4th of July cookies

I love holidays! All of them. I love the chance to create crafts and foods for special celebrations; even if it is just for my kids. (hey, they are an easy audience to please) I recently found an awesome M&M cookie recipe that I love. They are thick, chewy and loaded with chocolate. Yum!

With Independence Day quickly approaching I decided to make some red, white and blue cookies to bring to the lake with us. I already had a bag of M&M's on hand, so instead of paying the big bucks for single color M&M's I just took all the red and blue ones out of the bag I had. I ended up with 1 cup of M&M's then I added 1 cup of white chocolate chips to get the 2 cups of chocolate that I needed for the cookies.
A couple of things that make these cookies so delicious:
1. corn starch; yep I was skeptical at first, but it makes the cookies thick and chewy. (just a quick note: if you like to eat raw dough, and honestly who doesn't, the corn starch will leave a bitter taste in the dough. It all cooks out though I promise!)
2. Use real vanilla if you can. Seriously, it smells amazing and is so good. My grandma gets me a bottle of vanilla every year when she goes to Mexico, it is a small indulgence that I really enjoy. I know that vanilla can be pretty expensive so if you have vanilla extract feel free to use that.

The recipe:

Chewy M&M cookies - makes approximately 3 dozen cookies

1 cup butter - softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg + 1 yolk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 ounce package of M&M chocolates*
1/2 cup chocolate chips*
*or some combination that equals about 2 cups of chocolate (more or less to your taste)

Beat butter and brown sugar in large bowl. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Slowly add flour, corn starch, baking soda and salt and mix just until combined. Add chocolate chips and M&
M's (reserve some for tops of cookies). Refrigerate dough overnight or at least 1 hour. (seriously! it really makes the texture of the cookie perfect)

Preheat oven to 375*. Roll dough into balls and place on cookie sheets. Bake for 7-10 minutes. Press reserved M&M's on top of cookies while still warm. Enjoy, and I would love to hear if you try them.

Loads of cheer

got a few more Christmas cards done. I knew I wouldn't be able to stick with the same design for all my cardes. lol It sure would make the whole card making process easier though.
This one uses the Stampin' Up Loads of Love set. I got this stamp set at a garage sale this summer. love it!

time for Christmas cards

So, now that the calendar has flipped to December, I have finally decided to start my Christmas cards. A little late, but oh well.

I finished these 1st few using PTI's make it monday video. I lifted the idea from one of the previous submissions, and I just love it. I may use this as my 1 design for Christmas cards this year. That is if I can stick to just one design. :)

dresser

I love it when you set out to make something and it turns out just exactly as you intended it to. This was one of those times. :)

I saw a card just like this on pinterest. (you've got to join the pinterest craze if you haven't already; it is so much fun) I loved it, pinned it, and THEN I actually created my own the next day. wow!

 I can't wait to have some more time to create. I plan on trying a dresser with a distressed paint job. Oh, and maybe one with scrolls painted on the drawer fonts. Of course I need one in black and one in white, and maybe some with colorful drawer knobs. ;)

I lined the inside of the card with white since it was a dark colored card base. Next time I will remember to do that before I diecut the bottom.

Here is a link to the original card:

http://www.stampthat.com/blog/baby-boy-handmade-dresser-card/

bake sales

Today is our school's annual craft sale. This is one of our biggest fundraisers for the school. We make and sell apple pies and dumplings, pig in the blankets, turkey rollups, and bonquet. We also have families donate homemade soups, jams and jellies, breads and cookies. As I was baking all my goodies for the sale I decided I wanted to make them pretty, but I didn't want to have to spend too much time or money on it. Here is what I came up with.

I wrapped my breads ( and batches of cookies as well) in plastic wrap and tied with pretty ribbon. I jsut dug in my scrap ribbon jar and pulled out a few that were long enough to wrap around. Then I slipped in a tag with the name of the baked goodies handwritten on it.

In order to make my tags quick, easy and cute I just used journaling cards from this sheet of cards by Jillibean soup.

Well I am off to go work my shift at the sale. I want to wish my Mom a very happy birthday today as well. It is a big one this year, and we will be celebrating with friends and family in my parents barn tonight.

Angry Birds party

My son recently turned 8 years old. He requested an Angry Birds themed birthday party and I was more than happy to oblige. There are no Angry Bird party decorations available in stores yet. (there are however a lot of really wonderful things available on etsy.com if you are interested) So being the crafty Mom that I am I went to the internet for inspiration, and I was able to find so many fun ideas and helpful printables. I thought I would share some of the things I did for the party. 

