My renovated scrap corner (+ kids reading room)

We finally moved the queen size bed from our 'multi-purpose room' (which serves as a guestroom, my craft room, the kids reading room, summer changing room for swimming, diaper changing room for our guets). We got an Expedit shelf (+table) from IKEA and a couple of 'Billies' and turned the room into our official family craft room + kids' reading room.

Rub-ons, stickers and clear stamps are stored in folders. I bought some of the storage sheets from Ebay where you can store 4-6 stamps on a page. For the Studio G dollar stamp sets, I used the baseball card holders. The file folders are those made to house 8.5 x 11 sheets. In one drawer, I stored all my Making Memories paints, the other - all my bling. I have to store my inks in another drawer and the acrylic blocks and additional wood stamps in the other. Most of my embellishments are categorized and placed in boxes. Ribbons are in glass or plastic jars, a few are in storage boxes as well.

We left the Crop in Style cubs and the overhead shelf (also from IKEA) at their original spot, added a small corner table and a couple of beanbags as the reading corner. We moved the original bookshelves to the other side of the room and placed the new shelves next to them. We then moved all the kids' books and crafts into these shelves. Because the Expedit shelf won't house the vertical Cropper Hopper 12x12 paper holders, I have to use the bottom bookshelves for my 12x12 papers.

The walls are not done yet.... I think we'll post some of the kids' drawings on the wall.. and maybe add a few more wall decors...

What did we do during Christmas?

We kickstart the holidays with baking brownies. We made enough cookies and brownies for all the teachers and packaged them nicely in Martha Stewart boxes that were on sale.

After that, it was all a blur. What did we do during the holidays? Let's see, we cooked, ate, went up North to enjoy the snow twice, took the Polar Express, saw a couple of movies, went to a few parties and we made these ....

Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake

I made this cheesecake for our Thanksgiving party... I know.. it's been MONTHS... I finally got a chance to write down the recipe, and maybe post some Christmas baking pics sometime soon! :)

I found two recipes originally. One for a chocolate pumpkin cheesecake and the other one for a mocha chocolate pumpkin cheesecake. Since we have many young guests, I cut down on the coffee and also simplified the procedures a little.

Ingredients

3 tablespoon butter

1 1/2 cups finely crushed chocolate graham crackeres

3 - 8 oz packages of Neufchatel or cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup sugar; 1/4 cup light brown sugar

5 large eggs

2 cups cooked pumpkin puree or 1 can (16 oz) solid pack pumpkin

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup semi sweet chocolate morsels

4 tablespoons hot strong coffee

Preparation

Cheesecake crust

1. Heat oven to 350F. Melt 3 tbs of butter; combine with crushed graham crackers and strong coffee. Press into bottom and partially up the sides of a 9 inch springform pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Sprinkle half cup of chocolate morsels on pie crust.

Filling

2. Use an electric beater at medium speed, cream Neufchatel or cream cheese for 3 - 4 minutes. Beat in sugar gradually, continuing for 2 to 3 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time. Beat in pumpkin and vanilla.

3. Warm rest of the chocolate morsels in warm water bath until melted. Spoon in 1/2 cup of the pumpkin mixture and mix well.

4. Pour the pumpkin mixture into the crust. Spoon in chocolate pumpkin mixture over top and swirl to make pattern. Save some mixture for mending cracks later on.

5. Bake for 60 - 65 minutes or until the rim is set and the center is slightly unset (after cooling down the center will firm up). Remove from oven and cool in pan. Remove the ring from the springform pan before the cake cools down).

6. Use the chocolate pumpkin mixture to mend any surface cracks if necessary.

Variations

Our family loves mango. So I've substituted pumpkin puree with mango puree. I will experiment with other fruit to see which ones taste good. The mango cheesecake was a big hit too:

A day in my life

This is a layout I did for a challenge:

A day in my life.. that day, I happened to have:
- gone online (of course of course)
- looked for 60s stuff for my daughter's 60s' day at the school
- had lunch with my son at a nice bakery cafe
- scrapped while he napped
- given him a haircut
- picked the remaining peaches on the tree
- watered my plants
- checked on the birdies on the front door
- posed for a spontaneous 60s shoot

This is inspired by a LO designed by Ali Edwards (a Technicue Tuesday class that I took at CKC). I made quite a few changes because I had more pics... I also used patterned paper from the Rusty Pickle Lucky Line instead of just plain cardstock. The stamp set is designed by Ali and is given to us in the class kit. I also used more Ali journaling stamps for the journaling.

Happy Birthday, my dearest!

Yesterday was Kelvin's birthday. I made him a special birthday cupcake 'cake'. I got the idea when he forwarded me a few cupcake blogs after he saw the ones I made for Brian. There are many talented artists out there making cupcake toppers for sale in the Etsy stores, so I got the idea to make my own cupcake toppers....

I got some great help from the kids! I used the Sizzix Round-a-Bout alpha set to make the words "Happy Birthday". I used the Cuttlebug camera die to make the two tiny cameras.

A special cupcake for my favourite photographer.
I'm glad he really really likes it:

Happy Birthday, Brian!

It was Brian's birthday last week. I baked him some cupcakes and also made a cupcake giftcard holder for him.




I've seen these cupcake gift holders before, and found the instructions from Tresa's Fabulously Artsy Blog at:

http://www.fabulouslyartsy.blogspot.com

It is surely a fabulous blog! Just follow her step by step instructions at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkVm1Tif6gI

For my version, I found these fabulous blingy sequin ribbons on sale at Michael's. I cut the sequins loose and glued them with glue dots onto the styrofoma ball.

For the cherry topper, I used a red pom pom and some white lace ribbons. Brian would like to eat it, but I told him it's for holding a gift card! :)

Love Album

Love is in the air! My BFF Vandana is getting married... and I made this clear album for her bridal shower. I think she may use this as a mini wedding album too, so I kept the album more formal so that she can put her beautiful wedding pictures in it.

I used the SEI Jolie Chocolat line again. This is such a beautiful line.. I love the silver and pink, and the beautiful mix of hearts and butterflies. The paper did all the work for me, all I needed to do was to cut a few patterns out and embellish the the album a little. I also discovered this beautiful white scroll acrylic album, also made by SEI. It makes putting together this mini album so much easier. I am going to get a few of these as gifts....



The backcover for the album is also embellished. I love using rub-ons and blings as embellies on the love theme.

'Adorable' Acrylic Album

It's official.. I am addicted to clear albums! But they make such nice gifts.

I made this album for a friend who loves my layouts. I wanted to give her new baby something special, so I decided to make a girly gift album for her. She had two boys so I'm sure the pink will be a nice change for her. :)

In making this album, I mainly used the Animal Crackers line from Making Memories. I also used one of their earlier lines.. Emma from MM Kids. I used a variety of rub-ons and even foil rub-ons to make it more fun. Of course, Prima flowers and bling help add the finishing touches.

In order to add some variety, I also used my Cuttlebug to shape some of the papers. I used the Quickutz cookie cutter nesting flowers die to make the various scalloped paper. It is more fun when various shapes are stacked together in a clear album.



Supplies list:
Clear Scraps Flower Album
Fancy Pants Designs - Rub Ons - Write Now
Making Memories Animal Crackers Collection
Making Memories MM Kids Emma
We R Memory Flock and Foil Kit
Quickutz Cookie Cutter Nesting Flowers Die
Prima Flowers