Thank You!

I have had such an overwhelming response to my Spring Blocks and I just wanted to thank all of my wonderful readers for their kind comments and all of the emails! You guys are awesome!

I have done some major pondering lately about why I blog. This came to me after reading this post from The Stories of A to Z. (i absolutely love her blog by the way!) After reading this, I really started to wonder why I blog and who I blog for. And after a lot of thought, I have come to the conclusion that I blog for ME and for YOU!

I blog and craft because I love crafting and I feel such a great sense of accomplishment when I make something! It almost keeps me sane...when I get to craft and blog I get to have "me" time (even if that consists of my 2 year old "helping" me.) I really enjoy blogging and crafting my guts out! Plus i am decorating my house one project at a time!!

I love my readers, and I love reading all of your sweet comments! What's even better is seeing other people make my projects and seeing other people get inspiration from my blog. I just LOVE that!

So I just wanted to say THANK YOU!
PS:

I just wanted to do a quick shout out to a couple of great blogs that have featured my blocks! They have great blogs, so be sure to check them out!

**Too Blessed To Stress! Go check out her blog! She just made some "brownie blocks" that are just adorable

**Little Miss Momma! She just made a list of her top 10 tutorials, and I made her list! :) Go check out her awesome blog!

"lucky" Wood Board

Instead of cleaning my house, studying for two tests, and doing other things...I decided to make another craft. :) I found a wood board that I had painted green for something else a long time ago and thought...wow that would be a great St. Patrick's Day decoration!!

So I decided I shouldn't just skip right over St. Patrick's Day and go straight to spring (although, I am sooo ready for spring!!!) I made this "lucky" board! It is a lot like my "be mine" board, but for St. Patrick's Day. I really do like St. Patrick's Day, but I have never really decorated for it. So here it goes! I call it my "lucky board" ...pretty original huh? :)

I even made a tutorial for you all in case you wanted to make one for yourself!

Supplies Needed

1 Wood Board measured 24" x 8"

Green Paint

2 coordinating pieces of srapbook paper.

Hot Glue

Mod podge

buttons

Ribbon

Step 1: Paint your board green. When I painted mine a while back, I had mixed a couple of colors together to get the green I wanted. So I don't have the exact color for you.

Step 2: While your paint is drying cut out the word "lucky" with your Alphalicious cricut cartridge. Mine is 5 3/4"

Step 3: Cut out a shamrock. I just googled shamrock cut out and found this one! It was the perfect size.

Step 4: Trace your shamrock on the back of the paper you are going to use and cut it out.

Step 5: Distress your letters and shamrock with some walnut ink.

Step 6: Mod podge your shamrock and letters on your board (after your paint is dry of course)

Step 7: Add ribbon and buttons to embellish and you are done!!!

I am participating in:
Show and Tell Wednesday
Strut Your Stuff

Spring Blocks with Tutorial

I know spring is kind of far off, but for Craft Night this month we made some Spring Blocks. I love how they turned out!

Here is the tutorial!

Supplies Needed

6 wood blocks, differing in sizes.

6 coordinating pieces of scrapbook paper

2 sheets of lighter color scrapbook paper for your letters. I just used white.

Paint

Mod Podge

Buttons

Ribbon

Hot Glue

Step 1: Cut out your blocks and sand them.

S: 9 x 5 1/2"

P: 6 x 3 1/2"

R: 7 x 5 1/2"

I: 3 1/4 x 4"

N: 5 x 3 1/2"

G: 4 1/2 x 3 1 /4"

Step 2: Paint your blocks. For these blocks I used antique white. I like it because it isn't stark white and it has a little bit of a yellow undertone.

Step 3: While your blocks are drying, cut out your paper to fit the size of each of your blocks.

these are the sizes of paper for my blocks

Step 4: After your blocks are dry, apply a thin layer of mod podge to the FRONT of your blocks and apply your paper. Make sure you flatten it out really well so you don't get any bubbles.

Step 5: While your mod podge is drying, cut out your letters. These are the sizes I used. The font is Alphalicious (cricut machine)

S: 5 3/4"

P: 3 3/4"

R: 6 3/4"

I: 3"

N: 4"

G: 3"

Step 6: Mod podge your letters on the front of your blocks.

Step 7: Add any embellishments and ribbon that you like! If you want to make paper flowers you can find my tutorial here.

You're Done!

I hope you like it! here are some of the ladies making their blocks!

I am participating in:

Market Yourself Monday
Show and Tell Wednesday

Making the World Cuter Monday
Whatever Goes Wednesday

Weekend wrap up party

DIY Day

Motivate me Monday

Craft Night

Tonight is Craft Night and this is a preview of what we are making. I will post the tutorial sometime this week!

(i am so ready for Spring...can't you tell?)

Vintage newspaper add with paper flower

Wow, I can't believe my long weekend is already over! I hope you all had a great Valentine's day! I had a great Valentine's Day. My husband made me breakfast and made a wonderful dinner! (like always, I was in charge of the dessert! I made this and it was delicious! In case you were wondering! )

Since it was a holiday weekend, my local craft store was having a sale on scrapbook paper! 40% off to be exact! So i went hogwild! (probably bought too much ;) but when it's that cheap you gotta splurge!) I found some awesome new paper and a lot of it is vintage inspired! Which i love and my new paper is what inspired this project.

