Hearts and Flowers Wreath... and a blizzard!

Today was the perfect day for crafting. This is the view from our deck door...

That's right this is the bottom of the window halfway up the on the door! And this is what the view off our deck looked like.

And while the blizzard raged on, I was cozy inside making this hearts and flowers "wreath".

Yesterday I showed you that I cut a foam base into a heart shape and mentioned that I was dyeing coffee filters.

I dyed about 50 filters I think, using neon pink food coloring.

I mixed the food coloring with a little water in a bowl. Curled up the filters into a flowery shape and dipped just the ends into the dye.

Since our stove has a pilot light (which always keeps it just a little bit warm) I placed batches of wet filters onto a wax paper lined cookie sheets and let them dry in the oven for about an hour.

The result was a soft graduated pink to white coloring.

Then I began filling my foam with the filters.

To do this I added a small dot of white glue to the bottom of the filter and used a small dowel (about the thickness of a pencil) to push it into the foam.

I filled and filled and filled the foam with my filters. Placing them pretty close together so the tightly packed ruffles looked like flowers.

Once the entire foam piece was covered I glued ribbon around the edge of the foam to cover the unfinished edge.

I also glued a loop of ribbon on the back to hang the wreath from. And since the back will be visible through the window on my door I traced the foam shape onto some brown craft paper and glued that onto the back. It's gives it a neater look than just having the foam.

And because it's still snowing I'll have to wait to show you how it looks hung on the door, but I I'm happy with the results.

So I tried paper quilling...

I've been following Ann Martin's blog- all things paper for a while now and have really been inspired to try quilling because of the lovely examples and tutorials she's always posting.

Mother's Day seemed like the perfect opportunity to give this a go-

Just one tiny snag- I couldn't find any proper paper quilling tools or materials. I know I could have ordered them online- but of course I thought of doing this last minute and had to improvise.

I cut some strips of paper from larger sheets and used a pin tool from a scrapbook tool kit to roll the coils. I'm not sure if it effected the results at all- or if it was more a matter of having no experience in quilling but some of the curls are a little wonky. But for a first try I was really happy with how these turned out (more importantly the mom's love them).

Here's the card for my mom-

The card for my mother-in-law (which for the record was the first card I made)

And the card for my sister's very 1st mother's day.

I had some ribbon in the studio I knew she'd like and thought it might be nice to match the quilling to it.

Making these was really fun- although I have to admit my fingers were a little sore after making all three cards.

I'll definitely be trying this again!

Strawberry and Chocolate Champagne Muffins

Hello Love Muffin.

I've been so excited for the February Cupkins collaboration between Joanne @ Ready, Set, Craft! and I. Of course we chose Valentines Day as the theme for our cupcake and muffin recipes this month.

I tried to think romantic... breakfast in bed, something sweet to start of the day for your sweetie. The idea of chocolate covered strawberries and champagne kept coming to mind and I wondered if it would work in a muffin.

Turns out it works wonderfully!

I've never baked with champagne before but it made the muffins really light and slightly sweet/tart in a unique way. I absolutely love how these came out! Even after I got the recipe down I made a few more batches for "testing" just to be sure.

Here's How To Make Them:

• 1.5 cups of flour
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 2 teaspoons of baking soda
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup of milk (nonfat is fine)
• 1/3 cup of applesauce
• 1/2 cup plus one good glug (probably about 2 tablespoons) of champagne
• 1/2 to 3/4 of diced strawberries
• Slightly less than 1/2 cup of chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Next add the egg, oil, milk, applesauce and stir until combined.

Now it's time to add the berries. Sprinkle a little pinch of flour over them before you stir them into the batter (so the berries don't all fall to the bottom of the muffins as they bake).

and the chocolate chips (don't forget the chips!).

Mmmm- doesn't this look yummy already with all those berries and chocolate chips in there.

Last but not least add the champagne and stir just until the ingredients combine.

To make the hearts on top of each muffin you'll need to color some of the batter pink. Scoop a few spoonfuls of just the batter (not any of the berries or chips) into a small bowl. Use a drop or two of food coloring to turn it pink. Keep this aside, you'll need this halfway through baking.

Spray a muffin pan with nonstick spray. Fill each muffin tin 3/4 of the way full and bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes- at this point the muffins will be halfway done.

Pull them out of the oven and use a skewer do add the pink batter in the shape of a heart.

Don't keep the muffins out of the oven too long. Making the heart for each muffin really doesn't take long to make, just don't leave them on the counter while you answer the phone or anything!

Once you have all the hearts made put the muffins back into the oven and cook for another 11-12 minutes. (Or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.)

The baking times are based on using a large muffin pan which makes 6 oversized muffins. You can also make 12 regular sized ones with the same amount of ingredients but the baking times will vary.

Sweet, cute, romantic even... and just plain Yummy! And don't let the champagne fool you the kids would love these if you wanted to make them as breakfast for the entire family.

Be sure to head over to Joanne's blog and learn how she made these chocolate strawberry Valentine cupcakes.

Don't they look great, that strawberry frosting looks A-maz-ing! And I love the chocolate hearts and "love" sign on top.

Enjoy!!!