Better Living Through Scrapbooking Challenge

This just may be the only time you ever hear me say this.... drop your papercrafting and get cookin' because this week's challenge at Better Living Through Scrapbooking is all about the FOOD! It is the "Favorite Recipe Challenge". 

To join us for the “Favorite Recipe Challenge” all you need to do is create a page showcasing your favorite recipe that you received from your mother, grandmother, or other relative or family friend and then choose at least 2 of the following:

1. Include a photo of yourself preparing the dish, or a photo of the completed dish.

2. Include a photo of the person who gave you the recipe.

3. Make a copy of the original recipe, or hand write the recipe on a card and include it on your layout.

4. Use cardstock as your background, but ink, stain, paint, or color-spray it to make it unique.

5. Use a shape punch or border punch somewhere on your page.

Not only did I have fun creating the layout for this challenge, the afternoon spent cooking up the recipe was totally awesome. Three of my aunts happened to be in town visiting my mother, so we all got together to create my grandmother's Croatian Potato Salad recipe.  Unfortunately I got so caught up in preparing the dish with them, that I forgot to take a photograph of them all together!  Drat! But I did get a photo of my Aunt Sally doing her magical potato peeling trick for us with boiled potatos and a serrated knife.  You won't believe how easy it is to peel a potato that way.

For the additions to the challenge I included a photograph of the finished dish, as well as the hand-written recipe card that my Aunt Kathleen wrote out for me.  After deciding on how I wanted to lay the page out, I realized that I needed a special place for the recipe card. I knew that I did not want to permanently affix it to the page in case my daughters ever wanted to recreate the dish for themselves at some point in the future.  So I put my thinkin' cap on and finally decided to cut the side off an envelope and then I adhered it to the layout and then adhered the photograph of the finished dish on top of the that.  This little solution created the perfect spot to put the recipe card, which I attached a bit of looped ribbon to, so the card can be pulled out of the envelope easily. For the photograph below, I pulled the recipe card partically out of the "pocket" so you get the idea of what I mean.

To incorporate our sponsor products for this challenge. I created the flower leaves from wallpaper that was included in my Gauche Alchemy kit, I painted a thin coat of Plaid's Folk Art paint in Mettalic Peridot to give the leaves a bit of shine.  I also embossed them and folded them to add texture to the layout. I added the stamped "Enjoy" from the For the Luv of Art "My Favorite Things" stamp set as well and colored it up a bit with a couple of Copic Markers.  Discount Cardstock's "Really Red" cardstock was the perfect mat for all my photographs too!

I wanted the journal block to stand out on on this page in order to write about the day (since my photographs unfortunately didn't tell the whole story... remember I said I forgot to take a picture of my aunts and my mother all together).

We seriously had such a great time doing this that we are planning another get together soon, the only thing up in the air right now is what fabulous Croatian dish we are all going to tackle next! One thing is certain however, next time, I won't forget to take a photograph of all my favorite women together!

Sponsor Supplies Used:
Cardstock: Discount Cardstock "Really Red 12x12”
Stamps: Plaid: For the Luv of Art "My Favorite Things stamp set"
Embellishments: (Leaves) Gauche Alchemy "Acme Mixed Media Paper Crafting Kit"
Paint: Plaid: Folk Art “671 Metallic Peridot”
Adhesives: Plaid: All Night Media “Mini Pop Dots”

Additional Supplies Used:
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink “Vintage Cream”
Patterned Paper: October Afternoon "Thrift Shop: Complete, Collector’s Item, and Needs Paint"
Ink: Ranger: Archival Ink “Coffee”
Embellishments: Papertrey Ink Grosgrain Ribbon: “Pure Poppy”, Webster’s Pages “Sparklers”, American Company: “Shipping Tag”, Melissa Frances: “Kitschy Kitchen Chipboard”
Other Tools: Copic: Markers: “BG11 and R29”, Fiskars: Border Punch, Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher and envelope, ProvoCraft: Cuttlebug and “Swirls Embossing Folder”.