Sunday, November 28, 2010

Caramel Apple Cheesecake

Hey all! The Thanksgiving holiday festivities are winding down around here. Ours was actually pretty relaxed and easy-going and it was nice to take a moment and reflect on the many, many blessings in our lives.

Today we had dinner with my husband's family. He remembered to tell me I was to bring a desert as we were walking out the door to go Christmas shopping yesterday afternoon. Gotta love that man. LOL

On such short notice I had to reach for my tried and true Caramel Apple Cheesecake.



It turned out so pretty I had to take a picture! And I thought since I was teasing you with a picture I should give you the recipe. It's a keeper!

1 (21 oz) can apple pie filling
1 (9 inch) graham cracker crust
2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup Mrs. Richardson caramel ice cream topping
15 (or so) pecan halves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Reserve 3/4 cup of apple pie filling - set aside. Spoon the remaining filling into the crust.
Beat together the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Add eggs and beat until smooth.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the center is set. Cool to room temperature.

Combine the reserve pie filling and caramel topping in a small saucepan. Heat for about 1 minute. Spoon the mixture over the top, arranging the apple slices around the center.

Lay the pecan halves around the apples. Chop the remaining halves and sprinkle in the center.

Refrigerate until ready to serve. YUM!

Now we're off and running towards Christmas!
Are you ready?
HB

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Perfect match

I've had a pack of Andrea Victoria (MME) paper for so long and have never opened it (hangs head in shame). Well.. the other day my friend Bevie and I decided to have a challenge using the Papertrey Ink set we got at CHA (you can't purchase it, we got it for spending big bucks. lol). As I looked through my papers to decide what to use I spied the sheet from the pack that has dandelion poofs all over it.

A match made in heaven.

I stamped the dandelion poofs on vellum with Fresh Snow ink and embossed with white detail powder. Cutting them out of vellum is SO much easier than cutting cardstock! For the center of each poof, I punched circles out of a strip of white cardstock that I ran through my Xyron sticker maker and then dipped in glitter.

As long as I had the set out, I made up a few for the Meals on Wheels program (see post HERE). The paper is also from the Andrea Victoria line.

That's my new thing. Each time I make a card I make a few more for the program until I fill a box and my darling husband delivers it.

Hope you are having a great weekend!
HB

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Purple Flowers

A couple weeks ago my friend Bevie told me how to make these pretty little flowers using the Tattered Florals die (Tim Holtz Alterations). I sat down with some purple/periwinkle cardstock and gave them a try. They are so easy!


This past weekend I used them to create these:

I actually made 12 cards, some being duplicates of these. All papers are from an old SU! 6x6 paper pad.

For this one I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder, PTI die, Penny Black sentiment and ribbon from Michaels.


Spellbinders ribbon tag, PTI sentiment and May Arts ribbon.


QuicKutz embossing folder, metallic rub-ons and Spellbinders ribbon tag.

EK Success border punch, Spellbinders ribbon die, PTI sentiment and May Arts ribbon.

Martha Stewart punch and PTI sentiment

It was a fun way of mass producing without getting bored by the same design.
Thanks for stopping by. I'm really glad you did!
HB

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Using it up...

Hey everyone! Do you ever stand in your craftroom, look around and say "where in the WORLD did all this stuff come from?" I think I could be in that room a very very long time, stamp and create continually, and never run out of anything but maybe adhesive.

So... when a flyer came across my desk at work one day saying that the local Meals on Wheels program was looking for people/groups to make handcrafted cards to send their clients (the recipients of the daily meals), the proverbial light bulb went off over my head.

I started with this...


and ended with this....



31 cards in one day! That is a record for me! And you can be sure I won't stop there. I have a LOT of stuff to use! And they loved them... wooHOOOO!

Big Hugs!
HB