Saturday, April 30, 2011

April Calendar

Time for the monthly calendar challenge again! My how time is flying by. For my two CD case calendars I did purple spring images.  This time I used two different papers for the background....the second is posted below.
I used a Cuttlebug die for the tulip and leaves.  To make the tulips 3D I cut three, folded them in half and glued them back to back.
Here's the quilt calendar I'm working on.....
The little flowers on this are from the MS border punch bloom dots and the bigger flowers (on the cross) are  from Heartfelt Creations - Posie Patch set.  I also used the candy cane stripe embossing folder on the cross.
Here's a little closer view of the flowers/cross so you can see the textures in it.
I started out making this a stand up calendar (like for an easel), but just this month decided to change it to a hang up calendar.  If you've been following the calendar challenge each month you may want to revisit those posts to see the "new and improved" version.
January
February
March
BTW - Here's the website I got my calendar images from for the quilt calendar
Now go here to see what my friend did for her April 2012 calendar.
This post linked to:
Who Made What Weekends?
Craft Catwalk
Making Monday Marvelous

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Stamping on Fun Foam

I saw an idea somewhere ??? on-line -- to stamp a medallion type stamp on fun foam and cut it out as an embellishment.  Decided to give it a whirl and the above card is the result.
Supplies used:
  • Purple Fun Foam
  • Stamps
    • Dream - Studio G
    • Medallion - from Majestic Stamp Set (American Crafts)
    • Digital Text Background Paper from Mel Stampz
    • Flower Templates  (printed over text) from Mel Stampz
  • Black Cardstock
  • Victoria Embossing Folder (Provo Craft)
  • Strip of Vellum
  • Purple Rhinestone
  • Pattern Paper
This post linked to:

Craft Catwalk
Making Monday Marvelous

    Tuesday, April 26, 2011

    Masculine Cards

    Still very, very  busy - company here till at least Thursday.  Hoping to get back to more regular posting by next week....until then here are two masculine birthday cards I made for my brothers who were born on the same day - two years apart!
    Supplies used:
    • Bracket Die - Sizzix
    • Cotton Twine/Hemp Twine
    • Star Punch
    • Stamps
      • Coffee House Alphabet Set (Inkadinkadoo) - Definitely worth the $1.99 I paid for it at Ollies!
      • Happy Birthday Sentiment (Creative Stamp Kit)
      • Background image from Mel Stampz
      • Free Digital Tree Stamp from Beccy's Place
        • I printed a sheet of the background 1st and then printed the trees overtop of it

      Monday, April 18, 2011

      Flower Arrangements

      Very busy this week -- posting may be sporadic!
      I made this card with my new ideas/supplies from the Allentown Paper Craft Convention. What sold me on this Posy Patch stamp set from Heartfelt Creations was several cards made into flower arrangements like this. I don't have the matching die cut set, but my sister-in-law and I don't mind cutting out our flowers since they aren't too detailed.  Since I had a bridal shower to attend on Saturday I put my new supplies to good use.
      Supplies used:
      • Stamps
      • Inks
        • Black Staz-on Stamp pad
        • Worn Lipstick (Tim Holtz)
        • Crayola Markers (details on basket)
      •  MS Branch Punch
      • Liquid Pearls
        • centers of small flowers on top
      • White Ribbon
      • Kassie's Brocade embossing folder (Provo Craft)
      • Dimensionals 
        • popped up the second basket with
      • Misc. paper from my scrap basket
        • matted image on
      Here's a side view so you can see the dimension of the popped up basket and the flowers.
      This card is a welcome card for our guest speakers (to be here a week and a half) -- it's going in their welcome basket that I'll sit on their bed tonight.
       Both of these cards were inspired by the display at the Heartfelt Creations booth last week-end (pictured below). 
      Supplies used:
      • Stamps
      • Holly Ribbons Embossing Folder (Provo Craft)
      • Ink
        • Worn Lipstick - Tim Holtz
        • Tropical Blue Ink Pad
        • Black Staz-on
        • Crayola Markers
      • Blue Ribbon
      • Paper
        • Black/Blue/Pink/White Cardstock
        • Vellum
        • Scrap of Classic (K & Company) paper
      • New Pencil Eraser
        • made polka-dots with
      • MS Corner Punch 

      This post linked to:
      Craft Catwalk
      Making Monday Marvelous
      The More the Merrier

