Thursday, November 28, 2013

Bread Tags and Friendship Bread Recipe

We recently had a cake walk at work and I donated three loaves of Friendship Bread.  I made some tags to dress up the packaging.  They came together really quickly but unfortunately I didn't write down the measurements so I won't have that information below - sorry about that! :-(  I just made the mats 1/4 inch smaller than the base underneath - that usually ends up being visually acceptable on most all projects.




I cut the tags using my Cricut Tags, Bags, Boxes, and More cartridge and the leaves were a free cut for a week from the Simply Scarecrow Cricut Cartridge.  I inked the edges with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Tea Dye and the ribbon is some Hobby Lobby cheapo ribbon I had.  The solid color cardstock is from Core'dinations and the cute decor paper is from the DCWV Year Round Stack.

We love the Amish Friendship Bread around here and it seems like I always have a loaf in process.  I've had lots of folks ask me for my recipe so here it goes - most of this is from the Beverly Lewis Amish Cookbook with some tweaks of my own:

Basic Starter:
1 cup each all-purpose flour, milk, and sugar - place this all into a gallon ziplock bag and count it as day 1 - do not use the quart bags for this process (it's not a pretty sight!!).   Do not refrigerate while the starter is aging - leave it on your counter where it can ferment

Care and Feeding:
Days 1 - 5:  Do nothing with the bag except squish it and let out any air that may build up (you really won't have too much visible going on these first few days especially with a new starter)
Day 6 - Add 2 cups all-purpose flour and 1 cup each milk and sugar.  Squish to mix well.
Days 7-9:  Squish the bag each day and let out any air that has built up - be careful to keep the zipper on the bag clean.

On day 10 it's time to make some bread!!

Gather your ingredients:

2 tsp Cinnamon
1 box Instant Pudding (I've used all kinds but pistachio and butterscotch are our favorites - you can use regular or sugar free with the same results)
1 cup Vegetable Oil
3 Large Eggs
1/2 cup + 1 cup Milk
1 tsp Vanilla
2 cups + 1 cup All Purpose Flour
1 cup + 1 cup + 1/2 Sugar
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
Optional - 1 cup raisins or craisins and/or 1 cup chopped nuts and/or 1 cup of chocolate chips (or just about anything else you can imagine - go crazy and have fun!!)

Preheat oven to 325F.  In a small bowl combine 1/2 cup Sugar and 2 tsp Cinnamon.  Grease your loaf pans with Cooking Spray (I use two Pampered Chef stoneware loaf pans for one batch) and then coat the pans with the cinnamon-sugar mixture, reserving some for the topping.  Set aside.  I've also used this recipe for making mini-cupcakes and you can also use a bundt pan.

It's time to augment your fully aged starter to get it ready for the bread:  in a glass bowl mix together 1 cup flour and 1 cup sugar.  Slowly add 1 cup of milk making sure to keep the mixture smooth - if you go too fast, it will clump up horribly and will be quite a lot of work to smooth out again.  Now it's time to add the starter to this flour/sugar/milk mixture.  I find it's easiest to handle if you cut a corner off your ziplock bag and squish it out like you are using a frosting bag - this stuff is very gooey and sticky at this point.  Mix together gently but thoroughly.  Set aside.

In a separate glass bowl combine oil, eggs, 1/2 cup milk, and vanilla - mix well.  Add 1 cup of your augmented starter, 2 cups flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, pudding, and any of your optional ingredients.  Our favorite combo right now is butterscotch pudding with chopped pecans!  Mix this gently but thoroughly.  Pour into your prepared pans and top with the remainder of your cinnamon-sugar mixture.  Bake for approximately 1 hour - the mini-muffins take about 1/2 that much time.  You can use the standard toothpick coming out clean test.  I usually pop them out of their pans as soon as possible and cool thoroughly on wire racks.

While your bread is baking you can package up your new starters.  You should end up with 3 starters of approximately 1 cup each.  Place each starter in a gallon ziplock bag and you can either place them on the counter and begin at day 1 again (I've found that each resulting batch of bread after re-fermenting the starter turns out better and better), or you can freeze the starter for later use.  (If you freeze your starter for later use, the day you take it out of the freezer counts as day 1 in the care and feeding schedule.)    

