Cocktail Crackers Recipe

Remember a while back when I designed a recipe kit for Ellen's store? My plan was to give this kit to my girls and let them use it for their favorite recipes and to plan our *special dinners* as they call them. They are excited to start adding their own recipes to the recipe box. I got them started by creating their very first recipe card to go behind the *snack* section. It's the Cocktail Crackers recipe that you've all been patiently waiting for. Isn't this recipe card just cute? It's soooo easy and fast to make your own recipe cards. I think I'll start doing this for friends and neighbors that ask for all my recipes. I just make sure that my finished size is 4" x 6" so it fits in a standard recipe sleeve or box. The rest is up to you and you can embellish til your heart desires. I would just be careful to not make the cards too thick with embellishments like ribbon, etc that so you don't crowd your recipe box.

I'm thinking ahead here but wouldn't it be awesome to send your child off with a recipe box full of their favorite recipes and/or family favorites for when they head off to college or on their own? I would have LOVED to have my mom's recipes all in one place when I left home. Instead I spent many a night having boxed macaroni and cheese and bologna sandwiches because I didn't know what to cook for meals. I'm thinking I might just need to make another kit so that BOTH the girls can have their own recipe box kits. I am certain that you'll be seeing more of our recipe creations....and I'll even include my favorite recipes for you since I know you all like recipes. The entire recipe kit and add on kit which includes the recipe box, menu planning clipboard and notebook is available at Ellen's store HERE.

Let me know if you're purchased a kit and what your plans are for your kit. Think ahead for someone getting married or graduating this coming year..this would be a perfect gift, with your favorite recipes included of course. And I love the idea of doing a creative activity with your kids this year and this recipe kit would be perfect. I know my girls and I will have a lot of fun with it. So stay tuned for more.

I think you should be able to copy and paste the recipe below into a word document and print off. Enjoy!! And NO, you don't bake it.....easy peasy!

Cocktail Crackers

Combine together in a small bowl:

1 package Original Ranch Dressing (dry mix)
1-1/2 cups oil
1 Tablespoon each: lemon pepper, dill weed, garlic powder, onion powder

Pour over:

1 bag soup crackers 1 box Cheezits
1 box Wheatables 1 box Wheat Thins
1 box Keebler Club Snack Sticks

Stir to coat crackers evenly. I use two large Tupperware bowls. Let the crackers dry for 2 hours or til liquid is absorbed and crackers are dry, stirring several times to evenly coat crackers. Store in airtight container. If you find that your crackers are not sufficiently coated, you can mix up a little more oil and seasonings and add to the crackers. It’s better to add more liquid later if you need it. This makes a huge batch and is perfect for parties, work functions or to package up as gifts. I have also frozen half the batch, just take out several hours before serving.

More Advent Tags

Here are some more of our advent tags we made. We still have four more to do...the girls and I are determined to get them all done yet this year so that next Christmas we'll have a full set. It's been a fun little project..so much so that I think I'll compile a Valentine project for the girls to work on. Tag 4 is made from the little Lockhart snowmen family and colored with Copic markers. Tag 23 is made with the Crafty Secrets Vintage Santa.

Tag 19 uses a Lockhart Santa and the *ho ho ho* sentiment. For the numbers, we used chipboard and painted it with Tim Holtz crackle paint. Cool stuff!!

Tag 10 was made by Josey and uses the Lockhart kitty stocking. Didn't she do a great job coloring the stamp and assembling the tag elements? For the numbers she used Ranger Crackle Accents.

Tag 20 uses a little pencil tree from Rubber Soul. I used Ranger Glossy Accents on the star and the little ornament. I love that little tree!

Tag 9 uses the Rubber Soul carolers. I love the colors in the plaid paper. It was so fun to do pink on a Christmas tag. This is one of my favorite tags.

I have to say this was probably one of the most fun things we did together this holiday season. Every day after school, the girls would rush to the advent box to see if I had made another tag...and of course to see what goodies were inside their advent box. We would sit in front of the fire and talk about their day and what the holidays mean to us. It's so fun to create memories together with my family like this. We're going to sign the back of the tags so we'll know who made which ones. And the advent box will definitely come out again next year. I'll show you all the entire tag ring once we finish out last tags.

Feeling Fruity!