I made a fun bunch of angry bird balloons using the free face printables from:

http://www.thepartyanimal-blog.org/ The kids were able to take home a balloon after the party and what is better than that?

Next I made these cute little bird and pig boxes. I made these using the free printable from:

 http://littleplasticman.blogspot.com/2011/03/dont-mess-with-these-birds.html While I think these are adorable they were a LOT smaller that I originally envisioned. They didn't make much of a statement in the decorations so I probably wouldn't waste the ink and time on them next time.

 I made party horns using graphics found online that I just print and cut out. There were just adhered on cardstock circles over party horns left over from a past birthday party. I then covered some plain bubbles from the Target dollar spot. I used the angry birds font to attach a birthday message on them.

 I had a lot of fun cutting the watermelon and using a sharpie to draw a pigs face on it. I then used it to serve the cut up watermelon.

 I made a papermache pinata and decorated it using the same printables as the balloons.

 Finally I made an Angry Birds scene on the cake. The cake is nothing fancy, just a box mix and chocolate frosting from a can. I saved all my energy for the decorations. I made birds and pigs from oreo truffles coated in colored candy melts. The eyes and feathers were made from more candy melts. The beaks and pig snouts were made from candy pumpkins that I jsut cut to shape. I made a slingshot out of snacksize Twix bars held together with melted chocolate. The structure that the pigs were on was made from kitkats also "glued" together with melted chocolate.

The party was a big success. Besides the pinata we had 2 more Angry Bird themed games. We used cardboard bricks to build a real life Angry Birds game and used the boys stuffed angry birds to throw at the structure and knock down the pigs made from green play balls. We also saved the eggs from the pigs in an egg hunt using plastic easter eggs.

It takes more time and effort to make all your own party supplies, but it is always worth it when you see the pure joy on the birthday boys face.

more baby bibs

With my SIL expecting I've had a few baby showers to go to recently. I love making baby things. This shower was for my SIL and her friend who are both due near Christmas this year.

I made this bib with a scrap of the wrapping paper so that it matched the gift. I've had the adorable hippo embellishment for a long time so I decided it was time to put it to use.  I made the bow for the present from crepe paper for a soft, flowy look.

My SIL's gift was a giraffe crate (I need to get some pics of it... forgot to get pics before we gave it to her oops). I wanted to make a card that matched.

The stamp on front says "Babies are such sweet beginnings". I love the quote and the mixed fonts are fun.

pinterest anyone?

So have you heard of pinterest.com yet? I am completely addicted! Love all the fun inpiration. don't love the fact that a waste so much time on the site though.

Once in a while I actually put all that awesome inspiration to use. As was the case with the adorable fall treat.

acorn snacks; I saw these on pinterest and couldn't resist making them. a family birthday party was the perfect excuse to try it out. They are a kiss for the bottom with a mini nutterbutter stuck on top with chocolate frosting then a mini chocolate chip on top of that. (for a non peanutbutter version you can use mini nilla wafers instead)

I would love to give proper credit for these but the pin I found of it was done on an iphone and it doesn't link to the original source.

btw, my husband thinks I am crazy for running outside to grab some leaves and acorns to stage my photo of the treats. lol

Happy Fall

I love fall! It is such a beautful time of year. I love getting out my sweaters and the chill in the air.

This is the craft we made today in my Mom's group at church. So cool!

We drilled a hole through each pumpkin and then layer them on a rod that is cemented into the bucket.

Not really loving my handwriting, but the leaves, pumpkins and galvanised bucket are lovely.

Happy Fall!

Baby bib

Decided to try my hand at one of the cute bib cards that I've seen all over. Lots of babies just born or due soon around here so another cute card in my repertoire is helpful right now. Pretty simple but I love how it turned out. Hoping to find or make a cut file next time though so I don't have to hand cut all the scallops.

Pretty simple but I love how it turned out. Hoping to find or make a cut file next time though so I don't have to hand cut all the scallops. Used embossed dotted paper to add texture, and my favorite elephant for embellishment.

couponing

So, have any of you ever watched the show on tlc about extreme couponing? Wow is that ever crazy. Some of those ladies have a stash so big they will never be able to use it before it goes bad. The budget has been pretty tight around here so I decided to start couponing. I joined a local site that helps you match coupons to sales to get the best deals.

I had a big garage sale and cleaned out our shelves in the basement to make room for my "stash". When my Dad lived here he installed these grocery store shelves in the basement storage area. love! It is so convenient for storing things.

Does anyone else coupon? I would love to hear any tips you have.

craft sale

The craft sale went really well. I was able to cover my booth fee and still make a little money. :) It was a nice day out, and there was a steady stream of people pretty much the whole time. It is always nice when there is lots of traffic because the time goes by faster and you don't get bored sitting there.

