Thanksgiving Treats

In looking for cute Christmas treats, my sister came across these darling Thanksgiving treats.

They are originally from the Family Fun Magazine.

Christmas Treats

Here are some cute treat ideas for Christmas goodie plates.  The first is a Rudolph cookie from Jill's Recipes:

 The second is from Jill's Recipes too.  These are little Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites:

I love these little oreo truffles.  This recipe is all over out there.  It is so yummy!  I did white chocolate and red accents:

Last for this post is the Pretzle Hugs that I believe I posted before.  I made them w/ Rolos and regular M&M's (one per pretzle):

I just found another one:
This is yummy Peppermint Bark popcorn. 

Enjoy!

I Heart Bakerella!

I Love this woman! I also LOVE Fall and all the pumpkin foods that come along with it. These little pumpkin pies are so cute! I can't wait to have an event to make them for.

Holiday Planner

Look How cute this idea is from Mish Mash! I love it! Another cute version is over at The Creative Itch.

Gift Card Holder

This is a cute gift card holder idea from Andrea Walford:

Fabulous Asian Pasta Spinach Salad

I got this recipe from my friend Kris. It is so yummy! I took it to a picnic today and everyone was raving about it!

Asian Pasta Spinach Salad
Dressing:
1 c. Olive Oil
2/3 c. teriyaki
2/3 c. white wine vinegar
6 Tbls. Sugar
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Pepper

Cook 1 box of Bow Tie pasta according to directions on box. Marinade 1 box of cooked pasta in 1/2 dressing overnight.

Other items in salad to trhow together right before serving:
10 oz. baby spinach
2 (15oz) cans mandarin oranges
1 (6 oz) bag crasins
1 cup candied almonds (see below) or 3.75 oz honey sliced almonds
1/2 cup cilantro
2-3 diced green onions
2-3 cups diced grilled chicken
and whatever else floats your boat.

Candied Almonds:
1 c. sliced or slivered almonds
1/2 c. sugar
2 Tbls. butter

Heat almonds, sugar and butter in skillet over medium heat. Stir constantly until almonds ae toasted and sugar is golden brown. (about 10 minutes) Spread on greased sheet of foil or wax paper. Cool and break into clusters.

Halloween Ideas

These things are so cute! I can't wait to make some. Inking Idao is so great!:

Dr. Suess Baby Shower

Oh my word! One day when I have lots of money, I will throw a party like this! Seriously, this is amazing! check out all the details over at Design Dazzle. It really is amazing!

Scallop Envelope Box

One day when I buy the scallop envelope die cut, I will make this darling box. I found it on Stampin' Pretty. She has a great tutorial on her site.

Apparently I have been doing a no-no in coping and pasting (called hot-linking)from people's blogs. I always give them credit but i guess when you copy and paste, it uses there bandwidth for you all to view their info even if it is on my site. I am a big dummy when it comes to how you are all viewing this stuff. I just know it works...somehow. So I am sorry to those of you that I have copied and pasted your info. I just really like your work. Hopefully this is the correct way to do it.

Child Frendly Nativity Sets

Since I can't find the Me and my big ideas nativity stickers to make these, I thought I would share this idea that I found on The Creative Crate:

How many of us have those non-child friendly Nativity Sets that we set out every year... and HOPE... that they won't get dropped or broken in some way??? Yes...I am SURE they are very BEAUTIFUL...but wouldn't it be FUN to have one that your children or grandchildren can play with and really learn from?!!

Check out what Mckay from SayItOnTheWall came up with!!! I think these are AbSoLuTelY AdOrABLe!!! Not to mention their functionality. How FuN would these be for your kids:

9 PIECE NATIVITY SET:

The nativity story block is a neat idea because it has a different picture of the Christmas Story on each of the 6 sides. It's a great tool for both teaching and telling the story. Mckay says that her kids have been loving looking at each side... and telling that part of the story!

