A Birthday Treat...

Remember when you were a kid how excited you were to take a birthday treat into your class? Well, as an adult, I'm still just as excited. It's a chance to do something fun and creative! I was going to make cupcakes, but a boy in the class had a birthday this week too, and he brought cupcakes. Since you can't yell at a kindergartener for stealing your idea :) I decided to take a look on pinterest and see what I could see. I found the cutest idea -- Candy Crayons! I added a crayon box to mine (which I cut out using my Silhouette -- thanks Rachel for helping me find a box!). Each kid got six crayons and the labels all started with the letter of their first name. Here is the blog that I found the crayon wrappers on to download.

I used almond bark to make mine instead of the candy melts. When you add any moisture to almond bark, it seizes up. To loosen it up and make it smooth, just add a bit of vegetable oil. I think this makes them melt (after they harden) more then if you just use candy melts, so keep that it mind. I just didn't want to buy 6 different colors of candy melts to use just a little of each. Here's a few pictures of the finished product. They turned out so cute and the kids and teachers all loved them. However, after seeing all the labels and boxes in the trash can, next year I think I'll just make cupcakes! ;)

(Click image to view larger size)
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Stick 'Em Up!

Another trend that I enjoy is vinyl! It's such a nice and cheap way to decorate your home. Years ago when I bought my Silhouette, I justified it because it cuts vinyl. Last year (only took about 4 years), I decided that maybe I should try cutting vinyl since that's one of the reasons I bought it. Here are some of the places I found to stick my vinyl to.

 First, is one of my scrapbooking cabinets. I used the 3 branch tree by Lori Whitlock. (Silhouette Store)

 Next, is a saying I have in my craft room above some cabinets. This is one of my favorites. I used Count Your Blessings by Loni Stevens and Antique Flourish by Lori Whitlock. (Also both from the Silhouette store)

 Here is my sewing area. I just have a small flower here. Simple, but sweet. (Flower Stalk by Jamie Koay, Silhouette store)

 

Here is a picture frame that I made, and then the close up of the vinyl. This one I'm frustrated with because as soon as I put the vinyl down, the glass picked it up and it's crooked! I haven't found a way to fix it yet without moving every letter individually. Moral of the story -- don't let the vinyl touch the glass until you are absolutely ready! (Family Subway Art by Ginny Nilson, Silhouette store)

This is a shelf in my entryway. It usually has candles on it, but I took down my Christmas ones and haven't replaced them yet. Anyway, it's another simple and sweet one. (Flourish from Silhouette store)
 
 And last but not least is my Bible verse that is above my store in the kitchen. This one I bought from Hobby Lobby from DCWV. I just put this one up yesterday. I love love love it.

So there is some craftiness I've been doing (and has been done for awhile). What do you think of the vinyl craze? I think I still have a few walls and picture frames that could use a little something extra! I love my Silhouette for cutting out the vinyl, but the store bought vinyl (such as the DCWV) is really cost effective as well (Hobby Lobby often has 50% off sales.)

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Old MacDonald Had a Farm...

E-I-E-I-O. Remember awhile back I showed you some invitations for a baby shower? Well today, I am going to show you the matching cupcakes that I made. I just recently joined Pinterest and just like everybody said, it is a wee bit addicting. But on the plus side, there are lots of great ideas. That's where I found the recipes for the cupcakes. You can see the recipes here. I had a hard time picking just 2 of the 33 different recipes she had. I made the Vanilla Cupcakes with Strawberry Filling and Milk Chocolate Glaze (however, instead of baking the preserves into the cake, I cored out the cupcake after and put it in then. That way it wouldn't sink to the bottom). And I also made (Jon picked this one out) the Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting and Chocolate Ganache. It tasted like a peanut butter cookie. YUM.

I was concerned that the malt ball on top didn't look quite...right. That's why I made sure it was placed in front of the animal and not behind it's backside...no animal droppings on my cupcakes, please! ;)
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How About Some Invitations?

Even though I have kind of given up the card making for now, I had a request from a friend to make some baby shower invitations for her. I decided since I had the stuff to do it, I might as well. She wanted a farm animal theme. Pretty much everything on the card was cut with my Silhouette (talk about easy).

