Breaking Pie

Still got your stretchy pants on?

I do - and I already have plans for tortilla soup with the remains of the turkey.

BUT - before turkey, there was PIE.

I cooked my pies on Wednesday night and started Thanksgiving Day with a pie taste test breakfast.

One pie I cooked my normal way - with pumpkin pie spice.

But because I had made some amazing Indian food last week and used garam masala, I had been thinking I wanted to try the garam masala instead of pumpkin pie spice in one pie and then compare them. I decided I would be the pie chemist and break tradition. The Walter White of pie. Going rogue on a holiday which is known for tradition. BOOYA!

So I sat down to breakfast with two tiny slices of pie. The garam masala pie was much darker in color with visible flecks of spices.

I tasted that one first and it was SPECTACULAR.

But in the absence of comparison, I couldn't really tell if it was better than the traditional because I love pumpkin pie.

So I took a bite of the second one - the one I've made and loved every year of my adult life.

I was shocked to see that it tasted like WATER compared to the first one.

Not anywhere close to the same animal at all. Incredibly bland.

Can you be pleasantly shocked? If so, I was. I will ONLY make garam masala pie from henceforth. Try it! Here's the particular spice blend I used - I believe each garam masala blend is slightly different.

DELICIOUS.

The chicken recipe that inspired this experiment is below.

But now, a little joy! Today's Mix-Ability challenge is hosted by Anna Wight, and her challenge was to create a snowy scene. I had seen a beautiful White Christmas card by Sandi MacIver on Facebook a few days ago and decided I had to make a card for today's challenge with that set.

First, I taped off a rectangle on a piece of watercolor paper. Then I lightly sprayed the masked area with a mixture of Tempting Turquoise re-inker and rubbing alcohol. Next, I stamped the images from White Christmas in Smoky Slate.

After that, I took a Kemper Splatter Brush and splattered white paint all over the scene.

I know people like to use toothbrushes for this, but I find that the spatter brush makes it much easier to control and regulate the spattering with that ingenious construction with the rotation against that little rod. Highly recommend. 

It's hard to see in my photo but since I didn't dilute the paint, the spatters are 3D and very cool looking. I decided to add a little color to the background and break up the blue, so I watercolored with Daffodil Delight, Orchid Opulence and Tempting Turquoise reinkers.

In the trees, I added some silver Dazzling Details for a little sparkle. Then I cut out the snowman and popped him up with dimensionals.

Finally, I cut the "joy" out of watercolor paper with the Wonderful Wreath framelits.

Now I have a busy three days ahead of me. I'm ripping apart my stamp room! I've sold my desk and I'm looking forward to a new configuration in the space, with less furniture and less stuff in general. It's been nearly twelve years in this space and I think I finally have a better idea of what will be functional, easy to use, organized and pretty. Yeah, I'm a slow learner.

And yes, I'll post before & afters.

Hope you have a fun & relaxing weekend planned. Come play along in the challenge today if you have time to stamp!

Here's that delicious chicken recipe:

Chicken in a Creamy Cashew Sauce
                                       
Marinade
1 garlic clove
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons garam masala
Juice of 1 lemon (I actually didn't have a lemon, so I used the equivalent amount of True Lemon
1½ cups Greek yogurt (Fage 2%)
3 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into pieces

Sauce
2 tablespoons coconut oil, divided
2 onions, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeño, minced
2 tablespoons garam masala
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons turmeric
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
One 28-ounce can whole tomatoes
1 cup chicken broth
¾ cup raw cashews
¼ cup heavy cream

To Finish
Steamed rice, for serving
Frozen peas
½ cup chopped cilantro, for garnish
                                           
