Banana Nut Muffins

Recently, while tumbling down the rabbit hole of Pinterest, I came across Jenny Hobick's blog, Everyday Occasions, and promptly proceeded to pin nearly every recipe she had shared. These banana nut muffins are the first I have had the opportunity to try out, but given the delicious results, I have to imagine the others are just as good.

I made the minor adjustments of using an electric mixer (she uses a Kitchen Aid) and baking them in standard sized muffin tins (she used a jumbo tin). Other than that I made these exactly as called for and they were amazing! I am always on the lookout for a good muffin or quick bread recipe, and these will definitely be joining my tried and true file. Enjoy! :)

Banana Nut Muffins from Everyday Occasions

INGREDIENTS
4 overripe bananas
1 c. sugar
3/4 c. unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. nuts, finely chopped (I used walnuts)

PREPARATION
Peel the bananas.  Mash them roughly with a fork, leaving some chunky pieces for texture.  Place half of them in a large mixing bowl.  Set aside the other half of the bananas.

Add sugar to the bananas in mixing bowl, beat them together for 3 minutes with an electric mixer until a frothy mixture forms.  Add butter, eggs and vanilla.  Mix together until combined.  Add flour, baking soda, salt, remaining bananas and nuts.  Stir until just combined.  Do not over mix.

Scoop the batter into a muffin tin lined with baking cups. Bake at 350 degrees for 16-18 minutes until baked through.  Serve with softend butter.

Floral Thank You Note Sets

Today I have more thank you notes to share with you. I wanted to play around with this lovely image from the SU! set Field Flowers. It is so beautiful and elegant! I've been challenging myself to pull out stamp sets that I haven't used in a while and give them some love.

 

The card base is made from Rustic Cream card stock (PTI), which has flecks of fiber in it. I love how that adds to the natural beauty of the cards.

For this first set, I stamped the two-tone flower in Barely Banana and Tangerine Tango ink. The stems are stamped in Always Artichoke.  I played around with lots of color combos to get the look I was going for. I have gotten rather spoiled by using clear stamps lately. In going back to rubber, my stamp-a-ma-jig was my best friend getting everything lined up!

 

The sentiment was stamped three times in Tangerine Tango without re-inking.  Stamping off isn't a technique I use very often, but I like how this sentiment turned out!

Inside, I stamped a flower bud in the same colors. I like to embellish the lower left corner of the inside of my cards, because you usually sign on the right. How do you embellish the inside of your cards?

Here is the same design in purple. This time the flowers were stamped in Lavender Lace and Vintage Violet.

And in pink! This one was done in Pretty in Pink and Rose Red ink.



There are four cards in each color set, all bundled together with raffia.  All three sets are available in my Etsy shop.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!


SUPPLIES
Stamps: Field Flowers (SU!), Mat Stack 1 Collection (PTI)
Paper: Rustic Cream (PTI)
Ink: Barely Banana, Tangerine Tango, Lavender Lace, Vintage Violet, Pretty in Pink, Rose Red, Always Artichoke (SU!)
Tools: Stamp-a-ma-jig

Chevron Thank You Note Sets

Hello! I've been busily working away in my craft room the past two weeks trying to increase my stock of inventory. Craft fair season is quickly approaching and there are a few shows I am hoping to participate in. If I start now, hopefully crunch time won't be so bad in a few months!

One of the things to come out of my creative endeavors are these cute chevron thank you notes. Originally I was just going to make a set of one color, but they were so much fun I just couldn't stop! I kept eying more colors to try! Ha!

I also experimented with a complete monochromatic look versus stamping the sentiment in black to help it pop.

These sets are now available in my Etsy shop. They are perfect to have on hand for yourself or to give as a gift! With the holidays approaching you can never have too many thank you notes on hand. :)

Like I said, I was having way too much fun making these. :) I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Sending You Thanks

I've been making gift tags again. I do love me some pretty gift wrap!  While working on another project I made the serendipitous discovery that this lovely "thanks" image fits perfectly on a Mat Stack 5 die cut!

I chose to again use Smokey Shadow card stock with white embossing, like I did on these bicycle tags.  The typography and flourishes in this image reminded me of the chalkboard art that is so popular right now, and this color combo really lends itself to that look.

I made one set for myself and another is listed in my shop. I think they look great on gifts. Or. . .

. . . tied to a bottle of wine. Whatever little thank you gift you may have, these would make a pretty presentation for it!


SUPPLIES
Stamps: A Big Thank You (PTI)
Paper: Smokey Shadow (PTI)
Ink: Versa Mark
Embellishments: white satin ribbon, white embossing powder
Tools: Mat Stack 5 die (PTI), Crop-a-dile

Wishing You a Wonderful Birthday

This card was inspired by one of my son's onesies of all things. Gotta take inspiration whenever it strikes! One of his newborn outfits had a pattern of airplanes in basically this color scheme and I thought it would be fun to recreate it on a card using Fly Away. I used a color palette of Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, Bliss Blue and Night of Navy to create the airplane pattern and adhered it to a Soft Suede card base.

The sentiment, from Wishes Come True, was embossed in white on a piece of Soft Suede card stock cut with a Double Ended Banner die. A little bit of twine wrapped around the end finished it off. 

Where do you find inspiration?

SUPPLIES

Stamps: Fly Away, Wishes Come True (PTI)

Paper: Soft Suede, Whisper White (SU!)

Ink: Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, Night of Navy, Bliss Blue (SU!), Versa Mark

Embellishments: twine, white embossing powder

Tools: Double Ended Banner die (PTI)

3-2-1 Blast off!

I played around with Papertrey's Boy Basics: Out of This World again last week. I've been borrowing this set and have to give it back soon so I thought I better get to crafting!

The rocket was die cut from Stamper's Select White card stock and stamped in Onyx Black ink. The gray portion was colored in with a C2 copic marker (my one and only copic!), the red bits were aqua painted with Real Red ink, and the black window was filled in with a sharpie.The stars in the background were stamped with Versa Mark and then embossed in silver.



The sentiment was stamped in Real Red ink and the gray pattern paper along the bottom is from Michael's. The rocket ship's flame outline is stamped in Onyx Black ink. I then used my aqua painter to fill it in with Real Red, Only Orange, and Summer Sun inks.

That's it for now. I hope you have something great lined up for your weekend!
*hugs*


SUPPLIES
Stamps: Boy Basics: Out of This World (PTI)
Paper: Real Red (SU!), Stamper's Select White (PTI), Gray Dot (Michael's)
Ink: Real Red, Only Orange, Summer Sun (SU!), Onyx Black (Versa Fine), Versa Mark
Embellishments: silver embossing powder, C2 Copic marker, black sharpie
Tools: Rocket die (PTI), aqua painter