Hey there, it’s Amber here with my very first post on the blog!  So excited to be here and share a family recipe for Food Friday!  My husband has perfected this recipe and was so willing to share it and help me with this post.  We have the PERFECT set-up – he made the rolls, and I took the pictures!  LOVE it!  LOL!  I have to admit that cooking is not my favorite thing to do!  But, I LOVE sharing the wonderful recipes we have come across, and I hope to be able to do it again, very soon!

So, let’s get started, shall we?!

Is your mouth watering yet?  He he!  I LOVE cinnamon rolls!  Okay, so first, you need your ingredients.  (Please don’t let the amount frighten you – it’s completely worth it!  I PROMISE!)  :0)

          ROLLS:

• 2 x 1/4 oz packages Yeast
• 1/4 cup Butter, soft
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 4 cups All-Purpose Flour
• 1 cup Warm Whole Milk (105-110 °F/ 40-43°C)
• 2 Eggs, lightly beaten
  

         FILLING:

• 1 cup Brown Sugar, packed
• 2 1/2 Tblsp. Cinnamon
• 1/2 cup Butter, soft
• 1/3 cup All-Purpose Flour

             FROSTING:

• 1 x 8 oz. package Cream Cheese, soft
• 1 Tblsp. Butter, softened
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups Powdered Sugar
• Pinch of Salt
• 2 tsp Whole Milk

Alright!  Now, starting with the rolls…  In your mixer, blend all your dry ingredients together – flour, sugar, yeast, salt.  Then add the butter, cutting it into the flour mixture.  Add your warm milk, and lightly beaten eggs.  Mix together on 2nd speed for 8 minutes.  Now, you place your dough, either in the bowl you mixed it in, or a ceramic bowl, (which will hold the heat in better).  Place your bowl in a warm area and let the dough rise for 1 hour, or until it doubles in size.  Oh, and at this time, preheat your oven to 400 degrees F, or 204 degrees C – can’t forget that!  :0)

Okay, while your dough is rising, prepare your filling by mixing the dry ingredients together – the flour, cinnamon, and brown sugar.  Make sure your butter is soft and spreadable – not melted!  When your dough is ready, roll it out into a rectangle – on a lightly floured surface – making the dough about a 1/4 inch thick.  Spread the butter edge to edge on your rolled out dough.  Using a sieve – it makes it easier! – sprinkle the cinnamon mixture over the butter.  (Oh, and if you have leftover cinnamon stuff, it’s GREAT on toast!  :0) )  Now, starting at the widest edge, roll your dough!  Isn’t this exciting?!

This next step is tricky for me to explain, so bear with me!  We use a long piece of string or dental floss to cut the dough into 12 equal parts- making each roll about 1 1/2 inches wide, or tall – depending on which way you look at it.  :0)  Slide the string under the rolled dough, wrap the ends over the dough, opposite each other – twist the ends once.  And, pulling the strings’ ends away from each other, “pinch” the dough until it cuts through all the way.  Does that make sense?  I sure hope so! :0)  Now, place your rolls close together on a greased cookie sheet.  Place them in a warm area, and let them rise for 30 minutes, or until double in size.

It’s time to bake!  Place your cookie sheet in your preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown.  While they are baking, add all your frosting ingredients into your mixer bowl and whip on HIGH speed for 2 minutes!  Remove your rolls when they are ready, and let them cool for a few minutes.  Spread your frosting generously over the tops of your yummy smelling treats.  Pour yourself a LARGE glass of milk and savor every delicious bite!  :0)

And, I made a 4×6 RECIPE CARD for you to download for free!  To make it, I used SP’s super fun Baked With Love Recipe Card Template Set, the beautiful Gracie kit, and a couple other things from here and there!  You may click here, or on the image below to start downloading! :0)

I hope you’ve enjoyed this as much as I have!  Thank you for being here today, and we will see you back on Monday for LOTW!  Have a wonderful weekend! :0)

AmberFood Stuff, Free (not desktops), Uncategorized 7 Comments

Hello everyone!  This is Rosy and today I get to bring you a Thursday Thievery post!

One of my favorite ways to start a scrapbook page is to scraplift, which basically means to take inspiration from someone else’s page that I love. Today we are lifting this gorgeous layout from Kim’s gallery entitled “Callie at 4“.

Isn’t it stunning?!  I loved this page when I first saw it in the gallery and I was so excited to lift it! The darling photos of Kim’s daughter are perfectly complimented by the pink, green, and brown color scheme.  The hexagons are repeated throughout the page and serve to bring the design together beautifully.

There are so many ways that you could go with a scraplift of this page and I think the Shabby Artists came up with some great examples of this!

On my page I kept the same design and hexagon arrangement, but used one vertical photo instead of two horizontal and changed up the color scheme to go with my pumpkin patch photo. I did use the same background paper and stayed pretty close to Kim’s clustering design, since this is something that I’m not naturally good at doing!

Lego’s version has simplified the design and color scheme to match her beautiful photos.  I truly cannot say how much I love this page!

