Saturday, March 31, 2012

Hippity, hoppity, Easter's on its way!

We have started our Easter Dinner planning!  We are hosting about 10 people this year.  We still are not 100% sure of our menu, but we are getting there.  I feel like I serve the same old side dishes each time we host.  Although everyone seems just fine with the same 'ol, same 'ol, I wanted to see if I could come up with a few new additions.  I found a Sweet Potato Souffle by Paula Dean.  Boy am I glad we did a test run before our dinner!!!  After reading the comments from people who have tried the recipe, I cut the amount of sugar I used in half.  Boy, was it ever SWEET, even with the reduced sugar.  My DH and I agreed that it was almost considered a dessert versus a side dish.  Back to the drawing board!  We'll figure it out.  I just want to change it up, but at the same time want it to be yummy!!!
I started making the Easter "Baskets" and place cards for the table.  The place cards were made with everything PTI.  I used New Leaf card stock for the base of the place cards and Rustic Cream for the name plates.  I used the stamp set Scrambled Eggs for the images.  I changed the "baskets" up a little this year.  Instead of the Easter 'basket' tins I did last year, I decided to use clear six inch paint cans.  I ran to Michael's every night this week with my 40% off coupon in hand and purchased one at a time.  It was worth it!  I cut the animals from the Create A Critter cartridge, the circles for the tops from the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge, and the initials for the tops from the Art Philosophy cartridge.  I love the way the top of the cans all together really do look like paint colors!!!  Since I had more room in the paint cans than the tea tins, I put some pez dispensers in there too to add height.  FUN!  I've decided to do something special for our Moms - I purchased two Longaberger Peeps Baskets and filled them with candy.  I think they will love them.  My mom is a Peep lover for sure, so I know she'll get a kick of it!

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Peep Wreath

While strolling on Pinterest I saw a few people posted pictures of Peep Wreaths.  Too cute!  I had to jump right on that band wagon.  Granted, I'm not much of a Peep fan, but definitely think those little things are darn cute for use in decorations!  I knew I wanted to use the bunny shaped Peep for the wreath, but it appears there is a run of the yellow ones in my area.  Pink will do just fine!
Super easy, inexpensive project.  I'm not sure how much Peeps usually cost (again, I don't really eat them) but I was able to buy 12ct packs for $1.  I ended up using a little more than 4 packs.

I covered an 18 inch styrofoam wreath in 1 1/2 inch wide brown ribbon (I thought the brown would look good with the bunnies eyes). I had little paper flowers in my stash and placed them between the bunny sections.  The flower on top is actually hot pink but looks red the picture.  Quick, fun, easy wreath.  

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Craft Desk Redo

I was able to make it to Ikea this weekend to purchase a larger Expedit case for my craftroom.  Wow, was that place crowded.  I'm glad I knew exactly what I wanted prior to going there!  I should also say that I'm glad my husband has a SUV so we could get all 5 large boxes as well as all the storage boxes I purchased.
As my husband put together the new
units, I went into my room and started unloading the old one.  If anyone has any question about how much the Expedit can hold, I'm here to tell you TONS.  My husband was able to build my two units prior to me emptying the one in my room.  I had  supplies all over our foyer, living and dining rooms.  Thankfully, he came in and helped me empty the area after he was finished.  (Before picture on the right and After picture on the left).

I spent about 4 hours putting everything back!  I'm still not 100% sure what I will do with my 8 1/2 x 11 paper that is currently located in a tower to the right of my desk.  Since there is very little room to expand in the tower, I may convert it all to vertical storage and place it in the empty open space on the right of the Expedit.  I also spent some time re-organizing my embossing folders/plates and dies.  The folders/plates

are kept in the photo box on the bottom left and I've purchased two Martha Stewart binders from Staples which now house my Papertrey Ink dies.  I think finding my dies will be much easier now!  The CD box on the top left houses my Nestabilities in CD cases.  Although it seems like every single space in the new unit is take up, some of the boxes are empty!  I thankfully have room to grow.   After I was all finished and admired my accomplishment, I noticed something very annoying....the label locations on the Kassett boxes I purchased previously do not match up with the ones I purchased yesterday.  Sigh, that will drive me nuts!  Looks like I'm going on another road trip to Ikea soon.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

St Patrick's Day Wine Charms

We've been invited to a St. Patrick's Day party on Saturday night.  I was trying to come up with a homemade hostess gift and decided to make a set of themed wine charms!  I used Grafix Shrink Film , Cricut cartridge Paper Doll Dress Up, earring hoops and jump rings from the jewelry isle at Michael and some beads.

The images will shrink about half size in the oven, so I took at stab and cut them on my Cricut at about 3 inches.  I punched a hole in each prior to baking them and colored them with Sharpie markers (I didn't think colored pencils were going to be vibrant enough).  Placing the cut shapes between parchment paper before placing them in the oven helped prevent them from curling on themselves.  When the shapes came out of the oven I quickly used a spatula to flatten them.

We will give these wine charms and a box of Oh Ryan's Irish Potatoes (made in Pennsylvania, where else?  Ha)

Thought I'd also share the little display in our foyer to celebrate the day.  The same three jars are there most of the year, I just change out the contents for each holiday.  The left jar has spearmint leaves candies, the center shamrock wire garland and the right a few altered ornament balls I coated the insides with glitter.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!!!

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Lost Mojo

It's certainly been a while since I've posted anything.  I'm blaming it on my lost crafting mojo.  I lost it.  It's just not there right now.  sigh   I want it back, but I am just stumped at the moment.  In an attempt to find it, I've been blog strolling and just copying other peoples projects.  Talk about a funk.  I don't like this very much.

This weekend we are going to make a trip to Ikea to see about upgrading my smaller expedit shelving unit to the larger size and also grab an add on unit to go on top of the main unit.  Maybe a little spruce up time in my craft room will get me in the mood.  If nothing more, I'll have a clean craft room when I'm finished.

Stay tuned, I feel a resurgence coming soon!