Directions                                           
                                           
1. Make the marinade: With the side of a chef’s knife, smash the garlic clove and salt into a paste. Transfer to a medium bowl, then stir in the garam masala, lemon juice and Greek yogurt.
2. Place the chicken in a 1-gallon Ziploc bag, and add the marinade to the bag. Seal, then massage the chicken to coat it with the marinade. Refrigerate while you make the sauce.
3. Make the sauce: In a large pot, heat 1 tablespoon coconut oil over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until very tender, 7 to 9 minutes. Add the garlic and jalapeño, and sauté until fragrant, 1 minute more.
4. Add the garam masala, cumin, turmeric, salt and pepper to the onion mixture and cook, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon, until the spices smell toasty, 1 to 2 minutes.
5. Stir in the tomatoes and chicken broth, and cook, using the end of the wooden spoon to break up the tomatoes a bit while the mixture comes to a simmer. Add the cashews and simmer for 15 minutes.
6. Blend with a stick blender until smooth
7. Cook the chicken: In the now-empty pot, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon coconut oil over medium-high heat. Add the chicken pieces to the pan, shaking gently to remove excess marinade, and sauté until golden brown, 7 to 9 minutes.
8. Pour the finished sauce into the pan and add the heavy cream. Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. Cook, covered, until the chicken is very tender, 20 to 30 minutes more.
9. Cook rice, and add frozen peas when rice is cooked and cover until ready to serve.
10. To serve, spoon the steamed rice onto a plate or into a bowl. Top the rice with a portion of the cooked chicken and sauce. Garnish with the cilantro.

Pumpkin Pie - I use the recipe on the Libby's can, EXCEPT - instead of sugar + evaporated milk, I use one can on sweetened condensed milk, and instead of all the spices listed, I use 2 tsp. of garam masala. DELIGHTFUL. Slightly modified from original Pure Wow recipe here.

Loveyameanitbye.

This Word "We" - It Doesn't Mean What You Think It Means

So when you're a good little child, raised in a nice small town in SE Texas, you learn manners.

You learn to say sir and ma'am, speak when spoken to (I wasn't so hot at this as I sort of love the whole speaking process) you learn the difference between adults and children, and you respect the adult / child boundary.

I remember when my parents had parties, we had to be upstairs. Did we spy on them from the top of the stairs? Yes. But there was no mingling. They had their fun and we had ours.

We also learned that there were multiple authorities with control over us as children. Neighbor parents, for example. If a spanking was required, they were authorized - encouraged, even - to deliver it. Teachers and principals as well.

Custody of us was transferred each time we were within sight of another adult. This is a great system and should make a comeback.

But one day, in ninth grade, it all broke.

I remember quite distinctly the day that I learned that it was completely okay for me to tell people with a wide variety of experience/age differentials to stuff it.

It was the day that my biology II teacher, who, by the way, I really liked and respected, told the class we'd be dissecting cats.

Yeah, lady, I thought - you keep using this word "we" - I'm not sure it means what you think it means. I'm not your huckleberry there. There is no power in the universe that could make me do that. I wouldn't even do that at gunpoint.

Mind you - the whole class was horrified - not just me. But we were good kids. We didn't tell grownups to shove it.

Until I did.

I said - Sorry Mrs. Loving - I'm just not going to do that.

I left the class. And I was not summarily executed or forced to leave the planet. It was actually surprisingly uneventful.

I got an F. The very first and last F of my life, and the grade I am MOST proud of. I'd like a thousand more F's for situations just like that. Because you know what? I did fail. I EARNED THAT F LIKE A BOSS. I owned it. I didn't even try not to F. It was the perfect score. Any other grade would have been a travesty.

She was surprised and, I can't lie - mad - I think just because she really loved teaching, not because she felt disrespected, but she didn't duct tape me to my seat. She just watched me leave. And she told me I'd get a failing grade. Failing, as I remember thinking, was a wee bit relative in this particular situation. I'm pretty sure I won.

But it's good to find out that just because someone tells you you have to do something, doesn't mean you have to do it. You really don't have to do anything at all. And I'm not an anarchist. I just think that there are times in your life when you should say no thank you. Firmly. And not regret it. And embrace all the things that come with it.

I'd love to say that F had no impact on my life, but it did. It's something I earned, and it's something I think of and cherish every time I say no to something that just isn't quite right for me.

And Mrs. Loving, if you're out there - you were an awesome teacher. I loved the little maps we made when we were studying genetics. Maybe that's why I loved biology and hated chemistry - I remember biology being very visual, and chemistry being very math-y. Also, my chemistry teacher was no Walter White, but that's a horse of a different color.

Luckily, none of this interfered with my dream of NOT being a doctor or a medical examiner! Yay me!

Today's Mix-Ability challenge is hosted by Tiffany Johnson - and it's about FEATHERS!

I decided to try an experiment. For some reason when I do gelli printing, I can't bring myself to throw away the ugly mistakes. I don't know why - it's not like the process is expensive. I guess I keep thinking I'll print over them - I do love that you can fix a bad print a lot of times by printing on it again.  But sometimes I don't fix them and they just sit in a drawer. So today I decided to take an ugly print and use it for my feathers.

