Your Invited

My oldest, Madelyn turned 10 this month. She had asked to have a sleep over with a few friends. This is the invite we came up with. I used Gina K's lava lamp stamp which is something that Madelyn is really into now. So she was very excited - along with her friends. This is really a very simple card of layers of paper. The only really time consuming part was the detail on the lava lamp.

In the close up you will be able to see a little on the detail - I took Eucalyptus stickles and filled in the 'lava' and then after coloring the 'liquid' with a Prismacolor True Blue maker and the stickles dried I covered the 'lamp' with 3-d Crystal Lacquer to give it a glass look.

Images: GinaK - Heartily Yours (lava lamp); TAC - You're invited (inside the card) Cardstock/Paper: Colorbok Pearlescent - blue; TAC - Brighten My Day printed paper, white and lime CS Ink: SUInk - black, Tria Pantone Markers: 368T, cool gray 1 and Prismacolor markers: True blue Accessories: eucalyptus stickles, 3d crystal lacquer, ribbon (walmart), Tombo Mono Aqua Glue Techinques: layering, detail coloring, faux glass

Below are some photos from Madelyn's birthday party!

Freebie Alert
I wanted to share with you a few freebies that I have come across while I restart my couponing adventure: if you go to http://www.coupons.com/ and print the Reach Floss coupon (you can print twice per computer) and take that coupon to you walmart - they have A Reach Floss there for $.97 so you will get your floss for free!!


Also, there are some $1 off coupons floating around out there for Quaker Oatmeal. Giant Eagle is having a sale this week where they are 4 for $4 so you guessed it - if you have 4 coupons (I have 7: so I am only buying 1 because they add says you have to buy 4 to get that price) you will get them all for free!!

Sewing is another hobby of mine. Back when I was in high school I made two of my prom dresses. One was a hunter green velvet fitted dress. It was lined with rhinestones and had a slit up the left leg. The other dress was royal blue, spaghetti straps, empire waist. It had little white roses hand sewn into the trim.

For Christmas I made all 4 girls jammy pants. I also made the older two peace sign t-shirt. Then I made hubby his own pj set. The twins pants are so big (It is better that they grow into them as they have a ton of pjs already) that I do not have pics of theirs yet. I wanted to share a few pics with you...they are not the best as they were taken in the hustle and bustle of Christmas morning.

Here is another picture that I wanted to share - Matt and the girls made me a poster and then the photos were taken so that when I opened my new camera - Its a Nikon Coolpixs L110 - One that Ashton Kutcher advertises on TV (Whoo Hoo - LOL) - It was a very sweet thing for Matt to do for me!

Cheesecakes

As many people know, I make and sell cheesecakes - moreso around the holidays - but I make them year round. I have decided to share with you how I do them. These cheesecakes are not hard to make; rather they are time consuming but come out beautiful and taste yummy.

I start every cheesecake with a basic recipe of the following: 4 8oz bricks of cream cheese, 4 eggs, 1 cup sour cream, 1 tablespoon of vanilla, 3 tablespoons of four, 1 cup of sugar.

First I bring the cream cheese to room temperture, then I put them in a mixing bowl and beat them with an electric mixer until smooth. I then add the eggs and beat again. Then I add the sugar, sour cream and flour and mix well. Finally I add the vanilla (or any other extract that I would be using for flavor).

The cheescake I recently made that I am going to share with you is a Strawberry cheesecake. After I made my basic batter I took 1/3 of the batter and added 1.5 cups of strawberry glaze and 1.5 cups of fresh, chopped strawberries. I poured this into a prepared cheescake pan (with a graham cracker crust). Next I added a layer of strawberry glaze - about 1.5 cups. In retrospect I should have used less because I do not want my layers to separate like they do - I would say 3/4 to 1 cup of glaze. Lastly, I tooke the remaining 2/3 of the batter and poured it slowly over into the pan spreading the batter evenly. I then piped 1/4 cup of strawberry glaze onto the top and swirled with a tooth pick. I baked the cheesecake in a waterbath for 55 minutes at 350 degrees.Once the 55 minutes is up - I shut off the oven and open the door - allowing the cheesecake to cool in the oven. I then refridgerate the cheesecake over night. This will allow for the cheesecake to release from the pan easily. Once removed I then piped strawberry mousse around the edges of the cheesecake and added fresh sliced strawberries with the strawberry glaze to the center. The next time I make this cheesecake I will freeze it before I garnish and cut - I think this will prevent my layers from separting and falling apart - I have noticed that this happens when I put a fruit glaze layer in my cheesecakes as this has not happened with my other ones.

I learn from my mistakes and either way this cheesecake was very yummy!! Please enjoy making your own!!

If you are still coming here - Thank you! I have revamped the blog - to Leona's Many Projects. I wanted a place where I could talking about my many things I do rather than just stamping. If you know me - you know I am a woman of MANY talents and I also want to share those stories with you. Changing the name of the blog will allow me to keep you up to date with me and keep up with my crazyness!! I hope to share my recipes, cooking/baking, sewing/quilting along with all of my paper crafting and anything else I do. Including photography. Matt bought me a new camera for Christmas and it is one of my goals to take better photos and learn to use my Adobe photo editing software.

More posts coming soon - I promise!!