NATIVITY STORY CUBE :

Also...here are pics of two of her most popular products:

TILE CLOCK :

GLASS BLOCK NATIVITY :
I LoVE them!!!
Wouldn't any one of these make a great Super Saturday project!!!
If you would like to order...or check out more FuN projects and ideas... with awesome prices......CLICK the banner below!!

AND...

FOR ALL OF MY AWESOME READERS...

YOU WILL RECEIVE...

10% OFF YOUR ORDER...

BY USING THE CODE:

"CRATE"

at CHECK OUT!!!

THANKS a bunch Mckay!!!



Happy Crafting!!

Bookmarks

More from Kerry's Paper Crafts:

sooo I got a laminating machine. And I was all inspired to use it - and I thought what better use than these bookmarks?

(Random Craft Fair Tip: the best selling items are bookmarks, and other $1 items - especially when you gear them towards little kids!!)

I went a little nuts creating a LOT of bookmarks and laminating them. They are just so much more sturdy & durable when they are laminated. I am hoping to sell these bookmarks at my fairs for $2 each. What do you think?

Supplies: LOTS of different stuff! Mostly SU! Cardstock. Wild About You Stamp Set, October Afternoon Stamps & DP, We R Memory Keepers Animal Stickers, SU! & Other Various Ribbon. (there is more I know, but I can’t think of it! If you have a specific question on any of the above just leave me a comment. thanks!)

Post It Note Holders

Reallly cute post it note idea from Kerry's Paper Crafts:

I’m a big fan of making post-it note holders. They are cute, useful - and they actually sell REALLY well at all my craft fairs. They just make nice little gifts for anyone - Teachers, Friends, Co-workers…etc.

I saw this video on Dawn’s Blog and loved how she made use of these Acryllic Frames! So off to the Christmas Tree Shop I went - and stocked up on some of the 4″x6″ sized ones. They were only 89 cents a piece. Score!

Here are a few that I whipped up. They didn’t take long at all and I think they came out super cute. The good thing about these sized ones is that I had enough room for some ribbon at the top.

Supplies: Acryllic 4″x6″ Frames, SU! Hawaiian Papaya, Good Morning Sunshine DP, Cheep Talk, Darling Dots Stamp Sets, Kiwi Kiss Ribbon, Old Olive, Tangerine Tango, Choc. Chip, Pacific Point Cardstock. Pacific Point Ink. Colorbox Chalk Ink - Chestnut Roan.

Summer Tips

More great ideas from Parent Hacks. This time it is Summer Tips:

While my search-and-browse system isn't the best (for now! for now!), you can find lots of great hacks to keep your summer going smoothly. Here are a few to get you started. And don't forget the piles of family travel tips in the Travel/Going Out archive, including our series of family camping tips.

Instant s'mores

Clean summer toenails with a toothbrush

Tape combination to padlock so it won't be forgotten over the summer

Fill baby's high chair tray with water for warm weather splashing

Coffee sleeve makes frozen drinks easier to handle

Washing the water table is almost as fun as playing with it

Bath toys gain new life as pool toys

Old-fashioned ice crusher makes a perfect hot weather distraction

Frozen yogurt tubes stand in for ice cream treats

Baby food stains come clean in a sunbath

Put toddler girls into boys' swim trunks for extra sun and knee protection

Turn the Pack n' Play into a shady hangout for baby

Talk amongst yourselves: favorite sunscreen? (This conversation could use some updating as sunscreens have changed so much in recent years -- click through and comment!)

Apply sunscreen to kids' faces with a makeup brush

Sunscreen as face paint

Nightlight on a timer tells early risers when it's morning wakeup time

Financial Planning

Here are some great tips from Parent Hacks. I know this one seems boring but it is something we have been thinking about and trying to complete. We just finished getting life insurance. Now we need to do our will:

Last weekend, there was a sudden death in my extended family. He was young, he was healthy, he was the father of two.

