Paper Capers

Build-a-Bat

2010-03-18T22:09:00.000-07:00

Meet BatBoomer!

This project all came about on Saturday when I was out running errands and I stopped by the fabric store to pick up some supplies to help with Natalie's girl scout badges. Zander asked me "how come you do more creative crafts with Natalie?" A very valid question. So I asked what he would like to make and I came up with a fun idea that seemed to pique his interest. We were going to create a creature out of felt. When we got home I Googled ugly plushies and he was very inspired and quickly drew a creature of his own. This afternoon, I turned his drawing into a little plushy and he couldn't have been happier. I was just beaming on the inside because it has been a while since we have been able to connect like that. Dan is spending lots of quality time with him at Cub Scouts, but I haven't really felt like I have contributed much to his little world lately.

We worked together, cutting the shapes out and he was very good about speaking up if I cut something out that didn't match his vision. When everything was all cut out it was time to sew it all together. Zander said he liked it so far and hoped the sewing made it look good. He stood by me as I stitched it up on the sewing machine. (thankfully, it wasn't giving me fits like it normally does.) He got nervous when I turned everything right side out and there was a hole at the bottom for stuffing it. He thought I had decided to make it into a puppet, but was glad when I explained why it was open at the bottom. At any rate here is his bat! He loves it and has thanked me numerous times. "I've never made my own toy before...Well, you actually made it, but it looks just like my picture!"

2009-05-19T11:01:00.000-07:00

I haven't been doing anything crafty lately to blog about because I have been extra busy getting my photography studio —Alyssa Ernst Photography— up and running!!!

Here is a link to the photography blog:

I'm getting ready to shoot Fairy Portraits soon...check out the photo blog for some of the latest and greatest.

Wall•E Birthday Invitation

2008-12-09T18:16:00.000-08:00

Wow, it has really been a whirlwind of a week. Last weekend I was up to my eyeballs in fairy dust and butterfly wings and now I am switching gears and getting ready for my son's Wall•E party. Sunday night I was up late working on these invitations:

My son Zander really loves Wall•E so I wanted to come up with an invitation with a robot flavor. Many different ideas came to mind. I even thought of making the card out of sheets of tin, but then realized it would cost more to mail. I settled on this cool glittery black card stock from Doodlebug because it reminded me of outer space and all the sparkly stars in the sky. The Wall•E stickers are by Jolee's and the screw shaped brads were the store brand from Michaels. The information section was done on my computer using InDesign. It was fun to incorporate Zander's name in the style of Wall•E's logo.

Fairy Party

2008-12-08T15:19:00.000-08:00

It's challenging to decorate with such a flowery theme in December because there's just not much available in the stores (unless you are looking for red and green.) I found this light up gerbera daisy garland at Amazon.com. I found the figurine in the centerpiece at the dollar store, the tea pot is one I have in my collection and the tea cups I purchased about 4 years ago at Birthdayexpress.com, but I haven't seen them lately.

The canopy is from our bed, so I just thumb-tacked it up to the ceiling and it was the perfect size. The table is a small table we use up in the playroom covered with a purple tablecloth and a couple yards of sparkly star organza fabric.

Sprinkling pixie dust on her friends as they arrived.

Our first activity was to make fairy wreaths. I wrapped the flowers around pipe cleaners using floral tape.

Fairy nests (phylo dough "nests" filled with M&Ms)

Tinkerbell's cake. My idea was to use sparklers for candles, but the ones that I had on hand were not working at all, luckily I had these other long candles on hand.

The girls had fun decorating their own cupcakes.

I found plastic stemmed desert bowls at Party City and just hot-glued some artificial rose petals to the edge to make it look more like a flower.

Here is the way I set up the photo corner. I had fun taking pictures of all the girls. After the party I used the Photoshop brushed (Obsideon Dawn) to give them a sprinkling of pixie dust.

Drinking all the last bits of tea.

Fairies drinking tea.

All kinds of fairy-sized goodies.

Top tier is chocolate covered strawberries, then flower shaped lemon tea sandwiches. On the bottom, I made triangle shaped chicken tea sandwiches.

I found these glow stick fairy wands at the dollar store. They were fun to use while watching the new Tinkerbell movie.

Fairy Cake

2008-12-06T00:17:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is my daughter's 8th birthday party and she decided on a fairy theme this year.

I searched all over for ideas, but the ones that caught my eye were covered in flowers...so I asked my sister-in-law (our family cake expert) for some help. She is amazing with flowers, isn't she? She made all these up, so all I had to do was make the cake, frost it and arrange everything. It was great fun!

I looked at some of the Tinkerbell cake toppers in the cake decorating section, but they seemed kind of cheesy to me and not very well made for sure. I found this while out Christmas shopping. It's a Hallmark ornament, so Natalie will be able to keep it and use it at Christmas time!

Fabulous Food Friday: Buttercream Frosting

2008-12-05T22:07:00.000-08:00

Buttercream Frosting

In a large mixer bowl, combine 1 1/4 cup sugar, 5 egg whites and flavoring. Heat over a pot of simmering water. Wisk for 3 minutes.

Whip on high for three minutes using the wisk attachment.

When frosting is thick, add 4 sticks of butter, a tablespoon at a time. Using the paddle attachment, mix until blended. Add food coloring and frost your cake.

This recipe makes a lot, so I usually only make half the recipe, which frosts one cake.

Fairy Invitations

2008-11-29T16:04:00.000-08:00

I got a late start with Natalie's birthday invitations, but I think they turned out pretty darn cute! This year I am really gonna try to keep things simple, we are only going to have a few girls over instead of the usual 10-12, which should cut down costs and ensure I keep my sanity through the remainder of the December birthdays and into the Christmas holidays.

I used my Fiskars scalloped border punch along the bottom edge. To decorate the envelopes. I stamped the girls' names with celery colored ink, then added glitter over the top.

This fairy invitation has a fairy dust velum overlay. What you can't see from this photo is the white sheet is mounted onto clear acetate, so it looks like it's floating. The bottom layer is a background paper with silhouettes of TinkerBell.

Here's another look. Special photoshop brushes courtesy of Obsidian Dawn.

Fabulous Food Friday: Spooky Treats

2008-10-31T15:40:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!

Last year I had a lot of fun making Halloween treats for the kids. I made these cute mummies stuffed with chicken salad:

You can find the instructions for these mummies here.

This year, my friend Teri told me about a Halloween treat that she was making and I had to give it a try. They were really easy to make which was great because this year I seemed to be full of festive plans, but short on time.

STEP 1: insert chow mien noodles into double stuff Oreos. I used chocolate mint Oreos cause those are my fave, but I think there are orange Oreos this time of year that would be cool too.

Second melt 4 squares of chocolate almond bark to 1 C chocolate chips and drizzle over the "spiders." I found it was the easiest to scoop up the spiders with a fork, then using a mini ladle or large spoon, drizzle over cookie until coated. Let the excess chocolate drip off and then place on waxed paper to set. Lastly use two mini M&Ms for eyes. The kids had fun with this part and were trying to figure out which color was the spookiest for spider eyes!

Chocolate covered spiders...good enough to eat!

John Deere Tractor Party

2008-10-18T21:37:00.000-07:00

Back in August, my son celebrated his third birthday with a tractor party. He loves everything with wheels, especially tractors!

Our neighbors let us borrow their tractors...

...and the kids loved climbing around on them!

The John Deere pedal car was a big hit!

So were the boxed lunches packed up in John Deere gable boxes. I ordered them from this online store. I also purchased some astro-turf from Home Depot to use as a table cloth...cause it looks like grass!

Inside their lunch boxes was a sandwich, juice, applesauce, sesame sticks, and John Deere fruit snacks.

I made the cake, but in hind site I would have made the base a little wider to accommodate the toy tractor a little better. We also had "haystacks" made from chow mein noodles, almond butter and melted butterscotch chips. Just mix it all together and drop by large scoops onto some waxed or parchment paper and let set.

Along with the cake, we served little piggy sherbet scoops. I used a big scoop for the body, a little scoop (from the melon baller) for the nose, mini chocolate chips for the nostrils and regular chocolate chips for the eyes. The ears are made from pink Jelly Bellies.

For goody bags, I found the John Deere coloring books at the dollar store, the fruit snacks were from the grocery store and the John Deere logo lollipop and the popcorn were from the Green Fun Store (website listed in the link above).

I packaged them all up in John Deer retail bags that cost just pennies a piece from the same website.

Andy and Taly's Wedding Card

2008-10-13T19:24:00.000-07:00

Our weekend was a busy one. We had a family wedding in which my husband was a groomsman, my daughter was a flower girl and I was the wedding photographer. I am finally catching my breath and wanted to post a wedding card I made for the special couple. Their colors were black with a hint of red, so I made this to coordinate.

The stamp is from Stampin' Up! and I used white craft ink to make the image show up on the black cardstock. Then I added some rhinestones and a ribbon. It's not very traditional for a wedding card, but I kinda like how it turned out.

Here are a few of my favorite photos:

Fabulous Food Friday: Aebleskiver

2008-08-08T15:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my friend Debbie and I drove for 2 hours down to Junction City to attend their Scandinavian Festival. We both have Norwegian heritage, so it was fun to spend a day celebrating our ancestors. One of the things we tried was a dish called Aebleskiver. They are little round waffle-like treats that are served with jam. I've never made them, but it was fun watching them make them at the festival. My mom has the iron to make these and we are planning to dust if off and make some soon.

Danish Aebleskiver
2 C flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 T sugar
2 T melted margarine
2 C milk
2 eggs, separated

Mix together dry ingredients and set aside. Separate eggs and beat whites stiff, not dry. Combine milk, egg yolks, margarine and add to dry ingredients. Fold in egg whites.

Use a heavy cast iron aebleskiver pan on medium heat. Put aprox 1 tsp veg oil in each hole. Pour batter in each to level top. Using a thin knitting needle, turn when bubbles appear. Continue turning to complete the ball shape. To test for doneness, insert needle. It should come out clean. each batch takes about 7-9 minutes.

Here you can see the woman pouring the batter into the hot iron.

Once they have cooked for a while, you turn them about a third of the way over and let them cook some more.

Then turn them again, using a metal skewer.

Lots of young girls were on hand to help turn the aebleskivers.

And there you have it...ours were served with strawberry jam and norseberry jam ~ yummy!

More pictures from the Scandinavian Festival 2008

There was lots of dancing by adults as well as children.

Here are some clogs that I thought were so cute. Click to enlarge the photos to see the rosemaling detail.

Many girls wore these flower wreaths in their hair...so sweet.
I couldn't resist taking this little girl's photo. She was adorable.

Here are some of the women representing traditional costumes from Norway. Many of the dresses were made by the ladies who were wearing them.

I knew this would happen

2008-08-06T13:58:00.000-07:00

I knew it, I just knew it....

Grrrr...The very thing that I hoped wouldn't happen did. In a previous post I mentioned that after 10 years of demonstrating for Stampin' Up, I decided to just let it go. I was hesitant to do so because of all the cool things I would miss out on, fun new stamps, paper and accsories that come out in the new catalog (now twice a year).

