German Chocolate Cake Day

Happy German Chocolate Cake Day! Here's a little bit of trivia on the origination of German Chocolate Cake and then some ways to celebrate!

National German Chocolate Cake Day is observed by chocolate lovers annually on June 11.

Although the name may sound like the cake originated in Germany, it did not.   The cake’s roots can be traced back to 1852 when American, Sam German, made a type of dark baking chocolate for the American Baker’s Chocolate Company.  Baker’s German’s Sweet Chocolate’s brand was named in honor of Sam German.

Over 100 years later in 1957, a recipe for “German’s Chocolate Cake” appeared as the Recipe of the Day in the Dallas Morning Star.  This recipe, created by Mrs. George Clay, used the Baker’s German’s Sweet Chocolate, and it became quite popular.  During this time, General Foods owned the Baker’s brand and distributed Mrs. Clay’s recipe to other newspapers around the country.  The current name of German Chocolate Cake, as we know it today, came to be as publications started dropping the ‘s.

HOW TO OBSERVE

Celebrate by enjoying a piece of German Chocolate Cake with friends.  Include photos on social media using #GermanChocolateCakeDay.

So here are a couple of recipes for you to try...I included the traditional one with coconut in the frosting and one without because I am no fan of coconut. The flavor's fine, but the little bits that stick around and you end up finding in your teeth later don't thrill me. My husband says that's the fun of coconut...I am not convinced.

This cake recipe is from Taste of Home and I tend to like most of their recipes that I try.

Here's a recipe from All Recipes that makes a German Chocolate Cake Caramel Icing without the coconut if you're like me and just want a yummy cake, no little bits in your teeth. Because I'm a crafter and cardmaker, I've included some fun cake stamps you could purchase, even if they aren't specifically German Chocolate Cake stamps.

These stamps are from Jane's Doodles and are clear stamps.

This set is from Spellbinders and can be found at Scrapbook.com, one of my fave shops online.

And here's a card I made for a2z Scrapbooking, featuring the new digital Sugartree Stamps, available only at a2z. 

Happy Monday!

Chark

Hero Arts Notes and Dates Digi Duel

I'm up on the a2z Scrapbooking blog today dueling it out with team member, Arlene. Each month on the 11th, two team members use the same digi set to make cards. You can head here to see the full post, but here's how I made my card.

I layered a bunch of the digi stamps in CorelDraw to start but I ended up with just two layered here and then I added a sentiment from the digi set Chalkboard Frames and Messages and ran the arrow through the letters. I added a ton (maybe too many?!) Nuvo Drops for accents. And I added glitter stars from my stash because, yes, I like my glitter AND because I smeared one of the drops :) I tried to use the Mono Sandpaper Eraser, but it didn't get rid of all of it. So, I covered it up! 

Then I liked how the edge looked white-ish from the eraser, so I ran it along the edges to get that look around the card. You could use white ink to do this too. Think I'll send this to my adult nephew.

That's it! Hope you'll check out the May challenge over at a2z and join in for a chance to win!

Happy Friday!
Chark

New Challenge at a2z Scrapbooking Supplies

If it's the first of the month, it's time for a new challenge at a2z Scrapbooking! We're going with "Make Something Ugly" this time around. It's a really difficult challenge for talented people like us. Here's my card.

APRIL FOOL'S! 

(It's really a card on Etsy that you can buy, but ew, Jabba is just so ugly!)

Yep, it's April first and that means you can prank anyone you can and they can't complain :)

Actually, I'm really bad at April Fool's Day jokes and the only one that ever worked was a Grilled Cheese made out of cake that the kids and I gave my hubby like this one. You use pound cake and toast in a skillet and then add frosting in just the right yellow so it looks like American cheese. You can watch this video to see exactly how they made their "soup" and "sandwich."

The REAL April Challenge at a2z is "Flower Power" and you're challenged to use flowers in some way. Any company's products will work to enter to win a digital stamp but if you use your Hero Arts, you can win an extra gift code to the store, plus the free digi of your choice

Here's my flowery card. I used alcohol inks to make a panel and then cut the panel with the Dragonfly Fancy die. I made the wings from vellum and Diamond Stickles. The Branch Wreath die doesn't come with flowers, but I found the digital flowers Pretty Blossoms from Hero Arts worked great. I printed them small and colored with colored pencils.

