Pumpkin Chocolate-chip Squares

Oh gosh! Yes, it's a wonderfully delicious pumpkin chocolate-chip  squares' recipe. These tasty little treats look so amazing on camera but in person these things not only smell incredible--they taste incredible too! I couldn't help but have seconds, and thirds...I'm sure I'll regret it later, haha. This recipe was created by the Martha Stewart team, and brought to you by my oldest sister, Angie. She makes these treats every Halloween. I'll go ahead and show you the pictures I took of the her process, then I'll share the recipe the way it is in the Martha Stewart, Everyday Food Magazine, at the bottom of this post. Also, since this is a pumpkin recipe it can also be used for Thanksgiving! So don't stress out if you don't have enough time to make these today--because you can also make them in November! 

Enjoy! & Happy Halloween. 

Card of the Week-- Spooky Halloween Greetings

Happy Halloween! I hope your day is filled with lots of tricks & treats. Today’s ‘Card of the Week’ is inspired by Halloween. I had a lot of fun making this card and I thought I’d take a few snap shots of how I made it and the tools I used to make it as well. I used some of the new stamps I bought at the Ontario, CA, Expo this month. I’m so glad I purchased this Halloween stamp set because it’s so cute—and I know I’ll use it year after year. I also used another set I purchase from the expo—except it’s not a Halloween set it’s just your standard ‘cute’ kind of set. I really love that one too; namely, because it has this super adorable doily banner stamp. 

I used a black cardstock for the A2 size card base, some newspaper patterned paper, and a strip of yellow and black patterned paper as well. I also used my doily banner stamp on top and accented the card with these elegant—yet spooky—chandelier stamps.  

I love having a reason to use my distressing tools so I used my vintage photo distress ink (you can find these online, at Joanns, or Michaels). I really do adore how this vintage style technique looks. 

Here I used black embossing powder and my heat tool to get this clean image, then I cut it out. 

Next, I adhered the yellow and black strip, and added some more sentiments. 

Next I used my adhesive foam to create the 3D effect. You can find these foam adhesives at Michaels, online, or Joanns. 

There you have it, my Halloween card from start to finish. I hope you have great Halloween and if you're going out--stay safe!!! 

A Sunny Crafternoon

Happy Monday! It’s the beginning of the week once again and as always I’m excited to get back fulfilling orders, blogging, and designing new items for my shop. Yesterday I went to visit my favorite crafty friend, Yang. I’m always excited to visit her and her wonderful collection of papercrafting tools. She is a true collector, with a wide variety of paper, stamps, stickles, inks, craft punches, and so much more. It’s always fun to craft in good company and yesterday we got to craft together for a total of nine hours. So fun!

Since both of our shops are already, ready for the Christmas season—with X-mas themed tags, cards, and the like fully stocked on our virtual shelves—we decided to begin designing our collection of Valentine’s Day items. We’re going to save all the sneak peeks for later but as sellers it’s always a good idea to stay ahead of the game. 

Isn’t her crafty collection so dreamy? I took some of my stamps, and other crafty tools as well—but my collection seemed so minuscule compared to hers, LOL! Feel free to check out her Etsy shop, she’s got a wide variety of amazing cards, tags, and more. 

Thanks for stopping by again & welcome!—if this is your first time visiting. 

Las Vegas Birthday Surprise!

Yes—you read that title correctly! Gabe ended up taking me to one of my favorite places—Las Vegas. A couple of weeks back he told me that he really wanted to take me to Vegas for my birthday but wasn't going to be able to afford it this year. I wasn't bummed though, because we have fun anywhere we go. I knew anywhere he planned on taking me would be perfect. Then my birthday came and I was all dressed up and ready to go, to this secret place. At first his hint was, “We’re heading towards the beach”. So of course I was excited! We hit the road and had to make one more stop at the gas station so he could fill up his truck. Then he told me at the gas station that we weren't heading to the beach after all and that we were going to Vegas for my birthday. I was SO excited! I was jumping up and down like a crazy person at the gas station—people must have thought I was crazy, haha. I was  so freaken’ excited, and I was texting everyone I knew.

