A Moment in Time

Pumpkin Seeds

One of my favorite parts about this time of year is pumpkins! I love all things pumpkin (I have a fabulous pumpkin cheesecake recipe Mmmm) so when we carve them up, very little goes to waste!  I steam my pumpkin and then mash it and freeze it in 2C portions until I need to add it to my recipes! Here's a little hint though, when you pull them out of the freezer for your recipes, be sure to let it thaw at room temp or in the fridge, after that, press it into a fine mesh strainer to get the excess water out! Very important, otherwise your pies wont set and your muffins won't stick together (ask me how I know!).

I rinse my pumpkin seeds under water to prepare them. I oil a cookie sheet and heat my oven to 250 degrees. I place the seeds on the pan and coat them in oil. Liberally season with salt and place in the oven for about an hour stirring every 10-15 mins. I usually take one out and let it cool and test to find out when they are done.

Anyway, here is what I did with the seeds which we made this year, again I used the Happy Halloween set from RBD, and an 8oz clear top tin. I also used the Simple Occidental Alphabet set for the word "Seeds". Be sure to practice your alignment before you stamp on your actual project!!! Those letters can be tricky to line up!

I'd love to see what you've done with this set! Send me your submissions at submissions@renaissancebydesign.com

See you soon, I promise S*

Spider Eggs!

Here's another cute idea to dress up your typical Halloween candy.  One of the great things about our glass test tubes is just that! They're glass! What's so great about that? Well, firstly it means that you can heat emboss on them!!  Although I will caution you now they get HOT when you do this!!!! Make sure to have handy some sort of utensil to hold the tube while you heat it (I use a long handled wooden spoon).  Another must have for this project is an embossing buddy or static cling sheet such as Bounce to prepare the test tube before embossing. Glass is has a lot of static to it and if you don't eliminate it before hand you'll regret it later!

Firstly, prepare your tube with your embossing buddy or static cling dryer sheet. Next, carefully ink your image, I like pigment ink for test tubes and glass. Now here's the tricky part; place your test tube on your table surface and sort of "roll" it while you stamp your image onto it. This can take a bit of practice but once you get the hang of it it's fairly simple. The good news is... if you have trouble here, just take a moist paper towel or rag and wipe the tube clean and start over! I used the spider and Happy Halloween sentiment from RBD's Happy Halloween set.

Next, cover your image with embossing powder. Here's where you'll see how successful you were in removing the static! 

Now, insert your tool (my wooden spoon) into the tube and hold vertically. Heat emboss, being careful not to touch the glass!!!  Also, it does need a bit of cooling time before it is handled or filled with candy (it'll melt!!) I also punched out a matching circle with my 3/4" punch to add a little something to the corks.

Voila!!! There you go! A quick and super cute idea.

Brittle Bones

Hello hello,

I often celebrate many traditions in our house. One of my kids' favorites is this one in particular. Every year at Halloween, like most families, we carve pumpkins, roast the seeds and light our jack-o-lanterns. One other thing we do is make bones!  Yup, they're meringue and they're so cute!

This is the recipe I use, however if my oven is not able to be surrendered overnight, I just bake them for an additional hour.

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups sugar

Pinch of salt

5 egg whites at room temperature

Pinch of cream of tartar

1 teaspoon almond, vanilla, orange or lemon extract

 

Preparation:

1.

Preheat oven to 220°F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Prepare pastry bag with round #10 tip (about 3/8-inch diameter).

2.

Combine sugar and salt in small bowl. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar in small bowl with electric mixer at low speed until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar mixture, beating constantly. Beat until stiff peaks form and meringue is shiny and smooth. Add extract; beat just until blended.

3.

Fill pastry bag with meringue. Pipe log 3 to 4 inches long. Pipe 2 balls on both ends of each log. Smooth any peaks with wet finger. Repeat with remaining meringue.

4.

Bake 30 minutes; turn off heat. Leave cookies in oven overnight; do not open oven door.

 

Tip To give the "bones" an ivory or "aged" look, add 1 to 2 drops yellow food coloring with the extract.

 

I've taken these bones and put them into our Large clear take out container and fancied it up a bit. I've also used our stamp set from RBD Happy Halloween.

 

Happy Spooking folks!  My youngest is going to be a ferocious lion, and my oldest is going as a ninja. I'll try to snap a few pics to share! :)

Wooden box gift bag

 
Good snowy afternoon to you. I can't believe this weather! Last week I was sweltering in flip-flops and tank tops and considering the lake, and today I wake up to mother nature's sense of humor and a blanket of thick snow. WOW, makes me feel like I'm already behind on my Christmas shopping!

So we are officially up and running at RBD once again and if you've stopped by the site you'll se we are offering a coupon for 20% off your entire order for being such patient customers! Many other markdowns throughout the store as well so go have a look!

This little wooden gift bag is a little something I created this morning using the vine from Blossom & Wilt and the other images from the Happy Halloween set. I stamped three of the pumpkin image and then cut and layered them to give the 3D effect. I tried to take the picture from the side to get the effect but it may be a bit tough to see.

I'll be back early next week with more projects for the season!

I will be finalizing all of the monogram winners' proofs this weekend to send off  for production so if you are a winner and have been wondering when I'll get back to you, you can expect me soon!

Keep warm!

September Release!

Hello hello!  Here I am to unveil the newest set from RBD Happy Halloween. I wanted to design something which could be used both by the scrapbooker and the gift or treat giver. Since I haven't been able to play with this set myself (see previous post about the chaos while I move!) both Tina and Deb have done a beautiful job in using this new set.

Here are a few projects created by our talented guest designer, Deb. Please visit her blog and tell her what a fabulous job she's done! Don't you just LOVE how she incorporated our scrolls into her designs? Fabulous job Deb!