Click here to see more inspiration from the Design Team.

Happy April!

Chark

Mermaids Galore

I have three different Mermaid Stamp and Cut cards up on the blog at a2z Scrapbooking today. Stop by to see how I made three different backgrounds for them with the same liquid watercolors. So fun to play around with these colors.

Don't forget, you can use CHARK15 to get 15% off your cart of $25 or more...and you can custom order any of the new Hero Arts goodies at no additional cost!

Happy Wednesday!

Chark

Valentinepalooza

Hi, friends, Happy Valentine's Day...or as we call it, Matt's birthday. My hubby was born on Valentine's Day awhile ago (shhh! he's 50 this year!) and his mom used to say he was her favorite Valentine. Now he's my favorite Valentine! It's the only birthday I both give and get gifts. He never forgets to get me my favorite candy (Russell Stover...their chocolate buttercream candies rock!) and a present.

Today I've got a digi stamp Valentine card using the February prize for winning at a2z Scrapbooking's It's a Love Thing challenge. The prize is the Hero Arts Words of Love digis. I printed the word, colored and fussy cut the letters. Then I arranged them like the iconic Love Sculpture by Robert Indiana, but I turned the "o" the opposite way.

I wrote the word "you" with Arteza marker and trimmed it out. The sparkly dots are Your Next Stamp's Gumdrops. I super love them. They come in matte as well, and I love those too.

Here's a close-up of the letters.

Here's a little Valentine link so you can get some freebies today. Nothing says I love you like discounts! Check out the deals at Qdoba and TCBY here.

And here's a link to 15 free heart digis you can download and color, including this one, from Shery K Designs.

And here's a no-bake Valentine treat you can make...I'd substitute Valentine M&Ms though, for the heart candies as they are not my faves.

And if you want to work a little harder, you could make these heart meringues. I love meringue cookies--crisp on the outside and chewy inside. Nothing like pie meringue, which is not my favorite.

And that's all I have for today...hope you have a good Valentine's Day!

Happy Wednesday!

Chark

Baseballs and Cupcakes

I have a project up on the a2z Scrapbooking blog today with some other team members. The February challenge starts today, hop by and check it out.

I decorated the top of a bakery box with a Diamond Stencil (get it...diamond...baseball?) on kraft with red ink, then I put a panel together of Baseball brads from the Eyelet Outlet that we have in the store—shaped in a 7 for the birthday girl. 

I turned all the baseballs the same direction so it looks a little neater and I planned ahead to make sure the size would be right for the number of brads I had in the pack. I used a sturdy cardstock because these are metal brads and adhered a red piece of vellum to the top and to the bottom. Then I just adhered the panel to the top of the kraft stenciled piece.

That's my all-time fave cupcake—Salted Caramel—from my fave local bake shop called Cake, Hope and Love. I had to go to the bakery to get a bakery box for the project, didn't I? And was it my fault that they had my fave cupcakes? And that some came home? lolol

Hope you'll join in our February Challenge so you can have a chance to win!

Happy Thursday!

Chark

Your Next Stamp Cuties

I was lucky enough to win the Your Next Stamp blog prize during the last Coffee Lover's Blog Hop and it was a good one! 

Here's just one of the little one layer cards I've made with the snowman stamp from Phoebe Hot Cocoa. I used Arteza watercolor markers and some Prismacolor pencils for the sky. I'm sure I'll be sharing more from this prize pack...thanks, YNS!

You should definitely check them out, they do a lot of blog giveaways and challenges and they have the cutest stamps and a great DT.

I found the Arteza markers on sale on their site and got them for Christmas from my husband...after I ordered them and said, "hey, you just got me a present!"

I had a masculine card up on the a2z Scrapbooking blog over the weekend...you can see the post here.

Happy Monday!
Chark

Skylines and Oxides

I love the look of silhouette stamps and I got a chance to work with a Hero Arts digi kit that includes a cityscape silhouette...so of course that's the stamp I used first!

