Let it snow garland

I had so much fun yesterday playing with my cricut. I used the winter woodland cartridge to make the snowflakes and the "Let it snow" saying. The snowflakes I actually made in different sizes and then layered to give them a little more. The paper I used is by bo bunny, very neat snowflake paper.

Here is a full picture of the garland......

Hope you find this inspiring for your to make your own winter garland.

Handmade Christmas Goodness

I have had so much fun this year making gifts. Besides the really fun crocheted cupcake ornaments, this weekend I made marshmallow cocoa stirring sticks from better homes and gardens....
Gather up milk chocolate or mint chocolate chips, marshmallows, peppermint sticks or sucker sticks, jimmies for decorating, and a foam core like you use for floral arrangements (if u use the sucker sticks, which were easier to use).
Melt chips in the microwave, get mallows ready by stabbing with sucker sticks. Dip mallows in chocolate just up to where the top of the mallows show. Drip off excess chocolate and place mallows, stick side, into foam to dry. Before dry sprinkle with jimmies or your favorite decorating sugar.






The next thing I made was white chocolate popcorn from eighteen25 (you can find their blog off to the side). This is for sure going to be a very addicting treat!






And the last homemade gift is homemade cocoa mix with French vanilla snowman mallows on top of the mix. I found this recipe on martha stewarts website and is the only cocoa we drink now. The recipe is simple, 3 1/2 cups sugar, 2 1/4 cups baking cocoa, and 1 tablespoon salt. Mix up in a ziploc bag and store either in that bag or glass jar. You can mix either with hot milk or water, and it only needs about 1 tablespoon per cup.

If your wondering about what I used for my cute little, very easy, tags here ya go... I used winter wood friends from www.pccrafter.com and my print shop program and the business card template. Any graphic will work, try some of the totally cool graphic designs from Lettering Delights. You can get there by clicking on the banner at the top of my page.

Let me know what your homemade gifts are this year!

Juls :)
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Christmas Decor under $5! Christmas Vinyl Cling Picture

I was surfing around the net and came across a great idea using a picture frame and vinyl clings.

I made this picture using a 8 1/2 x 11 document frame and vinyl clings from walmart. The total price for this was $3.50! All I did was take the back of the frame off and attached the clings to the front of the frame. I wish there would have been more of a selection of clings, but I do like what I picked out. It would have been better if I would have splurged and bought the huge 13 x whatever frame for $12, then I could have used all the clings on the sheet. But I wanted to keep this decoration under $5.

I can't take credit for this totally fa la la idea. Go to Craftily Ever After and see how awesome her's turned out! I would love to have the frame that she used!
I'm thinking that I will keep the frame out and use the different clings that come out throughout the year.

Crochet Christmas Cupcake Ornament & A Fun BSU Bronco's Scarf

I've been super sick with a cold, and when I finally got to the doc on Thursday I found out that I have pneumonia. So needless to say I am going stir crazy around here, so I've been crocheting up a storm!
Today while I was watching ELF, I came across this fun ornament pattern on the Red Heart website. I used Lily Sugar N' Cream for the yarn, and it worked just fine. If you would like to hook this cute ornament for your tree go HERE.

Last night I finally finished my BSU GO BRONCO'S scarf I've been working on. I got the pattern off of Ravelry, and you can also find it HERE. The pattern was originally for a special olympics washington scarf, which I am going to make and send off in the red and white specified. I used Lamb's Prided Worsted in Orange and Blue that I bought in the mill ends section of our local yarn shop. I love the way it turned out, I did have to rip out and start again on a few rows because I was off, probably because of the codine cough syrup!

Not sure what I will be making next, I'm kinda flying by the seat of my pants, as they are planted on the couch getting better, and just going with what looks cool. Lucky for me I have a pretty big stash that I need to burn through!

Today's the day! Check out my guest blog spot.

Today's the day for my guest blog spot at Marie's Cozy Corner!

I'm so excited about this honor, and all I'm going to tell you is that my blog spot, so to speak, will be about a vintage craft.
So please go check it out!

Guest Blog Spot!!

