August 2013 Calendar Girls: Book Lover's Day & National S'mores Day

Welcome to our August Calendar Girls' Blog Hop. It’s absolutely amazing when you do a Google search the interesting facts you may find. Such a find is special and unique occasions throughout the year!!! These unique holidays are our inspiration. As Neil Sedaka sang in his song "Calendar Girls" - "August, when you're on the beach, you steal the show!"

Our hop begins today with the lovely and super talented Jearise at http://lorbysworld.blogspot.com.  The entire line-up is available just in case you get bogged down with all the holidaze and craziness as you won't want to miss a single calendar event!!!! 

The line-up for August includes:

Jearise - http://lorbysworld.blogspot.com

Edwina- http://edwinascreations.blogspot.com/

Janet ~ http://ladyluvbug.blogspot.com

Laura - http://www.lauraleesdream.blogspot.com

Lynne ~ http://slasewcraftiness.blogspot.com/

Sandy~ http://scrapbookblessings.blogspot.com

Vicky~http://crafting-vicky.blogspot.ca/

Christine - http://creativelivingwithchristine.blogspot.com

Lucy ~ http://love2createitall.com

Michele- http://scrapytaz.blogspot.com

August Monthly Holidays, Special and Wacky:

• Family Fun Month ~ Jearise
• National Eye Exam Month - Lucy 
• Peach Month~ Michele
• National Picnic Month ~ Laura

August, 2013 Daily Holidays, Special and Wacky Days:

3 National Watermelon Day ~ Edwina

4 Friendship Day ~ Edwina

4 Sisters Day ~ Janet

7 National Lighthouse Day ~ Lucy 

9 Book Lover's Day ~ Christine

10 Lazy Day ~

10 National S'mores Day ~ Christine

11 Son and Daughter Day ~

12 Middle Child's Day ~

13 Left Hander's Day ~ Jearise

15 Relaxation Day - now this one's for me! ~Edwina

16 National Tell a Joke Day ~ Laura

18 Bad Poetry Day ~ Jearise

19 Aviation Day ~ Lynne & Edwina

20 National Radio Day ~ Sandy

21 Senior Citizen's Day ~ Janet

22 Be an Angel Day ~ Laura

22 National Tooth Fairy Day ~ Sandy

23 Ride the Wind Day ~

26 Women's Equality Day ~

27 Just Because Day ~ Jearise

28 Race Your Mouse Day -but we are not sure what kind of "mouse" ~

30 Frankenstein Day ~ Sandy

30 Toasted Marshmallow Day ~ Vicky

We are offering some fabulous blog candy to a lucky winners - 

Sandy from Scrapbook Blessings will be going through her stash and sending one lucky winner a surprise package. 

Laura will also be giving one lucky winner her favorite image from The Stamping Chef.. She is a new release so you will have to wait and see her... 

Just comment and give some bloggie love to each of the Calendar Girls.

August 9th is Book Lover's Day! My project to celebrate this holiday is something every book lover needs...a bookmark! These bookmarks are actually a file that I purchased from the Silhouette America store from designer Sarah Bailey.  Instead of cutting them with my electronic cutter, I printed the pattern and let my girls go free with my scrapping papers and card stock. These are their creations...

What better way to nurture the love of books then to create your own monster bookmark???!!! 

National S'mores Day is actually Today, August 10th! For this crazy holiday I knew I wanted to celebrate with not your ordinary traditional S'more. I wanted something you could enjoy even when you are not sitting 'round the campfire! 

So I searched the "go to place for everything you ever wanted"...Pinterest! to see what I could. And find I did! There are literally thousands of recipes for s'mores, some traditional and some far from traditional! I searched pin after pin after pin and then there it was...the most scrumptious, delightful, mouthwatering S'more that I had been searching for! 

These delights got rave reviews from my kids..."amazing!", "you need to make more!", "these are delish!"

They were very easy to make too!

1. Make a graham cracker cookie dough & squish into pan

2.  layer with Hershey's chocolate bar

3. Cover chocolate with marshmallows or marshmallow creme

4. Put remainder of cookie dough on top & cook for 30 minutes!

For the complete recipe for these delightful treats, visit Mama's recipes! 

Thanks for stopping by this month. Before you totally run off and snuggle up with a good book and a S'more, be sure to leave some bloggie love, I really appreciate your comments!

Your next stop along the way of the calendar is Lucy. Thanks for stopping by and mark your calendar again next month to see what Holidays to Celebrate on September 14, 2013, for the next Calendar Girls Blog Hop!