About this time every year Stampin' Up releases their newest goodies every year and I would wait on pins and needles for my copy of the new catalog to arrive. This was the first year in a long time I wouldn't be getting my complimentary catalog, so I decided to peek on Splitcoaststampers to see if any of the demos over there would have leaked anything about the new catalog.

Well, to my surprise it turns out that Stampin' Up! has finally partnered with Sizzix and will now be offering a line of exclusive Sizzix dies! This is so exciting to me and so dissapointing at the same time. I had been suggesting this for years, almost as long as SU has been marketing to scrapbookers. At first they came out with die cut punch outs which were okay and served their purpose, but I could never understand why they didn't come out with the actual dies for sale.

The very thing I was hoping to be able to demonstrate, never showed up in the catalog...until I decided to end my time as a demonstrator. As you can see there are lots of fun designs to choose from. I think I am in trouble once again...I just love this stuff!!! Stay tuned, I believe the new online catalog goes live on August 11th.

Totally Awesome 80's Party

2008-08-03T09:35:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday was my 35th birthday and I planned an 80's themed party to celebrate. Like Happy Birthday to me, fer sure!

After spending a few hours digging through all the clothes at Goodwill, I came up with these outfits. I went for the mall chic look while my husband sported the Miami Vice look.

My daughter (on the right) thought her outfit looked weird...sadly, this is just the kind of stuff I wore in middle school. I even found Jellies (shoes) at Target on clearance for $1.99. I loved my Jellies back in the 80's, but man they sure did make our feet stink!

I even made one of these to go with her outfit...most of you who were little girls in the 80s had barettes like this.

Dan and Scott fake laughing.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

Friends from high school looking totally tubular!

Like, gag me with a spoon!

The shirt still fits...sort of!

Back in the 80's I remember going to the mall and people asking us to take the Pepsi challenge to see which soda we like better: Coke or Pepsi...so we had our own blind taste test...some people could tell right away, others thought they knew, but were way off.

We served Breakfast Club Sandwiches, cool ranch Doritos and grape and strawberry crush to wash it down. It was hard to find "80's" themed food, but as I was working on coming up with some ideas I realized that this was the time when we really started to see all the processed foods and major junk food start to show up in the stores...lots of prepackaged stuff that I don't normally buy.

Of course there were sweets too!

You can't have an 80's party without the most rad video game star! These pac-man cookies were fun to make.

Mid way through the party, my husband came out dressed as Richard Simmons...people were laughing so hard, it took about 10 minutes for everyone to regain their composure.

Here they are participating in the 80's relay where you have to run from the other side of the yard to the chair, pick up the Thigh Master and do 10 reps and run back.

It was a Thigh Master disaster and my husband stayed in character the whole time!

I turned our dining room into an 80's museum. Here are the few things left from my childhood.

On the wall was a huge 80's collage poster we had printed out. Tons of 80's memories here!

If you click on this picture, you can see it much better, or drag it to your desktop and open it. I found it by Googling 80's collage...I love Google!

In the museum was a vintage 80's apple computer that was up and running some original 80's old school games...the kids and adults liked playing them.

Like this is totally a blast from the past...back in the day, this cell phone was all the rage.

For my cake, my friend baked me a "16 Candles" cake. It was a lot of fun to stroll down memory lane, but the best part was seeing what our friends came dressed up like...totally rad dude, to the max!

Our Room at the Great Wolf Lodge

2008-07-23T23:28:00.000-07:00

I surprised the family for Father's Day with a trip to the newly opened Great Wolf Lodge. It was such a fun place to stay. The kids loved the huge indoor water park, but when we were done playing, the kids cabin inside our room was where they wanted to hang out. Inside their cabin were bunk beds and their own tv set with game console. They were in kid heaven!

Fabulous Food Friday: Fried Won Tons

2008-07-18T12:05:00.000-07:00

To make these yummy appetisers, you need to purchase won ton wrappers and whatever ingredients you want for the filling. I typically use a mixture of cream cheese, ham (or chicken) and chives.

Separate the won tons as you go and spoon a small amount of the filling into the center.

Fold over and wet the edges to seal.

And tuck the end up to the middle. Seal the ends using water. Fry in vegetable oil, a few at a time, until brown and crispy.

Now here are some photos of my newest hobby...bento lunches!

These are made with sticky (sweet) rice, using rice molds found in Asian markets or online. I got mine from my brother-in-law's fiance who brought them back from Japan!

I used my paper punches to punch holes and flowers for the eyes out of nori (dried seaweed)...see, crafty and tasty!

Here is a lunch I made for my daughter this past spring using the rice molds. This time, I didn't use sticky rice, just leftover rice that I added Yoshida's gourmet sauce to make it "sticky." The bunny has a carrot nose and is surrounded by Edamame. She loved it!

My last order

2008-07-17T22:24:00.000-07:00

A few months back I was at a crossroads with my status as a Stampin' Up demonstrator. I was in pending for the gazillionth time and I had to decide whether I was going to "dig" myself out again or just let it go. I decided on the latter. When I first started demonstrating I was making money, but then I had kids and life got reallly busy. When I signed up in 1998, I really just wanted to try to earn enough money to buy supplies. Ten years later, I have so many supplies I can't seem to harness them all (and believe me I've been trying!) I was trying to hang on through the end of my 10th year to earn the 10-year pin (a goal I set a long time ago), but when it all boiled down to it, I knew the pin wasn't worth extra money I would have to spend to earn it. So it was a bitter sweet day when I put my last order in, but I almost feel a sense of relief not having to think about being a demonstrator...now I can just have fun!

Had to stock up on all the colored cardstock and a few cute new stamp sets...and the new hodgpodge hardware set...and...

Fabulous Food Friday: Thai Basil Chicken

2008-07-11T22:10:00.000-07:00

Since my brother-in-law is from Thailand, we have had the pleasure of eating many delicious Thai meals together. This is one of my favorites.

Note: Begin cooking your rice before you make this dish and it should be ready at the same time.

Thai Basil Chicken

12-16 sweet basil leaves
1 cup hot water
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 pound chicken, thinly sliced (I use 2 lbs)
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 medium onion, sliced (I use 1 onion)
1-2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and sliced
1 tablespoon fish sauce, available at Asian markets
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar

In a small bowl, soak sweet basil leaves in hot water for 15 minutes. Drain and discard water.
In a large skillet or wok, heat 2 tablespoons oil over high heat for 1 minute. Add meat and cook over high heat, stirring constantly, until chicken begins to turn brown. Place meat aside in a bowl. Wash skillet and dry. Heat 1 tablespoon oil over high heat for one minute. Add garlic, onion and peppers and stir well. Cook, stirring frequently until peppers are soft. Add chicken, fish sauce, soy sauce, and sugar and stir well. Tear basil into smaller pieces and add to the mix. Cook, stirring constantly over medium heat for 2 minutes or until heated through. Serve over rice with some sweet chili sauce on the side. Mmmmm!

Seattle Memorabilia Page

2008-07-10T08:06:00.000-07:00

No matter where we go on vacation, we tend to come home with lots of memorabilia: ticket stubs, maps, brochures, etc...I always hang on to it all in hopes to add it to the layout, but this time it seemed to become the layout.

Here's what I've done so far... it doesn't feel "done" though. My husband thinks it's too busy, but I kinda like it...any suggestions?

Cousins at the Beach

2008-07-09T09:54:00.000-07:00

Here is a page I made with one of my favorite beach photos. It was taken last year when our family went camping at the beach.

Paper: Best Creation Inc. "California" ; Turquoise glitter paper; Title: My Mind's Eye "bohemia: bungalo at the beach" ; ART glitter used on the word 'Beach' ; caption: velum card stock

Fabulous Food Friday

2008-07-04T23:38:00.001-07:00

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. My daughter and I spent some time in the afternoon picking what might be the last of the strawberries this season. Anyone who lives in Oregon will tell you that our berries are the sweetest, most delicious strawberries around. They are smaller than the ones you typically buy in the stores, but they are packed with flavor and are something I look forward to every year. So many good summer treats can be made with these red gems...today I am going to share with you a yummy treat that I first made a couple years ago for Father's Day.

In the past I posted recipes every Friday to my family blog which is a private blog, but I have decided to add this feature to Paper Capers so I can share my recipes with all my blogging friends as well. So here is the first edition of Fabulous Food Friday on Paper Capers...Fourth of July style! I made this recipe to bring over to our neighbors who always do a huge fireworks show in their back yard. Hope you enjoy!

Strawberry Pavlova

INGREDIENTS

4 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups whipping cream
1 quart fresh strawberries, sliced

DIRECTIONS

Place egg whites in a large mixing bowl; let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Beat egg whites on medium speed until foamy. Add cream of tartar; beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add 1-1/4 cups sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating on high until stiff peaks form. Sprinkle cornstarch over egg white mixture; fold in. Fold in lemon juice and extract.
Coat a 14-in. pizza pan with nonstick cooking spray. Spoon meringue onto pan, forming a 12-in. heart; build up edges slightly. Bake at 250 degrees F for 45-55 minutes or until crisp. Cool on pan on a wire rack.
In a mixing bowl, beat cream until soft peaks form. Gradually add the remaining sugar, beating until stiff peaks form. Spoon over meringue; arrange strawberries over top. Serve immediately.

Summer Projects

2008-07-03T20:38:00.000-07:00

I must have serious ADD. In one day I started 5 major projects. One morning I started weeding my garden and transplanting plants (which was just a warm-up), then when that got boring, I went into the house and started tearing down the old wallpaper in the utility bathroom. Soon enough ripping got boring so I started to test out the new paint color. Later that afternoon I moved on to pressure washing the patio around the pool. (As it turns out this is a very time consuming project that has taken all week, but is almost done.) Pressure washing the patio lead to pressure washing the patio furniture which leads to the project I am most excited about...

This week we started re-finishing our patio furniture!

...well, let me back up a little. Last year when I was jonesin' for a new patio set, my husband felt the money would be better spent on other things (little did we know I would have two kidney stone surgeries in the fall).

Instead of new patio furniture we compromised and agreed to re-finish what we had. His parents gave us their old metal set when we bought their house, but it was really rusty and needed some serious TLC. I found some new cushions, but that's as far as we got. Then this past weekend we got the new paint that would match our outdoor love seat and chair set.

Here are the chairs: before (white), during (rust colored primer) and after (brushed bronze)

...and here is what the chair looks like with the cushions...so much better!!!

Pink, Pink, you stink!

2008-07-02T08:21:00.000-07:00

Many of you already know about my obsession with Pink...if it's pink...I want it. Not in a selfish, materialistic way, but yes, I do get a little excited when I find pink things. Who wouldn't want to drive around in such a cute car?

My eyes are seriously drawn to the color pink...always have been. A few years ago I saw a pink old-fashioned type writer on ebay and I just had to have it. I bid on them and would be out-bid and then I'd wait for the next one to show up. I was determined to get one. It never happened...yet. Still want one though. Isn't she cute!

