Hi everyone! Hope you all are enjoying your week and ready for a wonderful weekend :)

I wanted to share a little slideshow of our family summer vaca that we took with my side of the family. These are just a few of my favorites to show just how much fun it was! My family has not gone on a family vacation in a VERY long time… so long, that I dont even remember the last time we did! So this summer, my parents were determined to make it happen. My dad did a great job planning a lot of fun stuff for us all to do for the week, and we all enjoyed our time together very much. We went to the beach a couple days, to a pirate show, circus and even to a fun sushi restaurant.

This year, we actually were able to go on TWO family vacations, this one and one in the winter with Gare’s family (you can see photos of that one here). I know it wont be able to happen every year (time-wise, financially, etc.) but it was great that we were able to have the best of both worlds this year. It was even more special because Garrett and I have been saving up our money and not really going on any REAL vacations for the last year and a half, so it was nice of our parents to take us away from life for awhile.

Hope you all are enjoying your vacations with your family or friends this summer!

((Sorry, my scheduling for this post didnt work, so its a little late!))

Hey ladies! I hope you will join me this week in using this lovely photo that I personally took as inspiration for your project. This week I DARE YOU to use the colors from this photo and a sketch to create your project. I have listed a couple of different Sketch Challenge sites to help you out on this one, however feel free to use any others you might know of… and have fun!

I was shopping in San Clemente on our vacation and found this lovely arrangement in a Bamboo shop. I had to sneak a photo for this week’s Scrap or Dare… I just love the combo! HAVE FUN and dont forget to come back and post your link in the comments :)

Sweet Sunday Sketch
Amy R’s Friday Sketch
Card Patterns –Saturday
CPS Card Sketch
2 Sketches 4 You Monday Sketch
Mojo Monday Sketch
Pencil Lines -Scrapbook Layouts

Happy Creating!

The July Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

I am so excited to announce my very first month with the Daring Bakers! I came across this amazingly talented group in June and couldn’t help myself, I had to join! In brief, it is a group of bakers (they also have a cooking division) that are challenged each month to create something special… the recipe is given and you must follow it exactly and then post your result on the 27th of the month. This month we were challenged to bake up some Mallows and Milanos (you could choose 1). I chose the Mallows because I have never made my own marshmallow before and couldn’t wait to try it out!

The Process:

Let me start by warning you that you will need to make sure you that you allow for plenty of time to do these special cookies. I wasn’t too smart about it and started at about 10 in the evening! BIG MISTAKE… I was up until about 2:30am! Now, dont let that scare you away… the reasons for it being such a long process were no big deal. A) you have to let the dough refrigerate for at least an hour before baking B) I didn’t have a small (1″ to 1 1/2″) round cookie cutter, so I had to cut circles out with a knife! And C) you have to let the Marshmallows sit at least 2 hours before you can dip them.

That being said, everything else was pretty much an exciting experience! My first tip would be to make sure you have a Candy Thermometer handy — my first batch of marshmallows didnt work out because I didnt use mine, so I had to start over. When beating the Marshmallows, it took awhile to figure out if it was ready to pipe onto the cookies (I couldnt really find any help on exactly how long you should beat it for and unfortunately I didnt time myself so I cant help you there… it was quite some time though). The fun and crazy part was piping the Marshmallow onto the cookies (photo below). I dont know if you know this or not, but Marshmallow is STICKY!!! haha and you have to go fast to be sure that you can get it on all of the many little cookies before it solidifies in your bag. It was truly fun and challenging though and I WILL do it again sometime.

Before I started the recipe, I looked up recipes on how to dress up the cookies and found some wonderfully talented chefs (especially Audax) that had created some lovely and extra tastey Mallows — everywhere from coffee flavored to caramel filled to sprinkled! I was going to attempt some of these fun recipes but since it was my first time making Marshmallow, I decided to keep it simple. Here are a few tips for dressing up your Mallows:

• Sprinkle with toppings, such as toffee chips, nuts, sprinkles, shredded coconut, crushed peppermint, etc.
• Substitute the water with coffee for coffee flavored Marshmallows
• Place a dab of fruit jam or caramel on the cookie before piping on the Marshmallow
• Add a few drips of food coloring for colorful Marshmallows

Next month I will do my best to take more and better photos :)

Mallows – The Recipe

(Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies)

Recipe courtesy Gale Gand, from Food Network website

Prep Time: 10 min
Inactive Prep Time: 5 min
Cook Time: 10 min
Serves: about 2 dozen cookies ** I personally got over 100 cookies using 2/3 of the dough for 1″ cookies

• 3 cups (375grams/13.23oz) all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (112.5grams/3.97oz) white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 12 tablespoons (170grams/ 6 oz) unsalted butter
• 3 eggs, whisked together
• Homemade marshmallows, recipe follows
• Chocolate glaze, recipe follows

1. In a mixer with the paddle attachment, blend the dry ingredients.
2. On low speed, add the butter and mix until sandy.
3. Add the eggs and mix until combine.
4. Form the dough into a disk, wrap with clingfilm or parchment and refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 3 days.
5. When ready to bake, grease a cookie sheet or line it with parchment paper or a silicon mat.
6. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
7. Roll out the dough to 1/8-inch thickness, on a lightly floured surface. Use a 1 to 1 1/2 inches cookie cutter to cut out small rounds of dough.
8. Transfer to the prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Let cool to room temperature.
9. Pipe a “kiss” of marshmallow onto each cookie. Let set at room temperature for 2 hours.
10. Line a cookie sheet with parchment or silicon mat.
11. One at a time, gently drop the marshmallow-topped cookies into the hot chocolate glaze.
12. Lift out with a fork and let excess chocolate drip back into the bowl.
13. Place on the prepared pan and let set at room temperature until the coating is firm, about 1 to 2 hours.

