Thursday, December 13, 2012

Potato Soup

Mmmm, this is one of our favorite winter meals!

Potato Soup
6 Red Potatoes (or what ever you have) -diced, bite size 
3 Heads of Broccoli -chopped
1 Large Onion -chopped
3 Cloves  Garlic -minced
3 c. Chicken Broth or water and 3 bullion cubes.
4 c. Milk -I use 1% to cut calories but whole is so creamy!
2 tsp. White Pepper -this is a little more than we like
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 c. + 2 TBLS Flour
1 c. shredded cheese. Cheddar or Colby/Jack Blend are great.

To make this come together faster I start the potatoes cooking in the broth in one pan and use my large soup pan to saute the onion and garlic. Then add the broccoli to the onions and saute until it becomes tender, but is still a bright shiny green. When the potatoes are soft pour the broth and potatoes into the veggies.
Blend the 1/2 cup of flour and 1 cup of milk together in a small dish, slowly add it to the pot stirring as you go. Let it cook for a moment and add the rest of the (3 c.) milk, as well as the salt and pepper. Simmer until it begins to thicken.  
Add the 2 TBLS of flour to the cup of shredded cheese, tossing until the cheese is coated. Sprinkle cheese into soup and gently stir. The flour on the cheese helps keep it suspended in the soup rather than sinking to the bottom of the pan. We like to add a little more cheese to the bowl after serving as well. :) 

Enjoy!

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Large 3D Ornament


The story behind this ornament: 
A few months ago the Holiday Stampin' Up Catalog came in the mail and I fell in love with the project on the cover. 
 Now, I am not a big stamper but I really like their ink and paper, and establishments, and even their digital stuff so I love looking through the catalogs. When I saw this onrament I knew I could make it with my Kiwi Lane templates but I had no idea how to start! I emailed my Stampin' Up Gal Kristine, and she found me these GREAT instructions. If you get lost in my rambling you may want to check them out. lol

Supplies:
Kiwi Lane Celebrate and Tiny Nature Templates, I used the small "balloon" and small "leaf"
Patter Paper, I used some Stampin Up left overs I had
Scissors, ink, glue gun, glue stick, twine or ribbon, tulle, button or large jewel

Since I really had no idea how this would go together I started with copy paper. You will want to make one of these as a background to glue all of your pieces to. I made my final one out of red card stock to match my pattern paper. 
(She used it just as a template to design her ornament, but I actually glued my "petals" to it to make it stronger.)
Once I had the general idea and figured I could make it work I went to the pretty paper.
Trace and cut 20 of each design. I used the small leaf and small balloon.
I divided them into sets of 5 with "4 petals" each; you will need to score/fold 3 of the 4 "petals" to make 
one complete petal/arm of the ornament.  So 5 of the 20 will need to stay flat and the rest will need to be 
scored/folded in the middle


You will find when folding the leaf in half that it does not line up exactly, I just trimmed it to match once it was glued together. Once glued you may ink or distress to your liking.

Ah! I don't have a good photo of putting them together. 
-Lay down the un-scored piece, glue the 3 scored pieces to that one. The link above has really good photos showing how they go together if you need them. -So sorry!
Once your "petals" are glued together glue the "balloon" petals to the base.
Now it is time to plug in the glue gun. Cut 10 small lengths of tulle, mine are about 2 x 4 inches roughly.
In this photo I am just "playing" with my placement before I start hot gluing. The white "leaf" petals
have not been glued in yet.
 
I folded each piece of tulle in half and scrunched it together then glued in as shown.
Now that you are comfortable, go ahead and glue down with the glue gun.
It is time to glue in the 2nd layer of petals. I used a glue gun for these as well.
You should now have something that looks similar to this. :)
You are now ready to glue in your twine or ribbon. I find it easier to touch the twine to the glue gun rather than try and squeeze it onto such a small target. You will need 5 loops as well as a larger loop to use to hang from.
The twine is glued into the top fold of the "balloon" petal as shown. The larger loop for hanging will be glued down between the petals to the card stock base.
To make the center Rosette; scallop the edge of a 12 inch sheet and trim to 3/4 inch wide.
You can score every quarter of an inch or just eyeball it and fold it back and forth like a paper fan, like I did.
Once you have it folded glue the ends together and hot glue the center, holding until cooled.
Attach a button with a glue dot and you have a beautiful ornament!
Enjoy!

Small 3D Ornament


After making the gorgeous Large 3D ornament I want to find something a little smaller to go with it. I found a great idea here. If you have problems with my introductions check out hers. ;)
I am using my favorite scrap booking tool. The Kiwi Lane templates to make these fun little gems.

Supplies:
Kiwi Lane Tiny Holiday templates
Double sided paper, scraps will do. I used Basic Grey Jovial
Ink, scissors, glue stick, hole punch, twine or ribbon for hanging

For the tree and snowflake you will need to flip them when tracing to get a full image. Trace and cut 3 of each image. In the above link she used 4 but I only used 3 so that I can fold them for storage.
Again, I only used 3 pieces and left this side unglued so that I can fold it like this to store easily. If you are not worried about storage use 4 pieces and glue all the sides.
Fold each piece in half. Two with one print up and 1 with the flip side off the paper facing up.
Before you glue you will want to make sure that when finished you will have 2 sides with each print.
First lay one down flat and then place the other 2 on top. Before glue make sure all side have the prints lined up how you want them. 
 It might throw you a little, but you are only using 3 pieces, gluing 3 sides and 
leaving one side unglued. In this picture the black snowflake print where my fingers are is your fourth side. DON'T GLUE IT TOGETHER.
This is what the unglued side looks like when open.
Ink and trim, if needed, all of the edges. Punch a hole for hanging. NOTE, when punching the hole fold the ornament so that the 2 sides that are glued. (not the one left unglued) are open and punch in the fold about 1/4 of inch down.
Attach ribbon or twine.
Continue with as many shapes as you like! 
With the tree I did not glue all the way to the tips because I liked the added texture. I even bent the tips out a little more just for fun. ENJOY!