See What Happens?

I love Kim over at Today's Creative Blog, she was the first blog I ever faithfully followed. She featured so many cool creative people, and opened a lot of creative doors for me as well.
Have you ever gone to someone's blog and liked what you saw so much you just kept clicking on older posts, and before you know it you've reached the end?
(Yeah, it's a disease!)
And how many blogs do you follow, read all the time, but never comment?
I am one of those sad people.
I have tried to leave some comments, but for whatever reason, if it's Firefox or what, it won't let me sign in, the box is blank. I did take the time to email the person, just to let them know I thought it was cool enough to say something.
Just some random thoughts to share...

Cupcakes Galore!

When approached to make 75 cupcakes for the VBS at our church, I didn't even blink. 75? No problem!
Originally I had planned on having them topped and looking the coolest ever!
But then they didn't want them frosted, because they were going to decorate them at the church, and thought the frosting would get too hard to decorate.
Maybe.....
So I knew I wanted to kick it up a notch.
How does one do that?

Colorful cupcakes!
I loved this, and it doesn't take much longer to do at all! Just divide the batter into however many bowls you're doing colors, you can use food coloring (I used color paste) and go crazy!
Dip it into the cupcake holders, a color at a time, and bake as normal.
Here is a picture of the 75:

Do you see the chocolate ones in there too? Yes, when committing to baking to many, make sure you have enough for the whole project, right? But who doesn't love chocolate? It's variety!
Here are a few pics of extra ones I kept to make pretty for us:

Have a great one!

-Roberta

Dollar Store Frames

You can do so much with those Dollar Store frames, I've made gifts, projects, the list goes on...
For the last month, my 4th of July hangings have been up in the dining room, and it was time for them to come down. But I don't have three items for that wall. (I do this all the time, I'll hang something cause it looks good, then later have holes or nails in the wall.) And this is the main wall between the kitchen and the living room, you have to walk by this to get anywhere in the house.
So last night I sat in my craft room, yearning to be creative. This last weekend I had bought three sheets of rub on's from Bo Bunny, I fell in love! I often buy things and have no direction of what I'm going to do with them. I've had things for years before I've used them. Please don't tell me I'm the only one that does this.
Actually, I don't need the confirmation, my husband does. I'm still using paper I bought five years ago! (And boy have my tastes and the styles changed, for the better!)
I'm babbling...
So I'm looking at the rub on's, thinking maybe I would bling out my storage units in the scrap area. Then it hit me, they're pretty enough to be a picture!
So two 4by6's and one 5by7 later, rubbed onto cardstock, watermark stamped for an added texture, and I have this....

I'll leave this up for about a month, then I'll be putting out the fall stuff. Then these pretties will go into my craft room.

I'm linking this up today!


-Roberta

4th of July Goodies

How's this for a month late?
I bought these at the last minute for my 4th cookout, used the 4th cart for my Cricut and came up with these:

I know the Freedom isn't stuck all the way, but you know what? I really kinda like it that way.
I also bought a condiment caddie for you know, condiments, and silverware. I forgot to take a picture on the day, so imagine these things in there, and check it out.

The ric rack got a little wonky, but the pendants stay on, (Mostly), those were cut from the 4th too. I'll also use any excuse to put ric rack on something. (Because you cannot ever have enough paper or ric rack. Seriously. Every Christmas these two things are on my list.)
I only have one picture of my goodie, I was so busy I didn't take any pictures, and my husband was busy entertaining and didn't take as many pictures as I wanted....

Simple Angel food covered in Cool Whip and strawberries and blueberries. Tastes good and EASY to make.

There is what I have for my very late 4th. Jim just took two out of the house, so I must go play in the craft room now!

-Roberta

Monogram Love

I've noticed that monograms are pretty popular right now, so I came up with this.

