Crafts

Hello all and welcome to a new week!  I’m a little excited for this week because it’s my BIRTHDAY and I have some fabulous things up my sleeve that I CAN”T wait to share!!!

But, before we jump into the celebration we have some business to attend to…  We had two fabulous giveaways last week and here are the lucky winners…

The Stella & Dot giveaway sponsored by Megan…

Congrats to Hope comment #20

The Charmingly Chic Boutique giveaway sponsored by Lori…

Yippee for Lauren comment #38

Now, here are some of the goodies from last weeks Friday Flair…

Pie in a Jar for Dad from Pure Joy Events

Go Notes from Kiki Creates

Felt Flower Petal Pillow from Don’t Disturb this Groove

Wall Flowers from The Mathews Family Happenings

Star Spangled S’mores from Choose to Thrive

4th of July Décor from Makoodle

Strawberry Rubarb Jam from Jessica N Designs

Lemonade Cake from Bebe a La Mode Designs

Baby Boy Bibs from Sparkle Power

Cloud Light Crescents from The BADD Blog

Key Cozy from Little Projects in Style

Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Cups from Chocolate & Carrots

Eclectic Shelf Décor from Liz Marie Blog

Living Room Nook from Crafty Scrappy Happy

Daddy Rocks from 320 Days of Sunshine

Aren’t they ALL soooo fun!!  Once again y’all blew me away.  What an inspiration you are!!!

{Come back later on Monday… Word on the street is that Silhouette has a fun new promotion that you won’t want to miss!!}

I am sooo excited for this weeks Friday Flair and another fun bonus {GIVEAWAY!}

Have you seen Charmingly Chic Boutique on Etsy? Lori the fabulously talented woman behind the cute shop has some fun jewelry that I would LOVE to add to my collection!!

Lori, creates beautiful vintage style charm necklaces, earrings, hairpins, and rings. She has lot’s of designs to suit every personality and style. She can even turn your favorite photograph into a necklace!

She is generously giving the winner of this giveaway a $30 gift certificate to her shop. Additionally, for the duration of the giveaway, she is offering all you guys a 15% discount on their order! Use the coupon code ‘blogger discount code’ when checking out.
There are so many fun designs to choose from, you’re bound to find something (or even a few things) that are perfect for you — or someone you love! Happy entering, and thank you Lori!

Here is what you need to do to enter…

• Go to Charmingly Chic Boutique , browse around, and tell us your favorite piece(s) in the comments section of this post.

Additional entries (leave one comment for each entry please):

• Become a follower of the Charmingly Chic Boutique Blog
• “Like” Charmingly Chic Boutique on Facebook
• Blog, tweet or facebook about this giveaway

This giveaway will run though Sunday, June 19th with the winner selected by random.org and announced on Monday the 20th!

Now on to the PARTY!!

It’s Friday Flair… show us what you have {Whipped-Up} this week!

Here are the sticky rules {you know rules are in place so that no one gets their feelings hurt or their eye poked out! So let’s play nice.}

• Please link up only your own projects, and link to the specific post, not your blog home page. No Etsy shops or giveaways, please.

• You must grab a WhipperBerry button and include it somewhere in the post you’re linking, or on your home page (a text link is great too).

• Stay and mingle (remember, it’s a party!), and leave a couple comments for other guests!

I wrote this post while participating in a blog tour conducted by Clever Girls Collective on behalf of Children’s Claritin®. I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program.

My little guy has inherited not only his Father’s temperament, and zeal for life… he has also inherited his life long challenge with allergies!!

The poor kiddo has dealt with a a runny and sneezie nose pretty much from the moment he came home with us from the hospital. It has been a challenge because we don’t really have any major environmental issues {that I know of} in our home. We don’t have pets, we keep a clean home {for the most part} and we live in the desert. You would have thought that moving to the desert it would solve most allergy issues… but alas it has not! My husband grew up in a house full of animals and didn’t know that he could breath through his nose until he left home!!!

The little guy was constantly suffering from ear and sinus infections brought on by the fact that he was having mucus issues all the time. Even with all of that I didn’t realize that all of this was because he was an allergy sufferer. I was blown over when his doctor told me that he had allergies. For months we dealt with a very grumpy infant who was always having trouble sleeping because he couldn’t breath very well.