 This is my whole setup. I had specialty cards and boxed sets on the table. This is also where I put my sign, buisness cards and a bucket of free candy.

 I made a clothes line for my baby onesies. I wasn't able to make anymore onesies because my sewing machine died on me. Atleast with the clothes line I could adjust the size so it looked full. I made my line by mixing cement and pouring it into 2 old paint buckets and securing a wooden pole into each of them. Then I just stapled some turquois ribbon to the poles.

Shot of my spinning card rack. I got this rack about a year ago. It was definitely a "right place at the right time" kind of a find. A local shop had a bunch of store fixtures for sale out on the side walk. Score! I painted the yellowing base turquoise to match my booth color scheme.

Overall, I was happy with how my setup turned out. What do you think? Any suggestions for next time?

dino bday

I added some googly eyes to the second card. Inside says, "Hope your birthday is DINO-mite!"

greater than

I picked up a package of felt cupcake embellishments from the Target dollar spot a bit ago. Love that dollar spot! I decided to make these clean and simple cards with them.

On the inside I printed: "hope your birthday is as sweet as you are." I made enough of these cards to create a gift box of them.

onesie fun

I don't know how many of you have seen the adorable tie onesies that people have been making. I love them! I just had to try it out so I went and bought some supplies and set out to make my own.  I might have become a little obsessed. Unfortunately, my sewing machine and I aren't on speaking terms right now.

Luckily I was able to finish this custom onesie for my future niece or nephew before the machine started acting up.

They are not going to find out the sex of the baby. So I decided to make a custom shirt based on thier last name which is hoekwater. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Can't wait for my little niece or nephew to get here!

Fun lunch- sailing

I love Jill's food posts over at http://meetthedubiens.blogspot.com/ (actually I love all the fun projects she does with her kids) My kids love it when I make them fun lunches. Usually they are copied from ideas jill has done. :) I try to make them fun lunches on Fridays but it doesn't happen every week.

Today we have a sailboat fun lunch. We had quesadilla boats with string cheese for the mast, lunchmeat for the sail and a pepperoni flag. The boat was sailing in a sea of blueberries complete with green bean seaweed. ha! I thought it was clever but the boys were quick to point out that the greenbeans didn't look like seaweed. Oh well!

family tree

My family was in charge of the planning the annual family reunion this year. My mom planned a game of guess the weight of our family. She asked me to make a family tree so that everyone could see how many people there are. This is what I came up with.

 I used a leaf stamp from papertrey ink for all of the great grandkids. This way I can easily add more leaves as more babies are born into the family.

Glad I snapped a pic right when I finished because as soon as my grandma saw this she asked if she could have it. So what do you think the total weight was?

MIM #32

This weeks make it monday challenge over at papertrey ink is stamping with acrylic. A while back I saw a card made by Gabriela at sheinksalot for make it monday #24 that I just loved. I saved it to my inspiration folder and then forgot all about it. When I saw this weeks challenge to stamp with acrylic I remembered that card and knew what I was going to do.

I used white acrylic paint to stamp the planes I just swiped my foam brush over the stamp to remove some of the paint before stamping. I used navy acrylic paint to stamp the sentiments. I also ran the paint brush along the edges to keep that soft distressed look. I love the look of white on craft, but it is hard to get good white ink that shows up, so acrylic is a good solution for this. Both of my acrylic paints were Making Memories scrapbook colors which is archival safe so it can be used in scrapbooks as well.

12 days till the craft sale!

changito monkey

I love all the inspiration out there on the net. I was feeling a little uninspired, so I went to splitcoaststampers.com and was able to search for cards made using the stamp set I had out. Instantly I had a bunch of cards made using that stamp set to get ideas from.

  I loved all the scenes that people built using the pirate changito set so I decided to try it myself. For the first card I used sandpaper to give my beach some texture. For the second card I pulled out my water color pencils.

There is a bit of a glare on the cards because these are already packed into protective sleeves to bring to the craft sale in 2 weeks. Slowly but surely my stash is getting bigger. :)

September 11

I wanted to take the time today to remember all those that were lost on this day ten years ago. I still remember the day that it happened. I was on campus heading to class when I realized that something was going on. People were crying and huddling together. All of the classes were cancelled and every television station was playing the horrific scenes over and over again. God bless the brave men and women who were part of the rescue efforts. I am also so thankful for all those that serve our country whether it is overseas or the police, firefighters, and EMTs here at home. Thank you for all that you sacrifice and do to protect our country.

I made a bunch of patriotic cards that I sent out to thank some of the soldiers from my area. It is something that I want to do more often.