You Must Have a Little Rain to Make a RAINBOW

Can you belive it? March is almost 1/2 over! Where does the time go? As most of you know, St. Pattys day is just around the corner (March 17th to be exact). And while looking for a unique cookie recipe for the school bake sale, I came across this fun recipe at http://www.allrecipes.com/ . I thought it was perfect with the upcoming holiday and the rainy gloomy days we have had as of late. I have to say my kids had a blast making these cookies, and so I thought I'd share with you. Maybe you too can make a batch to brighten up somones rainy day, or get out of that green shamrock rut for St. Patrick's Day and make some bright cheeful rainbows instead!

Rainbows
Submitted by: DARBYANNE
Yields: 30 servings
"A 4-colored cookie dough that is shaped into a log and sliced to form rainbows."

INGREDIENTS:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
assorted colors of paste food
coloring
4 tablespoons prepared vanilla
frosting
1/4 cup yellow decorator sugar
DIRECTIONS:
1.
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, vanilla and almond extracts. Gradually add the flour and salt. Beat at low speed until well blended.
2.
Divide dough into 10 equal sections. Combine 4 sections of he dough with red paste-type coloring until smooth. Combine 3 sections of the dough with green coloring until smooth. Combine 2 sections of the dough with yellow coloring until smooth, and combine remaining dough with blue coloring. Wrap each section of dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3.
Shape blue dough into an 8-inch log. Shape yellow dough into 8x3-inch rectangle; place on waxed paper. Place blue log in center of yellow rectangle and fold yellow edges up around blue log, pinching to form seal. Roll to form smooth log. Roll green dough into 8x5-inch rectangle. Place yellow log in center, pinch edges of green to seal; roll smooth. Roll red dough into 8x7-inch rectangle. Place green log in center, pinch edges of red to seal and roll smooth. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour.
4.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease or line baking sheets with parchment paper.
5.
Cut log in half length-wise. Cut each half into 1/4 inch slices. Place slices 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheets.
6.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 8 to 12 minutes. (Do not brown.) Cool on cookie sheets 1 minute. Remove to wire racks and let cool completely. Pipe small amount of white frosting on bottom corner of each cookie to resemble a cloud. Sprinkle with yellow decorating sugar. Let stand until frosting is set.





Enjoy!

Last year, my son came home from Kindergarten with an interesting assignment, build a Leprechaun trap. Now honestly I had never even considered trying to catch a Leprechaun, or building a trap to do it, so the challenge was on.

Legend has it that Leprechauns are elf like little old men who wear a top hat, and they are known to be pranksters and like to tick the unexpected. If you catch a Leprechaun he will offer you his pot of god as bribery to let him go.

After a little research we found a Leprechaun trap can be made any way you chose. Although the more creative the better, Leprechauns are attracted to the color green, rainbows, anything sparkly, money, & four leaf clovers.

After building our trap using a shoe box, lots of fun pattern paper (from moms scrap stash of course), a small bucket and pennies we were ready to set it and see what would happen.

The next morning (which just happened to be St. Patrick’s day of course) we all were quite surprised to find that we didn’t catch a Leprechaun but we came close! He left us some treats and some tricks too.

He turned our milk green and our muffins green too, but they sure tasted good with our Lucky Charms!

And maybe this year we’ll build a better trap and maybe just catch that sneaky Leprechaun!

Spring Forward

Just a friendly reminder to set your clocks ahead 1 hour tonight!

My sweet friend Gwennie made this darling clock. She hand made it using a plate, clock kit, brads & pattern paper, isn't she just clever??

February Layout Contest Winner!!

We got some super great entries for the layout contest last month. It was very hard for the judges to choose a winner. Congratulations to Angie Jackson from Nampa Idaho! Her adorable layout features two special someones!

