Purpose

Update: Rosie O'Donnell's Etsy shop is here. Go check it out - it's truly her as her photos has her in there with her craft item (I think they are dolls?!?!).

Not sure why I even bother updating (most of the time, it's like I'm talking to myself) as I should be busy PACKING!!! However, since this blog is as much my "diary" as it is a venue to share my crafty creations, got to post updates of what is going on now:

Last night my 5 yr old found it very necessary to tuck all her baby dolls in. Complete with kisses and with all the dollies covered with a blanket. Lately too, she has been telling me that when she grows up, she wants to be a Mom! Previously, she wanted to be a ballerina teacher, a chef, a bookmaker and an architect. Now she just wants to be a Mom. I should take this as a compliment as she finds MY job rewarding.

Here are the completed Flower Flops (that's what my daughter named them!):


All of my craft paraphanelia are now packed so I'm having a bit of craft withdrawal. One thing I discovered as I was sorting and packing: I don't need to buy any more craft stuff. It's embarassing what I own and forgot I own. In the fall when both my kids are in the SAME school and in school all day, I will be busy crafting and creating and may even open my Etsy shop again. One thing I'll steer clear from - cards. Have you looked at Esty lately under papergoods? It has sooooo much under cards! Very few sell and you really have to underprice to get them off your shop. I've also noticed lots of "design team cardmakers" are now selling their goods on Etsy. It's like a professional singer competing in American Idol! But then again, these designers are also asking for designer prices and noticed that they are not selling much either. Heck, even Rosie O'Donnell has an Etsy shop! Her stuff is not cheap but people are buying it as proceeds go to charity plus they get a handmade item from Rosie. I'll update a link to her site later when I find it.

Chicks, Worms and an Intruder?

Look what has hatched in my daughter's kindergarden class! Cute little chicks!! They are noisy little boogers but adorable.

And look at these little guys....they are silk worms and these things can chow! They eat Mulberry leaves. My son also has silk worms in their classroom but they've all cocooned. Cocoons look sorta like styrofoam peanuts with cobwebs.

Now take at look at the following photos of my craftsroom:





No, there was no break-in...this is what happens when you are attempting to pack and keep getting distracted LOL!!!

The photo with all the blocks of wood is the result of my frustration with trying to stamp straight. I "skinned" 95% of my rubber stamps and gained back a cupboard and a half of storage. I bought some EZ Mount and plan on mounting the naked rubber when we get to the new house (get your mind out of the gutter!). Was going to pack the wood blocks too (thinking painting them, stamping or sticking with letter cutouts then attaching magnets for homemade alpha block magnets) but nah...I'll be busy unpacking the entire summer.

Look at these altered cuteness! These are flip flops my daughter and I bought at Michael's for $1 a pair! I had branches of "silk" flowers from the dollar store so we just got to layering them and cutting coordinating ribbons and glued them on with Ultimate Glue. The Cuttlebug Flip Flop die was from the dollar bin at Michael's - gotta make matching tags for them! The flipflops are cut from fun foam and the foot die was cut using SU! Blush Blossom cardstock. These will go to my daughter's friends for their Kindergarden graduation gifts.



Now I better get to bed! No more coffee for dinner but it sure helped - I packed 9 boxes! 500 more to go....

Bridal Shower Favor Purses

The best way to get any project done is to have a group of ladies (and men too!) to help out in the assembly process. These pictures are the result of this afternoon's crafting effort to crank out 40 of these adorable favor purses and 40 coordinating invitations. We had a couple of manly men who helped tie ribbons, added velcro and fasten paper flowers. The rest the ladies did and they were amazing! Sure wish there were a few extras as I would have loved to have kept one for myself :-)! These favors will be filled with chocolates or mints.





Inspiration for the purses came from Inking Idaho.
Recipe
Cardstock: patterned paper is Making Memories, SU! black and pink cardstock
Ribbons: Black organdy ribbon from Jo Ann's, black and white polka dot ribbon and raspberry pink ribbon from Michael's; silver cording from SU! (retired)
Accessories: Cuttlekids shoe die, pink rhinestones from Michael's, tag punch from Martha Stewart, Top Note Die from SU! (Sizzix); assorted brad centers from SU!; flower punch from EK Success; Spellbinders scallop circle die; and Colluzzel (sp?) circle template

Here's a Lindt chocolate holder I made for Easter. These were "carrot" shaped chocolates and I just made a box to hold 2 of them and decorated the outside with mostly Martha Stewart punches (handle, fence, rabbit) and paper flowers I made. The chocolates are being held in place with a piece of cardstock with holes punched, small enough so you can stand the carrots in there without having them tip over. Cardstock used was all from SU! Stamps are from PTI.





