~Happy Halloween and Contest Entries~

Happy Halloween!!! This is truly one of my favorite holidays. Chocolate and cute costumes, what could be better than that? Granted, my kids never dress up in anything scary...well, last year my 12 year old was technically a scary tree from the Wizard of Oz but he wasn't scary scary. You know what I mean;) What kind of scary tree hugs the Cowardly Lion?

This year the kids are doing a Toy Story theme and while we have a little break in the Halloween fun I thought I'd take a moment to share a couple more projects with you.

This is one of my prized finds from antique shopping in Gatlinburg this past summer, a milk bottle complete with a milk cap!

I decorated it with some bright orange ribbon, a hat pin (another great find at the antique store), a prima flower and a tag made with Cookbookin' paper and a stamp. I found THE cutest little pumpkin potpourri to fill it with:

Just adorable.

I used the very same stamp (can you tell how much I LOVE this stamp) to make myself a necklace and while I was at it I made my daughter a ghosty necklace. I used lots of Inkssentials goodies: memory frames, memory capsules, and memory glass. I threw in some Tim Holtz metals, some super old confetti and ribbon, some cardstock and more Cookbookin' papers.

~Here is my daughter's necklace~

~And this is mine (imagine I am shaking it for you so you can see the confetti moving;))~

And now, for the October Sketch Challenge Entries!!! 

Thank you all for playing along~

From Joan:

From Sandy:

From Roulien:

From Karen:

And from Kathy, just in the nick of time:

Good luck to all the participants. Check back tomorrow to see our NEW November sketch created by Julie Bonner!

Have a happy and SAFE Halloween,

A favorite project...

We all have favorites among our work...this is one of mine. I LOVE this ATC tray decor and I'm sure more than a few of you have seen this one before;). 

I usually like my creations but I LOVE THIS ONE! It was delightful to make and it is super special to me because the buttons that I used for the flower centers...they belonged to my grandmother. I've been missing her so much lately. She died from Breast Cancer so October is always a tough month for me. I wish I could just sit down for one cup of tea with her but since I can't I like to use some of her treasures to surround myself with her presence. Grandma collected buttons. She had what seemed like MILLIONS of them. I remember running my fingers through them as a child, that smell, it is still in the tins of buttons that I have now. 

Every once in a while I take one or two out for a project, like this one. I began this flower by inking it until it had that "antiqued" look and then I placed one of Grandma's wooden buttons in the center.

Then I used this green and cream polka dot button, it has such an old-fashioned country look to it. I sure wish I knew what kind of outfit it came from...there is still a bit of thread on the back of it so I know it fell off of something...

This last  button is actually affixed to the flower upside down. I used some green Karen Foster floss for the tie and I curled the floss by wrapping it around a pin. Yes, it is that small!

The papers on this project are all from Cookbookin's Sweet Summertime line.  The flowers are mostly Prima, including that gorgeous vine there on the left. The pins are Maya Road, milk caps are Jenni Bowlin, the tray is 7Gypsies and the ticket is Tim Holtz.

Here is how the Tray looks hanging on my kitchen wall:

So tell me about your favorite projects. What are they and what is it that makes them a favorite.

Soda or Pop? Coke or Pepsi ~~~or RC Cola?

Coke or Pepsi? RC Cola perhaps? And what do you say: soda, cola or pop?

RC is what my husband's family would say. Of course, they owned an RC Cola bottling plant in Oregon for years. I was almost banned from the family the first time I drank a Diet Pepsi in front of them.

I tried to find some old photos of the plant and especially of my DH working there but alas, no luck! What I did find was a cool RC Cola bottle in a local antique store. It was Red and Yellow!  I knew I had THE perfect papers to embellish it with at home. I knew it would look fantastic sitting on my mantle with a few country flowers sticking out of it. I knew my husband would LOVE it. My in-laws would love it...SOLD!

So, even though it was a ridiculous price, I snapped it up. When I went to the purchase counter I learned it was 50% off! THRILLING!!! Such a wonderful surprise when that sort of thing happens...

I brought my little treasure home and whipped out my Cookbookin' Sweet Summertime Busy Bees    paper (red & yellow ~~~PERFECT) and made some of the fan fold flowers that I learned from the amazingly talented Helen Croft. I stacked a couple of them and glued them onto my bottle. Then I added some cute little polka dot ribbon and a couple Maya Road pins and voila!

LOVE it! 

Now if I could just find an old wooden RC Cola bottle crate...

Have a wonderful weekend and Happy Scrapping!

Magnificent Magnets ~and~ How to Make them Yourself!

While having coffee at a very trendy local coffee place called "The Good Cup," I saw THE cutest display of handmade magnets stuck on an old cheese grater. Of course, I jotted down a quick sketch to take home with me and here is what I came up with:

PERFECT for holding recipes in the kitchen and the grater belonged to my grandmother!!! Oh, I just love this project and making the magnets is a snap.

Supplies:

Glass beads/flat marbles

Circle punch

Magnets

Mod Podge (or whatever glue you have) & hot glue

That's it!

I began my project by punching out several circles from an assortment of Cookbookin' papers. I used a punch size just a tiny bit smaller than my glass pieces.