Contratulations Angie!! As the winner of the monthly challenge, you win a fun package of spring time goodies: Chipboard embellishments and letters, matching brads, shimmery pink flowers, and some fun spring time paper. (by the way, we picked up these goodies at World Class Scrappers in Boise)

Due to other business focus, our March newsletter and challenge announcement is coming out a bit later this month. We have a great challenge idea in store for you though, so get ready and you can win a prize too! Thank you to everyone who entered!! All entries were fantastic. Here are our other two favorite entries submitted by Lorrie and Jessica:

And the winner is.....Drawing for Early Bird Registration's Free Spot to ICE

To make the drawing easy for us, and fair for all of you, we made a list of everyone who signed up during Early Bird Registration and. We then assigned each of you a number.

We then threw all the numbers into the "ICE Bucket" and drew a number.

And the winner is.....

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Are you ready.......

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Someone super lucky.....

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Someone getting a full refund back on their Early Bird Registration.....

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Congratulations to....

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STARR THOMPSON!!!! From Star Idaho!!!!

Favorite Photos

Ok I think I must have one of the cutest kids in the whole world (I’m not biased at all). Its lucky he’s so darn cute because on some days it’s his only saving grace. LOL When I saw this picture I knew it needed to be showcased, although it’s not the best photograph the expression is priceless, and just looking at it makes you smile.

When creating this LO, I wanted to keep simple lines and a lighthearted “boy” approach. I wanted the photo to be the main focus so I blew it up 8x10. By using several pattern papers the LO has a complicated look, but rest assured it’s really quite easy! Don’t have a boy? You can adapt this LO using any of your own pattern Papers and coordinating embellishments to showcase one of your own special photos.

Supplies:
Adhesive, Trimmer, scissors, 3 coordinating Pattern papers (Bo Bunny Shabby princess line used), 2 sheets of orange cardstock (bazzil ), 1 sheet of navy Blue Cardstock (bazzil) 1 sheet of green ric-rack edged cardstock (bazzil), red, yellow, & green cardstock (bazzil) –scraps are great, Ribbon, navy button,3 star chipboard shapes, Quickuts Revolution Diesel Alpha and swirl emboss folders, Azurite, Dark Moss, & Lipstick red chalk inks (colorbox).

Cut 3 1/4 off the striped pattern paper, you won’t be using this strip so discard to your scrap pile. Cut another 3 inch strip and Adhere it to the left edge on the right side of your LO. Use the remaining stripe paper and adhere to the right edge of the left side of you LO.

Next chalk the edges of your pre-cut rickrack edged green cardstock in dark Moss. Then adhere centerd on the right side of your LO.

Cut 2 strips 5 ½ x 12 out of the dot paper. chalk edges using Azurite


Cut your star paper 7 ¾ x 101/4 adhere to the right hand corner of the right page. Over that Adhere the dot pattern paper to both sides of LO, about 1/3 of the way up.

For the title we will be using a fun tool, the Quickuts Revolution. You can find the Revolution and its dies at World Class scrappers in Boise where Quickuts are always 30% off!!


First you will need to cut your carstock 4x4 to fit in the Revolution.

Place your magnetized letters on the plate. your cardstock and the shim, turn the crank and wala! A title-yep it’s that easy!


Next is the fun part. Using the swirl embossing folder, place your die cut letters inside the folder, and run it through the revolution..and wala…embossed swirls on your letters!

Arrange title to span across both sides of the LO. for a little extra fun I added a small button for the period.


Next cover your chipboard stars in cardstock & chalk

Tie a ribbon in the centers


Cut out a few extra stars out of the Pattern paper and then adhere along with your photo.

And there you have it, my Mr. personality. isn't he cute? Now go capture your Mr (or Miss) Personality and get a special page scrapped!

Contest Winners Will Be Announced Thursday!!

Okay ladies. We know you're all anxiously awaiting the announcement of the winner of last months layout contest, and the winner of the Free Spot to ICE from Early Bird Registration. We'll have an announcement on the blog first thing Thursday morning. Good luck to all of you! :)