When Kitchen-Aid came out with pink appliances, I was ready to paint my kitchen pink and re-decorate with pink appliances...then I remembered I was married and my husband would not see the beauty in a pink kitchen! Plus, despite my admiration for the color pink, I really don't want to turn into that crazy lady who lives in a pink house with too many cats who are also pink!

If I could have a pink kitchen without turning into that crazy lady, I would need one of these...pink microwaves!

Oh, and let's not forget all the cute pink things Pottery Barn Teen has...A pink mini fridge for your dorm room (or craft room!) LOL!!

And these chairs...I just love Pottery Barn! Such cute things in there!

Wouldn't mind one of these either. Remember back in the day, waiting for the rotary dial to come all the way around before you could dial the next number.

Fellow scrapbooker, Heidi Swapp loves pink just like I do. Here are some of her pink Christmas trees using some products from her scrapbooking line to decorate with.

...and lastly, when I saw this, I started thinking...hmmm... I know the Sizzix machine I have is perfectly fine and practically new, but it's red and white...maybe I could sell mine and get this one. I seriously thought that. Am I crazy? I think maybe a little! But man, this one would really look great in my craft room!

What happened in here?

2008-06-24T21:37:00.000-07:00

Yesterday and today I have been working hard to reduce the clutter that has taken over my craft studio/office. One would think by looking in here that I am a total slob...One would be right! I am one of those crafty-type people who bounces from one thing to another, never minding to clean up the first project before starting the next...some call this compulsive or even ADD. I'm not ready to take on such a stigma yet, but I will say that I do have problems with keeping things in order — most of the time.

One would also say...Man, you have a lot of crap! And by crap I mean lots of cool useful stuff that I just can't live without, but never seems to get used...just collected! LOL!!

I am a true paper-collecting, sticker hoarding, scrapbooking junkie... I can't get enough and there will never be a time when I have enough. There will always be something sooo cute, it has to come home with me.

To make matters worse I am muy sentimental and struggle big time with throwing things away...in particular my kids school work and drawings. Of course I throw the hundreds of mass-produced worksheets away, but the art projects and things they personally put effort into...well, they now have a new home. Instead of being stacked and piled end-over-end in various boxes covering my studio floor, I now have them living safe and secure (and organized) in new file cabinets. One drawer per kid and the fourth drawer is for all those other things I keep, like the maps and memorabilia from our vacations or the ultra sound photos of my babies, our christmas letters, etc. All things I plan to scrapbook someday...you know, when I have more time! Until then I will spend that time organizing my collection of crap, cause that's what scrapbookers do. We admire, we buy, we collect, we organize...and then, just maybe, we scrapbook.

Coffee Card

2008-05-30T15:02:00.000-07:00

Here is a card I made for my husband a few weeks back. I gave it to him with some chocolate covered espresso beans...yummy!

All ink, stamps and paper are from Stampin' Up.

Just wanted to also say thank you to pinkcamo for listing me on her blog-roll.

Memory book pages for Zander's preschool

2008-05-25T15:59:00.000-07:00

Once again I signed myself up as the coordinator for the memory book...and once again, I procrastinated until the last second. Here's how my pages turned out. I had to reproduce these 18 times!!!

I made the "Teacher and me" page with Stampin up paper punches. (The pot are Sizzix die cuts). For the center of the flowers I used those little jewels you can get to add bling to your cell phone.

This is the cover for the albums. I cut out the owl and the tree free hand and then added googly eyes. The list has all the names from his class.

Journalism Portfolio

2008-04-10T19:38:00.001-07:00

Today I was having one of those mom days where I felt a little left in the dust. Right now at this point in my life, my career is being a mom. I am completely content with this decision on most days, but it seems lately many of my friends are going back to school, getting or finishing their degrees and finding fulfillment in a new career.

After just recently working over time to finish my daughter's school yearbook, I honestly don't know how working moms do it. I have been a total zombie all week trying to catch up on housework, take care of the kids, run errands and fix meals.

At any rate, back to my point...so I was feeling a tad inadequate and went down to the basement to try and locate my design portfolio in hopes that seeing what I used to do would somehow make me feel better. Well, I didn't find the design portfolio, but I did find my journalism portfolio. Here is a page I did of my most memorable interview ever...with Heather Locklear!

Holy Eyebrows Batman!...clearly I hadn't yet discovered eyebrow waxing yet. LOL!!! So here's the scoop...Heather Locklear, Timothy Busfield, Chloris Leachman and Micheal Beck were in town filming a made for TV movie called "Fade to Black" (this was before her Melrose Place days). I piped up and volunteered myself to interview for this story...as a journalism major this was about as exciting an opportunity as I would get, so I jumped at the chance. Heather was "nice" or should I say polite. She didn't want to be photographed really, but then agreed to let our photographer photograph her from a distance. Fortunately, I was friends with the photographer who used her zoom and got a tight shot anyway!!! I could tell by her non verbals that Heather Locklear wanted the interview to be short and sweet, so I tried to accommodate.

Later that same afternoon, my editor got to interview Timothy Busfield (from "Revenge of the Nerds" and "30-Somthing") and I got to sit in on the interview. Unlike Heather Locklear, Timothy Busfield was so cool and extremely friendly. He sat down with us and just kind of hung out for a while. It was a fun day for sure.

These layouts are pretty basic and just contain clips from the articles I wrote.

Nursery Rhymes

2008-04-03T19:50:00.000-07:00

I just got back from roller skating with my 7 year old at a skate/birthday party. It was so much fun...but I'm sure I'll feel sore tomorrow! Right now I'm just killing 5 minutes before Survivor starts and I thought I would post some more cards I made at the beach last week.

I love this Nursery Rhymes set from Stampin Up! I bought the set right before it was discontinued (several years ago), but I never assembled the stamps and therefore, never made anything with it. Sadly I have many more sets just waiting to be put together, but that's another issue altogether. Anyway here are some cards I watercolored:

...cow jumped over the moon, my favorite!

April Fools!!!

2008-04-01T21:24:00.001-07:00

Gotcha!

I came across this kitty litter cake idea while searching Madonna's (yes THAT Madonna) blog some time last year. I went back later to write down the instructions and her blog was no longer set up...little did I know that a simple Google search would turn up multiple instructions and even some photos.

My kids though it was gross!!! Heehee LOL!

Without further ado, here's the recipe:

Kitty Litter Cake
Serving Size: 24Notes:
This is a fun cake! It might look gross, but it does taste good!
Ingredients:
1 (18 oz.) box spice or german chocolate cake mix
1 (18 oz.) box white cake mix
1 pkg. white sandwich cookies
1 large box vanilla instant pudding mix
12 small tootsie rolls
1 litter box (preferably a NEW one!)
1 plastic scoop
green food coloring

Preparation:
Prepare cake mixes and bake according to directions (any size pans). Prepare pudding mix and chill until ready to assemble. Crumble white sandwich cookies in small batches in blender, they tend to stick, so scrape often. Set aside all but about 1/4 cup. To the 1/4 cup cookie crumbs, add a few drops green food coloring and mix using a fork or shake in a jar.
When cakes are cooled to room temperature, crumble into a large bowl. Toss with half the remaining white cookie crumbs and the chilled pudding. You probably won’t need all of the pudding, mix with the cake and “feel” it, you don’t want it soggy, just moist; gently combine. Put mixture into clean litter box.Put three unwrapped Tootsie rolls in a microwave safe dish and heat until soft and pliable. Form the three softened Tootsie rolls into one roll. Shape ends so they are no longer blunt, curving slightly. Repeat with 3 more Tootsie rolls and bury in mixture. Sprinkle the other half of cookie crumbs over top. Scatter the green cookie crumbs lightly over the top, this is supposed to look like the chlorophyll in kitty litter. Heat remaining Tootsie Rolls, three at a time in the microwave until almost melted. Scrape them on top of the cake and sprinkle with cookie crumbs. Place the box on a newspaper and sprinkle a few of the cookie crumbs around. Serve with a new pooper scooper.

Spring Break Getaway at the Oregon Coast

2008-04-01T11:43:00.000-07:00

Contrary to what it looks like, this was taken near Lincoln City on "Spring" Break last week...yes, that is SNOW!

Here you can see the snow in the foothills along the coastline...it was pretty crazy to see snow in March at the beach!

Here I am with my kiddos all bundled up!

I actually brought my stamps with me to the beach. It has been sooo long since I've made any cards. Quite a few of the stamp sets I brought weren't even assembled yet, so the first night I put them all together and then spent all day stamping. I love this little picture I made using the "All in the Family" set from Stampin' Up to represent Zander, Natalie and Hayden. The image of the kids is water colored using water color pencils.

This gate fold card was made with the "Time with You" set from Stampin' Up and is also water colored. I forgot to bring my foam dimensional with me, so I just used the mounting foam I had leftover after I cut out my stamps the night before. I peeled off the rubber and the adhesive back and and was left with double-sided sticky backed foam. I then stamped, colored and cut out the top part of the umbrella and used the foam to mount/layer the umbrella over top of the original image so it pops out more. I'm sure this is clear as mud, but it looks 3 dimensional.

Here is the inside of the card which reads: "My very favorite thing to do is spending time with a friend like you."

I'm back!

2008-03-26T09:34:00.000-07:00

Wow! It has really been a long time since I have updated my Paper Capers blog. This year, for some reason, I have not had as much time to just do creative things. My kids keep me busy for sure, but it feels like I am always running around the house just trying to catch up.

Finally, after many moons, I took 2 days and did nothing but clean my bedroom. Ugggh! What a chore...but worth it. My bedroom is the place where the laundry gets dumped when company comes over...add to that my clothes that I just throw on the floor at the end of the day when I am too tired to care enough to hang them up! Now it looks great! (let's see how long I can keep it that way!) My scraproom is next on my list...oh, man is it a mess!

I've also been going to the gym a lot more...well In January and February I went a lot...trying to loses weight. I average 3-5 miles running on the elliptical and so far have lost 12 lbs!!! I haven't gone much at all this month though. I was sick for a week, lost my voice and everything. Then the other days seemed to be consumed with volunteering commitments at my kids' schools...as well as working on my daughter's school yearbook.

...so, yeah, I've been a busy girl, but I think the main thing that has occupied any remaining time is my recent addiction to Facebook. It's a good time waster, but also good to connect with my friends who are also on Facebook.

This past Sunday we celebrated Easter at my house. All three of my siblings and their families were there. My parents were both sick and stayed home. Here is a picture of our Easter table:

Oh...and my camera, that I just got a few months back, is not working right. The display won't turn on, so not only can I not preview and delete my photos, but I also can't change any of my settings. I have to take pictures the old-school way by looking through the view finder and waiting to see them after they are uploaded. I am limited to the auto setting and can't even turn off the flash. It's made me really appreciate how far cameras have come since my very first Pentax K1000...a dinosaur by today's standards!

This is my daughter (in purple) at the Japanese themed party that I made the cards for, from the previous post.