Here's the ugly print:

It's just awful. It had some cool shapes, but the colors weren't right. I realized when I used it today that what it needed was red or orange.

I stamped a few feathers from the Four Feathers bundle and die cut them. Then I used a skewer that was on my messy desk, dipped it in some Vat Orange Golden Fluid Acrylic and whacked the paint loaded stick against my finger to spatter it. It was just the right color.

I made circles in the background with a sponge dauber and yellow ink, added sequins from the Frosted Sequins collection, and stamped the greeting from Banner Blessings in black.

Of course, if I hadn't wanted to do any of that, I could have just said no thank you. :)

Try it sometime!

Loveyameanitbye.

Shine Like Stars In The Universe

So it really wasn't much of a week. I mean, we just landed a little spaceship on a comet and whatnot - no biggie!

My sister and I renamed the little comet Chigger, because the scientific name is stupid. Why do people have to make everything so complicated? Call it something fun and quit being so stuffy and egomaniacal.

Now last night, I woke up in a cold sweat from a terrible nightmare in which I won a trip anywhere in the world. I had to decided right then while the people who told me I won were there. It was awful. I could NOT decide and still hadn't decided when I woke up. I'm clearly not prepared to win a trip anywhere I want to go, so there's a lesson for a Friday!

In more earthly news, the best stamp set ever was released.

 And I bought it.

Behold its wonder.

I LOVE that hand drawn look. After the comet kerfuffle settled down and I was over my free trip nightmare, I couldn't wait to play with this, and this week's Mix-Ability challenge was the perfect opportunity.

I have discovered that the universe is binary. You either shine or you don't. You're grumpy or happy. You're the comet or you're the spaceship. You're in control of the switch.

I say shine. Shine, little Chigger! Shine! :)

Speaking of shining, holy MOLY do I have an awesome recipe for you.

You know I'm a soup lover. There may or may not be someone in my house who does not believe soup is food, with few exceptions.

THIS soup was an exception! It's RIDICULOUSLY delicious.

Butternut-Boursin-Bacon Soup

Recipe from: Cathy Pollak for NoblePig.com | Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/2 of a large onion, diced
• 4 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 (3-1/2 lb) butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cubed
• 1 Tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
• 1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 2 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth

• 2 (5.2 ounce) rounds Boursin Cheese with Garlic and Fine Herbs
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
• 6 pieces cooked bacon, crumbled
• 1 Tablespoon chopped chives

Directions

• In a large (7 qt) Dutch oven, melt butter over med-low heat. Add onion and celery and cook until slightly softened, about 2-3 minutes. Add butternut squash and thyme leaves, cook for about 8 minutes more. Stir several times. (It is okay if squash begins to brown a little.) Add flour and stir until fully incorporated.
• Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Turn down heat, cover and simmer on low for another 10 minutes. Squash should be soft. Using a hand-held blender or regular blender, puree squash mixture until smooth.
• Add soup back to the pot (if you removed) and add Boursin cheese, salt and both peppers. Stir until cheese is melted.
• Garnish each bowl with crumbled bacon and chives.
  
  
  This soup is seriously a religious experience!! You MUST try it.
  
  
  The only things I think I would do differently next time is hold back on the salt by maybe 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon - (the Boursin has plenty of salt in it) and maybe add a teeny bit of ground crushed red pepper for bite.
  
  
  But it's seriously perfect the way it is. Unbelievable fall dish. I can't wait for lunch.
  
  
  For now, I'm off to ponder where I'd take that trip, so next time it's offered to me, I can shine. :)
  
  
  Loveyameanitbye.

Stop Poking Me With Your Elbows!!

I've been getting massages since the 80s.

I am one of those people that develops world record back knots.

Some of this is my artist personality - I can sit for five hours watercoloring a tiny squirrel to get it *just* right. I don't realize that there are humans and animals that require food, or that deadlines have come and gone or that I haven't moved my neck in four hours. I just get... lost.

Part of it I think it just genetic. I think some people's muscles knot up and some people's don't.

Someday I will win a Nobel prize for correlating my horseradish allergy and aversion to seafood to back knots. Then I will curse the shrimp cocktail eaters with my whole face and my million dollars.

In the meantime, I try to cope with massage.

