Dollar Store Craft - Pill Container

Today will be my last post, here at Bloggin' The Crafts.  I have decided to start a website and combine all of my bloggy blogginess into one spot.  (Yes, I made those words up, but it's my blog, so I'm allowed to make words up).  This is the last post you will see here at Bloggin' The Crafts.  Now I'm sure some of you are sobbing right now (ha ha), but do not fret dear friend!  I am not gone forever.  You can now find me at.....(drumroll please......)

Chaos and Craziness

Here you will find all of the crafty inspiration you have come to love at Bloggin The Crafts plus recipes, health and fitness posts along my weight loss journey, and general ramblings as I try to manage the chaos and craziness that is my life!  Things are still being developed over at Chaos and Craziness but I'd love for you to check back several times a week.  I hope to have a "follow by e-mail" widget installed soon so that you can get reminders when I publish a new post.

Now, with no further ado...my last post at Bloggin' The Crafts!

Dollar Store Craft - Pill Container

Yes, that's right...PILL CONTAINER.  Now, before you shake your head and think "I don't need a PILL container; I'm too young for THAT"...hold yer horses, Missy!  This pill container isn't for pills.

It's for appreciation.

That's right...appreciation.

I saw this idea HERE and I thought that it was a CUTE and FUN idea that I must try...asap!

Now, the project linked to above is geared toward a spouse, but you could TOTALLY adapt this for your kids, a friend having a trying week, heck...even a teacher for teacher appreciation week!  (...ding... light bulb moment...)

My hubs really likes "Good and Plenty" candy, so I used that and Starburst candies for my treats.  I printed the notes on card stock and folded them up for the pill container.  I loved the one that I found at the dollar store because it's HUGE!

This is really a quick and simple craft.  You can even print off the "notes" from the link above, or take a minute and create your own.  This isn't a HUGE opening, so a little candy with the note and it's a done deal.

There's mine...all filled up and ready to go!  I'm going to put it on the hubster's nightstand tonight so that he can start it tomorrow.  Nothing major, just a fun little reminder of "hey, I like you...even though we haven't had conversations about much except sick kids and work stuff lately....I like you, and I appreciate you".  We all need to hear that every now and then, right?

With Valentine's Day right around the corner this is a fun and quick craft the you can make for someone that you care about!

Thank You Cards

It's winter, but some times I find it important to shake off those winter blahs and throw a little color into the craft projects.  These cards are so colorful and fun they just make me think happy thoughts and sunshine!

I used a cream card stock base and then the same purple paper for all of the cards.  I changed up the pattern paper, using a stack from my stash. I'm not sure why, but I have become really fond of rounding opposite corners and leaving 2 corners normal.  I really like the look of that.

The sentiment stamp is from CTMH and it's one that coordinates with the Artiste cartridge.  I cut a page full of the bubbles (cut at 1 1/2" per the stamp sheet) and then stamped them while they were still on the Cricut mat.

CTMH and Cricut teaming up together on these cartridges (Artiste and Art Philosophy) are a GREAT thing for crafters, if you ask me!  I love both of the cartridges and how they coordinate perfectly with the stamps.

Once I had all of my paper cut and sentiments stamped it was assembly time!  The set of 6 similar cards went together really quickly.  I added twine for a little extra color and called it a day.

Now I need to get busy and use these beautiful cards up and send out "thank you" cards for Christmas!  I've let that get away from me and I need to get on it!

Do something crafty today!

Get Well Soon Card

One thing I have seen many bloggers mention is that they have difficulty making cards with a more "manly" feel to them.  Recently my husband asked me to make a get-well card for a friend who has been dealing with some health issues.

Last night I tackled the project.  I used a card blank from my stash.  I cut a black piece of card stock and ran it through the Cuttlebug to emboss the paper.  I then cut a piece of white card stock and corner rounded two of the corners.  I stamped the dice and sentiment using My Creative Time stamps.    I decided to stamp off the paper to add lots of dice.

I adhered the white paper to the black and then decided I'd tie some red hemp around the black piece. I then added a piece of washi tape to the black section.

I rarely do anything to the inside of a card, but since this card is red I thought it would be nice to add a white piece inside.  I rounded two opposite corners and then stamped the sentiment "Thinking of you" from a MCT stamp set.

I like how it turned out...simple, but elegant.  Hopefully he likes it and knows that we are thinking of him and wishing him good health in 2013.  

Dollar Store Crafting - Liquid Soap

I saw this on a blog I follow that LOVED it!  What a wonderful idea!

First find clear liquid soap at the dollar store...you know, so that it's a Dollar Store Craft!  Remove the front and back label and then use "Goo Gone" or some other adhesive remover to get the sticky gunk off.  This is the hardest part, I promise!

Take some acetate and cut it to a size that will fit in your soap bottle.  You must use Stazon ink for this to work!  Ink up your stamp with Stazon and then stamp your acetate, being very careful to NOT MOVE the acetate.  I found it helpful to put the acetate on a sticky Cricut mat to keep it still!

Let the image dry.

Slightly roll up the acetate and put it into the soap.  It will open up as you push it down into the bottle.  Then put the soap pump mechanism back in, situating it so that the pump is behind the acetate.

Decorate the outside of the bottle with fun stuff from your stash!  There you have it...a fun and easy craft that won't break the bank!

