Rhonna Kit giveaway!

WOW! Look at this chance to win free kits from Rhonna Farrer!!

http://rhonnadesigns.blogspot.com/2008/12/christmas.html

Some Christmas cards and some cards for Christmas

OK, so I had to make another 2 batches of Christmas cards late last night! So I made a total of 45, plus I sent out 6 other store bought cards! That is a lot of cards, and most of the was just close family and friends. I just whipped these cards up using that same tutorial that I have been using called Funky Fresh Quick Cards. I really like the blue and green and white ones...the tags on them are from some gift tags that I bought a few years ago on clearence. I like the simple design on these....








Then I did another set, that I don't really like as much, but they still came out OK.








Finally, I made some gift cards sets for some people for Christmas, even though we don't usually exchange gifts with each other. One set if for my Grandpa's significant other, and another for my cousin Kimmy. Kimmy likes skulls:




And for Rose I used this Closr to my Heart paper set which I LOVE (it is pink and brown!!) I love the way these turned out!








I am sure that they will like them!

I probably won't post again until after Christmas, so Merry Christmas everyone!!!!

Blog Giveaway

Look at this CUTE holiday album and check out the giveaway on Leah Killian's blog.

Week 17

OK, well here it is! My first shot of my belly! This was right after I woke up from a nap, so I am a bit disheveled! Am I supposed to be this big already??? I have gained 12 pounds so far. It still doesn't seem real. I am sure that when the baby starts to move that it will seem more and more real.

I am feeling really great, and have never really felt bad this whole pregnancy. I was getting up to go pee 2 or 3 times a night, but that has definelty slowed down and i have tried to stop drinking water right before I go to bed. I have had a few "minor" pregnancy realted things: I coughed one night in bed and pulled a muscle in my abdomen; and I sleep on my belly, and in the past week or so, it has started to become pretty uncomfortable. I am tired (as usual) and took a nap yesterday and today. I am going to try not to tomorrow and get some things done, like make some Christmas cookies!

We had an ultrasound last Tuesday, and here are the pics:

In the first one, you can really see the baby's head and the hand and arm up by it's face. The second one the head is on the right, The third one is looking down on its head, with the arms sticking out.

So things are going really well! Keith is so happy, and I am too. After the holidays we are going to start working on the nursery!

Day 7 of SNS 12 Days

Well it is already day 7 at the SNS 12 days of Christmas. For my project this day, I made some napkin rings out of a paper towel tube! Here are the instructions:

On the 7th day of Christmas my true love made for me....SEVEN NAPKIN RIIIIIINNNNNGGGSSSS. *****supposed to sound like 5 golden rings*******
What you will need:
An empty paper towel tube
patterened paper
paper flowers or some plastic/silk/fabric flowers from your local craft store
mod podge (optional)
glitter and some other embellies..

First, cut the paper towel tube into 6, one and a half inch sections. You can get 7 sections with one tube, but I opted to do only 6. I did this by lining up the tube against the edge of my trimmer:




Then I put my pencil at the 1.5, 3. 4.5, 6, 7.5, and 9 inch marks. I turned the tube with my left hand while holding the pencil with my right to draw a line all the way around the tube.



Then I used an exacto knife to cute the tube into sections. Once you have the sections, you may opt to paint the edges and perhaps the inside so you have a more finished look. I did not do this with this set of rings.


Then I cut six, 1.5 by 6 inch pieces of pattered paper, and adhered them to the tubes. Make sure you glue close to the edges.


I decided I wanted to add some beads around the edges of the tube. There were some beads on wire that i found at Wal mart on clearance for $1!!! I measure the length of the bead to go around the edge and I used a hot glue gun to add the beads to each edge of the ring.


The edged rings look like this:


Finally, I bought some small, plastic poinsettia flowers from Michaels. I sprayed them with some red glimmer mist (from an old SNS kit!) to give them a golden shine. I cut them off at the stem of the flower bouquet. I also found these gold-trimmed holly leaves at Michales as well. I hot glued the leaf down, and then the flower on top of it.


And the finished products look like this!!! :





Ok, so lets see your paper towel napkin rings! I am making another set for my kitchen that are blue and silver with this foam glitter snowflakes I found instead of flowers! I will upload them soon!