It's up on the a2z Scrapbooking blog today with more details, hope you'll stop by and say hi!

Here's a peek at one of them!

Happy Thursday!

Chark

Happy New Year to the Moon and Back

Hi, friends, Happy 2018! 

Like every new year, I'm always astounded at how fast the year went and how crazy it is that we're so far into the new century! I remember in high school (circa 1986) and thinking how old I would be in the year 2000...32 years old. And that seemed insanely old! :) Now we're here in 2018 and this April will be my big ol' 50th birthday...but we'll worry about that later, lol.

For now, here's the project I have up at a2z Scrapbooking for the monthly challenge. NEW TO ME, which can mean a lot of things. Maybe you got some new goodies for the holidays, maybe you're dying to try a new technique, maybe you want to try some new media that you haven't yet tried. If it's new to you, it counts! You can use ANY COMPANY'S PRODUCTS for our challenges now and will automatically be entered to win the monthly digital stamp. If you use some Hero Arts products and your name is drawn, you will also win $20 to spend at the a2z Scrapbooking store. You have all month, so I hope you'll join in!

For this project, I arranged the digital stamps in a layout with CorelDraw and then printed it with a laser b&w printer on coated paper (not glossy like photo paper, but not like regular cardstock that soaks in the ink..the paper I have is matte and smooth). Then I used Distress Oxides in Picked Raspberry, Salty Ocean and Wilted Violet as watercolor paints. I then sprayed the paper and held it sideways, so it dripped an moved on the paper. After heat setting, I adhered it to black cardstock and added star rhinestone gems. You can see my supply list on the a2z blog.

Happy Monday and Happy 2018!

Chark

Hero Arts Ornaments Dies in Two Ways

Hi, friends, I'm up on the a2z Scrapbooking blog today using the ornament dies from Hero Arts in a new way...I made Santa and Rudolph with them! Here's a peek...head to the blog here to see more info and pics.

And here are the same ornament dies in a more traditional use as tags. I used coated paper (the kind that has a sheen to it but isn't actually glossy photo paper) and alcohol inks and just dripped away. Here's the pile I ended up with.

And here are some in close-up. I don't think I have a bad color combo, even though I wasn't too careful on what I was putting next to each other. If something looks off, I just dab and add more color and it will work out okay.

I've always loved how alcohol inks spread and combine and just have such fabulous depth of color and now that Jennifer McGuire is revisiting them in her work, I was reminded to get mine out and play too. I just wrote names on these, but you can use letter stickers too.

On these, I added white Uniball ink initials. I'm using them for family so they'll know who they come from, but you can always add more info on the back of the tags.

So, if you need your own set of Infinity Ornaments dies, you can head to a2z and pick yours up today! And use my blog readers' code of CHARK15 to get 15% off your cart of $25 or over.

Happy Monday!

Chark

I'm Back, Baby

So, I'm back after my surprise eye surgery...turns out when you are reeeallly nearsighted and get old, you can stretch your retina too far and it decides to rip. Luckily, I had doctors on top of it and they took care of it in a matter of two days. Now I have some recovery ahead. I'm on week three and things are progressing just right and I'm allowed to read/text/use the computer for ten minutes per hour. You cannot imagine how long seven days seem when you are face down doing nothing. Luckily, I had my handy husband who cooked for me, rigged up a mirror for tv viewing and who brought me treats and texted for me. If you don't have a handy helper like him, I suggest you find one in the event of a surprise surgery...or I could rent mine! :) just kidding, honey.

Today I'm sharing my post up at a2z Scrapbooking using one of the Ornaments Infinity Dies as lightbulbs and the digital cut files A Natural Christmas (that I just printed out since I don't have a Silhouette machine).

Now enjoy a little AC/DC Back In Black to celebrate me being back to my blog and crafting and y'know seeing! See you back here on Monday!

Happy Friday!

Chark

Hero Arts Makes You Go Wild

Today I'm up over at the a2z Scrapbooking blog to duel with Leslie. Okay, we didn't bring swords, but we did use the same digi and came up with two very different cards. If you're looking for inspiration, you can check them both out here.

