Author: Scraps

Imagine That: Trumpet Flowers Card

In The Studio

One of our prompts this month over on the Imagine blog is the color Sangria. I love a good, deep red–there’s lots you can do with the color. While the holidays are coming up, and I had another project that scooted into that territory, I wanted to do something more general for this prompt.

I’d recently seen a picture of trumpet flowers and for whatever reason that gut stuck in my head and I was desperate enough to try my hand at carving my own stamp just so I could create the card I saw in my head.

I’m actually really pleased at how it turned out, and if you’d like to see the carving process I’ve posted it over on my own YouTube channel: Stamptember: Carving a detailed flower cluster stamp! It was a good 4 hours or more of work, spread out over three nights, but totally worth it!

After putting in so much effort into carving the stamp and then coloring the image, I didn’t feel like the card needed at lot of extra bits added to it. Does this count as a CAS (clean and simple) card? Maybe?

At any rate, make sure to head over to the Imagine blog to check out the video of how the finished card came to be.

And if you’d like to make your own version of the card but aren’t quite into carving your own stamps, I made a digital stamp set from the finished image–complete with separated elements as well as the finished arrangement–and put it up over in the Crafty Branch Etsy shop. I’d love to see what you come up with!

While I was add it, as a thank you for reading this far, I took those digital elements and made a wreath image you can download now for free! Make sure you tag @scrapsoflife and @thecraftybranch on Instagram when you make something with it!

Download it by clicking this link: TCB_JLV_TrumpetFlowerFreebie

 

Imagine That: Faux Metal Stamping

In The Studio

Lately I’ve had puzzle pieces on my mind. Not so much the desire to put together an actual puzzle, but more their use as a metaphor for life.

  • Picking up the pieces
  • Missing piece
  • Piece of my heart

And so on…

Puzzles make fairly inexpensive crafting materials, since you can usually find some at the thrift or dollar stores. It doesn’t matter what’s on them, because you’re going to transform them into something else.

I have a whole list of projects planned for puzzle pieces (watch the blog and, more often, my Instagram feed for works in progress), but today I’m sharing a fun faux finish project over on the Imagine Blog–faux metal stamping. The metallic silver Creative Medium is pretty much perfect for this technique, and I hope you’ll give it a try!

Imagine That: Moonlit Leaf Stenciling

In The Studio

Fact: Stencils are super-versatile in the craft room.

Another fact: I so often forget to use mine!

This month one of our prompts was to use stencils in something. I always have such fun with them, I really need to get in the habit of using them more. Without needing to be nudged.

At any rate, I had a blast making this simple, yet striking, background using a leaf stencil, VersaCraft, and All-Purpose ink. The light chalk ink stood out just fine on the dark background, but when I added the Plantinum API, it really popped!

The effect I went for with the fourth layer of color (all with the same stencil) I thought looked like the ripples of a pond or a soundwave echo, so that’s why I’m calling it a Stencil Echo technique.

Head over to the Imagine Blog to check out how I did it and give it a try yourself!

The Verdict Is In | Crock Pot Express Diary, Part 4

Tuesday Revews-Day

This is an entirely unsolicited, unsubsidized review of the Crock Pot Express and a few cookbooks relating to the appliance. While there will be Amazon affiliate links, that’s as far as it goes.

If you’re starting at the end, make sure to check out the play-by-play in parts 1, 2, and 3.

Final Thoughts on the 6qt Crock Pot Express

Overall, I was surprisingly impressed by the Crock Pot Express and I look forward to trying out more of it’s functions and features in the coming weeks. Oh, hell, I named the damn thing, I adore it–let’s be honest!

From a usability standpoint, once I got accustomed to the way the appliance worked, my comfort level grew exponentially. Unlike the stove top pressure cooker I tried a few years ago, this one doesn’t rattle and only whistles the tiniest bit when it’s building pressure. Nothing alarming or concerning at all. No desire to flee to the next room and peek around the corner with a mirror to protect myself from the shrapnel.

The earlier recipe issues were, I think, just that. Incomplete instructions made for lackluster results. My concern that the cooker may not be functioning as intended was dispelled once we got into more straightforward applications.

Upkeep-wise, I’d read (in reviews on the Crock Pot site, when I was looking at replacement parts availability) that using the dishwasher for the inner pot (despite this being shown on the sales page for the pot) had damaged the finish for some people. Since I don’t want that to happen, we’ve stuck to handwashing. The good news is that so far nothing sticks and clean-up is a breeze. I’m still planning on ordering a second inner pot (and a spare gasket, just in case) to have on hand for busy nights.