Calendar Girls' Blog Hop...Flag Day and Fishing Day!

Welcome to our June Calendar Girls' Blog Hop. It’s absolutely amazing when you do a Google search, the interesting facts you may find... the special and unique occasions throughout the year!!! These unique holidays are our inspiration. As Neil Sedaka sang in his song "Calendar Girls" - "June, they’ll let me take you to the Junior Prom.”

Ahhh, yes, remember those prom days, let alone the prom pictures?? I remember my Senior Prom –my date picked me up in his parents’ “clunker.” Wait, wait, it gets better! We were supposed to go to NYC after the prom…He didn't want to take his parents’ car so we ended up riding the BUS into New York City!!! Can you believe it?? The BUS!! Can you say NERD?? Sitting on the bus in your prom gown and tuxedo…what a memory! Well enough with that, on to the projects!


The hop starts with the beautiful and very talented Vicky at http://crafting-vicky.blogspot.ca/. The entire line-up is available below my projects, just in case you get bogged down with all the holidaze and craziness as you won't want to miss a single calendar event!!!!

If you arrived from Lynne’s blog, then you are right on track!

I’d like to share 2 projects that I created to recognize holidays in June…The 1st is Flag Day which occurs on June 14th and the second is Fishing Day which occurs on June 18th!

So here we go…

If you are from any state in the South you should be familiar with the “pillowcase” dress! 

Well, if you aren't, you are about to be! 

Pillowcase dresses have been around for hundreds of years. They came about as an easy and inexpensive way to clothe children. The original dresses were made from potato sacks, old linens and …pillow cases! These dresses are still popular and have taken on many modern twists.

I made this simple cute patriotic dress for my granddaughter of 

18 months...

It was all made from fabric that I found in the $1.00/yard bin at 

Wal-Mart! It could really be made from scraps you have from other projects; it only took me about ½ yard of material. The stars came from a $2.00 package of buttons in my stash. It only took me approximately 5 hours (should have been less without interruptions and breaks)! 

 And there you have it, a “pillowcase” dress that is still inexpensive, cute and can be worn for all patriotic holidays!
(Let me know in the comments if you would like to see a tutorial on how to make a "pillowcase" dress)

On to Fishing Day…This card is a fun and interactive card! Not only can it be used for Fishing Day but it would make 
a wonderful Father's Day Card (also in June) too!

The fisherman and his boat are both chalked and paper pieced from scraps that I had. 

He is drifting among layers of waves that are inked and embossed. 

The fishing line of string dangles in the waves with hopes of catching that playful fish! The playful fish beneath his boat is on a penny slider.

Watch the video of my daughter demonstrating how the card actually works:

Well, it was fun sharing the holidays with you. Thanks for stopping by! Don’t miss the others in the hop because there are great projects and blog candy too!

The line-up for June includes:
Vicky ~ http://crafting-vicky.blogspot.ca/
Janet ~ http://ladyluvbug.blogspot.com/
Anita ~ http://www.anitaandbugs.blogspot.com
Kimberly ~ http://scrappingrookie.blogspot.com
Laura - http://www.lauraleesdream.blogspot.com
Lynne ~ http://slasewcraftiness.blogspot.com/
Christine~ http://creativelivingwithchristine.blogspot.com
Sandy~ http://scrapbookblessings.blogspot.com
Miriam ~ http://miriamscreations.blogspot.com/
Lisa ~ http://handmadewithlove-lisa.blogspot.com/

We are offering some fabulous blog candy to 3 lucky winners:

1. Miriam's Crafting Supplies is offering ten (10) sets of pearls to one lucky winner by becoming a fan on her new blog, Miriam's Crafting Blog, http://miriamscraftingblog.com/

2.The Stamping Chef, http://thestampingchef.oo.gd/, is our wonderful sponsor for today's blog hop and has designed some of the images that have been used in today's hop. She is offering 3 of her wonderful designs, winner's choice to one lucky blog hopper that responds on each of the Calendar Girls’ posts along with her facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/groups/TSCRecipes/, commenting that you hopped with the Calendar Girls.

3.Lynne will be going through her stash and sending one lucky winner a surprise package to someone that remarks and gives bloggie love on each of the participants on your worst prom memory.

Your next stop along the way of the calendar is at Sandy’s. 

Thanks for stopping by and mark your calendar again next month to see what Holidays to Celebrate on July 13, 2013, for the next Calendar Girls Blog Hop!

