Samantha Walker Creative Team September Blog Hop

Welcome to Samantha Walker Creative Team Blog Hop! This month's theme is Mix and Match Collections.
You should have arrived here from Aimee's blog.

This month's giveaway is Spellbinder's Basic Lattice Die and a Riley Blake Saddle Up Fabric Bundle. 

All you need to do to win this giveaway is to enter below. You can earn multiple entries by following us on Facebook, commenting below, tweeting about the giveaway, and signing up for the email updates.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

We will announce the Blog Hop Winner on Monday, 09/16 on Samantha's Facebook Page.

For my mix and match project I started with pink Calico paper from Giddy Up girl collection and from a fun tag from the same collection. The light aqua frame on the tag gave me an idea to add frames to all my pictures. I pulled out all green/ turquoise/aqua papers from Giddy Up girl and boy collections, Cool Summer and Traditions and added thin frames to my 5 pictures in different hues of green. 

I still wanted a little more green in the layout, so I cut out the scallop edge of the pink patterned paper and mounted the page on a sheet of dark aqua cardstock from Cool Summer collection.

I found a perfect journaling sticker in the Cool Summer collection with aqua frame and green banner. The sticker had two cute cherries in the corner that I covered with pink paisley from the Giddy Up sticker sheet. 

The circle stickers were a fun way to add movement to the layout.

Hope you got some ideas how very different collections can be combined together. 

Don't forget to sign up for Samantha's Newsletter through the Rafflecopter widget to receive your Free SVG and Silhouette Studio file!   

 Click on the image below to head over to Claudia Harvey!

Click on the photo below to go to your next stop!

Cows and honey cakes

August came and disappeared, filled with unpacking, school registrations, paperwork, errands and more paper work and more unpacking. My parents came for three weeks and it was lovely. These three weeks were the fastest. It looks like just yesterday I drove to JFK to pick them up and today is one week since they left. The school starts on Monday and I am looking forward to new routine. Summers are always crazy and this one was particularly crazy.

Just one layout to share. All my scrapbooking supplies are still in the boxes but I managed to make this one for Scrap It Girl September challenge. I was checking A.C. Moore store with my mom and Lila when Lila found a cow webkinz. That discovery immediately had to be shared with her friends in Wisconsin and that's how I found this adorable selfie on my phone.

The challenge for September is to use school supplies - perfect excuse for me to raid Lila's stash of post-it notes. The papers and the stickers are from Samantha Walker's Giddy Up Girl collection for Carta Bella. It was a perfect match. I added a paper clip, few jems and two wood veneer birdies to finish the layout

Supplies: patterned paper, stickers (Carta Bella), letter stickers (Basic Grey), jewels (Bo Bunny),wood veneer (Recollections), post-it notes, paper clip

Go check what other DT members did for this challenge and share your take. Who doesn't like school supplies??

This past week we also celebrated Rosh HaShana - Jewish New Year. I tired a new recipe for honey cake from Michal Vaxman's blog. The blog is in Hebrew but if you read Hebrew I highly recommend it - great stories, beautiful pictures and really good recipes.

Unlike other honey cakes, this one doesn't have the usual heavy spices. It is very light and not too sweet. Here is the recipe in English. All credit goes to Michal Vaxman.

Honey Cake:

4 big eggs divided  into egg whites and yolks

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup oil

2 cups sifted flour  (I used unbleached)

1 flat teaspoon of baking soda

3/4 cup honey

3/4 cup strong tea or 1 tsp instant coffee with 3/4 cup water or 1 short espresso with 3/4 cup water (I used instant coffee)
Optional: walnuts for the top

Preheat the oven to 340F  (170C)

Beat the egg whites with 1/2 cup sugar until stiff peaks form.

In a separate bowl mix yolks, oil, 1/2 cup sugar and coffee or tea.

Add the second mixture to the egg whites mixing carefully

gradually add flour and baking soda and mix till combined

Add honey and mix only till combined.

Spread the walnuts on the top if using

Fill the loaf pans and bake 40 min.

Notes: makes two 8"x4" loaf pans or 6 small loaf pans (not sure what are the dimensions)
The small loaves were ready after 40 minutes, the bigger loaves need few more minutes in the oven.

Samantha Walker Creative Team August Blog Hop

Welcome to Samantha Walker Creative Team Blog Hop!

This month's theme is Back To School! You should have arrived here from Aimee's blog.

This month's giveaway is Pattern Basics Stamp Set.

 

All you need to do to win this stamp set is to enter below. You can earn multiple entries by following us on Facebook, commenting below, tweeting about the giveaway, and signing up for the email updates.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

We will announce the Blog Hop Winner on Monday, 08/19 on Samantha's Facebook Page.

This year back to school time will be extra special for me since my youngest will start Kindergarten. 
Our new home town doesn't have school buses and we are planning on walking to school if the weather will cooperate. To prepare him for the start of the school year I decided it will be fun to make a home-to-school map. (Any Dora the Explorer fans here?) 