Then I adhered the paper to the glass with Mod Podge. Fun and simple to paint on with a brush! You do want to rub all the air bubbles out with your fingers so your finished magnet looks nice and clear~

Next, I used hot glue to adhere the magnets. Hot glue has the hold and the speed to get the job done quickly.

There! That's it!!! Simple isn't it!?

There are TONS of tutorials and examples of other glass decoupage magnets on the internet. Some of my favorites are:
HowToDoThings

The Michaels Book of Arts & Crafts, 2003
eHow
and
Casasugar

You can also find them for sale at my trendy little local coffee shop or by a variety of artists on Etsy!

But of course, I prefer to make my own;)

I'm using my magnets to display my grandmother's recipe cards on her antique grater. I just love seeing her handwriting AND knowing that the grater belonged to and was used by her as well.

Don't forget to get link your layout for our sketch challenge, entries will be accepted until MIDNIGHT on October 31st (CST).

Beat the Brownies!

My banana bread beat the brownies!
Yesterday afternoon, I baked some delicious banana bread. I bake it quite often as it always seems that we have the dreaded brown-spotted bananas sneak up on us. You know what I mean, I know you do! So, yesterday morning I woke up to three "way past ripe" brown-spotted bananas just begging to be saved and baked into some delicious bread. To work I went. This is my favorite, tried and true recipe (straight from the Joy of Cooking):

Banana Bread

Ingredients

1-1/3           cup flour

2/3             cup sugar

3/4             tsp salt

1/2              tsp baking soda

1/4             tsp baking powder

5-1/2T        butter

2                eggs

2                bananas

1/2             cup walnuts

Directions

   1. combine dry ingredients

   2. blend butter and sugar

   3. blend dry ingredients into

      butter and sugar mix

   4. blend in eggs

   5. fold in bananas and walnuts

   6. bake 50-60 min at 350 degrees

       until done in center

And here is my layout based on the recipe!

I used the brand new "Salute" paper from Cookbookin's Gourmet Holiday line as my background and then I lined the bottom of the page with some "Check Me Out" and I backed my recipe with some "Fleur De Lis." I embellished my layout with some bits from the "La Dolce Vita" die cut sheet. I LOVE the tags on this sheet!!! This layout was such fun to put together! I so enjoy sewing on my layouts these days and I did a bit of that with the ric rack:) and then I added some fun hanging bead trim. I picked it up at Hobby Lobby on a SUPER sale. I think it is really meant for a lampshade but I just love it here!

So, back to those brownies...last evening dh whipped up some brownies (out of a box) and while they were enjoyed this morning everyone asked for more banana bread in their lunches instead of a brownie!!! Now, if that isn't a good morning I don't know what is~

Fresh Picked

Fresh tomatoes! Who doesn't LOVE them?!?!

Today we have another designer example for this month's sketch challenge. Jennifer used Cookbookin's Indian Corn and Tuscan Stripes papers along with some tomato stamps from the Modern Market "Eat your Veggies" collection. Jennifer used chalk to color in her tomatoes, I think the effect is absolutely perfect. And who can resist a little burlap these days...

Supplies:
Paper, Stamps - Cookbookin'
Ink- Memento, ClearSnap
Chalk- Pebbles Inc.
Burlap & Ribbon

Hope to see YOUR take on the sketch real soon!

~September WINNER~

And the winner is:
SUZANNE!!!
She submitted this adorable layout for our September Sketch Challenge:

Congratulations!!! Email me your address at LotsToScrap at gmail dot com and I will get your prize right out to you. Thanks very much to everyone who played along. We have a new sketch challenge for October, looking forward to seeing your entries!!!

~October Sketch Challenge~

Welcome OCTOBER!!! I think this IS my favorite month. The kids are settled into school, the weather is cooler, the leaves are changing...I just adore this {very welcome} change of seasons. I snap thousands of photos during Autumn providing me with plenty of scrappy material to work with. I also cook up a storm this time of year. I just love getting back to baking and even more ~I love the wonderful smells that come along! This morning banana bread is in the oven, a favorite of my entire family! When I can cook something that pleases SEVEN people at once...well, I may have to fix up a layout for you...stay tuned for that in an upcoming post;).

Today though I am revealing our new sketch challenge. The talented Cheri O'Neill from Let's Scrap has designed our sketch this month and here it is!

Yes, there will be another fantastic prize up for grabs, a Harvest Kitchen Kit from Cookbookin'!!! Contents may vary a bit but this will give you an idea of the goodness you could win.

And to get your creative juices flowing, here is some inspiration from the design team.

Joanne used the super cute Sugar and Spice collection from Cookbookin'. I just love all the beautiful trims and flowers she used to enhance the pretty papers.

I used the Halloween Goodies collection mixed with a little Harvest Kitchen for my layout.

I love banners, who doesn't these days? I made this one with teeny tiny letters from Jenni Bowlin and an ultra thin piece of floss from Karen Foster.

THEN, I used the adorable Halloween Goodies stamp set to make my circle embellishments. I cannot rave on enough about the QUALITY of these stamps!!!

To play along in our challenge just use Cheri's sketch to inspire your layout or card and link your creation to this post in the comments section. There will be a random draw after the end of the month for the winner of the kit. Can't wait to see what you come up with!!!

The winner of the September Sketch Challenge will be drawn this weekend!!! Good Luck to all who entered~