Thanksgiving Typography

I made this Thanksgiving typography for a project I am working on and I wanted to share it with you. Right click and copy image or download for your personal use.  

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Tatertots and Jello

Fall Wreath

To welcome in the first day of fall, I decided to do a fall makeover to the sagebrush wreath I made back in the spring.

I cut off the pink roses. I went to my flower garden and went shopping. I cut some Yarrow, Amaranthus and Brown Eyed Susan clippings and then went to work gluing them to my wreath. 

I just love fall colors.

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Stuffed Fabric Tags

I needed to make something for a young woman moving up to the "women's" program in my church.  The women's group is called Relief Society and our motto is "Charity Never Faileth". I have something like this pinned on my pinterest board so I thought I would give it a try. I recommend checking out this blog - there is really nice stuff on there - CLICK HERE.

1. Print images on drop cloth. If you haven't printed on fabric you can go to my tutorial HERE. The frame and the "women in oval frame" were from Graphics Fairy.

2. Cut images out leaving a border around to fray - cut another fabric the same size and shape.

3. Sew around image leaving a small opening for stuffing. Stuff loosely. Sew shut.

I attached a frayed piece of drop cloth to each tag with a fancy brad and tied the two together.

If you want to use this image - right click on the image and copy and paste. Resize as desired.

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Graphics Fairy Brag Monday

Book Tree Tutorial

I hit the books this week - making a few projects that have been on my "to do" list, made out of books!

The first project was a book tree. I was a little discouraged to start this project as I knew it involved paper folding. I have not been able to paper fold much of anything successfully. Paper airplanes - no success with that one yet;  Origami - I need a lot of assistance; Tea folding - ha, ha, ha, I won't comment on that one. Yeah...paper folding is not my forte, so I wasn't sure how this "try"al was going to go - but it turned out to be easy and fun. Let me show you how I did it.

First of all, I read a tutorial on how to make a book tree. I found it on Kayla Amiee's blog - CLICK HERE to see her tutorial.  I will let you go see her tutorial on how to take the book apart and get an idea on how she made her book trees. I wasn't sure how big a paper back I should use. The book I used had 230 pages. It takes 60 pages to make a full tree. With one book I was able to make three trees, and I had some book pages left over to do some other crafts. After taking the book apart and cutting off a section of thirty pages, start folding the pages.

1. I am showing you how to fold the book pages using a newspaper. Go ahead and practice on one to get the feel of it.

2. Fold the right hand corner down to the center. Your book page is more rectangular - so the right hand corner will not reach the bottom of the book like pictured here with the newspaper.  Once you have done the first fold, take the bottom right hand corner and fold the page over to the middle.

3. The page will extend beyond the book.

4. The folded page needs to be flush with the unfolded book bottoms. You can cut the excess folded book page off or fold the excess upward.

5. Continue on with the rest of the book.

Once you have finished the thirty pages - you have one tree half. Make the other half. Run a strip of hot glue down the spine of the tree and adhere both halves together.
*FYI* - I trimmed two of my trees at the bottom so that they are all different heights. I trimmed 3/4 of an inch off one, and 1 1/2 inches off the other. I trimmed them while they were in the "half" stage.

I have pinned a book tree that was displayed on pretty candle holders. It was very pretty so I did the same thing - only I used smaller candle holders. I made my stars out of cardboard, inked them and hot glued them to the tops. 

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Tatertots and Jello

Cut Down Your Canning Time - A Tip From My Granny

I love eating canned fruit in the winter time. Sometimes however, the canning process is very time consuming. One summer I canned 75 jars of peaches (which is a lot for me) and I only survived it because of a wonderful tip my Granny gave me. I was telling her of my time consuming canning woes. Removing the skins took so much time. She said that when she canned she did not remove the skins. At first I thought it sounded a little weird. I had all sorts of questions like - are you allowed to do that? Did the skin taste weird? Why didn't I think of that? My Granny told me that when she would open up a can of peaches, she would take the skins off before serving them if people preferred it that way.  So I tried not peeling the peaches. What I found is that I don't have to use as much sugar, as the skin seems to add more flavor to the peaches. I use a very light syrup - 1 1/2 cups sugar and 4 cups water. I found that my hubby likes to eat the skins. I don't like eating the skins - but it is quick and easy to take them off before serving. The time - that was cut more than in half. 

So I asked my Granny - what about pears? That is pretty time consuming peeling those too. She said she didn't peel pears either. I do not like raw pears AT ALL - they have to be canned for me to eat them. There is something about the peel that I don't like, so I was very skeptical about leaving the skins on. Well I will tell you those are the best pears I have ever had. Again - leaving the skin on gave the pears more flavor.

