Happy Birthday Hannah!

I was recently asked by my boyfriend's mom if I would bake and a design a cake for her grand daughter's 10th birthday. Although Todd and I aren't yet married I still feel as if his nieces and nephew and second cousins are my family as well. I love buying and making for the kids so I happily accepted. Now... what to do?

I wasn't given many details, but I knew right away I wouldn't be so bold as to try a character cake since my only other experience with fondant had been a little cake mom and I designed with cookie cutters for Easter. We were just playing around and trying to get a feel for fondant making and decorating so the cake didn't have a design per say. We just made little critters and glued them on with water. Here's the result.

 

I'm aware it's not "Ace of Cakes" quality, but mom and I were proud of it and thought it was really cute. Apparently my boyfriend's mom, Darlene, had faith in me too. With funds in hand I went to Michael's Craft Shop and bought a few basic supplies. I had a design idea in mind and Michael's had the flower forms I needed, pre-colored fondant, and gum paste mix. I got a small pan for the top tier of the cake and a fondant smoother. I was ambitious and I hoped I didn't fail. However, I was well prepared to hit walmart before the party to buy a cake if need be. Afterall, I was diving head first into something I knew very little about, but I had faith... just not a lot of time.

I had originally planned to spend my entire Friday evening crafting the cake. However, my mom had an appointment with her surgeon 3 hours away in Lexington. I called to reschedule earlier in the week and it was the only day they could get her in. I decided I could work a little on the cake after we got home and get up the next morning to complete the cake before the party that evening. I had purchased the colored fondant for the decorations, but I planned to make white fondant from marshmallows and powdered sugar to cover the cakes because it tastes better than store bought. I decided to make that and the gum paste decorations the night before the party. I thought it would only take a couple hours, but a couple hours turned into five hours. The gum paste medium was a little more difficult than I originally thought, and while the gum paste decorations didn't turn out perfect, they were decent for a first try. (You'll see those shortly in the posted photograph.)

The next morning I woke early ready to get to work on the cake. I'd had only a few hours sleep, but I was determined to make the best cake I could for Hannah. She was turning 10 and loves peace signs so I immediately thought tie dye! I had seen tie dye cakes on other blogs before and although the process is time consuming, and flared up the ol' carpal tunnel, I had to do it. I mixed my batter, separated it into several bowls, and got out the neon food coloring. I think it was best to go with the neon and shortly you'll see why, but first here's a picture of the batter before baking.

Isn't it pretty? It also leaves a pretty mess behind too. All those bowls and spoons... oh my! Thank goodness my mom has a dishwasher.

 

So while the cake was baking I rolled out my colored fondant and made the large, medium, and tiny flowers that was I was going to use to decorate the cake. I set those to the side to dry slightly. After cooling and crumb coating the cake with icing I starting putting my homemade fondant on the layers. The fondant makes a nice consistency, but I kept cutting the layers too short. I didn't have time to redo the fondant so in the areas that were really bad I did patch jobs and covered those with my decorations. No one would even have noticed I had messed up in a couple spots if I hadn't pointed it out. That's the good thing about decorations. You can cleverly disguise any mistakes or problem areas! Remember this was only my second fondant cake so I was pleased with the results. Other cake maker's may view it as amateur, but that's what I am. I did my best and in the end the birthday girl was happy and that's all that matters. So now I present to you my first multi-layer fondant cake....

 

The 10 on top is made from gum paste. All the other decorations are fondant, but the outside wasn't even my favorite part of the cake. My favorite was the cake itself. It turned out perfectly and the neon food coloring really made those colors pop! 

  

Just look how lovely the cake layers baked together! This also provides a good views of the three layer flowers I made to decorate the cake with. The cake itself matched the colors of the fondant so perfectly and I was very pleased. Remember if you want similar results to buy the neon food coloring.

This is an even better view of those layers and how the color just pops! So lovely.

All in all I was very pleased with the cake and the family appeared to be pleased as well so that made me a very happy girl. I hope to practice and get better and who knows maybe you'll see a cake of mine at a birthday party near you! We'll have to see how my skills develop, but I had a lot of fun making this cake and the kids loved the rainbow cake effect. It was back breaking work, but well worth it. Hopefully I'll be posting more cakes in the future.