Sometimes during the holiday season I get so tired of seeing red and green! I am ready to put my Christmas stamps away and use some fresh new stamps. Well Karen Lockhart's new peaches and cherries stamps are about as fresh as you can get. Karen has a culinary background and that makes me a very lucky girl when it comes to stamping. Why? Because Karen's love of cooking shines through in her artwork as well, which means she creates these wonderful food themed stamps! And you all know that I love to cook as well so it's just a match made in heaven! If you have any ideas of stamps you'd love to see created, I'd LOVE to hear your ideas. I have a list I'm compiling for Karen myself. She is SO talented and just a nice person to be around.

So check out this peachy keen card I made using the PEACHES stamp. I dug in my stash for the freshest paper I could find and out came this fun Crate Paper patterned paper and Groovy Guava SU! ribbon. I fell back on a standard card layout that I use often. The image takes front and center though with wonderful Copic marker colors, Spellbinder's matting and some light airbrushing with my Copic Air Brush System. All from Ellen's store. And how about these darling cherries in a colander? My mom has a red colander that she sets out during the summer months with a cute red towel. This CHERRIES stamp reminds me of that. My girls are particularly fond of big fat Bing cherries. To see them work that cherry seed out of the cherry while in their mouths and then spit it out just cracks me up. Jordan will eat them til she's sick!

For this card I used Stampin' Up!'s new patterned paper. The pretty flowers reminded me of cherry blossoms so I chose that for an accent along with some of Ellen's Decorative Pearls in the center of the flowers. I colored the stamp with Copic markers and again did a little airbrushing. I wanted one more little accent so I cut the word *fresh* from Karen Lockhart's *fresh from the garden* stamp and made a little tag accent attached with a red brad.
I hope you enjoy today's card, they make me feel kind of renewed during all this cold weather!

Hot Peach Jam Gifts

You might remember this post where I talked about making Hot Peach Jam.

http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=411939643357638479&postID=3998707863405477594

Well I got out those jam jars again and am using them for neighbor gifts. I had to laugh at my husband last night because when the neighbors came over with their usual cracker and cheese assortment and a bottle of wine, Eric said *time for the annual cracker exchange*. LOL, he's right...seems we always do some kind of goodies and crackers!! So this year it was my Hot Peach Jam along with a sleeve of crackers and a block of cream cheese. Instant appetizers for those long winter afternoons or when unexpected company arrives.

This year I added in my awesome Cocktail Crackers in these fun cone bags with a simple ribbon. I made them for all the male teachers and also added them in with the goodies mentioned above. They were a huge hit and everyone requested the recipe. I suppooooose that I could be persuaded to share the recipe if I get enough requests...hint hint.
And I just had to add this little sneak peek of some new Hot Peach Jam lid toppers that I'm working on. I was going to do this for Christmas but they are so so PEACHY KEEN cute that I have to save them for Spring gifts. I have a cute card idea to attach with it so that will be another post. But I wanted you to see one of Karen Lockhart's new images all colored up cute. These PEACHES are adorable!!! Karen captured the perfect essence of a juicy ripe peach and the darling lettuce bowl just finishes them off! I know I will be using this stamp a ton, especially for my Hot Peach Jam jars. The peaches were colored in with Copic markers. I love how by using just a few shades of markers, you can achieve such depth and three dimension. I also used a circle Spellbinder's Die Template to cut out the peach. While it was still in the template, I airbrushed the circle image with a peach colored marker. I love that crisp white edge the die template leaves. The image was then matted on a Groovy Guava scallop cut Spellbinder's Die Template. Groovy Guave ribbon from Stampin' Up! finishes off the jar.

All wrapped up...

Hi everyone! I am busy today wrapping up the last of the gifts, making treat sacks for teachers, collecting all my recipes for a few party appetizers to make.....oh and dealing with my upset child who is dealing with a *mean girl*. Hopefully that will be resolved today because mama bear was at the Principal's office bright and early this morning!!

