Soaping

I have found a new hobby.  It's
Cold processing soap.  It is so much fun.
These are the 6 different soaps that I have come up with.

Back row left to right Champagne Cherry, Chocolate Coffee Late, Cucumber Avocado, Beer.  Front row is Orange, and Carrot  Tomato.

Car's Birthday Cake

I was watching a YouTube video on the the car cake and my grandson Dante walked in and saw it and asked me to make it for him.  How can you refuse a 5 year old.  Well like most things I waited until the last moment.  It took 9 hours to make it.  Do it at least one week ahead.  And by chance you have a car's cricut cartridge and a cricut cake machine use it.  It would save a lot of time.
But all that counted that day was the smile on his face.

Latest Endevor

My daughter asked me to make a cake for her friend's anniversary.

I have found with every cake I do (and I have not done many) it gets a little easier.

I just need my time go faster.  No wonder why cakes cost so much.  They are Labor intensive.

 

 

Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread

 

 

I have been in a bread making mode lately.  This week it has

been working on sourdough starter and the final product sourdough bread. 

 

 I have enough sourdough starter to last a life time.  Starting tomorrow I am

 

 going to start dehydrating  it.. I used freshly ground hard white wheat for bread . 

 

 The starter is made of rye and hard white wheat.

 

Freshly grounded hard white wheat bread

 

Today while dehydrating some vegetables I decided to make some bread .  I took a favorite recipes and a different way of doing it.  It was a recipe where you didn't have to let it rise.  Well I changed it up a little bit to suit me. 
You can go to http://blogs.babble.com/family-kitchen/files/2011/02/Babble-Post-Baguette3jpg
for the original recipe which is great.
Here is what I did different.

2 cups warm water
2 1/2 tsp yeast
2 tbs aguava
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tbs bread enhancer
3 cups white wheat berries (grind the berries)

Mix water, yeast and aguava together to proof (about 10 minutes)
Then add the salt and enhancer in yeast mixture. Once that is done add about 1/2 the flour to the mixture.  It should be very sticky.  Cover for 1 1/2 hours.  Add remaining flour and kneed for 10 minutes.  Put 2 lbs of dough in a buttered bread pan and let double.  There will be a little of dough left over.  Form a round ball and cut a X on the top, put it on a pizza pan and let rise.
This part might seem a little bit odd.
Pre- heat oven to 425
If you want your bread crusty put a pan on bottom rack while preheating the oven.
Put only the bread on the pizza pan in  the oven, add a cup of ice in the pan on the bottom rack and cook 10-12 minutes. When you bring it out of the oven you have a artisan bread.
If you like a softer bread don't put the ice in the oven and butter it when it comes out.
As soon as you take out your first loaf turn your oven down to 375 degrees and put in your loaf pan in the oven and cook for 35 minutes. While your waiting you can cut into the small loaf. 
When you bring the bread out of the oven take it out of the pan and put butter all over it.
http://thewholetruth.org/Health_Wheat_FAQ.asp Here is a sight you might want to read about flour.


 

Anniversary Cake And Cupcakes

 

I was asked to make cupcakes and flowers for the cake. 

 

 I did one large rose for the top going down

 

the side.   I did not make the cake myself. 

 

 It was for a friends 5th wedding anniversary.

 

They did amazing job on decorating the event.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Halloween 2013

 

It's another school year of making treat boxes for my grandson's.  Its been 7 years now that I been making them.  So far I have come up with new ideas for each season.  It was just making 30 until this year and now it's 60.  My youngest grandson started school this year.  I thought since my oldest grandson was in 6th grade he wouldn't want them anymore.  Wrong.  He came to me and told me he still wanted to take them to school.  Oh well its what I do.  I hope everyone had a great Halloween. 

Re-Invent Objects

     I had seen a post on Pinterest on re-using chandeliers as cake displays.
I had been carring around this light fixture that my brother-in-law had given to me for a few years.  I just hate to get rid of things because I just might need them someday.  It just happened my granddaughter 1st birthday was coming up.  The dishes that I wanted to use on it was a little to costly.  (But someday I will get them.)  So I went to the dollar store and bought 7 metal platters in different shapes (for interest).  I then headed to the hardware store and picked up some plumbing supplies.  Some caps and pvc pipe. 
     I cut out  all the wires off the light fixture and took off some hardware that held the light fixture up.  Then glued the caps to the bottom of the platters and let set up for 3 days.  Cut the pvc pipe at different levels for interest. 
     The beauty of doing it this way you can change it out to fit the different occasion's.  They make great center pieces at party's.  You can use them for  horderves, sandwiches, chip and dip.  It doesn't just need to be used for cupcakes and cakes.  You can put foods around the bottom or flowers.

