Recycled Zip Drive Cases

My husband was going through a bunch of his computer stuff the other day. What a mess! I thought the shredder was going to explode. But I happened to spy some cute little cases in the trash which I snuck out.

We usually give gift cards to my nieces and nephews for Christmas so I thought these were the perfect size to doctor up and give them in. I decided to use an old book of sheet music as the background paper. 

1. Use the insert that came with the case as a template, cut pieces of sheet music to size and score folds on a scoring tool
2. Cut a piece of foamboard to fit exactly inside the case.
3. Decorate foamboard and sheet music with stamps.
4. Add double sided tape to the back of the gift card and place on foamboard.
5. Insert into case- you are done!
6. I added a label designed and printed on the computer. 

You could also use ribbon and lots of other embellishments to pretty this up. My time is tight right now so I went simple. You could also use old CD cases in the same way.

I am flying to Miami on Friday to drive back to VA Saturday with my newly expectant daughter, her puppy and bunny. Woohoo, road trip! Merry Christmas everyone!

New Noodle Queen!

I know you all have been waiting with bated breath to hear who won the Noodle Contest... you can go to this post to see all of the projects.


(drumroll) And now for the winner.... It's Kathryn, who received the most votes for her noodle portrait of Amy Winehouse! So congrats, your bag of goodies from Noodles and Company was sent out yesterday! I asked Kathryn to give us a little background on how she put this project together and here's what she said:

The hair is made out of Ramen noodles. Use the kind that comes in a bag, not the cup. The bag noodles work better. The face is just made out of Tabasco sauce. You can make a similar piece of artwork with any person or character. You can also use the ramen for a person with a lot of facial hair (beard, mustache, etc.). The hardest part is to paint the plate with Tabasco sauce to make sure it looks like the intended person.


This is a very cool project but involves drawing skills which I lack. Maybe if I had a photo taped below and worked on a clear plate, I might be able to trace the main features though...hmmm. Might have to try that.

Remember I told you that I made an appointment at Noodles and Company to try the Grown Up Mac? Well, we go on Friday at 12. Looks like Hayward (my husband) and Ray (Hayward's 91 yo stepdad who lives with us) will be joining me for lunch. I'll let you know how that goes.

I apologize- not sure what is up with Blogger tonight but the spacing is all weird. Too tired to fiddle with it tonight! It has been a frustrating day and I need to calm down with a good book. Night everyone!

Reverse Canvas Project

I don't think I ever showed you all the project I made in my class with the fabulous Cathe Holden at The Creative Connection this past September. Cathe had everything all kitted up for us so we just followed along and did what she told us. I was sitting next to Deb Berger of Scrapbooks, Etc. so we had a nice chat while we assembled our projects. Tauni had a small small glitter malfunction, but aside from that we behaved and all finished our projects. Here are more photos of the class on Cathe's post.

The project background was what looks like an old paint by number winter scene. Does anyone else remember these? Ah, the smell of the paints! It seems like they were oils- could this be? How did my mother ever let me do that? 

We inserted the copy of the painting into the back of a canvas, turned it over and covered the wood frame with some old Christmas photos that fit perfectly in antique slide mounts We added a personalized banner, glass glitter, some snow and a bottle brush tree.

I'm getting ready to hang this up- finally decorating! 

Noodle Frame

This project was soooo quick and easy! At this time of year, projects like this are great when you need something at the last minute. These were materials I had on hand. The frame was purchased about 2 years ago for $1.99 and I had been meaning to sell them at the Barn Sale but never got the art done for the frame opening. So luckily, this was already spray painted and ready to go. The noodles were left over from last year's noodle extravaganza, so this took about 10 minutes to make! Good thing-my week is crazy with lots of deadlines! Oh and shopping, baking, parties, etc. 

Here's how I made it: 

1. Spray paint a frame. I used red paint- it took about three coats to cover the frame. After the frame dried, I sanded off the edges to distress it a little and wiped brown ink over where I had sanded. 
2. Insert photo- this is one of our family from last year's Christmas.  
3. Add some fun green tree shaped noodles and snowflakes in natural by applying glue dots to the back of each noodle and sticking on frame where desired.
4. Tie a coordinating ribbon on top of the frame.
5. DONE! Great gift too.

Second Annual Holiday Noodle Party is in session!

Welcome to our Second Annual Holiday Noodle Party! Here's where you can post your fun holiday projects using noodles :-)

Pasta is everywhere you look. At World Market I purchased trees and snowflakes. At Ikea, they had really cute mooseheads. And that's not even getting into the more standard fare like rotini, linguini, fusilli, fettucine, spaghettini and penne, to name a few, that may be found in your local supermarket. 

 At Big Lots, I found a package of Beer Mug Pasta (wow).

