Hand drawn Minnie Mouse Tote Bag

I started this project for a girlfriend's daughter awhile ago and just got around to finishing it. I drew on a canvas tote bag with fabric markers. I am still trying to find the best products to use but what I have is working for now.

Christmas Crayons

My son, Domenic and I, made thess Christmas tree and Gingerbread Men crayons for his kindergarten class holiday party. We just peeled crayons and broke them into pieces and put them in silicone molds and baked them in the oven. I had them in nice bags but didn't take any pictures so this is the best I have!

Candy Cane Wreath

I made this wreath for Domenic's teacher at school for Christmas.  I put it in a pizza box and all the students will write their name on the box.  It took quite a lot of candy canes and hot glue but it was worth it.  The finished product looked great. 

Thanksgiving Turkey Cookies

I made these turkeys out of oreo cookies, reese's peanut butter cups, chocolate malt balls,chocolate frosting, candy corn and red and yellow frosting for the nose, eyes, and feet.

It was very easy to do.  I started out by putting two oreos together with the chocolate frosting.  I placed a book behind it for stability and allowed it to sit for a few minutes before I placed the candy corn on the top.  I also used the chocolate frosting to place the candy corn inside the oreo and then placed the other half back on . 

I then used the chocolate frosting again to hold the reese's peanut butter cup and the malt ball together.  I used it again with the candy corn for the wings and just drizzled on the feet and nose and dotted the eyes with red and yellow frosting.

They came out great and it was a big hit with the kids on Thanksgiving!

Tigger & Pooh Christmas

I think my new thing is EMBOSSING!  You really can't mess up.  And it helps that Mom has an enormous collection of embossing folders.   She said she has never used this one and that's just not right!  The hats are from the Cricut Holly Jolly cartridge.  I experimented with Diamond Dust and I think I put too much glue on the hat fur because the paper got all soggy LOL!   Once it dried it stiffened up again so all was good.  I used Martha Stewart fine glitter on the pom pom.  The banner tag is by Just Rite and the sentiment is a Whimsical Designs stamp.  The ribbon is American Crafts and the metal Santa hat is a brad.  I broke off the metal prong and used a really sticky glue dot to attach it to the tag.  I didn't like the way it looked and tried to remove it but that sucker is on there for life!  I have another embossing card to post, probably tomorrow.  Thanks for visiting!

Here's my two little elves.  Angelo is on the left, Domenic on the right.  Angelo goes for chemo at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in NYC and they have the most magnificent Christmas trees in the lobby.  We couldn't resist the photo opportunity!

Angelo is doing great and will start his LAST chemo cycle after Christmas.  The tumor is almost gone!

Pumpkin Crayons in Brown Bags

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!  I am finally sharing one of my crayon projects with you.  I've been making these fun shaped crayons for the past year or so but I keep forgetting to take pictures.  These are for my son's Kindergarten class.   I'm at my parents' house since Saturday and I have to give them a shout out for helping with peeling the paper off of the hundreds of crayons that I used.  Once the crayons are free of paper, I break them up and put them in the jack-o-lantern shaped silicone muffin trays and bake until melted.  Then let them cool down before putting in fridge for a final chill.  The pumpkin tags are from the Cricut.  I used Stretch Your Imagination and used a clear stamp for the Happy Halloween.  I folded over the top of the bag and punched two holes through the tag and bag and then attached the tags with kraft ribbon.  I added Stickles to the stem and leaf.  I put the crayons in glassine bags before putting them into the paper bags.  It's a bit time consuming to make these crayons, especially since I only bought two silicone mold trays, each one has six pumpkins on it, so I could only make twelve at a time.     But the kids love them so that makes it all worth it!

Here's how they look, all packaged up.  There are 21 children in his class, so I made 22 of these bags.  Each one has 3 pumpkin crayons in it.

This is what the Wilton molds look like

I'd like to wish you all a fun and safe Happy Halloween!  Here's my little helper, Domenic, in his silly Halloween pajamas.  

