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.