It's a Four-fer! Craft of the Weeks: 8,9,10, and a bonus!

It's been busy! We finally squeezed in a little family getaway, not too far, but far enough to be away.
It was the first outing with the new puppy -a little crazy, but not bad. The next will be easier.
So, without further ado,
Craft of the Week #8:
Clothespin Magnets:

 Clothespins, ModgePodge, DSP paper scraps, more ModgePodge, sandpaper, and adhesive magnet strips -Voila! Very easy, but a little time consuming (I do not enjoy sanding), and super-cute. I will be selling them at the local community fair in sets of 3.

Craft of Week #9: Dog Toys!

These were made with donated towels, cut into 3 sizes (sm., med., lg.) and tightly braided into dog toys. My daughter will be selling these at same community fair to raise money for 2 local animal shelters that we have worked with. 

Craft of the Week #10: Photo Cards

Very self explanatory...I found some of my favorite digital photos I had taken as far as 6 years back, printed them off at Costco with a white trim and matte finish. Then mounted them on what I felt was best coordinating color of SU! cardstock. This is just a small sampling of the almost 8 dozen I made.

Bonus craft: Bleach on T-shirts

 So, I've stamped with bleach on cards, but took it another step to a couple of cute junior-fit tees I found. I used bleach on paper towels for my "ink pad" then stamped with the beautiful "Gently Falling" SU! set. The blue tee has a few leaves at the front center, and a single one at the nape.

This one has a single leaf front-top-center, and a ring of them around the hem.

Just a tip: I tried this on a couple of heathered colored tees, and it did not work! The bleach wasn't received and simply dried on the shirt without removing color.

Anyone know why?

 I want to go back and get some fall-colored shirts in different sizes and do a few more. It was fun!

 

Until next time: Happy Crafting!



Craft of the Week and Bonus "Craft"

So this week, I made these super-easy washer necklaces. I just made sure the diameter of the washer and the hole in the washer coordinated with my circle punch sizes. Then I punched out a bunch of retired DSP I have adhered it with Tombo multi-purpose glue, let dry, and sealed with SU! Crystal Effects. Voila!
It felt way to easy -kind of like I was cheating, so I made them double-sided and added assorted SU! Jewels.

This one is my favorite:

It's very dainty and pretty, well, for a washer anyway!



Since I seemed to have a bunch of extra days in the week (I finished these last Saturday), well technically, I finished them before the week even started, I went and bought a dozen more washers that I'll finish by Saturday.
Also, late last week, our new local produce shop got in tons of peaches from their orchard over in Eastern Wa. I couldn't resist and bought 2 boxes (40lbs), as the price was amazing, and they're non-certified organic. Well, I learned a little something: Don't try to peel/skin unripe peaches. I thought they were good as they gave a little under pressure, but they were a little green. So, couple days hanging out in the warm-ish garage, and ta-da! They peeled perfectly yesterday, and today, and more again today. I gave my first try at canning them, next will be jam, and the rest into the freezer and crisp for tonight.

Ironically peaches aren't my favorite, and after a year of 40lbs of peaches, I'll probably stick with a single 20lb box next year. But, boy oh boy, I can't wait for the blackberries to come in (our yard ones are a later variety), to make some peach/blackberry cobbler -Yummy!

Oh, and for those of you who are local, here is the link to Bill Pace Produce . He's not new, but he's got a new shop in our 'hood. I'm so excited about getting fresh local apples by the box soon. Applesaucin' here I come!!

Happy Crafting!

Craft of the Week: Week 6

Still on track for Crafts of the Week! I am looking to sustain this through August, and hopefully it will have become enough of a habit to carry on into the holiday season.
This past week's project was purely a practical one: A bed/pillow for puppy.

 I used two solid colors of blizzard fleece on sale at Joann's -kind of a limey green and chocolate brown, and a 27" square pillow form. Ironically, we did not have puppy then, but I knew we would get a puppy at some point in the near future and tried to choose something neutral color-wise. I just had to take advantage of the great 4th of July sale and military discount.
Don't the colors go great with her coat and collar??

Happy Crafting!

Bad Blogger's Crafts of the Week

I really enjoy reading good bloggers, but I'm hoping if any of you followers are still around, you don't mind checking out blogs of bad bloggers like myself. Many life changes since the last blog posting. I have implemented a "craft-of-the-week" this summer to keep myself crafting, and using the supplies I just "had to have". I started 6/24.
Weeks 1&2 were these cute recipe boxes:

I've got more paper ordered so I can make some more -love the way they turned out with the matching divider cards.

Week 3 were swaps for Girl Scout camp that I volunteered at with my 3 kiddos:

We made over 150 to go with our camp names: Bunny, CrocStar, Snorkel, and Pearl (like in Finding Nemo)

Week 4 was basket weaving at camp:

Basket weaving (for those of you who don't already know), is so amazingly zen. Must do this again!

