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Monday, February 27, 2012

Pinned Up Monday!

Hello!

I'm sorry that today's post is so late!  It's been a day of physical therapy, rain, carpet cleaning, an afternoon at my parents (which was very nice and included a long, HOT soak that made my back sigh) and now, an evening of trying not to trip over all of the furniture that normally lives on carpeted surfaces and is residing on our wood floor!

But onto the Pinterest inspiration...

So, as most of you know, my husbands brother is getting married in April.  Their theme is "rustic elegance", and mason jars are in integral decoration.  Since I'm a paper enthusiast, they asked me to make the wedding invites.  I was super happy to oblige, and after a lot of Pinterest looking, the bride settled on this design.

I pretty much did the same exact thing.  My inspiration was more like a clone... So much for creativity!  I used my Silhouette Cameo and created the whole invite.  Yay for Silhouette!  I was able to do everything with my Silhouette, from the printing to the cutting.  The only thing that I wish I could've done different is that I wanted more of the lines from the mason jar - like the ruts for screwing on the top and the half circle on the bottom.  Unfortunately, it just wasn't working out for me.  But I still love the end result.

We used The Twinery's purple baker's twine and added a few crystal rhinestones because the bride loves her some bling!

I know, some of you might be thinking that a mason jar shaped invite isn't fancy enough for a wedding invitation, but I think that every part of the wedding should represent the bride and groom - even the invitation.  So, I like that it's not fancy, but it's nice and pretty but not over the top - just like the bride and groom.

Here's the RSVP card that I designed with my Silhouette as well - just for good measure!

That's it for today!  I have a lot to share this week - see you soon!
Andrea

Friday, February 24, 2012

I *heart* St. Patty's Day!

Hello!

Happy Friday!  Yay! 

As some of you know, I am lucky enough to design the QuicKutz Club projects for Pages From the Heart - which is an awesome deal!  Lifestyle Crafts/QuicKutz sends me their new release and I figure out a fun project for Kathy's club members - it's pretty fun! 

For Valentine's Day, QuicKutz released their Sweetheart Line - which was super cute!  My favorite part was the nesting hearts - but take a look at these super cute dies!


Aren't those cute?  I love them!  I think I'll use the donut's for my sister-in-laws bridal shower card - they're doing donuts in place of a wedding cake!

Kathy was giving her club this die as their Club Die...
It's a Heart Doily die - so pretty!  You might be thinking that a heart in February is a pretty easy product to work with... except that the club was AFTER Valentine's Day.  Ugghhhh.  I didn't want to make a Valentine's project that no one would be able to use for a year!  So, I grabbed my hearts and thought, "Hmmm, what else can I made with hearts?".  And then I made this!

A Shamrock!  Perfect for our next Holiday, St. Patrick's Day!  I used this die...
Which is a Nesting Heart Die - you get 5 nesting hearts in this package!  And I used the largest and 2nd largest dies to create my shamrock petals along with the doily heart.
I also used the QK Nesting Circles to cut out 3 rolled roses for the shamrock center, used a manila tag and some fake cream flowers.  I gathers shimmery tulle and placed that behind the flowers/tag/ribbon.

So cute, huh?! 

For the stem I used a kabob skewer and covered it with paper.  I glued the stick onto the back of the shamrock and covered it with a circle glued on top of the stick for support.

That's it!  I'm feeling pretty lucky, how about you?

Have a great day!
Andrea

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

1 Sketch, 6 Cards

I know that I was drawing out the 1 Sketch, 6 Cards samples for the past... month?  But, since the class is this Saturday, I thought I'd share all of them!

Here's Card 1 - It's a very literal representation of the sketch...

Here's Card 2, which is pretty much just the sketch turned on it's side...

Here is Card 3, which is getting a little further from the sketch... easier to explain in class...

And Card 4, which I think is a good interpretation of the card... do you see that each card as 3 of something?  The first card has 3 linear hearts, the second card has the 2 silhouettes with the heart in the middle, so there are still 3 of something.  The 3rd card has the cluster of 3 buttons and this card has the 3 rectangles...
This is the 5th card, which has a button on the top and a button on the bottom, and the stuff in the middle keeps I view as 1 item, so it has 3 things going down the front of the card...

And last, Card 6!  This card could be a favorite - the 2 rectangles and the center circle make up my 3 items going down the front of the card! 

If you're interested in signing up for this class, please call Collective Journey's at 909.793.2200.  If you're interested in purchasing a kit, email me at ayokleyjessup (at) gmail (dot) com!

