Toilet paper roll mini album

Oh boy!  These little things are so much fun!  I saw these on YouTube and had to make my own.  My first album is so very basic and not nearly as embellished as some of the beautiful ones I've seen but for my first, I'm happy.  Besides which, I made it at 1:30 a.m.!

As the title states, these are made of the inner cardboard core of the toilet paper roll.  In this example I've used 4, though the way my family goes through toilet paper, I've saved enough for about six albums so far.  First you have to flatten the rolls.  This is harder than you'd think.  These things have memory!  I tried using a bone folder and even ran it through my Cuttlebug!  This is the flattest I've been able to get them.  I then covered the rolls with scrapbook paper and some little scrap embellishments I had been playing with earlier that evening.  I tried to make things match but I was tired and just wanted to see what one looked like all done up.  Apparently, not all toilet paper rolls are the same size but to make these I cut my paper at 5 1/4" x 6" and covered the rolls with 1/2" extra on each end to tuck inside the tube to finish the edges.  I found it easier to do if I cut notches out of each side.  Then I punched holes and inserted eyelets in the ends of the rolls for the book ring to go through.  All that's left is your pictures, journaling (if you do that), and tags.  I cut my tags on my Cricut using the SCAL program but you can easily just cut them out of cardstock by hand.  I think mine measured 2 3/8" x 4".  Just make sure you don't cut them too small or they'll fall right out of your album.  I took two tags and glued them together for stability.

When I showed this to my husband, he thought they'd be great graduation invitations for our moms.  He's so smart!  That's why I married him!

I found great paper at my LSS in a masculine style in my son's school colors that I'm going to use.  I think I'll make him one, too, since he's leaving for college shortly after graduation.  I want him to remember what we look like!

In my next post, I'll show how I'm now making these without using the actual toilet paper rolls!  It's not recycling, but I do like them better since they don't take any more work to make and they are flatter than the toilet paper rolls!  You will be able to make a 4 tube album using only 2 pages of cardstock and 2 pages of scrapbook paper - 8 1/2" x 11" or 1 page each if they're 12" x 12".  Even better!

Old Settler's Beans

The other day I was looking for something to cook for dinner and I happened upon a recipe for Old Settler's Baked Beans.  It looked good but I wasn't so sure the family would go for it.  It called for a lot of sugar and other than chili, everytime I tried to feed my lot some beans, they refused.  Still, I was sure I wanted to try anyway.  I tweaked the basic recipe and wanted to put down what I'd done so I don't forget for next time.  There will definitely be a next time as my husband exclaimed twice (after having two servings) that they were really good.

Old Settler's Beans
2 lbs ground beef
1/2 lb bacon
1 lg onion, diced
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup BBQ sauce
2 Tbsp prepared yellow mustard
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
1 - 15 oz can butter beans
1 - 15 oz can pork and beans
1 - 15 oz can chili beans

Brown bacon then add onion and ground beef.  Drain.  Add remaining ingredients except beans and stir until combined.  Add beans and stir well.  Transfer to crock pot and cook on low until ready to serve.  We ate ours over hot rice!  Yum.

Homemade paper flower embellishments

You know I'm new to this whole papercrafting thing, but I still get excited every time I see flower embellishments like the Prima flowers.  Especially the Prima flowers!  Only problem is, I'm too cheap to buy them and they're so expensive!  My solution (as usual) is to make my own.  I found a wild rose .svg template, to cut out on my Cricut, on Etsy by a seller named triciapeever.  I loved the way her flower looked but when I tried to make it myself, I wasn't too happy with  my efforts.  I perservered, however, and even though mine don't look at all like hers, I'm very pleased with myself!  All of the flowers in this first photo were made from the triciapeever template.  I can get two flowers from one 8.5" x 11" piece of cardstock!  The pink one was my first attempt a couple of weeks ago that I was only lukewarm about.  The two yellow and two white ones were made today using a new technique, which is a combination of techniques I've been seeing on YouTube.  I am so ecstatic about the results!  The white one on the lower left was sprayed with my homemade pearl glimmer spray and the yellow one on the upper right was sprayed with my homemade glimmer spray in champagne.  The other two were left natural.