All of these cool little shapes may be used to create with! They are natural, edible, inexpensive, available, and accept inks, paints, glitter and mists. Are you crafting with noodles? If so, you are in the right place!

The linky party starts today, Monday, December 12 and runs till Friday, December 16 at midnight. This event is open to all and extended in the spirit of fun and sharing the love of crafting during this holiday season. Here's how it works:

• Post a blog on your site with a picture of your project and enter the URL of that post below from now until Thursday, December 15.
• Enter as many projects as you would like. 
• It can be a project created by you, your child, or anyone. 
• The only requirement is it must contain a noodle of some kind :-) 
• Please vote for your favorite design on Friday, December 16. 
• The project that gets the most votes will receive a bag of goodies from our friends at Noodles & Company! I'll also be giving away one of my Sizzix dies to a random commenter. 
• Post early so everyone has a chance to see your work. 
• Please share this with your social media friends and invite them to join in!

WE WANT TO SEE YOUR PROJECTS so link up below:

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Barn Sale Adventures

The day dawned bright and sunny. The doors of the Barn opened at 10 to a steady stream of customers looking for just the right gifts for their family and friends. There was hot cider and coffee, muffins, bagels and cream cheese, cookies and my special meatballs.

Things were going along great. Happy shoppers were leaving with bags of treasures. As the show was winding down and I was chatting with a customer, my friend Sandy came over and crossed her hands in front of her throat. It took a minute but I finally grasped the fact that she was choking and wanted me to do the Heimlich Maneuver on her! I don't know about you, but I have never had to do that before to anyone. She turned around and I made a fist, positioned my arms around her and gave two (what felt like) pretty good compressions. It wasn't working! So I asked my daughter Maryanne who was sitting there writing people up if she knew how to do it. She said yes and started working on Sandy whose lips were getting bluer by the second. It was shocking to see how fast it happened! I started dialing 911 but at the same time I knew she wouldn't make it till an EMT arrived. THANKFULLY, on the fifth compression, the meatball was dislodged! Her cheeks got pink and she was able to talk again. I have to say that Sandy and Maryanne never lost their cool and handled the whole thing with minimal drama. But it was quite scary.

The lesson I learned was don't be afraid to squeeze hard and right up under the ribs. I encourage you to take a minute and review the correct way to give the Heimlick Maneuver.  I can tell you, as an eye witness, that it works! Maryanne says she learned this in Girl Scouts. 

The other thing I learned (again) is that life is so fragile. Every day is a gift and I am so thankful for my friend Sandy, my brave daughter Maryanne and all of the other amazing people that God has placed in my life.

Here's a pic of Maryanne helping to count the money at the end of the day. So, whew, all's well that ends well. Thanks to the great vendors for setting up and all who attended and supported the Barn Sale and we hope to see you again next year!

Barn Sale and Tenth Anniversary Celebration

Hope you can to head on over to the Barn Sale this Saturday from 10-2 for shopping, demos, food and fun! More info in this post. See you there!

Second Annual Holiday Noodle Party!

It all begin around this time last year... 

My husband and I wandered into a new Noodles & Company restaurant that happened to be doing it's carry-out training but was not open for business yet. Although they couldn't take our order, we were presented with a nice big bag of FREE steaming hot food, which we immediately took to our car and ate! (It was 9 PM and we were hungry!) Read about that adventure here.

Well, when I got home I was so grateful for the yummy meal, I blogged about it. The next day, I was contacted by Noodles & Company who had read my post! After some discussion, we decided to put together a fun holiday on line event: the Noodle Contest! The winner, Lynda, was crowned Noodle Queen for her beautiful holiday wreath. 

So the other day, I got an email from Noodles, (as I now call them since we are BFF's), offering  dinner for me and a guest to try their new Grown Up Mac. I already know what kind I am getting...  Anyway, after making my reservation, I suggested that we return for year 2 of the Noodle Contest since everyone had such a good time last year.

So please join us for the the Second Annual Holiday Noodle Party starting Monday, December 12 and running through Friday, December 16.

If you are the proud owner of a holiday noodle ornament or decoration you would like to share, please blog about it and head on over here to post a photo on the Noodle linky party! This event is open to all and extended in the spirit of fun and sharing the love of crafting during this holiday season. It can be a project created by you, your child, or anyone. The only requirement is it must contain a noodle of some kind :-) Here's my gift card holder from last year:

The linky party will open on December 12 and projects will be accepted until December 16. During that time, readers will be able to vote for their favorites. The creator of the winning project will receive some fun promotional goodies from Noodles & Company and I'll also be giving away one of my Sizzix dies to a random commenter. Post early so everyone has a chance to see your work. Please share this with your social media friends! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

The Sock Monkey Goes Greek

I am excited to join the other members of the Designer Craft Connection on this Sock Monkey challenge!