Birthday Cards

2008-03-01T19:12:00.001-08:00

My daughter was invited to a joint birthday party, scheduled for tonight, but it got cancelled because one of the birthday girls got sick. Here are 2 cards I made for the party:

The theme for the party was a Japanese tea party, so I thought this would fit right in.

The inside greeting for this card reads "I hope your birthday is like totally cool."

I think just about everything I used for these cards is from Stampin' Up!

White water rafting pages

2008-02-27T19:48:00.001-08:00

So here are my rafting pages...

It's always a toss up for me...use fewer photos on the page and have more space to embellish, or use lots of photos and use minimal embellishments. Sometimes I get tired of seeing layouts with just one photo...On one hand, I think it looks nice, it's just not practical. If I were to do one photo layouts on all my pages, it would take me three lifetimes to get everything done...plus that's a lot of pages!!!

Paper: Karen Foster (ripple); Embellishments: Jolee's; Diecut letters (zipeCuts by AccuCut: Recess 1" Font); solid cardstock: Stampin' Up!

Remembering the Flood of 96

2008-02-26T21:42:00.001-08:00

Last week, after digging through some old photos, I was actually able to spend some time scrapbooking. I know, hard to believe, but I did get quite a few pages done.

Now these two pages may not be artfully composed or designed using the latest trends in scrapbooking, but they do tell a simple story of an event that most Oregonians can remember...the flood of 96. I felt it was more important to highlight the photos and tell the story of the flood than to come up with great page designs. Plus...did I mention these photos were taken in 1996...um that's like 12 years ago...so I'm just happy to have these pages done!

One day while out collecting sand bags for her back yard, my mom and I took a drive and photographed some of the areas in Portland that were effected by the flooding.

I used a blue velum overlay to convey the feeling of water on my title.

It's hard to tell from this picture, but the top left is of the Willamette River (taken from the east bank) of the sea wall all boarded up. Top right is of stores down town all boarded up and sand bagged. The middle pictures are from the bike path on Marine drive where the Columbia River is just a few feet from the path. The bottom left is an aerial photo of the flooded Willamette Valley and the bottom right is the flooded covered wagons in Oregon City.

Got spam?

2008-02-24T08:00:00.000-08:00

For some reason, Paper Capers has been hit by multiple spam comments this week, so I have decided to join the rest of you who have added word verification to your blog. When posting a comment to this blog, you will now need to type in the series of letters and numbers blogger randomly generates. By manually entering these characters, a lot of the automated spam will be eliminated since the comment cannot be saved unless you physically type in the characters.

I have always been mildly annoyed by these word verification boxes, but not as annoyed as I am with all the spam I've been receiving lately...so, sorry for the extra step, but thank you for your understanding...I hope this does the trick.

Ahoy, Matey

2008-02-23T16:13:00.000-08:00

Here is a card I made for a little boy named Isaac who turned three this week. He had a fun pirate party, so I used my Ahoy Matey set from Stampin' Up!

The map background is also from Sampin Up!...but it's been retired for a while. I stamped the map on background paper from Karen Foster that looks like crinkled paper.

Of course I had to decorate the envelope too!

Groovy Baby...70's party pages

2008-02-19T10:02:00.002-08:00

So first of all, these photos are almost 5 years old...so that's how on top of my scrapbooking I am! I'm glad I waited to do these pages though...how perfect is the Mellow line of paper from Basic Grey?

Okay...I'm a huge Brady Bunch fan, so I had to include them on the invite!

This is the invite I created for said 70's event!

...Now check out my outfit! Far out man!!! My husband totally freaked out my niece with his afro. I think this year we are going to do a Totally 80's party for our 35th birthday.

Red and cream card

2008-02-18T10:10:00.000-08:00

I love the combination of patterns in these papers...so I made a few cards using the remaining pieces of paper from my husband's valentine's card/mini book.

stamped image is from Stampin' Up!

Dan's Valentine

2008-02-16T09:48:00.000-08:00

Book of Love...
Finding just the right card or gift for my husband can sometimes be tricky. Over the years I have found that special handmade cards can serve as both the card and the gift.

This year I decided to try one of the word albums by Bo-Bunny. Once I figured out how I wanted everything layed out, it was a lot of fun to put together.

Papers used: Foofala (Red, black and Cream), K&Company, Stampin' Up!, SEI(Holly Lane: Mistletoe)
Tab Punch:Stampin Up!
Book Plate: 2 peas in a bucket
Label embelishments: EK Sucsess (Inspirables), Me and my Big Ideas (Husband)
Ink (for distressing edges): Stampin' Up! Cranberry Crisp
Adhesive: 3m spray adhesive
Binder rings: Office Depot
Ribbon and key (not sure)

A Whole lotta love on Valentine's day

2008-02-15T14:10:00.000-08:00

Breakfast

Heart shaped pancake w/ whipped cream and a cherry on top!

LunchHeart shaped PB&J w/ heart shaped pretzles and heart shaped melon.

Dinner

Heart shaped pizza!

This is how Natalie's homemade valentines turned out. We made 22 of them!

She really liked making all the faces too.

Fruit Cup Gift Container Tutorial

2008-02-13T12:56:00.000-08:00

I made these for Valentine's Day last year as teacher's gifts...filled with hot chocolate mix. This year, we filled them with m&ms.

Start with a small fruit cup with a pull tab top.

Using a safety can opener (that leaves no sharp edges) remove the BOTTOM LID. Wash out container and dry (make sure it's completely dry).

... and fill with candy (or whatever).

Seal up the lid with a thin bead of Crystal Effects or other clear laquer.

Last, cover can with cute paper.

Valentine's by Zander

2008-02-13T06:13:00.001-08:00

Last night we cranked out 16 if these babies for Zander's preschool Valentines party today!

The card folds in half and seals with a sticker.

I used my new paper doll dies from Sizzix and Zander added the faces. By the end of it, Zander was so done with writing his name!

I got my Scrapbooking Mojo back!

2008-02-05T16:37:00.000-08:00

After months of birthdays and holidays...and just being a busy SAHM, I finally pulled out my scrapbooking pages again! The urge to scrapbook had been building up, but I've always put it off because it tends to make a royal mess of my dinning room table (yes, there is a table in my scrapbook room, but that's a subject for another day).

Saturday, while looking for Valentine paper at my local scrapbook store, I came across some glittery paper and embellishments from K & Company that is perfect for the fairy pictures I'd been dying to start on. There really isn't that much in the way of pre-made embellishments with fairies (unless you want Tinkerbell...then there's a ton to choose from). So I bought the paper, layed it out on the table and presto change-0...looky what I made:

There is another flower stem in the photo (by her head) that I should photoshop out, but other than that, I think this turned out cute. The banner under the picture says "the fairest flower."

Here is a close up of the embellishemnts I put together. The stars are from Natalie's old ballet tu-tu and I added the glittery flower stickers by K & Company.

Here is another page I got done...I even managed to write a caption too!!!

This tag is from My Mind's Eye (bonjour collection). I added the glitter to the letters and dressed it up with more flowers. I have 3 more pages in the wings, but I need to go get more background paper.

How to get more mileage from your 12x12 cardstock

Many of you already do this, but it's worth mentioning as scrapbooking paper can sometimes be spendy. I don't do this when using regular cardstock (unless it's a large photo), but if I'm using expensive paper, I like to get the most out of my paper. For the above layouts I used lots of glittery paper which sells for about $1 a sheet (12x12). I tend to mount all my photos on coordinating cardstock, so rather than have all the back go to waste, I cut 1/2" to 1" borders out from the edge of the cardstock and use the inside piece for another photo. Here's what I mean:

Here is the glittery green cardstock cut to fit my 5x7 photo.

If I cut waway 1/2 inch, I can then use the middle to mount a 4x6 photo.

You can't even tell the back is cut out!

Here is a look at how many photos you can mount with one piece of 12x12. I have one 8x10, two 5x7 and two 4x6 photos from just one piece. If I didn't cut out the middle, it would have taken two and a half sheets of cardstock.

Here is the back where you can see the cut outs.

Don't eat that yet...

2008-02-04T10:56:00.000-08:00

I have to take a picture of it!!!

Most people (non-bloggers mostly) think I am a little crazy for taking pictures of food...but when I take the time to make something special — there's gonna be a picture! I read enough blogs to know I'm not the only one who does this, but I still get weird looks when I "pose" my food!

It's all good though, cause I get to share with you all.

Happy Groundhog's Day!

I made this dessert with chocolate cups you can buy in the grocery store and chocolate cool whip. (You could also use a cupcake) The groundhog was made from a Mounds candy bar and mini chocolate chips and other various candies. The "dirt" was made by crushing chocolate grahm crackers. The kids loved em!

Superbowl Super

For the superbowl yesterday, I made a batch of chili in the crock-pot and sandwich roll-ups. We also had corn bread, veggies and other munchies.

Valentine's Playdough

2008-02-01T16:58:00.000-08:00

Well, all the snow has melted (except for the giant snow ball in our back yard) and the Oregon rain has returned making me a little stir crazy. Yesterday I was looking for an activity (besides tv) for our kids and I decided to make some playdough. I like homemade playdough so much better than the kind you buy in the stores...and if you've ever tried to get the store bought kind out of your carpet, I'm sure you'll agree with me.

You will need:

1 cup flour

1 cup water
1/2 cup salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 tablespoons oil
a few drops of food coloring

Mix the dry ingredients first, then add the liquids and stir on medium heat.

eventually it will start clumping together, so you need to stir it constantly...cause no one wantes to play with burnt playdough, right?

After it all clumps together in a ball, remove from heat and kneed on a table until it cools down. I like to add things to the playdough. This time I added red glitter (for Valentine's Day of course!) Once for my daughter's teddy bear party (3 years old) I made brown playdough and added ground cloves and cinnamon...mmm, it smelled good.

Store playdough in an airtight container in the fridge.

Playdough in unexpected places
Our kids love to go to Chevy's mexican restaurant because the servers give them dough to play with while they are waiting for their food to arrive. I think it's the same dough they use to make their fresh tortillas with...the kids think it's great and it saves me from having to entertain hungry kids!

Also if you live in the Portland area, Peanutbutter and Ellie's (restaurant for kids) makes an eatible peanutbutter playdough to entertain your kids while they wait.

E for Excellent

2008-01-31T19:35:00.000-08:00

This morning I learned that Heather included me in her list of top 10 blogs! Thanks so much Heather...you made my day for sure!

For the most part I like to read the blogs from all the creative people at 2 peas...so if you update and post on Maureen's blogger threads at 2 peas chances are I am inspired by you...I could fill some serious space listing all the crafty blogs I have bookmarked, but here are some of my favorites:

Noelia, - super nice blogger from up north

Rachael, - great projects to check out

Posy Gets Cozy - lots of fun things to see...definitely bookmark this one

Paper Trufflez - very nice work from a fellow northwest stamper

My Paper Crane - some of the cutest felt softies around

Daily Dose of Spazz - hip stamper with lots of fun ideas...she always has me crackin' up

The ParTea Planner - lovely tea party ideas

My House is Cuter Than Yours - fun retro stuff here

Cream Puffs in Venice - the most amazing food evah

Pioneer Woman Cooks - yummy comfort food

All Sorts - Whimsical sewing projects

We got snow!!!