Don't you just love the little tush on the back??
The hardest part was my Silhouette wouldn't read my registration marks on any of the cardstock except the yellow. It was weird. I tried manually setting it up, but it wasn't centering it very well. So here's a trick I figured out. I did the printing using a plain white piece of paper. Then I loaded that into the Silhouette and had it read those registration marks. Then I pulled out the white piece of paper and put in the colored cardstock and lined up the registration mark with the cutter. It cut perfectly almost every time. However, it was a pain. So you can see I used a lot of yellow cardstock. :) I tried changing my ink cartridge to a new one, I tried printing the thickest, darkest registration marks that I could, but nothing would work. Anyway, they turned out pretty cute anyway. I plan on making some cupcake flags using the little animals for the party too. I think they will be cute.
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Christmas Treats

If you have followed my blog for the last year, you will know that at Christmas time one of the things that I do is make treat bags for everybody at church. This is our first year at a new church and I decided to continue the tradition...however, somehow time got away from me, and I had one day to make them. I decided to make a sugar cinnamon Chex mix type thing (it would be great if I knew the official name, but I don't). After I made my 6 batches, I tied ribbon around the bag and attached a tag. At first I was using a circle Nestabilitie and a stamp...but then I decided to do what any self-respecting Silhouette owner would do, and do a print and cut of some tags. So I found this cute one by Samantha Walker and after some technical difficulties (of course), it went a whole lot faster. 11 hours and I was done! I'm glad I started small this year and didn't set the bar too high for next year! :D

The Enjoy tag was made using a set from Stampin' Up! called Holiday Collection

And these are the Samantha Walker tags:

And here's about 100 treat bags (yum! guess who is eating the leftovers?)

And when I was done with this, I finished up my 20+ Christmas cards. It was a long (but productive!) Saturday.

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Candy Cane Holder (and winner)

Today I have a fun project to share. I cut out these adorable little stockings using my Silhouette. Then I stitched around the sides to close them up. I stuffed them with polyester stuffing to puff them out. Then I added some Liquid Applique to make the tops puffy. I wanted to embellish them a little more, but I have pretty much run out of time (my Christmas cards are still not finished!). I am going to put a candy cane in each of these and give them to my kids at school. I love how they turned out!

I wrote the kids names in Stickles at the top of the stocking. I smudged them in the picture on purpose (not sure if I needed to, but just to be safe!). They are NOT smudged in person...okay, yes they are, but only a little. You all know that I hate Stickles, right? :) Imagine that there is a candy cane in there, I haven't bought them yet.

And the winner of my blog candy was Karen B. also enduring the freezing cold state of Wisconsin with me! Email me your address and I'll mail your stamp. katytipton at yahoo dot com.
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A WCMD Sketch Card

I placed a small order on Saturday from Limelight to celebrate World Card Making Day and would you believe I got it in the mail today?! Quick shipping! Since Wednesday is my day off, I decided to use my new paper and stamps. I made this card for the Unity WCMD Sketch Challenge. You can find the challenge here if you're interested in playing along. This new paper from Jillibean Soup is so cute -- I love these little monsters! And the Unity stamp just goes perfect with the paper!

Back to work tomorrow. Only two days until Saturday! :)
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Going A Little Old School

I needed to make a baby card this week and I don't have a lot of baby stamps (something I should invest in I think!). So I had to go a little old school and pull out two retired Stampin' Up sets. I love the little teddy bear in the set and I'm not sure that I have ever used it before. It is rainy and cloudy here today, so I apologize for these pictures. I will try and get some better ones tomorrow!

Supplies Used: Stamps (SU! Bundle of Joy and Greetings Galore), Cardstock (SU! Very Vanilla), Patterned Paper (Cosmo Cricket Material Girl and Garden Variety), Border Punch (Fiskars Apron Lace), Ribbon (May Arts), Button (SEI), Nestabilities (Scalloped Circle) 
 Supplies Used: Stamps (SU! Bundle of Joy and Warm Words), Cardstock (Bazzil), Patterned Paper (Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday), Oval card and Scallop (Silhouette), Scalloped Circle (Nestabilities), Ribbon (Pink Pasilee) And since I'm showing you baby cards, I thought I would show you something I just added to my Artfire store. Awhile back I showed you a rag letter alphabet that I made. Well, I added an item to my store where you can get custom names made like the rag letter alphabet. Check it out. I think it's a cute idea for a baby gift!

 
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Hey There....Cupcake?

First card I made for the 2S4Y challenge. I love this cute little frazzled rag doll (at first, I didn't, but she's grown on me!).

