I have a big announcement!

BOO for rain!

It's raining today.  I am not necessarily against rain BUT me and one of the other first grade moms put a lot of effort into getting all the first grade moms into a group on FB and planning an outing at the park for all of the rising first graders at Pezza's school today.  Then we were going to head to Sweet Frog as a group and attend the school's Meet the new Asst. Principal event - also to take place OUTSIDE!  I was SO looking forward to this and I think it really helps Pezza to do this kind of thing to since she is a worrier.  She has somehow decided there is the distinct possibility that she will not know ANYONE.  Umm we live in a tiny town with ONE elementary school and know tons of people.  And we have such a wonderful and unique group for her grade.  A lot of the moms are SAHM, active in school stuff as well as outside activities, friendly and a lot of us started getting together last year throughout the year thanks to ONE awesome lady who I have become so thankful to know.  I have really missed everyone myself with our busy summer lives and few get togethers!  I like that we are all getting to know each other since, if we stay put, these will likely be the kids she will be wanting to hang out with on her own when she's older and I like that by then I will know all of these parents!  And they will know us!  Not to mention if someone ever sees her hanging out behind the 7-11 they need to know 1. who she is and 2. who to call!  Just Kidding - my kid better not EVER be hanging out behind the 7-11 - NOTHING good going on back there!

I had a little moment of back to school sadness yesterday.  For the most part I am ALL over the full school day gig and getting some time to myself again after being full time with Pezza for nearly 7 years now - and she brings new meaning to full time - there was no nap time for this kid from infancy, no sleeping in no break.  As many of y'all long time readers might remember I had to get up at 3:30am if I wanted any crafty time or time to myself.  My body finally gave out and I could no longer keep that up so it's been all Pezza all the time.  BUT as we walked in to Target yesterday while running errands and we headed over for our usual treat at at the Starbucks - she gets Iced Lemon pound cake and I get coffee and we sit at a table and just hang out - I realized that this was it.  I would no longer have my little buddy with me all the time (ALL the time!)

SO what's my big announcement?  I am a new design team member for the Cut It Up Challenge blog!  I have REALLY been taking a back seat lately but with Pez going back to school AND for a FULL DAY now - I am itching to get back into the swing of things the way I once was.  So what is the Cut It Up challenge?  You must use a die cut on your challenge entry and they pick a random winner each time for prizes from some great sponsors!  I have been doing a lot more with my Cricut and Black Cat lately and plan to continue that so I was thrilled when I was selected for the team!

In honor of the occasion I am bringing back an oldy but goodie - this is a project I did for my magazine Through the Craft Room Door which is now run by my friend Colleen (and she is AMAZING with it!)  This is a Back to School set for a teacher:

I used 2 different sized clear paint cans from Michaels - the large one is filled with all sorts of goodies the teacher can use as treats for the kids.  

The small one has goodies for the teacher like Expo markers.  The metal tin holds the little memo cards I made for sending notes home to parents.

I used an oldie but goodie on this one - the apple and school bus are cut using my Cricut and the Doodlecharms cartridge.  I ran the top layers of both of them through a Xyron machine to get the front nice and covered with adhesive and then put red microbeads on the apple and yellow flock on the school bus.  I used the Printing 101 cartridge for the lettering - be sure to use your shadows!  It always makes your die cuts look better!

Electronic cutters aren't the only way to make die cuts!  On the lids I have some felt die cuts I made using a large (think old school) Sizzix die and a Spellbinders die and my Cuttlebug.  Incorporating pipe cleaners, pom poms and buttons give them some great dimension and since my set is geared towards an early elementary teacher they seemed like the perfect thing to incorporate!

For the felt I really prefer using a good quality felt  - my go to for good felt has been Felt On the Fly on Etsy.  I have been using her for YEARS. (Be sure to tell her I sent you!)  Pom poms and pipe cleaners are from Micahels.  To make the flowers you need a hot glue gun.  


Pom pom flowers - These look best on a felt foundation but it is not necessary.  You need one for a center and five for the “petals” and a hot glue gun.  I wrapped a layer of hot glue around the center pom pom, put it down on my craft sheet and then quickly smooshed the five petal pom poms into the glue.  There are lots of other things you can make with these too – I actually found a book with ideas!


Pipe Cleaners flowers – These are quite easy too.  Take a pipe cleaner and cut it into five pieces – they should range from 1” – 2” depending on the final size you want.  Now bend them in half into a tear drop shape.  Make a puddle of hot glue on your craft sheet and put the points of all five pipe cleaner tear drops into it to form your flower petals.  Put more hot glue on top and add a center – a button, a pom pom, a spiraled pipe cleaner, etc.