2008-01-29T19:01:00.001-08:00

A happy snowman bowl of cream of wheat was an order before going out to play!

This is the view out our bedroom window yesterday morning! I quickly ran downstairs to turn on the news and learned we would be having a snow day!!!

I just love how the snow looks on the trees out here.

Dan and Zander had fun making an igloo...I am in awe of the amount of snow we got. As a native of Portland, I'm not used to having enough snow to build much more than a modest snowman.

All the kids got to ride on the sled...this is a huge improvement over last year when we didn't have a sled and used the recycling bin and some rope!

Andrea's Bridal Luncheon 2005

2008-01-28T10:56:00.001-08:00

Right before Andrea got married, I threw her a bridal luncheon. She was using hydrangeas in her wedding, so I picked some off our hydrangea bush and used them in the place settings.

This is a menu I made for each place setting. It also had pages with recipes and a little info on the history of tea. The little flip book is held together by a large jump ring with a tea pot charm.

I found these cute organdy purses at Bellenza and they were the perfect pretty party favor.

I even had enough flowers to make this wreath for the front door.

I found these blue icing flowers at the Decorette shop and "glued" them on to the sugar cubes with royal icing.

I made tea sandwiches, chocolate covered strawberries, scones and had fresh fruit.

The youngest guests at the luncheon had tea in these adorable miniature tea cups I found.

Andrea's Wedding Album

2008-01-17T20:05:00.000-08:00

So, it appears I'm on a wedding kick. This is my sister Andrea's album. She got married in 2005. I was 8 months pregnant with Hayden and couldn't sit for very long periods of time, so I put this together kind of fast.

Front cover with Jolee's embellishments (just like my other sister's).

I think it was while I was making this album that it dawned on me to print enlargements for scrapbooking too! (the photos of the pages are taken at a slight angle which makes them look uneven, but in real life they are straight.)

I really like how this photo turned out. I don't remember why I mounted it on black though...I'll blame it on those pregnancy hormones!

I'll blame those flowers on my hormones too. I think I was looking for something to fill the space and not feeling too creative...apparently! At the top are 2 drawing that Natalie made for Andrea. The left one is a bride and groom (stick figure style) and the other is a wedding cake.

All the little flower girls dressed up like little fairies.

Here's my handsome little Zander at 2 and a half years old. The shot of my dad with all the grandkids is so sweet.

This is my favorite photo I took of all the wee ones. Natalie is on the left and Zander is on the right...with my nieces in the middle. Hayden was in my huge belly!

I didn't get too many shots of the ceremony because I was in the wedding as a bridesmaid (looking lovely in my maternity bridesmaid dress!) The reception was held at the Hotel where my sister worked at the time.

Toni's Wedding Album

2008-01-15T18:23:00.001-08:00

I have not really created anything lately, but I wanted to post something on my blog. This weekend I picked up my sister to go shopping at Ikea, but beforehand we looked through the wedding album I made for her.

In 2002, my youngest sister Toni got married. Her ceremony was short and sweet and the reception was held at my house. I took all the photos seen in her album...the outdoor shots were taken outside the forest behind our house.

I think this is my favorite shot.

Front cover...Jolee's embelishments sure come in handy!

I traced this dress from a die cut I had and added tulle and flowers.

Here is Natalie as a flower girl...she just turned 7 this year. It's so hard to remember her being this little!

Cutting the cake...in my dining room. One of my neighbors made the cake.

My crazy brother was the best man.

Happy Waiting

2008-01-05T23:18:00.001-08:00

These past few days I have been busy trying to catch up on house work. It seems like this time of year I always get the decluttering bug and so that is what I have been doing all week...still not done though.

Anyway, after I got all the kids in bed tonight I really wanted to make a card or something...anything. So I sat down and made this card for my younger sister:

At Christmas, my sister announced that she was expecting baby #2! She is going to be one busy mama because her first is about 9 months old right now. I get tired just thinking about it!!!

I made this card for her from the Swell News set from Stampin' Up! The swirl background is made from a Cuttlebug embossing folder...and just in case you can't read the tab, it says "Happy Waiting!"

Zander's Birthday Roundup

2008-01-03T10:04:00.000-08:00

I recently added a birthday party idea link on the right margin, so now I just need to post all the ideas from all the past birthdays. This was Zander's cowboy party last year. Hope you enjoy!

Party Decorations

What cowboy party would be complete without a wanted poster? I found this at my scrapbook store. After the party, I used it in his birthday scrapbook.

Here is the saloon entrance.

Woody and Bullseye are the center of attention around here, so the centerpiece for this table was easy.

The Dining room was transformed into a cowboy room complete with blue tin plates, lanterns, and burlap sack chair covers. I draped a faux barbed wire around the light fixture for another rustic touch. The kiddos all got cowboy boot cups to drink out of and later they would be washed out and taken home as a favor.

Cowboy Grub

Lunch is served. I like to use containers that fit the theme, like putting my "happy trail" mix inside a cowboy hat with a bandanna to protect the hat. I also used various pails and old tin camping dishes for serving containers. Zander wanted "pupcakes" so I found this cupcake stand that worked perfectly. I baked the cupcakes in those new star shaped muffin tins by Reynolds Wrap. Each of the cupcakes was topped with a small plastic horse. Some of the other snacks included chocolate candy that look just like rocks, peanuts, homemade cowboy crackers and rattlesnake eggs (spotted jelly beans).

When I was looking for food for the party, I came across these. I called them Wagon wheels for the party, but I don't have any idea what they are really called. I think they are a Hispanic food. They were in the bulk food section at WINCO near the pasta and rice and they were orange in color and about 1/4 this size. I fried them in oil for about a minute and then drained them and coated with a sugar/cinnamon mix. They were tasty whatever they are.

For lunch we had beans and "little doggies," cowboy crackers, wagon wheels, snacks and chocolate milk served in cowboy boot cups.

It took a few tries, but Zander finally got all 4 candles blown out.

Activities

When guests first arrived we gave them a cowboy hat and made sure to get a photo of each of them sitting with Zander.

Then we mosied on into the kitchen for a cowboy craft. Even cowboys can be crafty ya know! These cowboys made picture frames to put the photo in that was taken earlier.

Zander received so many nice gifts. Here he is unwrapping his Woody doll.

Games
The guests had to "rope" a horse in this game. I wrapped a hula-hoop with rope to make this lasso.

The inspiration for this game came from Toy Story: "There's a snake in my boot." Just like the game I used to play at birthday parties where you drop clothespins into a jar...only this time we dropped snakes into a boot!

This was fun for the kids and entertaining for the adults. We tied powdered doughnuts to a dowel (or broom handle) and told the kids they could get the doughnut, but they couldn't use their hands! It was a tad messy with all the powdered sugar, but what's a good party without a little messy fun?

My first Acrylic Album

2007-12-25T21:20:00.001-08:00

Last night we got together on Christmas Eve with my husband's family where I gave my father-in-law this acrylic album I made of a trip we took at the end of summer. He flew us to the beach to go airplane camping!

The front and back cover are from Plexiglas cut to 8x8. I used my cropadile to punch the holes on the side. The inside pages are transparencies with various vellum cloud stickers placed on the different page layers.

My youngest got to fly the plane while the older two sat in the back with me.

Here is grandpa helping Natalie to ride her bike.

Some cute shots of Hayden and F-I-L. It looks better in real life. I think it's hard to photograph something that is mostly clear.

Olive Penguin Tutorial

2007-12-22T20:53:00.000-08:00

So here's the scoop on the olive penguins...they are easy to assemble in just a few steps:

1. First drain the juice from a can of Jumbo olives.
2. Next cut out a slice of olive.

3. Then fill with softened cream cheese. I used a sandwich bag with the tip cut off to pipe the cream cheese into the olive. (you can also just use your finger).
4. Smooth out the cream cheese and wipe away any cream cheese from the outer part of the olive.

5. Cut a small carrot into 1/4" disks. (This will be the feet.)
6. Now cut away a small triangle for the beak. (hey looky...it's pac-man!)

7. Cut a slice vertically down the long side of a small olive.
8. Insert the carrot triangle. (You may have to slice the triangle thinner to fit inside the slit.)

9. Now that you have all your pieces, just insert a toothpick through the head, body and down into the carrot feet.

Repeat this process until you have enough penguins for your party. I found that it worked best to prep all the parts and then assemble all at once. If you need to store these over night, keep them in an airtight storage container with a little olive brine.

Holiday Elegance

2007-12-21T13:59:00.000-08:00

My husband asked me to make some custom Christmas cards for a few of his clients. It took me a while to think up a card design, but he really liked how they turned out. It was my first time using transparencies and now I am hooked.

The swirl stamp, paper and greeting are from Stampin' Up! The snowflake is from Jolee's. I looked through all my Christmas stamps and I couldn't find one that said "Merry Christmas," so I used this one and it seemed to do the trick.

I embossed the greeting with silver embossing powder and it came out great.

Looky what I got yesterday!

2007-12-19T17:50:00.000-08:00

Sneak Peek!

The new Spring and Summer Stampin' Up! Catalog/idea book will be released in January and I got my advance copy yesterday!

All the examples and art shots are AMAZING and so inspiring in the new catalog. They keep getting better and better! A lot of the stamp sets I recognized from previous years, but there are some really great additions. I am more excited about all the new background paper and accessories like these:

Rub-on transfers in black and white.

Felt flowers available in 3 colors!!! So cute. These will be on my first order for sure!

Zander's Penguin Party

2007-12-17T14:21:00.000-08:00

Sunday was the big day for Zander's 5th birthday party...a penguin party! This one was so much fun to plan.

The Cake

For the big cake on top I used a half round dome shape cake pan to make an igloo shaped cake. The little door was made from a cupcake cut to resemble the entrance. I frosted it with a quick frosting (similar to 7-minute frosting). The next tier was easy...donut holes (snowballs), and the bottom tier had little cupcake mounds that were frosted to look like snow mounds or large snowballs.

The penguins are made out of olives, cream cheese and carrots. I will be posting a tutorial on how to make them sometime this week.

Here is a close up of the igloo cake. In the middle of the cake there was an ice cream center...which made choosing a frosting a little tricky. Normally I make a really yummy butter cream frosting, but since it had to live in the freezer due to the ice cream center, I didn't think the butter cream would hold up very well.

Here's Zander blowing out his candles...they were trick candles!

Igloo Cheese Ball

The other igloo I made was a cheese dip made from cream cheese, feta and pesto.