As I sit with my family marveling at how instantly life can change, I'm also watching one of my dearest relatives struggle with the financial realities of this terrible event. We always say we'll plan for the eventualities...we'll get the will together, we'll make sure the life insurance is up-to-date, we'll pay attention to where our money's going, we'll clean up the filing cabinet...but life tends to get in the way. The urgent pulls our attention away from the important. We get busy. Usually, it all works out.

But sometimes it doesn't.

My cousin's friend, a retired financial planner and stock broker, is helping her through this by tackling the unopened statements and unanswered questions and hopefully making sense of it all. In the process, we've been talking about simple preventative measures everyone should take to avoid such a mess themselves.

Share the responsibility for financial matters. The simplest, most important thing you can do is to talk to each other about your money. If one person is responsible for the bill paying and record keeping (or the insurance levels, or the investment plans, etc.), imagine what would happen if that person suddenly went away?

Sit down together (possibly with a glass of wine) and talk about where you are financially and where you want to go. Each of you should have a sense of how much is in the various accounts, how much you pay for utilities, and how much you owe on your credit cards. If necessary, hire a financial planner to help you have these conversations. Things sometimes go more smoothly while sitting a nice office in the presence of a objective party.

Put recurring payments on autopay. There is no reason to ever forget an insurance or mortgage payment. Set up automatic payment of those bills, either via direct withdrawal from your bank, or through autopay via your online banking system. Last resort: pay your bills automatically using your credit card. If cash flow is an issue (you're not sure if you have enough in your account every month to pay all of the bills), at least put your life, disability, and car insurance on autopay. The consequences of letting them lapse are dire.

Buy life insurance. Everyone with a family needs life insurance. Term life insurance is CHEAP. Get some and put it on autopay. Your financial planner will help you with amounts. If the main breadwinner were to die, the surviving family would rest a lot easier knowing the house/the debt/college/whatever were paid off. If the person responsible for most of the child care were to die, the surviving family could pay for good-quality day care and (if necessary) housekeeping and gardening help. If breadwinning and child care are shared, life insurance makes sure that a death in the family doesn't also mean a massive shift in lifestyle.

Get a will. Everyone needs one. Pay a lawyer or a paralegal a few hundred bucks to do it for you, or use software such as Nolo Press Willmaker. Get it done now.

Co-sign on the safe deposit box so each spouse can access it. If you've been putting off this 10-minute job, do it on Monday. Consider putting a third trusted signer on the list in case you both die at the same time.

Consolidate your financial records. Spend 15 minutes a day cleaning up your file system. Create a master list of contact and account numbers so anyone can have it all at their fingertips. The master list should contain:

• Account numbers for all bank accounts, investment accounts, and retirement accounts.
• Account numbers for all credit cards and loans.
• Account numbers for all insurance policies.
• Contact information for all financial and legal advisors.
• Contact information for each person's workplace benefits department.
• Social security numbers for everyone in the family.
• Location of the safe deposit box.
• Passwords, maiden names, mailing addresses and other secret keys to accessing information about these accounts on the phone or online.

Keep copies of this list in sealed envelopes in the safe deposit box, in a locked file, and with a trusted family member (ideally the executor of your will), and update it as details change. Be careful to keep this list accessible but secure -- it's a crib sheet for identity theft.

Update beneficiary information. Whenever there is a birth or death in your family, update the beneficiary information on your accounts and investments. If you have a will or trust, check with your lawyer; in some cases, the primary or contingent beneficiary should be "estate."

Don't put off the conversation. If there's anything this last week has shown me, it's that everything can change instantly. Set aside time this week to get started on these steps, whether with your spouse, your parents, or on your own.

By the way, we're talking about the death of a spouse, but this list works just as well for the loss of a job or any other sudden life change. It takes much less than a death to knock you off your rational feet for a while, and knowing the money matters are squared away removes an incredible amount of stress.

Have I missed anything? Any other financial housekeeping suggestions to offer? I know this stuff can be uncomfortable, but once it's done, it's done. You owe yourself and your family that peace of mind.