Supplies Used: Patterned Paper (Cosmo Cricket Lil' Man), Cardstock (SU! Very Vanilla), Rubber Stamps (Unity Mix Up of Cuteness, Go Ahead...Wish)

The second card is one I made with my Silhouette. I used it to cut out the scalloped circles.

Supplies Used: Patterned Paper (Jillibean Soup Chicken Bouillon), Cardstock (SU! Very Vanilla), Twine, Rubber Stamps (Unity Retro BBQ, Enjoy Your Story)

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Playing with the Silhouette

I've had my Silhouette for years. When I purchased it, it came with a gift card for downloads in the store and then they changed things up so they converted it to dollars instead of downloads. Anyway, the last time we moved, I lost the card. Well, guess what I found in this move?? My card! I was so excited, so I downloaded a few things to try out. First I made this oval card.

I used Jillibean Soup paper, SU Cardstock, and a Unity stamp.
This is the inside of the card:

Then I used an extra oval that I cut out and made this card using the CardPatterns sketch.

It also uses Jillibean Soup paper, SU Cardstock, a stamp from Unity, and May Arts ribbon.  I'll have more from my Silhouette tomorrow!
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Sew What?

Have you noticed the 1980's creeping it's way back to "trendy?" I sure have. Lisa Frank sticker books in the Target Dollar Spot. Neon and slouchy socks. Big hair. I've seen it all... I'm waiting for crimped hair and mismatched socks with Keds (I'm sure it's there, I just haven't seen it yet!), and then the 1980's will be full swing. So, the Moxie Fab sketch challenge had a speech bubble. It made me think of all those speech bubble stickers I used to play with. Years ago, when I started scrapbooking, I bought a whole set of speech bubble stickers and made the people in my pictures "say" things. Well, as they say, history repeats itself! So here's my card for the challenge...although I would say it's a little more "trendy" then the scrapbooking speech bubbles!

Supplies Used: Cosmo Cricket Material Girl paper, Gina K Kraft and SU Very Vanilla cardstock, Labels 4 Nestabilities, April Store Kit (Super Sweet & Stuck On You), speech bubble cut from my Silhouette, Tim Holtz Sizzix Scallop Edge

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A New Challenge Blog -- Get Sketchy

Here is a card I did for the new blog, Get Sketchy. I also combined it with the Clean and Simple Card challenge to make a masculine card.
Supplies Used: This Is the Time Mini (Unity), Kraft CS, Basic Grey Archaic, VersaMagic Jumbo Java, button and thread, square Nestabilities, Quickutz silhouette (to cut bracket)
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H to the 3rd Power!

That's right, it's Hip Hop Hangover!! And in honor of the 3 H's, I have 3 pages to share! I finally started Patter's His Holy Name Challenge. I have been wanting to do it for awhile now, but just never made the time! So Monday I sat myself down and did it! I'm trying to watch my spending, so I looked around for something to put my pages in and found a cute photo album that I got for Christmas and thought it would be perfect... That's what I get for thinking while having a fever and being medicated! The pages are too small!!! They are 4x6. But it's okay, I'm sticking with it! And if I need to make two page layouts, then that's what I will do.

HOLY

Verse: You must be holy because I, the LORD, am holy. I have set you apart from all other people to be my very own. Leviticus 20:26(NLT)

I used the Almighty God stamp from the September Kit of the Month, but I just colored the words Holy One and stamped that.

Ribbon is from American Crafts, paper is Basic Grey Mellow collection, and I used the Top Note die from SU.

SOVEREIGN

Verse: The Sovereign LORD is my strength! He makes me as surefooted as a deer, able to tread upon the heights. Habakkuk 3:19(NLT)

Stamps: Alphabet Appeal (SU!), Deer from November Kit of the Month
Paper is from Basic Grey. Not sure where the journal card is from...maybe My Mind's Eye.


PROTECTOR

Verse: God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1

On the journal card I listed other names for Protector: Advocate, Backer, Savior, Defender, Safeguard, Supporter, Shield, Bulwark, Champion, Guardian

Stamps: Thanks to You! (Unity)
Paper is Basic Grey Mellow collection, journal card is from My Mind's Eye, ribbon is American crafts. I cut out the word "protector" using my Silhouette (which by the way, has a new update where it will weld the word. VERY exciting!!) Brads are from Spare Parts (Hobby Lobby brand). Ticket Corner and Slot Punch (SU!) Pin It Now!