Feature Friday Part Deux: Teri’s Valentine Door Decor

This is one of two, yes count them, two Valentine decorations in my home. The other one I posted about here. I had a lot of fun making this though. I again used the *cringe* pages from my old reading book. This is a project that I just used stuff I had on hand with the exception of I bought a small bottle of blue acrylic paint. I picked up the wooden letters at a sidewalk sale at Ben Franklin during the summer, with this kind of project in mind. The letters cost me 25 cents each, what a steal! My favorite funny thing about this project is that the O’s started out life as Q’s, and Mr. H. did some plastic surgery on them for me. What do ya think? Didn’t she turn out cute? (And yes, I really do have depressing dark brown doors, all I can say is *rental*).

I was so excited…..my Mod Podged paper didn’t bubble at all!!! My very first Mod Podge project that didn’t bubble at all. It was a bit of a challenge to get the extra paper sanded off the edges of the X’s because I couldn’t get my sanding block in there, I ended up using a emery board for most of it. Here’s a close up of how the letters look.

(okay, so maybe they bubbled a little, but hardly at all). I just wanted to do something that wasn’t traditional Valentine colors, and I am pleased with this project.

Linked to: Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous; Craft Party @ Crafts In Bloom; Get Your Craft on Thursday @ Life as Lori; Weekend Wrap-Up Party @ Tatertots and Jello

Feature Friday: Micki's Valentine tier

I finally got a day off work after working 6 twelve hour shifts in a row, so I needed to do something fun. My friend Rozanna came over to help me make cupcake tiers. Well in the middle of it we ran out of epoxy. When we stoppted at Wally's to get some more she found these:

They are the melamine plates and plastic cups (total per tier it cost us about $5). So we stuck them together.

And voila teacher gifts!!!

Unfortunately hot glue doesn't work well to stick them together I found out. Mine met and early demise when I was trying to put it together while we were out running errands. The top 2 fell off. So my dh stopped and got me super glue and it didn't dry. I am not sure what I did wrong. So I don't have a picture of the finished product. I ended up just wrapping up the small teddy bear and the candy in the cello wrap and just giving them to the teacher. R*I*P!

THANKS FOR THE IDEA ROZ!!!

Linked to:

Get Your Craft On Thursday @ Life as Lori; Craft Party @ Crafts In Bloom; Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous; Weekend Wrap-Up Party @ Tatertots and Jello

Tadpole Tuesday: Valentine Cards (Teri)

While we were “watching” the Superbowl on Sunday we pulled out stuff we had at home to make some Valentine cards to send to our out of town family (that would be all of our family). We used everything we had on hand with the exception of buying a package of cards to decorate. This whole project to make 20 cards for my son’s class, 10 for my daughter’s friends, and 15 to send away cost us less than $3 because we had everything else on hand.

This is one made by my son, he wanted a picture of a ship from the old reading book I was using. He’s still little, but he loves to be creative.

This one was made by my daughter, she was very much into making unique cards this year (and about using her paper trimmer). My daughter had a good eye for different ways to put things together. She had a lot of fun slicing up the paper for the front of this card.

I wanted to include more of my kids cards, but I wasn’t up to editing their names out of the pictures (and of course I didn't think to take a picture BEFORE they signed their cards). Trust me though, they were darling!

Here are my three favorite cards that I made using an old reading book and some aged sheet music.

No this picture isn’t sideways, I put a piece of the pronunciation guide from the back of the reading book on sideways on purpose. (I keep telling myself it’s okay to tear this already falling apart book up to use creatively, but I’m telling you it goes against every fiber of my being. I am a true book lover, and it feels like murder to tear and cut pieces of a book). I love the way that the “onion skin copy paper” curls up around the edges of the book page.

It’s a toss up between this one and the next one which is my favorite. I thought that the title of this song was perfect! I loved that I was able to turn the card so that the lines go diagonal down it, I covered the front and back of this card.

I loved the picture on this card. I also loved the texture I was able to add with the ric rack and the fabric patch letters. It was also fun to use the juxtaposition of the misspelled letters on top of the page from the reading book! I know, it’s silly, but I am easily entertained.