The digital Go Wild set is the prize for the random challenge winner this month at a2z...the challenge theme for October is watercolor and you can use ANY products. If you win the random draw plus use Hero Arts, you will win the digi and a $20 gift code to the store.

Here's my card. Head to a2z to see Leslie's.

And don't forget, my blog readers and close, personal friends get to use my discount code CHARK15 to get 15% off their $25+ cart. 

Ooooh, I have to tell you, too, that this coming weekend is World Cardmaking Day and a2z Scrapbooking is planning to join in the celebrating with some fun....hope you'll join us on October 7th (Saturday)!

Happy Monday!

Chark

Hero Arts Shopping Bag Die in Pink

Hi, friends, I have a card up on the a2z Scrapbooking blog today where we're announcing the new August Challenge, Bright and Beautiful, with lots of inspiration. For this challenge, I added sequins and Stickles glitter glue in Diamond and a gold foil heart sticker.

I used the Hero Arts 3-D Shopping Bag die with some Doodlebug Designs Cream and Sugar paper. I inked some Woodgrain Vellum with pink ink and inserted it into the dimensional bag.You can add money or a gift card too, to this adorable bag. The background has an oval cut into another sheet of the Cream and Sugar paper, outlined in Stickles. Behind the oval I added more of the Woodgrain Vellum paper but left it white. 

Hop over and say hi or hop over to the a2z Scrapbooking store and get your own 3-D Shopping Bag die. If you have $25 or more in your cart, you can apply a 15% off code when you check out, just type in CHARK15. It even applies to the sales and clearance items (and there's a lot since it's clearing out time!)

Happy Tuesday!
Chark

The Heart Desires Color

I'm entering in The Heart Desires Challenge this month by the skin of my teeth...I've been mulling over this color combo (love it!) and what to do. Not sure I pulled it off exactly how I imagined, but I think I'll revisit the color combo again soon, it's so gorgeous!

This uses Hero Arts add-on for the July card kit. I don't get the kits, but I love the little add-ons that are available. I got this from a2z Scrapbooking, where I'm on the DT. I thought of Gerbera daisies when I saw it and this color inspiration is just right for that.

The background is Tombow markers used as watercolors and the daisies are both Zig Clean Color markers and Prismacolor pencils.

Happy Monday!
Chark

Anne Taintor Inspiration

If you like those vintage women cards with snarky sayings, then you like Anne Taintor...she was probably the first to start them. I think they're funny and I got caught up in making them for the Coffee Lovers Blog Hop this summer.

Here's another. I promise it's the last one for this hop (I have two up at a2z Scrapbooking and one more from Friday).

Here's a close-up for the saying, I just googled coffee quotes and picked a few of my faves for these cards, typed them, printed them and then trimmed them out. I thought they looked like they were friendly, but that lady on the right is trying to tell her co-worker to calm the heck down until she's had her morning brew. This image is from the a2z Scrapbooking store and called Hero Arts Make Your Own Sewing Fashion.

I colored them with Prismacolor pencils in the summery red, white and blue colors, and added some rose ribbon trim to the corner. It's Tim Holtz ribbon.

Giveaway: Leave a comment on any or all of my Coffee Hop posts this week here on my blog (you can leave one comment per post for more chances to win) and you'll be entered to win either two Hero Arts stencils (for overseas friends) or this Lawn Fawn Large Stitched Rectangle die set (for U.S. buds). 

Commenting closes July 1 at 11:59 pm EST.

Happy Hopping!

Chark

Loving the Coffee Hop

It's Day One of the Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop and I've got an Anne Taintor-inspired card with vintage digi stamp and sentiment typed out in a typewriter font. It's a little less snarky than my cards up on the a2z Scrapbooking blog today.

You can see the stars and glitter line stickers at the top and bottom of the coffee cup panel shining in this pic below.

I used the Hero Arts Digital Stamp set called Make Your Own Sewing Fashion ($11.99 for a ton of sewing images and sentiments) for the woman. 

I colored her red, white and blue and put her on cherry paper to make her summer-themed. Then I realized, one doesn't wear capes in summer. It might even be a wool cape. Ah well, she might be toasty in her outfit if she's outside, but if she's at the office, she might be all right, depending on how frigid the air conditioner is!

