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

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

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

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

Celebrate Fall

We have had just a long and glorious fall season in Minnesota this year. I love the crisp mornings and the how warm the sun still is when you stand right in it's rays.

To celebrate my favorite season I created this.

The layout is from the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #89 and the stamp set is Autumn Abundance (Papertrey Ink) as are the buttons. The paper is Memory Box.

I hope you are having a wonderful fall! It's truly a blessing to behold!

HB

Let it Snow...what?

Seriously. I am NOT ready for snow. But after playing with fallish papers all day I decided it was time to use some of the new Mistletoe (Memory Box) papers I bought while in Chicago for CHA.

One of the sheets is filled with adorable little birds, all dressed up for winter with little hats, scarves and caps. I knew one would fit perfectly on a branch of Pine's Falling Leaves set (Papertrey Ink).


The snowflakes and sentiment are from Snowfall (PTI).

The sketch is the 10/16 SFYTT. Lots of ways to use up papers with this sketch! LOL! The sparkles are a combination of Sparkly Fluff and Crafty Sparkles (Our Craft Lounge).

I hope you had a wonderful weekend!
HB

a bouquet of wishes...

I was the lucky winner of some Penny Black stamp sets on the Paper Crafts FB page recently. When they arrived in the mail I was so excited as they are just the most adorable images.

This little girl and her jumbo bouquet was the first image I reached for.

She's colored with Copic markers. Her cheeks are pearlescent chalk (Pebbles Inc) as is the tissue surrounding the flowers. I love the little sparkle that chalk leaves.

The center of each flower is fuzzy (fun flock) and I love the texture it gives.

The flower on the top card is made using PTI flower dies. The yellow layer is PTI felt that I punched little holes around the edge for a doily effect.

The flower on the second card is two Sprites (Prima) held together with a brad covered in fun flock. The peach flower started out life white, but a few spritz of Perfect Peach Glimmer Mist and a smoodge of Rock Candie Stickles and waaaLA! Transformation! :)

I stopped at Archivers last night after getting a haircut and was magically drawn to the new Jillibean Christmas papers. OMG I can't wait to cut into them! (*gasp* I know, I know. It's going to be hard! LOL)

See you soon!

HB