I've also taken to decorating my own gift bags recently. I started at Valentine's Day and posted photos of those bags on my VDay Blog post. The most recent bags have been for my uncle's wedding and yesterday for Hannah's birthday. I was a little rushed on the birthday bag, but I was very pleased with both design and I just absolutely love mom's Cricut. I can turn a 1.00 bag into a bag that would cost 5.00 or more in the store. Take a look....

 

So as you can see you don't have to spend a fortune on a cute bag. Simply fire up your favorite crafting machine, or clip images from any media publication, and make your own. They are pretty and people really seem to appreciate the effort. Some think it's unnecessary, but I enjoy making the bags. I wouldn't make them pretty if I didn't want to. I think some people tend to forget there's a difference in feeling a need to do something as opposed to doing it because you want to. If I decorate a bag, or card, for someone I did it because I wanted to, not because I felt I had to. Crafting should be fun and I personally tend to have a lot of fun creating. So happy crafting everyone and if you feel inspired to start up a craft blog ask me to follow you. I'll happily do so! I love new ideas!

Baby You're A Firework....

Wow... I've definitely been a bad craft blogger for the past two months. Actually, I've been a bad crafter for the past two months. After Easter I really didn't have another holiday to create any decorations for, but that recently changed when I realized the 4th of July is upon us! It's not only been a lack of holiday's though. There have been some major happenings in the household lately. My mother was recently diagnosed with cancer so between the shock, chemotherapy, and anticipation of starting radiation I haven't had much time to think, much less create. However, one night while she was resting I remembered a craft I had seen a while back of a paper fire cracker and feeling inspired I got out my crafting paper, mod podge, and fired up the Cricut. Presenting Victorian Fireworks!

Although I didn't take progression photos (I know I promised, but I always get in the craft zone and forget) this project is very easy. All you need is card stock paper, glue, images of your liking, floral wire, and tinsel. I have already decided that this upcoming Christmas season I am going to load up on Christmas tinsel. I'm running out and Christmas is still 6 months away. What ever will I do!? Hopefully I'll make it to October which when shoppers usually see the first of many holiday items hitting store shelves.

Back to the fireworks.... First you form your wire to look like a firework smoke tail. The bottom needs to be a connected circle, for stability, and then you simply twist the remaining wire to create a spiral. Cover the wire in tinsel, so far I have used gold and silver, and viola! You have the smoke tail for your firework.

Next you take a piece of card stock paper and roll into a tube shape. Glue the back seam and let dry. Once dry you can decorate the tube with stripes or stars (as seen in the picture  below) and take a patriotic image of your choice and glue to the front. I happen to like Victorian images so I always use those. Once I have the image glued in place I like to add a layer of mod podge. One it protects the image, but it also makes the image pop with a hint of gleam. For the top cut a circle from your card stock paper and slice it to the middle. Roll the circle into a cone shape and glue to the top of the tube. Once the tube is completely dry you take the tinsel smoke tail and glue to the back inside of the tube. So far I've made two, but I intend to make a third, slightly smaller than the smallest one I have so far and then I will have a complete centerpiece that will look great at any 4th of July event I happen to throw or attend. Just wait until you see the dessert I have in mind. :) Hopefully it won't be another two months before I update again, but until next time.... Happy crafting!

 

Made the third and final firework this evening during a thunderstorm. Storms bring out my creative side. I think the three look very good together. Now I have a complete centerpiece!

Hoppy Easter!

Happy Easter readers! Like Christmas and Halloween, Easter is one of my favorite holidays for crafting and baking. So far this year I have showcased a few of the Easter crafts I have made to decorate my home and in today's blog we're going to take a look at a frugal woman's attempt at gifts kids will hopefully love and enjoy. In light of the current economic climate, and rising gas prices, I found myself still wanting to do something for the kids in my boyfriend's family, but I was lacking the funds to do as I did last year when I put together gift bags for each child. Simple solution? Paper mache baskets! I had the newspaper on hand and made the paper mache paste using ingredients I already had in the kitchen. (See previous blog post for the paper mache recipe I used.)

My first attempts fell kinda flat, but as I rummaged through my craft closet I found lots of pretty ribbon and lace with which to fancy up the simple homemade baskets. I printed vintage images from the internet and used crafting foam as a sort of frame for each vintage image. I painted the baskets in varying pastel colors, attached the foam framed images, and topped each basket with ribbon and/or lace. I used simple floral wire for the handles. Take a look at the finished baskets. (*Note: I can't take credit for the little boxes beside each basket. Those are from Martha Stewart and anyone can get the templates here http://www.marthastewart.com/article/vintage-postcard-treat-box -- I did find that the slide box was a little big for the sleeve. You will want to experiment with one before taping, or gluing, all the pieces together. I made the later mistake so my boxes are little lopsided. I found the calculations slightly off, but they are still cute.)

