Jams & Sauces

While I'd love to spend all my time paper crafting, there are other things in life.  We planted a peach tree several years ago, and this is the second year we've gotten a pretty good crop from it.  We were also given some from Mom & Dad's tree - and a friend gave us some berries.  SO . . . we've been canning - all that fruit AND some oranges & lemons that we purchased made great jam and sauces! 

Here is what we made: 

• Peach Almond Jam - The first batch had more vanilla and almond extracts in it than I would have liked, but the second batch was pretty good.  We ended up with eleven 1/2-pints and thirteen 4-oz jars from the two batches.
• Peach Jalapeno Jam - I'm not interested in this type of jam, but Geof likes it - and so might some of my siblings and nephews.  We made two 1/2-pints and seven 4-oz jars of this.
• Peach Citrus Marmalade - This one is one of my favorites.  It is SO good!  Of course, that's only if you like marmalades.  We made eighteen 1/2-pints and one 4-oz of this one.
• Maple Vanilla Peach Jam - The recipe made it sound really good, but I wasn't particularly impressed when I first tasted it.  It DOES have the distinction of only having maple syrup for sweetener.  HOWEVER, after it sat for a couple of days, the flavors were so enhanced - IT IS DELICIOUS!  We got five 1/2-pints and six 4-oz jars of this one, BUT we could have had 2 more 1/2-pints if one jar hadn't broken and I hadn't reserved another 1/2-pints worth for eating now!
• Chocolate Orange Marmalade - This sounded SO good, that I made two batches.  It IS good, but I don't really taste that much chocolate in it.  It's still good marmalade.  We made twelve 1/2-pints and five 4-oz jars of this one.
• Peach Melba Sauce - I was glad when we were given some raspberries so I could use them with some of the peaches to try this recipe.  I decided to make sauce instead of jam because I realized fruit sauces for waffles etc. would be something we could really enjoy (and would use less pectin as we were running low).  If I had realized how good this would turn out to be, I would have made several more batches!  As it was, we made seven 1/2-pints and three 4-oz jars of this scrumptious sauce.
• Berry Blitz Sauce - We had more raspberries and some blackberries - just enough to make this recipe.  Again, it was a jam recipe that we turned into a fruit sauce recipe.  It was good, but next time I'd make more of the Peach Melba instead.  We made six 1/2-pints and two 4-oz of this berry sauce.
• Peach Sauce - We still had a bunch of peaches and decided to make the rest into plain peach sauce.  From the remaining peaches, we made three 3/4-pint and twenty-seven 1/2-pints. 

Whew!  That was a lot of jams, marmalades, and sauces - a total of THREE 3/4-pints, EIGHTY-THREE 1/2-pints, and thirty-seven 4-oz jars. 

KCC#17 Set 1

Again I'm going back to make up a KCC that I never had time to make - this time KCC #17.  And again, I pulled together papers from various packs to create the set of 6x6 papers from which I created it.  Here's what the papers looked like:

Materials used: Once again I started with a paper from the Beautiful Bokeh 6x6 set. To this, I added various discontinued papers from my stash - two pieces from the Subtles 6x6 DSP (Pool Party and Petal Pink) and one from the Neutrals 6x6 DSP (Mossy Meadow - all from 2024-2025 catalog - the current catalog has similar papers Subtles 6x6 DSP and Neutrals 6x6 DSP), and two 6x6 pieces cut from papers in the 12x12 Flowering Fields set.  In addition, I used several different cardstock colors: Calypso Coral, Pool Party, Poppy Parade, Mossy Meadow, and Basic White.  I also used the following inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, VersaMark, Calypso Coral, Pool Party, Poppy Parade, and Mossy Meadow. I also used some gold embossing powder.  Most of the embellishments were from discontinued sets, but if they're current, I'll mention those.  There are lots of similar ones to choose from on their Embellishments page.  I used three types of adhesives: Multipurpose Liquid Glue, Mini Glue Dots, and Mini Stampin' Dimensionals. Specific stamps, dies, embossing folders, used are noted in each card description. Some of these are from discontinued sets, but there are other many great sets to choose from on the Stampin' Up! website.

Here's a look at the 15 cards I made with these papers:

And now, for a closer look at each.

Christmas Sketch Cards

 

Today I have 4 cards based on a sketch on page 14 of the September-December 2025 Mini Catalog.  

Card #1 (above):   A quick and easy card.  I simply cut a piece of Secret Sea cardstock just smaller than my card front, cut a piece of patterned paper a bit smaller than that - then chopped it into four pieces and arranged them on the card with the cardstock as a mat.  Then I cut a circle from white cardstock on which I stamped my greeting using Secret Sea ink, and matted it on Secret Sea cardstock.  The final touch was a gold ribbon bow.

Playing with a Sketch

 

Today I thought I'd play around with a sketch from this year's Stampin' Up!s Sept - Dec Mini Catalog.  They have several sketches on page 14 of that catalog, and I've chosen to play with the one you see above.  I've made a variety of cards - some simple - some "stepped up" versions, but all were designed to demonstrate something about ways to use a sketch.  

All papers and cardstock used were from Stampin' Up!, but some are discontinued designs that I need to use up.  Most of these were made using paper from the discontinued pack called Regal Winter.  If the patterned paper is from a different paper pack, I'll point that out in the description. I invite you to do your own experimenting with whatever paper you have on hand!  

Also assume all stamps/dies/etc that were used were from Stampin' Up! unless I say differently.  Note that some of the embellishments I used - sequins, etc - have been discontinued (I need to use them up), but there's always something similar you can find here.

Inks used include: Cherry Cobbler, Pretty Peacock, Shaded Spruce, (or you can get all 3 colors as a part of the Regals Stamp Pad Bundle) and VersaMark.  The pineapple card also used Pecan Pie and Crumb Cake.

Cardstock used includes: Pebbled Path (discontinued - try Gray Granite), Cherry Cobbler, Pretty Peacock, Basic White, and Basic White Thick.

Most circles created with one of the following Stampin' Up! punches: 1 3/4" punch, 2" punch, 2 3/8" punch.  I occasionally also used a couple of scalloped punches I had in my stash.

Below is a look at the 11 cards I made as variations on this sketch.