But on to the goodies for today. This is a fun little card and tag ensemble created with the Perfect Present Hanna Stamps set. The card could be given along with the two gift tags or the card could be given with a gift that has one of the tags attached. I think I'll be using this set a ton for birthday cards and tags, it's like nothing else out there. So cute! And check out the use of the Spellbinder's Dies....I used and embossed square and a scallop square for the card. And then for the tags, I triple layered two embossed squares and a scallop square. I just LOVE the polished look the embossing adds to my projects. Are the Spellbinder's Dies on your wish list this year for Christmas? I hope so!! For the card, I used Making Memories Noteworthy paper, and a Foofala button with patterned paper in the center (zoom in). My friend Cindy (StarLitStudio) uses this great idea to cut little strips to add to the center of buttons, love it! Images are colored wit Copic markers. Green Dew Drops from Ellen's store finish off the card. Twill tape from Martha Stewart.
Don't you just love the embossed layers??????????

Okay, back to the ol' grind. I'm having Christmas lunch at school with the girls...maybe I can sit by the mean girl!! LOL!

Crafty Secrets Advent Tags

Here are two more tags we've added to our advent calendar box. Jordan spied the red one right away and just loved it. I think it's all the glitter and the cute little girl image. All stamps are from the Crafty Secrets Vintage Christmas set and the little cut out image I used for the smaller tag is from a CS booklet. This tag uses images from Crafty Secrets Vintage Christmas set too. The 8 and the brackets are from Sexy Little Numbers. I scored those old buttons in a big jar at a garage sale. Someone had taken the time to snip off buttons from old shirts.......so no need to thread my ribbons, my work was done.
The girls are really love their advent box this Christmas. I can't wait to dig out our tags every year. It will be fun to look at them over and over again.

Teacher Gifts

I'm BIZZEEEEEEE today working on design team projects, Christmas stuff and just trying to unstuff this stuffy head of mine.....but I wanted you to know there's lots of good ideas bursting out of me today so stay tuned for some good stuff! Here's a few little projects I've made for teacher gifts this year. These first little notebooks are junior notebooks that I've had cut in half. I used the Stamping Bella teacher stamp and colored all the images with Copic markers. The scallop *take note* sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. Paper......who knows, I dug it out of my stash and forgot to look before I used it all up! Here's the inside of the notebooks. They measure about 2.5" x 8".
These are simple little lotion bottles from Target that I embellished with a scallop tag. The round sentiment part is from Lizzie Anne. The inside snowflake is from Papertrey Ink. I cut the circles and scallop circles with my Spellbinder's Dies. I love that I can always find the perfect size circle!! If we have time, the girls and I are going to bake star shaped sugar cookies to match the little sticker on the lotion bottles.
Enjoy and I hope your are de-stressing....getting those presents wrapped, shopping and baking done......so that you can enjoy the holiday season with your family.

2 New Hanna Releases

Two new sets are coming tomorrow from Hanna Stamps(an adorable image set and a fun sentiment set)! Get all the details HERE. My girls absolutely adore the new set called Perfect Gift. Jordan immediately snatched an image up and turned it into an advent tag. Josey chimed in pretty quick that she wants to make Hanna advent tag too so that is next on our list. Here's the latest two tags for our advent calendar box. The girls are getting pretty good at this, huh?Here's a little sneak peek just in time before the sets are up for sale tomorrow. As you guys may be catching on, I'm sort of a notebook lover. I love to make them for gifts and I love to make them for myself. This little notebook is for ME! I am constantly making notes here and there about kit ideas for Ellen's store, project ideas for Card Club gals and little gifts to make for friends, teachers and family. So I thought this notebook would look perfect with the main image from the set Perfect Gift. Hanna is wrapping a gift......probably something cute for ME! There are SO many cute coordinating stamps with this set too...little ribbons, scissors, bows, boxes, tags....and the perfect sentiment too! You must see the entire set by clicking the link above. For the notebook cover I used my favorite papers right now from the Making Memories Noteworthy collection. You'll be seeing more goodies made with it soon. The circles and scallop circle are all SU! punches. Copic markers were used to color the Hanna image. I just cannot say how much I love my Copic Sketch markers. If you love to color sets like Hanna and others......you need these markers. Seriously. You do. You can get a great starter set at Ellen's store. The gift was paper pieced with scrap patterned paper.

