Another giveaway from Vanilla Joy!!

I love this giveaway on Vanilla Joy!! Free Pattern from BuggaBugs. Click here to check out the giveaway and enter to win! I know my daughters would love this and I just want to buy every pattern and make every one.

Recipe Friday

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies

I saw this recipe on Bakerella and being a huge lover of brownies...these look awesome!! I have not made them yet, because I don't have all the ingredients. But, I can't wait to make them.

	1 box Betty Crocker® Original Supreme brownie mix (with chocolate syrup pouch)
	1/3 cup vegetable oil
	1/4 cup water
	2 eggs
	1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® chocolate chip cookie mix
	1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
	1 egg
	1 container Betty Crocker® Rich & Creamy chocolate frosting

	Print these coupons...
	About Concordance™

	1. Heat oven to 350ºF. Grease bottom only of 13x9-inch pan. Make brownie mix as directed on box, using oil, water and 2 eggs. Spread in pan.
	2. Make cookie mix as directed on pouch, using butter and 1 egg. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls evenly onto brownie batter; press down lightly.
	3. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted 2 inches from side of pan comes out almost clean. Cool completely, about 1 hour. Frost with frosting. For brownies, cut into 8 rows by 6 rows.

To see a picture with each step at Bakerella, click here!

Finished project #1

I have a pile of projects that I have started and I want to finish them before the baby comes (or I will never finish them!).

My daughter has been asking me to make her a blanket so we went to the fabric store, and she picked out which fabrics she wanted. I started sewing the blanket, but for some reason I never finished it. Last night, I decided it was time to finish it (since my daughter kept asking for it daily). I did keep it simple since this is my first blanket that I have made. My daughter loves it!! Now I have to go finish project #2.

Great giveaway

Vanilla Joy is such a great site and always has such awesome giveaways! This is over $100 in Baking Products from Wilton. Click here to go check out the giveaway!!

Here is a picture of just a few of the items from the giveaway

Tutorial Tuesday - Badge Holder Minibook

I found this great tutorial on Splitcoaststampers. It is a great idea and would make a great gift for any mother, grandmother, or anyone else who likes to show off pictures.

Badge Holder Minibook
by Sarah Moore
Use badge holders to create a darling mini album.

Supplies

Badge Holders (Can be found at Walmart or major office supply stores in a horizontal or vertical layout)
Paper Trimmer
Crop-a-dile™ (or “industrial” style hole punch)
Binder Clips (clothes pins or a rubber band will also work)
Loose Leaf Binder Ring or Small Ball Chain
Ribbons
Scrapbooking Materials ("Party Pieces” Simply Scrappin’ Kit by Stampin’ Up! used here)
Stamps
Ink and Markers
Photos
Step-by-Step

Step 1
Decide how many pages the Minibook will be; 4-6 pages thick is recommended. Use binding clips (or other clips or rubber band) to hold all the badge holder sleeves together securely. Punch extra holes (2-4 holes depending on the style of sleeve) on each edge of the badge holder sleeves.Tip: A Crop-a-dile will punch holes in up to 6 sheets at a time. Set the depth alignment on the Crop-a-dile to insure holes match up.

Alternately, create holes with a hand held punch, using a ruler and a permanent marker to mark the hole placement on each sleeve.

Step 2
Use a paper trimmer to cut inserts for the sleeves. The size of the insert will depend on the size of the individual sleeves purchased. In the sample shown, the inserts are 2 3/8” X 3 1/2”.

Step 3
Add photos to pages and embellish with favorite materials. Even thin 3D embellishments like buttons, brads and ribbons can be used and will fit nicely in the flexible sleeves.

Step 4
Insert pages two at a time to prevent sticking into sleeves. Secure sleeves with clips. Thread ribbon through all holes, and tie to bind book. Experiment with various colors, styles and materials of ribbon. Even fabric scraps can be used! Use a square knot (right over left, left over right) for a secure knot. Tip: A drop of adhesive inside the knot can help keep the ribbon secured in place.

Step 5
Affix a loose leaf binder ring or ball chain to your project and your Badge Holder Minibook is complete! This project is wonderful for a mommy’s brag book (clip to a diaper bag), a book for children to show off pictures of schoolmates or family, or even to create a toddler’s “busy book”.

Friday's Recipe - Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

This is a great family recipe that Katie and I grew up with. They are so good and so easy to make.

Peanut Butter Cups

1 lb box powdered sugar

1 paper wrapped graham crackers package -- crushed

1 cup melted butter

1 cup peanut butter, creamy

Mix all ingredients well and press into cookie sheet with sides with aspoon, spreading even.
Melt in pan over boiling water (double boiler) 1 12 oz package of chocolate chips.
Spread evenly over the "cookies".
Cut immediately in even small squares.
Cool in refrigerator.
After cold, can be taken out and served or put on plates.

Awesome giveaway!!

So I was doing my normal rounds of blog stalking, when I checked out Pennies In My Pocket and saw that she is having an AWESOME giveaway. Check out this nice little gadget...

SmartShopper Electronic Grocery List Organizer
I am totally in love with this gadget! And I really want it. Go check out the giveaway by clicking here.

Thank You Card

Here is another thank you card that I have done. It is one of my favorites. It is on the bigger size 4 1/2 in x 5 3/4 in, but I think that it is just so elegant looking. Just goes to show you how many different types of cards you can make.

For this and other cards and other great gifts go to our ETSY shop!

