Hello Again

This week I did something a little crazy.  Even though I have about 3 bushels of apples in my house right now, and tomatoes to be made into salsa, I decided to craft!

I love Pinterest, and I have been seeing so many fun projects that are a combination of candlesticks and mason jars to make cute containers, or candle sticks and platters to make cake stands that I decided it was time to do a little experimenting.  I saw someone once use glass candle holders to make the cutest pumpkins.  She used vinyl for the face, and then filled the containers with orange marbles.  So cute!  Well, what can I say?  I like food a lot more than I like marbles, so I decided to try a variation of that with cute Halloween candy.  And then I thought, why not put the glass bowls on top of some fun candlesticks?  Here's what I came up with:

What do you think?  I'm really happy with how these turned out.  Of coarse, my little pumpkin would look better if I had been able to find the candy corn M & M's like I wanted, but that's another story.  All of the supplies were purchased at Hobby Lobby.  To make them you will need:

• Large glass bowl (from the floral department)

• Small glass bowl (this one was in the candle department)

• Large glass candlestick

• Small glass candlestick

• Lid - also from the candle department (normally used as a base for a pillar candle).  It's not a really secure fit, but it works

• Black tulle ribbon

• Super incredibly strong glue that is intended for gluing glass.  There are a number of adhesives that would probably do the job.  I picked one called Omni-Stick because it dries clear and becomes dishwasher safe.  

• Black vinyl cut into jack-o-lantern shapes.  I used some Snapdragon Snippets designs from the Silhouette online store

 And here's where they are on display in my kitchen.

And here's what is below:

I have about 3 bushels of apples in my kitchen right now (this is not all of them).  So far I have made 32 quarts of applesauce, 7 quarts of apple pie filling, and dried a lot of apples too.  Today I thought I would experiment with my juicer:

So we'll see how that turns out.  The rest of the apples are going to be turned into cider.  A friend in our neighborhood has a cider press and has been kind enough to let us use it.  I'll take pictures and post later on that.  Oh, and all of this is coming from two apple trees.  Ya, just two.  It's been a good year for apples.

Random Ramblings

It has been a long, HOT summer!  I'm sorry that I have been M.I.A., but as much as I love creating I love my family more.  On that note, for those of you who are fans of My Pink Stamper, she made a very important announcement recently.  I can relate all too well to her feelings and applaud her for her decision.

Where does that leave me?  It's very liberating actually.  I truly loved being a Pink Designer, but I tend to have tunnel vision when I'm working with a particular company.  If a product doesn't work or can't be used with the products I'm demonstrating, I disregard them.  I was a demonstrator for a stamp company for about 7 years and I had the same experience.  So now it's like I get a fresh start!  And I enjoy so much more than papercrafting!

I have been doing a little:

followed by a little:

So far I have bottle peaches, made peach jam, dried peaches, lots of peach cobbler, and today I think I may make some peach salsa!  I do a lot of canning.

I've also been doing:

My tomato plants are usually prettier than this.  It's been HOT and dry this summer.














followed by a little:

OK - the picture was of tomatoes, and this is tomatillo salsa, but you get the idea.  The tomatoes aren't ready yet!

And there has been a lot of this:

I didn't know it was possible to produce this much laundry!  During the summer you wear less clothes, right?  Who know that all that swimming could produce so much laundry?

Soon I will be doing a lot of:

 Concord grape juice or jelly anyone?


















After that, it won't be long before we'll be enjoying:

Can you see my "Casper" pumpkin hiding in there?  We have the most amazing pumpkin patch ever.  Apparently it's a good idea to plant your pumpkins where the compost used to be.  The Great Pumpkin is definitely coming to our house this year!  ;-)

Last but not least, now that school has started, I hope to soon be doing more of:

I think it's really important to have a creative outlet.  I love to work with my hands and there are so many crafty/homey things that I enjoy that I could probably putter around all day from one thing to the other.  But I have 3 children, the youngest of whom is 5, and they are my top priority.  That said, I also think it's extremely important that we, as women, spend time doing things we love - preferably while spending time with other women.  We need each other!  Honestly, I'm really bad at that part.  I love being with my friends, but it's far to easy to get so busy with life and the family's needs that you completely forget your own.  My goal over the next few months is to reestablish my priorities, find peace and joy in my family and the gospel of Jesus Christ, and invest some time in making a better me.

My Pink Designer July - Moo-ey Doodles

Welcome!  This month at My Pink Stamper we are showcasing Robyn's newest release:  Moo-ey Doodles.  This set is available in a great kit that is available at Shop Pumpkin Spice.

What is it about crafting with cows that is so fun?  I just love this set!  Here are some of the projects I have created:

Moo-chas Gracias card - you can never have too many thank you cards, right?

Stamps:  My Pink Stamper Moo-ey Doodles
Paper:  AC Cardstock
Border Punch:  American Crafts Knock-Out Border Punch Zig-Zag
Accessories:  Michaels (ribbon), green eyelets, Copic Markers, Diamond Glaze

Welcome Home Card - too bad I didn't have these a few months ago when I moved!

Stamps:  My Pink Stamper Moo-ey Doodles
Paper:  AC Cardstock, DCWV, Doodlebug Design Inc. Comfy Cozy (background paper), and Doodlebug Design Inc Cute Cuts (house cut on inside of card)
Border Punch:  Fiskars Apron Lace
Accessories:  DCWV (buttons), Copic Markers, linen thread, baker's twine

Thanks for stopping by!  If you haven't already, be sure to head over to My Pink Stamper so you can be inspired by all the designer's wonderful projects.  I know I have been!  Have a great day.