Have a great Wednesday!  Only 2 more days till the weekend!
Andrea

Monday, February 20, 2012

Pinned Up Mondays!

Hello!

Happy President's Day!  Yay for a 3 Day weekend! 

Well, today is Pinned Up Monday, which is all about recreating what I've seen or been inspired by with Pinterest!  I'm really enjoying myself with the Pinned Up Monday's series, it's fun to actually make something that is inspired by something else - full circle :)

So, my soon-to-be Sister'n'Laws bridal shower is in a few weeks so we started working on the shower decor... the theme of the wedding is rustic elegance and we were thinking it would be fun to use the same theme for the shower!  So, here's my Pinterest inspiration...

Aren't those pretty?  I love the yellow with the sunlight streaming through.  Beautiful!

I decided to go with a variation of these.  I'm not going to be hanging mine for the shower (although I may after the shower), they'll be spread on tables so we did a few varieties.

I grabbed some of my old sheet music and cut it into strips.  I used my heart Fiskar's punch and punched out a heart so that I would have the negative in my sheet music and glued the strip to the jar.  I then wrapped some Baker's Twine around the jar and tied a bow.  So quick, easy and cheap!

I plan on filling these with water and using a smoke free floating candle in them - my plan is that you'll be able to see the flame through the heart... you know... burning love?  Too cheesey? 

We also had some smaller, fatter jars and did a slight variation with those.  We used the punched hearts from the previous jars and some burlap.  We glued the burlap onto the jar, glued the heart to the burlap and wrapped some Baker's Twine around it, tying a bow to finish it off.


Aren't they cute?   Again, so cheap, quick and easy! 

Well, that's it for today.  My back is slowly getting better and I've been able to get back in the hang of things very slowly... so I'm hoping to work on some projects that I'll be sharing with all of you!  Just keep checking in - my posts may be a little erratic right now, but I'm hoping to get back on schedule soon!

Have a great week!
Andrea

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Happy Ooey Gooey Valentine's Day!

I love me some Valentine's Day.  I love the idea that a Holiday is centered around showing someone you care about them.  The chocolate, red and pink colors and hearts don't hurt either!

Yesterday I shared the Valentine's that Adam made for his classmates, but today I'll share what he/we made for his teachers!


Can you see all of the different layers?  In my opinion, this is the turduchen of deserts... you don't know what that is?  It's a turkey with a duck and chicken stuffed inside of it.  And it's so easy to make!


Most of these ingredients we always have on hand.  You'll need a large baking dish, wax or parchment paper, cooking spray, chocolate cookie dough (homemade or store bought), Double Stuffed Oreo's and brownies (homemade or a mix). 

First, heat your oven to 350 degrees.  Then grab your dish and line it with the wax paper.  Then spray your wax paper with cooking spray - make sure you get all of it otherwise your edges will stick.

Press your cookie dough into the bottom of your dish.  I let Adam do this part - the hard part was keeping him from licking his fingers between presses!

Grab your Oreos and start laying them out.  You can space them as close together as you want.  I started the rows and Adam finished them.
Next, mix your brownie mix.  I use Ghirardelli's, so I mixed the water, oil and egg together and then let Adam add the brownie mix to the bowl.  He then stirred it all together and we both spread the brownie batter on top of the Oreo's.  Now, I used a Triple Chocolate Brownie Mix, but I think a regular one would work better, the chocolate chunks in the mix made it harder to spread the batter.  You can also add fudge ontop of the brownie batter if you'd like.  You know, if this isn't enough chocolate for you!

And since this is Valentine's, we added pink, red and white sprinkles.

Cover your brownies (I used foil) and place in oven for 30 minutes.  When 30 minutes is up, take the foil off and let it cook for another 12-15 minutes.  Let cool.  Once cool you can grab your wax paper and lift out of pan to cut into squares.

Yum.  The cookie dough is the bottom layer, the Oreo's the next (I love that you can see every layer!) and then the brownie layer on top!  I would add vanilla ice cream and some fudge on top - just to push it over the edge!

And of course, since Adam is giving these as gifts, we had to package them!

We used the QuicKutz Popcorn box and Adam cut 2 from kraft cardstock for his teachers (I swear, he cut them).  We then grabbed scraps of paper and a few punches/stamps and went to work. 

I cut the brownies into squares and placed them into cello bags and tied it at the top with - you guessed it - Baker's Twine.  Both of these are for Adam's Teachers!


Adam wanted to give a few more treats to other's, so I packaged these into clear cello bags and added a simple tag.  I used the Papertrey Mason Jar stamp on white paper, cut it out  and then punched out heart from red paper and glued it to the jar.  I punched a hole towards the top of the mason jar and tied it to the cello bag with - Baker's Twine.  On the back of the jar tag we wrote, "Valentine, You're all of my favorite things rolled into one!"

