Simple Valentine's Boxes

Good morning! I have started getting ready for Valentine's and love to decorate as much for this holiday as all the others. This holiday is perfect for pinks, purples and reds, flowers, lace, glitter mist and glitter glue and that is where I've gone with my projects today...

The boxes are a simple design I put together myself but it's the extras that make them perfect. I love making these little boxes to embellish and put in the window or on a ledge and then I fill them with goodies the day before. If I filled them sooner, I would eat it myself. :)

Cutter Creeks Products Used:

Scotch quick-dry adhesive used to assemble the boxes
Scotch pop up foam squares used to attach flowers to the top of boxes
Stickles glitter glue  for the designs on the top and sides of the boxes
Tattered Angels glitter mist for the flowers on the red box

Flowers for the red lid boxes are from SVG Attic.

Thanks for stopping by today and Happy Valentines Day to you!

Thank you card for Cutters Creek

The holidays are over and the gifts unwrapped which means thank you card time...

This card came together quickly and turned out lovely as a special way to say thank you.

Products from Cutter's Creek used:

Cuttlebug 5 x 7 embossing plus folders for the tag on front 
Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Tea Dye  for coloring raised embossing on tag
Distress Stickles in Aged Mahogany for dots on tag and bottom of card
Cuttlebug embossing folder for background behind tag
Perfect Pearls Mists in Pewter for touch of color and shimmer on dry embossing behind tag
Advanced Tape Glider Refills 2/rolls (ATG-Pink) for putting it all together


Now let me thank you for stopping by today and wishing all the best in this new year.

Calendar Girls December Blog Hop

Welcome to our December Calendar Girls' Blog Hop. It’s absolutely amazing when you do a Google search the interesting facts you may find. Such a find is special and unique occasions throughout the year!!! These unique holidays are our inspiration. As Neil Sedaka sang in his song "Calendar Girls" - "December, you’re the present ‘neath my Christmas tree!!"

Our hop begins Lynne aka Her Craftiness which may be found at http://slasewcraftiness.blogspot.com/. The entire line-up is available just in case you get bogged down with all theholidaze and craziness with decorating, shopping, wrapping, and getting ready for Santa and I know you won’t want to miss a single stop along the way! I know you wouldn't want to miss any of the cards, lay-outs and super creativity of the marvelous Calendar Girls:

Lynne ~ http://slasewcraftiness.blogspot.com/
Edwina ~ http://edwinascreations.blogspot.com/
Sandy ~  http://aworkingmomsjoy.blogspot.com
Laura -  http://www.lauraleesdream.blogspot.com
Jearise ~ http://lorbysworld.blogspot.com


The Blog Candy being offered this month is amachine-embroidered angel which can be used as a bookmark or an early start todecorate your Christmas Tree!!!! Winner gets to chose the color of her angel from pink, white, ivory, or gold.


Bingo Month
Write a Friend Month

December, 2013 Daily Holidays, Special and Wacky Days:

1 Eat a Red Apple Day
4 Santas' List Day -we hope you are on the "Nice" list ~ Jearise
5 Bathtub Party Day 
6 St. Nicholas Day - Lynne
6 Mitten Tree Day - Lynne
7 Pearl Harbor Day
8 International Children's Day
8 National Brownie Day ~ Jearise
9 Christmas Card Day ~ Sandy
12 Poinsettia Day    Laura, Edwina
18 Bake Cookies Day- Edwina
19 Look for an Evergreen Day Sandy
20  Go Caroling Day Sandy
21  Humbug Day 
21  National Flashlight Day 
21  Look on the Bright Side Day 
23  Festivus  - Lynne
24  National Chocolate Day 
25  Christmas Day  -Laura, 
26  Boxing Day
27  Make Cut Out Snowflakes Day 
28  Card Playing Day 
31  New Year's Eve 

Santa's List Day - December 4th

I made these cards to send out to friends and family this year. I love this old world stamp. Santa doesn't have a list but he does have an arm full of toys.

I colored his suit with red chalk and the border and windowpane is a file I created a cut out in svg format.  If you would like this file for the background and windowpane, please let me know in your comment and add your email address and I would be happy to send it to you. The background is embossed using my Big Shot. I used some Tim Holz distress ink on the windowpane.

National Brownie Day - December 8th

Last year I showed a brownie box I created and this year I made brownie using one of my favorite recipes. The problem is that we ate up the brownies and I forgot to take a picture but I'm still posting the recipe because it is so yummy!

COCOA BROWNIES

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup margarine or butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
2/3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix sugar, margarine (butter), vanilla and eggs, Stir in remaining ingredients. Spread in greased square pan, 8x8x2 inches.

Bake until wooden pick inserted in center coumes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes; cool. Cut into about 2-inch squares. 16 brownies; 160 calories per brownie.

Taken from the Better Crocker's Cookbook; 1989 version.

I am last on the hop list so I will wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year and may blessing abound in 2014.