Here's the inside of the notebook. The cover folds to the inside to make a pocket. The top portion of the notepad is covered with matching patterned paper. I can slip little bits of inspirational finds in the pocket or with the MM clip. Here's a closeup of the the fun chipboard letters. I colored the blue ones with Copic markers and the green ones were inked with Versamagic Chalk Ink. My favorite new thing to shop for is chipboard letters of all fonts and sizes. Then I keep them all together so I can mix and match the letters for a quirky look. Isn't that fun?? I used buttons for the dots on each *i*. One of my BFF's Pine would be so proud that I actually threaded my buttons, they're not naked! Oh, oh...I about forgot to tell you about another new favorite thing too.......Glossy Accents from Ranger. Oh man, I want to use it on everything!! You spread it on and it looks milky, but then it dries to this ultra wet looking gloss. I need gallons of it!!!!!!!!!
Tip of the day: If you love the idea of using these chipboard letters, here's a little tip for ya...Tim Holtz does this too.....use small sticky dots or simply peel the adhesive from the letters and stick them on a craft mat. Then you can color or paint or ink the letters without the moving all over the place. Let them dry and then you can pop them right off the mat. Like cookies on a cookie sheet..easy peasy. (Nichole likes it when I say that, LOL!) Anyway, I hope you love this new set and all of my favorite new things. Enjoy and get the set while it's HOT!!!

This and That.....

For Nessie.....Tang is an instant orange flavored drink mix powder. My friend just substituted orange flavored Koolaid and said her mix tasted great. Hope that helps.

And someone asked if I make my envelopes for my cards.....I typically used Stampin' Up! or Walmart envelopes.

Stacy tagged me so I thought I would play along. I'm supposed to list seven things about me that you don't know but I lead a pretty simple life......so I thought I would list seven things that I love! I'm going to skip tagging anyone else cuz I know it's a busy time of year.

So here are a few of my favorite things right off the top of my head:

1. White Chocolate Popcorn.......many of you have requested the recipe. Are you ready? Simply pop butter flavored popcorn (I use Act II Light Buttered Popcorn) and spread out on waxed paper. Be sure to pick out all the unpopped kernels. Melt white chocolate and drizzle over popcorn. Add candy sprinkles for whatever season. Let dry. Store in airtight container. I use vanilla almond bark and sometimes chocolate almond bark. You can also used the colored melting discs available at cake and candy shops.

2. Sonia Kashuk Lipstick Palette available at Target. It's a little compact with 5 or so neutral colors of lipstick. Includes a brush and mirror. I want a new one for Christmas. I'm using my used up compact right now for a mixing palette. Take your used lipsticks and dig out the last bit with a qtip. You can then mix and match your own colors.

3. Aveeno Daily Moisturing Lotion available at most stores. I am having itchy skin this winter and this lotion stays on all day. It has oatmeal in it.

4. Moose Munch by Harry and David-I got a candy bar version of this at Target one day. Deliciously smooth truffle like chocolate with this crunch popcorn and nuts inside. Sinful.

5. Taste of Home cookbooks/magazines-I love to plan meals and most of my favorite down home recipes come from Simple and Delicious or Light and Tasty. My newest Taste of Home cookbooks are Fast Fixes with Mixes and an appetizer cookbook.

6. Clothespins, clipboards, paper clips-anything that holds stuff together. I love to find new uses for them.

7. Copic Markers-Seriously one of my all time favorite crafting supply.

Stay tuned for some sneak peeks of some new stamps from Hanna Stamps! Coming December 14th!! Well, the girls are out of school for the 2nd day due to ice so I'm trying to keep them entertained. Josey's been busy adding new recipes to their recipe box. The girls loved the Kitchen Kit I gave them!! It's gonna be a fun tradition to add recipes.

My Kitchen Kit!

It's finally up on Ellen's online store!! This is my first kit that I've designed for Ellen. It's a recipe box with dividers, a notebook and a menu clipboard. The beautiful papers are from the Brunch Crate Paper series. You can check the entire kit out HERE at Ellen's blog and HERE at Ellen's store. The main kit is this recipe box below. The kit comes with all the supplies, directions and a cutting template to complete the recipe box and dividers.
The add on kit features the notebook and the clipboard shown in the two photos below. The main kit contains most of the leftover supplies needed to make the notebook and the clipboard. However it does not contain the stamps.....Ellen has listed the suggested stamps that I have used though.