The coffee cup background is from the Hero Arts Caffeine Fix Digital Stamps. I'm not great with digis, and couldn't figure out how to lighten the cups, so I just used a piece of vellum to make the background less busy.

Special blog reader benefit--if you head to the a2z Scrapbooking store and put in $25 or more in your cart, you can use my super-secret buddy code to get 15% off! It's CHARK15 but you didn't hear it from me. You can almost always find a 10% off code in the store, but 15 is greater than 10...and even this English major knows that. lololol.

Giveaway: Leave a comment on any or all of my Coffee Hop posts this week here on my blog (you can leave one comment per post for more chances to win) and you'll be entered to win either two Hero Arts stencils (for overseas friends) or this Lawn Fawn Large Stitched Rectangle die set (for U.S. buds). 

Commenting closes July 1 at 11:59 pm EST.

Happy Friday!

Chark

Celebrating An Anniversary

Hard for me to believe, by my hubby and I have been married 27 years as of June 16th. That's crazy! Sure we were just 22 but still, I imagined when we'd celebrate 25 years and it seemed so far in the future. 

Is there anyone who isn't surprised some days by their age? I remember my mom and her brothers all sitting around our kitchen table, laughing and talking and they seemed like they were teenagers and their ages were 55-78. That kinda cracked me up as a teen myself.

Ah well, I guess the good news is that we're still here counting those years, am I right?! Here's the card I made for him for our anniversary. I used Lawn Fawn heart dies to cut out of maroon glitter paper, then backed it with text paper. The Forever die is an old one but here's a similar one from Echo Park and it's cut from blue foil cardstock. The last touch was black and gold washi tape to make it more masculine. I received a beautiful card myself, but didn't take a picture, but it did have glitter on it!

Oh, and today I'm up on the a2z Scrapbooking blog with a gift bag I made with the gorgeous Large Hydrangea stamp and a digi butterfly. Here's a peek. Head over and say Hi! if you get a chance.

Don't forget, if you fill your cart at a2z Scrapbooking with $25 or more in stuff, you can use Chark15 to get a 15% discount! 

Happy Weekend!

Chark

New Challenge

We have a brand-new challenge up at a2z Scrapbooking for June and I think it's going to be a fun one. Just use your Hero Arts products and create a shaped card. 

My card is up today on the blog and it's a boring shape...oval...but it was fun to make a bunch of ovals with the nesting infinity dies. The Hero Arts Infinity Dies are a great bargain for how many you get. They come in tags, hearts, teapots, ovals and circles and rectangles. 

If you look at the challenge post here, you'll see more creative cards that fit the theme of a shaped card. And I'm thinking my HA digis would be great for this challenge, so easy to size them to make a card or tag.

Here's a little sneak peek at my card.

Hope you have a fab weekend! I'm taking next week off just to spend some time with the fam, but I'll be back posting June 12, hope to see you then!

Happy Friday!

Chark

Graduations Redux

I have two last grad cards for the season. On this one I used a grad cap decoration as a template for my cap and added a journaling card and a gold die cut star. It's for a future Science teacher, so I added the elements paper strip. I've gotten a lot of use from one 12x12 sheet purchased who knows when. It's Jillibean Soup's Atomic Soup and it's discontinued now. But if you have a science geek in your circle of fam/friends, you could always just print out the real periodic table and use it.

This card is more of a general congrats/yay card. I used a digi Hero Arts globe (it has the words on it too), fussy cut it out and then added a Distress inked stenciled panel behind it. I also used some glitter paper and some map paper. You could use this for a birthday card or Bon Voyage card or whatever. Who wouldn't like to see this sentiment? I added Silver Stickles dots in the corners.

And that concludes the Grad portion of this year's blog...I think. See my previous post here. 

Tomorrow we start a new challenge up on the a2z Scrapbooking blog and the theme is to make a Shaped Card. That sounds like fun, can't wait to see what everyone makes. Hope you'll join in this month for a chance to win $25 to the store, where you could get this globe digi set and lots more!

Happy Wednesday!

Chark