Thanksgiving Activity Books

I bet things around your house are pretty crazy right about now, just like mine. The holidays are a blur of activity.

We are planning on taking some time around the Griffith house to slow down and count our blessings on Thanksgiving, but before we sit down at the table it seems there are a million things to do.

Here's a project you can make to keep the kids busy while you do last minute meal prep. And this won't take long either, so you can whip it together at the last minute. (Now that's my kind of project!)

Get the download from Kristine Mckay and enjoy! Oh, and if you have a spare moment, watch my video on the Blessings Envelope Accordion Book that will capture our blessings this year!

Fall Snack Mix Cornucopia Treat & Peanut Butter Pumpkins

We're having an October snow day! You never know what the weather will do in Colorado. The kids and I are making last-minute treats as teacher gifts and party snacks for Halloween, but these would be great for Thanksgiving as well. The same can be said for this adorable set from The {Stamps} of Life that I used for the tags. (See a ton of ideas for the fall holidays from the gallery here!) I recently joined their design team and I can't wait to share the next set, which is for Christmas!

The snack mix is so easy to throw together and has some sweet additions. It's packaged with a sugar waffle cone in a disposable decorator bag. So fun! (Barb has another adorable craft with decorator bags, which is my all-time favorite for Halloween!)


Here's another sweet treat that you and your kids will have a ball making!
Peanut Butter Pumpkins are so easy, yummy and fun. I first saw this version of the recipe, which calls for white frosting and orange gel icing coloring but I eventually decided to take my friend Heather's advice and do the basic Buckeyes recipe for the peanut butter mixture. I did add the gel icing coloring and I love the pumpkin color we ended up with.

Are they not a.dor.able?

Happy Halloween!

Download Free Digital Papers and Re-Color with Picasa

If you're new to digital or hybrid scrapbooking, (or even if you're not) you probably love finding free digital papers you can download. The Angel Company is offering a new set of B&W papers that you can download here:
http://theangelcompany.net/Downloads.html
(There are two sets, so be sure to scroll down to see them all.)



So, they are pretty cool in B&W, but if you want to add a little color, it's very easy. You need to convert the papers to jpeg and use my favorite FREE photo software, Picasa. Here's how: With the Picasa running in the background, open the pdf document and change the view so that the full page can be seen. (It can also be helpful to use F11 for "full screen".) Press Ctrl + Prt Sc, then switch to Picasa and the screen capture should be visible. Use crop to highlight just the paper portion of the image and then save. (The default is to save as a jpg.)

Next, check out this YouTube video to see the step-by-step of how easy it is to recolor the paper with Picasa.



Ready to make some easy scrapbook pages? Try using Picasa's "collage" function! It's easy. Watch another quick video here.

PS- Are you still reading? Please leave a comment on this post, email me or give me the thumbs up in Facebook to let me know you're still out there! I heard a lot of chirping after my last post!

Halloween Party Food and Drink Ideas - Recipe Roundup

We do a ton of partying at this time of the year. I have been collecting all sorts of good party ideas and I have compiled my favorites here. Hang in there. There's lots to see, and even a chance for you to share your favorite ideas and win an appetizing prize! Below you'll find ideas for:

• Easy Food & Drink for Grown Up Celebrations
• Kid Friendly & Quick Crafts and Treats
• Fun Decorations and Last-Minute Gifts

Bone Appetit
If you haven't seen it yet, here's an LE stamp set to inspire your creepy concoctions! Isn't it great?

Candy Corn Pudding
Butterscotch on the bottom, vanilla (dyed with yellow food coloring) in the middle, whipped topping on top. (Make this kid friendly by using clear plastic tumblers.)





Bewildering Beverages
Here are some ideas for grown up refreshments: Yellow Twilight- Lemonade with an Absolut Bite, Morgueritas-a Deadly Lime Libation, Poison Appletinis- Dangerously Sweet

























Make the accompanying cards to label your concoctions with this easy spooky house card. The instructions can be found here and were altered to use 4" x 12" cardstock. The windows were made with a grid punch.