It had been 2 long years since I was on the Vegas strip, and he booked us a suite at the Luxor hotel. The Luxor is my favorite hotel. I know lots of people say, “why don’t you guys try one of the new hotels?”—but really, the Luxor is our favorite. We were on the 25^th floor facing the strip and the mountains, so it was perfect. We ate gourmet foods, drank a lot, walked around, gambled, and so much more! There is so much to do there and I just love the atmosphere there.

Once we woke up from a fun filled day in Vegas, we had breakfast and made our way back home. However, this time around we made a few stops at the Mojave Desert, an off-roading park, and the Bass Pro shop. All and all, this birthday was really one of the greatest birthdays I’ve had. This birthday was about a 1 week celebration with, today—Saturday—wrapping it up with my traditional family dinner, consisting of all my favorite foods. This is my last year in my twenties! Scary.

It's My Birthday!--10 Things You Didn't Know About Me

I know I don't usually post on Thursday's BUT today is my birthday! I turn 29, ahh! I know so scary, I'm almost 30 and this is my last year as a twenty-something. I swear I don't feel this old. Sometimes I still feel like I'm 23 or 24. Time has gone by so fast but I'm grateful for everything that has happened in my life that has made me who I am today. I also thought it would be sweet for me to share some random facts about myself--so you can get to know me a little bit more. 

1. I absolutely love cats! (It's so funny how almost every-single blogger loves them, hehe).
2. Aside from being Mexican-American (born, raised, and residing in Los Angeles, CA). I'm also 3 different types of Indian--Aztec, Mayan, and Navajo (two types of Mexican Indian + one part American Indian). 
3. I love to go camping (even though I'm so afraid of sleeping in the woods overnight!).
4. I was on the Tall Flags team in high school. 
5. I used to play the drums in a band. 
6. I can also play the guitar, bass, and synthesizer!
7. I like to drive on the freeway at night--alone--so I can sing my head off without anyone hearing or seeing me, LOL. 
8. I like playing video games (but I'm super picky about the games I play, so I don't play that much right now--the last time I was obsessed with a game was when Halo 1 was released).
9. I love walking around alone in Downtown L.A., I like to stare at all the old buildings and imagine what it was like in the 20's and 30's.
10. My favorite meal is: Slow cooked beef, with creamy mashed potatoes, and Hawaiian bread. 

I'm so excited for my birthday this year. My boyfriend is taking me out and I don't know where. It's a surprise & I can't wait to have some fun in the sun! haha. Happy Birthday to me ;-) Thanks for stopping by! I'll take my camera with me so I can take some pictures of where we go and what we see!

Card of the Week—Anniversary Card

Today’s card was inspired by one of my new stamp sets by, My Mind’s Eye. I got this new stamp set at the Scrapbook Expo and I was super excited to give it a try. As soon as I saw this stamp set I just HAD to have it. There are so many stamps in this set that I just adore. There is a doily border stamp—love!—and there is also a really cute sentiment that says, “You have my whole heart for my whole life”. I thought that was so cute. Plus the rest of the stamps in this set are super cute as well. The things one can make with this set are endless. 

This time around I wanted to make a cute, yet simple card. So I used one of my elegant paper stacks, some Kraft card stock, Ivory card stock (for the sentiment), and silver embossing powder for the stamped image. I’d decided a while back that I didn't want to work with acrylic stamps anymore because I didn't like the quality of the stamps—but when I went to the scrapbook expo I saw tons and tons of stamp sets that had images I just couldn't live without. Therefore, I told myself I’d figure out a way to get the best stamping quality; and, I decided to use versamark + embossing powder or chalk inks for all my acrylic stamps. The reason why I didn't want to use acrylic stamps anymore was due to the fact that photopolymer stamps are simple WAY better and you can use any type of ink and still get amazing clean and crisp stamped images. I think photopolymer stamps spoiled me, LOL. However, now that I’ve figured out way to still get beautifully stamped image out of acrylic stamps I’m happy, hehe. 

Check out how the silver embossing powder shimmers in the light—so beautiful. 

Here is the stamped sentiment on the inside…aw how cute, LOL. 

Thanks for stopping by for another Card of the Week!