Snow Much Winter Fun....

OMGosh! Could these be any cuter? Well, they definately cannot be any EASIER. I made these for the craft show this weekend and I have to say that if someone is handing me a can of snow, I want it to be like this one!

The thought process behind these was a cute take on packaging for Snowman Soup, the containers these are packaged in are pie filling cans that I've been saving up for some time. I wrapped them up with some pretty blue snowflake paper, tied them with an icy blue tulle bow, and attached a sparkly white snowflake. Inside the can, tucked inside a fluff of fiberfill snow is a double dose of yummy homemade cocoa mix (I'll share the recipe in a bit.), a sleeve of mini chocolate chips, and some marshmallows to top it off, and as you can see, I tucked in the candy cane stirring stick too. Cute and quick and what a great gift idea!

Ok, onto the good stuff....I have been using this recipe for years and have given it many, many times as a gift with lots of compliments for my effort. The only pricey ingredient you will find in the recipe is the Nonfat dry milk powder. I would love to give you an alternative for this expense but I don't have one. I buy the smallest box available as you only use 1 c. in the mix....

BASIC HOT COCOA MIX RECIPE
1 c. non-dairy creamer
1 c. non fat dry milk
1/4 to 1 c. sugar
1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa

In medium bowl, combine ingredients; mix well.
Store in an airtight container (or zip top bag). To serve, spoon 3 heaping tablespoons mix into mug; add 3/4 c. boiling water. Stir.
Makes about 3 cups mix.

For some added "zip" flavor your cocoa as follows...

MOCHA COCOA: Add 1/4 c. instant coffee to basic recipe.

MEXICAN COCOA: Add 1 t. ground cinnamon.

LOW-CALORIE COCOA: Omit sugar. Add 15 envelopes low-calorie granulated sugar substitute.

To serve, spoon 2 heaping tablespoons into mug; add 3/4 c. boiling water.

* Non-dairy creamer is a coffee whitener and should not be used as a milk replacement.

If you wanted to attach the Snowman Soup poem to your can. Here is my favorite version...

When the weather outside is frightful,

Snowman Soup can be delightful.

May it warm your spirit and your soul.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

When you feel a chill or 'burrrrrr',

Use the peppermint stick to stir.

Add hot water and sip it slow.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow.

And another cute little alternative is the Cocoa Poem...

A little cup of cocoa,

I'm sending your way,

For you to sip and enjoy,

On some cold lonely day.
As you sip this cocoa,

It's warmth will warm your heart.

Just like our friendship warmed mine,

Right from the very start.

Hope you found this project to be "heart warming"....lol....TFL!

Card Making Sunday....

I am up to my deadline for this next craft show and wondering if I'll ever make it, so, yesterday I spent the entire day in my scrap room (hubby approved) making things. I have to admit, I didn't get a whole lot done, but I did get some great cards and some card boxes finished up. Now, I will totally admit that the design of the within cards was not entirely my own. I used lots and lost of inspiration from the girls over at http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/ . The design for the card box was shared by one of my good friends at Crop Room II.

And (not that it goes with the card making theme), here is a sneak peek at the mini pizza box I'm doing for the show....

This may or may not be my final design. I keep tweaking and playing (not that I have much longer to do that!). TFL!

Meet the New Contributing Artists at Ideas for Scrapbookers - I am THRILLED - my name's on the list!

I just had to share a little news with you that was just announced to me yesterday. I have been invited to be a Contributing Artist with Ideas for Scrapbookers! Yeah! If your not familiar with this site, you should be, the owner, Pam, has done a wonderful job of providing some great resources and inspiration for scrapbookers, and best of all, it's free! You can visit the blog at http://www.ideasforscrapbookers.blogspot.com/ . Believe me when I tell you that Pam has put together a WONDERFUL group of artists to give you inspiration and ideas. Formal introductions won't begin until tomorrow but you can check out these wonderful designers by following the links to their blogs, below...

Delaina Burns http://delainas.blogspot.com/
Danielle Holsapple : http://danielleholsapple.blogspot.com/
Heather Landry: http://miraclesmommadesigns.blogspot.com/
Julie Howard: http://retrojulie.blogspot.com/
Sarah De Guzman: http://redoaklines.com/
Susan Goetter: http://susangoetter.blogspot.com/

Did I mention how excited I am to be a part of this? Oh, and even better, one of Pam's good friends is having a contest for readers to use one of Pam's templates. You can find more out about the contest here...http://ideasforscrapbookers.blogspot.com/2009/11/chance-at-50-gc-to-gcd-studios.html.

So keep watching in the coming weeks for more from me and these talented ladies over at Ideas for Scrapbookers, I promise you will be amazed and inspired!

Countdown To Thanksgiving...

This little project was made possible by my 5 year old son, who's logic totally astounds me sometimes. Here is the conversation that led to this design, it went something like this....

S: Mom, do we have to take down the Halloween countdown?
M: I suppose, Halloween is over, all of the Halloween decorations need to come down to make room for other decorations.
S: Don't we have a Thanksgiving countdown?
M: No, we don't have one of those.
S: I know, Mom! Your creative, you could make us one!

Well, lol, God bless the child, I suppose I could! And with that kind of backing, of course I did...

Now, shhhh, don't tell that I am so cheap, but this little countdown didn't cost me any more than $3 - if that! The background papers, alphas, and all the great little chipboard sentiments are from the Target $1 bin Thanksgiving and Fall collection. (I can't wait for their Christmas stuff!) I backed my holiday countdown with some 12x12 acrylic that my husband gets as scrap from his job in a glass plant.