Now that the kit is up at Ellen's store, I'd love to share some of my ideas on how to use the kit. When I was designing the kit and putting on the final touches, my daughter Jordan came into my stamping room. She fell in LOVE with the entire kit and said it would be so fun if she and Josey could have their own recipe box. So I ran with that idea and am planning on giving the kit to my kids as an advent present this week....maybe today since the weather is so icy and they're home from school.

Since my girls love to cook and help out in the kitchen, I think this little kit could be so much fun for them. I'm going to include a blank set of recipe cards so that they can write down our favorite recipes to keep in their very own recipe box. For the clipboard, they will use that for their menu planning. We love to have what we have named *Special Dinners* at our house. Once a month, we plan a special meal with a theme. The girls can use the clipboard to hold all the recipes and ideas for the Special Dinner. We have done Valentine's Day dinners, pizza night dinners, finger food dinners, fancy candle lit dinners where we get out the *good plates*, birthday dinners, etc. The girls have so much fun planning the meals and table decorations, scanning the recipe books and planning for the big day. The notebook could be used to record their thoughts or special messages or even a photo of our *Special Dinners*.

More gift ideas for the Kitchen Kit could be:
for a graduate or child moving out into the big world on their own
Girl Scouts or little kids who love to cook
Fill the recipe box with favorite recipes and give as a wedding gift
Christmas gifts
Birthday gifts
Or how about getting together at the family reunion and sharing family recipes
4-H kids
Or you could change out the sticker letters and create an office ensemble to organize customer information and contacts
Keep the kit in your scrapbook room to organize inspirational ideas and layouts you want to try

I'll be talking more about the Kitchen Kit and let you know how the girls liked their gift! The ice is really bad here in Kansas right now and we might lose power! So if you don't hear from me, you know I've been without power. I'm hoping that doesn't happen but the power is flickering as I type. To all of you enduring these ice storms, stay safe!!

Spiced Tea Mix

Nothing brings me back to my childhood days like a steaming hot cup of my mom's Spiced Tea. We made this mix every year for as long as I can remember. When growing up, our house was heated with a wood stove so it got pretty dang cold upstairs in our bedrooms. A nice cup of tea before bed was always a delightful treat...and also after being outside in the snow for hours on end! So now, I make this every year and my girls enjoy it just as much as I did as a kid. And I would love to share the recipe with you and a gift idea too!

Here's the recipe:

Spiced Tea Mix
1 jar (19 oz) Tang
1 package (3 oz) lemonade mix
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup instant tea
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Combine all ingredients and store in an airtight container. Use 2-3 heaping teaspoons per cup of hot water. Yummo!

And here's my cute little gift idea. The supplies you'll need are shown below and include:

Lockhart Teabag Stamp, Papertrey Holiday Treats sentiment, Palette brown ink pad, Martha Stewart brown twill tape, brown brads from Star Lit Studio(Cindy has THE BEST brads), Copic Markers, oval Spellbinder's Die Templates, small glassine sacks from Papertrey, small ziplock jewelry bags from the hobby store, piercing tool and mat, sharp scissors, Cosmo Cricket patterned paper.


This little gift idea is a ziplock bag full of 3 heaping teaspoons full (1 serving) of the Spice Tea Mix that is tucked inside the small glassine sack. A cute oval tag is attached with twill ribbon and a brad. Stamp and color the teabag image, simulating the Spice Tea Mix in the teabag by blotching on the Copic markers colors. Now I know that the tea mix isn't really in a tea bag but.......work with me peeps, it's all I have for tea stamps! Then stamp the sentiment and brackets. Cut and emboss oval with a Spellbinder's Die Template. Mount on Cosmo Cricket Spellbinder's scallop oval. Cut about a 3" piece of twill tape and notch both ends with sharp scissors. Layer all the pieces together and pierce with piercing tool and mat. By using the piercing tool instead of a 1/16" punch, you'll avoid scrunching up the twill tape. Insert the brad and you're done.

Here's the finished product......single serving sizes of Spiced Tea Mix. Perfect for those little gifts where you want to give just a little something but you don't want to spend a lot of money. I think I'll leave a little packet on teacher's desks at school when I sub. And I might tuck some into my snowman ensemble that sits in a 2 tiered wire basket. Guests can take a little gift when they enter our home.