If you want to use all of your starter for bread at one time you should be able to get 8-10 loaves of bread.  I have made 8 loaves of bread and one pan of mini-cupcakes in my oven at one time and didn't have to increase the baking time at all.  I have a very large gas oven so you may experience different results if your oven is smaller or is electric. 

The bread freezes very well and only takes a few hours to thaw out again.  I find it's very convenient to have some loaves in the freezer for last minute gifts or drop in guests.  




Whole Lotta Missin Goin On Cards

OWH put out a call for missing you cards so I have been working on that theme.  I made four different versions of this card - two masculine and two feminine - for a total of 18 cards.  These are the standard A2 sized cards but the sentiment comes in two parts so I included the second part on the inside of the card.  I hated taking up writing room on the inside but my original idea of putting the second part of the sentiment under a lift flap on the front of the card worked better in my head than it did in reality.  I may also try using this sentiment set on a tag that slides out of an envelope attached to the front.

This was a much more simple design than I am used to using.  I'm trying to push myself out of the over done box I seem to crawl back into all the time!


Supplies:

Men's version made with paper from DCWV Rustic Stack and the women's version was made using a paper stack from Colorbok.  I also used some paper I picked up on clearance at Hobby Lobby made by The Paper Studio called Football Texture.  The solid colors I used were from Core'dinations.

Paper Sizes:
5 1/4" x 4" for the base
2 3/4" x 1 1/2" for the outside bottom mat
2 1/2" x 1 1/4" for the outside middle mat
2 1/4" x 1" for the outside sentiment
3" x 1 1/2" for the inside bottom mat
2 3/4" x 1 1/4" for the inside middle mat
2 1/2" x 1" for the inside sentiment

I used several Tim Holtz Distress Inks in the project - Tea Dye and Barn Door
Ribbon - Hobby Lobby brand from the sewing department (normally on sale two for $1 - way better deal than buying ribbon in the scrapbooking section)
I used my ATG for most of the construction and then used Micro Glue Dots to keep the ribbon in place.

The sentiment was part of a fundraising package of digis from The Doodle Pantry - www.doodlepantry.com.  There are lots of great digis in the package and I also received scads of freebies with my purchase so I'll be trying those out soon.

I Always Thank God For You Card

I made a card today for my husband to take to one of the little guys he visits in the nursing home.  He asked me to make a nice card with a scripture verse on it.  I used OWH Sketch Challenge #168 for the inspiration on this A2 sized card.  I think it turned out pretty good and I will probably use this same sketch and rubber stamp for some OWH cards as well.


Supplies:
Papers - DCWV Year Round Stack
Leaves - Simply Scarecrows Cricut Cartridge (free cut of the week) - cut at 2.5" using Core-dinations solid cardstock
Sentiment - Printworks Collection Clear Stamps
Foam Squares - The Paper Studio
Adhesive - ATG and AdTech Glue Runner
Ink - Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Vintage Photo

Friday, November 15, 2013

Toad-ally Missing You Card

OWH has put out a call for missing you cards with a specific emphasis on kid friendly ones.  I had just cut out these cute little frogs with the Cricut Create a Critter cartridge and had planned to use them with a You Are Toad-ally Awesome sentiment but changed it over to the the missing you theme.  I embossed the frogs with some polka dots in my Texture Boutique Machine using a cheapo Darice polka-dot embossing folder and then mounted them on action wobbles.  I made twelve A2 sized cards total but used three different backgrounds - one girly, one for a boy, and the third can be used for either.  Here is the girly one:

The pattern paper is from The Girlhood Stack from DCWV and the solid papers are all from Core'dinations.  The frog is cut at 2.5" and the pattern paper is cut at 5 1/4" x 4".  I printed the sentiment out using Word with a free font called American Typewriter.  The sentiment is cut at 2" x 1" and mounted on a Cricut cut from that same cartridge cut at 2.5" x 1.5".  I'm just starting to figure out all these little extras on these cartridges and I think it's making my cards look nicer.  I also just picked up some White Jelly pens and have started using them to add dimension to my cuts.  I just popped a little white dot in each eye of the frog and I think it adds a lot.

