G Card Interior

After cutting the front cat at 3 1/2 inches tall, I thought I would make a smaller cat for the inside of the card.  I cut this one at 1 1/2 inches.  That is REALLY small, but still very cute.

While cutting the tall cat, I had an incident with one of the images.  Just because that cat lost some of his body parts was not a good reason to toss him in the trash. I think he looks perfectly fine edging out of the picture.  He may be off to stick his nose into the birthday cake which is probably sitting on the counter at this very moment...

This interior is a little busy and mismatched, but it is just a card. It can be tossed out after looking at it a moment. 

Having said that, I thoroughly enjoyed planning and making this card.  This is going to our first adult grandchild, a girl we totally adore.

Card Front for G

I love that Cricut!  I have been thinking about a card for G, who will be eighteen years old really soon.  I saw a video on YouTube where the demonstrator made a cat card.  Well!  G and her family have several cats of different colors and sizes so I thought: cats is it!

Here is the front of the card:

Next time: the interior, but don't hold your breath....

Card-Making

The weather was bad when we had originally planned to have the Chocolate Dipping and Valentine Card Making activity.  In preparation for the activity I had used the Cricut and cut out many different hearts in colors and size differences.  It was really fun.  One of the best parts was the card stock after the hearts were cut out!  I am sure they will make wonderful stencils.

Below are two of the cards sisters made.  I think they are great!

A simply pile of different hearts with a circular sentiment item.

 

 This card, with hearts all the same size, is also very attractive.  I loved this one, too.

Bokeh, Three!

Here are the most vibrantly colored paintings.

The top one is my favorite of the nine I made this go around, but it is easy to love it because I love alizarin crimson!  Such a great color.

Eventually these will be made into cards to give away, or to put into a fund-raising auction for the youth at church.  I don't know if I will be able to part with the top one....

Bokeh, Two!

Here is another batch of the bokeh paintings I made.

These blue and green paintings really pleased me.  There is more I could do with them, but I stopped there.

Painting Fun: Bokeh pictures

Recently I watched a YouTube video which introduced "bokeh" painting to me. Sadly I have watched too many videos since then and don't know whose it was.   I had never heard of it but I immediately loved it.

 If I understand correctly, (which I hope, because this is how I did it) using watercolor paints you wet the 140-lb paper all over then drop blots of several colors all over it in random patterns to fill the whole card.  

Once the painting is dry, using a white pigment ink pad, you daub ink onto increasingly smaller stencils of the same image.  Since I had been cutting out hearts of multiple sizes for a Relief Society activity, I used the hearts.

These are what I came up with:

This is the yellow/blue/green group.  Eventually I am going to make them into note cards but right now I am just trying out background colors.

Homemade General Tso's Sauce

Because there is a vegetarian in the house, and because I am not a full time vegetarian, sometimes I crave a little meat.  That is what I tell myself. My way of "fixing" the problem is that every few months I will take a book and go to a Chinese buffet and eat too much food.

Recently I had a near-fainting episode and thought my blood sugar was too low.  In order to stave off something worse, I went to the buffet.  After picking through several serving dishes to load my plate with broccoli and a few bits of meat, plus a bowl with dumplings and dipping sauce, I had a nice time munching and listening to Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover since I had by a fluke brought my headphones with me in my purse.

Dave Ramsey really caught my attention. I wish I had read that book much earlier in life, but there is so much we can still use even at this period in life.  This is a financial makeover book as well as a weight loss book, if you are listening.

So, eating all that broccoli and the little bits of meat was lovely, except for the too-full felling afterwards.  As I sat there, I realized that it was the sauces that appeal to me.  I had previously learned to make the dumpling dipping sauce into which I dip steamed broccoli at home.  I figured I needed to find a General Tso's sauce recipe.  Which I did.  Actually several sauces which I sort of mish-mashed together then fine tuned to my taste.

PACC Version General Tso's Sauce

1 15-ounce can vegetable broth (I think chicken broth would be better)
3 Tablespoons soy sauce
3 Tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 Tablespoons rice vinegar
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
2 teaspoons minced garlic (this time I used pre-minced from a jar.  Freshly minced would be better.)
1 teaspoon Sambal Oeleck
1/2 teaspoon dried red chili pepper flakes

2 Tablespoons cornstarch mixed into 3 Tablespoons water

Combine everything except the cornstarch and water in a 2 quart saucepan.  Bring to a boil.  Mix the cornstarch with hot water until it is smooth then stir into the sauce and cook until slightly thickened.  This tastes pretty good.