I love how Amber’s scraplift uses the same basic color scheme as our inspiration page, but in softer tones.  Beautiful!

Emily rotated the photo spot for two vertical photos and I love how she’s layered the frames!  The blues and greens go perfectly with her black and white photos.

Casharina used the hexagon shape as her main inspiration and scattered them throughout the photo cluster for this beautiful result!

Aubrey’s layout was also inspired by the hexagons and combined with the inner shadow trick it made a great backing for her photo and clusters.

We hope you’ll join us in scraplifting Kim’s beautiful page!  Be sure to upload to the gallery so we can admire your work!

Tomorrow Amber will be here to share a food friday post with you!

RosyInspiration, Uncategorized 6 Comments

 Hello, lego here with my little introductory post.  As you can imagine, I’m a bit nervous but even more excited and thrilled to be part of what I have always called “My First Scrapbooking Love”: Shabby Princess’ site.  Two and a half years ago, when I first discovered this wonderful website, I would not even have dreamt of being a member of this creative “family”, so you might guess how happy I am now ;-)

   Well, let’s get started … shall we?  Today I’m going to show you one of my favourite Photoshop tricks, which I call “The Stamp Effect”.  It’s really easy but very effective.  Actually, I think I use it on almost all my pages ;-)

  First, let me show you what I’m talking about, and then I’ll tell you the tiny bit of tech stuff you need to know in order to apply this yourself:

See the difference?  The surface under the text on the right is somewhat absorbed and it gets a more realistic and less digital feel.  And to be honest, that’s one of my major goals: to preserve the idea that a page could really have been made with paper, glue, stamps and all the rest.

So here are the instructions:

• Mark/highlight the text layer in your layer panel.
• Click on the layer and the layer style menu will pop open – with the Blending Options shown as the default. (If you have a PC you can double click on the layer OR right-click and choose Blending Options)
• Now choose the “gradient bar” at the very bottom and holding the “alt”-key at the same time click on the white triangle. (That’s really important otherwise you cannot select one half of the triangle only, and your element/text will disappear.  By holding the “alt-key“, the triangle will split as you move).
• Move the split triangle to the left.  The further left, the more absorption you’ll get.

Here is what you’ll see in photoshop.  (Please note: the second screenshot is from my German version – but everything is exactly the same except for the words)

legoTips and Tricks, Uncategorized 12 Comments

Hello Happy Scrappers!  Aubrey here for my first blog post!  I am excited and a bit nervous about this, but am so grateful to be a part of this great team!  I have always looked forward to Layout of the Week to see what inspiration that it brought.  I now understand how hard it is to choose!  There are so many beautiful layouts out there, and this week was no different!  I am pleased to announce that Hannah and her family together layout is this week’s winner:

I loved this page from the moment I saw it in the gallery!  I loved the subtle tones of the papers she chose and how appropriate for this time of year it was with all the browns and creams.  I loved how she put the journaling in the confines of the circular stitching.  So fun!  I am also a sucker for blue: LOVE that color and this page just spoke to me with all it’s happiness!!  I also love the subject manner: family.  This time of year we are thinking about how grateful we are for our families, and what a perfect way to portray that than in a scrapbook page!

Congratulations Hannah!  Watch your e-mail (and don’t forget to check your SPAM folders if you don’t see it!) for a $10 gift card to the Shabby Shoppe …and enjoy your shoppe-ing!  Thanks to all of you out there for posting all the lovely pages in the gallery!  It is always a joy and an inspiration to see what everyone else is creating!

Thanks for checking in with the blog today…the super-talented lego will be here on Wednesday for a fabulous Tips & Tricks post!

AubreyLayout of the Week, Uncategorized 5 Comments

Hi everyone…Kylie here! :o)  As most digi-scrapping fanatics know, tomorrow is a big, big day in our lil’ digi-scrapping universe.  Yes, it’s time to celebrate Digital Scrapbooking Day (DSD)!!  Yay!!

Here at the Shabby Shoppe, to celebrate this fun day we would like to share TWO beautiful 2013 CALENDARS with you!

These are year-at-a-glance piece-a-cake calendar pages.  One is 11×8.5 and super bright & happy!  The other is 8.5×11 and beautiful & shabby! Both use the gorgeous Gracie collection.  We hope that one (or both) will work well in your home…they are sure to brighten up any space!  They also make awesome gifts for family and friends…especially at this time of year!! :o)

To download your FREE 2013 Calendars, simply head over to the Shabby Princess site (shabbyprincess.com) by CLICKING HERE or the image above!

Also, I’m excited to share that SP will be releasing a wonderful NEW KIT for the holidays and some other festively-fun goodies…arriving at the Shoppe in the next couple of weeks!  So stay tuned for them…and sign up for the Shoppe Newsletter (if you haven’t already) so you don’t miss out on the Holiday SALE!!

Thanks so much for stopping by today…and for being a special part of the Shabby Shoppe community!  We hope you ENJOY your DSD to the fullest! :o)  See you back here on Monday for Layout of the Week!!!

KylieFree (not desktops), Shoppe News, Uncategorized 15 Comments