“In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”
~ Carl Sagan

In the month of October Craftsy had a great deal where you could watch any class for the entire month for 9.99.  I grabbed the deal and watched video after video.   Two of the classes I watched were Pie Making.

The Perfecting the Pie Crust was very detailed and went into great detail.  Makes you a little nervous thinking “Can I do this….sounds like surgery”

The Classic Pies Made Easy course was more reassuring.   I felt like it could actually make a pie

But it is now November.  Those classes are gone off my Craftsy platform.   And I remember nothing.  Oh how I would love to have that free access again.

Why oh why did I say I would make a pie for Thanksgiving.

But I did buy The Hoosier Mama’s pie book.  Wow!  This book has detailed pictures every step along the way.

I decided to make a Apple, Pear and Cranberry Pie with Pecan Crumble Topping.

Am  I insane.

Yes

I kept thinking I should be able to do this, I am a decent cook, I have made Jam, I have made chinese food, I learned how to make dim sum and Thai Food.   I am woman, I am strong.

I am also kinda bad at this pie thing.  I really hope it turns out, because it is for Thanksgiving.

I did tell my sister to have a back up dessert in case it sucks big time.

So it started with 4 cups of Apples and 4 cups of Pears cut up.   So exactly how many pears and apples would that be, and what kind of pears and Apples…wait!  Why am I doing this again.

So I bought Granny Smith apples and the only pears they had there.     Were they suppose to be firm or really ripe.   Again I have no clue what I am doing.

The Crust

I decided to make the crust and the filling the night before.

I am so funny.  I actually thought I could do that.

I could only make the pie dough.

I kept thinking about the woman saying “Make sure you do not add too much water”.   I was paralyzed by that thought.  I was confident.  I knew I could do this.

Then I made the mistake of watching a youtube video.

This sweet Grandmother made a comment about people should be horsewhipped for telling people to not add water.

Crap!

I am so confused.  Water….no water….

So I followed the book.   My gut tells me it was a little dry.

Oh by the way if you have the Pampered Chef pastry cutter please throw it away.  I used it and it hurt so much.  It should have been called the Pampered Chef Pastry and Hand Cutter.   Maybe my hands are too big (I think not) but that stainless steel kept cutting into my hands.  It hurt.  It hurt a lot.   And yes I was holding it the right way…. I can imagine you thinking I am holding it by the multiple blades side.  LOL   But there were sharp edges on the handle and my hands still hurt this morning.   Don’t get me wrong I like The Pampered Chef, maybe I got the discontinued model.  I think I need one with more of a comfortable handle.

All I can say is thank God I have a marble countertop (or is granite), it made rolling out the dough so much easier.

I think the cracked edges mean that it is too dry…am I paranoid or what?

OK, I will move past this issue (not really)

I finally got the crust into the pie plate and did my crimping.  LOL,  what a lousy job.  But I did watch the video from the Hoosier Mama owner and she said “Don’t worry, it took me a month to get it down right”

So following the instructions I froze the pie for a while to get it nice and chilled and then added the pinto beans into the pie to bake

PINTO BEAN PIE ANYONE!!!

Ok the shell is baked…it does not look too bad.  My crimping sucks.  But then again the nice Hoosier Mama woman said it takes time and practice.  Yup it sure does.

So now onto the filling

The Pie Filling

Like I said earlier I bought Granny Smith apples and some sort of green pears.

Now anyone who knows me, know I buy crap off of QVC I don’t need.  Those nice people at QVC talk in a soothing voice that makes me believe I MUST have what ever they are selling.   I admit I have bought stuff that really I should have passed over.  We are all like that.  But one item I bought was an apple peeler.  It was not expensive and I was thinking “One day I will make a pie”  Well that day has arrived.

This cheap little beauty cuts off those peels in a less than a minute.   The long spiral peel is fun to play with and yes, the dog got a peel to eat  (only one, don’t want potty issues)   You can see the peel on the right side of the picture.  However it does not do pears very well.

So in comes my brother Doug.

He is going to use his knifes skills to slice and dice those pears and apples.

Chop, chop chop

Although it looks like he is about to cut his fingers off, I promise you no fingers were injured in the making of this pie (except the pain from the pastry cutter).

Ok, as a side note, this Hoosier Mama cook book is great except it uses a light brown font.  Although it creates an ambience that is fitting for the book, it does make people with old tired eyes make mistakes.