I was recently asked to do a guest blog spot on december 1st for marie at http://mariescozycorner.blogspot.com/
I'm so excited about this honor, and all I'm going to tell you is that my blog spot, so to speak, will be about a vintage craft.

So please go to maries cozy corner on the 1st to see what happens!!

Crocheted Candy Cane Pattern

Since we are siting here, waiting for it to snow, I decided to figure out some Christmas ornaments for this coming year. This pattern was actually a mistake, but turned out perfect!

THE PATTERN:

This is so simple to make, and takes only maybe 10 minutes.
Materials:
1 ball Red Heart Holiday in Red
1 ball Red Heart Holiday in White
G Crochet Hook
Darning Needle
White pipe cleaners
Ribbon of choice
With white, Chain 33
1st Row: Work 1 DC in the 3rd CH from hook. DC in each chain across to the end of chain.
2nd Row: Join red. Work 1 SC in each DC across. Fasten off.
Wind crocheted piece around white pipe cleaner. Trim pipe cleaner at ends if needed, bend top of Candy Cane to form a hook shape.
Tie a ribbon in a bow around the candy cane to add that special touch.
I can’t wait to see what you all come up with. Have fun with this, use different yarns and experiment!

What are you making this year for ornaments or other decorations? 

Cold, Rainy, and warming up with Zuppa Toscana

Yes, the boys thought I was nuts to be taking a picture of our dinner last night :) But I am a little crazy, as we all know! This recipe was extremely close to the olive garden version, and oh so good!! I found this recipe at eighteen25, totally awesome ideas there, you must go check them out! This will be one of our go to soups for winter, the boys couldn't tell there were onions in it, and didn't even mind the kale!! Sweet, I won a food challenge vs. the men in the house for a change! With leftovers of this soup in the fridge, I'm thinking some for lunch is in order on this rainy day.

Olive Garden Copycat Zuppa Toscana Recipe
4-6 servings
Ingredients:

1 lb Italian Sausage
2 large russet potatoes, sliced in half, and then in 1/4 inch slices
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 bag Oscar Meyer bacon bits
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups kale, chopped
2 cans chicken broth
1 quart water
1 cup heavy whipping cream








Directions:
1. Cook sausage in a 300°F oven for approximately 30 minutes.

2. Drain sausages on paper towels and cut into slices.

3. Place onions, potatoes, chicken broth, water, garlic in pot, and cook on medium heat until potatoes are done.

4. Add sausage and bacon and salt and pepper to taste.

5. Simmer for another 10 minutes.

6. Turn to low heat and add kale and cream.

7. Heat through and serve.

SPOOKY! Garland made with my cricut.

This was so much fun! I got the idea from Dittle Dattle. I made the letters from the Winter Woodland Cricut cartridge. I used BoBunny paper, purple velvet ribbon, and attached the letter blocks to a black iridescent ribbon with mini safety pins. I used used the doodlecharms cartridge for the spiders.

Here is a close up of the spiders. I took purple glitter glue and highlighted their eyes and legs. I also used black glitter glue around each letter square.

Let me know what you think, I love your comments!

Paper Pumpkin from Martha Stewart

I was watching Martha Stewart today and saw the show where Martha made this cool pumpkin.
For some reason I had mommy brain fade out and only used one sheet of 12 x 12 paper instead of two. I might make another one tomorrow with 2 sheets to see what I think.
I also used the cricut and the stamping cartridge to make the leaves, and I used a scrap piece of bamboo felt to make the stem.
So if you would like to make one of these totally cool pumpkins go HERE and get all the specifics, I would love to see your pumpkins when you get done.

Check back tomorrow, I was working on another fun Halloween garland this afternoon, but didn't quite get finished. I will be posting this project tomorrow, kinda cute and I used the cricut again.

Vintage Halloween Garland

This project was so much fun to create! And making it also inspired me to clean the house and decorate for Autumn, and my 2nd favorite holiday, Halloween.

Since it's such a rainy day here in North Idaho, and I have a yummy chuck roast cooking in the crock pot, I'm going to make some more of these fun garland, and some other vintage things.