Where Bloggers Create 2013

 

Sorry I'm late posting.  I had to get ready for my husband's 50th birthday party.

Nothing has changed in my craft room this year.  Still in my kitchen.  One day I will have a real craft room. I'm still not cooking. 

 

Sierra Chic

 

My daughter Michelle and I have started our own little collection. We call it Sierra Chic after my granddaughter. We are putting out pieces in G-ma's Antiques and Collectibles on Silverton Rd inbetween Silverton and Salem Oregon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turned a cabnet door and some chicken wire into a message or keepsakes board.

You could hang neckless's

 

 

 

 

The oval table is one our first pieces that we did.

 

 

 

 

 

Love how this mirror came out.

 

 

 

We re- did the lamp and the table.

 

 

 

 

 

Mojo Monday 291

 

I decided to go with a little different perspective on this challenge.

 

1.  Using the technique of triple stamping on the paper ribbon I used a background stamp (stamped it twice using 2 different colors), then use a french word background stamp, finishing up with a wheat stamp. 

2.  I used Nestabilities to cut out the sentiment and the purple shadow behind it.

3.  Used honey comb embossing folder from stampin up.  Had to overlay it to cover the card front. It lines up pretty good.

  

 

2nd Try For Mojo Monday 290

 

 

2nd try.

#1.  Used 4 different stamp sets for the top portion.

#2.  Used the same embossing folder for the green, purple paper and ribbon.

3.  Use large labels from spellbinders and type in Happy Mother's Day from the computer.

#4.  Gray ribbon used foe bow method.

Mojo Mondy 290

 

 

 

 

This is my view on this challenge.  I used paint chips for the four squares and the butterfly's.  I found that its not a good idea to stamp on paint chips.  So I used a scrap piece of pattern card stock to stamp my saying on.  I hope you enjoy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mojo Monday 289

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Just finished cleaning my craft room of scraps.  They were everywhere, boxes, large gift bags and in a 10 drawer cart.  This was after seeing a youtube video on simple simple flash card 2.0.  So I started cutting paper to the proper sizes.  Now I have 6 shoe boxes of paper ready to go at a moment notice of making a quick card.  If you check out me on Pinterest and type in (Maggi Shafer) and go to the card ideas you will find the video's there.  There are amazing card ideas from many wonderful crafter's. Sorry for all the rambling but now I know what color and pattern paper I have in my stash. Made this card from scraps.  I cut off the back of the brads and used a glue dot to attach them to the card.  Took two rectangles and adhered them to a white piece of paper and cut it down and cut on a diagonal.

 

 

 

St. Patty's cupcakes

 

My Granddaughter Tajia decorated the cupcakes for me.  Except for one little problem my husband and daughter Michelle kept eating the Andie Mints off of them.  We came up short for the cupcakes.

 

St. Patty's Day Treat

A last minute treat for my grandsons class.  I was having a creative block when it was coming to St. Patty's Day treats.  So I cut 5 1/4 X 5 1/2 mellow moss card stock from stampin up and ran it through my crimper to give some texture.  Then I put foam shamrocks on that I bought at my local craft store a couple years ago.  I was going to put ribbon on it but it didn't look good.  So I went on line and looked up free word art for St. Patty's day and chose this one.  Copy and Paste and here you have a St. Patty's Day treat bar.

My Daughter's Wedding Cake

 

This is my daughter Christi's Wedding Cake.  We also make cup cake to go with it.

It was a small wedding at home with family and friends.  We had 50 plus people in our home.

 

 

I made the cake myself.  It was a yellow cake with lemon and raspberry filling.  Rolled fondant frosting and sugar paste flowers.

 

 

 

The cup cakes were filled with Lemon and Raspberry filling with Whip cream frosting.

I made the flower's on top too.  My daughter Christi helped me fill them and then my other

daughter Michelle piped on the frosting and added the flowers.  Sierra, Michelle 4 month old daughter ( my granddaughter)  entertained us during the whole process.  It was a family affair.

 

 

This was a do it yourself from start to finish wedding.

 

 

 

Snowman Wrapper

 

 

I did these candy bar wrapper's for my grandson's class room.

My sister-in-law saw them and asked if I could do 5 for her work.

Just Us Girls Challenge 152

Back To School Treat Boxes

 

 

 

 

Its back to school again.  The year of 2012-2013 of treat boxes has began.   

On this box  I used some clip art off the Internet. 

And the striped paper I used off my Cricut Imagine.

Punches were from stampin up. 

And I motified the box from my stampin up demonstrator.

 

 



Baby Shower Invites

I got the idea off the Internet for a bbq shower invite.

Its a new trist to have couples and family at baby showers.

My daughter wanted a country theme.

I added its a girl on the tag instead of  Levi.

All the information is on the card with a handkerchief topper.

I used my cricut imagine for this project.