Crafts

Friday Flair Features

1 · Jan 15, 2012 · 7 Comments

Wow, last week was a whirl wind! Working on WhipperBerry's facelift, my sweetheart was out of town and the kiddos and I were under the weather. Hopefully this week is going to be MUCH better!! Going through Friday Flair every week is one of my favorite things to do. You guys have soooo many fabulous ideas and I love that you are so willing to share your talents. I found so many fun things this week… here are a handful that caught my eye for this week's Friday Flair Features!

valentine pillow from craftberry bush

ruffled lace flower from i heart naptime

craft room makeover from the 36th avenue

you were "mint" to be my valentine from like a pretty petunia

pretty pin cushions from pieced pastimes

dry-erase menu planner from my sister's suitcase

key artwork from bargain bound

decoupaged map desk from finding home

valentine cookies from shugary sweets

fan{tache}tic valentine printable from plum adorable

diy laundry platform from the idea room

valentine garland from i que linda

diy kindle case from just another hang up

cabinet makeover from my fabuless life

family room mantel from it's overflowing

Aren't they fabulous? I hope this tickles your crafty bone and helps to inspire some creativity for this week… I can't wait to see what you come up with!!

Friday Flair | Link Party

4 · Jan 12, 2012 · 28 Comments

I'm always on the hunt for fabulous sweets… I think it's because I was born with an honest to goodness SWEET TOOTH! I found this stunner of a cake from Sprinkles Bakes and fell head over heels in love…

Heather {the fabulous baker from Sprinkles Bakes, not me} has such an eye for color and oh my… I LOVE cherry cake! You have to click over and see the inside, truly stunning. I would love to sit down and share this cake with my sweet valentine!

It's time for Friday Flair!!

The Best Salsa to Beat the Winter Blues

0 · Jan 12, 2012 · 8 Comments

I don't know if any of you are like me, but every January, at least one of my New Year's resolutions includes some kind of healthy eating goal. I try new recipes and tricks to stay fuller longer on fewer calories, boost my fruit and veggie intake, etc. etc. But the bottom line is, if I don't like it, I'm not going to eat it. When my sister brought this salsa dip to a family function last year, I ate half the bowl before dinner ever started; it is SO good, and SO healthy. So without further ado, here is a new, wonderfully healthy and satisfying recipe to add to your "good foods" list this year.

You'll need…

1-2 Roma tomatoes
2 ripe avocados
3 sprigs of green onions
1 can of black beans
1/2-3/4 c. frozen petite white corn
1/4-1/2 cup fat free Italian dressing

Dice the tomatoes and avocados and chop up the green onions and add them to your dish. Strain and rinse the black beans and throw them into your dish along with the corn and dressing.
Serve with chips or as a topping for tacos, burritos, etc.

There you have it! Super straight forward and easy. I have to warn you though, this stuff only stays good for about 12 hours. Avocados go bad quickly, so don't make it too far in advance. You really shouldn't have a problem with making too much… at least, I never do!

Valentine Snow Globe | Anthro Inspired

214 · Jan 11, 2012 · 59 Comments

I have to admit… I have fallen for the Anthropologie snow globes from this last holiday season! While I was putting all of my holiday decorations away I just couldn't part with my snow globes. I decided that I would make a Valentine's Day version. Here you have it… my Valentine Snow Globe.

I took my Anthro inspired snow globe and removed the trees and safely stored it for next year. Then I used my Epic tool and my new Sweetheart Nesting Scallop Heart die from Lifestyle Crafts to make the pink heart. I made two and then placed them back to back with two, two inch pieces of a paper drinking straw in the middle to secure to the bottom of the lid with some large 3D glue dots. For the tutorial on how to do that click here.

Then I used a fun felt Christmas tree ornament for the large heart. You could of course, make another paper heart for the large one. I just happened to have the perfect felt heart already on hand. I did the same with the two felt hearts. I placed them back to back and placed two, three inch paper straws in between to help secure the heart to the lid. They were a little wonky so I used a small section of the paper straw and some glue dots in between the hearts to secure them a little better…

Don't worry, people won't notice the straws at all. It will just look like you have beautiful hearts floating in your snow globe! What else do you think we can do with the ever popular snow globe?

Crayon Heart Valentines | Lifestyle Crafts

84 · Jan 10, 2012 · 132 Comments

Valentine's Day is right around the corner and today I thought I would share my "you color my WORLD" Crayon Heart Valentines, made with the new Sweetheart die collection from Lifestyle Crafts and heart shaped crayons made with melted Crayola crayons.

Isn't that fun? I am always a fan of homemade Valentines for the kiddos classes every year. It's also a bit of a challenge to make valentines that are fun, colorful and easy on their sugar intake for the day.

I know this isn't a new idea by far… My neighbor made these heart shaped crayons several years ago after finding this fun idea in Family Fun magazine, but I thought it would be a perfect fit for the new Sweetheart Nesting Hearts from Lifestyle Crafts. Cutting the hearts was super simple using my Epic three in one tool from Lifestyle Crafts. The Epic tool cuts, embosses and can create beautiful letterpress projects as well.

But I am getting ahead of myself! Before we can make the cards we need to make the heart shaped crayons…

You will need to gather all the old crayons in the house… if your house is anything like mine, that won't be a problem. You can also purchase new crayons as well. I will have to admit, the new crayons were easier to remove the labels from. I used an X-ACTO knife to make a slit down the length of the crayon to easily remove the labels. The older crayons took a little more coaxing.

Once you've removed all of the labels, break the crayons into small pieces. The smaller the better…

I also found that separating them into color families made for the best looking crayons, but that is completely up to you!

You will need to use a heart shaped silicon baking mold to melt your crayons in. I found mine at Michaels in the baking section and it worked like a dream. The girls and I decided that we wanted our crayons to be a little glittery so we added about 1/2 a teaspoon of silver glitter to the bottom of the baking mold. Then we filled the baking mold with the crayons about 1/3 full. The mold I used was pretty deep so depending on what you use you will have to play around with this.

Place in your oven that has been pre-heated to 300 degrees and baked for 15 minutes. The crayons will become completely liquefied so be careful when you pull them out of the oven. Carefully place them on the counter to cool. You want to make sure that you don't move them around too much and mix the colors more than you want. Wait for about 20 minutes or until the crayon is solid again and then gently remove it from the mold and let cool completely.

I made 57 hearts with the Wilton Mini Heart Mold using approximately 200 crayons.

Now it's time to pull out your Epic Tool to make the heart shaped cards for you to place your new crayons on. I used two different dies from the new Sweetheart line for this project. The Nesting Heart and the Nesting Scallop Hearts work beautiful for this card.

I decided that since I wanted the focus to be on the crayons I used a basic white watercolor paper for the base of the card.

Once I cut out the heart shapes, I used my rolling alphabet stamp to create the fun saying on the card. "Valentine… you color my WORLD" I just LOVE that look!!

Of course I had to dress up the heart crayons with some Divine Twine from Whisker Graphics. I just wrapped the hearts randomly and tied with a bow or made little twine bundles for the decoration…

This is such a fun project to do with the kiddos. My girls and I had ball gabbing while we were prepping the crayons. After that it was a perfect opportunity to have a color class while we created our crayon concoctions. From start to finish this is an easy and elegant Valentine treat that your little ones {or big ones} will love to share with their friends this Valentine's Day!!

Come back tomorrow I have another fun Anthro inspired Valentine project made with my Sweetheart dies from Lifestyle Crafts!

Here are some more WhipperBerry Lifestyle Craft projects…