Glass Markers
Grab some circle punches, an alphabet set and some other designs and make these easy glass markers. I used a script background to make veins in the eyeballs and flowers and flourishes for the irises. Make a set and decorate this little bag box to make a great hostess gift.










More Eyeballs
The same stamping techniques worked to decorate my Deviled Egg card. The eggs themselves got their red veins from food coloring and vinegar added to a baggy as the hard boiled eggs cooled. Other great savory foods to bring to a party include Mummy Pizzas, Mummy Dogs, and Salty Bones (breadsticks). I found lots of great recipes at Family Fun and Pillsbury.

More Kid Stuff
Mummy Tube Treats- these TP treats would make a good gift or craft. We'll be making them at our Girl Scout Halloween Party next week. If you're looking for a quick treat to give kids, try making some of my Yummy Mummy Candy Bars. (Both crafts use common party streamers for the mummy wrap.) I'll even show you how to make them in this video! (Want more hands on instruction? I have a video for Eerie Votive Candles too!)








A Decoration or a Gift
Make up a bunch of spooky bottles, using these great downloads from KMcKay Designs. Be sure to ink up your bottles with Palette Ink. It should be heat set, but will adhere to glass, giving your project that extra creepiness it needs. You could bring a bottle of wine to your hostess, dressed up with these fun labels or even give a set of labels that are ready to stick on to your favorite hostess's wine or even soda bottles. She will love that!

Now for your ideas . . . .
I'd love to hear your favorite tried and true recipe for Halloween. Leave a comment with a link to your favorite recipe (and if you have a paper craft, packaging, label etc. that accompanies it- EVEN BETTER!) The winner will be announced on Friday and will receive the BONE APPETIT STAMP SET! So let's hear 'em!

Halloween Card and Treat Bag

This was a card design for our church card ministry and I decided to do a treat bag design as well. (That gave me a little more room to add spooky elements, like the spider and paper-pieced pumpkin.) That's Miss Moxie paper you see peeking through the windows, which I punched with that Creative Memories punch that does the buckles and little squares. I cut away a section of the grid that comes out of the punch and the great thing is, the more crooked you cut, the cuter the windows are!

I love this palette for Halloween. See more spooky ideas with Miss Moxie here. If you are looking for spooky treat ideas, you've got to check out my friend Barb. She's concocting very creepy crafts in her Craft Cave!

Come see my card-making friends this Thursday, 10/1/09 from 7-9 pm and Friday 10/2 from 1-3 pm at Joy Lutheran Church. There will be quite a few fall holiday ideas and it's fun and FREE!

Special Delivery Cards

John's cousins had babies! What a great excuse to use my favorite new Mabelle set:
Special Delivery Stamp Set
I colored these with the simple watercolor technique.

We've also been making lots of baby cards at church lately. The other designs we've been doing a lot of are sympathy cards. I personally had to send some sympathy cards, as well as attend a funeral this week. I explained to my two older kids (who attended the funeral with us) that life--in the grand scheme of things--is a balance of sweetness and sorrow. Without rain, we would have no sunshine.

In good times and bad, I turn to my studio to express to those around me a simple sentiment that I hope will help them weather the tough times and celebrate the wonderful things that bless their lives. It reminds me of the Irish blessing, which I'll close with today:

"May the trails rise to meet you,
The sun warm your face,
The rain fall gently upon your fields
And the wind be ever at your back "

Recycle Handmade Cards - Bless it Forward!

If you like to hang out here at my blog, chances are you have a pretty large amount of handmade card fronts. You probably have friends who send you lots of beautiful cards too. Don't store them in a box. Give them new life and
Bless it Forward!

You can even make a great gift by collecting a few cards and make this card organizer, which is an envelope box covered with paper.

Check out this video to see how I made some low-profile tabbed dividers, to organize the cards by category.



Thanks to all of you who played my Great Greetings Game. Congratulations, Carolyn from Florida!

