I first started in the office on July 3rd, 1979! They are heavenly and one of my most requested recipes!

http://hugsandcookiesxoxo.com/2014/01/ultimate-cream-cheese-black-bottom.html

PIN IT FRIDAY FAVS: Punch Board Mini Treats Plus Other Autumn Delights

Click HERE for the Original Pin

I did my happy dance after finding this wonderful envelope punch board project on the Chicken Scratch blog via Pinterest! [This is going to be a project for my Card Chicks to make tonight. I'll be sure to post the pics from all of our projects by Monday.]

To get a BEAUTIFUL set of written instructions, click HERE (or see my detailed instructions at the end of this post), and you can watch the accompanying video HERE. Depending on your paper and embellishments, you can modify this treat idea for any occasion...and here are a few of my other favorite Autumn recent pins:

This card uses one of my favorite stamp sets of all time from SU called Pocket Silhouettes. Such a nice design and a terrific fall card using another one of my favorites --- the SU Beautiful Wings embosslit! Click HERE for Original Pin.

The card below just might get me to pull out some of my rarely used background stamps! I'm thinking that if I could find some real Autumn leaves of the right size and color, I could adhere them to the front for this card design:

Click HERE for Original Pin

Nothing says Autumn like the color combo of crumb cake, black, yellow and orange:

Click HERE for Original Pin

What could be easier than this for an Autumn quick home decor project below:

Click HERE for Original Pin

Here's my version of this idea:

I used washi tape around the metal candle
holder on the tea lights.

OK...now are you ready to continuously repeat "YES!" at the top of your lungs - just like the lady did in the movie When Harry Met Sally? Well...these White Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Snickerdoodles might cause you to do just that!

Click HERE for the Original Pin and Recipe

...and while we're in Food Heaven...this slow cooker Pumpkin Harvest Snack Mix also caught my eye and is another must-try Pinterest pick:

Click HERE for Original Pin and Recipe

I can't wait to try these sweet Autumn treats as well as the snacks that Mel and Christie are bringing to our meeting tonight! Here is the picture to help when making the Punch Board Mini Treats:

Halloween Punch Board Treat Instructions:

1.     Start with a 5”x5” square of medium weight DSP

2.     Punch and score at 2”

3.     Rotate 90 degrees then

4.     Punch and score at 3”

5.     Rotate 90 degrees

6.     Punch and score at 2”

7.     Rotate 90 degrees

8.     Punch BUT DO NOT SCORE at 3”

9.     Round all four corners using the speech bubble punch on the board

10.     On the flap where there is no score line, sponge with ink to give the appearance of double-sided paper (optional)

11.     Use a bone folder on all four score lines

12.     Stamp the image in the center of the top flap

13.     Check to see where to place the piece of candy – marking the spot with a pencil at the bottom of the candy if you desire

14.     Fold up the opposite point from the sponging and add sticky tape on the:

a.            LEFT SIDE ONLY on the printed design side of the bottom flap

b.           INSIDE of the right flap

15.     Add a glue dot or small piece of sticky tape on the center of the paper underneath the flaps

16.     Adhere the piece of candy in the center

17.     Remove the sticky tape coverings and fold over the left and right flaps

18.     With ribbon, tie a bow or knot around the treat

Add the saying below the ribbon