Addie and Hannah's baskets.

Colston and Brooklynn's baskets.

Brooklynn and Luke's baskets.

Top view with name tags made on the Cricut.

In each basket I'm putting a Funfetti cupcake and sugar cookies with a chocolate candy coating. In the small boxes I put Easter grass and a few jelly beans. I hadn't originally intended to make the boxes, but they were so cute I couldn't resist. I also didn't anticipate them not fitting in the paper mache baskets. lol So the boxes will be handed out separately. I was also going to include mini-cupcakes in the basket, but as you can see they are quite small. My ambition was bigger than the actual baskets. :) If the kids want baby cupcakes they can, of course, enjoy them separately as well.

I actually spent the better part of the Easter Eve evening baking. Following is a sample of the baked goods I made in the span of four hours.

Big Spring Funfetti cupcakes topped with Spring Funfetti frosting and sprinkles baked in paper cups and with picks from The Dollar Tree.

Small Spring Funfetti cupcakes with vanilla frosting, confetti sprinkles, and baked in small Easter baking cups from The Dollar Tree.

 

                                        

 Toll House stamped sugar cookies with white chocolate (colored with food coloring) candy coating back.

Strawberry Poke-It Cake. Easy and delicious. Bake any white cake as directed. Poke with holes using the handle of any spoon. Mix Strawberry Jell-O according to the package. While cake is still warm pour Jell-O mixture over cake. Cover with small Cool Whip and refrigerate. Yum-O.

Another picture of the boxes made from the Martha Stewart template and filled with Easter grass and jelly beans.

So this is how one frugal woman prepared for the Easter holiday. I hope the kids enjoy their baskets and I hope the adults enjoy some of the treats I baked. I realize I've baked enough to feed a small army and I remember vividly how I used to roll my eyes at my mother when she did the same so many years ago. Now that I'm older I find enjoyment in doing for others, especially the kiddos, so I hope everyone enjoys my contribution. I admit that I actually enjoy slowly morphing into my mother. Never in a million years would I have thought I'd be doing as my mom always did when it comes to holiday preparation. I guess it's suffice to say she can now laugh at me and say, "I told you so." Because she did. She always said someday I would enjoy doing for others. So it is true... your mother is always right. Now this little bunny has to hop on to bed to enjoy the festivities later today. *hop hop hop* Enjoy your Blessed Easter Sunday!

Easy Peesy.

This is quite possibly the easiest craft I've ever made and it's all because of the greatest little crafting tool ever created... the Cricut! Anyone that likes crafting and/or scrapbooking needs a Cricut. Those little machines are monsters and if you're willing to invest in the different cartridges then I promise you will not be disappointed. Think of all the money you already spend on backgrounds, borders, and stickers... well the Cricut makes all of that and more, but this isn't an ad for the Cricut. This is a craft blog so let's get on to the craft.

I had purchased a small Easter tree at the Dollar Tree about a month ago. I wanted to get them before they sold out, and lo and behold, the last time I was in the Dollar Tree they only had a handful left and they looked pretty bad so I was happy with my impulse Easter purchase well before Valentine's Day. The Dollar Tree provided glitter foam egg ornaments, that are very cute in their own right, but I wanted something a little different for my tree. I already decorate a larger feather tree with egg ornaments for Easter and keeping with my love of all things Victorian I went to the Cricut with an idea in mind. Luckily we had a cartridge with a tag design I rather liked and thought would fit well with the Victorian theme. I cut all the layers on the Cricut. White background, pink middle, and the white scrolling frame. Next I simply printed the Victorian images on plain printer paper and used an oval template to cut to the appropriate size. Here's the finished product....

They are very small and dainty, only 1 1/4 inch big, so I strung regular pink sewing thread through the top to make the hanger. The following picture shows the ornaments on the tree I purchased. I still may add a few foam egg ornaments, or some ribbon on the base, but I think for one dollar and a few odd cents it looks pretty good.

After egg and ribbon embellishments.

Before egg and ribbon embellishments.