When I was slaving away as an awesome child laborer in the health food store my mom and her BFF ran in Bryan for $1 an hour (BTW - John Mackey, before he hit the big time, delivered to our store), I met the first great massage therapists of my life. These people were born to do this work and they were GREAT at it. We also had a reflexologist who worked in the store. Oh, to find a good one in Austin!

So I started there, and then went on to have massages everywhere - Santa Fe, New York, a fun B&B in Fredericksburg, Lifetime Fitness, Massage Envy and a million others.

And for many years, the experience was the same. Massage therapists used their fingers to untie my knots. It was - while sometimes painful - an excellent experience. And then, sometime in the 2000s, massage took a dramatic turn for the worse.

Someone started teaching people to start poking all of us with their bones.

For YEARS I've been getting massages where NO ONE uses their fingers to untie knots - they are all digging their pointy elbows into me, or "massaging" me with their radius and ulna.

NO.

STOP IT.

You are making something that used to be awesome painful and scary. You aren't feeling my muscles, and I am only feeling your pokey bones. QUIT IT. I have a pokey bone or two I might retaliate with!

Here endeth the rant.

NOW - speaking of getting obsessed and doing something for four hours straight, that happened to me yesterday. (Which is why my back hurts and I'm protesting modern massage methods.)

I saw this glorious exploding pyramid box project on Splitcoast and I had to try it for myself.

Because it was SO elusive on the Googlewebz, I had to just wing it. If ANYONE knows who made this project - it was a sample from the Stampin' Up! convention in Brussels - please let me know - I'd love to give him/her credit - I fell in LOVE. (UPDATE - the artist contacted me - YAY! She is the incredibly talented Jo Blackman - here's her post about it. It was a design contest entry at convention. Thank you Jo - you are amazing!!)

My engineering skills - well, I'm lacking in the math and all, but I think I did okay! :) Here's the inside of the box - the outside looks just the same.

 

Here's what I figure out. You can make a perfect triangle exploding box with a piece of cardstock that is 10.5" X 12". Mark the center on the 12" side and cut from the corners to this point to form a triangle. Then, fold one point of the triangle to the center of the opposite side. Do the same with the other two points. You now have a triangle box - BOOM!!!

To make the DSP triangles for the inside and outside, cut pieces that are 5.5 x 4 11/16. The 5.5 side is the base of the triangle, so on the 5.5" side, mark the center at 2.75 - cut from the corners to this point. Boom - triangles! You need six of these to cover both sides of each side of the box.

For the tree - I used 16 punch outs from the Tree Punch - I just lined it up at the edge of the DSP so I wasn't getting the stem - just triangles. Fold each triangle in half, and glue each to another folded half. 8 make up the bottom layer of the tree. For the top layer, you'll insert a folded triangle into a crease in the bottom of the tree. Then add the next one in the next crease and make your way around the tree.

I used three stars punched out of glimmer paper for the topper - be sure and line them up precisely and hold them for a bit while the glue dries. Tombow Mono Multi is a MUST - don't use any other adhesive!.

Then, I deconstructed some cottonballs. I covered the base triangle with glue, and stuck down my fluffy "snow." Then I put a BIG puddle of glue in the center, stuck my tree into it and used my bone folder to put some more cottonball fluff around the base.

If you look at the second photo you'll see I added some glimmer paper snowflakes - the ones that look like jacks - on top of the snow - LOVE.

I colored some rhinestones and stuck them on my tree.

The points of the box are the same on the outside and the inside. I stamped with Holiday Home the little houses on watercolor paper and die cut & colored them with reinkers. I stamped the sleigh image right on the All is Calm DSP with Lost Lagoon.

Now the only thing I can't figure out is how she made that little topper to keep it closed - can you figure it out? I tried a folded circle but it was too small and the box popped open. Let me know if you figure it out!

Whew. Now I really need a massage!

I hope you try it - it really is adorable in real life.

But get up and stretch while you're doing it. :)

Loveyameanitbye.

How a Papercrafter Fries Eggs

Our dishwasher is on the fritz right now - some sort of electrical issue, we think. We eliminated the breaker by replacing it, so now we have a shiny new breaker and a still non-functional dishwasher. So the strategy for cooking has had to change for a while.

I eat a lot of eggs and I absolutely LOATHE doing egg dishes even when the dishwasher is working, so I decided to try an experiment.