We plan on incorporating a litte tradition here with the countdown. No one is allowed to move that little turkey to a new day unless they have something to be thankful for and can tell us about it. I hope it keeps them thinking.

So there you have it, the first of my Thanksgiving projects. I hope you've enjoyed and you'll stop back to see the next in the series.

Oh, btw, see that Christmas ticker over to the right of the screen. Nope, I didn't do that to annoy you all, lol, it's there because next week, November 12th, I am putting on a Buget Gift Giving seminar. As I work on my seminar projects, I'll be posting tips, tricks, techniques, and pics for you. So be sure to check it out! Happy Scrapping!

Just an Observation...

My husband and I were driving the other day and chatting about nothing really and we came to the conclusion that the Thanksgivng Holiays are pretty much glossed over. I mean we have Halloween and we're treated to an array of Halloween themed items to purchase and then, as soon as the season ends, we're on to Christmas. Where exactly did Thanksgiving go? Don't we have anything to be thankful for anymore? And then I got to thinking about decorating. You know, save for some pretty fall colored flowers that carry over from October, some cute Scarecrows, again carrying over, and two stuffed turkeys, I have nothing for Thanksgiving decorating. So, I've challenged myself and even though my gift giving workshop is next week and I'm going to be posting progress reports, tips, and tricks from that. I've decided I am going to focus on some great Thanksgiving projects to add to my decoration stash and pretty up my house for the Forgetten Thanksgiving Day! Hope you'll join me.

Warm Winter Wishes Gift Set (My First Picture Tutorial - Yikes!)...

Don't get me wrong, I'm not one to rush Christmas, after all Turkey Day does have it's perks (although not to my wasteline...lol), but after Trick or Treating for two days strait and being hounded constantly for "one more piece of candy, please", I've had enough. So this little tutorial is going to have a Christmas/winter theme. Isn't it cute? I can see all sorts of possibilities for this little box, fill it with candy, fill it with 3x3 notecards, gift tags, gift card holders, an assortment of all of the above - whatever! The sky is the limit. (By the way folks, this little tutorial is my very first ever, so please be gentle, but as always, creative critism is essential, so if you have a suggestion please speak up.)

So onto the directions....

Trace your pattern onto your choice of cardstock. I used a Lipton Tea box to make my pattern and totally meant to leave you a PDF file. It sort of got late and I wanted to get this posted tonight so I promise, IOU totally, that I'll post the PDF here tomorrow morning.

Once you've got your pattern cut and scored, it's onto the fun part - decorating. This yummy pattern paper is from the DCWV Holiday Collection Stack that I picked up at my local JoAnn Fabrics the other day. I love the mix of papers in this one, has something for everyone. You'll need to cut 3 panels from your pattern paper at 2 1/2 x 4 3/4 and 3 panels from a coordinating cardstock at 2 5/8 x 4 7/8. Adhere one panel to the front, one to the back, and one to the top of your box.

Fold your box into shape, and it's ready to go (my photo captions didn't show up well, so excuse me please, for repeating myself)...

I wanted my image to remain "soft" looking so I chose to color it with Stampin Up chalks. Colors used here were Night of Navy, Pixie Pink, and Ballet Blue...

I finished the small details with plain colored pencils, highlighted the snowman with a bit of Bordering Blue chalk and added Stickles (Fruit Punch, Ice Stickles, Orange Peal, Yellow, and Eucalyptus were used here)...

Cut out your image and apply dimensionals or pop dots before adhering to your box front. (I also used the same stamp to decorate the back. I appologize for omitting the stamp name, I recieved this little guy from a friend in an image swap.)....

I decided to make this a gift set by including a tea bag holder instead of a card. You can find a great tutorial over at Splitcoast Stampers written by Beate Johns. You can find it by visiting their site http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/teabagholder/ . By the way, I am not totally color blind...lol...the brown tulle is the only color I had on hand tonight. This is something new that I found for my craft room. It is actually wedding tulle in a 25ft roll and can be found in the wedding section of most craft stores. It ties beautifully and adds a soft accent.

Thanks for reading. I hope you have fun making this gift box and please post a link back if you do so we can see.

Just Popping in....

So sorry to my faithful followers. It has been a crazy few weeks here. I promise that, behind the scenes, I am working on some great stuff to share with you. Halloween is slowly slipping away and soon it will be time to pay some gratitude forward so look for some exciting Thansgiving projects. Just a hint, I am cooking dinner for my own family of 4 this year (at my hubby's request) and I LOVE intricate table settings, that' all I'll be saying (winks). And don't forget about Christmas. I'll start decorating here the day after Thanksgiving as we do a different tree/theme in each room. I have SO many ideas for that one and I'll be sharing those as well. Not sure what all hints I can share with you about Christmas but I will say that I have some ideas of turning one of my themes into a Vintage theme and I'd also like to honor our ancestors. So we'll see what that entails.

One more exciting thing that I'd like to share with you is a gal who's decided to do something a little different but lots of fun. Check out her new site at www.MemoriesinKaleidoscope.com . I just LOVE her work and her images put me in mind of running to the toy cupboard at my Grandmother's house and pulling out the kaleidoscope she kept there and watching all the pretty colored shapes go by, I can almost smell Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner cooking in the background and hear my cousins voices now. Anyway, check her out and see what kind of memories she can help you create!