Also, I need to get my hands on some smaller cooking vessels for pot-in-pot recipes. I found a 7-cup Pyrex bowl (I carried it over to the display model in Target to make sure it would fit!) that I used for the quiche, but they didn’t have a small enough springform pan or other bakeware. The steam rack that comes with the CPE is a shade over 7.5″ wide, so 6-inch diameter vessels seem the safest bed.

A Word on the Books

I used a lot of the recipes from 500 Crock Pot Express Recipes by Jamie Stewart, even after the first few tried to go pear-shaped on me. It wasn’t planned, it’s just the one I bookmarked the most out of. Would I actually recommend it? Hard to say. No, really! With 500 recipes, there’s bound to be a few duds, but at the same time it also means you’ve got a lot of options to choose from.

The Crock Pot Express Cookbook by Dave Zinman didn’t have as many recipes that I was interested in, but your mileage may vary, as with all things. There was one recipe that involved Cake Crusts as an ingredient that puzzled me to no end. Upon looking it up I did find some references to using the crust of a sponge cake for cheesecake instead of graham cracker, etc. So maybe that’s it.

The Crock Pot Express Beginner’s Guide and Cookbook (by Elizabeth Moore), however, I cooked zero recipes from–I just didn’t get to them–but really enjoyed the info at the beginning of the book. That’s where I learned things like the CPE needs at least a cup of liquid to create sufficient pressure and to thin down thicker sauces (like barbecue sauce) to prevent burning or insufficient pressure.

Of course, you also have to take some of the tips with a grain of salt as she mentions removing foods like oatmeal or pearl barley from recipes when you convert the for pressure because they foam and can clog the works. There’s a multigrain preset, so that seems a bit overly cautious, don’t you think? And then the first recipe is for Apples and Cinnamon Oatmeal. So, yeah, a little contradictory.

I think after a few weeks I’ll feel more comfortable adapting recipes for use in Exie and I won’t feel so dependent on specific recipes. We shall see!

Don’t Press That Button | Crock Pot Express Diary, Part 3

Tuesday Revews-Day

This is an entirely unsolicited, unsubsidized review of the Crock Pot Express and a few cookbooks relating to the appliance. While there will be Amazon affiliate links, that’s as far as it goes.

Just joining us? Make sure to check out part 1 and part 2.

Day 4: Smooth Sailing

I was feeling pretty good about our working relationship by Friday night, and set about to prep the Beef Medley with Blue Cheese and Cabbage (Zinman, 60) without any hesitation.

It’s so nice to be able to saute the meat and vegetables in oil in the same vessel it will pressure cook in, though being on the shorter side it is, perhaps, a touch more awkward than preparing the same dish would have been on the stove.

Truth be told, I was feeling quiet comfortable with the new kitchen toy. Perhaps a bit too comfortable.

Day 5: Our First Error

Saturday’s supper wasn’t quite a set it and forget it sort of deal, the way the last few nights had been. The Orange Marmalade-Glazed Chicken Thighs (Stewart, 57) only needed 5 minutes under pressure (again, not specified, but I figured the Poultry setting would suffice–call it a hunch) and the lowest that preset will program is 15.

In this case, I needed to watch the display count down and then press the Start/Stop button to end the process, let the pressure release, and then serve up supper.

Sidebar: I wasn’t quite brave enough to try the pot-in-pot, 2 dishes in one setup that some sources say you can (in this case setting the steaming rack on top of the chicken thighs and placing the rice and water in a bowl above it. Maybe next time…

At any rate! The rice cooker must be feeling the pressure (oh, gosh, really bad pun, totally not intended) because I did set it up to cook the rice for the meal and it worked perfectly. I can hear it now “Please don’t throw me away!!!!”

Thinking I knew what I was doing, I did the start/stop, but then figured I could manually switch it over to Keep Warm. Exie set me straight with an E4 error code that that was a no go, ghost rider. Oops!

To clear the error I needed to unplug the appliance and let it cool down. Since that was the general plan anyway, dinner was not harmed due to my hubris.

And if I was worried that 5 minutes under pressure wouldn’t be enough to cook the chicken thighs, I needn’t have been. Those suckers were registering at 200 degrees F by the time  the pressure released sufficiently to check them.

Too bad a turkey won’t fit in there!

Day 6: Six Minute Soup

I’d expected Sunday to be rainy, with a bit of a chill, so the Thai-Style Sweet Corn Soup (Stewart, 323) seemed like a really good idea. Sunday actually ended up rainy and muggy, but the soup was still tasty!

Once again, the 6 minute pressure-cook time was less than the Soup preset would allow, so I had to babysit Exie and hit Start/Stop at the appropriate time to let the pressure start to come down. Once it had, I switched it back over to Saute so I could add the final ingredients.

It was a nice and easy coast to the finish line of our first week together. I still have a lot of functions to try out, though!