Linked to:

Talented Tuesday @ My Frugal Family; Market Yourself Monday @ Sumo's Sweet Stuff; Met Monday @ BNOTP; Show and Tell @ Blue Cricket Design; Get Your Craft On @ Today's Creative Blog; Craft Party @ Crafts In Bloom; Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous; Get Your Craft on Thursaday @ Live as Lori; Weekend Wrap-Up Party @ Tatertots and Jello

Weekend Surprise: Finally Broke Out My Christmas Present (Teri)

For Christmas I was given money to buy my own present, I bought myself a Cricut Expressions machine. I know, I know, how could I wait this long to use it…..I’ll sum it up for you in two words overwhelming intimidation. I was scared to use it, not because I didn’t know if I could figure it out, but because there are so many things to do with it, and frankly I didn’t know where to start.

Let me start my story by telling you what a fabulous deal I got on my Cricut. I went shopping with my wonderful Mom, the day after Thanksgiving. Walmart had it in their ad for $188 including two cartridges. What an awesome deal, since the machine normally retails for about $350, and the cartridges that came with mine retail for about $25 each. I figured Walmart would be a zoo, and I probably wouldn’t get a machine, but a local craft store had them for $199 with two cartridges, so I decided to go there. Better yet, when I got there the lines weren’t horrible, and they met Wally’s price, $188! Aren’t you turning green with envy at what an awesome steal I got?

I decided that I would start with something really simple, and cheap so as to limit the intimidation factor. I don’t have any Valentine’s decorations at all, so I thought I’d make me one. I had this frame on hand and so I cut this cute heart out of scrapbook paper I already had, and mounted it on more paper I already had using Mod Podge, I let that dry and coated the whole thing again with Mod Podge, let it dry and put it in the frame and voile there you have my first Valentine’s Day Decor (and the world's longest run on sentence). For free!!! Can’t beat that. If any of you have any fabulous suggestions about overcoming my intimidation and overwhelmedness (I know it’s a made up word, but it perfectly describes how I feel) with my Cricut, please give them to me!

Looking at these pictures I realize that my wall hanging needs some work. I am going to put a colored ribbon on the tall ivory candle, any other suggestions?

This post linked to the Frugalicious Friday party at Finding Fabulous and Market Yourself Monday at Sumo's Sweet Stuff and Motivated Monday at Shimmer and Tulle and Get Your Craft On at Today's Creative Blog

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What’s Cookin’ Wednesday: A Crumby Dessert (Teri)

When my brother-in-law and his wife came down for dinner for my hubby’s birthday this weekend, she made these cake bon bons, and they were to die for good! The original recipe is from Betty Crocker, we changed it a tiny bit. Here’s the recipe step by step as I made them with my kids. If you don’t want the complete pictorial, scroll to the bottom of this post and see the Valentine’s version that my kids and I made!

Bake a yellow cake according to package directions and let cool for 15 min (you could use chocolate, but these are really rich as it is). Then crumble. This is why my hubby calls this a "crumby" dessert.

Stir in a full container of chocolate frosting.

Refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours until able to form into balls (we used a small scoop to make ours, they were a little large, but we got more than that recipe said we would, so go figure).

Freeze for half an hour, Melt chocolate chips in a microwave until they are melted enough to dip bon bons into (we used the equivalent to a bag of chocolate chips, although we did part of ours dark chocolate and part milk chocolate). This is where we deviated from the recipe, it called for candy coating, which I guess is essentially white chocolate and regular chocolate, although I’m not sure. Dip bon bons in melted chocolate and touch to favorite toppings. After all are dipped, return to fridge until chocolate is set. Serve!

Tip: Did you know you could toast coconut in the microwave in under 2 minutes? I didn’t, but I found directions online. Put it on a plate spread out, cook in 15 to 30 second intervals stirring in between. I started out with two 30 second intervals and then two 15 second intervals and ended up with gorgeous toasted coconut. When it first comes out of the microwave it will still seem soft and wet, but as it cools it becomes that chewy nutty texture of toasted coconut. This was all of our favorite topping on the bon bons!

I thought these would make great Valentine treats for teachers or sweethearts or whoever. You could package them up in sweet little boxes.

If you look really closely at the pink and white ones, you will see they are micro hearts. Cute huh!