Alternative Thinking

My love for ribbon on my scrapbook pages, and in my crafts, created the need for a ribbon iron. After seeing the "fancy" ones at the scrapbook stores, I decided there must be a cheaper alternative. On a very quick - the kids and hubby were waiting in the car kind of quick - outing to a garage sale I found this Revlon hair iron, the very skinny kind....and it was a terrific bargain at only 50 cents....definitely within my scrapper's budget. It turned into the perfect ribbon iron. I keep it in the craft room, it never goes in the bathroom, and it works like a dream. (I've since seen this exact one at the discount store for $14.00!!) I used it on this pretty wrapped wedding present to give the satin ribbon a crisp, not crumpy appearance. Little things like this remind me, on a daily basis, to think of the alternative.

Little Hands

I think it's neat how little hands make the everyday things seem extraordinary...Abby found these tiny wind up bunnies at Big Lots last night and she begged me to buy a package. She has carried her critter around (nameless right now) all last night and most of this morning. Her favorite part is his "cute little pink nose" that she says is much better than the "hard pointy nose" that the little yellow chicky had. These little hands are so worth remembering, and I thought this picture was a sweet way to welcome the Spring season. Do you also notice the layering effect of her jammies?? I don't have any idea where that thought came from but every night it's interesting to see the combination she comes up with. Last night it was silk flowers and Lilo & Stitch. She's very much a fashion forward kind of girl.

Round Sticker Love

I saw these round stickers many months ago on Martha's show and have always wanted to have some for myself. Well, I finally found them! I got my hands on a catalog that sells packaging products (I LOVE ALL OF IT!) including cello bags, clear boxes, and these babies - they are clear, round stickers that you can use in place of plain ole' scotch tape. I have been using these on my wrapped candies to add that *extra special* touch. LOVE IT!

Fittin' it in

Whew! Work has been keeping me busy lately, but I managed to squeeze these little babies in last night. I made over 60 of them and still have a few more to go. Ever since I saw the wrapped candy bars on the Splitcoaststampers web site I have gone crazy over wrapped candy. I did some for Valentine's Day and I've also given out a few treats to some "special" friends. These particular candies are for my niece's baby shower. I will place 6 of them in a cello bag and attach a decorated bag topper. I will be using my new scalloped punches. I'll post those pictures later on. I also have a new product to share - see my next post.

Kraft Paper Beautiful

One of my favorite things to do is to alter kraft paper. This project was inspired by a $1.00/roll of ribbon I found at Michael's yesterday. I went looking for new Easter ribbon to attach to my door decoration. I decided I didn't need the specific "Easter" designed ribbon at $4.00 a roll - it wasn't on sale - so I planned to wait until it went on sale. As I was getting ready to check out I noticed the $1.00 bins and found this really pretty orange, yellow and green plaid ribbon. It definitely gave me that "Easter" feeling so I grabbed it. The piece on this package was the left over from my door decoration. My good friend, Olivia, is turning 6 on Friday so I stamped this kraft paper with coordinating polka dots and wrapped a couple of goodies for her. I also attached a simple, simple card. The polka-dot stamps are from Heidi Swapp and the card stamps are from Studio G.

2nd Grade Valentine Pails

Whew! The Valentine pails in my daugther's 2nd grade class were a huge success. I couldn't believe how excited all the children were. Even the boys were into the entire creative process, including adding ribbons knots to their pails' handles. All the girls got a special treat - special silk flowers added to their handles. I am so glad that I thought of the idea to save these ice cream buckets - if you know me, you know that I have a very hard time throwing something useful away. It literally hurts me inside. So many of the kids cracked me up by saying, "this is the best craft I've ever done." One child even said, "In all of my 7 years, this is the best craft I've ever seen." It was a fun time! I wanted to get a better picture of the pails, but the class was getting ready to watch a Valentine's movie and the lights were getting turned off. Anyways, you get the idea!

More Valentine's Day Treats

Hey! Well, there's more Valentine's Day treats going on around here. I am preparing to volunteer in my daughter's 2nd grade classroom this afternoon, but I wanted to quickly get a card and treat in the mail for my sister. This was a card I made a while back and I just decided this morning to embellish it with some Prima paper flowers. It is also packaged in a fabulous cello envelope. I am crazy about cellophane - I just love it. Also, because I am looking out for her health *snicker* I decided to buy her a fancy dish scrubber vs. some divine-tasting chocolate candy bar. I know she will love the scrubber just the same. Even if she doesn't, I know she will love getting a treat in the mail - because we all do! Well, the shower is calling me! Have a great day!

Valentine's Day Treats

This year we made lots of treats for our friends at school. I made wrapped candy bars, red lip lollipops, candy necklaces, Valentine pails and Valentine mailboxes. Abby picked out the paper for the mailbox and I actually constructed the entire thing. She then decided it needed some "bling" so we added some jewels and her name. I hope they have a good time at their parties.

Valentine's Day Doggy Party

We spent the weekend getting ready for Valentine's Day on Thursday. We've made candy necklaces, Valentine's mailboxes (pictures to follow) and we attended a doggy Valentine's party at our local PetCo. We tried out for the doggy kissing contest, but Baby seemed to be too distracted by all the new sounds and smells. It was fun nonetheless.

Two Good Finds

O.K., so this post is not really about anything "creative" other than I added some organizational elements to my craft room - some things that have been on my wish list for quite some time. I had the chance this morning to visit some local garage sales and was able to find 3 things on my "list." Two of the things I bought will go to good use in my craft room. The first is this swivel tv stand. When we relocated my tv to the top of my filing cabinet I asked my husband to build me a stand so that the DVD player and VCR could be placed underneath and hopefully, would save some space. Well, the stand never got built and I just used the pieces as they were. Well, this morning, I spied a perfect-sized stand, and it swivels, at a garage sale for the cheap price of $2!!! It fits perfectly and I am enjoying it right this very second. The second piece that was on my list was a file organizer for my page ideas. I have a box that I use on my desktop, but I always seem to forget about the files because I can't see them...this way, now that they are organized and visible, I hope to get much more use out of them. And, it was a steal for only $1.00.

Valentine Treats

Whew! It's been a busy time with my part-time sub work at my daughters' school. I've been thinking a lot about my creative projects and finally had some time today to put my thoughts to work. These are two of the $1.00 mailboxes from Target that I put together for my girls for Valentine's Day. This was an easy-peasy project. I put the finishing touches on them this morning and I can't wait to stuff them for the Big day! This year I am going light on the candy, and heavy on more practical gifts. I'll always remember my very good friend's mother has a tradition of buying her girls (she has 4) new panties for V-Day...I think it's such a cute idea! I found some really "cool" bikini-style panties at Target (I love that store) and I am beginning the tradition this year. I hope the girls like them vs. all the sweet stuff they usually get....we'll see in about a week.