Melon Mambo Madness birthday card -featuring Blendabilities.

Melon Mambo Madness Birthday card 

One of the people nearest and dearest to me celebrated a big birthday last month (August) and I gave her this card that I made with the crafting group my Upline hosts.  I really love this card.... so much so, that I'll be making a few more of them. The color just pops! (in a good way) It also features two things I'm loving from Stampin Up: blendabilities Markers and the new Blended Bloom stamp!

For the coloring, I used Stampin Blendabilities markers in the Melon Mambo assortment on the petals.  Have I mentioned how much I enjoy coloring with these?! Each pack comes in a set of three shades of the same color.  For instance, the Melon Mambo assortment comes with the light, medium, and dark markers all in the melon mambo color. They are so fun to use and very blendable (hence the name).

The flower, is Stampin Up's new 'Blended Bloom' stamp, which is not only pretty and but very versatile. You can use different colors on it to get totally different looks, and it can be used for a variety of different sentiments and occasions, Birthday to sympathy. I used  Melon Mambo cardstock, and stamped it with  the 'Positively chevron' stamp using the Melon Mambo classic Stampin' Pad. The sentiment was made using a stamp from the 'label love' stamp set. and the coordinating 'Artisan label' punch. There is also a bundle with those two items (Label Love stamp set  & artisan label punch) that saves you 15%.

Grandma loved the card, and it was so fun and easy to make!  Let me know if you have any questions on how to create this or any other projects you dream up.... I'd be happy to help! :)

Lemon & Lime Merengue Pies

Happy Wednesday Folks!  I had a wonderful 4 day weekend... yes took an extra day of vacation as a mental health day.  Don't we all need those from time to time or is it just me?

Lemon Merenge Pie 

I was in a baking mood this weekend and made a Lemon Merenge pie for Sunday's barbeque at our house. I figured it could be one of my last 'summery' pies before I go into Fall baking season.  I am very much a seasonal baker.  In Florida, Fall is not as obvious a season as in other states, but once I put up Fall decor and start having Pumpkin spice lattes, I tend to switch my baking to Apple, Cinnamon, and "Pumpkiny" treats. I also happen to have some sort of Maple tree in my yard, which has leaves that change color and fall off... it's my favorite! It's like a tiny piece of Northern foliage in my yard. I'm clearly getting carried away dreaming of Fall....

Back to the pie:  I used basic ingredients in my pie, as usual.  I'm no Martha Stewart or anything, but some of the best pies I've tasted,  were made from the simplest recipes.  Lemons, Sweetened condense milk, a grater (to get some lemon zest), eggs, and some sugar (along with a tiny bit of cream of tartar too) are all I used.

the beginnings of a Lemon Merenge Pie 

My husband, who likes Lemons, but absolutely LOVES limes, bought some Persian Limes at a local farmer's market and suggested I substitute Limes for Lemons in the recipe and make him a Lime Merengue Pie.  It sounded weird, but easy enough to do so I gave it a go and to my surprise, he ended up liking the pie.

One Lime Merengue pie and One Lemon Merengue pie

The recipe I usually use for my Lemon Merengue Pie is "Paula Deen's Lemon Merengue Pie"
(I do tend to tweak or change amounts/measurements of certain ingredients)

Happy baking!