12 Days of Christmas!

Over at SNS we are celebrating the 12 days of Christmas with a new project every day for 12 days. The DT has come up with some very creative stuff! The project for December 1 was my project, and it is a Christmas Cookie Recipe Exchange. I thought that I would post it on my blog, too! Here is the challenge as it is at SNS :
On the first day of Christmas my true love made for me......some Christmas cookie recipes!

Christmas Cookie Exchange

One of my most favorite things to do at Christmas time is to bake Christmas Cookies! Every year I have a Christmas Cookie exchange with some friends. How it works is everyone bakes a different kind of cookie (the hostess has to keep track so there are no duplicates). Each attendee brings a dozen of her cookies for each of the other attendees, plus a sample tray to share during the exchange. The recipe for the cookies must be attached to each tray or container. At the exchange, everyone gets a dozen of everyone else’s cookies, plus all those yummy recipes!

At my party every year, I usually do a brunch with some quiche, wassail, and of course lots of cookies! I make the cut out cookies, and we all decorate cut-outs after the brunch and chit-chat. Then we exchange cookies and do some sampling! One year, I tried to have people bring cookies that were either a family recipe, or part of some sort of tradition. Each person had to share their story behind the recipe. This is a great event for kids, too.
For our first day of Christmas here at SNS, I would like you to share your favorite Christmas Cookie recipe! But there is a project to go along with it. I have attached a Microsoft work document where you can type in your recipe. Then upload your recipe file with your post. Everyone can print off everyone else’s recipes and create their own little recipe album!
The file has cards that are 3x5 in size. Print out the recipes on any type of paper you’d like, then perhaps distress the edges or add some bling. Attach the 3x5 card to a piece of 4 x 6 paper, and keep the recipes in a photo album. I bought this cheap photo album for $1.00 at Michaels. It had a cover with a rose on it, but you can take it out, and I made my own cover. Just slide your 4 x 6 recipe cards inside, and Viola! You have a Christmas Cookie Recipe Album!
In the attached document, I have included 2 of my favorite recipes! Hope you enjoy!

**NOTE: you may need to adjust the sizes of the text boxes depending on the length of your recipe.

Here is the front cover of the simple album I made:

Here is the back cover:


And the inside with the two recipes that I have attached!:



By the way, if you don't have Microsoft Word, you can just type your recipe here and then copy and paste all the recipes that are posted! Here are mine:

Snickerdoodles

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Cream together butter, shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar, the eggs and the vanilla. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls. Mix the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from baking sheets.


Cherry Rum Nut Balls


¾ cup chopped dried tart cherries
¼ cup dark rum
2 cups finely crushed vanilla wafers (about 54)
¾ cup ground pecans, almonds, or walnuts
¼ cup powered sugar
¼ cup butter, melted
2 tablespoons frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
1 2/3 cups white baking pieces
2 tablespoons shortening

In a small bowl, combine cherries and rum; cover and let stand for one hour. Line two baking sheets with waxed paper and set aside. In large mixing bowl, combine crushed wafers, ground nuts, and powered sugar. Add undrained cherry mixture, melted butter, and orange juice concentrate. Stir until combined. Shape mixture into one inch balls and place on prepared baking sheets. Let stand until dry, about 1 hour. In small heavy saucepan, combine baking pieces and shortening. Cook and stir over medium low heat until melted. Remove from heat. Dip rum balls in the mixture, turning to coat completely. Remove each ball with a fork and return to baking sheets. Chill for 15 minutes or until coating is set.

Post a comment on this post and include a link to your blog that has YOUR cookie recipe on it, or just put your recipe in the comment! One random lucky person will win a RAK from me! Please upload your recipe by Dec. 25!

A couple announcements...

OK, so I have been waiting a while to post these announcements, and I will tell you why later in the post.

The first is that I was selected as the "Discovery" drive person for ScrapStreet Magazine for the month of November!!!! To qualify, you had to have never had been published with them before, and send them info about yourself. Lindsay, the woman who did the write up about me, wrote some very sweet things! You can see the page here:

ScrapStreet Discovery Drive November

My featured LO the page is the one below, which I had actually done for a DT call for Stuck!sketches.



If you read carefully on the ScrapStreet page, you can probably guess what my other announcement is:


We are SUPER excited! I am just finishing up my 12th week, and I am due May 27th. it doesn't even seem real yet, but the pants are getting tighter, so it is starting to sink it! I have been feeling great and no sickness at all (except for a cold). So I can't wait to start doing some LO's about our new addition!! I have some ultrasound pictures I am gonna work on for now!

