Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Upcycled Wine Bottle for Fall

I am focused on Fall and Halloween!  This recycled wine bottle has a small circle drilled in the back for the short string of lights.  I then used mod podge to glue fall leaf napins to the wine bottle.  I let it dry for a day.  Then I took a string of 20 tiny lights and put them into the wine bottle through the drilled hole so that the plug was at the bottom of the bottle.  Tied raffia around the bottle neck and finished off with a Stampin' Up antigue brad on the center of the bow.

(supplies for this project, an empty wine bottle, a handy man who can drill circles into glass :), paper napkins or you could also use pretty printed tissue paper, a string of 20 tiny lights from Hobby Lobby, mod podge, raffia, hot glue gun, and a Stampin' Up antique brad.)
 I used my fingers to work with the mod podge, but I am still peeling glue off of my rings!  Next time I am going to try to use a sponge brush, I will let you know how that works out.

Have a great week
Be inspired to create!
Tina

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Cute little Goodie Boxes for Halloween!

I am getting ready for Halloween!  I know it is too early to decorate the house, but not to early to start making lots of cool cards and boxes!
These are open top boxes made with a 5 1/2" X 10" piece of heavy card stock and then decorated with ribbon, designer series paper & stamps.   I am not kidding when I tell you that these boxes are very easy to put together!  So easy that I will be making these for Thanksgiving, Christmas and ........ well you get the idea.
You can get the easy directions here. 

 Be inspired to create!
Tina

Sunday, August 19, 2012

A tri fold card for my mother in law


 A big thank you to Nikki Toll for teaching the tri fold card at her class last week.  Although we made a Christmas themed tri fold card, I couldn't wait to try some other options!
And as luck would have it today is my mother-in-law Pat's birthday and my husband John had some photos of her from now and then that he wanted to incorporate into her card.
So I took those photos, grabbed some Twitterpated designer series paper and my new framelits and off I went.   I love these new framelits I am sure I will be using them alot.  I am really pleased with how this little card came out!  I hope she likes it and enjoys the photos!
 I goofed and the card came out too thick, so it would not stay shut.  So I improvised and held it closed with a tiny clothespin embellished with a sweet little button.  "Improvise" and don't get upset when you goof up!  A very valuable lesson, very hard to learn! :)
Be inspired to create!
Tina

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Embellishing to make a frame "POP"

Sometimes just a little touch of bling or a little embellishment can make that special gift just a little bit more special.  These pretty antique brads did just that for a birthday gift.
 Cut the backs off of the brads with wire snips, heat up your handy glue gun, and you can take a frame from ordinary to extraordinary in seconds!
This photo and frame was a birthday gift for my mother in law.  She and her twin sister are featured in this news article.  She was thrilled when she opened this gift!  Such a great memory for her!

Be inspired to create!
Tina

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Framed Scrapbook page for my dad

I must confess that I have never been a fan of the scrapbooking pages.  I have so many photos that I become overwhelmed at the thought of putting just a few photos per page.  Way too much work for me!!
 At Patty Bennett's quarterly meeting in June we made this scrapbook page.  I liked the elements but I just brought it home and tucked it away.  Then I saw that my friend Julia used hers to showcase some very special photos of a relative.  Very good idea!  Still didn't catch on.
Then in an effort to cheer up my dad who has been under the weather I grabbed a few photos of his family from the 1940's! and put them onto the scrapbook page.  I found an 8 X 8 shadowbox at Walmart, framed it and voila! a very sentimental gift!
So you see my friends scrapbook pages aren't for photo books only! They make very special gifts!
 Contact me if you would like information on putting this page together.
Enjoy the rest of your week!
Be inspired to create!
Tina

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Fall yummies and their packages

I am getting my easy goody recipes together for a little event I am planning next month. (Sunday Sept 23rd to be exact--so mark your calenders!)  I have printed these recipes from my Pinterest board  (yummy recipes to try).  Cinnamon sugar pretzels, Cinnamon Churro Chex, and Homemade payday bars.  I will also make butter cookies so I can try out my new Stampin' Up cookie stamps.
Then of course, I need to make some creative packaging to show my guests!
Here is a sneak peak of my recycled packing paper cookie or candy bag.  The brown paper you see in the photo above is recycled from a package I received at work.  I got the idea from Monika's blog
I love ideas that can be modified for any occasion or holiday! This little bag is one of those!
I started with the square scallop bigz die for this easy project! So simple! 
Have a wonderful week!
Be inspired to create!
Tina

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Getting Ready for Fall!!!!

Even though it has been over 100 degrees for several days now, my mind is on Fall!
Maybe because it is cooler then!
I purchased a double set of these cute stamps while I was at the Stampin' Up convention last month.
A set for myself and a set to give away.  I used my set to make cute little tags to wrap them up with.
I am planning a Halloween/Fall candy & cookie sampling next month. Just in the planning stages now.  But this is my idea thus far.  Invite people over to taste some of the candy and cookie recipes I have collected on Pinterest.  To show some cute and easy candy/cookie packaging ideas using my Stampin' Up tools. The cute little stamps will be prizes for my guests!
More info to come as soon as I get all the details taken care of.

I hope you are having a nice weekend!
Be inspired to create!
Tina

Saturday, August 4, 2012

I actually do try some of my Pinterest recipes :)

Hi there! Happy Saturday!  I hope you have had a good week!
I saw one of those funny e-cards the other day and it made me laugh hysterically!
I am going to clean it up a little bit, but it goes like this:
A photo of a little girl eating a sandwich and it reads "My mom has 237 recipes pinned in Pinterest, so why am I eating a stupid bologna sandwich!".
I have 182 recipes pinned.  However, thus far I have tried maybe 5 to 10. Not bad, because some of them are seasonal, like Christmas candy and what not.
And not that the little e-card shamed me into it,  I already had a couple of recipes I wanted to try for dinner last week. (I swear that's the truth)
I am sharing with you the one that was a hit with my husband and a picky teenager. (1 out of 3 teenagers isn't bad, my two teenage boys wouldn't even look at it!)
I tried the Taco Casserole and it was very easy and very tasty!
If you want the recipe go here and give it a try! 



Have a wonderful weekend!
Be inspired to create!
Tina

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Halloween in August?

 I have two cool things to blog about tonight.
The first ties into the 2nd so please bear with me.
I love Halloween!!! I love to bake for it, I love to create for it, I love the colors and I love costumes!
Recently,  my 23 year old daughter Valerie has developed a love of baking.  She gets recipes for different cupcakes and makes them for her roommates.  She text me last night and asked for my lemon bar recipe because she wants to try to turn those into cupcakes.  This makes me very happy!!!
I love that a little bit of my love for baking has rubbed off on her!  It is good therapy!
Well to tie in her love of baking with crafting she is going to start Stampin' Up so she can create packaging for all those cupcakes she is making!!!! She was home this weekend and we went out to my craft table in the garage and looked at my Halloween stamps and talked about working on some Halloween baking packaging.
Which leads me to my 2nd cool thing to announce!
When you sign up to be a demonstrator in the month of August you get this cool Halloween shadow box kit!!! And I get one too!  So yippee for Val and I!!!!
The cost is $99, no shipping! You get to choose $125 worth of Stampin' Up products for $99!
A great deal! Contact me if you are interested in the details.
Hope you are having a wonderful week!
Be inspired to create!
Tina