Note: if you don’t want to make your own marshmallows, you can cut a large marshmallow in half and place on the cookie base. Heat in a preheated 350-degree oven to slump the marshmallow slightly, it will expand and brown a little. Let cool, then proceed with the chocolate dipping.

Homemade marshmallows:

**See TIPS from others that helped me get through the process below**

• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 3/4 cup (168.76 grams/5.95oz) sugar
• 1 tablespoon powdered gelatin
• 2 tablespoons cold water
• 2 egg whites , room temperature
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. In a saucepan, combine the water, corn syrup, and sugar, bring to a boil until “soft-ball” stage, or 235 degrees on a candy thermometer.
2. Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water and let dissolve.
3. Remove the syrup from the heat, add the gelatin, and mix.
4. Whip the whites until soft peaks form and pour the syrup into the whites.
5. Add the vanilla and continue whipping until stiff.
6. Transfer to a pastry bag.

Chocolate glaze:
• 12 ounces semisweet chocolate
• 2 ounces cocoa butter or vegetable oil

1. Melt the 2 ingredients together in the top of a double boiler or a bowl set over barely simmering water.

TIPS and Help for Homemade Marshmallows:

1. Testing the Marshmallow for Hardball stage
2. Cold Water Candy Test
3. Audax Artifex: Step by Step photos/ Inspirational photos

Thanks, Nicole, for this fun challenge this month! I really enjoyed it (and so did my family and friends!). I hope that you all find this information helpful when creating your own Marshmallows/Mallows… maybe you could join me in creating next month’s challenge! If you are interested in joining Daring Bakers or Daring Kitchen, go here!

Have a wonderful week, all!

Good morning, friends!

Welcome to week 8 of challenges with Pile It On! This week we are playing with water coloring and I hope you all will head on over to check out the wonderful creations from the rest of the design team. I have never actually worked with water colors… I think I may have cheated a little, hehe… but I just recently purchased my very first set of CIAO  Copic Markers and I have been wanting to play with them, along with the blending pen. So here was my opportunity to try out some water coloring with the markers and blending pen!

OH OH! AND I just got my package in the mail Friday filled with this month’s Papertrey Ink goodies! So yes, that is pretty much what inspired this card. I used the large & small flowers from In Bloom, as well as one of the background stamps from Text Style. It has been quite awhile since I have aged my projects by sponging or swiping ink around the edges but this card pretty much called for it once I was done laying it all together. I think it ties it all together nicely.

As for my simple watercoloring technique, using my CIAO markers, here is a quickie step by step:

1. Swipe the Blending Pen across the tip of your CIAO marker of choice.
2. Gently sweep the color onto your image (usually starting from the outside inward, so it lightens up toward the center)
3. After filling in the image, sweep the clean Blending Pen over the image until you have your desired water coloring effect. The more you go over it the more “watery” it will look.

A couple of TIPS:

• Stamp your image in a permanent ink such as a Versa ink pad, so that it will not blend with the rest of your color.
• If you do not have a Versa ink pad, consider stamping in a similar ink color as your marker so that it blends well.
• Beware that you do not need a lot of ink on the Blending Pen for this technique to work, you may want to do a quick swipe on the image and then turn the Blending Pen to a clean side to help blend it in lighter.

I did want this one to be a bit darker and since the flower had stripes, I felt the need to make it all a bit more random. Love how it turned out with the dark shades up to the light shades. This could be a new technique that you might be seeing more often around here :)

Now for all the challenges that were used to create this card:

• Pile It On! – Water colors
• Stamps and Smiles — Sketch
• Color Throwdown — Celery Green, Plum and Chocolate
• Three Covers — Bling (Rhinestones)
• 365 Cards — Wednesday’s “You Raise Me Up” – Dimension

Don’t forget to play along this week! I promise that you will get more than you could have ever asked for by trying out challenges (not to mention “Piling” them on)… you will create in ways you have never created before! I can’t wait to see what you all come up with this week!

Happy creating!

This week I was asked to create a wedding album for my cousin… unfortunately, it is needed in less than 2 weeks! So I am doing it very simple :) I decided to sit down and just work on some embellishments that I could just put throughout the album as I go. Here are a couple of the fun ones that I created.

Oh and by the way, no one officially knows the colors of the wedding… all I have is their invitation and my Granmda’s outfit (she was asked to wear a light blue). Also, the wedding is in Nebraska at a Bed and Breakfast which is a beautiful barn. So I decided to go with white,  light blue and tan/browns for a rustic and country feel. I really hope that she will like it :)