It's sitting (Well, actually hanging.) next to the stairs in the dining room.
Why do I love this? Well, I made it, for starters! But the frame, the colossal frame I actually got from Wal Mart for $2.50. (Because even though they usually put the clearance stuff at a buck or two off and call it good for the next several months, somehow this beauty escaped into a dimensional pocket to only reappear when I happened down the isle.)
I backed it with a wrapping paper I've had for about a year, (Maybe I should explain my love for paper goes far beyond scrapbook paper, I also have a wrapping paper addiction.) But I bought this with the intention of using it for something other than wrapping. It's not thick enough to Mod Podge with it though. It wrinkled up on my frame, sad!
I used white vinyl cut with the Cricut for the M. (One of the Cake carts, can't remember which right now.)
And voila! Love the colors! Love the monogram!

-Roberta

My First Time

I had my very first craft show this weekend.
I almost recovered the entry fee.
But if compliments were cash, I'd be swimming in money right now!
Luckily for us, there was this sweet couple next to us, and he came in and gave us a lot of sage advice. He told me I should adjust my pricing (Up!) because if it's too low, people get the impression it's not worth much. How to better our display, and most important...

When you can, TEAR DOWN THE WALLS!

So I'll be sending Jim mostly solo next weekend to a festival that's just starting out, and the entry fee couldn't be beat... FREE!
And I've signed on to do a festival in October, and it's pretty busy. I've learned a few things, so we'll hope for the best.
A few pictures of my wares, and no completely ignore the setup.

Some of the Deco Frames

Flower Hair Clips

Button hair clips

 

Resin Necklaces

 

 

This Was My School, Long Story, But They Could Use It.

Summer Cups For the Kids

This position for PC has led me to creativity that I never thought of before. I'm using my Cricut every day. I'm having crafty dreams, and thoughts constantly. I'm having to take a notebook with me so I can jot down my next big idea.

Too bad I'm big on thoughts and small on time.

I've always been in love with the idea of vinyl. Vinyl on the walls, the truck, and now cups. (No, not record vinyl, though there are some great things that can be done with that too.)
I went to the Dollar Tree and bought two cups for Nikki and Jimmy for the summer. These are cups that are authorized to go outside, and cannot have anything but water or juice in them, Nikki picked out the ones with straws, and I'm NOT a big fan of that. Gunked up milk and me do not get along. And I've shoved way too many pipe cleaners (You will never get me to say chenille stick, I'm sorry. It wasn't broke, it shouldn't have been 'fixed'.) up a tube in my lifetime because the child couldn't live without the cup. This would be the same child who couldn't be bothered to rinse out the cup in the first place either, I'd rather toss them.

So Alas, I've got straw cups again, in in my week of blinging things out, I'm closing with these:

The kids love them, and I'll manage to not cuss too much over cleaning straws all summer long.

-Roberta

Big Pimpin'

I was a little bored last week and pimped out my pink Expression. We'll blame it on the Fedex guy.
There is her front. I used a vinyl sticker I got on clearance from Mike's and glittered stickers to embelish the sides.

Here is her backside. It will never be a big deal if I get bored with it, it comes off easily if you want it gone.

Do you know those white spinning tool racks they have for 39.99? Yeah, they're cool and all, but never would I pay that, not even with a coupon.
Until it was sold as it for missing a drawer for 9.99. Then they gave me the coupon price, and I paid 6.00 for it! Hello!
Problem was, it was white. Whiter than virgin snow. Nothing in my house is that white for long. So as I was cleaning up my craft room one night, I picked up a sheet of rub on's I picked up at Big Lots for a buck. These were so cool, swirly and graceful, everything I'm not.
Then I leveled my eye at the caddy, turned it upside down, spewing forth the contents in every direction in my crazed creative pimpin' state. Then I turned loose with my popcicle stick and quickly realized what a pain in the ass those are. I really want that new rub on tool!

Then came my HAHA! AHA! moment!

I have a dry embossing pen! It has a metal ball on the end, it doesn't roll, but it might do the trick.

Guess what?