For all of you interested in purchasing this set, the shopping cart access will be restored on September 15th! Don't forget to order all of your bags and tins and alterables for those special goblins this year! Remember, if you spend over $50 CDN you receive FREE shipping within Canada and the US!

Okay! Back to unpacking! I can't wait to ink this set up and post some ideas for this one!!!

Introducing...... Coffee and Tea!

WOW, can  you believe it is APRIL!! You wouldn't know it by looking around here though! We got another dump of snow, the only bright side I can see to this is that I can delay my spring cleaning a little bit longer.

Since it is April first I suppose that means I should reveal some Stamp sets!!!  You may have caught the teaser on Keri Lee's blog for this first set I am revealing, Coffee and Tea.  I am in love with the thousands of options this set has to offer.  It is divided into two for coffee lovers and tea lovers. Then, to make this set even MORE versatile, there is an add-on set which extends it even further by adding a cocoa sentiment and marshmallows!!

For my first project I made this sweet little tea gift set. I found that cute little white teapot for $1 at the local dollar store!! It's perfect for two cups of tea.

I also found that cute little tea infuser at IKEA for a steal of a deal to complete the set.

Click on the photos for a closer look.

 

For the tea, I purchased loose tea in bulk and put them into our square french glass bottles and labeled them with my rectangle nestability dies. I modified a template I had to fit 2 bottles perfectly. Just print out this template on the wrong side of your cardstock and assemble! I lined it with the gorgeos vellum from SU!.

Download Square bottle caddy box 

If you like the little curly accents under the main focal point and on the cardfront and tops of the jar labels you may* want to keep an eye out for the May stamp set release *hint hint*

I acheived that variation in the color on the tiny cups by stamping the image in the lighter blue color first and then sponging on some cocoa colored ink onto the edges. I also put them inside the scribble circle from the pampered package set and punched them out and put them on the caps of the bottles.

I used the "Enjoy" sentiment from RBD's Pampered Package set as well.

To make this teapot (don't you just LOVE that teapot!?) I simply used the same technique on the teapot as I did for the cup image above. Stamping it in the lighter color first and then sponging the darker color around the edges. I pierced a few little designs in the corners for some interest and used the secret stamp as a border behind the focal image (that stamp is from a set to be released in May).

I tied one of my favorite types of bows here, it's a little tricky to get the hang of it at first but basically, what you do is when you are looping your ribbon around your rabbit ear instead of going around clockwise, go around counter-clockwise and you'll end up with one loop on top and the other loop and two "tails" on the bottom. It takes a bit of practice but once you get it you've got it for life! hahah I love how it makes the bottom of the bow a bit heavier allowing me to stick in two pearl pins for balance on top.  

Have a great Wednesday everyone!!!

I will have a few more posts in the next little bit using this set to show you some other ideas to put it to good use!!

Valentine treat box and card and giveaway details!!

Happy Thursday everyone!! Here's my little treat box and card I made for Vday for my kiddies.

I took our red satin ribbon and wove it into a square focal point and then used the Cupid's Arrow stamp set and stamped a heart in red and trimmed it out and popped it on the card.

I then took the same heart and stamped it in stazon cotton white onto the window of my small shadowbox (keep your eye out we will be carrying these soon) I then added stickles sparkles to both hearts.

I punched holes around the lid of my box with my crop-o-dile and then used a blanket stitch to create the ribbon ruffle around the edge. I used our red narrow grosgrain ribbon for this part.

Here's a close up of the card.

Thanks everyone! Now scroll down for the giveaway details!!!

 

NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY!!!!!

This post will remain up until Monday at 1:00pm (GMT) and then a winner will be chosen at random with a number generator via www.random.org .  

TO ENTER THIS GIVEAWAY

post a comment to this post below before the 1:00PM deadline on Monday February 9th. (international entries are welcome!)

What to say in the comment? Anything you'd like, but I would love to hear about what your favorites are at RBD right now! 

THE PRIZE  is ANY stamp set of your choice from RBD as well as a 10 yard sample of our ribbon!!! The winner of the giveaway will be contacted on Monday after the draw!

Good luck everyone!!!

Bunny Love Take out

Good afternoon! I finally squeezed a minute out of the day to get this post up!! I'd like to show you the second of RBD's February Stamp sets from the release Bunny Love!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a little ensemble I put together using our Clear Take out Containers in the small size. I filled these with easter colored M&M candies and covered them with Piggy Tales DP and one of our fantastic die cut scrolls.... more on them tomorrow....  and then topped it with a hint of lime taffeta edge satin ribbon.

I've added the grass and Chocolate sentiment from the Bunny Love stamp set onto the tag.

 

 

 

A card to match completes the gift!

 

Have a peek at

Tina's Blog today and see her cute take on this stamp set

 

 

 

 

Pop by tomorrow to see my egg shell mosaic shadowbox tutorial! Hope you've been saving those shells!!

Favor box template!

Hello everyone, here I am as promised with a quick little template which goes hand in hand with Friday's post, but would also be a great idea for inexpensive wedding favors!!   They are so easy to put together and you can fill them with anything you'd like!

**Please note if you are putting baking or goodies directly into them you may want to print out the template onto a transparent adhesive film and then stick that to your paper or cardstock, on the back side, to protect the outside packaging from grease spots.

Download Favor box 

Stamp your sentiment on the inside flap for a little bit of personalization. Here I used the stamp set Cupid's Arrow. I also used this set for the subtle pattern on the outside. The ribbon is Jadefrom our Taffeta Edge Satin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Test tube idea

  Just a quick note to say pop on over to Tina's Blog and check out her ingenious idea for using our test tubes as treat packaging! This brings a whole new level of CUTE to these versatile tubes!