Cheesy Pesto Spread

Ingredients:
7 packages (8 oz. ea.) cream cheese, softened
13 oz. goat or feta cheese, at room temperature
2 small tubs prepared pesto sauce
Spray Soccer Ball Pan and 1 jumbo muffin cavity with vegetable pan spray; line with plastic wrap. In large bowl, beat cream cheese with electric mixer until creamy. Add goat cheese; continue beating until smooth.
Press about 3/4 cup cheese mixture into prepared muffin cup. Press 1 cup cheese mixture onto bottom of soccer ball pan; spread cheese mixture around pan edges to 1 1/2 in. thickness. Spoon pesto sauce from one container into pan. Add second container of pesto to remaining cheese mixture. Scoop pesto cheese on top of pesto layer. Cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate at least 8 hours or overnight. Unmold onto serving plate. Serve with crackers

Zander wanted to make sure we had fish crackers too...because "penguins eat fish."

Ice Cream Snow Balls

The Happy Feet Penguin pinata is guarding the ice cream snowballs. I just pre-scooped all the vanilla ice cream and rolled them into balls, then in coconut. Brrrr. It makes my hands cold just thinking about it, but boy were they good!

One happy/messy birthday boy!
10 happy party goers (not all pictured)

Decorations

I set up the dining room to look like a cold winter wonderland, just the kind of place where a penguin would want to hang out! I hung small snowflakes from the dining room light...and large snowflakes from the ceiling. Then I used an icicle border along the chair rail. The centerpiece was a baby penguin stuffed animal with some fake snow, fake snowballs and fake ice.

Now that the party is over I'm going to leave up the decorations for a while. These snowflakes were purchased at the Dollar store and are huge. I think I will use them as chargers/place mats under our Christmas plates after I take them down.

Activities and Games

For a craft project I found these snow globe sticker scenes at Oriental Trading and they turned out so cute.

My son came up with the games for the party. In the picture they are having a relay race with "eggs" (balloons) between their legs as they waddle to one end of the room and then back. The next game involved dancing like Mumble from Happy Feet. I borrowed the Happy Feet soundtrack from the library and we played a fun up beat song...when the music stopped all the kids had to freeze. This was the most fun and some of the kids had some pretty great moves...very entertaining!

Party Favors

For party favors we passed out penguin snow globes. The penguin drawstring bags were used to put the candy in from the pinata.

Just the coolest albums ever!

2007-12-12T20:19:00.001-08:00

Today while searching 2 peas for acrylic album ideas, I came across these AMAZING house shaped acrylic albums made by Camille McClelland. They are so creative and I love that the doors open and each section of the house is a section in the album. (you really need to click on the picture to enlarge it to really get a feel for all the details). I've never seen anything like them and can only imagine how much time these take. She posted one on ebay that sold for over $80!!!

Sweet Shoppe Party

2007-12-08T22:57:00.000-08:00

Sugar and Spice and all things Nice...

Well, we just had another successful birthday party...this one had a candy theme:

I set up my kitchen counter to look like a candy boutique.

Here are the cupcakes...with a giant cupcake on top!

Mmmm lots of sweet things to eat.

For activities, the girls (looking very cute in their pjs) made bracelets with cupcake and ice cream charms, made their own custom lip gloss and decorated gingerbread men.

Here is Natalie and her gingerbread cookie.

Fresh out of the box...Natalie has a new doll to love.

Make a wish...

After watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the original version) it was time to go home...but not before filling up a sundae glass with candy. I found these pink breast cancer awareness edition m&ms and they were perfect!

It was a whirlwind of fun...now I think I'm going to crash!

Penguin Invitations

2007-12-06T13:55:00.001-08:00

This year, thanks to all the animated penguin movies, my son wanted to have a penguin themed birthday party. I just created these and mailed them out this morning...

Now I can continue getting ready for my daughter's Candy Shoppe party this weekend!

Happy Birthday Katie!

2007-12-02T14:09:00.000-08:00

Today is my friend Katie's birthday...our husbands went to high school together and over the years we have become friends too!

I just love this Stampin' Up set...I need to use it more often. I also love the dazzling diamond glitter. It looks great over any color...and what girl doesn't like a little extra sparkle?

Katie is one of my only friends (besides my blogging friends of course!) who is as crazy about scrapbooking and crafty stuff as I am...so when I saw these I had to send them with the card:

FYI: I found this super cute "Scrapbooking Girl" mint tin at Joann's

Happy Birthday Dad!

2007-12-01T18:11:00.001-08:00

Today is my Dad's Birthday and my mom, brother and two sisters, their spouses and kids all came over for a late birthday lunch. We had a baked potato bar and a salad bar...and for dessert, my Dad's favorite – angel food cake!

I made my dad this card because he likes to spend time at the beach. I usually make his cards with lighthouses on them, but his time I thought I would give him a nice beach chair to relax in.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

2007-11-30T14:41:00.000-08:00

This card is on it's way to you...

Today is my Grandma's birthday (I think she is 83!). Unfortunately, she lives in New York and I am in Oregon...so I don't get to see her very often. The last time we were able to visit was in the spring of 2003. I have been dropping hints to my husband that I would like to go back next year, so let's hope it all works out!

My grandma and I have been pen pals ever since I learned how to write, but now I am able to keep in touch with photos as well on our family blog.

This was a fun card to make and I wouldn't normally think to pair brown with green, but I love how it turned out. I sponged the flower with cocoa ink so it stands out more against the cream colored lace paper.

Paper Confections

2007-11-29T14:11:00.001-08:00

Birthday season is about to begin around here and I've been a busy girl.

Here is my daughter's 7th birthday party invitation...a lollipop. The swirl is made with glittery pink card stock cut out with a Sizzix die. On the back of the lollipop, it reads: "Sugar and Spice and all things nice...that's what little girls are made of."

A bouquet of yummy treats!

On the back of this tag are the party details.

Bon-bons anyone?

Ooo La, La!

2007-11-28T21:34:00.000-08:00

While shopping in NW Portland, I came across this beauty...and wanted so much to jump right in. Besides the plush feather bed and duvet, the bed was dressed in the most luxurious silk bedding. How come my bed at home never looks this great? Could it be the constant flow of laundry that surrounds it? Naaa, maybe it's the fact that we have a King sized matelasse comforter on a California King sized bed...At any rate I am really antsy to redecorate my bedroom and am totally inspired by this arrangement.

Thanksgiving Tables

2007-11-23T15:34:00.000-08:00

When my side of the family comes over, there are 16 of us, kids included! This year I decided I wanted to make some fun turkey place mats for the kid's table like the ones I saw at Pottery Barn a few years ago.

I've had the pattern for a couple weeks. Then on Monday, it dawned on me that I still needed fabric! I spent a few hours on Tuesday cutting them out, then on Wednesday I assembled them. I almost threw my hand-me-down sewing machine out the window a few times, but I took a break and later that night it started working fine again.

Here is how they looked at the kid's table.

My favorite thing about these place mats is the little pockets for the silverware...not that my kids actually USE their silverware!!!

This is how the grown-up's table turned out!

Serious Enabler Alert: Victoria's Secret

2007-11-09T22:23:00.000-08:00

Earlier today I posted some great bargains I got at Sizzix.com, but then I found this great bargain from Victoria's Secret (I know, not craft related, but stay with me here!) Click on the link and it will take you to a bargain hunter-type page. Here's the deal...Buy any sweater at Victoria's Secret and get (for free) a hat, scarf and gloves set, a free lip gloss, another lip gloss set of 4, plus free shipping (if this is your first online order). My order came to $15.95!!!

Look what came in the mail today!

2007-11-09T20:44:00.001-08:00

Enabler Alert!

For the past few months the Sizzix website has been discontinuing and clearancing their older dies. So I got all of these for at least 70% off. Right now they are all 77% off, but the selection is decreasing as they are being bought up.

Inspiration

2007-11-04T12:04:00.000-08:00

What inspires you?

With my daughter's 7th birthday less than a month away, I thought I would share some of the fun plans I have going for the big day.

A few months ago as I was searching on the Doodlebug website, when I came across the above photo which does a fantastic job of creatively displaying their products. A little light bulb went off and I came up with the "Candy Shoppe" idea for this year's theme.

We have already done the princess parties and the dress-up tea parties and I was looking for a fun new idea that was still really girlie...and sweet!

Since her birthday in is December it has been fairly easy to find candy themed decorations. I have been out searching for the yummiest, glittery decorations and I hit the jackpot last Friday at Target. There before me was a wealth of candy cuteness. Here is what I got:

The great thing about these decorations is they double as Christmas decorations for the tree!

For her party I found tall acrylic ice cream sundae dishes on 75% off summer clearance. Each guest will fill them with their choice of candy...as a party favor. I also found pink m&ms (breast cancer awareness edition) and bought those to use for the favors. We will be decorating gingerbread men/women and making lip gloss for activities. This year Natalie wanted a late night party, so after all the games and activities, everyone will get in their pjs to watch a movie, maybe Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Then after the movie all the guests will go home! Stay tuned next month for all the fun party pictures.

Disney Princesses on Ice

2007-11-02T12:57:00.001-07:00

Last night I surprised my daughter and took her and her friend to see the Princesses on Ice.

Here is Cinderella as she arrived at the ball in her beautiful pumpkin coach.

Before leaving for the show, I made these to surprise the girls...shhh! I found some lip gloss and an Ariel towel (the kind that expand into a washcloth when you add water to them) at the dollar store. I packaged them up with a princess lollipop in some tulle along with this tiara card signed by her favorite princess...Ariel!

At intermission Natalie looked down and noticed this package on the floor beside her. She really thinks it's from Ariel...and totally bought my story that Tinkerbell magically delivered it.

Here are Ariel and Flounder!

Ya wanna make a 6 year-old cry? No? me neither, but if you keep them up past their bed time to go trick-or-treating then the next night take them to a late princess show and have the nerve not to purchase the overpriced merchandise at the souvenir stands, it's possible that they might cry...at least Natalie might...Just a warning for you!

Trick or Treat

2007-11-01T08:39:00.001-07:00

Here are my kiddos...Cinderella, Sheriff Woody and Mickey Mouse!

I have been saving my Starbucks Frappuccino bottles all month so I could make these cute candy jars to pass out to teachers, friends and neighbors. The cute candy corn paper is by Heidi Grace, scallop and circle punches are from Stampin' Up!

Halloween goodies

2007-11-01T08:20:00.001-07:00

This is what I served for lunch yesterday. My 2 year-old couldn't believe I was putting candy on his sandwich. He kept looking at it like it was too good to be true!

I wrapped up a little treat for my first grader to surprise her at lunchtime...

She got a cute jack-o-lantern pin, nestled in some fall leaf confetti.

