Learning Lots...

Not all of my creative moments are culinary.  I have also fallen in love with Digital Scrapbooking this past year.  My favorite place to buy supplies is jessicasprague.com, and I'll admit that part of it is because my good friend Mindy is on their creative team, and I love to see her featured.  However, I also adore their designers.  Last month they had a huge birthday sale, and I bought all the episodes of Jessica Sprague's "Photoshop Friday" before they were retired.  They are mini lessons---each covering a specific technique in Photoshop.  I have made it through lessons 1-6, and this is what I've accomplished/learned...

Episode 1: Create a Masked Outline

From Digi-Scrapbook Pages

(all supplies came from the kit I downloaded with the mini-class)

Episode 2:  Custom Shape Clipping Masks

From Digi-Scrapbook Pages

(all supplies from the kit I downloaded with the mini-class)

Episode 3: Hand-Drawn Clipping Masks

From Digi-Scrapbook Pages

(The hand drawn mask was that cool banner at the top...I used the template that I downloaded from the kit included with the mini-class, but I changed the paper to Echo Park's Sidewalk Chalk line...I love Echo Park so much!!!)

Episode 4:  Custom Circle Embellishment

From Digi-Scrapbook Pages

(Template from the kit included in the mini-class, but the paper is from In the Making's Valpolicella collection) 

I really loved making this page about me and my very best friend/sweetheart!  I don't often concentrate on the two of us when scrapbooking, everything seems to revolve around the kids.  It was nice to remember some of the reasons I love being married! 

Episode 5: Selective Black and White

From Digi-Scrapbook Pages

(all supplies were from the kit included with the mini-class)

Episode 6: Custom Digital Brush from Clipart

From Digi-Scrapbook Pages

(all supplies from the kit included with the class)
although...I didn't actually apply the lesson to this layout.  I didn't love the clip art included with the kit, and I didn't really have any pictures that went along with the theme followed in the layout shown in the lesson.  I used the lesson instead to make my watermark into a digital brush...which makes watermarking my pictures much easier. 

I actually did all these layouts a few weeks ago...my July has been so crazy I haven't had a chance to do any more of the lessons.  I also purchased 2 bigger self paced classes on sale...Digital Scrapbooking: Up and Running with Photoshop, and Photo Editing: Good to Great workflow.  These are both beginner classes, and although I figure I know a few things that will be taught, I will learn a lot that I don't know yet.  I can hardly wait until I have time to sit down and do more of my Photoshop Friday Episodes, as well as my two longer classes.  Unfortunately, now that I'm a single parent 5 days of the week, it's looking like it might be until school starts before I have much time to focus on my scrapbooking again. 

I highly recommend jessicasprague.com to any digital scrapbooker out there!

Cake Pops

I've been wanting to make Cake Pops for awhile.  Bakerella is the original inventor of these, she even has a book out with all kinds of different recipes and decorating ideas..  However, I really wanted to muddle through it on my own.  I needed a treat to take to my husband's family party on July 3rd (for more info on that, check out my family blog) and I wanted something fun and easy to eat outside. 

I had read somewhere along the line that the cake pops were cake, mixed with frosting, then dipped in candy melts.  So, first I prepared 2 cakes, one chocolate and one yellow. 

This might be the right time to mention that I ALWAYS do homemade cakes.  And Frosting.  I have rarely  used jarred frosting in a pinch, and I do keep a couple cake mixes on hand for when my husband is feeling domestic, but overall, my homemade cake and frosting recipes are so good, I just can't bear to use a box mix. 

So, I made the cakes (recipes to come another time).  I let them cool overnight.  I prepared my frosting the next morning, then I crumbled up the cakes...

From July 2011

From July 2011

Placed them in my wonderful mixer...
and added my frosting a little at a time until the cake started sticking to itself. 

From July 2011

From July 2011

I let the mixture cool in the fridge for about 4 hours.  Then I rolled the cake into balls, stuck in the sticks, and put them back into the fridge for a couple hours (next time, I'll freeze them). 

From July 2011

I melted the candy melts in the microwave, then dipped the cake pops in them...

From July 2011

Then I put on sprinkles and colored sparkles. 

I wanted them to dry all nice and round, so I punched holes in a shoebox, and dried them right side up.  I didn't take a picture of that, and it might have had something to do with the fact that my counter was covered in sprinkles and sparkles...seriously, they were everywhere, I need to work on my application technique. 

The finished product...

From July 2011

They were a hit at the party, I got rave reviews.  I even took the leftovers to work the next night, also to rave reviews.  One of the parents at work even decided to help himself...(okay, that was a little weird, and we had to hide them after that.) 

It was a relatively easy process, but it was time consuming.  However, I enjoyed every minute of it!