Supplies Used:

1 small Easter tree from The Dollar Tree

1 package of foam glitter eggs from The Dollar Tree

Textured paper for ornament templates

Victorian images gathered from the internet

Ribbon removed from 1.00 candy package from Wal-Mart (Yes I bought the candy in question. LOL)

Cricut (Used to cut ornament layers)

X-Acto knife (Used to cut Victorian images for ornaments)

Glue stick (Used to assemble ornaments)

Pink sewing thread

With Love's Greeting

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day and while it's not my favorite holiday I have had fun creating vintage Valentine crafts and baking Valentine treats. I began my fun-filled Valentine weekend Friday night. I baked sweetheart cupcakes for my sweetheart while watching "A Charlie Brown Valentine."  I got the super cute cupcake wraps and picks at The Dollar Tree.

His and hers cupcakes. The background image on "A Charlie Brown Valentine" is perfect, and totally unplanned, I promise it was a complete accident. Isn't it handy having a television in the kitchen? Love it.

Anyone that loves to bake, especially cupcakes, needs one of these Wilton cupcake pans with a lid. My boyfriend's mom and dad got it for me for Christmas. I adore it.

On Saturday my boyfriend and I traveled to a really great Flea Market in London, Kentucky where I got the family dog, Annie, some really cute homemade doggie treats. Don't worry, everything is made with dog friendly carob. She loves to lick the carob icing off the treats. She's spoiled rotten. :)

 

After we left the flea market we went to a local Vendor's Mall where I saw tons of great antiques, but opted out of buying myself anything because I was shopping for others for Valentine's Day. I noticed at walmart you could buy really cute Valentine's Day bags for 4 or 5 dollars and those really cute bags weren't in my budget. The Dollar Tree was already wiped out of Valentine themed bags so I simply purchased two plain bags on the cheap and decided I would oomph them up at home. 

For my mamaw's gift bag I got a simple pink bag with white handles. These cost one or two dollars depending on the size. The heart tissue paper I picked up for a dollar was really cute, but not enough embellishment for me. This project gave me the perfect opportunity to play with mom's Christmas gift, a Cricut. I bought her a holiday themed cartridge for Christmas. From that cartridge called "Celebrate With Flourish" I cut the layered "Happy Valentine's Day" message in pastel textured paper. My mamaw loves kittens so I cut a kitten with a heart in its mouth from the cartridge called "Four Legged Friends" from the same textured paper. Here's the end result.

 

Don't tell, but this is mamaw's Valentine gift. It's the softest little puppy imaginable. I hope she likes it. I think she will. :)

 Poor Todd... he won't get his Valentine's Day gift until we receive our tax return, but I think he will be okay waiting considering there will be some pretty cool technology involved. Although I didn't have much money to spend this year I still wanted to buy my parents a little something. The gifts inside the bag will remain a secret since mom reads my blog and while it isn't much it's the thought that counts and they deserve something since they help me so much. I got a larger bag to hold both gifts and it was another cheap bag with stripes. Pretty, but also pretty plain. I was finished with the Cricut for the day so I pulled out some heart doilies I had on hand and used the same cupid image I put on my 3D image box earlier this year. Again I printed the cupid on textured paper and cut him out with an X-Acto knife. I put a hint of glitter on his wings and glued him to the layered heart doilies. I simply glued the entire image to the front of the striped bag. Here's the end result.

 

Happy Valentine's Day! My gifts are all packed up and ready to go. For those of you wondering why I have Sarah Jessica Parker hanging on my wall... it's an autographed photo a friend got for me a few years back. My friend works in the movie industry and I'm a huge "Sex and the City" fan so he hooked me up. It's even personalized to me. :)

Last, but not least, I spent part of today baking a Valentine treat for my parents. I made cupcakes for my sweetie, but for my parents I opted for a cake. Both were simple Valentine Funfetti cakes (Yay, Pillsbury for your themed Funfetti cakes!) but both were personalized in different ways. What screams Valentine's day more than hearts? Mom had a heart cake pan in her array of cooking and baking devices so I braved my first ever layer cake. I simply love to bake, not much on cooking, but I love to bake so even I found it surprising that I had never made a layer cake before. I had some trouble with one of the layers sticking inside the pan. I guess I got in a hurry and didn't properly grease the pan, but I had a strict agenda that I needed to get all Valentine projects finished well before the start of the Grammy's. I am an absolute dork over award shows. I love them. The Academy Awards are my favorite, followed by the Golden Globes, then the Emmy's...etc. The Grammy's, while not my favorite, are a lot of fun. I watch nearly every award show that is broadcast, even the Tony's. There's something old-fashioned about award shows that I love... anyway... I've gone off on an award show tangent that has nothing to do with Valentine's Day so let's get back to the cake. After the small sticking cake mishap I was able to get the cake layered and crudely decorated, but I'm sure it will taste divine!