Taking a turn

My apologies to all my readers that I have seemed to vanish for a while! I am back and have decided to take a turn with this blog...

My original purpose with this blog was to share crafts; now with the changes that have occurred in my life I have been challenged by the Good Lord to revamp my outlook on life and learn how to live creatively on a much lower income. 

To briefly give a background of the life changes I have experienced I will recap the past few years in short.

• In 2010 my husband, who was a truck driver, required emergency surgery on his spinal cord. This left him with spinal cord injury and partially paralyzed. Due to this change he was no longer able to work and was awarded Social Security Disability (Cut #1 in income and a big change in our lives) For 3 months, I needed to take off work and become his caregiver because he was not able to even feed himself. Through rigorous therapy he gained back a considerable amount of movement and I returned to work.
• During this time I was struck with great pain throughout my entire body combined with other symptoms. I blew them off to stress, long days, and difficult strain on my body due to lifting and caring for my husband. Unfortunately, rather than relief the symptoms became progressively worse until at times I could not even move. 
• After many frustrating doctor visits and tests, I was diagnosed with not only Fibromyalgia but Autoimmune disorders (not to mention severe hypertension and depression)!
• I continued to push myself to work until the symptoms and the treatments (weekly oral chemotherapy and now chemotherapy infusions) forced me to resign from my stressful position at work. (Cut #2 in income and another big change in our lives)
• This year I was determined eligible to receive Social Security Disability as well.

Those are our changes and challenges in lifestyle in a nutshell! This leads me to the change in this blog...

I will still continue to share crafting ideas, projects, and freebies; but I will now also share ways to craft on a budget, DIY home projects, and general ideas to live successfully on a budget in all aspects of our lives! It's not always EASY but it can be done and I am determined to make our lives purposeful, fun, and economical!

I apologize for the blah, blah, blah, that you may not be interested in but I felt that some explanation of my disappearance and change in blog material was warranted. Future posts will not be so long and tedious and I hope that you continue to follow along my journey and learn along with me how to cut expenses and still live a life that you enjoy along with any challenge you may encounter!

We did not expect these changes or income loss and similar challenges may cross YOUR LIFE at any time too!

I never considered myself an extravagant spender but I was not exactly very frugal either...so join me in learning lessons in frugality and life challenges! 

I would love to hear of your life challenges and how you have adjusted; your comments are all uplifting and always gratefully accepted...

Until next time...

Keira's Double Digit Crafting Birthday Bash

Welcome To Keira’s Double-Digit Birthday Crafting Bash!

Oh, the dilemma of it all, what to get a talented gal such as Keira who is going to be 10 for her birthday!!!!! I know what, let's have a blog hop for her .....

Keira has sooo many talents and likes such as:
she will be going in the 5th grade, loves dogs and cats, loves to garden, is a competitive gymnast, but more importantly, she is the best crafting partner Lisa Woodward could have!  At 9, she can use a cricut independently, and with SCAL and CCR. She likes to paper piece and scrapbook and loves making cards for everyone~and everything!!!!  Hallmark may not have a card for “Sorry my Golden Retriever ate your shoe at my sleepover” but Keira sure does!  Keira crafts along side Lisa, working on her own projects, and with helping Lisa with hers.  Now, bear in mind that Keira is not a "kid" crafter so to speak but her skills go way beyond pipe cleaners and pom poms!

We have a talented group of crafters to help Keira celebrate her birthday and know she will be hopping along as part of her "surprise" .....


Our complete line-up is:
Day 1
1. Lisa W.~ http://mycraftyspaces.blogspot.com
2. Kimberly ~ http://scrappingrookie.blogspot.com
3. Lynne ~ http://slasewcraftiness.blogspot.com/
4. Miriam - http://miriamscreations.blogspot.com
5. Christine ~ http://customcreativeexpressions.blogspot.com/
6. Rachelle~http://creationsbyrachelle.blogspot.com
7. Daisy- http://tsunamirosedesigns.blogspot.com
9. Shawnee ~ http://quiverofangels.blogspot.com
10. Anita~http://anitaandbugs.blogspot.com/
11. Jenny~ http://cccjalessi.blogspot.com/
Day 2
12. Lisa ~ http://handmadewithlove-lisa.blogspot.com/
13. Edwina ~ http://edwinascreations.blogspot.com/
14. Kristy - http://scraptasticalkreations.blogspot.com
15. Maria - http://JoyfulStamper.blogspot.com
16. Jamie ~ http://craftygirl21.blogspot.com/
17.Lori ~ http://www.scrappinmystressaway.blogspot.com/
18. Sarah - http://simplyshaddock.blogspot.com
19. Natasha - http://craftingwithnatasha.blogspot.com/
20, jackie-http://jackrabbitscrappin.blogspot.com/
21 Erica http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com
22. Theresa http://scrappinginheels.blogspot.com/

If you're just visiting me today, I'm thrilled but wouldn't want you to miss a single birthday wish to this special 10 year old!!!! The hop begins with Lisa. If you have arrived from Miriam's blog at
http://miriamscreations.blogspot.com then you are most definitely following the cake crumbs and the birthday banners and streamers!!!

