Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Mr. & Mrs.

Hello my crafty friends, remember on Monday when I told you about that 50's wedding? Well this was our gift to the happy couple. Now I know it doesn't look like much, but they have been living together a few years and this wasn't a first marriage for either of them. So I kept it simple. 

They are an unusual couple, so I decided to make an unusual gift. I got a frame at AC Moore and using Plantin Schoolbook Cricut cart, I cut out my items and got them all arranged in the frame. Now this wasn't my idea, I found this idea on Pinterest and I loved it. I thought it was a pretty good gift for the couple who has it all.  I hope you like it too! Thanks for stopping by and visiting me today, I always love your sweet comments, they always make my day! Crafty hugs, Brenda





Monday, October 27, 2014

Happy Harvest-BBTB2 Challenge

Hello my crafty friends, I hope you had a fabulous weekend! We did, hubby did some harvesting, we had a wedding to go to Saturday evening-which I will say was hard for hubby to stop harvesting to go because it was a gorgeous Saturday here in Central PA. But we had a very good time at the wedding. It was an unusual wedding, but so much fun, relaxing and laid back. It was a 50's themed wedding! The guys wore white t-shirts with their "smokes" fold up in their sleeve and blue jeans, the girls wore poodle skirts, white shirts and sneakers and the bride work a wedding looking poodle dress. lol Then at the reception they played great 50's music as well as some 60's music, some delicious pulled pork and other food. Just a fun time. Then on Sunday we went to eat crabs, snow crab legs, and shrimp with some friends of ours as it was their anniversary. Our college son went to eat crabs with us, then when we got back home he headed back up to his college :-(  I will be glad when it is spring again and he is back home. lol Hard to think about him leaving for good one day. 

Well I guess I'd better quite yapping and get on with why you are here today! As you know Monday's are always the start of a new challenge over at BBTB2. And you know me, I'm about dense as thick fog and kinda' didn't read the challenge right. Yea, nothing new for me right?! Anyway our super sweet and talented Jayne gave us the challenge of making a gift box. Well for some reason I had it in my head that we needed to do a treat box. So that's what I did. Sorry Jayne! I didn't follow directions on your challenge because I'm a ding dong!

I  used the Art Philosophy for the box. Then I cut out a little tag and a leaf die from My Creative Time dies. I inked up my leaves to look like fall color leaves and stamped my tag with a greeting from My Creative Time stamp set as well. They are little boxes and will only hold a couple of Kisses or Nuggets. I cut my boxes at 5 1/2 inches. If you want them bigger but them at 7 or 8 inches. These boxes will work great on the table as name placement at the table. You could write names right on the leaves.  And that wrapped it up! Easy peasy.
Need more inspiration? Look no farther than my Design Team sisters, they had oodles of inspiration for you! Just head over to BBTB2 and have a look see, then make a nice gift box and link up with us. Make sure to use your Cricut!! As always thanks for much for taking the time to stop by and visit me. It means so much to me and I love when you stop by to visit. Crafty hugs, Brenda





Saturday, October 25, 2014

Bat Wings, Eye of Newt...A Halloween Home Decor Project

Halloween is always a lot of fun don't you think?! Do you like spells and potions? Bat wings and Eye of Newt? Hubby and I love to watch Grimm and I love Rosalie's shop with all the "spices" and spells, it's just so fun to me. So I needed some apothecary jars to put some yummies in and I looked no farther than my kitchen and the dollar store! 

Hi everyone, Brenda here of Friends Craftin with Friends and I'm here to show you how you take recycle old glass food jars, candle jars, etc...into cool apothecary jars. You will need clean jars with lids, some old candle sticks-wooden or glass. I used glass ones that I bought at the dollar store. My jars are a jelly jar, a candle jar and a yeast jar. The smallest, brown jar is the yeast jar and the tallest is the candle jar. I took some black spray paint and spray painted my jar lids and candle sticks black. While they were drying I took some dies and cut out labels that I distressed with Walnut distress ink, then using Cardz TV stamps Halloween stamps: "Frankly Frightful and "Oct. 31st", I stamped my titles on the labels. Glued some homemade enamel dots on the labels and then attached to my clean jars. I used E6000 to glue the jar to the candle sticks. I didn't have any finials to use on my jar lids, so I used what I had and that was some old painted spools. I put some orange paper in the middle of the spools, then added a white pearl on top of the spool and glued the works down on the lids with E6000. Added my candy and called it done! They look really cute grouped together in my bay window. A nice cheap decoration for Halloween. I hope you like this little project and maybe will make some for yourself. They are really easy to make which is always a bonus and you have a cute decoration too! Crafty hugs, Brenda






Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Grateful, Thinking of You and Love Cards

Hello my crafty friends, I hope you are having a fabulous hump day! It is dreary, gloomy and rainy here. And of course this weather has me being lazy. lol Will be going with hubby in a few though to pick up his grain truck he just bought. He has to get his blood work done for chemo tomorrow too. So out in the rain we will go.

Yesterday I had a nice get together with a good friend of mine that I used to work with. She is a retired teacher and we always have so much fun crafting in my crafty room. Well yesterday we did just that and I wanted to share the three cards I made with some NBUS stuff. I've got a lot of never been used schuff and it needs to be used! These cards will be sent to Operation Write Home. My dies and stamps that I used are all from My Creative Time. Papers are some snippets and some are not. 


This card is one that used paper from a new DCWV Fall and Halloween stack. The black and white paper are snippets from my drawer. All bases aren't scraps of course. Don't you just love those leaves?!! I so love them. I used foil paper from DCWV to cut them out, love that  foil paper! I used gold and a coppery color. 


 This card uses all scraps from my scrap draw. Plain, simple but effective I think. I may add some tiny die cut hearts though. What do you think?


 I also used snippets on this one too. It's great to use up some snippets, but it looks like I haven't even touched them even though I use them all the time! I swear they are like bunnies and multiply while I sleep at night. lol I love this card, it is so cute to me. lol I don't drink coffee, but thought the flower looked great in the coffee cup. 

So these are my simple cards. Why didn't I get more made you ask? Well that is simple, I was to busy socializing! lol I hope you like them and have been inspired somewhat to get crafty. Thank you for stopping by today, I so love it when you sit with me and visit for a spell. You sweet comments really make my day as well. I know I have lots of catching up to do with my own commenting and I promise I will get to your blog too, but it is doing to take me a while to get caught up. I am hoping to visit tonight and then tomorrow while hubby is getting his chemo. But I haven't forgotten about any of you!!! I'm just slow. lol Crafty hugs, Brenda

Monday, October 20, 2014

Hats, Witches Hat-BBTB2 Challenge

Hello my crafty friends, is it frosty where you are? It is frosty here! The months are ticking by and it just keeps getting cooler and cooler. We did have a beautiful weekend though, but it was windy on Saturday, I thought a hurricane was going to blow in. lol Can you believe it is Monday once again? How did that happen?!!! Well you know if it is Monday, then it is time for a new challenge at BBTB2! Our talented and sweet leader, Susan, has chosen our theme for us today and it is a witches hat. Oh boy, does the DT have some amazing projects for you today over at BBTB2! I really wanted to make a large witches hat, but time was not on my side. I thought when our last kid left for college I would have all this extra time on my hands, but so far I haven't. I really wanted to take that water coloring class everyone was taking too. But maybe after the holidays are over and those long winter nights set in. So my project today is all about simplicity but I still think it has the cuteness factor! I got 4 frames from Hobby Lobby in white, orange, black and green. They were 50% off, gotta love that! Then I took some cute Halloween paper and using the Happy Haunting's Cricut cartridge, I sized up my font and stretched it for inside of the frames using my Gypsy. Then I cut a cute witch's hat from the same cartridge. After that I cut the cute ghost from Paper Doll's Cricut cartridge, placing the witches hat on him. I popped up all the letters and the ghost, but you can't tell it from the pictures. I wanted it popped up and off the design papers. So what do you think? Cute or what??

Now it is your turn to make a project using a witches hat! Looking for some more inspiration?? Well look no farther than my design team sisters on the BBTB2 blog! As always I want to thank you for your lovely comments and for stopping by and sitting a spell with me. I also wanted to say that I'm way behind in my commenting, but I will get caught up to you all soon. Crafty hugs, Brenda







Saturday, October 11, 2014

It's Fall Ya'll!!