The green flower was made using a dingbat font and cut out on my Cricut.  The font is called 09 KutUps and I use it for almost all of the shapes I use for cardmaking.  The cardstock started off white but I sprayed it with my homemade glimmer spray in a metallic green.

This little purple carnation is made from a page from English Home magazine.  The paper feels a bit heavier to me than your typical American magazine.  I punched out 2" circles and pinked the edges.  I think there are 7 layers.  I scrunched all the pieces and then pinned them together in the center with a mini brad.  I then misted the flower with my homemade glimmer spray in a lavender color and when it was completely dry, I touched up the edges with Stickles.

The rest of the pictures show another tea bag holder card that I made and what it would look like if embellished with the flowers instead of the ladybug. I may just have to show pictures of the steps used to make these so I don't forget what I did! 

Oh, of all the YouTube videos I saw, this one by Tracylovestoscrap is the one that made me want to try again.

Baby Girl Tri Fold Shutter Card

I'll be flying down to the Phoenix area tomorrow for a baby shower.  This will be for the daughter of a family friend.  I found these perfect K & Co stickers at Michael's this week for 40% off and the Imaginisce paper from http://www.kyandyland.com/, my LSS.  It is made on basic cardstock from Joanns with a sentiment I found on Scrapbook.com.  I love the way it turned out!  It was so pretty that I didn't attach the gift cards to the front like I originally planned, so I attached them to the back of the card instead with homemade glue dots.  I used a strip of the non-stick paper from a package of Zots and made little dots out of Aleene's Tack It Over & Over that I had to buy from eBay, since I can't seem to find it here in Las Vegas.  I let them sit until they turned clear and they are perfect!  So economical, too!

Tea Bag Holder Cards

My friends laugh at me now whenever I open a conversation with, "I was watching YouTube..." because it gets me into so much trouble (of the best kind) because I see so many things I want to do and usually don't fall asleep until I do them (at 2:00 am).

Well, I was watching YouTube last night and saw these tea bag holders by Dawn and thought they were the cutest things!  I did, however, make mine a bit differently and here are the specifics:

Tea Bag Holder

Cover:
7 3/4" x 3 1/2" (the extra 1" is for the flap I added)
Score at 3 1/8" & 3 5/8"  then flip and score 1" from the other end and round the flap corners.

Insert:
5 1/2" x 6 1/2"
On the 5 1/2" side, score at 2 1/2" and 3"
On the 6 1/2" side, score at 3" and 6"

I follow Dawn's directions for assembly except that I glue the insert inside the cover rather than tie together with ribbon.  I cut decorative paper and cardstock to cover the front and the flap then seal with glue dots.

I can see I need to do a better job of gluing the inserts as it looks as though the blue one is coming undone.

More homemade glimmer spray...even easier!

Making more glimmer spray has just gotten easier! Can you believe it is cheaper to buy these little travel sized hairsprays than an empty spray bottle? I picked both of these up at WalMart. In case you can't see what they are very clearly, on the left is a 2 oz. bottle of Dove extra hold hairspray and on the right is a bottle of Plaid Folk Art Metallic Christmas Green acrylic paint. All I did this time is pour out about 1/3 of the hairspray and add enough paint to cover about 1/4 inch of the bottom of the spray bottle. This cardstock started out beige and the spray gave it a nice light even coat of green. I, again, dried it with my blow dryer on low. The rose was made with scrap beige cardstock and I used the same brown glimmer spray I made earlier, which was a blend of alcohol and Ceramcoat Spice Brown with some pearlized medium.

Tri fold shutter cards

I saw one of these cards and fell in love!  I just had to make some.  I found tutorials for different styles on The Craftiblog and then saw many beautiful examples on Splitcoaststampers.com.  What makes me happy about these is that I used my Crafter's Companion Ultimate, my Cuttlebug, and my Cricut for these.  I was complaining to my husband that I really hate doing the math involved in measuring all the matting pieces so after our friends went home the other night I used my SCAL program to make a template to cut out all the pieces for these cards except the card base, which is just a 5 1/2" x 12" piece of cardstock.  I can now whip one of these up in just a few minutes and don't have to measure a thing!  I have chosen not to embellish these yet, except for the butterflies and the rose on the embossed one as I plan to keep a bunch on hand for when I need a card in a hurry.  I have some sentiments for all kinds of occasions on my computer that I can just print out from Word and then mat and adhere to the cards quite quickly.  Oh yes, as you can see on the butterflies, I fell in love with Stickles!

