I really should have spent the afternoon cleaning my craft room. Next Saturday, I am having some friends over to craft, have fun and eat! Sounds like a good day, doesn’t it? Well, before my friends come over, i will need to clean up. Not just the front rooms, you know, the living room, bathroom and kitchen. But the craft room too. Usually, I just wouldn’t let anybody go upstairs. Just like when I was a kid and threw everything in the closet and called it clean. No, I have to clean upstairs, too. My friends will want to see my stash of cool papers, die cuts and assorted machines. I wouldn’t want to disappoint anyone.
So what did I do instead? I made really cute treat boxes. I don’t know why I went with a baby theme, but I did.
Last weekend was absolutely beautiful. So we spent a lot of it walking around town checking out all the cool houses. I walk a lot slower than my husband, so he needs to have something to look up on his phone while we walk. So every cool house gets looked up on Zillow – the square footage, number of rooms, bathrooms, when it was built and anything else listed. I try to guess the price and am never right.
On Monday, after our walk, I thought I should make something patriotic. So I pulled out my vintage heart flag letterpress block and got to work. I pressed the heart in blue ink on white Lettra Crane cotton paper. I used Sizzix nested squares to cut out the flag, red mat and window. I really liked how they turned out. Hope you like it!
As I have said at least a million times, I love die cuts! There is just something wonderful about taking a plain card or a box die, choosing just the right paper and rolling it through the Accucut Grande Mark or Sizzix Bigshot. You have the perfect base to do something incredible. Or sometimes you really miss the mark and have to start all over. And you can, because you have the die cut.
I used to send all my flops to my mother. She didn’t care what the card looked like, she was just happy to hear from me. She passed away a few years ago, and my pile of flops has grown. Every time I create something that isn’t quite right, I think of my mom. Weird, I know, but at least there is something positive that comes out of these flops!
My newest die is for a card-in-a-box. It has all the cut and score lines, so you don’t have to measure a thing. I also recently got a Sizzix thinlets die set with coordinating stamps. The flowers in the set are lovely! I used Copic markers to hand color each of the flowers, the bees and ladybugs. The happy birthday sentiment was letterpressed with purple ink.
This card certainly wasn’t a flop; my mother would have loved it.
If you have read my last couple of posts, you will see a trend of me helping my friend with a few items for her daughter’s wedding. The wedding is today! On Friday I finished up the last few items. She asked me to put together some dessert menus. So I did!
All the desserts sound so tasty!
The burnt sugar and blood orange cream puff would be to die for. I really hope there are left overs.
Please send positive thought to my friend’s daughter for a long and happy life with her new husband!
I recently bought an antique 8 x 12 letterpress machine. It is a beautiful 1881 Golding Jobber #6. To get it going you push the fly-wheel and then use the foot treadle to keep it going. It is 1200 pounds of cast iron and she works like a dream. It is amazing how well this is built. My press is similar to the one below:
Letterpress
On Sunday my friend Rachel and I put it to good use. We hand set type, used my die cutting machine to cut out A1 sized cards, locked up the chase, inked the plate and made some cards. We had a great time playing with my toys!
I just finished making 150 mustaches on a stick for our upcoming retiree dinner. This event will be so much fun! We have a circus theme and every attendee will get a mustache and a clown nose. These will go great in our photo area, along with our circus animals and strong man bar bell.
I went on vacation to Arizona for spring break and came back sick as a dog. My throat is still sore and I have a lingering cough. Usually I can deny being sick, but it didn’t work this time. Of course work did not stop, and I have been leaving the house at 7 AM and coming home at 7 PM, so I haven’t gotten the rest that I need. Good thing I love my job!
I was finally able to do something crafty this week. My friend’s daughter is getting married in May and her bridal shower is in a week and a half. For the shower my friend asked me to make favors, little wedding dress boxes. I gave her three options to choose from:
Dress Box with Satin RibbonDress Box with Pink BlingDress Box with Flowers
Which box do you like the best?
I look forward ward to getting back to my year of craftiness; more projects and more blog posts!
This past Saturday I co-hosted a baby shower for one of my good friends. You would think I would have gone way overboard on decorations and favor boxes. But I didn’t. I spent all my energy on the food! I made a delicious baked French toast with pecans, mini quiche (vegetarian and with ham), deviled eggs with a hint of habanero sauce, a cheese plate, crackers, fruit, yogurt, chips and mini cupcakes. Everything was so tasty.
Tasty Food for the Baby Shower
I did one crafty thing for the shower. I put together a mini album where each guest wrote a bit of advice then we added a picture. Here is what a blank page looked like.
Baby Shower Book
The basic recipe for the baked French toast is:
1 French baguette, cubed
8 eggs
2 cups milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla
Topping
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup butter
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
1/2 cup brown sugar
Put the bread in a 9 by 13 pan, mix ingredients and pour over bread. Cover and put in the fridge overnight. In the morning, mix up the topping and sprinkle over the top. Add pecans if you want. Bake for 1 hour at 350. Yummy!
My friends and I decided we need to spend more time hanging out. So we are instituting a monthly craft day. Every one brings her own project, and the hostess of the month makes a light lunch. Today was our first craft day. Our crafts included knitting a scarf, digital scrapbooking, creating a stash of cards, felting and making party favors. It was a blast getting some work done and chatting.
Lunch was a fabulous home-made white bean and kielbasa soup with fresh bread and pie for desert. Health and delicious!
Ingredients
1 pound dried white beans (such as great northern or navy)
14 ounces kielbasa, halved lengthwise and sliced 1/2 inch thick
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 large onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
5 ounces baby spinach (6 cups)
Directions
1. In a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker, combine the beans, kielbasa, broth, tomatoes (and their juices), onion, garlic, rosemary, and 1 cup water.
2. Cover and cook until the beans are tender, on low for 7 to 8 hours or on high for 5 to 6 hours.
3. Just before serving, stir in the spinach. Serve with the bread.
i was working on party favors for my friend’s son’s first birthday. They are having a farm themed party, so cute. The favors will be a small box filled with treats and toys. The boxes will have a little sheep on them with the sentiment “Thank Ewe!” Hoe cute is that!
I used the Stampin’ Up set On the Farm, with black Memento ink and colored the image with Copic makers. The sentiment was printed.
Stampin’ Up! makes the cutest stamps. I buy new sets and used sets and may have even stolen a set from my sister once. I have even bought the same set more than once! I was so excited yesterday because I had four eBay packages waiting for me when I got home.
The stamp set Very Punny is fabulous and I had fun putting together this tickled pink card. I stamped the little pig on a white background, colored him with Copic markers, mounted him on a medium pink square and put it all together on a light pink card stock. Hope you like him!
longdogletterpress 