Winner of the Cookbook Giveaway

The Cedar Fort Cookbook giveaway winner is:

JustYollie said: I would like to win "101 Gourmet Cupcakes In 10 Minutes" Thanks for the chance to win!

JustYollie--will you please email [email protected] to get your cookbook!

You have until Wednesday, February 3, 2009 to respond!

Thanks everyone for entering and a big thanks to Cedar Fort for sponsoring the giveaway!!!

Valentine's Box Contest and a Boutique

I love Valentine's Day and all the fun decorations and projects you can make for V-day! I also remember as a kid, my favorite part of Valentine's day was making my own Valentine's box. Mine was usually just made out of a shoebox...nothing too spectacular or anything...but it was always fun to make them! I love all the new Valentines Day boxes I'm seeing on all of your crafty blogs and this is why I am bringing up this AWESOME contest!

If you have made a Valentine's box you HAVE to enter it into this contest!!! If you win, the prize is AMAZING! Are you ready for this! It is a package of 25 books retailed at $350!!!! This is amazing, especially if you are a reader like i am!!! I am definitely entering this contest, and YOU should too! I know a ton of you are making boxes for your kids, so why not enter it in the contest!

Go here to find out all the details and how to enter! There has only been 1 entry so far, so the odds are totally in your favor!!!

Also, if you are in the Utah County Area, you should go to my friends craft boutique she is having on Saturday! Go here to find about all the details!

I hope you all start working on those V-day boxes!! Have a great weekend everyone!!

Paper Heart Trees Tutorial!

Okay, for Craft Night this month we made my Paper Heart Trees! It was so much fun and everyone did such a great job making them!!!

I have now made 4 Paper Heart Trees...and I am done! I love them...but can I just say that I am sick of cutting out hearts!!

Okay so here we go!

Supplies needed:

1 - 8 1/2 by 11" frame

1 piece of Black Cardstock 8 1/2 by 11" (make sure you cut this to fit your frame! Sometimes this size is a little too big so make sure it fits!)

1 piece of pink cardstock cut to 11" x 6"

1 piece of brown cardstock for the tree.

20-25 hearts cut out of coordinating scrapbook paper. My sizes range from 1/2"- 1 1/2"

The word "love" cut to 1 1/2 inches tall

6 buttons

Red ribbon

Ink

Glue Stick

Hot Glue

Scissors

Step 1: Cut your black piece of cardstock to fit your frame

Step 2: Cut your pink piece of cardstock 11" x 6"

Step 3: Trace your tree template onto a brown piece of paper and cut out

Step 4: Glue your tree on the center of your pink paper

Step 5: Ink the edges of all of your hearts and letters. This helps them stand out on the paper better.

Step 6: Place your hearts all around your tree until you like the way it looks then glue them on

Step 7: Hot glue buttons on some of the hearts.

Step 8: Glue your letters on the side of your black pannel

Step 9: Hot glue your buttons in between your letters.

Step 10: Tie your ribbon around where the pink paper meets the black paper and just tie a knot

Now place your paper in your frame and your done!!

This was so fun for a craft night project and only cost 6 dollars per person to make!!

Here are all the ladies showing off their new Paper Heart Trees!!

I am participating in SYS at Somewhat Simple

"XOXO" Rag Garland

I said I was going to make one of these and I finally got it done! I got my inspiration from here.

I LOVE how it turned out and it was so simple to make.

This garland is so easy to make!

The base of the garland is a large piece of ribbon about 2 inches wide. To make the garland all you need is some fabric to make the garland itself. Rip your fabric into strips and then cut the strips to be about 5-6 inches long. Then just tie each piece of fabric onto your ribbon base until you like the look of it. I made mine really full because I had a lot of fabric scraps.

To make the "XO's" and the hearts, I bought some wood letters and hearts from my local craft store that cost about .75 cents and my husband drilled a small hole in the corner of each letter and heart so that I could tie a ribbon to hang them. To decorate the letters, just use some mod podge to apply some scrapbook paper to the letters and embellish with buttons and ribbon! To finish just hang your letters and hearts with some ribbon and your done! So easy!

Also, don't forget to enter my free Cookbook giveaway sponsored by Cedar Fort. You have until this Friday to enter! Good Luck! Go HERE to enter!

I am participating in Get Your Craft On at Today's Creative Blog , Talented Tuesday at My Fruagl Family, Show and Tell Wednesday at Blue Cricket Design, SYS with Somewhat Simple and Do it yourself day at A Soft Place To Land

Fabulous Cookbook Giveaway and a New Sponsor

Hey everyone! I am really excited to announce a sponsor of Inspiring Creations and a fabulous giveaway! I don't know about you, but I LOVE new recipe books! And these recipe books are awesome!

Hi! My name is Gillian and I work at Cedar Fort, a Publishing Company and I'm really excited to sponsor this awesome giveaway!

Cedar Fort (go here to check it out!) sells books, scripture totes, art, audio books, and much more. A lot of what you see at Deseret Book are things we distribute to them. I manage the blogs at Cedar Fort and manage their facebook and twitter pages.

We have 5 really great blogs with a ton of fun recipes, crafts, advice and awesome promotions! They are:

Cedar Fort Recipes

On our recipe blog, we share a meal plan every Monday, and through out the week, post recipes from the recipe books we have published, or somewhere from the internet. We also share cooking tips and would love to do recipe swaps with other bloggers out there.

Cedar Fort Books

On our Book blog, we share book reviews, author interviews, and upcoming books that will be new each month. This blog is open for discussion and we love comments!