 

Unfortunately I had mishap number two. The cake plate lid doesn't fit around the cake which is extremely frustrating because I measured, but every time I tried to put the lid on, it scraped the edges. Oh well. That's why they make toothpicks and plastic wrap, but hopefully after we eat a few pieces after dinner the lid will fit. :)

It's not quite Valentine's Day yet, but I wanted to complete everything today so I wouldn't have to do so much on the actual holiday. I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day whether or not you have a sweetheart to share it with. I've always thought there was too much emphasis on couples during Valentine's Day, but I always make a point to recognize family and friends as well. Don't be depressed if you're single, embrace that single-dom and have fun! Spend VDay with your family, friends, or sweet little furbabies. It doesn't have to be a couple's holiday anymore. Just get out there and make it your own!

Will you be my Valentine?

My desire to craft began with Valentine's Day 2010. I have always enjoyed decorating for Christmas and had tons of Christmas decorations, but come February I realized I had none for Valentine's Day. I scoured the local shops, mostly walmart and various dollar stores, but they really didn't have much of a variety when it came to Valentine decorations. I  don't live in an area that has many specialty shops so I realized my shopping had run it's course and there would be no Valentine decorations for my apartment. Sadness.

That's when I got inspired. My mom has always had a crafty spirit and often saves things she thinks could be used in crafting projects. It just so happened she had saved a couple chocolate heart boxes from a previous Valentine's Day. I grabbed them and sent her after crafting supplies while I brainstormed. She came home with two bags full of shiny hearts, pretty ribbon, and various paper items. I grabbed the glue gun, some scissors, and printed some Victorian images from the internet. I pondered, and snipped paper, and crumpled ribbon, and eventually I walked away from my first crafting project with two valentine wall hangings and a vintage valentine bucket that I put a small electric candle inside.

Front View

 

Back View (Notice the vintage valentine's in the pockets.)

 

Hanging View. (The garland around the door was another Dollar Tree find.)

And thus began my new found love of crafting. I've found another easy way to decorate your home for various holidays, which I absolutely adore to do, is by simply printing a holiday themed image from the internet and placing that image inside a frame. I personally prefer Victorian images, but you could use any that were themed for the current holiday. 

 

I purchased the frame at the Dollar Tree, but it only came in black or brown. I enjoyed the vintage design of the frame itself, but not the color. I thought it was nothing a little paint couldn't fix and for one dollar you can't really go wrong. So once home I found a picture I liked, printed it off, and chose a complimenting color for the frame. I painted the frame with a dry brush to create a slightly antiqued, shabby chic look so that just a smidgen of the prior black coloring shown through. I added a hand crocheted doily, my vintage crafted bucket, and a small heart candle to complete the look.

 

This frame was given to me from a friend. It has the old, antique look I love, and I change the pictures inside depending on the current holiday. This is the valentine version. I promise the frame itself isn't crooked, but I can't say the same for the photographer. :) Again, this is an easy and inexpensive way to decorate your home for any holiday and the best part is that the entire project was free! Victorian images are easily accessible on the internet and because the Victorians loved postcards and paper ephemera there are hundreds of images to choose from. Simply choose your favorites and get to framing.

Fast forward to Valentine's Day 2011. Within the past year I have created a handful of designs for various holidays, but today I'm sticking to the Valentine designs. Never fear... I will likely share my prior projects at a later date, but for now I'll focus on one holiday at a time.

In keeping with the Victorian theme I love I printed several different block images of the valentine variety for a simple and easy block project. I purchased three small styrofoam blocks from the Dollar Tree and covered them in tissue paper for a smoother finish. You could use any color tissue paper because the block will be completely covered, but I used red. I cut the block images to size and used Mod Podge to adhere the images to the different sides of the tissue covered blocks. After the blocks dried I took a paint brush and painted thin strips of tacky glue to the edges and covered them in chunky red glitter. (For future projects I promise to keep a conscious effort to take progression photos.) This is the end result.