Confetti Popper Rockets

If you are up to the mess, check out these Confetti Popper Rockets from Alpha Mom:

Fourth of July Confetti Popper Rockets
By Brenda Ponnay

Who says you can't have fireworks in the house? With these confetti popper rockets you can blow things up inside without ever catching anything on fire! Explosive, yet completely safe and super fun for kids: That's how I like to celebrate my independence. Get your vacuum cleaners ready cause we're gonna blow this craft up!

I know paper rockets have been made before but this rocket has a trap door in the bottom. When you pull the string, that dangles there ever-so enticingly at kid height, a small compartment opens up and a tiny bucket full of confetti will land on said kid's head. It's great. We tried it and my kid definitely gives this craft a thumbs up.

This craft is fun for many ages. My kid liked it because she got to decorate the rocket and what's not to love about confetti raining down on your head but I think older kids would really enjoy the engineering part of this project. You can get creative with it and maybe have a contest to see who can build the best rocket. Some explode spectacularly, some are a bit of a dud. There are lots of ways you can make these. They also make great decorations for a party!

Here's how you make it:

First you will need to gather your supplies.

1. Paper towel or toilet paper tubes cut to rocket-like lengths


2. colored paper (we chose patriotic colors and used everything from origami paper to scrapbook paper), make sure you have at least one sheet of something stiffer, like card stock too


3. tissue paper (we used red)


4. stickers and marker pens (feel free to get crazy here) to decorate with


5. confetti (homemade or store-bought


6. bakers twine or string


7. tape


8. glue (any kind that works on paper will do)


9. beads (these will not show so it doesn't matter what they look like)


10. ribbons for streamers

Tools you will need:

1. a stapler


2. scissors


3. a craft or needlework needle


4. fun craft punches for confetti (if you make your own)


5. hole puncher

Now to build it! First you will build the "propulsion system." Of course this rocket isn't really going to take off and fly around the room but the confetti is housed where a normal propulsion system would be so we call it that.

Cut yourself a small square of tissue paper that will be big enough to cover the bottom of your cardboard tube--about three inches across. Cut a small disc out of a sheet of card stock that will fit just within the radius of the cardboard tube. With some glue attach this disc to the center of your tissue paper. Let it dry for a few minutes. Thread about an arm's length of twine onto your craft needle and tie a bead to the end for a not. With this, puncture the center of your disc that is attached to the tissue paper. This is the trap door.

Next you will need to glue this tissue paper trap door to your cardboard tube with a small line of glue around the bottom of the tube. Make sure you attach it with the bead side inside the tube and the string (or fuse) side hanging outside of your tube. You can add a pull tab to your long dangling fuse or just let it hang. We added stars to some of ours. Let this dry and you're done with that part! Now onto decorating!

There are lots of ways you can decorate your rocket but the most important part is to cover the tube with some decorative paper so that you don't see that it used to be a toilet paper roll (or paper towel tube). This decorative sheet (roughly 6.5x4.25 inches big, depending on your tube) also holds your tissue paper trap door on, or at least covers the ruffles of tissue where it is glued to the tube. We attached ribbons to the bottom inside of our decorative covering so that the rockets looked like they were flying--or just pretty and festive.

Roll your paper around the tube and staple at the top for strength. You can't staple the bottom because your tissue paper trap door keeps the stapler from getting inside but I found that a couple of pieces of tape did the trick.

Now you can fill your tube with confetti. We just put in a few handfuls but feel free to load this sucker up. Just think about how much confetti you want to clean up later and act accordingly. I say the more the better but then I'm a bit of a free spirit who doesn't mind a little mess for the sake of some good old fashioned American fun.

Attaching the cone to the top of your rocket can be a bit tedious. It's purely aesthetic so if you opt out of this part that's totally fine. I just really wanted my confetti poppers to really look like old fashioned Fourth of July fire crackers so we made rocket cones.

