World Cardmaking Day

Last Saturday was World Cardmaking Day.  It also coincided with the Priesthood Session of General Conference.  My mom, sisters, and I got together and made some cards.  We all wanted to do some smaller sized cards because sometimes you don't need a full size card.  I really want to make bunch of 3 x 3 cards just to have on hand.  Anyway, I decided to make a birthday card for a little boy and a little girl.  I have a few nieces and nephews and these cards would be perfect for them.  Here is the little boy card I made:

And here is the little girl card that I made:

Now I just need to make a few more of these two card.  And some Thank You Card, Birthday Cards, Wedding cards and many more!!

Calendar Makeover

About 10 years ago my mom gave each of us girls a wooden calendar for Christmas.  It is such a fun decoration and so easy to change the dates each month.  I have loved having this decoration in my house.  However, it was in need of a makeover.  Here is a picture of what it looked like before the makeover.

My husband helped me out and we started by spray painting the whole thing using Rust-Oleum American Accents in Espresso.  It was a smooth Satin Finish.  Then I sanded everything.  We then applied the vinyl numbers, months, and pictures.  I ordered the vinyl from a friend who has her own vinyl business.  It is called Heartfelt Wall Hangings.  I finished it off by attaching a new family picture and stamping Family at the top and a quote by Helen Keller that says:  "The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart."  Anyway, here is the after picture.

I love how this turned out.  I can't help looking at it all the time.  I am excited to do some other projects.  Right now I am in the process of organizing all my stamping stuff but hopefully soon I will have something else to post.  I will post pictures of my organizing when I am finished. 

Linking with whipperberry, tatertots and jello, i heart naptime, Tip Junkie

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

I have a new menu plan and Mondays are Crockpot Mondays. The reason why is that Mondays are always so busy with homework and then Family Home Evening. It is nice just to be able to put something in the crockpot and forget about it until dinner time. The Spaghetti sauce is one of my favorite recipes. Here is the recipe:

1 lb. ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
2 14-oz cans diced tomatoes with juice
6-oz can tomato paste
8-oz can tomato sauce
1 bay leaf
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. dried basil
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
1/2-1 tsp. dried thyme

Brown meat and onion in saucepan. Drain well. Transfer to slow cooker. Add remaining ingredients. Cover. Cook on low 7 hours. If the sauce seems too runny, remove lid during the last hour of cooking.

**I have tweaked this recipe by adding an extra can of tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato paste. I also usually cook it for 8 hours.

SSS112 Sweet Shop Sketch Challenge

My son Payson has a birthday coming up soon and so I needed to make his birthday party invites. I always make one card before I start to mass produce. I also decided to do something that I have never done before and that is participate in a card sketch challenge. When I saw this card sketch I knew that I could make a birthday invitation out of that sketch.The theme for Payson's party is a Monster Theme because we all know that 2 year-olds can be "little monsters" at times. Stampin' Up! has a great set called Make a Monster so that is the set I decided to use. Here is my creation.The base of the card is Tempting Turquoise. Then I used some DSP from the Subtles Collection pack. The next two layers are Tempting Turquoise and Wild Wasabi that have been embossed with a non SU embossing folder. Then I stamped the monster in Tempting Turquoise, Pumpkin Pie, and Concord Crush and I mounted this on a piece of Tangerine Tango Card Stock. The greeting is punched out with the Modern Label punch and mounted on the Designer Label punch in Tempting Turquoise.

I am pretty pleased with my card. Now to make the rest of them.

3 x 3 all occasion cards

My mom's birthday was back in April and all of us kids pitched in with my dad to buy her a pearl ring. In order to throw her off we all got her a little present too. I found some cute 3 x 3 cards on Stampin Connection. This is a website for Stampin' Up! demonstrators to share card samples and other things. I didn't have the big buttons that they used so I made my own. I have a button embosslit for my big shot so I ran it through using different colors of cardstock. Then I used crystal effects to glue 6 of the papers together. My mom didn't even know they were made of paper until I told her. Anyway, here is the finished result.
These are great and I think I need to make some for myself because sometimes you just need a little card.

Bulletin Board

I originally saw this idea on our local TV show Good Things Utah. When I saw it I knew it would be a perfect idea for a homemade gift for my daughter's birthday. My daughter Emma turned 7 years old in April and she loves to draw. I knew she would love a place to stick things.The bulletin board was really easy to make. The hard part was figuring out a good pattern to assemble it in. Anyway, you start with a frame. You want a frame that will divide evenly by 4 or 6. My frame is a 12x16. I cut twelve 4 inch chipboard squares and then I put a layer of batting on the chipboard square. The material is cut into 6 inch square pieces. Then all you do is fold in the corners first and use a hot glue gun to stick them down. Then fold over the rest of the sides and hot glue down. Decorate some of the squares using ribbon. Arrange them all into whatever pattern and glue onto the cardboard that came with the frame. The only thing I need to do to this one is back it with cork board to give it more in the back. We found out that when we stuck push pins in they came out through the other side. I am looking forward to hanging it up in Emma's room and I know that Emma is looking forward to using it.

Teacher Appreciation

I know that Teacher Appreciation was a few weeks ago. I thought this would be a good post to start my new blog with. I originally found the idea for this gift here. I thought I would change it up a little bit and added some retired Designer Series Paper from Stampin' Up! that had apples on it. I loved how it turned out and from what I hear the Landon and Emma's teachers really liked them too.The text says: I SKORed big when I got you for a teacher. Don't SNICKER, but I think you're great. You are MOUNDS of fun and you have brought me so much JOY. I think you ROCK. Thanks BEARY much for always being so JOLLY and for helping me become such a SMARTIE. Teachers like you are worth a MINT. I'd be a NERD if I didn't thank you for helping me put the PIECES of the knowledge puzzle together. You are Mighty Magnificent. Thanks for the great year.

These could also be used as a end of the year gift. I think any teacher would love it! I hope that you will enjoy my new blog. I am hoping to post on it twice a week. I would love to get as many followers as possible so spread the word. I am going to be posting cards, crafts, and recipes. I hope that you will enjoy it.