Everyone one is different - so I do not guarantee that you will like the skins left on - but I am pretty picky about my food, and I am absolutely thrilled at this tip my Granny gave me. I went over to a friends one day who had a TON of peaches she bought. It looked like she was a little stressed at the amount of work ahead of her. She had already been canning for a while. Then I told her this tip - and she tried it. She was thrilled. I helped her out for an hour - and we made a lot of head way. She saw the light at the end of the tunnel.

FYI - I heard someone say that not removing skins is not healthy because of all the chemicals that are in the skin - so that is something to consider. Then I heard someone else say that by removing the skin you are removing a lot of the nutrients. Do what works for you - I choose to love the skin.

Let me introduce you to another time saving tip....

This is a propane camp burner. Before buying my glass top range I found out you cannot can on them, but this was the option that was presented to me - buy a propane camp burner. When I canned peaches this week, my hubby timed how long it took the water to come to a boil - would you believe FIVE minutes?  Compared to my kitchen stove that would take about twenty minutes, that is a lot of time to save. This camp burner is awesome - and I wish I had discovered it sooner. If I remember correctly it cost about $30 and it was in the camping section of one of my favorite stores - Canadian Tire. 

Canning is more enjoyable now that it is not an all day task, thanks to my Granny's tip of leaving the skins on and my propane camping stove.

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Tatertots and Jello

Make Props/Displays Out of Cardboard

I did a workshop in the summer at my Church. I had been wanting to try my hand at making cardboard props, and this was the perfect opportunity. To me - there are so many possibilities with cardboard - and cardboard is cheap, cheap, cheap. I didn't take pictures the day of my workshop as I get a little pumped about these things and I forget all about taking pics - so these are pics were taken at my home, they are not how it was set up. My workshop was on "Dating". The funny thing is it started out as a craft workshop - frugal gift giving - and then morphed into a dating workshop because the person who was doing the dating workshop was not able to come. I called the workshop "Think Outside of the Box Dating Workshop - Creative Dating Ideas, Mythbusting and More"

I made frames to put quotes and my "myth busting" list. I cut two of them to fit an 8 1/2 x 11 paper so I could print out the quote from my computer. I made the other one a little larger but the 8 1/2 x 11 width so I could still print out the papers from my computer to tape on the frame, I just used two sheets to fit on the one.

This is what the back looks like. I copied the construction of a store bought frame to make the easel part in the back. I used hot glue to glue them together.

I made a Mr and Mrs Right prop. We put sticky notes on these of some desirable attributes that the young adults find important. 

I took a little clip art for my inspiration and started drawing with a ruler and a bowl. I cut them out...

Here is the back of Mr. and Mrs. Right. I made easels for the back like I did with the frames. I used some clear plastic that I save from packaging to glue on the heads to give it the suspended head look.

I was really excited how everything for this workshop turned out. Now I am thinking birthday props, Halloween props, Christmas, Valentines - you name it - a prop can be made for it. 

Check out my CARDBOARD pinboard on Pinterest for more ideas using cardboard.

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Ginger Snap Crafts Wow Me Wednesday

 

I Love Kraft Paper - Gift Wrapping

My daughter had a birthday recently, and I have so much fun wrapping that I wrapped all her presents individually. I have had a kraft paper craze for a while now, and with all the ideas I have been seeing on the internet - I thought I would give some of those ideas a try.

1. Lace - When I wrapped this one - I was wondering - how am i going to attach the lace? I ended up measuring it and sewing it, and then stretching it over the gift as tape would not hold the lace on. I attached one of my clip on earrings that I don't wear anymore to add some bling.

2. Typography - I have noticed wrapped presents with book pages or some other typography style paper in the middle. This gift was small enough that found a nice graphic on Graphics Fairy. I used THIS GRAPHIC - but there are many other options on this site. I printed it out the graphic out on cream paper, ripped the edges and taped it on the gift. The red ribbon gives a nice contrast.

3. Stamped - Black ink, kraft paper and jute always look good together.

4. Doilies and Butterflies - I put lace on the same as the black lace gift. I taped the doily on with double sided tape. I made the butterfly out of paper I made with a clock background. The clock graphic I got from Graphics Fairy. I cut out two butterflies, glued the center together and puffed up the wings on the top butterfly. I added some jewels to the center of the butterfly. I attached the butterfly with a puffy dot.

I love wrapping - it is just one of the many ways one can be creative.

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Graphics Fairy