I've been watching a lot of Cutthroat Kitchen lately - my newest Food Network addiction, so maybe that's how this nutty idea snuck into my brain.

I decided I was going to try cooking eggs on parchment paper!

I have one of these double burner griddles:

That's where I normally cook both fried eggs and migas. But it's a bear to clean - it's heavy and as you know, eggs are STICKY. So my parchment plan was launched. I put my papercrafting skills to use, and twisted the corners of my parchment squares to make a little paper pan. I buttered it, and set it on the griddle.

I cracked the eggs in there and BOOM - those eggs fried BEAUTIFULLY!! Here they are partly done.

I don't know if it was just that the parchment paper effectively lowered the temperature just a bit or what, but these were some of the most perfectly cooked eggs I've ever made - not ONE brown crunchy spot on the whole thing! When they were done, they slid right off the paper and onto my sandwich. Talk about lifechanging.

THEN I got cocky. I tore off a big piece of parchment that covered the whole griddle, twisted the corners, and I cooked BACON!! With no pan to clean!!

Then I made a whole pan full of MIGAS, which I made into breakfast tacos - about two week's worth, and popped them in the freezer.

I am forever transformed! You can thank me when YOU try it.

Will I go back to my old ways when the dishwasher gets fixed? I SERIOUSLY DOUBT IT.

This.
is.
awesome.

Now - SQUIRREL - I had this stamp set sitting on my desk taunting me this week. Someone on Etsy had made a die that cut out those little squirrels from Nuts About You - I bought it and was dying to stick tiny, die-cut squirrels all over everything! I also wanted to play in Kathleen's Fault in Our Stars Hope You Can Cling To challenge.

So I stamped two of them in Baked Brown Sugar, die cut them and then added some shading with a Derwent Inktense pencil.

The woodgrain embossing folder and the silver glimmer paper finished it off.  The teeny heart is from the Hearts Border Punch.

Now even though this card is all cute and romantic, to me that squirrel on the right looks like she is sort of DEMANDING that acorn. I feel like there will be consequences if she doesn't get it!
I've never had an acorn, so she may know something I don't.

But parchment paper cooking? I AM nuts about you.

Loveyameanitbye.

The Effect of Time Changes on Mixed Media and Refried Beans

Just to follow up on my last post, time changes are still stupid.

 Here's a video illustrating my point:



So if you are suffering from the after-effects of this stupidity, as am I, then I have some things to make you feel better!

Instacart - which has changed my life. Grocery delivery from HEB, Whole Foods, Central Market and Costco - yes, Costco - within two hours for a TINY fee! This has revolutionized my productivity! I'm kind of a daily shopper because I like to get meat and veggies the day I'm going to cook them, and so I used to spend a lot of time hoofing it to the store. Never again! These people are amazing - their website and app are incredible, their drivers are awesome and I am convinced it's saving me a ton of money because I only order what I *need* to cook, and do zero impulse buying. I hope it's in your area - now or soon, because it is GLORIOUS. Every day I give silent thanks to my friend who recommended this to me.

Virtual Stamp Night - Mini Edition starts tonight! The theme is Frozen - whee!! I'm looking forward to a Friday night where I can just stamp. Come join us!


Holiday Tutorial Blitz starts Sunday on Splitcoast! This is a week where we give you a new tutorial every day to prep you for holiday cardmaking and gift giving. Since I've seen the tutorials, I know what amazement is in store for you! Sign up for notifications of each new tutorial here.

I just found the most DELICIOUS American dates!! They are Del Real dates, and I found them in the chilled produce section. Organic and grown in California.

Dina Wakley has a new book out - Art Journal Courage. Just ordered it, because I'm DETERMINED to make 2015 the year of the art journal up in here!

Also, today, I'm making my millionth attempt at the perfect refried beans. While simple and beautiful, refried beans are also elusive and mysterious beans. They are like the unicorn of beans. The correct balance of salt, fat, water - it's a lifelong pursuit. So I try again. Pray for me. And for my beans. I'm loosely following this recipe. If the beans are a religious experience, I'll share my modifications. 

Finally, it's Friday, so that means the Mix-Ability challenge is up. I was excited to see that Ky chose one of my fave artists everrrrrrr - France Papillon - as the challenge inspiration. I LOVE her videos, and she's one of the reasons I really want to start an art journal.

I chose this video as inspiration - because she uses my fave colors together.