Great Greetings from The Angel Company (A Must-Have for Making Cards)

There is really something special about a handmade card. I love to ponder how many people have been blessed by the card ministry I help with. As I was getting these card designs ready to bring to church tonight, I was mindful of making the inside as meaningful as the outside is beautiful. Cards with insides sell far better than ones without. (The exception is Thank You's. They are OK plain.)

Coordinating the inside of a card is even easier to accomplish with some of the new sayings sets, like Great Greetings from The Angel Company. With coordinating fonts and heartfelt sayings, your cards will really have that extra sparkle. (Click the link for ordering information and to see a larger image.)

There are phrases that work great together, as well as greetings that could go with TAC's other word sets. The "May all your wishes come true" phrase could be added to almost any birthday set for a fun gender-neutral inner greeting. Here I've worked my Semi-Hand Stamped magic for a quick and easy card.

Another trick I sometimes use is to print the inside from my computer. Click here for the document I use.


Cleverly Coordinated
You've heard me say how much I love our Ordinary Greetings set as well. (Click here to see how I cut it apart to make it even more versatile.) It is a perfect companion to Fishy Friends, since they both have a curly, but not-too-cutesy font. There are so many cards you can make with just those two sets.

Tip: to get the little waves, I flipped over my scallop scissors. Isn't that fun?

This thinking of you card is just right for summer, with its little lobster. The images work great for kids' cards, but I think they work for big people too.

It's your turn:
How about a little challenge? Check out the Ordinary Greetings and Fishy Friends sets and leave a comment with your favorite or most original greeting that could be used for the outside and inside of a card. I'll pick a winner and send them ANY $20 SET FROM THE TAC CATALOGUE! It could be Great Greetings or any other set. Wanna Play?

Edited: We have a Winner! Congratulations, Carolyn!

Love & Laughter Paper Covered Frame

This easy project is one of my favorites, and perfect for so many occasions. This one went to my friend for her 40th birthday. We love being surrounded by photos of friends or family that bring love and laughter to our lives.

It's no surprise the stamp set I used for the phrase on the tag, Love and Laughter, was a best seller for The Angel Company last year. It too, is good for so many occasions.

To see the technique I used to miter the corners, see this post.

For those of you following my Twitter Tweets who asked about my studio, here is a look at how things are shaping up. Now, keep in mind, this is a work in progress. I seem to thrive in a messy--I mean, creative, environment. My biggest challenge is to put my things away (and to try to find them when I have just thrown them in a pile.) My strategy with my room is to create a place for everything, use a uniform color scheme and inexpensive storage vessels, and to use labels to make sense of it all. Hopefully this will be helpful to those of you that are struggling with organization too. (You might want to also check out this post for some of the pictures I used for inspiration.)

Studio

Wall-E Winged Pop Up Card

This cutie reminds me of Wall-E the robot and features a set from The Angel Company called Robots. It was inspired by a Miss Moxie card kit I got from Trudy Osborn and another winged pop up card made by KellyRae Cooper.

We made this card at my Crafternoon Catalogue Tour and last weekend at the Mile High Angels Summer Celebration. There are some really cute new TAC stamps, so grab a set and try this fun card. It would be great a variety of images.

Basic Measurements and Folds
Center Pop Up Piece: 3x11, scored at 5 1/2"
Base: 4 1/4 x 9", scored along the 9" side at 1/2, 2, 4 1/2, 7, and 8 1/2"
Winged Piece: 3 3/4 x 6, scored along the 6" side at 1 1/2 and 4 1/2

Assembly

1. Mountain fold all pieces.
2. Adhere the 3x11 piece together, forming a 3 x 5 1/2 piece of double thickness.
3. Cut an 1/8" slit along the center fold of the base piece.
4. Slide the pop-up piece through it and fold the 1/2" tabs up and adhere together, sandwiching the pop-up piece between them.
5. Slide up the center pop-up piece and adhere the "wings"
6. Decorate as desired and use the new We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper to round the edges. You can go through several layers at once!

Have fun and post a link in the comments to a picture of your creations!