Fireplace Ghosts

Hello friends!  Thanks for stopping by.  Here's a quick and fun project I made for Halloween.  I saw this on Pinterest and immediately started saving my plastic one-gallon milk and water containers.

  I guess I should've waited till night time to take the photos so you could see them glowing, but you get the idea.

 I made the faces, free-hand style, using a black Sharpie.  I cut a small hole in the back of each container so I could insert the battery operated tea light candles.   

Hot Air Balloon Birthday Card

I am not the most consistent blogger, but it's hard to find time to keep up. The hubby is away on business so I'm spending time with the boys at my parents house.  Here's a fun card that I made using some My Creative Time dies and stamps.  I do enjoy using the Cricut but I also like how quickly I can get a card done using dies, stamps and coloring.  I watched a few You Tube videos on coloring with Copics and I'm getting the hang of it.  I stamped a few of these balloons and did about 3 practice runs before getting the results I achieved on this one.  I have been sketching and coloring since grammar school I think these Copics will be my new best friend.  

To create the grass, I randomly cut three pieces of scrap paper and used 3 different cuttlebug folders.  The balloon and clouds are from the Fly Away With Me dies and stamp sets by My Creative Time.  The sentiment is from the Card Sentiments stamp set that comes with the 3x3 Trifold Card die.  I don't have much crafting supplies at my house, just a Cricut and a few cartridges, a Cuttlebug with a couple of folders and a very small supply of paper and embellishments, so you can imagine how much I enjoy crafting when I'm in my mom's craft room!  

Batty Branches

Here's a cute home decor project for Halloween that won't break the bank.  I gathered a couple of small branches from the back yard and spray painted them black.  I cut some bats in black card stock from the Happy Hauntings Cricut cartridge.  I made several different sizes, somewhere around the 1.75" to 2" range.   Then I poked a small hole in each wing and randomly tied the bats to the branches using black thread.

"Back to School" Card for Teacher

I spent the weekend at my Mom's house and helped my little guy, Domenic, make a card for his teacher.  He starts Kindergarten next week and is so excited.  

The crayons are from a Peachy Keen stamp set.  Domenic colored them up using Prisma markers. 

The sentiment is a My Creative Time stamp.  I cut out a square using a Nestabiltie.

That's it!  Thank you for visiting my blog!

Wedding Song Lyric Tree

I am very excited to be sharing this project with you.  I must admit that I did not create this idea.  I came across it on Pinterest and decided to make one.  Of course, I had to go to my mom's house because I knew she'd have everything I need, except for the frame.   I purchased the frame at Michael's (pre-matted with a shadowbox effect) and then started on the project.  

The first thing I did was find the lyrics for my Wedding Song -- "I Swear" by All 4 One.  I arranged it in Microsoft Word, removing all of the hard returns and then copying and pasting until it filled up the page.  Also, I set the orientation to landscape.   I made the margins as small as the program would allow and then printed it on a nice, heavy card stock.  For the tree, I used the Cricut Zooballoo cartridge.  My mom gave me a quick lesson using the Cricut Craft Room software and I was able to stretch the tree and make it as big as I could, without extending past the printed text margins.  I can't believe I got this to work on my first try!  

For the hearts, I used Grungeboard.  I've never heard of this before and I think the possibilities are endless with this material!  I used an Original Sizzix die.  I don't know the name but it has 3 hearts on it.  I used the largest heart, in the Cuttlebug.  I just used the die and two B plates.  I painted the hearts with red scrapbook paint by Making Memories.  So far, so good!   The textured card stock grabbed my attention and I knew it would make a perfect background.  I'm not sure how well it shows up in the pictures.  I applied foam sticky squares to the back of the tree and placed it on the background.  I let the paint on the hearts dry and then added alpha stickers, representing my husband's and my initials.  Then I tied the bakers twine to the tree limb and added foam squares to the back of the hearts, pulled the string to keep it straight and then stuck the heart down and snipped off the excess twine.