Christmas Gifts

I bake fairly often for the coffee shop we own....so the thought of baking for friends this Christmas did not sound appealing.  I came across this idea on Pinterest, of course.  I do love how they turned out, but I might have had more fun creating them had I planned a little better and not waited until the week before Christmas.  Every year I tell myself I will work on Christmas presents through out the year rather than at the last minute.  Maybe next year! 

List of supplies you'll need to recreate:

Flat-bottomed glass gems (the kind for filling vases with; I found mine at the Dollar Tree)
Storybook Creator Plus 4.0

Mod Podge
Paintbrush
Magnets (strong ones; I purchased mine at Home Depot near framing supplies)
Gorilla Glue or E6000 clear adhesive

Clear treat bags

cardstock

metal washers
Circle Punch

Step One:  In Storybook Creator Plus I created an 8 X 10 project.  I inserted 1.25 inch circles and then filled them with paper and embellishments.  When complete I had it printed at Sams Club.

Step Two:  Again in SBC 4.0 I created another 8 X 10 page and inserted 1.5 X 4 inch rectangles.  I filled each of these rectangles with coordinating paper and embellishments for the packaging of the magnets.

The last steps are :  Punch out the circles and mod podge them onto the backs of the flat bottomed glass gems.  After they are dry you may need to trim a little bit around the edges since the gems are not completely round.  Now glue the magnets onto the back and glue washers onto the cardstock. Place your completed magnets into the clear treat bags and top them with your labels.  The cardstock for the magnets is cut at 4 x 4 and the label is a 5 x 5 piece folded in half.

Complete and ready to hand out!

More Christmas Stockings

Finally finished our granddaughter's stocking.  I used this site for the pattern and this site for help with the lining.  I think it turned out pretty cute, but I won't be in a hurry to make this style again.  The points on the cuff were a little bit of a challenge.

Decorating on a Budget

Christmas decorating isn't as fun when you know that in a few short months you will be moving.  We wanted a little different look than what we have had in the past but the thought of buying more Christmas decorations was not appealing.  So I rummaged through the house and this is what I came up with for the mantle.  Only thing purchased was the printable from this great site. 

• Greenery and lights
• 16 X 20 gold frame with linen fabric and star and words cut out of scrapbook paper
• 16 X 20 canvas wrapped with Burgundy fabric, hot glued 8 X 10 frame and printable
• Nativity set
• Glass Hurricanes with cranberry garland
• Stockings
• Hot glue gun and tape

Had I been on Design Stars and a Christmas mantle been given our challenge, I definitely think I would have given them some competition. I think it needs a banner so will be making one today using Storybook Creator 4.0.  The boxes are all back in the shed and that's all the decorating for this year.  Now back to working on the Christmas presents.

Burlap Christmas Stockings

Awhile ago we requested some coffee bags from our coffee supplier to possibly use when refurbishing our tables in the coffee shop.  We have since come up with a new idea so they have sat in my closet.  Finally, I thought they would make great Christmas stockings.  And they did!  Now to go clean up the mess...

Christmas/Valentine's Outfit

My newest creation inspired by Pinterest is done.  Sending it off to my sweet granddaughter for her Christmas/Valentine's outfit.  The tutu directions can be found here and the bow directions are here.  I love how it turned out!

Very Hungry Caterpillar

Theme Birthday Parties are so much fun!  Here are some things I created using lots of great ideas off of the internet which I pinned to my Pinterest board.

Birthday parties are not complete without a banner.  Thanks to my fellow Creative Memories consultants over at Pixels2pages I made this Very cute banner.

These pages were also created using Pixel2pages blueprints that are made exclusively for Storybook Creator Plus software.  Both can be purchased on my website under digital solutions.