Creative Team Reveals at ScrapCity

Yesterday was the reveal for the new Creative Team at ScrapCity. All of us gals were challenged to create two LO's using pagemaps, and then create a LO about an addiction. You'll never guess what addiction I chose.....

Anyway, the ladies there had some amazing creations! You can check them out here:
ScrapCity CT November Creations

Here were my creations:

SNS Cyber Crop

The SNS Cyber Crop was this past weekend and I loved it!!! There were SOOOO many amazing projects submitted, and I have to say, I think Taryn, Kimmy, Megan and I had some great challenges and inspriation for the crop! I love these online crops because I learn SOOO much from everybody. I wish I had time to do all the challenges!

I wanted to post some of the items that I did for the crop, so here they are:

Poetry LO: People had to use magneticpoetry.com to create a poem to go with their LO. I have it on my fridge and it is so fun! (I have a mini album in the works of "fridge poems")!


I also did some things that were atypical for me: I made some cards! I don't consider myself a great card person, but I think these came out OK!

Black & White cards: make a card only using black and white, or accent with just a bit of color for "pop"




Clear Card: Make a clear card from a transparency or acrylic






I have a LOT of other events coming up, too, both at ScrapCity and at SNS. Starting November 17 at ScrapCity we are having a "Fun n Games" crop. All the challenges are inspired by boad games or TV game shows. This is SURE to be fun!!



Then, starting December 1st at SugarNSpice, we are having the "Twelve Days of Christmas"! There will be a new challenge or idea posted every day for 12 days. There are all kinds of holiday themed altered projects. It will be sure to get you into the Creative Christmas mood!

So much going on! Plus, I have another announcement that I am going to make next Wednesday....so stay tuned.

The Rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you COLLEEN
2. Post the rules on your blog (this is what you are now reading).
3. List 6 random things about yourself.
4. Tag 6 people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up!

Here are six random things about me:

1) I can ID almost any type of butterfly.

2) My favorite color is green.

3) I can play at Expert level on Guitar Hero, and I am pretty good!

4) I sometimes feel like I am still in my early 20's.

5) I can throw grapes REALLY high in the air and catch them in my mouth.

6) I pumice my feet everyday because I hate the feel of scratchy feet on socks.

The six people I am tagging are:
Taryn
Janice N.
arlsmom aka Lynda
Megamay-Megan
karenwendy
Heather

Kids Can Scrap

OK, so no kiddos yet for me, but look at this cute blog for kids to post their scrapbooking creations:

http://www.kidscanscrap.com/

there are games and challenges for kiddos!! How fun!

Mini Abum for SNS crop...

It is finally here! This weekend is the CyberCrop at SNS!!!!! I am hosting some challenges, classes, and tutorials. Go check it out here.

One of my class is making a mini album from recycled plastic. The instructions are on a post at the crop, but they are in a word document. I wanted to post them here for people who don't have MS Word. So here they are!

Even though we recycle a lot at our home, I still feel like we generate so much trash!!! I wish we could find more ways to reuse the stuff we have. That is where my inspiration for this tutorial came from!
I was looking at our huge pile of recyclables, and I had just been visiting a few scrapbooking sites about acrylic albums. When I saw all the clear plastic that was “untouched” on this lettuce container, I knew I had to make something out of it! (Notice the pizza box, too! I want to use that for something eventually!)



I first washed the container, and took off the sticker with some UnDu. I measured the height and length of the container, and looked at where the curves were to see if I could get some pretty flat pieces. The container was about 5 inches high, but only a little over 4 of the inches were flat. The length was about 9 inches, so I decided to make some 4x4 pages.



(Don’t you love my circa 1984 My Little Pony ruler????)

I began by cutting all the sides and the bottoms from each other with scissors.


I then took each piece and using a ruler, a cutting mat, and an exacto knife, I cut out 4 x 4 squares. CAUTION: My knife slipped very easily on the surface of the plastic. You might want to try and score it with the knife, then cut with scissors.





When I was done, I had TEN 4 x 4 pages from this one container.

I stamped on the pages with stazon, used my crop-a-dile to punch a hole in the corner for a metal ring. Then found some photos and 2 sided paper to use for my mini album.

And here are some pages from the completed album! I have a RAK for someone who completes this album! Post your link here, and i will do a drawing from all the entries!