Mummy Wraps
Before going out trick-or-treating, we planned to take our kids out to see a matinee showing of Ratatouille. We wouldn't have much time to stop and eat before going out trick-or-treating, so I made these Mummy wraps (chicken in a blanket style). I started with a triangle from those Pillsbury crescent rolls. Then I cut slits along the sides, formed a head, filled with chicken salad mix and wrapped it all up, alternating sides (kind of like you do when you are braiding hair.) I used cloves for eyes, which should be removed before eating. (I forgot to tell my husband and he bit into one!) I think these mummies baked for about 12-13 minutes on 375. It worked pretty well...I wrapped them in napkins and put them into snack size ziplock bags. My husband snuck them in his coat pocket and we ate them while we watched the movie

Fall kids crafts

2007-10-27T12:15:00.001-07:00

Wow! I've been gone a long time... I hope you didn't think I abandoned ship, but I was pretty much down and out for the whole month of October. For those who didn't know, I had surgery to blast my 2 cm kidney stone into smaller passable pieces back on October 2. I have been in and out of the the doctor's office with x rays to see if everything had passed. Finally after 3 weeks of being on Vicoden to manage the pain, I had had enough and I opted to have another surgery where the doctor went in and removed all the remaining fragments. While she was doing this, she discovered new stones forming and she also removed those. My urologist is going to send me to a kidney specialist to find out what's gong on in there!!! The second surgery was done this past Wednesday. I am feeling good, considering what a crazy month this has been.

So, two weeks ago our family took a week and went to stay in Central Oregon. I brought along some crafts to keep the kids occupied for a while and I wanted to share them with you all.

My kids (ages 6, 4 and 2 and their friends ages 6 and 3) painted wooden pumpkins......and the older kids painted wooden picture frames

...and made masks out of fall leaves and colorful feathers!

Here they are keeping busy:

Preschool Teacher's Going Away Gift

2007-10-05T10:16:00.000-07:00

Today I hopped out of my sweats and put on my "real" clothes so I could take my son to preschool. This was my first outing since the surgery... I didn't want to miss his teacher's last day. She just accepted another job teaching at a local Head Start program and will be greatly missed by the preschoolers and moms alike.

Before my surgery I bought this cute background paper by Karen Foster "preschool stripe." Then yesterday I ModgePodged it to a mini tin lunch pail. Inside we put a gift certificate to a local scrap book store she likes. (I hope the teacher that replaces her likes to scrapbook too!!!) LOL!

The inside of the card was made by Zander. He wrote "I will miss you" in his cute 4 year-old handwriting. Then on the hearts I wrote "a teacher takes a hand, opens a mind and touches a heart."

Here is Zander at preschool getting a big hug from his teacher.

Surgery Update

2007-10-03T11:42:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I was in the hospital having my massive kidney stone blasted to smithereens! So far the recovery is going well. I'll go back in a few weeks to have an x-ray which will determine if there are still pieces of stone that need to be removed...so for now I'm drinking lots of fluids and taking my pain meds. Hope to be up and scrapping soon, but until then I'm going to take it easy.

Courageous Cub Keeper

2007-09-28T21:15:00.000-07:00

At my daughter's elementary school, if you are given a "courageous cub" it means that you have been caught doing something good. It's their positive reinforcement system. They bring their courageous cub in to the office to show the principal and they get to pick out a special pencil. So far this year, Natalie has brought home 3 of them...and well you know I just can't throw them away!!! That would just be wrong. So I decided to create a little book for her to paste them into. Since the school mascot is a tiger cub, I designed the cover to look like a tiger.

The inside is made up of blank pages so she can add her courageous cubs as needed. As I was cutting and pasting the cover, my 4 year old Zander, was watching and asking me all about it. "Will you make one for me too?" he kept asking. I told him this was a special book for his sister, but when is old enough to go to 1st grade, I would make him one too. He really, really wanted to make one, but I didn't have time to sit down with him, so I just cut out an orange head shape and told him he could just draw the rest with his crayons.

With that I went outside to get some yard work done and after a while, Zander came out and showed me this:
It was the cutest thing I'd ever seen (you know the kind of cute only a mom can see!) It took my breath away because all this time I was out in the yard, he was in the house just working away on his tiger, using the left over scraps from my project. I could have cried!!!... I was so proud of him.

Happy Birthday Anne!

2007-09-26T21:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I made this card for my friend Anne. It's kind of in the style of a money holder...

...because I wanted to include some Schrute Bucks in honor of "the Office" starting up again this week.

Here are all the Schrute Bucks in all their smarmy Dunder Mifflin glory:

Patterned paper and cherry ribbon are from Bo Bunny. Red card stock, paper punches and stamps are from Stampin' Up!

Talk Like a Pirate Day

2007-09-19T18:59:00.000-07:00

Arrrrr ye wonderin' where I've been? I took on a campin' voyage with me kids and caught me a bad case of the scurvy...(actually me caught a very bad cold which makes it hard t' Yarrr)! Avast, me hearties, for I want t' tell ye of me recent discoveries...It seems that today be "talk like a pirate day" on this 19th of September an' I been busy within' me kids who be also sick.

Dollar Store Barrrrrgains:

Earrings, socks n' straws arrrr perfect for today's festivities. Aren't they Darrrrling! (Never mind that the skull earrings appear to be wearing a grill!). Me also got the pirate hats n' eye patches for a piece o' eight (a dollar)!

In the Galley:

Today fer lunch, Capt'n Pirate Mama served up a sea-dog boat fer me wee shipmates. Made of tuna, this seafarin' vessel includes a walk the plank pickle and some scary sea fish crackers sure to bring out the fear in all ye land lubbers! Yarrr!!!

Fer dinner me fixed a Sea Monster surprise:

(Well, actually, it looks more like Hitler, but he be scary too, Yarrr!)
The we eyes were made of eggs in this fashion:
Ewww!

And fer dessert I served key lime pie. Why key lime? On accoun' o' limes help prevent th' scurvy!

The skull an' cross bones be made from meringue.

Thanks fer lookin'

If I gets over me cold by the week's end me plans t' go t' the Portland Pirate Festival!

Western Birthday Round-up!

2007-09-08T22:14:00.000-07:00

Today is my brother-in-law's birthday, so we used it as an excuse to get together and celebrate all the end of summer birthdays we missed along the way.

I made this card for my sister-in-law Katy:
(all supplies Stampin' Up!)

My other sister-in-law Rebekah, and her DH, Dylan own a ranch, so they are very much into horses, so I made Rebekah this card:
(all supplies Stampin' Up!)

...and this is Dylan's Birthday Card
Step-by-Step

While searching Split Coast Stampers for a great card idea I came across this bad boy and just had to give it a try. Well, an hour later and I think I figured it out! It was pretty easy, but there were a few things that I had to figure out by trial and error. Rather than make you guess how this card was made I am going to show you step-by-step:

First, start with a piece of 12x12 "Bandanna Flat Paper" by K and Company. Cut out 2 large diamonds, so they each fit within a 4 1/4" square. Fold the diamond in half, then tuck the right edges in on the top and bottom. For the second diamond, fold the left edges in.

Next cut a piece of white card stock to 4 1/4 x 9 1/8. Score at 2 1/4 from one edge and 2 1/8 from the other edge, which leaves a very slight gap when you close the gate folded card. Using coordinating background paper, line the inside of the card (works best in a light color so you can write your message). You don't have to cover from edge to edge since this will be covered with the other bandanna background paper. Next take the bandanna paper that's been folded and glue the unfolded portion to the inside panels of the card. Close the card to match up the seams so the 2 diamonds on opposite sides connect to form one diamond.

Now you can glue the coordinating background paper to the front flaps and trim away any excess. I made the band out of pleather (found at my LSS) and cut out a smaller diamond shape from the same bandanna paper, then added some jute twine and a bronze brad by Making Memories. Sponge edges of card with Close to Cocoa ink. Finished card size is 4 1/4 x 4 1/4.

Lunchbox Notes

2007-09-07T20:33:00.000-07:00

Well, I kind of went MIA this week as my 2 older kids both started back to school on Tuesday...and it's been a little bit of an adjustment. For starters my daughter is gone all day, which means she eats lunch at school. I have been enjoying packing her lunch, but want to try and make it fun for her too (in hopes that she will want to bring her lunch more.) For now, we are allowing her to get school lunches once a week, but it's $1.75 and for the most part she just wants the pizza...not the best choice, but she's 6, right?

So now that she's learning to read I have been sending notes in her lunchbox (see her cute princess lunchbox!!!). This was a great way to use up all those scraps I seem to have. Just can't seem to throw those scraps away because...say it with me: "I could use that someday!" Well, someday was today. Using scraps from my monster scrap bin, I created some little lunchbox notes for the upcoming weeks:

Retired Stampin' Up! "Fairy Nice." The images are water colored and embellished with prima flowers.

Stampin' Up's "Cute as a Bug." I made a bookmark too...for when she is reading a bit more. The leaves on the bookmark were made using the 5 petal flower punch and cutting the petals apart. I also used the scalloped circle punch, which I just love. Sayings inside the cards include "Bugs and Kisses" and "Cute as a Bug."

These were created from Stampin' Up's "Unfrogettable" set. I water colored them and added dazzling diamonds glitter.

These were fun to make, but if you don't have time to create your own notes, you can print some out from the following websites:
Lunchbox Notes 1
Lunchbox Notes 2

River Rafting Q & A

2007-09-04T09:35:00.000-07:00

Q: Sherri asked "Who took the photo?"

The rafting outfitters have someone positioned on a bridge a few feet away from Husum Falls to take photos of all the rafts that come down. I think our guide said he takes something like 16 frames a second ...or maybe it was 16 frames a minute. Honestly I'm not sure, I was concentrating on not having a heart attack! Anyway, you can kind of see the shadow of the bridge in some of the photos.

Q: Tara asked "Which company did you go with?"

A: We went with a company called Zoller's Outdoor Odyssey. My husband researched a bunch of them and Zoller's had the best rating. I think we got the best guide too. He was having us turn 360s down some of the rapids...quite fun. We also got several chances to "surf" against the rapids. Highly recommended trip. Our guide also told us that the rafting starts in May with the first run off (from the mountain), but you can't go down the falls this early as there is more water making it too dangerous...Imagine that!

Thanks for your questions. Hope I answered them all.

Our little day on the river...

2007-09-03T10:12:00.001-07:00

Here's what I did yesterday...

My husband and I and some friends all paddled down the White Salmon River...

...and down a class 5 waterfall!!!

Still hanging on to the the raft, we were submerged under the falls.

What a ride!

Altered First Grade Clip Board

2007-08-30T16:00:00.001-07:00

One of the items on my daughter's first grade supply list was a clip board. When I read this, my gears started turning and I decided I would try to make an altered one for her to take to school. I bought all the school supplies on the list about a month ago, but did I bother to work on the clipboard? Oh, no! That would be too efficient. Instead, I wait until the morning before first grade orientation!!! Smart, no...but it did work out alright, so I guess I kinda lucked out. I was a bit nervous cause I've never made and altered clip board before and I've never modge podged anything onto acrylic, but it worked like a charm. I actually modge podged everything to the back (because the clipboard is clear) to avoid a bumpy clipboard since she will be using this at school. It's not as stylish and hip as many of the altered clipboards I have seen, but I think it is just fine for a first grader. Natalie LOVED it and even thanked me for making it for her. Anyway, here it is:

Letter stickers and water background paper is from EK Success. Ariel border strip is from My Paper Garden. Stickers are from Sandylion and the ribbon is from Offray. Natalie drew the picture of Ariel...so cute! The photo of Natalie and Ariel was taken at Disneyland and was the last part of the clipboard to dry, so when I took a picture of it, you can still see the glue...fortunately, it will dry clear...eventually

BBQ Thank You Card

2007-08-26T11:06:00.001-07:00

First of all... a huge thank you for all the kind comments about my party pics. I love planning them and would really love to figure a way to make money doing parties...but I really have no idea how to go about it...Feel free to offer any suggestions in the matter...my mother-in-law wants me to start a business too, but I can't get my head around it all.

