Paperwhite Creations: January 2019

Thursday 31 January 2019

Heart Pop Up Card

Are you ready for a mini theme? You should be because it’s Valentine’s Day coming up and you’re gonna get one. We are doing a couple crafty posts in the lead up to Valentine’s Day so that you can create something sweet for a special someone in your life.

Today we are making our specialty, a card. It’s not just any card...it’s a heart pop up card. Does it get better than that?

We don’t let anything go to waste here so we are going to use some of the leftover hearts that we cut out last year for our heart wreath (see it here) and use them in this card.

It may look a bit complicated but this card is actually simple.

First off, pick a colour for your card and then choose some patterned paper and a shade of cardstock to compliment the pattern.

We chose a medium shade of pink for our card and then we went with a pink polka dotted pattern piece of paper and a dark red plain sheet of cardstock for our inside heart.

We’re not using any fancy cutter today (but you certainly could if you wanted), we’ve picked a 4 inch heart that we had left over from our wreath and are tracing that on the patterned paper and the red cardstock to create the pop up heart. Trace three patterned hearts and two red cardstock hearts.

We also traced a light pink heart the same size to put on the front, but more to come on that later.

Now fold all of the hearts in half except for the one on the front. For the pattern ones fold the pattern inwards.

Cut the card to the size you want. We’re using out usual 4 ¾ x 6 ¾ size card.

Glue the hearts together so that you have a “heart fan” when you’re done. Alternate the pattern and the cardstock.

Next stamp the layer for the outside. We have picked a cute love bird stamp that we are stamping in silver on the light pink heart.

We’re going to glue this to the centre of the card.

Now we are going to fill the excess space around the big heart with some smaller hearts in a variety of sizes. We had lots leftover smaller hearts so we used those and then we tried punching some tiny hearts out of our new sparkly sticky paper.

Lastly, we’re going to glue the fan heart inside along the inside crease. We decided that it needed something a little extra so we punched two hearts to go in opposite corners of the inside of the card.

Here's the finished product.

Thursday 24 January 2019

Red Wine Chocolate Bundt Cake

Usually January is a recovery month after eating and drinking too much over the holidays but we believe that a treat is needed every once in a while and this one includes wine and chocolate. Many people claim that red wine and dark chocolate in moderation are good for you and this sweet treat includes both.

Today we are trying out a red wine and chocolate Bundt cake. The picture in the local grocery add caught my eye and I knew I had to try it out. So we did and here is how it went.

To make this cake you will need...

1 ½ cups of flour

1 ¼ cup of sugar

1/3 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. of baking powder

2 eggs

1 cup of dry red wine

½ cup of olive oil

1 tsp. of vanilla

½ cup of whipping cream

½ cup of dark or semisweet chocolate chips or finely chopped chocolate

1 tsp. of honey

Fresh berries of choice for topping

First off, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9-10 inch bundt pan.

Whisk together the dry ingredients in your mixer’s bowl. Add in the eggs, olive oil, wine and vanilla. Mix well. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Turn your mixer on high and beat the batter for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy.

Pour into the greased pan and flatten the top.

Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool in the pan for 15 minutes. After cooling in the pan, invert on a plate until cooled completely.

While your cake is cooling, you can make the glaze. In a sauce pan over medium heat, bring the cream to a simmer. Stir occasionally.

Pour the cream over the chocolate in a heat proof bowl. Let it stand for 1 minute.

Stir in the honey and the salt.

Allow it to cool and to thicken a bit. Then pour over the cooled cake.

Let the drizzle to harden for at least 10 minutes.

Serve with fresh fruit, berries are best. You can also dust with icing sugar if you like or whip up some cream to put on it as well. I really liked this cake a lot. It was moist and chocolatey and thought the flavour was nice; I didn’t really taste wine, but some others noticed the wine flavour more.

Enjoy.