Or I could hang some on the Christmas tree for guests to take as a little gift. Enjoy everyone!

Cupcake Kit

Here's two more advent tags the girls made tonight. Our plans for church got cancelled so we settled into a nice warm fire, turned the Christmas tree lights on and made these. Now we're watching Santa Claus 2. I love kids' Christmas movies, dont' you???Now....do you ever have one of those crafty moments where you can't wait to put together an idea you came up with? No, you say? Well, let me ask this then.....do you ever have one of those moments when you're so happy to come to my blog because I came up with a fun new idea that I couldn't wait to post????? Okaaaay then, let's get started! LOL!!

The girls need to bring $3.00 gifts for a Girl Scout gift exchange. Well what do buy for $3 bucks that isn't the typical 3 pack of Lip Smackers lip gloss? Then the idea hit me. CUPCAKE KITS! I dearly love cupcakes, they look happy, sound happy and taste oh so yummy! So for about $4 bucks(not including my own supplies like paper, ribbon, etc) I set out to make my cupcake kits.

Here's what you'll need: holiday cake mix, holiday frosting with sprinkles included, 24 cupcake liners, cello bag, ribbon, scallop punch or die template, lollipop sticks (Michael's), Copic markers (R29, YG17) , Copic clear Spica glitter pen, red gingham ribbon, Scotch tape, Lockhart cupcake stamps, white card stock, black ink, oval punches.

Here's the BEST part of this cupcake kit...little cupcake decoration sticks! These come together fast and easy and the kids can help too. Simply stamp the Lockhart cupcake onto white card stock, punch out with a scallop circle punch (I used SU!'s) and color with the red and green Copic markers. I used the clear Copic Spica glitter pen on the cupcake liners to make them look like red and green foil liners. And check out the sprinkles....I used the sharp tips of the Sketch markers to make lots of little perfect polka dots on the white frosting. Then, take about a 1" piece of Scotch tape and adhere the lollipop sticks to the back of each colored cupcake. I did about 6 of these little decorations for each kit....not every cupcake will get a little stick but that's okay. It's the thought that counts, right?
I then made a tag for the finished gift with Karen Lockhart's new *You are the Best* cupcake stamp. Isn't it adorable??? I used the same Copic green and red markers and Copic Spica clear glitter pen to color the stamp in. The tag is tied to the finished sack with SU!'s red gingham ribbon.
And here's the finished gift below. In a large cello bag, I put the can of frosting, the cupcake liners and 6 of the cupcake marker sticks. I tied this all up with a white ribbon and then tied the tag on as shown above. Now since the gifts need to be anonymous, I'll package the clear cupcake kit cello bag and the cake mix in a red, handled sack.
So there you have it......a perfect little gift for about $4 bucks. Nobody will bring one like it and the kids will love it!! Josey and Jordan LOVED the idea and Jordan was even a little upset knowing that another little girl was going to get this fun gift. Little does she know that I'm going shopping for more Cupcake Kit supplies.....and that girls will get one for their advent count down.

Tip of the day: Pillsbury also makes these holiday mixes and frostings for Valentines Day, Halloween, etc. I can see some of these coming up for Valentine's gift soon!!

Designer Winter Tissues

Here's three tags that the girls and I made last night for our advent countdown. The girls had so much fun. Stickles was a huge hit! Here's a few things I made to go into the advent box. A few winter themed pencils tied in cute ribbon...can't have enough pencils around here! And then these cute designer travel tissue packets to put in their desks at school. I found the tissues last year at Target on clearance after Christmas. There's a little card stock *belt* around that tissues that I created by scoring card stock. Then the tags are tied on red gingham ribbon. To create the tags, I stamped Karen Lockhart's new Tissue Box stamp and colored it in with Copic markers. I used the clear blender pen to fade out some blue ink on the tissues. I then cut and embossed the images with a circle Spellbinder's Die Template (available at Ellen's store), then layered that onto a red scallop cut card stock die. A blue eyelet finishes off the ribbon hole. So cute!

New Project.....??