This is the card that I made for Keira...

 Don't you just love the tear bear? Have you ever made one? They are made from Thick Mulberry Paper which is a handmade paper. You actually tear the paper in the shapes that you want.

You can draw your bear for a pattern or use a coloring page too. Or you can do as I did for this one...I used things around the house. I used a cover for a baby bottle for the head, a quarter for the ears, my snail adhesive for the body, a nickel for the paws, and the inside of the handle of small scissors for the muzzle and just free-handed the arms and legs.

Once the pieces are torn (about 3 for each part) and glued together, you use a wire brush or a stiff toothbrush or a dental brush and just brush the paper til it is as fluffy as you like. You can decorate with clothes from paper or anyway you like.

The presents on the card pull open and display birthday greetings and birthday balloons!

and this is the box she received it in...

  I sent some Mulberry Paper to Keira along with some American Girl paper and other embellishments for her to try making a tear bear too! They are so fun.

If you would like to try a bear too, I have created a file of eyes and noses that you can cut by hand or with the silhouette cutter.

I also have included a file that includes a template to cut by hand and a studio file to use with the Silhouette cutter for the step card

Click on the freebie tab to download these files and the pattern for the card as well!   (Check back again because I love to offer freebies) and stay up to date by liking my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CreativeExpressionsCardsbyChris  Happy Birthday Keira! Enjoy!

Time to cut the cake…..WAIT….this is a blog hop party, there’s no cake….there’s CANDY!  We have some awesome sponsors for this blog hop who are offering some great prizes!








have as an awesome sponsor Scrapping with Lisa Designs (http://scrappingwithlisadesigns.com)!  Lisa Peters has donated $20 worth of her original files as a prize for another lucky winner!  To be eligible for this prize, please follow and comment on each blog in our hop and also follow Scrapping with Lisa Designs Design Team blog page at http://scrappingwithlisadesignsdt.blogspot.com/, and “Like” the Scrapping with Lisa’s Designs Fan Page so you get updates and inspiration for Lisa’s great files.

Our next fantastical Sponsor is Kristy with Scraptastical Kreations.  Kristy has donated a $15 gift certificate to her online store at http://www.scraptasticalkreations.com/.  To be eligible for this prize drawing, please like Scraptasitical Kreations’ Fan Page on Facebook, and become a follower of her blog at http://scraptasticalkreations.blogspot.com and comment on each blog posting in our hop.

 The amazingly talented Daisy Collins of “I Love Sketches by Tsunami Rose” has donated a $10 gift certificate to her store (http://www.zibbet.com/tsunamirose) and a copy of “I Love Sketches By Tsunami Rose” sketches from the month of July!  In addition to leaving blog love for all of our participants and following their blogs, please follow http://tsunamirosedesigns.blogspot.com for updates and inspiration for Daisy’s sketches and visit and like her fan page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/106370486155916/.

The creatively diverse Christine Jones of Custom Creative Expressions (http://www.customcreativeexpressions.com/Shop-Online.html) will be creating a personalized tumbler for another lucky winner!  Perfect for a gift, or those crafting happy hours!   To qualify for this great prize, please leave comments and follow our participating bloggers!

After a long afternoon of crafting, deadline rushes for orders and posts, what would be better than a prize package from SimplySilverton-a soap and paperworks company?  This prize pack will include 2-4oz. handmade luxury soap, a 5 oz. body souffle’, 8 oz of scented massage oil, and a pound of bath salt soak.  To be eligible, please show your blog love to our participants by leaving comments and following their blogs, and also visiting and liking their page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/SimplySilverton-a-soap-and-paperworks-company-llc/218576901486847.

And…..

Our Blog Hostess, Lisa Woodward would like to say “Thank You” for celebrating this wonderful event with us!.  She is offering one lucky winner a $50 prize pack of crafting supplies, embellishments, goodies and bling.  In order to be eligible for this prize, please follow and comment on each blog post in our hop.