Sponsored by When Creativity Knocks, FoxRiver, manufacturers of the Original Rockford Red Heel Socks, Rit Dye and Judikins, the challenge is to make a project using the supplies we were sent which included a pair of the famous red heeled socks from FoxRiver, Ana Arujo's instructional DVD on how to make a sock monkey and a cute little sock monkey rubber stamp from Judikins.

The first sock monkey I ever got was a gift for our first child. It became a toy that was passed down from child to child. I lost track of it somewhere along the way in our 13 army moves. I happened to mention to my youngest daughter that I was working on a sock monkey blog hop challenge and I wondered where ours went. She said, "Oh I have it!", ran upstairs and came down with this:

Hah! Well, how convenient! After watching Ana's great DVD on how to assemble the monkey, I was sure I could do it, but then I started thinking... This was no ordinary sock monkey- this girl had gone to college and was even an Alpha Phi Omega fraternity brother! Perhaps I could fashion some accessories for our newfound family heirloom. 

Well, you can't go to college without some luggage. I decided to use one of my Sizzix dies to make this monkey a custom suitcase. I carefully cut up the sock to cover the pieces of the die cut, making sure to keep the stitches all going in the same direction. It looks kind of like tweed! After assembling the suitcase, I glued on a red monogram to match the monkey's beautiful smile. FrayCheck was added around all of the raw edges to prevent fraying. I plan on making some thank you notes using the fun Judikins stamp and store them inside the suitcase.

Now, being a college graduate and all, I figured our monkey might need a cover for her laptop. So I cut one from my Business Card die. Before I cut it out, I trimmed a piece from the other sock I had left and adhered it on top of the matboard using spray adhesive, making sure to cut with the right side to the die so that it would score properly.

Although I'm sure I could spend many hours making a mini-laptop, I am pressed for time and ask that you imagine that there is an adorable little monkey sized laptop tucked inside this case.

Her attire seemed slightly scandalous to me (kids these days!) so I made her a quick red felt skirt which I cut from my Vase die and a matching red felt flower headband from the Flower, Layers #9 die.

I had a blast working on this. And glad that our sock monkey has a great new look!

For more sock monkey fun, visit the When Creativity Knocks website for details on a contest and giveaway. To enter, go to member login and Create An Account. The entry code is Sock Monkey. Enter now until December 19 and you could win the whole Sock Monkey Kit worth over $40.00 which includes: the Videobook "Sock Monkeys Go BanAnas", One Sewn Sock Monkey Ready to be Stuffed, One Pair of the Original Rockford Red Heeled Socks, Button Eyes, Needle, Floss and Stuffing!

Please make sure to see all of the other fun sock monkey projects by clicking on the blue DCC button on the sidebar. It will take you to all of the participating designers' blogs. Thanks for stopping by!

Go Longwood Lancers!

Designer Days Sale!

I just got the word that my next line of dies, It's a Wrap is shipping right now! This collection is designed to help you package small gift items in a fun, yet practical way.


And to make a good day even better, Sizzix has decided to put all of my dies on sale for 20% off today, including the BRAND NEW ONES!

As you can see, these projects on the packaging are in purple, yellow and gray... so elegant and pretty... now imagine them covered with bright holiday patterned papers! These dies are so versatile- every project can be tailored to your style! Since the XL size dies are ScoreBoards (dies designed to be used with thick materials like matboard and chipboard), you will have a nice sturdy base to work with. Another beautiful thing about matboard is how great it accepts ink, paper, distressing, stain, mist, and paint. So much fun to embellish!

I don't know about you, but know we give a lot of gift cards for the holidays and special occasions because they are so easy to keep on hand and stick in the mail. However, they are not the most personal gift- but with a little creative thought you can customize the gift card holder to make it special. Several of the It's a Wrap dies are designed to hold gift cards so make sure to check them out.

The Triangle Box can be assembled in under a minute! I'm not kidding- I demo'd this die at CHA and asked people to time me. It really is that quick.

There are a few ways you can put this together. If you fold the outer flaps into the middle and match holes in the flaps, you can thread ribbon through and tie it, allowing a little more depth inside the box. Depending on where you tie it, it can be a flattish 3D pocket or a deeper triangle box. I decided to make a pocket bag to hold a gift card. 

1. Cover the front of the matboard with paper using spray adhesive.
2. Lay matboard on the die paper side down and run through die cut machine.
3. Bend all of the folds 180 degrees so the fibers of the board are broken. 
4. Fold box in half and thread ribbon through the corresponding holes across from the top, making a hanger.
5. Cut Doily from white fleece and trim about one third of it off. Adhere to top of box and cover with a length of red ombre wired ribbon tied in a bow.
6. Add "joy" glitter embellishment (.29 for three at Ollie's Outlet!) to label die and adhere to front of pocket.
7. Add gift card and head off to your holiday parties!

Head on over to Where Women Create for some more great ideas for holiday crafting!