Hello crafty friends, Brenda here from Friends Craftin' With Friends and it is my turn to show you a project here in the Cardz TV Gallery! Aren't you just loving all the inspiration you are getting each and every day?!! Well today I have a little folio for you. I got my directions from Ginger at My Sister's Scrapper. Ginger is so amazing at making mini albums and she always teaches everyone how to make most of her items, you can find her tutorial here for this folio. This folio is a great little book to put in your pocketbook if you keep the cover clean and simple or to give as a gift. It holds lots of photos of your favorite loved ones.  I have used some leaves and two acrylic leaves on my cover that was sent to me as a gift. The pearls I had in my stash along with the flowers. The Cardz TV stamp set that I used for this entire project is called Fall Fun and you can get your own set right here. My papers are from an older fall DCWV stack. Some were snippets from my draw and some where full sheets. The tags and the word "family" were die cut with dies from MCT. On my waterfall I stamped a sentiment pertaining to fall on each one. You could also put glue in a piece of paper like Ginger did. I so love these waterfall photo spots, they are hold so many pictures. I hope you enjoyed this project and will make your own folio for yourself or a gift. Thanks for stopping by today and please don't forget to come back on Monday to see what is in store for you next! Crafty hugs, Brenda









Monday, October 6, 2014

Thank Heaven for Little Boys!!-BBTB2 Challenge

Hello my crafty friends, here we are at Monday again! I hope you had a great weekend. I know it goes by way to fast. We had a great weekend, was a little chilly willy though. I think winter is going to come early this year. We should be around 70 degrees this time of year, but we barely made it to the 60's this weekend and the evenings where in the 40's. I don't even want to think about turning the heat on. lol But until my farmer harvests the corn and dries it down, my corn stove will sit empty. I tell you, there's nothing like the warmth of corn or wood. Gotta love being toasty warm!



Ooops! I just realized 6:30 am that I did the wrong theme challenge. I'm a week ahead folks! Talk about hurrying the months by. lol So to my DT sisters, please forgive me for being a ding dong! My mind gets like this sometimes, that's my story and I'm sticking to it :-)

Well let me get on with it. Time for a brand spankin' new challenge over at BBTB2. Our sweet and talented design team sister, Sharon, picked the challenge of using a cow on our project. Well at first I didn't know what I wanted to do. Then I went to Pinterest for inspiration. Yes, I found inspiration on cows. lol So at first I decided I was going to do a baby card, then I changed my mind and decided to do a little boy card. Like I said I was inspired by Pinterest so this card wasn't my idea, although my card isn't a copy of the original. I made it my own. I used A Child's Year Cricut and My World Cricut cartridge for my die cuts. My papers came from DCWV All About Boys stack. I used some homemade enamel dots as well in black. My sentiment shape is from My Creative Time, the stitched curly label die and the curly label shadow die. And my cute sentiment is from Cardz TV, That's My Boy. Very simple, but cute card for any boy. Need more inspiration so you can link up with us? Look no farther than my design team sisters over at BBTB2

As always, thank you for stopping by and spending a little bit of time here. I hope you liked what you have saw and will be back again with a visit soon. Crafty hugs, Brenda





Sunday, October 5, 2014

Chicken Pot Pie, Oh My!

Hello my friends and thanks for coming back today to see what I have for you. Yes, it is homemade chicken pot pie. Who doesn't love chicken pot pie?! It is so good for the fall and such a comfort food. It just warms the soul!

Here is what you will need:

1/3 cup of onion
1/3 cup of butter
1/3 cup of flour
1/2 tsp. of salt
1/4 tsp. of pepper

Saute onions in the butter until translucent. Then add the flour in cooking until thickened. Add the salt and pepper.

When it is thicker add:

1 3/4 cups of chicken broth - I use reduce sodium broth or you can use homemade broth
1/2 cup of milk

Keep cooking and stirring until nice and thick. Next you will add the following:

1 cup of diced potatoes - depending on how many potatoes you like in your pie
2 cups of mixed vegies - I use frozen ones
2 1/2 cups of cubed or shredded cooked chicken

Mix well and place in your pie shell. Top with with top crust placing slits for steam to escape. Bake for one hour at 350 degrees. Let sit for about 10-15 minutes then enjoy!