Mommy 101

On our mommy blog, we share stories about parenting, memories, funny things your kids say, any tips you can share, and occasional crafts and other projects. We are always looking for people to submit stories to us. This blog is a blog for mothers to share about their joy in their journey as a parent

Cedar Fort Money Wise Blog

On our Money blog, we share tips about money from books we have published dealing with debt, saving money, credit cards, budgeting, and more.

Cedar Fort Valentine's Blog

Last, but not least, we have a Valentines Day Blog. (We did have a Christmas Blog, but after Christmas it was deleted.) On this blog, we share Valentines Day gift ideas, recipes, décor and EVERY thing Valentines Day!

That being said- we also hold giveaways, contests, and share coupons/promotional codes weekly. On the Valentines Day blog, we are holding a HUGE contest until February 14th at MIDNIGHT! We want all of you to join! All you have to do is send me a picture of your CREATIVE Valentines Day Box and you will be entered in it! You can vote on others boxes by commenting on each entry. The prizes are {FANTASTIC} Grand Prize will get 25 Books valued at over $350! There will also be a second and third place winner. To check out more details- go here

So- for all of you reading this- lets do a contest! The prizes are:

“The Domestic Diva’s Cookbook” written by Patricia and Keely Hemming,

and “101 Gourmet Cupcakes In 10 Minutes” Wendy Paul.

The winner will get to choose one book of their choice- and we will ship it to you FREE if you are anywhere in the United States. Here is what you have to do:

You can enter three different ways! Be sure to leave a comment for EACH entry!

1. Leave a comment saying what book you want

or


2. Twitter, Facebook, or Blog about it- and let me know you have done it by leaving another comment

or


3. Follow one of our blogs and leave a comment saying you did
Cedar Fort Recipes
Cedar Fort Books
Mommy 101
Cedar Fort Valentine's Blog and
Cedar Fort Money Wise Blog


Be sure to leave your email so we have a way to contact you!!!

And that’s it! The winner will be chosen at random and will be announced next FRIDAY the 29th at 2:00 PM.

Thanks Lindsey for letting us post on your blog today!

Okay everyone! I am so excited about this giveaway and I hope you all get to know Gillian and go check out her awesome blogs!!! Be sure to enter before next friday the 29th and GOOD LUCK!

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED

Valentine's Garland

Okay, I found this fabulous garland from one of my readers and had to post it because i LOVE It! It is so fun and cute for Valentine's day! You can find it here! Go check it out! I am definitely making this project! Thanks Stephanie for sharing this fun project!!!

If you have a Valentine's day craft that you made, I would love to hear from you! You can email me at linzaliz15 @ hotmail . com or leave me a comment!

Mini Matchbox Valentine's

I got this idea from my Mini Matchbox Christmas Tree. I have a bunch of mini matchboxes left over from that project, so I decided to make them into mini matchbox Valentine's. They are so tiny and cute. You can give one of these to your sweetheart with a love note in it OR if you were really ambitious you could make them for your child's class for Valentine's day and put a miniature hershey chocolate (they fit perfect) inside each one.

I am participating in:

Talented Tuesday, Strut your Stuff Thursday, Crap I've Made, and Show and Tell Wednesday

Mini Clipboard Frames with tutorial

Okay, so I was originally going to make some of those really cute post it note holders that I have seen a couple places now. You can find them here. So I bought the frames at the dollar store and started to make them, but they ended up turning into this! The cutest little clipboard frames.

These would look so cute on your desk in your office or just sitting on a end table. They are so small and cute they would look good just about anywhere. These were so fun and simple to make and they only cost me a buck to make them because I had all of the supplies on hand except the dollar store frame.

Okay, so here is the tutorial

Supplies Needed

1 plastic dollar store frame

2 coordinating pieces of scrapbook paper (i used scraps that i had because the frames are so small they don't require a lot of paper)

1/2 yard of ribbon

1 metal clipboard hardware piece (i have no idea what to call these)

Sticker saying (i have a bunch of stickers that just have sayings on them. If you don't have something like this you could make your own

Mod Podge

Hot glue

1 wallet size picture

Step 1: Measure a piece of scrapbook paper to fit your frame.

Step 2: Apply a thin layer of mod podge to the frame and glue on your paper.

Step 3: cut out a small strip of coordinating paper and mod podge it to the bottom of your frame.

Step 4: hot glue a piece of ribbon on top of the strip of paper you just glued on.

Step 4: Hot glue your saying on the right side of your frame.

Step 5: Tie a ribbon around the top portion of your frame.

Step 6: Glue your hardware on your frame using hot glue.

Step 7: Cut out a piece of paper a little larger than your wallet size photo.

Step 8: clip on your photo and your done!

This picture is just for perspective, to show how small the frames are.

I am participating in:

Talented Tuesday and Show and tell Wednesday

"heart tree" and some advice

Okay, I am ready for it to be February! I've made another Valentine's Decoration that is super simple to make and really inexpensive. I decided to call it "heart tree" I like how it turned out and it was so easy to make! You could also make this into a card or even have your kids help you make it.

It was really easy to make and all you need is:

a small frame

paper

buttons

ribbon

glue

All I did to make this was cut out a bunch of hearts with my cricut machine in different sizes ranging from an inch to 1/2 an inch. To make the tree I just free handed a tree and cut it out of brown paper. I also cut out the word "love" to add to the side. To finish it off just add some buttons and a ribbon.

So fun and inexpensive. I hope you like it!

Okay, so now for the advice part. I have a dilemma. I am trying to potty train my little girl and since she is my first, I have no idea what I'm doing. :) It is not as simple as I thought!! I have tried a couple of different things with her and I know she is ready and she is interested, but for some reason she just won't go in the potty. So.........i am looking for any suggestions or advice that you might have!!! Any suggestions would help!! :)