I'm going to see how many missing you cards I can get done this weekend and then get a small package shipped off to OWH.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Operation Write Home Sketch Challenge #198 - Miss You Cards

I took OWH's sketch challenge #198, made a few alterations to it, and turned it into this:



This is a standard A2 sized card in Core'dinations Vanilla Cream cardstock.

All patterned paper is from The Paper Studio's Kellerkurtz & Company Paper Pack
Large scale patterned paper - 5 1/4" x 4"
Small scale green paper - 4 3/4" x 1 1/2"
Pink paper - 2 1/2" x 2"
Sentiment - 1 1/2" x 2" - this is from a stamp set that I've lost the packaging for so I have no idea who made it
Flower - Bitty Blossoms 1 1/2"
Brad - some loose brads I had hanging out - no idea where they came from

I inked all edges in Peeled Paint Distress Ink from Jim Holtz.

I made five of this design and these are going into the OWH donation box.

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Autumn Girl Birthday Card

Here is a birthday card I made for my sister.  I just started exploring using digi stamps and colored pencils so this card took me a bit longer than my usual creations.  I do like how it turned out but I really need to invest in better colored pencils or dip my toe into Copics.  This card is a little bit larger than an A2 card and all the borders were cut at 1/4" larger than the previous.  I rounded the corners with an inexpensive little corner rounder punch I picked up at Hobby Lobby.  I popped the sentiment up on some small foam squares.  I added an insert inside for my message since the card is on a black base.  I doubled matted the white cardstock insert with the black/white line art paper and yellow polka dot paper from the front.



Digi Stamp -  http://freedeariedollsdigistamps.blogspot.com/
Paper - DCWV Girl Fille Stack
Sentiment Stamp - Fiskars How Many Candles Clear Stamp Set

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Compassion Christmas Cards

This is the card I created for the Compassion Christmas mailing. I popped up the reindeer on Diana's and Renaydine's cards on action wobbles but the remainder I sent in were on foam squares. The card is a standard A2 size.  I made a total of 45 cards in this design. 
Supplies used:
Cricut Create a Critter Cartridge
The Paper Studio solid card stock
DCWV Christmas Pack 
Unknown clear stamp sentiment
Diamond Stickles on the hooves and antlers
Darice gemstone for the nose
Aleene's quick dry tacky glue to construct the reindeer
ATG adhesive for the layers on the card
Foam squares from Hobby Lobby (action wobbles on 2 cards) to secure the reindeer

Creation inspiration:  www.expressionbypinke.blogspot.com

Love Card #2

This is the second of the OWH cards I've made for the Love category.
I used a lot of scraps on this card as well as the Love Card #1 so I'm unsure where they all came from but here are the measurements:
Basic A2 card made with white cardstock and I inked around the edges using Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Tea Dye.
Teal layer - 5 1/4" x 4"
Polka Dot Layer - 5" x 3 3/4"
Kraft Layer - 2 1/2" x 3"
Teal Flower Layer - 2 1/4" x 2 3/4"
Sentiment Layer - 2" x 2 1/2" - stamped with a basic black ink pad using the Fiskars Lasting Love stamp collection.

I made six of this design.

Love Card #1

This is the first of the OWH cards I've made.  This one will fall into the Love category.
I used a lot of scraps on this card so I'm unsure where they all came from but here are the measurements:
Basic A2 card made with white cardstock and I inked around the edges using Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Tea Dye.
Teal layer - 5 1/4" x 4"
Polka Dot Layer - 5" x 3 3/4"
Kraft Layer - 3 1/2" x 2 1/4"
Teal Flower Layer - 3 1/4" x 2"
Sentiment Layer - 3" x 1 3/4" - stamped with a basic black ink pad using the Fiskars Lasting Love stamp collection.

I made six of this design.