(All winners will be chosen from eligible entries at random. I will post the winners NLT Sunday, July 22nd, 12 midnight, EST. All entries through Saturday at midnight will be considered eligible.)

Well, we hope you enjoyed the birthday wishes we have prepared and now you won't want to miss Rachelle's blog at http://creationsbyrachelle.blogspot.com
as she too wishes Keira a wonderful double digit birthday!!! You can just imagine how thrilled she is as she is grinning "ear-to-ear" with all of her birthday wishes!

If you too would like to send a special card or crafting wish the address to mail to is:

Keira Woodward
3448 Valley Creek Drive
Tallahassee, FL  32312

This post was linked to:

Disney SVG files

It's been a while since my last post! Wow, have I had a lot going on! As I shared in an earlier post May has many celebrations for my family...birthdays, anniversaries, Mother's Day, Teacher appreciation days, and so on and so on. Seems like it never ends! Well, with all the celebrations I have been busy creating gifts! I will post them this weekend with some tutorials if I can fit that in! LOL

I have taken a break from work and gift making and decided to relax and browse the web to see what others have been up to...

I found the most wonderful site with loads of great SVG and SCAL files of Disney characters!!! Already divided in layers for paper piecing or cutting with vinyl!!!

Look how cute this Baloo and King file is....

Now run over to Reddy's Ramblings, tell her Christine from Custom Creative Expressions sent you and get your own files! Just remember these are Licensed and copyrighted to Disney, so as she will remind you, they can't be sold! Unless you don't mind the Disney Crew coming after you! I thought that was cute...(stolen from her blog!)

Until next time...Happy Crafting!

Teacher Appreciation Gifts

Wow! This school year had flown by!

It’s that time of the year when our kiddos are let loose from school and burst into their summer antics!

 

This year went incredibly FAST and can’t believe it is almost over! As I think back to the beginning of the year, I remember the fear on my daughter’s face as she left for her first day in Middle School. I knew I couldn’t show her the fear that I felt inside as I encouraged her and assured her that she would be fine!!! (I hoped she would anyway).  Well, after about a week of stomach aches, tears, fusses, and battles, she realized that it wasn’t SOOO bad after all. Now after 1 year she has grown, matured, and has learned so much!

I want to thank all of her teachers that supported her through, encouraged her, helped her when she couldn’t open her locker (I remember those days, how about you?) This year would never have been so successful without your never-ending efforts and countless days of listening to moaning, complaining, and the plain old silly garble of “middle schoolers!”

So with that said, how do we actually show our appreciation????

I have searched and thought and searched some more….and these are some of the sites that I have found with wonderful and creative ideas to show a little token of appreciation for those “often underappreciated warriors” that we call TEACHERS!

The Tip Junkie  has a lot of creative ideas that are very simple to make. Some of my favorites were:

 

Another excellent site with great ideas was Little Pumpkin…Hudson too! 

One of my favorites from this site was:

 

 

 

There are many more sites with wonderful ideas; the hardest part is deciding which idea to select!

What are you planning to do to show your appreciation for the people that spend the most time of the day with our kids??? I would love to hear some of your ideas.  I’d also love to hear comments on any other crafty subject you have on your mind too!

Until next time Happy Crafting!

Mother's Day Subway Art

The month of May is a busy, busy month for me! I have

both of my daughters' birthdays, Mother's Day, My Father-in- Law's birthday and my in-laws' anniversary!

And we can't forget Teacher's Appreciation day!

Oh and what about if someone is at that point where they are graduating???

Whew! Tired me out just thinking about all that I need to do and gifts to have!!! uuughh!

Well, no fear...Let's take on 1 at a time. Tonight I have an idea to share for Mother's day!

How about Subway Art???? Yes, that' right...I brought up the silhouette studio software and created an original and personalized piece of framed subway art for my sweet mother! Let me share with you...

Screenshot of my software where I created it

Now see how this is original and personalized...

Here you can see how I personalized it with my mom's name...

 It was lots of fun to play with the different fonts and colors and placements! I changed it quite a few times til I got it the way I liked it...

Now I just need to print it out and go shopping for a nice frame for it! So what do you think???  If you would like to try this for your Mom I am sharing this file. The file is in Studio format for the Silhouette cutters. The software is free from the Silhouette America website.

Download Subway Art 

Once you download the file you can change the name, colors, etc. to your liking! I would love to see what you come up with...If you download the file please leave me a comment! Thanks and have fun!!!