I put the apples/pear combo into the oven without putting on spices.

Oh how I am reminded of the time when my grandmother made an pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving and she forgot to add the spices.  She ended up sprinkling them on top of the pie.

Yes, it will happen to you when you get older.   It will.  I promise.

I quickly pulled out the apple/pears from the oven and then tossed them in the spice sugar mix.   Hot apples are much harder to toss in a spice sugar mix than room temperature.  Just sayin’

Finally after baking for 40 minutes, I added the cranberries.

The mixture is finally cooked.   The book said to wait until it cools.   However I did notice on blind baking pie crusts it did not tell me if I had to wait until the crust cooled before baking again.   I looked everywhere.  I googled.  I watched videos.   Anyone? Anyone?   So I filled the hot crust with the cool apple mixture.

Now I was smart enough to read the cookbook to make the crumble ahead of schedule.   Thank goodness I did.  It requires cooling in the fridge.  Darn butter.  Everything about this pie is a pain.  Cook.  cool.  wait.   cook.  cool.  wait.  I am renaming this the 14 hour pie.   Dang.

Ok, it is going in the oven for the last time.  Home stretch.

Thanksgiving Day

The turkey was good.  The stuffing too.   Lots and lots of good food to eat and good stuff to drink.   Time for dessert.

By now there was such a buildup of the long awaited pie.

Comments received

“It is Sweet and Tart at the same time”

“WOW, this is good”

“Not too bad”

“We need whip cream”

“I think the crust is too dry”  (that one was from me)

At least the entire pie was eaten, no complaints and from what I hear from the family, no one got sick!   A SUCCESS!!!

And the crust was too dry……oh well, more water next time.

I was up for the challenge.   I decided to use the same stamp set they did!   I did buy it thinking I really would need it for the class.  At first I was not sure I should because I was afraid my cards would look the same.  But I am proud to say that only one looked similar.   I love taking the inspiration and going for something different.

Challenge #1 – Clean and Simple

For this card I really wanted to use my embossing folder that gives that geometric look.  I love it.

Challenge #2 – Classic and Elegant

This card I really did a similar card to the instructor.  I could not help myself as it was such a pretty card.  I changed it up a little and I really liked how it came out.

Challenge #3 – Cute and Whimsical

For this challenge I used a barn die I had from Papertrey Ink.  The little barn doors open to the Christmas Tree inside.  I had a heck of a time finding a little wreath for the barn.  I thought for sure Michaels would carry one since they have a ton of Jolie Stickers.  The did have this cute beaded one from their own line Recollections.  I did add a little cardinal to bring in the Christmas cheer.  I think it came out cute.

Challenge #4 – Shimmer and Shine

I decided to emboss foil paper for the background and stamp on the shiny bell.

Challenge #5 – Soft and Subtle

Well…..you know when you try to make a card and it just does not do it for you…  this is the one.   Something is just wrong with it.  I don’t know what.  Maybe I was tired.   I did like the glittery embossing powder but that was about it.  I guess I do not need to love all my creations!

Thanks so much for looking at my creations!

Please check out my Etsy Shop.   I have a lot of my prior creations for sale.  I am always adding more items to the store including goodie bags of scrapbook stuff.

Of course anything that says Shimmer & Shine has gotten my attention!  Love it all~

I was able to buy some BoBunny glitter paste at my local Beverly Fabric.  Like I said in my last post, I love going there.  They always have the cool stuff…including this glitter paste.  I got several colors because I was basically…you know…a kid in a candy shop.   I had to have it all.

I decided to do a light blue cardstock with the Caribbean Glitter Paste.  I just love the way it came out.

What is hard to see on this picture is that the side and the banner are the softest mat finish silver cardstock from Anna Griffin.  I LOVE her glimmer/shiny paper.  I would suggest you run, do not walk to HSN and order yourself a package a it.  Currently they only have the soft hues pack, but they usually have a holiday one and at least one other.   Her paper is sublime!!!!

Here is a close up of the paste

Just so pretty…

My next card, or should I say cards is using the foil shimmer technique.

I went to Michaels and they had this Craft Smith brand on sale.  It was an entire pack of gold foil paper with different designs.  Just awesome.  It kinda looked like this but it was a 12×12 size with the same papers but with 36 pages.  Not sure why I cannot find a copy of the paper pack anywhere on the internet.  darn it.  Oh well onto the card.