Anyway, my husband just took our oldest two kids (out of 3) camping and I am staying home to organize and de-clutter in an attempt to get ready for the upcoming school year. Just thought I would pop in and post a quick card I made last Friday for some friends who invited us over for a BBQ. I used a really old-school Stampin' Up! stamp set and my new D'vine Swirl embossing folder from Cuttlebug (which I use in my Sizzix Big Kick). I love it...so swirly and cute. Well...I'm off to do damage control in the playroom...wish me luck. If I don't post for a few days, you may want to call for help!

Stop and Go Cookies

2007-08-24T21:38:00.000-07:00

These cookies were so much easier than I thought they would be...It's a good thing too, because after decorating all the sugar cookies I was frazzled!

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened coca powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Turn oven to 350 degrees. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Using a mixer, beat butter for 30 seconds. Add sugar until combined. Add egg and vanilla. Add as much of the flour mixture as you can. If necessary, use hands to combine the remaining flour mixture to the dough. For each cookie, take 1 tablespoon of the dough and form into a rectangle on an ungreased cookie sheet. Push a wooden stick half way into the short side of the cookie. Press red, yellow and green m&m's onto each cookie. Bake for 8 minutes. Let cookies cool for at least 1 minute, then transfer to a cooling rack.

The rest of the party pics

2007-08-23T19:22:00.000-07:00

The poll results are currently leaning towards posting party stuff here, so I will go ahead and post a few pics from last Saturday. I usually post party photos on my family blog, but I'd rather share them where more people can see what I've been up to. Hope you enjoy as much as I do!

I go a little crazy at birthday time...see for yourself:

The Munchies:

Veggies and dip

PB & J samiches for the kids

Make your own sub sandwich for the "big" kids!

A truck-load of salty chips.

The Loot:
Each kid got a bunch of car/truck related things packaged up in the car shaped boxes I found at Oriental Trading. The fire fighter's badge and tattoo are from our local fire station (free!), the gummy cars, stencil, train whistle, tire flashlight key chain and mini truck are all from Oriental Trading.

These suckers are also from Oriental Trading...How cute are they?

I made a drivers license for each kid. They were a huge hit! Don't turn me in for making fake IDs!

When it was time to eat, everyone found where they were sitting at the table by locating their very own set of keys found from this website.

Party Fun
As the guest were arriving, my husband gave the kids rides on our riding mower.
Then we gathered all the kids around my brother-in-law's BIG truck for a great photo op.

The party table. I bought the plates and coordinating napkins when I saw them on clearance a couple years ago for $1 per package. I found those cute traffic signs at the Learning Palace.

Party entrance.

For games we played Red Light, Green Light and Duck Duck Goose. Then I got out the parachute and the kids enjoyed playing parachute games.

Thanks for looking!

Just posted a Poll >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

2007-08-22T23:10:00.001-07:00

Please vote and tell me what you think. Thanks for your imput.

Crafty Cake!

2007-08-21T22:08:00.001-07:00

I think I have just about recovered from my latest burst of creative energy. Last weekend we celebrated my son's second birthday with a cars, trucks and trains birthday. I found the cutest idea for a cake and decided to give it a try...
I don't know what I was thinking...this cake took 4 cake mixes and 2 days of prep to make. Decorating all the cookies (over 50 of them) was a 3 step process: outline with colorflow, let dry overnight, fill in with a thinned-down colorflow, let dry, then add all the details and let dry. After it was all done I realized it was all worth it, but in those 2 days, I was a wreck!

What's old is new again

2007-08-13T20:45:00.001-07:00

I haven't spent too much time making cards or scrapbooking. Rather I have been working my tail off in the garden, pulling weeds. In my relaxing time, I have been spending far too much time at 2 peas on the message boards there. I did manage to "beautify" this old storage bin thing that was left in the garage when we moved here. It was blue and I spray painted it pink...

Why am I all of a sudden pulling weeds, camping out on 2 peas and spray painting bins? Because that's what I do when I am procrastinating getting ready for Hayden's upcoming birthday party. Don't get me wrong, I am totally looking forward to the party, I just hate all the cleaning before hand...so I do other non-related things to pass the time until the very last minute when I run around like a mad women trying to whip this place back into shape!

Before:

After:

Anniversary Card

2007-08-11T11:37:00.001-07:00

I made this card for a friend's anniversary. The gold paper is made from from tissue paper. I crumpled up the tissue, then unfolded it and ironed it on to the glossy side of freezer paper...Instant textured paper.

Hayden's First Hair Cut...finally!

2007-08-10T08:13:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to figure out how much "personal" stuff to include on my paper capers blog. At first I wanted to keep it strictly crafty stuff, but I had so much fun with this one I wanted to share. For those who read my family blog...sorry for the duplicate post, but I couldn't resist...

Hayden has needed a hair cut for a couple months now...but before we cut his golden locks off, we had a little fun...

"The Hayden"

"The Donald"

"The Kramer"

"The Godzilla"

"The Squiggy"

"The Pebbles"

"The Ed Grimley"/"Jack Jack"/ "Mary"

Hayden didn't want to sit still, so after I cut his first lock of hair, I held him while Dan buzzed the rest of his hair off.

"The New Hayden"

Hayden looks so cute with his shorter hair...just in time for his second birthday! Doesn't he look like Zander? I think the reason I waited so long to cut his hair was because I knew it would move him from my "baby" to my little boy in the blink of an eye. I remember how dramatic it was when Zander got his first hair cut. It seems like he hit the fast forward button and aged about 6 months. I was also a little nervous about how to cut his hair. He has two cowlicks in front and a few longer areas of growth in the back...the hair clippers solved that problem...now it's all one length.

Hayden's 2nd Birthday Invitations

2007-08-07T14:07:00.000-07:00

So this is what his invites look like...

Hayden LOVES trucks, trains and tractors, so the "By Land" set from Stampin Up was perfect. I have only completed one so far...and his birthday is 2 weeks away...Yikes! I better get going.

R U Addicted 2?

2007-08-03T08:14:00.000-07:00

A friend posted this link to my other blog (yes, I am addicted) and I thought it was pretty amusing so I thought "why not post it here too?" I think he was insinuating I may be slightly addicted when I posted 53 photos of my recent trip to the beach...I didn't realize I posted that many photos until he brought it up...(so that's why I didn't get my laundry done on Wednesday!!!)

I have been blogging for a year now and I love it. I keep up with my family blog a little better than my craft blog, mostly because I am so busy these days I don't have time to be crafty. I do browse other blogs a lot. There are so many talented and interesting people who share my love for stamping and scrapbooking. Anyway, take the quiz and share your results.

Birthday wishes

2007-08-01T17:57:00.001-07:00

So, yesterday was my birthday. My friend Donna, who used to be a great Stampin' Up hostess with the mostess (and then she became one of my downline) before she moved out of state, sends me the sweetest e-card. Stampers/scrapbookers are such thoughtful people, doncha think? So, a huge thanks to you Donna!

I also got a nice e-card from my parents and a phone call later in the day from my mom.

Then I got the cutest little birthday card from my daughter's best friend with a drawing of a hula dancer...not to be out done, my daughter then whips up the next card, complete with hula dancer...coconut bra included! So really, I had no choice but to make them this thank you card:

Later that night my friends and I went out to a great Moroccan restaurant for dinner. Yummers!

Favorite photos from our camping trip

2007-07-30T17:17:00.000-07:00

We went to the coast this past weekend and all the cousins had so much fun playing together on the beach. I'm so glad they are all close in age...all within a year of eachother.

Here is my little Hayden. He will be 2 next month and boy does he love trucks!

Best Friends Page

2007-07-28T00:32:00.001-07:00

I just finished this layout and had to post it. Look...it even has journaling! Super cute background paper and glittery butterfly stickers are from K and Company. Solid cardstock is Stampin' Up!

Not sure if I like the caption on the right side of the page... I may remove this or re-work it somehow. Any thoughts?

Okay, here it is without that caption. I think I like it like this, but it would be nice to include a little more info. hmmm...

Tami's Workshop

2007-07-26T11:12:00.000-07:00

Last night was my first workshop from the new Stampin' Up! Fall/Winter Catalog. It was kind of tricky coming up with cards to demo as 80% of my stamp sets were discontinued in June. I did manage to place an order for some of our new accessories, but haven't bought many new stamp sets yet. Anyway, this is what I came up with:

Hostess Gift Candy Jar

This uses our new wasabi double stitched ribbon, new designer series paper and new Sweet Sampler stamp set. I filled the jar with Jelly Bellies.

Easy Make and Take card

This card uses On board accents chip board circles, new designer series paper and new wasabi double stitched ribbon. Everyone got to see how easy the Crop-a-dile punches through chip board...like butta!

Wild Rose Birthday Card

Tami wanted to learn some distressing/aging techniques, so I came up with this card. The only new product I used is the designer series background paper (and the crop-a-dile for setting eyelets).

Here is my prototype, showing the pull out.

Build-a-Flower

This card uses the new Accents and Elements Build a Flower stickers...love those, so cute. I used the double stitched ribbon for the stem, a rhinestone brad for the center and scalloped the grass with the slit punch. I found this idea right in the new catalog. So fast and easy...even a caveman could do it!

Vintage Brocade/ Thinking of You Card

This card uses the new...and very elegant Brocade Background paper. I got this idea from one of the talented ladies on Split Coast Stampers. Also used the scallop technique here along with some holes punched with the Crop-a-dile. Used the new 1" circle punch which is the perfect size for our clear buttons. Stamped motif is from the Sweet Sampler set.

Alyssa is excited because tomorrow:

2007-07-24T23:45:00.000-07:00

A. Ikea will be open in Portland
B. She will be demo-ing tons of cool new SU! stuff at Tami's house tomorrow night
C. Her new camera is scheduled to arrive
D. All of the above!

If you guessed D, you are correct!!!

"Mom, why is it the afternoon and you are still in your pajamas?"

2007-07-23T15:02:00.000-07:00

...well Natalie, I've been Scrapbooking!!!

This is the conversation we had over lunch today. She thought it was pretty weird that I was still in my pj's, but who has time to get dressed when there is so much scrapbooking to catch up on!

I spent the majority of my day Sunday organizing all those piles of scrapbooking stuff that seem to sprout up all over the house. I made some huge strides, but once I put the kids in bed it was time to get down to business. I hadn't scrapbooked for a couple months and it was driving me crazy. I did manage to get quite a few pages done (except for journaling, of course) and stayed up until I dropped at 1 am. I'll be sure to post them as soon as my new camera arrives.

You'll be happy to know that I did shower and get dressed after finishing my lunch!