On the 11th Day of Christmas

Welcome back! Today I get to share my second project I have made and again it is a paper mache ornament. I am addicted to these ornaments and how easy they are to make and how beautiful they are when you're done.

I used Mod Podge to attache my paper to each side. I cut the paper in a 3 3/4 circle. The background of the paper is black so I sprayed some Glitter Mist in red on it. I sprayed after I had put on a top coat of Mod Podge and that's why you get the neat look to the background. I used Stickles to accent each candle and then added some rhinestones and a bow.

I painted the side of the ornament black and then used the ribbon for the bow to wrap around  the side of the ornament as well.

Products used:

Mod Podge
Graphic 45 Christmas Emporium Double-Sided Paper Pad 12" X 12"
Stickles in Christmas Red and Yellow
Perfect Pearls in Interference Red

Thanks for stopping by today and Merry Christmas!

Twine Christmas Tree Ornament

Hello again.

Today I have a simple but fun ornament that works well on the country themed tree. I picked up this cute little twine wrapped ornament awhile ago and thought what can I do with it and this is what happened...

I used my Stickles glitter glue to add some red tinsel and some shades of brown Stickles glitter glue for the stump and then I started added half pearls (from Miriam's Crafting Supplies) in different colors and sizes. I used 3 mm and 7 mm for the ornaments. The back of the ornament is the same as the front and I just love it!

This is a wonderful project that even older children can do. I used a low heat heat gun to adhere the half pearls so you may need to do that for your children but they can do the glitter glue and tell you where they want the pearls to go and what color and sizes to use. One gift for Auntie May down and only 10, 000 more to go. :)

Check out my other post today where I used one of Miriam's Crafting Supplies beautiful embellishments to make a simple but elegant looking paper mache ornament.

Elegant Paper Mache' Ornament

I decorated a few paper mache ornaments a few years back and fell in love. Back then, I just painted the ornaments, added some glitter and some stickers and called it finished but over the years I have tried new things and this is one of my favorite ways of decorating them.

 I used Mod Podge to adhere the paper to the ornament after cutting it out. You can trace around your ornament and then cut it out but since I was using a flat round ornament I was able to cut a circle at 3 3/4 inches and that was almost perfect. I just trimmed off the extra. I used a bray to make sure the paper was on flat but it's not necessary. Once the paper was dry, I inked the edges and then added my ribbon going around the front and back and then around the sides. The side view is below. I went back and added the beautiful embellishment from Miriam's Crafting Supplies. The paper, ribbon, and ink came from Cutter's Creek.

Thank you so much for stopping by today and keep coming back because I have more paper mache ornaments with different techniques to share.

Happy Holidays! Jearise

Thanksgiving Traditions

My mother never complimented me on much when I was young. I was a very scattered brained child but once she told me how I had written a paper about Thanksgiving and she had loved it so much that she had kept it. It was about my reaction upon waking on Thanksgiving morning.  I know that paper is long gone but my memories of my childhood Thanksgiving still float through my mind and that is why Thanksgiving means so much to me still today.

My bedroom was on the third floor of a tri-level house and on Thanksgiving morning I would wake up to the smell of roasting turkey with homemade stuffing. I remember how the buttery crisp smell of the turkey combined with the herbs in the dressing would rise up the stairs and into my bedroom to tickle my nose and coax body awake. 

My mother and father would wake up early to "prep" the bird. They would wash it, clean it out, stuff it with homemade dressing and tie the legs up and pop it in the oven. This was always a joint effort that brought about some arguing on how things should be done but in the end, the bird was perfectly placed in the baking pan and ready to go. This was also a special ritual of love between my parents. At the time I didn't see it but now being married, I understand how cooking together can strengthen a marriage and show love.

From there the smells just got better. My mother would make mashed potatoes with gravy using the drippings from the turkey. Sometimes the gravy was lumpy but the great taste made up for it. I loved that salty sweet gravy poured over creamy buttery mashed potatoes. 

Then there was the string bean casserole which was a simple recipe my mother had found: canned string beans, mushroom soup and onion crisps on top. She took advantage of our microwave for this dish. Microwaves became the big rage during the 70's and my parents had one of the biggest and heaviest one I had ever or have ever seen to this day.

Finally, she had steamed carrots and whatever other side dish she decided to try that year.

Now the dessert was my Aunt Betty's pride and joy and that was her homemade pecan pie. Oh, I just LOVED that pie. I think it is because of her pecan pies that I prefer pies over cake any day. I wish I had her recipe because I haven't found any as good to this day. They were just the prefect sweetness that would melt in your mouth. She would drive all over Detroit to get fresh pecans for those pies. Needless to say, she would bring two and there would be none left when it was time for her to go home. 

I miss those days of family and food. My parents and my aunt are gone now and my cousins and I have gone in different directions in life and have lost touch but the memories of Thanksgiving food, laughs, and love will live on.