I covered this flower with my homemade glimmer spray!  I used the clear pearl color but could have easily done the fuchsia pearl as well.  This card was particularly easy since it wasn't double matted.  I cut the pieces out on my Cricut then ran them through the Cuttlebug. 

I have one more version of this card that I'd like to try and will post pictures later.

DIY Glimmer Spray

Boy, where to begin?    Since my last post, I have received my Crafter's Companion Ultimate and love it although I can now see that it has some limitations compared to the Scor-Pal for some things because it doesn't have as many score lines but I love that you can make so many projects without really doing much thinking.  The measuring has already been done for me!  I don't know yet if I'll ever use the embossing templates that come with it but like that they're there anyway. 

I have also bought a Cuttlebug from HSN.com and love their exclusive raspberry pink edition.  It came with so many embossing folders but I still have my eyes on a couple of others.  This is an invaluable tool in my burgeoning card making endeavors!

So, now on to the DIY Glimmer spray!  I found a cool little scrapbooking store in my neighborhood.  Literally!  It is a 1300 sq. ft. house in my neighborhood that has been converted into a store but you'd never know it from the outside.  Anyway, I took a Cricut class there and got to experiment a little with some Glimmer Mist.  I wasn't too sold on it then but when I researched it a bit I got more excited, especially when I found out how to make my own.  This stuff is pricey at around $7.00 per 2 ounce bottle!!!  So far I've made 4 colors but plan on expanding my collection and also trying other recipes. 

How I made mine:

Fill a 2 ounce spritzer bottle about 2/3 full of rubbing alcohol

Squeeze in some pearlilzed acrylic paint (or regular acrylic paint with some pearl medium added to it)

That's it!  Shake, shake, shake to keep it mixed as the pearl settles to the bottom and will clog up the works very quickly.  I shake then spray, shake then spray and generously cover my item.  I then blot with paper towels and dry with my blow dryer as I haven't bought a heat gun yet.  This mixture costs just pennies compared to Glimmer Mist and your colors are only limited by your imagination.   I chose to use rubbing alcohol rather than water because it dries faster, I think.

I would like to try a recipe I saw that combines alcohol, alcohol inks, and Ranger's Perfect Pearls.  I just bought some Perfect Pearls and saw that my LSS has some Adirondak inks so I'm good to go.

Exploding box

This morning I was watching some HSN that I'd taped on Monday because it's National Craft Month.  I saw the Crafter's Companion Ultimate Craft Tool with Boards (item #264-023) and just had to have it!  I've been wanting to make some of the exploding boxes I've seen all over the place.  I even considered buying an SVG template for the Sure Cuts A Lot but now I'm glad I didn't.  They're so easy and cool as heck!  I kept watching the video over and over and went to my crafting area and made this box.  The scalloped circle and flowers were cut on my Cricut and so was the digi stamp.  I saw the coolest video on YouTube that showed how to do that.  The box is a 12" x 12" sheet and the top is an 8 1/8"x 8 1/8" sheet.  EASY!  I can't wait to get my tool box!  I'm just amazed at how quickly the projects come together.  If you're interested in getting it, make sure you order #264-023 and not #364-395!  They look identical but #264-023 has 54 more embossing templates and is only $5.00 more!

What's going in the box?  I made some Apricot scones and some Iced Maple scones this morning and called two of my friends to come pick some up.  They got two scones in each box.  I wrapped the scones so that they can re-use their boxes if they want to.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

These were the goodies my honey gave me for Valentine's day.  He knew he'd be on duty so he arranged for these to be delivered by ProFlowers.  How sweet.  Since we haven't seen eachother since we went to sleep Friday night, I thought I'd make a special dinner for him tomorrow night.  I'm sure it will have something to do with steak since he's a big steak lover...easy peasy!

My friend, Laura, and her kids were over last night.  While they were on their way, I knew I wanted to make them a little treat for Valentine's day so I put some cookies in the oven and got out my Cricut.  I made them little cookie goodie bags that I think turned out really cute.  I created a little 4" wide scalloped rectangle and a 2" x 1.6" heart using Sure Cuts A Lot, folded the top of the treat bag over, placed the folded rectangle and heart over that, punched holes through them and tied it all together with some ribbon and tulle.  If I were a stamper, I'm sure I could have added a cute little stamp to the mix.