 

After finishing the blocks I moved on to one of my favorite Victorian themed crafts to make... paper tussie mussie cones. They are simple crafts to make and can be filled with small treasures, trinkets, candies, or the intended flowers. I have used them in gifting baskets before, but mostly I make them to use as decoration. You can find various size tussie mussie templates online by using your favorite search engine. I tend to make smaller tussie mussies to conserve paper. Of the size I tend to make I can get 4 tussie mussies from one standard size piece of scrapbooking paper. Just follow the steps for creating the cone shape and grab whatever you'd like for decorating. For my Valentine tussie mussie I used my mom's Cricut to create the Happy Valentine's Day wording and tag on which I glued the Victorian image I printed from the internet. To embellish I used white feathers, two types of Valentine themed ribbon, and a small metal tag on which I glued a vintage floral image to hang from the bottom. Presenting my tussie mussie....

I cannot, and would not, try to take credit for the following craft. Most crafts can be interpreted from images or things we have previously seen, but putting your personal touch on them makes them somewhat original. I can't personally say I thought of the tussie mussie idea, but I can say the above is an original of my own creating. The following craft is not an original of mine. I got the idea from a vintage crafting site and printed off the images and templates they provided. I used two images of my own, but the others were provided to me on the crafting site. My variation uses red tinsel, not plain cord as the site suggested, and golden vintage buttons, not plain beads as suggested. They called the hearts, Kissing Dangles. I made them to hang in a very small window in my apartment. I covered the hearts in Mod Podge to create a sturdier finish. Overall I think they turned out well. (Ignore the dirty window. lol I was so excited to take a picture I forgot to clean the window first.)

Last but not least I created a 3D cupid valentine box. I took a a heart shaped box I had purchased at the Dollar Tree and covered the bottom portion with a piece of iridescent valentine ribbon because I didn't like the original foil look of the box. The top portion I covered in simple white tissue paper. I cut one long pieceof tissue paper to attach to the side edge and cut a frayed design with scissors. To compliment the top line of the fray I added a piece of silver tinsel. To finish the top edge I used a piece of simple red ribbon. For the 3D design I printed the cupid on textured scrapbooking paper for a vintage feel. I used an X-acto knife to carefully cut the outline of the cupid from a full postcard design. Under the paper heart doily I added a piece of pink paper for contrast. I glued the cupid to a fanned piece of valentine tissue paper, again for further contrast. Once I had the major portion of the centerpiece completed I had to stand the image. I used heart picks, with long bamboo handles, purchased at the Dollar Tree to support the image from behind. To cover the support I simply fanned pieces of tissue paper and covered the columns. It isn't nearly as pretty from the back, but at least it has a more finished look. (I will try to add a picture of the back later.)  To complete the desired look I embellished the top with small paper roses (printed on the same textured paper as the cupid and cut out with the X-acto knife) added a scrapbooking tag with the word "love" and secured to the bottom of the cupid image with ribbon. An outline of fine grain silver glitter covers the top edge of the box and a Happy Valentine's Day banner printed on the textured paper completes the top view look of the box. Here are a front and top view.

 

Front View.

Top View.

So how does it all come together to create one cohesive look?

I purchased this shelf at a local hometown festival in the fall. It has the shabby chic/antique look that I am constantly looking for and it compliments my crafts nicely. The "Home Tweet Home" hanging is one of the few mass produced Valentine decorations I have found that I liked. I purchased it in 2010 at K-Mart. The small Valentine frame, with a picture of my sweet cats, was another Dollar Tree find from 2010. I'd also like to recommend the Lemon Icebox Cookies candle shown here from the Swan Creek Candle line. They can be found at various retailers or online. It smells delish. :)

This is the small window I mentioned earlier. You can see one of my first Valentine hearts hanging in the top left hand corner and of course the Kissing Dangles in the window. On the sill I have some simple blocks, a small Valentine basket I'd gotten years earlier from a co-worker, and a candle. On the outside you can see my small Dollar Tree bird feeder. I think it's important to help feed the outdoor critters in the winter. :)

Because I hadn't intended to create a crafting blog until recently it never occurred to me to take progression photos. However, now that I intend to continue with this blog I do hope to remember to take progression photos to help anyone that may like to try their hand at any of the crafts I make. Remember that I am an amateur crafter and I am certain that anyone could easily make any of the crafts I present on this blog. Most of them will use simple supplies, like paper, and a lot of the supplies will be purchased on the cheap at places like the Dollar Tree. If you'd like any further instructions on something I have made here please don't hesitate to ask. Happy crafting folks.