Homemade Vanilla Extract

This is one of the easiest things I've ever made. Homemade Vanilla Extract. Who knew vanilla extract was basically booze and vanilla bean? Not me! I know the store bought has some sugar in it as well (not much) but that's basically what it is. This gift idea started last Christmas for me when I saw the idea somewhere online. I decided I wanted to make it as gifts for the next Christmas season so instead of making big bottles of it...I went to the NH Liquor store and bought a bunch of vodka nips. They were so cute and pretty (especially the really GOOD vodka) so I bought a bunch. It's pricier than buying one big bottle and getting a bunch of empty plain bottles but I didn't care. Kettle One is my favorite vodka so of course I had to get a bunch of them. Next was the vanilla bean...had no idea where to get it but I found some at Costco. Gosh, I love that store! Each bottle has a half of a vanilla bean (sliced in half and the long way to expose the insides-looks like 2 pieces). I'm sure you could put more but remember...this is my first try. Shake it up and close bottle and put in dark closet/cabinet for at least 4 months. Mine have been sitting for almost a year now!

Fun part is that as you use it, you can add more vodka to the beans to keep it going for quite a while! I've also heard you can use other liquors like rum as long as it's at least 40% alcohol so I may experiment for next years batch...yummy!

Mason Jar Yankee Swap

Well, it's that time of year...Yankee Swap time! The 4H Aviculture club XMas party is once again at my house this year and we always do a Yankee Swap. Here's what I came up with this year. It's not original but perfect for a Chicken Club! Mason jars are one of my favorite things so I bought a chick feeder at the local Agway...filled a mason jar (not the wide mouth ones!) and decorated it. Easy peasy! Cost with the candy was probably about $10.00 which is our limit for the swap.

Forever Love...

Here's my birthday gift to my future daughter-in-law Kim. A couple years ago I purchased a Creative Memories Every Day Display where she can display photo's or scrapbook pages that I usually made for her. My son Travis recently said she's really like a new page to display so I took a pic of the two of them that I took on Thanksgiving and created a new digi page for her to display.


Ingredients: Digi paper by Cosmo Cricket "Early Bird" which was purchase on Jessica Sprague's website. The font is "Pea Picky Panda".

Birthday Card for my niece Devyn

Over the summer I bought some Just Rite stamps which I really didn't understand but they were on sale so of course I had to buy them. The block is round which came with semi-circle stamps to attach. I couldn't figure out why they didn't sell the bottom half of the round stamps so I ordered a teeny tiny alphabet set that's supposed to fit in the block to personalize the stamp. Clear as mud? Ya, me too! Anyways...I tried it out tonite since I needed to make my niece a card for this weekend and I'm really happy with the result. It wasn't as hard to do the teeny letters as I thought but I definitely needed my reading glasses!


Here's the card I made. As you can see, I was able to put a personalized message on the bottom half of the circle.

Ingredients:

Paper: Basic Grey "Sprinkles" from Two Scoops Pack, Pink glitter adhesive paper

Stamps: Cupcake is from the A Muse Cupcake Set, Flower is A Muse "Tiny Flower", sentiment is all Just Rite stamps

Ink: Stampin' Up! "Pink Passion" & "Pretty in Pink", edging ink Color Box chaulk "Chestnut Roan"

Other Goodies: Quickie Glue Pen, Pink Glitter, Glaze Pen, Memory Box Card & Nestibilities

Ghoulfriend

I'm participating in a Ghoulfriends swap on Scrapshare. I've never done it before but basically you get a secret Ghoulfriend that you shop and send a fun package to. We all fill out a questionaire to help our ghouldfriend buy/create for us. Since my craftroom is pretty much closed for business until it gets moved upstairs, I had to buy most of my recipients goodies. Here's the package I'm sending her.

I managed to make one thing. I found this fun project making pretty mini legal pad holders out of decorative file folders. I also simply decorated a RSVP pen.

Whimsy Jars!

I just thought I'd share a fun swap I did on a message board I frequent. It was called a Whimsy Jar Swap. Whimsy Jars are just that...jars filled with whimsy. Since the board is more of a scrapbooking board, the jars were filled with scrapbooking items. We were all assigned a secret partner to fill a jar for with only a color scheme to go by. The person I filled a jar for wanted red, black and white. Here's the jar I sent her all the way to West Virginia...