You already know it does! Holy fluffy angora fur! This made it so easy, I tossed that popcicle stick over my shoulder with abandon and haven't seen it since.

On to the pictures!

I feel better now.

Have a great one on me!

-Roberta

Cake Balls!

I was inspired by Bakerella to make cake pops. I call them cake balls, but when you add the stick ironically enough they become a cake pop.
Last week I made a batch as a test run, because as soon as I saw these, I knew it would be the perfect treat for the end of the school year picnic at the kids school. So I made banana, strawberry, dark chocolate. They tasted good, but the consistency was a bit mushy. Time to do some research!
I browsed a few (several) dozen sites and on Monday made two batches of cake. Wanting to be festive, I chose red velvet and a white cake tinted blue. (Can you believe that until yesterday I'd never had red velvet cake? It's right on up there with Devil's now.) I baked the cakes and let them sit in the open air all night.
The next day I used a fork and broke up the cake, then using my hands crumbled it into a bowl. I let that sit for about an hour, going back and tossing it every now and then.
The reason for all this sitting out in the air is because with my first batch, it was a bit mushy. My cake had been too moist, and I may have added too much binder.
For the blue cake I used cream cheese frosting, and I only used slightly less than 3/4 of the can. For the red velvet I used chocolate, and I used about the same amount. When mixed it should hold form when picked up. I put both batches in the fridge for about two-three hours.
I took my melon scooper, and you'll want that pretty much even and roll that into a ball, putting that onto your sheet. I take this time to insert the stick into the ball. I dip the stick into the some of the melted candy chocolate then into the ball. I noticed this time it did seem to help keep the ball stable.
After rolling both batches into ball, and sticking them, I put both back into the fridge for another two hours.
You need pretty firm balls if you're going to dip them, I haven't frozen them, though I've heard if you dip the frozen balls, the chocolate will crack as the ball thaws. Makes sense to me.
I used regular white chocolate candy melts to dip these in, though I did add a little shortening here and there to loosen up the chocolate.
Dipping can be a bit of an art, I've taken the easy road with the sticks, I just dip the ball in take a spoon and twirl the pop and spoon the chocolate over the top. Then keep on swirling and bring the pop out of the chocolate. This works 90% of the time. The other 10% I tried other things which gave me various results, the gentle twirl is good. I then sprinkled some fun things on. I'm not much for sprinkles, but kids love em.

Onto the Balls! (Pops!)

My undecorated ones for later!

I busted two open so you could see the inside. Still looks cakey! Buena!

-Roberta

My Shame On Me Post

I'd say my mother taught me better than that, but I just know this wasn't good form.
I won a giveaway two weeks ago from the lovely Melanie and I didn't post about it.
She held a giveaway on her blog, and it was a random generated thing. As soon as I saw it, I fell in love, but I'm not so much the lucky type, but I'll enter a giveaway if it really moves me.
I was moved, and luckily so because now I have this lovely thing in my home to display!

Not a good picture, it's morning, and gloomy, and looks like it will be that way much of the week. No excuses this is getting posted!

I am so in love with the fabric... I want to wear it out and about.

Thank you Melanie! I love it just as much as the first picture! It'll be residing right in the middle of the table this weekend!

-Roberta

Another Card, And A Little Cake

I did manager to get into my craft room last week and make something. One of the girls at Michaels loves bacon as much as I do, and I just bought the Just Because cart two weeks ago and while Cricut doesn't have a bacon image yet, they do have an egg one. This is what I came up with....

I embossed the yolks of the eggs, since I can't get Diamond glaze locally. It just needed a little something extra.

It's a pretty simple card, the font is from Cake Basics, welded with the Gypsy. Still loving the Gypsy!