This project was so easy! I got a small wood plaque at wal-mart for a dollar and painted it with antique white paint. I then distressed it with some dark brown ink to make it look older and then I just mod podged a piece of black paper on, then i mod podged the scrapbook paper on top of the black. I made a paper flower and added some ribbon to the side to give it a more vintage look.

I really liked how it turned out and I love the flower. I am really into the vintage look right now. I was a bit worried about posting this project because this is not my normal style, but I have always loved this vintage look so I decided to try something new!

What do you think?

I am participating in

DIY Day
Talented Tuesday
Show and Tell Wednesday
Whatever Goes Wednesday
Craft Therapy

Wheat Sugar Cookies

Like I promised, I made the best sugar cookies ever yesterday and I am going to share the secret family recipe! :) I grew up eating these sugar cookies, and they are addicting. Whenever I say "wheat sugar cookies" people look at me like i'm nuts for making a sugar cookie with wheat flour! I promise they are delicious and everyone that I know loves these cookies!! We make them almost every year for Valentine's Day! This year Hannah and I made them together! (well, she mostly just ate the dough and licked the frosting bowl!)

So here's the recipe!

1 cup shortening

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

5 cups whole wheat flour (sifted)

2 cups white flour (sifted)

8 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup of sour milk (1 cup of milk add 4 tsp vinegar)

Directions:

Cream your shortening and sugar, then add your eggs and cream until smooth. Slowly add your wheat flour and white flour then add in your baking powder, salt, baking soda, and then add your sour milk. Mix until dough comes together.

Chill dough at least 1 hour.

Roll out 1/4" thick and cut with cookie cutters. Bake at 350* for 7-10 minutes (depending on the size of your cookies)

Cool cookies completely before frosting!

Now for the frosting....I make my frosting by just throwing some ingredients into a bowl. (my mom taught me how to make frosting and I have never been able to make it quite like hers but, I'm getting closer!) I tried to measure my ingredients but I just make it until i like the consistancy!

1 whole package of powdered sugar

3 heaping Tablespoons of shortening

Canned Milk (evaporated milk)

1 tsp Vanilla

With an electric mixer, start mixing your shortening and sugar together and slowly add in evaporated milk until it's the consistency you like. Mix in your vanilla and any food coloring you prefer.

**you could definitely use store bought frosting, or your favorite homemade frosting for these cookies!

Frost your cookies!

I am participating in: Talented Tuesday and Show and Tell Wednesday

Inspire Frame with Paper Flowers Tutorial

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I don't even know where my weekend went! All I know is we had some great food last night and we tried that Spicy Artichoke Dip I posted about and it was YUMMY! It is definitely a keeper! Today I am making the MOST delicous Sugar Cookies, and guess what?! They are made with Whole Wheat flour! They are to die for seriously! I will post about them tomorrow! So be sure to check back tomorrow for that recipe!

Okay on to my "inspire" Frame...I really enjoyed making this project. This project literally cost me $2.00 to make at the most and it is so simple anyone can make this! Okay here we go!

Supplies Needed:

1 - 8.5 x 11" frame (it's called a document frame and I got mine at the dollar store)

1 piece of black cardstock

1 piece of scrapbook paper (i used sheet music paper for mine)

3 black buttons

1 - 12 x 12" piece of black vinyl

Hot glue

Distressing Ink

Step 1: Take the insides out of your frame. You aren't going to use the glass or anything just the frame itself.

Step 2: Draw about 5 circles for each flower. Ranging from large to small. So you need to cut 15 circles out that go from large to small for each flower. (you want to have 1 large flower, 1 medium flower and 1 small flower)

Step 3: Cut out your circles

Step 4: Scrunch up each circle into a ball and then undo it. This makes it have more texture and looks more like a flower.

Step 5: ink the edges of each of your circles.

Step 6: Starting with your biggest circle, hot glue the next size circle on top of your large circle and then repeat until you have about 5 circles on top of each other. Do this so you have three flowers total. One large flower, one medium flower, and one small flower

Step 7: hot glue your buttons to the middle of each flower.

Step 8: Cut out a black piece of cardstock and hot glue your flower onto the cardstock. Do this for each flower

Step 9: Arrange your flowers on your frame however you like and then hot glue them in place.

Step 10: Cut the word "inspire" out of vinyl with your Cricut Cartridge "home accents" I cut mine 2 1/2 inches tall and it is about 10 inches wide. (if you don't have a cricut machine, you can definitely find already cut out vinyl at your local craft store)

Step 11: Hang your frame on the wall.

Step 12: Place your vinyl in the middle of your frame directly onto the wall.

And your done!!!

I hope you like it! Be sure to check back tomorrow for the best sugar cookies ever! :)

I am participating in Market Yourself Monday, Metamorphosis Monday, Make it for Monday, Do it yourself Tuesday, Get your Craft on, Just whipped something up Monday, Talented Tuesday