Thursday 17 January 2019

Wonton Wrapper Raviolis

As we ease into a New Year, we like to throw in a few miscellaneous blog posts of things that we find interesting and want to try out but they may not fit into our themes throughout the year.

First up...easy wonton ravioli. This is something that we wanted to try out for a long time. We actually wanted to make some ravioli at home that was quick and easy so we first tried out fresh store bought lasagna sheets but they were too thick and stiff and didn’t work out at all. Our next plan/idea was to get some wonton wrappers and fill them and make ravioli. These worked out much better. Take a look below to see how made a yummy batch of ravioli.

First of all you’ll want to make a filling. We chose a ricotta cheese and spinach filling. For this you will need ricotta cheese, spinach, olive oil, garlic, eggs, parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper. I cooked up about 10 cups of fresh spinach (yes that seems like a lot but it cooks down so so much) along with 3 cloves of chopped garlic and a drizzle of olive oil. Cook until dark green and until the spinach goes down.

In a bowl, add in 2 cups of ricotta cheese, 1/3 cup of parmesan cheese, 1 egg, salt and pepper and the spinach. Mix well and refrigerate until ready to use.

After the filling is made, you can whip out your wonton wrappers and start filling. Either the square or rounds ones will work. We are making slightly larger raviolis so that we can use the entire wrapper without cutting off scrap bits. They are also much thinner than your average ravioli so it’s fine that they are a bit bigger.

Grab a bowl of warm water and put it nearby as you will need to use this to close the ravioli. You’ll also want some baking sheets to place the raviolis on as you wrap them.

Place a dollop of filling in the centre of the wrapper. You don’t want too much as it may split open so a little goes a long way.

Use your finger to put a light boarder of water around the edges of the wrapper.

Fold in half and pinch the sides together.

Place it on a baking sheet and then continue to make more. We were feeding a lot so we made a lot! You can make as many as you want. I did try making some and put them in the fridge overnight. That wasn’t the best idea as they stuck together and stuck to the container and turned really soft. It was a disaster! It’s just best to make them as you need them.

Get a large pot of water boiling. Once it’s boiling, drop about 6 of the raviolis in and let them cook for about 3 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and place on a parchment lined baking sheet in the oven. I put the oven on the warm and hold setting. Continue cooking the rest of the raviolis.

Next, make your sauce. We kept it real simple and just melted some butter in a pan along with some fresh sage and then tossed in the raviolis. I would say just eye how much of each you use. I needed a lot of sauce so I used extra butter and sage. We were so excited to make this and hungry that we forgot to take some pictures along the way! Sorry.

Serve and enjoy...so delicious.

Thursday 10 January 2019

"Living Coral" 2019's Colour of the Year

Can you believe it’s Colour of the Year time already?! As always I have been looking forward to this blog post for some time now.

This year’s colour is called “Living Coral”. I actually love coral but don’t incorporate it a lot in my life because I can never find the right coral coloured things that suit me. We also haven’t made very many coral coloured cards either which may change this year. I often associate coral with weddings, especially bridesmaid’s dresses for some reason. Maybe we’ll make some coral wedding cards this year.

Anyways, let me describe “Living Coral” for you now. It’s described as both vibrant and mellow and I can understand why. It’s soft yet bright and cheerful as the same time; for some reason I think of pastels and beachy summer days. Pantone explains that it “provides comfort and buoyance in our continually shifting environment.” It’s a very adaptable colour. I feel like you can incorporate this colour into many different situations. Like I said before, I often think about it when I think about weddings, but it would be such a nice home décor colour, jewellery colour, baby clothing colour, and I think it would work with all season wardrobes. I’ve also seen really nice shades of blush and nail polish in coral. Pantone also says that Living Coral is “symbolizing our innate need for optimism and joyful pursuits” and it “embodies our desire for playful expression.” It’s a joyful natural colour that compliments most people and surroundings. It is not just a colour found under the sea anymore! J

So please enjoy some of our favourite things in “Living Coral!”

Jewlery