Lori

Soup Recipes

Sorry I'm a bit late with today's post.  I am under the weather, which stinks.  My daughter is also ill, making for a not-so-fun household of late.


I have been on a soup making kick lately.  There is nothing quite as satisfying on a cold day than warm soup!  I think that broth made from boiling a carcass is the best flavored broth and makes the best flavored soup.


I tend to use a recipe as a guide...and change things up to make the recipe my own.  Last week I made both broccoli cheese soup and tomato soup, both of which I thought turned out really well.
For the broccoli cheese soup I found a recipe in one of my cookbooks and a recipe online that I used as my guide.  Here's what I did!

Broccoli Cheese Soup:
Chop one red onion.  Melt 1 stick of unsalted butter in a large saucepan.  Add onions and cook until onions are tender.  Add broccoli.  I had broccoli in my refrigerator that needed to be used.  I would estimate I used about 2 1/2 stalks of broccoli. Stir the broccoli in the onion and butter mixture.  Cover this with chicken broth.  Let that simmer until broccoli is tender (I cooked mine for about an hour).
Blend (in batches) the soup using your blender.  Don't add too much at a time!  I usually filled my blender about 1/2 way full, and blended that.  Be careful blending hot food/liquid!  Blend in batches until all the soup has been blended.  Return the blended soup to the saucepan.  Cube 1/2 of a loaf of velveeta cheese.  Add the cheese to the soup, stirring constantly until the cheese is melted and blended in to the soup.  Let the soup simmer.  Just before serving, stir 2-3 tablespoons of cornstarch into 1/2 cup of milk.  Add this to the soup, stirring constantly until soup thickens.  Season with salt and pepper to your taste.

Tomato Soup:
Chop two onions.  Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a large saucepan and add onions.  Cook until onions are tender.  Add 4 cups of chicken broth, 1 large can of whole peeled tomatoes and 1 smaller can (soup can size) of fire roasted tomatoes.  Stir in 2 tablespoons italian seasoning and pepper.  Simmer for 1 hour.  Blend soup in batches (like you did with the broccoli cheese soup).  Return blended soup to saucepan.  Add a pinch of sugar.  Cook and stir with the lid off to reduce down a bit.  Serve the tomato soup with some freshly grated parmesan and croutons!  Yummy!

I hope you enjoy the soup recipes!

Note Card Set

I must admit that I really enjoy making note card sets.  I think one of the things I enjoy about the Cricut is that you can make multiples of a project easily, so note card sets can be made fairly quickly.  I find the thing that takes me the longest is simply figuring out WHAT I'm going to do!  Once I know that, it goes together really quickly.

Today's note card set used the CTMH Artiste cartridge.  I know I've said this before and I'll probably say it again, but I LOVE how the cartridge works with their stamps.

For this project I decided to use the Cricut Artiste Collection Word Balloons stamp set by CTMH.  I really liked the "hello" stamp.  CTMH makes it really easy, and prints right on the stamp set 2" p.65 next to the stamp, so you know that this particular image can be found on page 65 and you're going to need to cut it at 2".

It's hard to see in the photo above, but at the top right of the stamp you can see the size and page number.

I loaded a piece of 8.5" x 11" white card stock into my Expression and chose the image.  I set the cut area so that the machine knew I was using the smaller paper.  I then hit the "Auto Fill" button so that the machine would cut as many of the images as it could fit on the paper.

I like to leave the paper on the mat until I'm done stamping.  It helps to keep the images secure and not slip around while you're stamping.

I then cut some paper that I had in a paper pack to fit on the front of the card.  I tied some hemp that I had in my supplies and then added the "hello" on top of that.  The finished product turned out like this:

It's a simple card, but very pretty.  I used a CTMH stamp pad called "Moonstruck".  Because I was able to make several images and stamp them all so easily I was able to quickly make a card set of 6 cards.

I'm really enjoying playing with Artiste and Art Philosophy and the coordinating stamps.  I hope you enjoyed this project as well!

Lori

Dollar Store Crafting ~ Journal

The inspiration for this project came from THIS post.  I thought this was such a great idea and so quick to make.  I was in Staples one day and saw the notebooks on sale for $1, and I immediately remembered this project, so I picked up a few!  I started with this:

I added scrapbook paper on the front and back, as well as the inside cover.  I glued a ribbon to the inside of the back cover to use as both a place marker and a way to close the journal.

I cut the paper a bit larger than the cover and then adhered the paper down with a Zig glue pen.  I then flipped it over and trimmed off the excess with an Exacto knife.  Next time I make one I will glue the ribbon to the outside of the back cover and THEN put the paper over it!  I'm not sure why I didn't think of that the first time!

The notebook had a weekly schedule printed on the inside front cover, so I used the scraps from the front and back covers and covered that schedule up.

This paper was a double sided paper I had in my stash and the ribbon was something I had in my ribbon rack.  The original pin described dividing the journal up into sections for monthly journaling but I thought I'd just like it better if it were more free-form.

Again, another fast and economical project that you can put together anytime!  I hope you enjoyed this project.  Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions or just to let me know what you think of this project!

I'd love to know what kind of projects you'd lie to see on this blog!  Please leave me a comment and let me know!

Lori