Hard to believe this was 2 years ago! Anyway, it seems like we consume vast quantities of our own snack mix at this time of year and while the posting may be dated...the recipe is still a hit with our gang.
Visiting the pumpkin patch is a family tradition for many. Each year since the kids were tiny we would make an event out of it - gathering all the extended family for a day in the country. When the kids were younger the assembly of all the cousins prompted lots of pictures of all of them in a row, looking just like stair steps. In fact we decided early on that rather than Santa pictures we would take pumpkin pictures and their growth through the years has been well documented!
One of the other traditions that seemed to evolve was snacks for the occasion. All that tromping around the huge (and often muddy) pumpkin fields gave everyone the nibbles. So in addition to thermoses of hot chocolate we would always make bags of gorp. I think this is a fairly universally known word (thanks to Scouting) for a mixture of sweet and salty snacks that when put together is a definite cure-all for hunger pangs. Everyone I know has their own version, and as recipes often do, this one changes with whatever is in the pantry!
You HAVE to have some type of Halloween candy in the mix to make it a 'pumpkin patch snack' and one of our favorites are jelly pumpkins! This time we are adding salted almonds, dark chocolate M & M's, Craisins, and golden raisins...yummy!
Mix everything together in roughly equal parts and spoon into small 4" X 4" zip lock bags. Most craft stores have sizes close to this or use snack size Zipock bags.
Because I know I will be making several of the mini cards for our snack bags I have gathered all my supplies in one container. I never seem to find the time to sit in one place and get things all done at once and this allows me to 'take the project' around the house (or to my daughters basketball practice) until they are finished. A few posts ago I showed you my new storage system and I have bought a few more and am now using the trays to organize the components of different inchie projects! That way I am not getting all the colored pencils, markers and stamps mixed up on my desk and I can take them with me wherever I go!
Everyone always has fun searching for their 'snack bag' so we personalize the cards with fun messages. Lockhart Stamps has two images that are just perfect for creating this mini card. Starting with the Itty Bitty Checkered Border #3037 stamp each white Inchie Square with black ink. Remember when stamping borders; ink the stamp and then turn it face up. You have a better chance of good positioning if you bring the square to the stamp vs. bringing the stamp to the square.
Next, stamp with the Itty BItty pumpkin #3014.
When coloring Inchie Squares I often use a combination of Prismacolor pencils and Copic markers. Starting with the pencils color the border with poppy red and limepeel. To color the pumpkin take your time and use a layering technique with gentle pressure, overlapping colors until the desired affect is achieved. The pumpkin is colored with sand, goldenrod, spanish orange and poppy red, and a little limepeel for the stem.
You could leave it at that point, but sometimes a light and subtle additional color can create richness in a background, create a finishing edge (since you can color the edges of a white Inchie Square!), or a depth of field (the grass around the base of the pumpkin). One of my most favorite and versatile Copic marker colors is G20 wax white - it's great for tinting a background. If you look carefully you can see where this was used around the very edge of the border and at the base of the pumpkin - along with some 'grass' of limepeel pencil. And, I couldn't resist finishing off the pumpkin with a little bit of Glossy Accent glaze.
Create the mini cards (they are 2" square) by trimming down a card from the Fall color assortment of Inchie Notes (be sure and save the trim for another use!) and topping it with an Inchie Paper and the finished pumpkin inchie.
Tie the notes to each bag with coordinating ribbon; grab the boots, hot chocolate, camera and snacks and it's off to the pumpkin patch!