Here is the card set.  I decided to do a trio.  I could not decide which word die to use from this set of three dies and then I decided to just make the three cards.

Here is the Merry Card

And the Peace card

and the Holiday card

I added onto all three card the awesome deer heads from Little B.  Yes, another great find at Beverly’s Fabrics.

I think I squealed when I saw this on the display…Must HAVE…NOW

I tied the card up with some Lawn Fawn Trimming (gold and natural cord)

Thanks for looking!

Also posted in the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge

If you have a chance, please check out my Etsy shop.  I sell my cards and other fun things.

Day Three had so many pretty designs it was really hard to decide what type of card to do.    I ended up doing two cards.

The first card was just something I was playing around with.  Using glimmer paper and a pretty Anna Griffin die cut.   I originally made this for the 1 Stamp 5 Ways challenge and then thought….CRAP-O I forgot to use the stamp set.   Looking at this picture I realized I did….the sentiment….   Oh well at least I made a prettier card for the challenge.

The 2nd card this day was the Classic Shape Stamping technique from May Sukyong Park

This was her card.

I really liked the look of her card.  So I tried to stay somewhat true to her technique

I had just ran to my local Beverly Fabrics, which by the way is soooo cool with their merchandise.   They always have something new and exciting.  They were actually carrying the Kelly Purkey cube inks.   I got one of the sets and thought the colors would look good on this card…and it DID!!!!  I also got the really cool Hero Arts stamp winter scene.  It has the cutest little animals on it!

Don’t you agree???   It is such a cute stamp set…and I never even got to use the cute mason jars.

Here is a close up of the stamping.

Thank you for looking at my creations!

Also check out my Etsy shop!  I usually sell my creations there if you are interested!

Tis the Season….     Of making cards even thou you do not feel like it.  I had to force myself to make a card tonight.

I really like the way Michelle Short made her card.   It was so clean and simple that I was inspired.

Of course I had to muck it up with stuff.   I wanted to background to look like the Aurora Borealis.

Ok, I was close, not quite.   Then I wanted more trees.  So I got trees.  With a little help of Zig glitter pen I enhanced the tree.     My inter creative person was screaming…STOP, STOP…you are doing to much.  Thank God I listened to her.   It is a little busy but I do like the look of it!!!

Thanks for looking!!!!

This day is all about making cute cards with critters.  I have a lot of critter stamps so this was super easy to do.

I ended up doing this card in sections.

First of all I ink blended the background, covering the lamp glow with a post-it note.   It kinda looks like a moon, but I think you get the idea that it is the lamp glowing.

Then I stamped a Christmas Music Sheet on the background in versamark.  You can kinda see it in the close up.  I wanted the feel that the rabbits were caroling.   I also used Glossy Accents in the lamp shade to give the illusion of glass.

The I added the hills and the rabbits.  And the sentiment.

I finally added snow from modeling paste.  I was ok with the snow falling on the critters and the lamp because that would happen in real life.  I am sure if you saw three bunnies caroling in the snow you would see the snow fall on them.  Please let me know if you actually see three bunnies caroling, better yet, take a picture.

Then I added some snow under the bunnies (not so sure I like this).  Then I added some music notes.

I hope you enjoyed my card.  Thanks for looking.

Please check out my Etsy site.  The button is on the left hand side.

Day three had a ton of great ideas for making cards to look elegant.    I was in awe of all the pretty choices and boy were they diverse in style.  Instead of taking inspiration from one card in particular, I decided to just go with the flow and find my own class and elegant look.

I started out with a beautiful gold shimmer card stock.  God Bless Anna Griffin for making such beautiful shimmery card stock.   I wish all the others would take note and do the the same.  I cannot, I repeat, cannot get enough of shimmer metallic card stock.

Then I took an beautiful die from Memory Box called Swirling Snowflakes to create a white snowflake overlay.   Then using Papertrey Ink Christmas Cheer Die I cut out a white card stock and glitter paper (Tim Holtz) and offset them together to create the center of the card.   To let it stand out more, I placed a band of vellum across the card.  I finished with some sequins.

Just a note on the Papertrey Ink Christmas Cheer Die.  I love, love, LOVE the retro style, 1950’s style writing of this die set.  Thanks so much Papertrey Ink.  Please feel free to design more word dies with this awesome font.  I just cannot get enough of it.

Thanks for looking!

Please check out my Etsy shop, I am selling a lot of my cards!