I started with the Dictionary background stamp, which I stamped in black onto a scrap of the paper I cleaned my brayer on while I was gelli printing. That's where the warm orange-yellow comes from. I applied turquoise paint with a credit card over that and sponged the edges with Soft Suede.

The flower is from Peaceful Petals. I stamped it in black on grey pastel paper and then colored it with my Luminance pencils, which I'll share a video for soon - they just GLOW!

I stamped that fun, bold hello from Four You onto a strip of  Typeset DSP and boom - Mix-Ability!

Now that Instacart shopped for me, and I don't have any classes this weekend - three glorious, unencumbered days stretch before me. WhatEVER shall I do?

Loveyameanitbye.

You Don't Know What The Word Extra Means - Newsflash!

I had a VERY busy weekend.

I had my class Saturday morning which was a hoot. We had some fall-like weather blow in and I had just happened to design fall & wintery cards, so it was a fun, holidayish meeting of some of my favorite people on earth. We had lunch together, and then I was off to finish prep for my GIANT crafty garage sale. I was pricing things and organizing right up until the time the doors opened to greet my waiting guests. Here's a little taste of how the sale went (here's a link if you can't see the video below):

CRAFTY SALE MADNESS!!!

A video posted by Lydia Fiedler (@understand_blue) on Nov 11, 2014 at 3:07pm PDT

We had so much fun. I had champagne, gourmet tarts from Mandola's, sweet treats and of course, Halloween candy for them to enjoy while they shopped. Most things were priced at a dollar, so people were walking out with bags and bags and bags of things for $20, $30 etc. Great deals to be had! In two hours, more than 1,000 items went out my front door!

For some reason - possibly a result of temporal shift induced mental illness - I decided that I then - at 10 PM -  needed to harvest some peppers and herbs from my back yard for a marinade, marinate chicken, wash dishes and do various other things that basically made me require a lot of Advil before bed.

When I finally did go to bed, I slept like a zombie. I actually didn't wake up until 10:30, which hasn't happened since 1989!

Now when I woke up, the rest of the world was chattering about how they'd had an EXTRA hour of sleep because of the time change.

I hate to break it to you people, but just because you're calling 10:30 9:30 now, you still slept for the same number of hours. It's just that you lied to yourself about some numbers when you got up. You still have the same number of hours in a day - there are only 24 regardless of your lying. I got SEVERAL extra hours of sleep because I slept longer. That's the only way you can get more sleep.

Now there are consequences of your lying - such as, it will now - post-lying - get dark closer to the time you get off work, but that's only because of your lies. Not because the universe expanded by one hour.

(People seem to lie less often in Arizona, and it seems like a nice place to live.)

I don't mind illusions of any sort - I am an artist, after all - but I do require that they be recognized as illusions. I might wake up tomorrow and decide that the NEW 10:30 (the old 11:30) is now 9:30 (the old 10:30 and the OLDER 11:30) and I could get off work two hours early!!

That would just make me a BIGGER liar and possibly fired. However, it does open up a lot of possibilities. I think habitual liars probably have all sorts of creative possibilities (in their minds) that regular people don't have.

I just want us all to be on the same page.

Now, despite my "extra" fake hour today, I am late posting my card for the Challenge Chicks November Challenge which is  reminiscent of the old Girl Scouts' song - Make New Friends - the challenge is to use silver, gold or silver & gold.

For my silver, I used glimmer paper in a die cut inlay. The base panel for that is one of my brayer cleaning sheets from a Gelli Plate printing session. I LOVE these papers - they are often as pretty or prettier than my prints! No way could you get this effect on purpose, which is what I love. This particular scrap looked like the northern lights to me, so I thought I'd do a starry night. I used the die cut inlay technique to embed the silver glimmer paper into the brayered scrap. I have a GREAT tip on how to keep all the intricate pieces you need for the inlay with a common household item here - you will LOVE this.

The inlay is done with the Wonderful Wreath framelits, the Star framelits and the itty bitty star punch.

After I did the inlay, it needed a little contrast, so I used a Pitt Pastel Pencil to add shading around the die cuts, and blended them out with a tortillon.

I love the soft, impressionistic colors in the background with the crispy, sparkly silver.

Super festive for the holidays. Which, by the way, is a terrible time to take up compulsive lying and whatnot. Santa is watching your every move, time travelers.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

Loveyameanitstillonly24hoursinadayhereinTexasbye.