        Saturday, April 16, 2011

        Vegetable Pizza and Crust Recipe

        I've always used crescent rolls to make my vegetable pizza crust, but this time I decided to try making my own crust to save a few $$.  It turned out pretty good,  so I'm sharing it with you. The one thing I really liked about it is that it didn't get soggy like crescent rolls do -- not even by the next day!
        Vegetable Pizza Crust
        2 cups flour
        2 teaspoons baking powder
        1 teaspoon salt
        2/3 cup milk
        1/4 cup oil
        Combine dry ingredients. 
        Add milk and oil.
        Mix well.
        Shape into ball and knead 10 times.
        Press onto greased cookie sheet.
        Pierce with a fork and bake 12 minutes at 425 degrees.
        Sauce:
        1 package dry ranch dressing mix
        16 oz. sour creame
        Mix together and spread on cooled crust.
        Toppings:
        Top with your choice of chopped veggies.
        I use:
        broccoli
        cauliflower
        carrots
        green pepper
        tomoto
        sometimes a bit of green onion
        Top all of this with cheddar cheese.
        Cut into squares and serve.
        This post linked to:
        Fun With Food Friday

        Friday, April 15, 2011

        Bathroom Makeover -- More Wall Art

        Do you see that wooden plaque in the top right corner?  It started out looking like this:
        I was getting ready to give it to the thrift store when the brilliant idea hit me to redo it in my Paris theme. Here's the finished project.
        Using a few paper crafting supplies I turned it into the perfect piece to complete one of my bathroom walls.
         The clock and flowers/holder were 50% off at Michaels...it took 3 different Michael's stores to find all the pieces you see there!
        The shelf, roses on the shelf, small candle I "stole" from another room of my house... the Dreamsicle from my collection and the small pedestal it's sitting on from a thrift store.
         The "P" hanger came from Michael's dollar bins and the tags hanging on it I made. The cards are the same ones you saw hanging here....I decided to use that hanger for a towel hanger and switched the cards to the "P" hanger.
         Bathroom Makeover Posts
        Post #1
        Post #2 
        Post #3
        Post #4
        Post #5
        Post #6 
        Post #7
        Post #8

        This post linked to:
        Feathered Nest Friday
        Thrifty Things

        Thursday, April 14, 2011

        Paris Bathroom - Altered Books

        I saw some boxes at Michael's that were made up to look like books.  They were 50% off, but I got to thinking about it and thought - "I could make up some vintage looking books out of real books for pretty cheap."  I found 3 books that suited "my fancy" at a thrift store for 50 cents.
        Here's the bottom book - Paper - Ephemera Background Papers (Hot off the Press), Images from the Graphics Fairy. I edged it with a black Bic marker.
        The middle book uses paper from K & Company - and image from a vintage calendar -- punched the border around the edge out of music paper with a Fleur di lis border punch.
        The top book is done in pink with the same supplies as the first book. I edged it with a metallic Bic marker.
        I stacked two of them up under my "new" lamp.
         The black one I stood up in another corner
        Here's a view of them stacked up together so you can see the spines of them.

        Wednesday, April 13, 2011

        Paris Bathroom - Lamp Makeover

        I'm back home again --- from our little week-end away ---- we had a GREAT time, and it went by all too quickly!  Rest assured you'll be seeing some new stuff (in the near future) that I "learned" at the Allentown Rubber Stamp and Art Festival  - but for now I'll finish sharing my bathroom makeover....starting with this little black lamp that I got at a thrift store for something like $2 or $3 dollars.
          At first I thought I might repaint it a different color, but then I decided to leave it black and go with an altered shade.  I couldn't find a lampshade (in the right size) that attached at the top like this one is supposed to, so I removed that part of the lamp and bought a plain white shade (for less than $3) that attaches to the light bulb.
        Since I bought a 1/2 yard of black and white fabric for my memory board and only used 1/2 of it, I had enough left to cover my lampshade with.  
        My shade isn't round like in the first tutorial  so I used newspaper to make a pattern for my cover (like suggested in this tutorial).
        I then attached my material with masking tape before using Fabric Glue to glue it in place.
        I glued the edges by sliding the bottle tip under it just a bit and squeezing the glue out. 
        I then added some thin black ribbon along the top and bottom.
        This wasn't my favorite project to work on --- kind of tried my patience a bit, but it was worth it in the end to achieve the look I was wanting!
        Bathroom Makeover Posts:
        Post #1
        Post #2 
        Post #3
        Post #4
        Post #5
        Post #6
        This post linked to:
        Penny Pinching Party
        Whatever You Want Wednesday