Onto my demo cakes, it would help me so much if I didn't wait until late Saturday night to make them. I'm up until 3:30 in the morning finishing them up. Even after having the Cake out on the counter all week. I did cut cheese, that was really fun and easy. I bought some of the Duff fondant, chocolate, and it was very good to smell and taste. Like tootsie rolls, yum! The frosting sheets sent to us are brittle in odd places, but I'm making it work, and I still think we're not rolling the gum paste as thin as we're supposed to. I'm thinking about placing an order for some SugarVeil. Expensive, but the thought of having something fabric like to cut is so tempting.
On to the goodies!

Jim wanted to do this cake. We only did it for fun though, Michaels no longer carries the Solutions carts, so I can't demo any of those. (This is from the Indie Art) and Brandy who will be 15 in September wants this for her cake now.

I wanted to do something elegant, and this seemed simple and elegant enough to fit the bill. Later for the demos I put a pink grosgrain ribbon around the bottom. I forgot to take pictures while demoing, it was pretty busy this week.

And with all the graduations going on these next few weeks I thought this would be pretty fitting. I put a blue ribbon at the bottom of this one. And the manager asked if she could keep one in the store, I left this one, it's from the first week and starting to look a little rough, so if something happens to it it wouldn't be a big deal.

And last but not least, the cheese! I made these for Jimmy's snack for school. They were a hit, and so easy to do!
I'll be buying a Cake after I have to give this one back, I'm already having interest in it from friends and family. I think Jim is on board with that as well. He stays up with me and helps decorate, and if it weren't for him I never would have started in the first place.

Until next time....
-Roberta

Teacher Appreciation Cards

I'm late to the teacher appreciation party, and I've been in so much pain this week I didn't make a cake either.
{awwww!}
But I was pain free enough tonight to make cards for the teachers!
I used the Birthday Cakes cartridge, and welded the words on the Gypsy.

HA! Buying all those DCWV Paper Stacks really can come in handy!
And usually it can be a pain to match cards colors, the solids with the patterns. Did you notice how I did it just a leetle too well? So I dug around, knowing I had some of those dang styrofoam sticker things in my stash, (yeah, bought them in like 2000, still have half a sheet left!) and stuck them to the back of the phrases to make them pop a little. I think it worked out well.
So I crafted! Wahoo! I am pain free at the moment, so I'm telling you, ZEN. Crafting makes me ZEN. (I'm probably misusing that word, but it makes me feel better.)
Have a wonderful weekend all! I'll be playing with the Cake Saturday, and I'm hoping to make something FABULOUS.

Cricut Training And More

I got back from Chicago Monday, and ever since my life has been a flurry of activity. Catching up with the kids, catching up on the DVR, (really not so much there, watched Celebrity Apprentice and that was about it.) going to look at my Michael's store. And right now there is NO other craft store in my world officially. None. And the pain. Yes the pain, I've had major shoulder pain and headaches all week. It's getting better, but I'm still there. The emails from my Market Manager, the support group of all the other GREAT women I met there.... the list goes on and on.

Oh, did I forget to mention the Cricut Cake?

In kitchen red no less?
I have played with it a little, and am going to play with it more mind you. I did go out today and buy some fondant and gum paste, I only got two practice sheets to play with, and it's just not enough.

I took my husband along for the ride as I 'demoed' it for the first time. It took minutes to do this, and I know anyone else could do this too.
Want more? Find a local Micheal's in the months of May and June and see if they're doing the demos.

I haven't had My Expression for very long, (Going on almost two months.) and when HSN premiered the Cricut Cake, they also had the exclusive Straight From The Nest cartridge. I fell in love with the images, and bought it. So I've been playing around with that as well.

Because you know everything is better with glitter, right?

And I'm a bird fanatic, so I liked this cute little thing.

This would make a sweet card, don't you think?

I also got a Gypsy to play with, and my next post is going to highlight the reasons to buy a Gypsy. Because I never held a Gypsy in my hands until last Friday, and now that I understand it, I had to have one for myself. And now I do, bought one today actually.

I've been working on some really cool things, just need to add a few finishing touches and it will be like show and tell right here.
Have a Great weekend!