I used the new Samantha Walker alphabet letter to make School and Home. Eli helped me by choosing the colors of the cardstock and by pressing the Enter button on the Silhouette. In the few weeks left before the school we will practice our walk and will draw a map to hang in his room. 

 

 

I hope that the map will help him to feel more confident on his first day of school.

Don't forget to sign up for Samantha's Newsletter through the Rafflecopter widget to receive your Free SVG and Silhouette Studio file!  

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you were inspired to try these or any other beautiful cut files from Samantha Walker Silhouette Store.

Click on the image below to head over to Diana Fisher!

Click on the photo below to go to your next stop!

Samantha Walker Creative Team July Blog Hop

Welcome to Samantha Walker Creative Team Blog Hop! 

This month's theme is Family Fun! You should have arrived here from Aimee's blog.This month's giveaway is All Boy Stamp Set

As mom to a little boy I adore this stamp set. I think I could use it on almost every page. All you need to do to win this stamp set is to enter below. You can earn multiple entries by following us on Facebook, commenting below, tweeting about the giveaway, and signing up for the email updates.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

For my project I decided to use the free cut file that you can get by signing to Samantha's newsletter through the Rafflecopter. Here it is.

I loved the design of star and stripes and thought it could work great as a stencil. That's how the shape looks like when you open it in Silhouette Studio software.

I ungrouped the shape, deleted the rectangular shape on the bottom, selected the flag, released the compound path and deleted  two other rectangles.

I grouped together what was left from the shape and made it a little smaller.

Lastly, I used "Fill Page" function to duplicate the shape all over the page. 

I didn't plan on using the stencil more than once so I cut it from a piece of cardstock from my giveaway box.

I mixed some color with sparking texture medium. The red is acrylic paint and the blue is Faber-Castell gelato.

Time to get my fingers dirty. Fun!

Ta-da! Custom background!

The texture medium gives a nice dimensional effect and it sparkles!

I really didn't need to add much to my page except three bright pictures. Just the title and two simple journaling cards.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you were inspired to try these or any other beautiful cut files from Samantha Walker Silhouette Store.

Click on the image below to head over to Claudia Harvey!

Click on the photo below to go to your next stop!

Road trip to New Jersey - part 2

On our second day in New Jersey we visited Ella's new middle school and learned that they start foreign languages in 6th grade and not in 7th like our school district. They offer Spanish, French and Chinese. Ella immediately said that she wants to learn Chinese. After the school visit we had lunch at Panera and drove to the Journal Square train station where we took PATH train to New York City. Lila really wanted to visit the Strand book store. I didn't read the map correctly and we took the train to the World Trade Center that is in lower Manhattan. After we checked the map again we realized that we have a long walk to the store. We could probably take a cab but decided to walk instead. We made few stops on the way - Starbucks (of course), street vendor that was selling peeled mangoes and Converse store.

I visited New York city several times before but never in summer so I was very surprised to see the mango vendors at each corner. The mango was delicious!

Here it is - the Strand Books flag. Almost there!

The girls disappeared between the shelves and I found the kids corner and rested there with Eli. We even heard a story from a former New York Public Library librarian.

At the store I realized that there is a closer train station, only few blocks away. On the the way back to the train station we bought more mango. 

In Jersey City we met with Ofir and decided to have dinner in the neighborhood. Google Local brought us to a small Italian restaurant 3 Guys from Italy. It looks like they mainly sell carry-out pizza but they had few tables in the back and simple menu. Our food was excellent!

The next morning Lila had a meeting with a boy from BBYO at local Dunkin' Donuts. While she talked we enjoyed latte (me and Ofir), ice cream (Ella and Eli) and some donuts (Ofir, Ella and Eli) I don't think I ever been to Dunkin' Donuts before so I had to take a picture of my coffee. After that Lila went to BBYO pool party and we waited for her at the biggest Barnes and Noble I ever saw. It had a huge used books section with rare editions, signed copies and all that great stuff. I know it is going to be one of our favorite places.

Soon it was time to leave and head back home to Wisconsin. After few hours of driving we made a stop at a rest stop to stretch our legs and to eat something.

Yumm, milky! Now we will not have to drive 2 hours to Chicago to buy it :)

A view from the back seat (one of the dozen pictures I found on the phone)

We slept at Barkeyville, PA and the next morning headed to Providence Metropark, OH,  where we took a mule-drawn canal boat through real functioning 19th century lock. We visited the General Store and the Mill and than watched the boat going through the lock again, this time from the shore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ella was fascinated by the lady-blacksmith.She could stay there forever.

It was a hot day so an ice cream was in order.

The ice cream helped but not that much. We were happy to return to the car and turn on the A/C. 

We stopped for hearty dinner and decided to go straight home after that.

I was passing by Six Flags Great America at Gurnee when the fireworks at the park went off, making the perfect ending to our road trip.