        Tuesday, April 12, 2011

        April Bulletin Board Decoration

        Here's my church bulletin board decoration for this month.  I didn't realize it till after I'd made it, but it matches the flower arrangement in the front of the sanctuary perfectly!
        Here's a closer view of those bottom flowers
        The method I used for making these is the same as I did in this post, except that I cut 2 of the smallest flowers, 2 medium, and 2 large instead of doing them all the same size.  I spritzed them with my pink homemade glimmer mist (see this post).
         I cut the cross from some cardboard I had and made three pretty flowers using my Build A Lilac die (Sizzix) and this tutorial.
        Details of the inked edges on the hymn

        The rest of the supplies:
        • Hymn from an old hymn book
        • MS Branch punch
        • MS Leaf punch
        • Crayola markers
          • traced around the edge of the hymn with
        • Coffee House Alphabet Set (Inkadinkadoo) 
        This post linked to:
        Penny Pinching Party
        Whatever You Want Wednesday

          Saturday, April 9, 2011

          Soft Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

          These cookies are fast becoming a favorite around our house. Reason being -- they are SO SOFT and chewy.  I sent some of these to a Navy friend overseas and he reported (3 1/2 weeks later) that they were still soft and chewy when he got them! Here's the recipe...
          Soft Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
          Cream together:
          1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
          2 sticks butter - NO SUBSTITUTES
          1/2 cup granulated sugar
          1 cup packed brown sugar
          1/2 tsp. salt
          1 T. vanilla extract
          2 eggs
          1/2 tsp. baking soda
          Add:
          2 1/4 cups flour
          1 bag chocolate chips
          1/2 to 1 cup walnuts
          Drop by tablespoon fulls onto buttered cookie sheet.  Bake in 400 degree oven for 8 - 9 min.  Cool on cookie sheets 1 minute.  Remove and cool on wire racks.
          ENJOY!

          Friday, April 8, 2011

          Mini Vacation


          Just to let my blogging friends know -- gonna be gone for an extended week-end starting today!!  It includes a fun day at the Allentown Rubber Stamp and Art Festival with my sweet sister-in-law-- tomorrow!!!!  So excited - this is the first time it's ever worked out for me to go to something like this! I'm taking my camera and just may have some fun stuff to share with you when I get back!  Have a great week-end --- I plan to!

          Thursday, April 7, 2011

          Paris Bathroom Makeover - 3 More Things

          PEDESTAL PLATE
          This white pedestal plate came from Marshalls -- it had a red with white polka-dotted ribbon wound around it, but that was easy enough to change.  I added some pink/clear "rocks" and lotion/perfume/bath salts that coordinated with my decor and a little Dreamsicle (from a collection I started over 12 years ago) to the top of it.
          FLEUR-DE-LIS
          In my search for Paris themed bathrooms on-line a wooden fleur-de-lis decoration caught my eye.  Since I had already seen some fleur-de-lis artwork at the Graphics Fairy that I liked it wasn't hard to mimic it with very minimal cost.  I enlarged it to the size I wanted and printed it on white cardstock. I then cut it out and adhered to a recycled cereal box and decoupaged over it.  The wire hanger with pretty beads was a lot of fun to make and added some color to the arrangement.
          TAGS/KEYS
          This little cream 'hanger thing" called my name in Marshalls.  It was on clearance, so I couldn't resist.  Wanted to do something in the French/Paris/Shabby Chic theme with it and though of Tim Holtz keys.  Just hanging the keys by themselves looked too plain, so I made little tags to attach them to and hung the tags.  The clipart came from two vintage sites:
          (That Dreamsicle underneath has special meaning in that it was the first gift my husband gave me the day before he ask me out for the first time -- it was my birthday gift)
          Here's a closer view of the tags/keys
          The top row of tags/keys are slightly smaller than the bottom row --
          Bathroom Makeover
          Post #1
          Post #2 
          Post #3
          Post #4
          Post #5


          This post linked to:
          Thrilling Thursday
          Strut Your Stuff Thursday 
          Transformation Thursday

          Wednesday, April 6, 2011

          Paris Bathroom - Collage/Altered Bottle

          I found this pink bottle at Michael's (50% off of course) and decoupaged an image from the Graphics Fairy to the front of it.
          The flowers and rocks inside the bottle were also from Michael's (and also 50% off!).  The string of pearls around the neck of the bottle were stung on a wire.  A while back I found a bag of old mismatched jewelry at a thrift store and bought it to use as charms on things.  The little fleur-de-lis looking charm on the string of pearls is from that bag.  It was originally an earring...I bent the wire on it around the wire I strung the beads on and wa-la a pretty charm!
          This frame didn't really need any altering....
          ...I simply made a collage from the images at the Graphics Fairy and placed it in the frame.  Here it is sitting in the octagon window of my bathroom with a little birdie and one of those homemade button cards!
          This post linked to:
          Penny Pinching Party
          Whatever You Want Wednesday