Thanks to those that guessed at our latest little project. You all were pretty good at guessing that our fun project is an advent calendar! But this is not your normal advent calendar where you open a little box for each day. My friend Carmen just did a beautiful one based on Beate's demo at SCS though. But getting started late and not really wanting to find yet another storage spot for a Christmas decoration, I opted for a new idea. The reds and I are making 24 advent TAGS that will fit onto a metal ring that will be attached to this little yard sale suitcase. The girls will get to pick out the tags they want to make, maybe 1-2 each day, and then we'll add all the tags to this ring when we're done. The tags are all the same size and feature 24 different patterned papers. The only rules are that the tag must stay the same size and must feature a countdown number on it. The prizes, lessons, blessings, etc will be inside the box. I've made a list of fun things for the girls to do and little prizes. I'll list some from mine in the days to come as I'd love to keep showing you our tags as we progress. In the meantime, I'd love to hear what special things you do with your advent calendar since I'm new to this. I want to have fun with it but I also want the girls to be reminded of the reason for the season and to be thankful for our blessings and to help others out that are less fortunate. Here's a close up of my first tag. I just love being able to create one little piece of artwork like this. No pressure, no guidelines, no deadlines.....just something fun to get the creative juices flowing. My favorite part of the tag is the wet look to the numbers. I inked white chipboard letters with red Brilliance ink then added Ranger Glossy Accents on top. Such cool stuff!

Okay, I'll be back soon with some more tags....hopefully the girls won't have much homework and we can work on some tonight. I'm off to light a nice cozy fire so dear hubby can warm up after deer hunting. And......I just got my goody box from Karen Lockhart and it's full of all the new stamp images that were just released at Ellen's online store. They are SO CUTE, I must stamp with them soon or I'm gonna bust!

Oh and please visit one of my BFF's blog by PINE (Heather Nichols). She is doing her 3rd annual Christmas book. I stalk her blog daily to see her new creations. She's so awesome......and she loves winter, go figure! If you leave a post tell her I sent you!

The post below was from earlier in the day. The stuff above was added later:
Hi everyone, it's colder than a well digger's behind in Kansas this morning!! Brrrr, somebody bring over the hot chocolate!! What was supposed to be a nice relaxing morning of letting my girls sleep in and I'd take them to school turned into a big mess. I got a flat tire from a chunky gravel road and it ruined my brand new tire! DH called our tire friend guy and he made a house call to change the tire! Woohoo for Todd the tire guy, he's getting a plate full of cookies this year!! Good thing I made it home before the tire went flat tool cuz I was in a tshirt with no bra, coffee cup flannel jammy pants and pink and black fuzzy paw print slippers. THAT would not have been a good sight walkin' up the road!! And no cell phone! Snort!

Okay onto today's post! I have supplies all set out here for a fun new project I'll be working on with my reds (my girls). Can you guess what it is? I have this old red travel case I bought at a garage sale this summer, lots of patterned paper and stuff to make numbers. I worked a little more and made all of these below.........
And this is a basket of supplies that the girls and I get to use. Buttons, brads, ribbon, red and green inks, punches and a few stamps and some Stickles.......we can't use anything outside of this basket for our project.
Soooooo, do you have any ideas yet? It's something to do with Christmas time. I'll let you make some guesses while I go sub this afternoon. I'll be back to show you my first completed **???*** And for making a guess you get...........well, you get nothin'..........but I thought you'd have fun playing along! LOL!!! I'll be back later so come visit me again this afternoon!!

BBQ Jars

My non stamping friend commissioned me to make these jars for her this holiday season. They are Starbucks Frappucino jars which have been repurposed to hold a homemade BBQ seasoning rub. For the tag, I used the large tag from the Spellbinder's Standard Tag Die Template set. By embossing the tag, it adds just enough detail that I didn't think an extra colored mat was needed. The cute cowgirl image and sentiment are from Rubber Soul. I colored the image with a red Copic marker then added red Stickles for some bling on that swingy cowgirl skirt. Various red ribbons from my stash finish off the tag.
For the back of the tag, I computer generated the information on the red cardstock. The *special recipe* sentiment is from Paper Trey. Lori will fill these with her special BBQ seasoning rub and hand these out to teachers, families and friends. I hope I get a jar along with the recipe!!
Do you have any homemade goodies that you make every year for gifts? Frosted sugar cookies and truffles are a favorite of mine. And the teachers love my white chocolate popcorn!!