Tutorial Tuesday....a day late :)

I am a day late for Tutorial Tuesday. I had a sick, throwing up child to take care of instead of blogging!

A couple of years ago, my sister wanted to give a movie gift basket as christmas presents, but online they are kinda pricey. So she decided to try and make her own. Well, this sister is not very crafty, so she asked for my help. Now my other sister and I have stolen this idea from her (thanks Marjory!) and I wanted to do a Tuturial Tuesday on how to make these gift baskets. I really like them and they are cheaper than the ones you buy online...which is always nice! And I love how I can personalize the gift basket to each family that I am making it for.

First, I got everything that I needed to make the movie basket.
-Large Popcorn gift box
** I ordered these boxes from www.nashvillewraps.com **
-Popcorn tubs (or big soda cups work great too)
-Assortment of movie candy
-Assortment of popcorn (I have mini bags and kettle corn)
-Hot Chocolate (this is the first time adding this)
-Ribbon
-Fillers to put in the box (I have the red, yellow, green shredded paper)
-Bamboo sticks
-Hot glue gun
-Large plastic gift bag
-The green stuff to poke the bamboo sticks in (sorry...have no idea what it is called)
-Blockbuster gift card or movie or even a netflix gift certificate or whatever you want!

I put the popcorn tubs and green stuff in the box first.
I like to embellish the gift basket a little and make it a little more personal. So I printed out some clipart on cardstock that has to do with the family. Cut that out.

I have never done this before, but I didn't want to leave my bamboo sticks just plain, so I decided to wrap red ribbon around all of them.
Then hot glue the cut out clipart to the ends of the bamboo sticks. And stick it in the green stuff in the box.
Then I put the filler stuff in and filled it to the top of the box.
And now the fun part...shoving all the candy, popcorn, and hot chocolate in the box. I have never made a box that is so full. But, I managed to fit it all in!!
And don't forget to add the gift card or whatever. I still need to buy mine so it is not in there yet!

Ta Da! Finished product. I will add more ribbons and things after I insert the blockbuster gift card :)

Recipe Friday

We decided to start something new. Every Friday we are going to post a new recipe. We love getting new recipes so we wanted to share some of our recipes with everyone.

This recipe is very easy to make and very good. I got the recipe from my SIL.

Crockpot Creamy Italian Chicken

Ingredients:

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
• 1 envelope Italian salad dressing mix
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 package (8 ozs.) cream cheese, softened
• 1 can (10 3/4 ozs.) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
• 1 can (4 ozs.) mushroom stems and pieces, drained (you can leave these out and substitute baby carrots)
  
• Hot cooked rice or noodles (can also do mashed potatoes)

Preparation:

Cut chicken into bite sized pieces and place in slow cooker.
Combine salad dressing mix and water; pour over chicken.
Cover and cook on LOW for 3 to 4 hours.
In a small mixing bowl, Combine cream cheese and soup until smooth. Stir in mushrooms.
Pour cream cheese mixture over chicken. Cover and cook 1 hour longer or until chicken juices run clear.
Serve with rice or hot cooked noodles.

Serves 4.

Scrapbook Tutorial

We are going back to out Tutorial Tuesdays. I decided this week to do a simple scrapbook page. Lots od people scrapbook and some people want to but may not know where to begin. I am going to show you a few simple steps that should help.

1. I have a 12x12 designer paper, 6 photos, and I also have my blank 12x12 white page from the album. Cut your designer paper to fit the white album page. (You also don't have to use the designer paper and put everything just on the blank white page.)

2. In this step you need to place your photos on the page and crop the ones you want croppped but using different cropping tools. I like to do some that are not cropped, and then some that are cropped.

3. Decided how you want them place on the page. BUT do not stick down yet. I like to put my whole design together on the page before I stick anything permanent so that you can decide on what type of embellishments you are going to put on the page.

4. I have my letters cut out from my CRICKET and have put them where I want them. I also like to put a backing on some of the photos, so I add that as well and then make sure I still have room for the design I wanted.

5. I decided that I still needed somethin on this page, so I put a strip of black ribbon on the bottom. But you don't have to and can just keep it simple. In this step you glue or stick everything down with sticky squares, or acid free glue sticks. And Journal. Journaling is important so that when other people way down the road (like grandkids) are reading it they know what was going on.

Thank You Cards

I am just now starting to think about sending my thank you cards out to everyone from the holidays. I made these cute cards last night. I LOVE and am a little obsessed with the little wooden clothespin on it. I saw those at Michaels and thought they were so cute. Anything miniature is always cute!!

If you don't have time to make those cute thank you cards this year, I added this set to our etsy shop. Go check it out!

A Handmade Home

Our sister-in-law has entered the esty world!

WELCOME!!

Click here to go check out her cute things in her etsy shop.

Happy 2009

WOW! Another year has flown by. Katie and I are sorry that not many posts got posted last month. We had one of our grandmothers pass away, which was hard, and with the holidays and Katie traveling and being pregnant it took a toll on our blog. BUT, we are back and ready to go. Our Goal for this year is to get our ETSY store up and going and doing lots of business. We need your help in getting us there. We need you to get our name passed around the blogging world.

I do not know how many of you know but Katie and I do personalized or customized items. I do a lot of scrapbook pages that get put into 12x12 frames, but in order to do them, I need pictures. I am including some samples of some that I have done. They make great gifts and are things that get treasured forever.