Quilting

Last year for my birthday my husband purchased the sewing machine I had requested from Walmart.  Not knowing if sewing was going to be a hobby I would enjoy,  I did not want to spend too much on a sewing machine.  I chose one that had good ratings.  Lesson learned, do not buy sewing machines from large supercenter.  If you do, expect to be frustrated by the results.  A few months later I joined a quilting/craft group at a local church thinking that things were sure to improve once I had good instruction.  With the Walmart sewing machine I did complete a Christmas stocking, two baby quilts, and the start of a table runner but was not pleased with any of these projects.  Ten months after buying the first sewing machine my generous husband took me to the local sewing center to purchase a new sewing machine so that I could complete a quilt for our new granddaughter that would bring pride in completion.  I should mention that he did this on his birthday.  He left me there for awhile with the salesperson and instructed her to not let me purchase the cheapest model.  I love my new Janome sewing machine and now the only frustration that I experience is due to my amateur sewing abilities and not to an in adequate sewing machine.  So far I have completed this very simple quilt for my beautiful granddaughter and a table runner.

I pin. Do you pin?

 My new favorite thing is www.pinterest.com.  Pinterest is a visual bookmarking site.  Do you have a long list of bookmarks in your Favorites?  I am going to be transparent with you....I had a long list as well as several folders in mine as I attempted to keep it organized.  The hardest part was knowing why you had saved each link because all you had was an URL and maybe a description (if you were smart enough to type that in).  And then one day my whole world changed (possibly a little dramatic but I'm trying to keep it real) when as I was blog hopping I noticed a button on the side that said "follow me on pinterest".  Curiosity got the best of me and there you have it...Pinterest is now my home page.  It took me a few weeks to clean up my Favorites list and "pin" them all to my very own boards.  Now when I want to try that new recipe I found online all I have to do is log on to my account, look at my recipe board, scroll down until I see the picture of recipe I'm desiring to try, and then click the link.  Say I am wanting to get creative and I remember a cute diy craft I saw online, again it is just a simple matter of going to that board that I have specified for crafts and finding the picture I am looking for.  I have created boards for all my interest.  The really addicting part of it is when you have other friends or blog writers and you follow their pins.  Before you know it is 11:00 am, you have drank several cups of coffee and not only have you not baked anything (which is your only job) but you are not showered and ready for the day either (keeping it real again).  So take a look, but be careful and use LOTS of self control.
P.S. Warning when looking at the main board where everyone's pins are seen please remember that this is still the internet and I am not endorsing other's pins just how the site is beneficial to me.

Do you know the muffin man?

For a week now I have been trying out new muffin recipe at the coffee shop. Here are a few of my favorite ones so far.

Blueberry muffins - Allrecipes.com

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flou
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 cup fresh blueberries

Stir until all ingredients are combined. Be careful not to over stir. I make the jumbo size muffin so I put two of the large pampered chef scoop into each muffin cup. Sprinkle some coarse sugar and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

Chocolate chocolate chip muffins

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup cocoa
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt

Combine ingredients and set aside.
In a separate bowl combine the following:

• 2 sticks of butter and room temperature
• 3 cups of sugar
• 5 whole eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk

Slowly add in dry ingredients to wet and be careful not to over stir. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

And here are the links to two more popular muffin recipes at Boldly Going Coffee Shop

http://annies-eats.net/2010/10/08/pumpkin-cream-cheese-muffins/
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Roxies-Bran-Muffins/Detail.aspx

Blog | Pixels2Pages.net

One of my favorite digital scrapbooking sites is Blog Pixels2Pages.net. "Pixels2Pages is a comprehensive web-based resource run by an international collaboration of women providing education, inspiration, and training for digital scrapbooking."  These ladies take the time to create webinars, video tid bits, workshops and challenges, all in order to encourage us to take our jpgs and turn them into storybooks full of memories.  I especially love the challenges.  Here are a few that I worked on this past week.

 Challenge #63 by Kerrianne Hobbs

Digital Frame Freebies

Distressed Digital Overlay

Text: Arial Narrow

Challenge #59 Fade Out

Reminisce Christmas P4

Embellishments: Reminisce Christmas

Title: Storybook Font

Blog Update

Spent the day cleaning up my Blog. It had been almost a year since I played around with it. Hoping to keep up with it now so that I can share our day to day activities.