Pinkalicious Blog Hop Friday!

Welcome!  I'm so glad that you have joined me for Pinkalicious Blog Hop Friday!  If you arrived here from Angela's blog, then you're in the right place.  If you arrived here on your own tonight, then I invite you to hop over to My Pink Stamper so you can begin at the beginning and see all of the wonderful projects in tonight's hop.

The theme for tonight's hop is a wonderful new set from My Pink Stamper called Moo-ey Doodles!  Once again we have a great kit from Shop Pumpkin Spice, and a great new My Pink Stamper stamp pad:  Texas Chocolate. 

You can do such fun crafty things with cows, and this stamp set is no exception. I have been having so much fun with all the new line art stamps that Robyn has released recently.  I love my Cricut, but sometimes you need to shake things up a little to get your creative juices flowing.  It has been nice having a reason to sit down and color with my markers.  Here's what I made:

Stamps:  My Pink Stamper Moo-ey Doodles
Cricut Cartridge:  Plantin Schoolbook (ovals)
Embossing:  Cuttlebug Perfectly Paisley
Border Punch:  Martha Stewart
Paper:  Doodlebug Design Inc, AC Cardstock, Stampin Up
Accessories:  Baker's twine, Doodlebug Design Inc brad, Copic Markers

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope tonight's projects will moo-tivate you to do some creating of your own!  The next stop on the hop is Courtney at Court's Crafts.  Happy hopping!

Will craft for....

Do you craft for the pure joy of creating?  Or do you actually make some money from your wares?  I like to work with my hands, so I guess I could say that I started creating for the pure joy of it.  It has come in handy in other ways too though.  I have done the craft fair circuit selling my cards, I like to give handmade items as gifts (canning season is almost upon me and I will be bottling jams and salsa to be given as Christmas gifts and eaten of coarse), I have even traded handmade cards for piano lessons.

I also happen to teach classes at my local Joann.  My favorite classes to teach are the Cricut how-to classes.  I love taking people from being afraid to take their machine out of the box, to feeling confident and hopefully inspired to go home and get creating!  Once in a while though, they ask me to teach some of their other papercrafting classes.  It's at these times that I realize that I might have become a little, can I say, lazy in my creating.

These were a challenge for me!  I know it's a little hard to tell from the picture, so let me explain.  These are all ATC sized cards that are from the Spotted Canary class Sew Natural Photo Tree.  They are intended to have photos placed on the back of the cards, mounted on a dowel and arranged in a vase.  But I have found that for display purposes, it's better to arrange my samples in a way that they are mounted away from wandering fingers.  These were all made using a Tim Coffey line of K & Company products.  Can I just say, I didn't even know stuff like this existed!  Well, maybe I know they existed, but I never really paid attention to them.  Why would I?  I have 2 Cricuts AND a Silhouette SD, so I guess I just don't think about buying pre-made cuts.  And I certainly don't take the time to pull out my embroidery floss and hand stitch my projects.  It was time consuming, and a little tedious, but I think they turned out beautifully.  Hopefully the customers at my local Joann will think so too and want to take the class!

50th Birthday Card

A friend of mine is turning 50 next week, and his wife wanted to surprise him with lots and lots of birthday cards coming in the mail.  Isn't that fun?  Turning 50 is one of those benchmark ages that can be hard for some people, so I decided a sense of humor was in order.  On the inside I wrote that I hope he had an "incredible" birthday.

Stamp:  My Pink Stamper Boy Crazy
Cricut Cartridge:  Best of Pixar
Paper:  AC Cardstock
Accessories:  Diamond Glaze, Copic Markers

My Pink Stamper Design Team - June

Welcome!  Today is the day that me and my fellow designers at My Pink Stamper showcase our projects, and the theme for this month is the new stamp set Yankee-Doodles!  In case you missed it, this set was just released last Friday.

I have been having so much fun with this set!  I just love these images, and I love this time of year.  I decided to start my celebrations early by trying a new Cricut cartridge.  I've had the Tags, Bags, Boxes & More 2 cartridge for a few months now, but I haven't been able to use it because it took me FOREVER to find one of the scoring tips locally.  Not to mention, there was an update for the Gypsy, and an update for my Expression...

If you purchase this cartridge, my best advice to you is this - turn off the Material Saver function.  Remember this one detail, and learning this new cartridge will be a much happier experience for you!  Other than that, be prepared to use up some plain white cardstock (or whatever other color you have in abundance) while you play around with the cutting and scoring features.  After trial and error, here is my project:

This is the "cracker" box that is found on the Tags, Bags, Boxes & More 2 cartridge.  I know that I'll be using this one at Christmastime, but why not now?  I thought the firecracker stamp was the perfect image to accompany a great little gift for a friend or neighbor, or maybe a party favor at an Independence Day celebration.  I cut this box using the "Fit to Page" function on the Cricut, which on my Expression happened to be 8.8 inches.  Now it's all ready to fill with salt water taffy, or maybe a couple of packages of snaps and some glow sticks.

Stamps:  My Pink Stamper Yankee Doodles
Cricut Cartridges:  Tags, Bags, Boxes & More 2, Plantin Schoolbook (ovals)
Paper:  AC Cardstock, DCWV (gingham)
Embellishments:  Copic markers, baker's twine (Doodlebug Design), Stickles

Thanks for stopping by!  If you haven't already, be sure to head over to My Pink Stamper so you can see all the wonderful projects made by my fellow designers.