MORE CHOCOLATE PLEASE

Now other than scrapbooking, I also enjoy creating in the kitchen. I'm getting together with some girlfriends for our women's Bible study group tonight, so I promised everyone that I would bring chocolate covered strawberries. Nothing can bring women closer together like deep conversation and some really good dessert. And, this is an easy, quick treat to prepare (easier than you might realize.)

To make your own sweet treats, start by melting some good semi-sweet chocolate chips in a double-boiler (a bowl set on top of a pot with a small amount of water in it, set on top of the burner.) Keep stirring the chips until they are thoroughly melted- you don't want lumpy strawberries. This step takes a little bit of patience since you don't want to leave the mixture unattended.

Next, take your strawberries and carefully dip them in the chocolate, leaving them on a wax paper covered tray to set. I was fortunate enough to find some really nice berries on sale today. woohoo!

I like to add a little extra touch to mine by drizzling them with white chocolate. I simply melt some white chocolate and pour it into some parchment paper which I have made into a piping bag. If that last statement seems kind of foreign to you, don't fear. Just pour the chocolate into a ziploc baggie and snip a tiny bit off of one corner. Then squeeze the piping bag while simultaneously moving your arm across the top of the berries. I had some extra left, so I piped little hearts on each one. Lastly, put your dipped berries in the refridgerator to set, and voila'! An elegant dessert that is easy to prepare!

Credits:
photo frames- paislee press "viewfinder frames"

A HIKING WE WILL GO

I just bought some great kits and brushes by Fei Fei's Stuff at Oscraps, so I thought I'd play around with them a little. This page commemorates a hiking trip we took about a month ago with my sisters. I should have known that walking straight down the mountain at the beginning of the hike would lead to a really terrible end of the hike. Needless to say, I think I got my workout for the year.

Credits:
Paper: Fei Fei's Stuff "Moments"
Elements: Fei Fei's Stuff/Leikobeck "Emancipation", Fei Fei's Stuff "Pinkish", Amy Teets
Brushes: Fei Fei's Stuff "Different Strokes 2"
Mask: Fei Fei's Stuff "Decorative Edges"

EXPERIMENTING WITH STYLE

I feel like I haven't really found my "style" yet when it comes to digiscrapping, but I think this is closer to what I would consider "me".

Credits:
Paper: Fei Fei's Stuff "Moments"
Elements: Fei Fei's Stuff "Moments" and "Pastelaria"
Brushes: Fei Fei's Stuff "Border Brushes"
Fonts: Two Peas Chicken Shack Wide & Hot Chocolate

FINALLY GETTING STARTED

This was my first attempt at making a page for Ethan's scrapbook. I only have 2 years worth of photos to sort through =). I found a really cool site www.kevinandamanda.com that offers tons of great fonts...for free! I think I downloaded at least 20 of them. Here I have featured "Rebekah's Birthday" (title), and "Pea Lacy" (journaling). I also played around with trying to manipulate the ribbon so that it looks like it is going through the tag. My photoshopping skills definitely need a little more work. All in all I'm quite happy with my first page and looking forward to the next.

SCRAPBOOKING EXPERIMENT

Ok, so I found another little project to work on. Just a small page highlighting a picture of Ethan and his little friend. I wanted to experiment with adding torn and curled edges to my papers. I'm not completely satisfied with the final product. I still need to play around with the drop shadows to make it look a little more realistic.