Here’s the disclaimer… I don’t normally like to medicate my children very much when I can avoid it. With that said… I have fallen in LOVE with Claritin!!! The little guy has been on it for almost a year now and he is a totally different child. He SLEEPS well and can play without the constant runny nose and water eyes. He’s a totally different child. Sometimes I start to feel like maybe we should take him off of the Claritin and I kid you not, usually within a week he has a sinus and ear infection. So… I am a believer and will never leave home without Claritin!!

For more tips on relieving allergies, visit www.Facebook.com/Claritin. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.

My obsession began with this lovely post from Kevin & Amanda for Amanda’s CCCD Cupcakes.  The looked soooooo good and I began my quest for the perfect CCCD cupcake.  Little did I know what a challenge that would be.  I followed Amanda’s recipe to the { T } and all I could manage was a cookie inside of a cupcake.  I didn’t want  a cookie… I wanted soft creamy dough!!!  So with a little tweaking and simplifying I came up with the WhipperBerry version with a little help from Amanda and Jenny from Miss Picky Palate herself.

To begin, mix up a batch of modified cookie dough originally from Picky Palate with the following recipe…

2 sticks softened butter
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
4 tbsp milk
1 tbsp vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup mini chocolate chips

Combine the butter and sugars in a mixing bowl and cream on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Beat in milk and vanilla until incorporated and smooth. Beat in the flour and salt until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

For the cupcakes…

1 Box of white or vanilla cake mix {along with the ingredients for the mix}

I am all about simplicity… and quite honestly a basic cake mix is just fine for these cupcakes.  They’re so many other components you don’t need to worry about whipping out a fancy, made from scratch cake.

Bake the cupcakes as directed.  Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes.

Here is where I diverged from Amanda’s recipe… She makes her cookie dough, freezes it and then bakes it along with the cupcake.  I found that this resulted in a partially baked cookie within my cupcake.  Here is what I do…

Using a large piping tip I core the cupcake after it has cooled for a few minutes.

I then pipe in some cookie dough when the cupcake is still a little warm. 

Let the cupcakes cool completely and then frost them with your favorite white or vanilla frosting.  I again simplified and used a store bought vanilla frosting.  I admit… sometimes I just don’t have time to make everything from SCRATCH!! Sprinkle with some mini chocolate chips and there you go… a standing ovation worthy, SIMPLE Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcake!!

A few weeks ago we had the honor to guest post on the Silhouette blog {yea, just a little excited about that!}  I thought that I would post the project that we posted over there today, just in case you missed it…

One of our favorite products EVER is the Silhouette.  We have been working with it for quite some time now and have really fallen in love.  I have recently started working with the heat transfer material and my stars… what a great design element. 

With the summer approaching I decided to make a Chore Ribbon for my kiddos…

This is kind of a non traditional approach to the chore chart.  I used the silhouette vinyl for the hanger and then used the heat transfer material to place my girl’s names directly on the jute ribbon.  Here’s how I did it…

First, I created my girl’s names in the Silhouette software with the LD Charming Bold font that I purchased from the Silhouette store.  Keep in mind when using the heat transfer material you need to create a mirror image to place on your fabric.

I then cut the heat transfer material according to the package instructions.  Next, I carefully peeled the excess heat transfer material away from the plastic…

I flipped the image over and placed it on the jute ribbon…

… with the image right facing and the plastic sheet on top of the heat transfer material.

Next, I place a thin cloth over the ribbon and the image and ironed according to the package instructions.  After it has cooled for a few minutes carefully remove the plastic covering and voila…

…the heat transfer material in now firmly affixed to the jute ribbon.  To finish the project I added vinyl cut with the Silhouette using the same font to the wooden hanger…

… now isn’t that cheerier than a chore chart?  There is a “need to do side” and a “finished” side to the ribbon with all of the jobs on labeled clothes pins.  Place the clothes pins on the appropriate side of the ribbon with a reward section an the bottom to track their rewards.

Hang from a convenient door and you and your kiddos have a fun way to track what they have accomplished for the day.

Come on over to WhipperBerry we have a few more Silhouette inspired project that we think are quite dandy. Thanks Silhouette for this fun opportunity to share our Silhouette love with your fans!!