Want to make some lettering using decorative paper for a card or collagey project? Here’s one way to do it!

1. Open up Photoshop and make a new document at the size you’d like.
2. Add white text saying what you’d like in a font that won’t be too difficult to cut out!
3. In the layers palette, make sure the text layer is selected, and add a stroke using layer effects. Make the stroke grey. The point of this is so that you have lines to cut on, and no dark areas that will interfere in the final project.
4. Now go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal
   Here’s what it looks like:
   
   Now if you don’t have Photoshop, most drawing programs should be able to get similar results. You can also do it in Microsoft Word: Go to Insert > Picture > Word Art, select the style with white text and black outline and format the text the way you like, then on the Drawing Toolbar go to Draw > Rotate or Flip > Flip Horizontal.
5. Now print your letters on light copy paper.
6. Glue the printed text onto your decorative paper, back-to-back. I like glue sticks, but any glue will work if you spread it thin.
   
7. Now you can cut out your text using tiny scissors or a cutting device of your choice. Cut right on the lines. I used straight-blade cuticle scissors, which work well for the tiny-ness!



8. Now you can stick your letters on your project with adhesive of your choice. I stuck mine atop some ripped banana leaf paper on a blank note card.

The End!

I got started late so I didn’t finish it yet, but I’m making an Easter Birdy (tutorial from Molly Chicken). I’ve had this one on my to-do list for quite a while, and decided to make one finally. It’s a super cute pattern. Here’s the progress so far:

As for the barbacoa (made yesterday), it was fabulous! Still not exactly like Chipotle, but getting closer. I’m sure the other ingredients play a hand in that flavor too… When I got home and started preparing everything to make burritos, I discovered I didn’t actually have that can of black beans that I thought I had. I called my husband and told him to pick some up on his way in. He came home with a can of refried black beans. Not the same. I used it anyway. Close enough.

I heated the tortillas and let them get singed a little bit over open flame, in hopes that they would pick up a bit of that fresh-made flavor. Not bad! Tongs are highly recommended for this process…unless you have some hair growin’ on your knuckles that you wanna get rid of.

Then added the hot rice, beans and barbacoa, the pico de gallo, and the green Tabasco - just like I do at Chipotle! I rolled it all up and it was good to go, no foil wrapper necessary. Overall, a tasty meal, and very close in flavor to the original. And more importantly, you don’t have to ask for more of your favorite ingredients! Don’t be stingy!

I had a taste-test this morning, and it is pretty darn good! My only gripe would be that the sauce is a little thin, but I think it’ll thicken up on reheating. So, it’s in the fridge now, ready to be heated up and assembled into delicious burritos when we get home. I’ll snap a photo of the final product to add to my crafty post this evening!

Edit - I’d like to add that I did get up at 1am (as I mentioned I was going to do in my last post) to check on the progress of the barbacoa, and it was not nearly done. Maybe the “Low” on my Crock Pot is a little too low. I just left it on low until I got up at 6am and it was perfectly done at that time. So it cooked for about 10 hours total. Perhaps putting my pot on “Medium” would’ve cut it to 5 hours. This worked out fine though. Now I know I can start it, go to bed, and wake up to the lovely smell of roasting spices and not crusty burnt meat.

I am obsessed with Chipotle barbacoa burritos (despite their incredibly high calorie count!) I have attempted to make it from this recipe, which was good, but it definitely was not Chipotle’s barbacoa. Not actually having any chipotle in it should have been a clue!

Armed with a new recipe, I am determined to make “the real” Chipotle barbacoa. This one has chipotle peppers in it! I found the recipe here; however, I have just discovered that it originated here and that the author is charging a very minimal price for the recipe. So, if you make this too, support the original chef. It looks like he has books available! I definitely will be purchasing a few!! Super excited! Here they are at Amazon (a smidge cheaper than the official site): Top Secret Restaurant Recipes, Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2, Top Secret Recipes, Top Secret Recipes: Sodas, Smoothies, Spirits, & Shakes, More Top Secret Recipes . . . Wow. . . too many to list! Search by author to find them all. He has even made lite and low-fat cookbooks of restaurant recipes. (I think I saw this guy on TV once a long time ago…) Wow it makes ya so hungry to read through the table of contents in the previews.

Back on topic, I followed this recipe to the letter! I even toasted and ground the cumin and cloves, just like it said. I sprayed a bit of Pam in a pan and put in the cumin and cloves on a light heat for about 2 minutes, stirring almost constantly. Then I dumped them in my Ikea mortar and ground ‘em up.

To blend the sauce I used my Blend Master! I wish I had a real food processor. (I’m secretly hoping I’ll find a brand new, neglected food processor at a yard sale someday).

I took a tiny taste and the sauce seems really tasty. I dumped that into the Crock Pot with the roast, some chicken broth, and 3 bay leaves. I stirred it up a little, put the lid on, and got to work on the other parts of the burrito.

Due to lack of food processor and my chopping laziness, my pico de gallo is very chunky! haha I was very disappointed in the cilantro I bought. It’s nearly flavorless! My husband will like it though, he’s not a cilantro fan.

I was a little lazy on the cilantro lime rice too. I’m using some leftover basmati rice from Indian take-out we had a few days ago. Might as well put it to good use! It has a little anise in it, but I don’t think it’ll matter. Basmati rice is so much more flavorful than plain ol’ white rice.

I’m going to use canned black beans instead of pintos. I’ll make those tomorrow when it’s supper time! I have the Crock Pot set on low, and hopefully it’ll be okay tomorrow morning. It only really needs to cook for 5 hours. Maybe I’ll get up at 1 and flip it to “warm”.

Soooo… I’ll report back with the taste test results tomorrow morning! Wish me luck!

My husband and I went to a mall antique show yesterday, and it was a total bummer! Lots of empty spaces, lots of overpricing going on. We didn’t get anything worth noting there. Since we finished up that show quickly, we decided to hit some thrift stores on the way home. Had much more fun there!

First up, a few books: Turkish Cooking for a $1 and Learn Maltese, Why Not? for $1.99. I have a ginormous collection of foreign language-learning books. Many of them are unusual languages from places I’ll surely never go. I loved Learn Maltese, Why Not? because that title pretty much sums up that collection. As for Turkish Cooking, I recently went to a local Turkish restaurant and discovered that I loved the food very much. This cookbook has mouthwatering pictures. Perhaps I’ll even try to make something from it sometime.

Next, some random fabrics. It came up to about $4 for the whole lot. I loooove the floral. There’s about 2.5 yards of that. It is so pretty. Not sure what I’ll do with it yet.

I got another addition for my camera collection, a cute little Kodak Brownie. It was $8. A little overpriced in my opinion, but I got it anyway. It’s very clean. Probably was only used a few times.

I nabbed this cute deck of cards for 60 cents! I’m kind of sad that the entire deck is in the box. I wanted to use them for artistic endeavors, but because it’s a complete deck, I feel bad separating them. Also got the kitty hooks for $1.99. I think it’ll be great for necklaces. Not sure what its intended purpose is…

And finally, two pretty embroidered shirts for $6 each. They are brand new, and the original tags say $32, so that was a pretty good deal huh? The sleeves are 3/4 length, which I love! Also, the fabric is quite light, so they’ll be fine for spring and summer.