      Notecards: You will want to make these simple so they are easy to use, fit in the tin, and you can make a lot of them easily.  Mine are simply colored cardstock bases, a patterned strip across the top, a white piece to hold the writing and a small stamped image in the corner.  These are from one of the TONS of Studio G $1 stamps I have been collecting over the years.  I stamped them with the Studio G $1 pigment ink pads which are really super quality ink pads and work so well with the little stamps!  As you can see I get a great crisp clear image with these little guys and I am guaranteed to always have a few stamps for EVERY occasion!

     The current challenge over on Cut It Up is a Back to School altered notebook so head on over there, welcome all of the new team members and then join in the challenge!

super quick and simple fall wreath

happy turkey day cooking day!

hahaha!  i bet i am not the only one getting busy cooking and cleaning today!  i am having a dessert conundrum though.  MIL is bringing a pumpkin pie and i know i am making bread pudding.  i was also going to make pumpkin cupcakes but then i thought maybe too much pumpkin so i want to do something else.  pezza picked raspberry lemonade cake, i considered cake topped with cheesecake and fruit with glaze but both those seem a bit summery.  then my buddy heather had to post about red velvet cake - and i do make a killer homemade red velvet cake with the traditional crisco pudding based frosting......mmmmmmm....but it always seems when i make red velvet cake outside of the south it freaks people out and no one eats it.  of course trev and kevin will be more than happy to have it all to themselves.....

i spent a good part of yesterday cleaning up in the basement to make the pool table available.  and then i decided i was going to make the fall wreath i intended to make months ago and never got to.  it will only be up for two days but next year it will get a long display time right?!

i have had these straw wreaths laying around for ages so i used one of those and some felt flowers - i was going for simple and i am pleased with the results

 and it took less than 1 1/2 hours to do start to finish!  SO easy!  especially since i used spellbinders dies to cut the felt - tracing circles and cutting by hand would have made it take WAY longer!

i used three sizes of the scalloped circle die and fall colored felt.  the small one took 6 circles for each flower and the larger two took 7 each.  for instructions you can go HERE - sort of.  that's the tutorial i used except i didn't follow directions very well :P  kind of a pattern with me!  So i folded the petals the way it says and then i stitched each one with three or four stitches onto the base but the did not lay flat - they poofed and i liked it so there ya have it!  a little hot glue to stick them on the wreath and TA-DA!

one last thing - my buddy Suzanne is having a black friday sale on Color Me Creative so go check it out ok?!?!

i hope y'all all have a fab thanksgiving and stuff yourselves silly!!!

stitched felt barrette

hi all!

yea so it has been snowing ALL DAY here - WTF?  i mean i love snow but wow - before halloween?  i don't even have pezza's winter coat and snowpants yet!

i did my usual grocery trip yesterday thank goodness.  and let's talk about extreme couponing for a minute.  now i will freely admit that i totally don't get it but i WANT to.  so i decided i was going to be really smart this trip and search for coupons and look at sales ads on the web.  i already had my list.  so i spent a couple hours on this.  i managed to find a number of coupons to take with me.  i also looked up sales but the bottom line is - i am not going to drive around to three different places just for a sale - waste of time and gas money.  i am also not going to buy something i don't need - i really only have the money to buy what i need right now.

BUT i did have several coupons so i was feeling quite smug with myself as i began shopping, carefully looking for the exact whatever the coupon specified.  i would say a third of the items i had a coupon for were not in the store.  so strike those off.  several items i could get cheaper by buying a different brand and the few coupons i had left that i could use - well i forgot all about them while checking out.  big giant FAIL on that one.

luckily we had nowhere to go so we have been laze-ing around the house all day. i got around to doing some stitching i have really been wanting to do.  pezza picked out a pink sweater dress for xmas so i made her a matching barrette:

i used some gorgeous felt from Janet over at Felt On the Fly in pink, green and ivory (be sure to check out her bookmark kits as featured in Through the Craft Room Door's holiday issue).  I cut the felt using spellbinders dies - cuts like a dream.

I used pink & iridescent white floss, iridescent beads and some pink buttons.

i added beads to the large circle while doing the blanket stitch around it and i love the effect!  i also used a mix of straight stitches, french knots and a few star stitches.  I did each piece individually and then stitched them onto the base piece.  I used hot glue to further secure the pieces and to glue a barrette blank to the back.  i see yet another hobby in my life - this was a fun project and a great thing to keep near the tv in the evenings.  i think i may try a crocheted edge on my next piece!  my inspiration comes partially from pinterest of course!