Happy Valentines Day!
Andrea


Monday, February 13, 2012

Pinned Down Monday

Hello!

I'm sorry I missed last weeks Pinned Down Monday - it was a rough week.  Adam, my little guy, ended up with pneumonia.  He started off with a flu/head congestion bug 2 weeks ago that progressed to asthmatic bronchitis and then turned into pneumonia.  So, along with my back still being hurt, but getting better with PT, we had a very sick little boy.  We also celebrated Adam's birthday last week, but had to cancel the little family party since he was sick.  I don't know about everyone else, but this years germs seem pretty potent!

Anyways, Adam and I worked on his classroom Valentines on Saturday and they turned out super cute.  I got the idea from Pinterest....

Courtesy of thefryfamilyblog.blogspot.com via Pinterest

I thought these were so cute!  I found some plastic shovels online - The Giant Party Store - for a decent price - it's a little early in the season to find plastic shovels at stores!  I ordered red ones (I wanted them to be a little boyish in a pink and red heart Holiday!), enough for his class and used my Silhouette Cameo to design the tag.

So, I played with a few different designs - I ended up using a scallop circle shape that I had in my library - I sized the wording to fit in.  I also colored in my words and changed the setting from cut to none so that I could do a print and cut with these tags.

After I designed my tag, I printed them out.  Super fast and easy.  I used Bazzill white cardstock, my printer didn't have any problem with it!  If you have a Silhouette (I have the Cameo now - love it! - but this also works on the SD), remember to use registration marks before you print!  This is how your Silhouette will know where to cut after you've printed your design!
Once you have your printed sheet, grab your mat and cut your tags.  The Silhouette Cameo will walk you through the process, from how to position the paper on the mat to different cutting settings and reading the registration marks.  It's very easy to follow.
My Cameo cut the circle's perfectly!  All of them were perfectly placed and the paper had cut through all the way!  Yay!  I also cut the red scallop circles with my Silhouette.

Now the fun part!  Adam and I put all of the tags together super quick!  He actually distressed all of the edges of the white circles (I swear, he's totally into distressing), I then put glue on the back of the white circle and he stuck it to the red.  Then Adam wrote his name on the back of the tags... the first 2 or 3 he did on his own, but after that I helped him.  We made these a few weeks ago (before I hurt my back), so I just set them aside till Valentine's Day was closer.

On Saturday we assembled his Valentines Treats.  I explained what Valentines was all about and that he would be giving a treat bag to each child in his class.  He was pretty enthused.  So, he grabbed his shovel and I poured the candy's onto the table or into bowls and he scooped the candy into the cello bag and then added the shovel.  I then tied them with red/white baker's twine and he would thread the twine through the hole on the tags (I told myself that working on his hand-eye coordination made up for the candy that he was sneaking when he thought I wasn't looking!) and I tied the bows.


 Didn't those turn out so cute?  The red shovel handle is sticking out from the cello bag and we have a mixture of Hershey Kisses and M&M's in the bag.  I'm sure that other parent's are going to have their kids give out "healthy" treats, so I don't feel so bad about giving the kids a bag of candy with a shovel so they can get the most candy in the their mouth quickly!
Adam saw my picnic basket on the shelf and grabbed it and started putting his treats in it - so cute!  I love it!  Or, I guess I Dig It.

I had so much fun making these Valentines - and I like how Adam got to be so hands on.  I remember making Valentines and crafts with my mom as a child and how special that was.  It's really about making your child feel like they're helpful, that they're a valuable member of your household team.  I think he's going to be pretty proud tomorrow at Preschool giving out the treats to his friends!

I'll see you back here tomorrow with another Valentine's post!
Have a great day!
Andrea

Thursday, February 2, 2012

I'm kinda back...

I'm sorry that I haven't been posting, but, to be honest, I haven't been able to do anything post worthy!  I am still on the couch, lying flat as much as possible, but can sit up a little more and more every day.  I still can't walk or stand much and fabulous friends have been dropping off dinner all this week (yum!  Thank you all so much!).  I'll start PT tomorrow (yay!) and am hoping to be so much better next week!

But, here's another card from my 1 Sketch, 6 Cards class that's at the end of February at Collective Journey's.

I used Farmhouse from October Afternoon again for this card.  I love it.  It's simple and pretty and... charming.  Guess the sticker fits! 

I'm not sure when I'll be back, but I promise to write again soon.
Andrea