Hoop Charm Earring Tutorial

As promised I have posted my tutorial for the hoop earring that was my giveaway earlier this month on my Craft How To's site HERE. Just scroll down on the page a bit and check it out. I would love link backs.

Have fun with the Trick or Treaters tonight.

Guest Blog on A Different Shade of Me

I was asked by Christina of A Different Shade of Me to do a guest blog spot and for the life of me I couldn't think of a thing to write about. Kind of unusual for me. Christina was the winner for the Hoop Earring giveaway earlier this month and loved them so much I decided to write a tutorial, so that is what she blogged about. I have her blog HERE with my tutorial as featured. I will be posting the tutorial on my Craft How Tos site this weekend.

Here is a picture of the finished earrings....oh yeah and a lot of charms.. LOL.

Have a great Halloween!

Sugar Free Pumpkin Cheesecake

Now that the holidays are approaching I thought I would share a recipe with you that I make each holiday season. It is perfect as you get that pumpkin and spice that you want but without all the sugar. Be careful though as it still contains all the fat. This is perfect for those on the Adkins Diet or a low carb diet. The top on mine is a little dark and wrinkly as I left the oven door closed after I turned it off, but I'm sure it will taste just fine.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Crust:
1/2 cup of Walnuts (I used mixed nuts chopped or you can leave the nuts out and have a crustless cake)

Cheesecake Filling:
3 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese at room temp
1 cup Splenda
1 tesp powdered white stevia (if you don't have this it is fine it just won't be a sweet)
1 tesp ground cinnamon
1/8 tesp ground ginger
1/8 tesp gound cardamom
1/8 tesp ground nutmeg
1/8 tesp ground cloves
1/4 cup whipping cream
2 tesp vanilla extract
3 large eggs
3/4 cup solid-packed pumpkin

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly coat a 9 inch springform pan with nonstick vegetable spray.

To make the crust, place the nuts in the work bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade (or a blender) and pulse until finely chopped. Press the nuts on the bottom of the prepared pan and bake for 5 minutes.
Remove the pan from the oven and cool completely before adding the filling.

To make the filling, place the cream cheese, Splenda and stevia in the mixing bowl and mix with electric mixer for 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add the cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg and cloves and blend well. On medium speed, add the whipping cream and vanilla and beat for 2 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl. Add the pumpkin and beat until combined. Pour the batter into the parepared pan. Place the pan in a larger pan and put in the oven. Pour enough water into the larger pan to come halfway up the sides of the cheesecake pan. Bake for 60 minutes.

Turn off the oven and open the door slightly. Leave the cheesecake in the oven for 1 hour. Remove the cheesecake from the oven, cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

To serve, take out of the refrigeraterator to warm up a bit (usually 15 to 30 minutes). I usually add whipped cream lightly sweetened with Splenda on top of each serving.

Makes 12 servings with 6 g carbs, 281 calories, 7 g protein, 26 g fat, 1 g dietary fiber, 188 mg sodium, 122 mg cholesterol.

This recipe is from the Ultimate Low Carb Diet Cookbook.

Featured Artist - Karen of Winding Threads

Karen, another Creative Blogger friend has some wonderful bags that you might like. Okay, I just wanted to drool myself. If you have one of the small mini notebook computers, Karen makes a very cute computer bag, it's the yellow with the roses. Don't anyone buy it because I may have to myself.

Karen has a great blog that you can checkout HERE or I would highly recommend heading over to her Etsy shop HERE. I believe that Karen's love of fabric probably is very similar to my love of gemstones and beads. We are addicted and probably need help.

New Social Networking Site for Crafters

As if I didn't have enough to do, I started a new social networking site for crafters. The point is to share ideas, tutorials and network with other crafters. I even added a marketplace so that E-bay, Etsy, Amazon and Yahoo sellers can show and sell their work for free. The marketplace just links to their existing site. No rules except that you can not post any porn or offense material. I welcome others who would like to join me.

Here is the link:  http://crafthowtos.ning.com/

As a bonus, I will be posting tutorials on the craft site vs. here, but never fear, I will link to them so you can still enjoy without having to check out two places, but if you are only interested in tutorials and instructions, that would be the place to check first.

The first tutorial I posted is for the Leather Fringe necklace that I posted here in August that was so popular. As I develop more tutorials and get permission for reprinting some from other authors, they will be posted.

Featured Artist - Annette Piper

Last week I posted about another Creative Blogger friend and this week it is Annette Piper. Annette is a qualified gemologist and lives in Sydney. Her work is stunning as you can see from the picture of the earring. I left a comment on Annette's blog about the beautiful stones she uses and how I tend to hourd mine and haven't felt the need to share them with my customers yet...LOL. My husband thinks differently and so does the checkbook. I guess I'll have to get busy.  Here is a little bit more about Annette.

Gemstones - I gaze into their depths and see incredible patterns and miniature worlds. I invite you into my world where you can behold a stunning array of gems. Share my fascination in the millenia-long journey these stones have taken to be what they are today and see that what mother nature has created for our use and pleasure.

Working in the Sydney jewelry trade since 1982, I qualified as a gemologist in 1986. Constantly feeling the pull of the wonderful natural stones around me, in 2002 I began making my own creations and designing how I saw jewelry could be - elegant, simple and timeless.

Constantly searching for the new, the unusual and the different, from all over the world, I endeavor to create jewelry that will be unique yet still very affordable.

I now work from my home studio where there are magnificent views over the surrounding countryside and of the wide blue Australian sky.

As a mother to three very active children and wife to an aviator/farmer, I also share my surroundings with two lazy cats a working dog and a few hundred cows.
 
I invite you to visit Annette's blog and web site so that you can see her beautiful jewelry for yourself.
 
http://annettepiper.com/blog/
http://www.annettepiper.com/