I received an amazing jar in return from another person but I can't find the pics right now! When I find them, I'll definitely post.

Digi Layout - Blissful Memories

Here's a second entry in the Polka Dot Plum "Perfect Picnic" Kit contest with Persnickity Prints...

SS Sketch Challenge - Week 33

This layout has a few elements from Tropical Popsicle by Peppermint Creative but the papers and most of the elements are from Color Me Happy by Jennifer Labre Designs. The sketch was from the Scrapbooks, Etc. website. I use CM SBC+ software to do all my digital scrapping. The pics are Jessy on vacation...

Digi Layout - Clubbin'

Here's a layout using this great free kit I downloaded from Persnickity Prints called

Perfect Picnic from Polka Dot Plum.

Digi Recipe Page - Beer Margaritas

Mmmmm...Beer margaritas! Another page to put in my recipe scrapbook. I'm slowly collecting recipes to put together for the kids.

School's almost out!

Well, it's June and school's almost out. Jessy is almost done with 7th grade FOREVER. I was always hoping that my baby would never grow up but I'm just going to have to face the fact that it's going to happen just like with the other two. I'm feeling so old lately! Here's a couple layout that I did for Jessy. One is with her besty and the other is a mish mosh of 7th grade...

This first layout is using a template from a blog Brenda Mc? I ran across...can't remember right now and the papers and elements are from Scraps of Ellay "Fayries".

This template was a freebie from Creative memories. The layout is a total mismatch of kits...Misty Cato Designs "Chatty" & Sweet Blossom Designs "Let it Rock" & Creative Memories Freebies. I'm sure there's more but I forget...

SS Sketch Challenge #14 - Braces

Yup...Jessy got braces and she's NOT thrilled about it!

Ingredients: All elements are Summertime Designs "Boy Oh Boy".

Me and Barb - Sketch Challenge #3 round 2

Another shot at Scrapshare Sketch Challenge #3 using Creative Memories Cottage Garden Kit. I know I use it alot but I love all the earth tones and flourishes. It's probably one of my favorite kits.

Lacrosse

Here's another layout with the same sketch challenge 15. I really like this sketch. The papers and elements are from Misty Cato Designs - "Chatty"

Patriots Day - Lexington 2010

Scrapshare Sketch Challenge 15 - Elements from Raspberry Road Designs...Papers from Creative Memories "Give Thanks"

Me & My Buddy

Scrapshare Weekly Sketch Challenge #20 - CZ Design Template 29

All Papers and Elements are from various Raspberry Road Designs kits

Scrapshare

May 12 of 12

All elements and papers are from the "French Tulip Blog Train".

Some statistics to think about...at least I will!

Got this info off of Bellaonline...

Eating at least one midday snack decreases your risk of obesity by 39%

Eating dinner as your biggest meal of the day increases it by 6%

Waiting more than 3 hours after waking up to eat breakfast increases your chance of obesity by 43%

Eating more than a third of your meals in restaurants increases it by 69%

Going to bed hungry (3+ hours after your last meal) increases it by 101%

Eating breakfast away from home increases it by 137%

Not eating breakfast at all increases it by 405%

Happy Birthday A Muse - One more time!

I was inspired by the A Muse birthday celebration to make yet another card. All the paper is A Muse, including the paper pieced cupcake from the clear set "Cupcake Builder Set". The ribbon is also A Muse.

Happy 9th Birthday A Muse!

It's A Muse Art Stamp's 9th birthday! In the A Muse Lounge of course there's a card challenge. I decide to use the clear set "Party Time" which included the tiny cupcake and tray. I haven't used this set as much as I'd like so I was thrilled to be able to ink it up! I also used the sentiment "you're sweet" from the "Cupcake Builder" clear set. The cupcakes are paper pieced and topped with A Muse teeny tiny red gems.

Digi Layout: Bird in the Hand

Jessy and Emily caught a bird that was caught on our screened in porch with their bare hands!

Digi Ingredients: All papers and elements from - Raspberry Road Designs "Country Sunshine"

A Glimpse of Toby...

Our beloved family dog was hit by a car last week and passed on. Luckily it was instant and he didn't suffer. He was 11 years old and was starting to get sick so maybe it saved him from suffering in the long run? I don't know...I guess we'll always be trying to put a spin on it to make it easier to deal with such a tragic loss. I was scrapping these pictures of me and Jessy and came across the one where Toby got in the picture to lick our faces and had to include them because it totally captures his personality!