These are three Valentine's banners I made with my Cricut.

New electric tea kettle and artisan bread...woohoo!

Yesterday I met my friend, Pat, at Michael's to look for some crafting supplies.  I was actually looking for some adhesive to use on my Cricut mat to make it sticky again (but that will be another post).  We stopped into Ross next door but I had already made up my mind that I didn't want to spend any more money.  We tend to look for teacups and teapots while there but I had no idea I'd find a Capresso H2O electric tea kettle!  I tried talking myself out of it but thought I'd better carry it around in case someone else saw it.  I've been coveting this tea kettle for quite awhile but didn't want to spend $60 for it.  How much did I spend?  $40!   I love it!  It's so pretty and I love the fact that it's glass instead of plastic but most of all I love the speed at which it boils water.  Of course, as soon as we got back to Pat's house we had to test it out.  We filled it up (48oz) and it probably took no more than 3-4 minutes to come to a boil!  No off odors or tastes that some reviewers complained of, thank goodness!

Now, about the artisan bread.  I borrowed a copy of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois after getting interested in refrigerator bread doughs such as that mentioned in one of the Tightwad Gazette books I read years ago.  This book gives a master bread recipe that requires no kneading and can stay in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks.  The longer it remains refrigerated, the more of a sourdough flavor it takes on.  I was interested in the "no kneading" aspect of the dough as well as being able to take a hunk of dough and bake a loaf of bread with only 40 minutes of rising time as preparation.  Now, my loaf didn't exactly look like the one on the cover of the book, but it really reminded me of something I'd tasted in a restaurant.  It was crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside, like ciabatta.  The hardest part of all was doing what the book instructed and waiting until the bread had completely cooled before cutting it.  The only thing I don't like is that the recipe seems rather salty to me.  Next batch, I'll decrease the salt and see if it affects the outcome at all.   With another portion of this batch I'll try the Sticky Pecan Caramel Rolls.  Yum!  Can't wait.

Homemade "clotted cream" a la Alton Brown

There's nothing I love more on a scone, a bagel, or on a spoon than clotted cream.  After doing a search to see if I could make it at home, I found this technique by Alton Brown.

I know this technique doesn't produce real clotted cream but it's a very good substitute! I usually buy Luxury Clotted Cream from the Devon Cream Company but have to drive about 20 minutes to get it and pay about $5.00 for a 6 oz jar. Now I can have it whenever I want! I used pasturized (not ultra pasturized) heavy whipping cream ($1.99/pint). I tried making it in a small strainer with a regular basket coffee filter with very poor results. I then made it in a small cone filter atop a coffee cup with much more satisfactory results. I found that if I stirred the cream to loosen the thick parts every few hours, I got more "clotted cream" left in the filter.  Alton says that the whey strains through the coffee filter leaving the "clotted cream" but I found the stuff that strains through more like a thick half and half cream than whey and poured it back into the carton to use in coffee.  This is the result of my endeavors:

A couple of Thank You cards done

It's funny how a spark of creativity comes out of nowhere.  Here I was, happily surfing when I got the urge to make a couple of Thank You cards.  Bernie says, "you always need Thank You cards!"  After watching Robyn at The Pink Stamper blog, I was inspired to do these:

Okay, please don't laugh!  I'm new at this, having just gotten my Cricut Expression for Christmas!  Thanks to my friend, Pat, I'm not totally without supplies.  She very generously shared some of hers with me, although I can see how easy it is to get addicted to buying them!  I think this is exactly why I never got into scrapbooking...one more addiction!  I do love how easy it is to just whip them up whenever you need 1 or 10.  LOL

A very un-Domo-kun

Chris and I love Domo-kun!  I decided to try and make our very own Domo but the result wasn't very satisfactory.  I think I made his head too tall.  I really didn't think his contruction through very well.  I'll try again but in the meantime he's hanging around the house.  Not even the dogs will play with him.

Watch Domo 7Eleven Slurpee Episode 1 in Animation  

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