I finally got a chance to try this adorable mini magazine holder. This one I found somewhere out there in blog land, can't recall the site but will update this post when I find the link to her blog. This one has the top edges folded down so the holder is a lot sturdier. Also, it uses 12 x 12 paper. Paper is from DCWV and the mixer brad I got at OTC.

Update: I found the tutorial for the magazine holder from embellish me. Check her out - she has a great step-by-step instruction on how to make these!

A piece of California....

....we now own!!!! We found our new home, by chance, as I was taking my daily run. My in-laws were visiting and they, too, found the same house as they were out for a walk (I'll post photos later using my own pics as I'm sure the current owners will not want me posting photos of the house they are still occupying. I'll wait until we're in there)! So, quite unexpectedly, we found the home we wanted to buy. We were just starting to go out and look at open houses when this home became available and it was too good to pass up. We hope to be in the new house by end of June! The hard part is moving....3 blocks!

This is what is going on for part of this weekend: a bridal shower workshop! Making top note purses, 40 of them. Didn't seem like a lot until I started to cut out the parts for it. I used up 20 feet of Xyron adhesive to put these together. Still not done. They still need the ribbon purse handles, velcro and a decorative flower on the front. Oh, and the tag for it with the bride/groom's names. These will be joined by coordinating shower invites.


This is a photo of what my son gave to his teacher for teacher appreciation this week. Ok...still having a problem with my camera making everything look yellow! This is a copy of PTI's template from last month. Again, too cheap to buy it when I can just eyeball and case it! I added the pencil holders on the sides and also re-inforced the top of the card holder by having folded edges. Much sturdier than PTI's template, I think! The dimensions are not the same as theirs as mine was a complete eyeball on size. It does fit standard size cards and envelopes.




We are on overload schedule this weekend with 2 back to back baseball games, bridal shower workshop, appliance shopping, birthday party and hosting a going-away-breakfast. And there's also sorting, throwing and packing to do! Have a wonderful weekend!

Serious Case-ing

Wow! Blogging 2 days in a row! Of course, doesn't make up for the month I was out of it....

Finally took pictures of the things I've been creating. Am eager to send these off to my friends so finally stole time away from chores/chauffer duties to take photos. My photo-taking is a bit rusty so got to get intimate again with the camera instruction book.

This one is a copy of PTI's stationery set created by Nichole Heady (go here to see the original) I didn't have any PayPal money to purchase the stationery holder template so I eye-balled it and created my own. The dimensions are my own. If you look closely, I put my Score-Pal to good use by doing a criss-cross pattern on the front. Stamps used are all from PTI (Polka Dot Basics and Simply Stationery). Ink and cardstock used are SU! (close to cocoa and baja breeze).




The next 3 photos below is not a direct case of case-ing (LOL!) but inspired by many of the card cases bags I've seen on SplitCoasters. This one re-uses the clear acrylic boxes that PTI's clear stamps comes package in (I cut them in half). I designed a bag around the boxes and used the same scoring technique as above then attached the clear box with red-line tape and finished it off with the pretty ribbon I've been hoarding (from Michael's). The notecards are 3x3; used the Swiss Dot embossing folders for the dots. The flower stamp on the front is again, from PTI, stamped and outlined with white Souffle pen (thanks, Karen! Love the pens!) and filled with aqua souffle ink. The purse closes using Basic Grey's small magnets. Cardstock is all SU!




The next 3 below are again inspired by what I've been seeing on SplitCoasters. I made mine half the size of what I saw because I wanted the card to fit into a smaller envelope. Plus I didn't want to glue a million little hydrangea flowers on the circles. If you look closely, you'll notice that these are individual small flowers that were punched, shaped then glued individually. I used Martha Stewart hydrangea punch using SU! cardstock colors (I believe it was Lovely Lilac and Lavender Lace). The leaves were punched using a McGill punch, cardstock used is called New Leaf by PTI - it's a beautiful green! Flower pot cardstock is SU Really Rust. The scallop punch on the flower pot is from EK Success. Double click the photo and you will see that the scallops are scalloped! Check here for instructions to make the original version.