Here's how you do it:

Cut a circle about 3.25 inches wide across, then cut one snip all the way to the center of the disc like you see above. Take the edges of your cut and pull them together, probably about a half an inch or more. When your cone has reached a desirable height, staple it at the base.

Now for the tricky part: attaching the cone to your rocket. The important thing here is creating a strong holder that you can use to hang your rocket from. Since these rockets will be tugged upon, it's important that the rocket holds together and doesn't come crashing down on your head instead of releasing it's payload of confetti. I found the best way to hang these rockets was to put the weight bearing string through two holes punched in the top of the rocket body. Then I strung the two sides of the string through a center bead (just to keep it centered) and up through the center of the cone so that it came out of the point or top of the cone. The cone itself can't really hold the rocket together so taping it wouldn't work.

An easy way to string the cone is to open up your stapled cut from the inside of your cone and pull your string through the gap. This will take some patience but you can do it!

Here's a super scientific diagram (it's rocket science hee hee!) in case you've gotten confused along the way.

Now you can hang them up and let the festivities begin!

I found that I needed to "prime" some of the rockets to ensure maximum explosiveness. You can do this by simply poking some small holes (or cutting with a sharp blade) around the bottom of the trap door. Just make sure you don't cut it completely out because the ripping sound of that trap door being yanked out is probably the biggest part of the fun.

That and the confetti party you can have afterwards! Woot!

P.S. I wanted to step this craft up a notch by adding those strings that pop with real explosives but I couldn't find any at the time of this writing. If anyone tries this, I'd love to hear how it goes. Of course exercise caution. I don't want anybody really burning down their house!

Treats to keep the kids cool for Summer

Cute Picnic idea from Make and Takes:

Here’s some yummy treats to help keep the kids cool this Summer, as it’s already a HOT one. I think even you’ll be tasting these cold concoctions to stay cool too!

• Frozen Watermelon Pops by the Hungry Housewife (pictured above)
• Frozen Grape Pops by Make and Takes
• Strawberry Sorbet by Our Best Bites
• Oreo Pudding Pops by Gourmet Mom on the Go
• Ice Cream Pie by Make and Takes
• Mint Lemonade by Make and Takes
• Ice Cream in a Baggie by Make and Takes

If you’ve been making some yummy “cool down” sweets, share them in a comment below!

Father's Day Ideas

Little Birdie Secrets shares links for father's day gifts...maybe next year. I love the golf cup cakes.

Martha Stewart has these adorable cupcakes featured on her site right now. You can get the recipe here.

She also has these corn on the cob cupcakes. Don't these look so real (and adorable)?



Martha also has a whole section of recipes that are perfect for father's day. A lot of them are recipes for the grill. How perfect! I know my man loves a good meal straight from the grill. You can also find many Father's Day meal ideas at Food Network.

Another adorable sweet treat is from Kraft Foods (they always have great stuff). They have a recipe for a "Hole-in-One Cake". Although my husband likes golf, it's not one of his major hobbies, but I think I could easily adapt this cake to be a "fisherman's cake". Here is another great cake that would go perfectly with our shirt and tie card.

So, take a few of these meal and dessert ideas and run with it! Or, you can always just whip up his favorite of your homemade meals. How about breakfast in bed? You can't go wrong with that. I am sure the Father in your life would be happy with any of these ideas. Happy Father's Day!

Double Box Holder

Double Box Holder with Dawn

Hi Stampers:

Here are the supplies I will be using in todays video :

Big Shot #113439

Box #2 Bigz Die #114518

Oval all stamp set #113790

Scallop oval punch#114889

Chocolate chip 5/8 GG ribbon #109055

To the Nines Designer paper Specialty # 114038

( you will need 1 Sheet of 12 X 12 )

Wide Oval Punch # 112082

Sticky strip #104294

Dimensionals #104430

Until later... Happy Stampin!

Posted at 05:58 AM in Dawns Stamping Videos | Permalink