Week 5 was these super-fun and easy necklaces:

I'll be selling these along with some other style necklaces at a community craft fair in the fall.

Week 6 will be a bed for this little cutie, our newest family member:

Thanks for hanging in with me! I'm thinking along with Craft of the Week, I need to start Blog of the Week. :)
Have a great afternoon wherever you are!
Happy Crafting!

Cupcakes: Take 2

Wait, where is Take 1 you might ask. Too bad, it's already been eaten! They were Chocolate Salted Caramel cupcakes, but I would call them more Mocha cupcakes with Salted Caramel frosting. They were yummy and are now gone.
I've been having this cupcake "thing" lately, I think it started at our school's auction fundraiser. Our table won a bunch of cupcakes from Cupcake Royale. I had the Lemon Drop (YUM!) and then split a Chocolate Salted Caramel one with frosting that was just amazing!! They've been on the brain since then.
So, today in an effort to test-drive a recipe for a friend's birthday treat, I made Carrot Ginger Cupcakes with an Orange Ginger icing both recipes from MarthaStewart.com.

I'm not sure how this is different from a muffin other than the frosting on top. I'd be happier calling it a muffin and eating it without the frosting. If you know the difference between a cupcake and a muffin, other than frosted vs. unfrosted, please leave a comment and enlighten me. Also, please know that I belong to the camp that believes that Costco muffins are cupcakes without frosting.
Now, don't get me wrong...the cake is yummy, but not quite what I'd consider a cupcake in texture. The frosting was really flavorful and yummy, but not super fluffy considering the amount of dairy in it, and a little too cream-cheesy for my liking, but great combo of flavors. The ginger and orange together...mmmmmm.
This would be really good over your favorite gingerbread recipe!
If I were to try this again, I'd halve the cream cheese, up the butter and conf. sugar, and use milk or cream to smooth as needed. Also, thinking this might make a good loaf recipe...
I'm on a roll, but I'm not going to be so ambitious as trying a different one each week, but 2 a month is pretty doable!
I definitely will be attempting a Chocolate-Bacon-Maple Buttercream concoction I tried from Whole Foods about a month ago...stay tuned!

Sunny days...

...sweepin' the clouds away! It's been a Sesame Street kind of week, you know friendly neighbors, sunshine, the occasional grouch. :)
Spent some time outside with the kiddos in the yard -had some fun, did some work.
Here is an example of fun my son and I had:

I was pretty pleased with my no-previous-practice Cookie Monster, but my son added the verbage and the giant chocolate chip cookie to make it even better! We had some other characters hanging out in the driveway too, but C.M was my favorite.

 Now, for a couple of challenges:

 A little Color Throwdown, and mix in some Mojo Monday

And you get:

Believe it or not, the green in this card is Old Olive...it looks way brighter, thanks to the fabulous sunshine we've got this morning. I loved the color combo in this weeks color throwdown, and the sketch was simple enough to my liking, but with enough elements to challenge me.
I used: Upsy Daisy set; Old Olive, Marina Mist, Naturals Ivory, Soft Suede c/s; Pumpkin Pie Patterns DSP (Brights pad); Old Olive & Versamark inks; 1 3/4" & 1 3/8" circle punches; Watercolor Crayons (Old Olive, Marina Mist, Pumpkin Pie, & a little Daffodil Delight); Big Shot Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder; Big Designer Buttons (Springtime Vintage -Olive); 1/8" taffeta ribbon -Marina Mist.

Enjoy!

Christmas is coming...

12/20/2010
Thought I would take a break from cookie baking, etc. to post what will likely be my last blog of the year.
I just wanted to share a few things I've been working on, but as I mentioned before, I can't post many so I won't spoil any Christmas surprises.

(fade to new year)

Happy New Year everyone!!

I started getting this post ready some months back and got swallowed up by the holidays and the busy-ness of whatever rolled my way.

I've missed you!

Here are a couple of bags I made as Christmas gifts:

Gifts I made also included button bracelets, ornaments, tons of cookies and goodies, snuggies for the kids, and one for my brother-in-law that included a matching one for his rifle. That was a hoot to make and give.

Hubby was busy too and made some beautiful wooden puzzles.

The new year has just flown by so far, I once again volunteered to lead  a class auction art project (same teacher, different child this time). Again, I opted to do a quilt. This time, instead of having the kids draw on it, they got to design their own squares, which my helpers and I translated to fabric. It turned out amazing!! Here's a sneak peek:

I'm so excited to attend the auction and see how it does -every dollar counts for the schools in this economy!!

If you missed it the first time, here's a link to the first class quilt I did.