The purse pictures below were inspired by purses I saw here and here. I used a corner rounder to cut the scallops around the designer paper - I don't recommend that method! It's hard to get it just right so if you have a large scallop die cut, use that instead. It will save you lots of mistakes. The paper I wasted trying to make perfect scallop circles were recycled to make the accompanying notecards you see here. There are 6 of them and I made matching envelopes (yes, handmade!). The patterned paper is Amy Butler. Purse has a velcro to help keep it closed. If you look closely at the purse, you can see I stitched the ribbon onto the patterned paper. I used some tape first to keep it in place but beware, don't put the tape where you are going to sew or else you'll have gummy mess on your sewing needle! The ribbon I stitched is that same one I used above. Can't waste any of it so took this last strip to use as embellishment. The flowers on the notecards are die cuts from Cuttlebug. Stamps used for the sentiments are all from PTI.




This 3-D flower pot was inspired by InkingAddict. I couldn't wait for her to post her tutorial so I made my own. My template has 3 pieces and I believe hers has a few more so I went with mine as I'm always in hurry to get done because I have to be elsewhere and not at home crafting! LOL! The flowers you see here are my own - I call them Dizzy Blooms and sold some in my Etsy shop back when I was still in business. The leaf die cuts are Sizzix. This box is large enough to hold 2 small bottles of lotion or a bit bag of chocolates.





Whew!!! That's it for now! If you'd like any instructions on how I made my altered case-ings, leave me a comment!

Next post - some HUGE news here!

Sam Bernstein the Easter Rabbit

Just before Easter, our 8 year old had a serious talk with his Dad about the Easter Rabbit. He said, "Dad, there really isn't an Easter rabbit, is there? I mean, rabbits are not smart enough to know where to deliver Easter baskets and they can't even hold eggs!" When my husband finally said that there isn't, my son started to cry and told his Dad to say no more. I was so upset by this that I consulted a few moms at school regarding this issue and one Mom told me about Sam the Rabbit. I can't recall for sure if his last name was Bernstein but she said he's the Jewish Easter Bunny. I don't know what kind of blasphemy we committed by introducing Sam Bernstein the Easter Rabbit but we "introduced" him as the new, improved Easter Bunny who has been around for awhile. We encouraged our son to check with his other friends about Sam (Sam has been the Easter Rabbit at several friends' homes for awhile) so I figured we could stretch the belief for another year until we can think of a way to explain it all. Well, it worked! We even did the follow-the-string hunt that was recommended to us and my kids had a blast searching for their Easter baskets all over the house. Though I don't recommend you doing up the string at 2am the night before - and you have to make sure that you are not going to walk around the house after you put up the string!

Scone step-by-step

Still raining here....no, not whinning, just making an excuse for not having blogged (kids are in da house not out so no computer time!!).

I've taken some photos of my scone making but the photos are looking very yellow!!! However, you can still tell how your dough should look so hopefully these will help. Refer to the recipe posted here.


Scone "Tutorial"
1. After mixing the dry ingredients together, cut up the cold butter into little squares and add to the dry mix.


2. Using a pastry cutter (or knife and a fork), "cut" the butter in. The photo below shows how much the butter was mixed in - don't leave pea-sized butter chunks or you'll have an oily mess in the oven!



3. Now make a well in the center of the mixture. This is where the buttermilk will go (my son said it's like making a lake!):



4. Using a fork, start incorporating the dry mix with the buttermilk, a little bit at a time. Make sure to scrape the bottom then bring up the fork to the top to mix. Keep doing this until you have doughy mess like the picture below:



5. Time to add your dried fruit and chocolate! Use the fork to mix the choc/fruit mixture:


6. After you've incorporated the choc/fruit, flop the mixture onto your lightly dusted counter top (I use a Silpat that is lightly dusted with flour; you can also use a marble slap or any cool surface you can work on):



7. Gather up the dough into a rough ball;


8. Then gently pat the dough out with your hands to about (roughly) 10" x 10":


9. Fold the dough over onto itself like shown below. Pat it flat again and then fold it again. Do this 3-4 times but each time, folding it opposite sides from the other fold (this creates your buttery layers that will rise up nicely during baking):


10. Finally, pat out to about 1" thickness and use a biscuit cutter (or glass) to cut the scones. Put on cookie sheet, bake and enjoy!



11. Final product! These freeze well - just wrap cooled scones in foil then put in a zipper bag. I've also frozen the formed, unbaked scones. They bake up nicely straight from the freezer! Just allow extra baking time for frozen scone dough.