Ingredients: Papers: Summertime Designs - Golden Sunshine and Shabby Princess - Winter Wonderland.

Elements: Shabby Princess - Winter Wonderland.

Font: Santa's Sleigh

More March Layouts

Dennis and I took Jessy and her friends bowling at Leda's Lighthouse in Nashua, NH. We were really excited to go and even met Travis there to bowl with us. Turns out we don't really like bowling and are incredibly bad at it! Oh well...live and learn.

This first layout is of Jessy and her friends (names covered for blog posting). It was such a cute pick, I gave it it's own layout.

Ingredients: All papers and elements from the "French Tulip Blog Train".
Digi Software: SBC+ from Creative Memories

Digi Ingredients: Grunge & Glitter - Countdown

Bowl word art - Dream Big Designs

Digi Software: SBC+ Creative Memories

My Rockport Layout

Here are some March digital layouts! I went to Rockport a last weekend with my youngest daughter Jessy. It was so rainy, windy and cold but we had some of my friends to visit so we ventured anyways. The left hand page has some landmark photos on the warf and a self portait of Jessy and I trying to not get blown into the ocean...

The right hand side photos were taken at the Linden Tree Inn in Rockport. It's a bed & breakfast very close to the local beach with an ocean view from the widows walk. My friends Pamela, Judy, Karen & Cheryl were there having a weekend scrapbooking retreat. I just had to crash it! I got a peak at the rooms while I was there and it's such a charming Inn...I'll have to go back in the summer.

All digital papers and elements were from a kit I purchased from Scrap that Idea called Beach Hut by A work in Progress Blog.

12 of 12 - March 2010

Here's my March 12 of 12. I'm trying not to take pics of the same things all the time so this time I took a pic of my food intake...yikes, not so healthy! Oh well.

Digi Ingredients: All papers and elements were from a Grunge Blog Train

February 12 of 12

Being such a scrapbooking addict it only makes sense that just scrapbooking special moments in my families lives just isn't enough. Let's go a little deeper into the addiction...it's called 12 of 12. Take 12 pictures on the 12th day of the month. Not everyone scrapbooks the pics but of course I do! I like to keep the pics in a one page layout so it can become challenging to fit 12 pictures on one page and still have it look nice. Here's my newest layout and a couple older ones from last year...

Here's this months 12 of 12...


Here is a year ago...Feb 2009...

Here is my layout from March 2009...

DIGI Layouts

Some recent layouts I've completed - all were done with CM Storybook Creator 3.0...
Click image to enlarge...

Credits: Gone Campin' - Kristin Cronin-Barrow (all but lined school paper that I can't remember the kit it came from - sorry!)


Credits: 2 Kool 4 Skool - Growing Pains Scrapped

Herringbone

Yesterday I went to my friend Pamela's house to make cards...we had decided to make it a new technique event. The technique she chose was "herringbone". At first I thought it was going to be really hard but once we got going, It was a pretty simple concept. It's a great way to "use your stash" since you can make it with scrap paper. I happened to have a bunch of 6x6 Basic Grey paper packs that I wasn't really doing anything with so I brought those. These two cards were made with Basic Grey "Ambrosia". I LOVE the way they came out and Pamela suggested I put the A Muse kokeshi doll stamp on one of them. I think it looks like a quilt!

Paper: Basic Grey "Ambrosia" (from the 6x6 paper pad)

Card: Memory Box

Stamp: A Muse - Kokeshi Doll.

Copic Markers

A Xyron was used to adhesive the strips

Outlining Text in SBC+

Here's my example of outlined text. Papers and elements are from Summertime Designs - Believe

Layout using the glitter technique

Here's a Christmas layout I made using the glitter technique. I used it on the Christmas tree element and the large title "Christmas" and " morning". The digi kit I used was Summertime designs "Believe".

SBC+ Techniques

I've been going on a couple blogs and facebook groups learning techiques for using Creative Memories digital Storybook Creator Plus 3.0. It's the my chosen software for making all my digital scrapbooking pages. It's easy to use and of course I thought I knew everything until I started looking around. Wow...I can do so much more than I thought! I've been making my own directions so I can store them and refer as needed. I'm such a visual learner so this is helping me alot.

One of the more recent techniques is making things sparkle and glitter! I'll share the directions with you...