My husband like to have extra gravy on the side to pour onto his chunk of pot pie. I don't need the extra gravy and love the pie the way it is. lol He just grew up with the extra gravy.






Saturday, October 4, 2014

How to make Pie Dough

Hello my crafty friends, happy Saturday to you all! We have a rainy dreary day here today, but we need the rain, so I say bring it on, just not to much. lol I have had some requests on how to make pie dough. So I"m here today to show you how! Now I will have to warn you that this will be pic heavy! I want you all to see all the steps and what they look like, so that's why all the pictures. So lets get on with it!

I am using a Kitchen Aid Heavy Duty mixer with the dough hook. I used to make my pie dough by hand until my hubby gave me this awesome mixer for Christmas years ago. 




You will need 2 cups of flour, 1 tsp. salt and 3/4 cup of Crisco. I use the Crisco sticks because they are so much easier to measure. I cut it up into smaller chunks and throw it in with the flour and salt. Start mixing on low speed.


While it is mixing up, I use my spatula and help push the Crisco into the hook to mix into smaller pieces. 


In this picture you can see what your mix should look like once all the Crisco has been worked into the flour. Those little pea sized balls is the Crisco. 


Now you will need your ice water. Your water should be very cold. Start by adding a tablespoon at a time. I usually add 5 tablespoons, but if is humid, I will cut it back, if we are having dry weather, I will add to it. So start out with 4 tablespoons and then check the dough. If it is soft and holding together without crumbling, you are good to go. If it doesn't add some more water. This is where you will eventually learn the feel of the dough and if it is right or not. 



You are going to mix on medium low until all the dough pulls away from the side of the mixer bowl and is one lump as show in the pictures below. Don't over mix the dough, it will make it tough. As soon as the dough comes together stop your machine. 




Divide your dough in half as this recipe makes two pie crusts, or one bottom and one top. I get them shaped into a circle to start rolling with. 


As you can see, I use a pie rolling mat to roll my dough on, but when I started out making pie dough I didn't have one and just rolled it out on my counter. If it is in your funds to get one, by all means do, it does make pie rolling easier. I have sprinkled four on my mat to keep my dough from sticking. I roll my dough to get started, picking up my dough and flipping it over and putting down more flour if needed. 


As your dough is starting to get to the size you need, you will probably need some flour on your rolling pin. But just enough to keep the dough from sticking to it. You don't want to much extra flour on your dough as that can make it tough too. 


Once my dough is rolled to my size that I need, I use my rolling pin to pick it up to place in my pie dish by rolling the dough around it. I know it looks like I have a lot of flour on my dough here, but I shake it off and it is only some when I first pick the dough up. As you can see in the next picture there isn't much flour there. 



Transfer the dough to your pie pan.


Trim excess pie dough off. My pans have a lip and I cut just inside the lip to get rid of my excess pie dough. You can save the left over dough and roll out, place butter, sugar and cinnamon on top and roll it up. Bake it and eat it. My guys always loved the left over crust pieces when I did them like that. Since it is just hubby and I, I just throw away the left over dough. Or you can use it to make a mini pie if you have some mini pans. Mini pie pans are on my wish list because it is always cool to have a personal pie all to yourself. lol Now tuck your dough under and then you can start pinching your side or making fork marks on the edge of your crust. I always pinch mine because I love the look. 


Here is what the dough looks like once it is in your pan. Here you can see the "lip" I was talking about and the dough that I "tucked" under. It just gives a nicer, cleaner look to the dough when you tuck it under.


Now you are ready to fill it if you are making a pie that doesn't require a "lid". These two pie dough became peach custard pies. Yum, yum! Come back Sunday to see what I made with some other pie dough I made. Hint, it has chicken in it! 

I hope you enjoyed learning how to make pie dough. I promise it isn't hard at all. It just take trial and error to get the "feel" down and that really does't take all that long to learn. Now I hope you will give it a try and please let me know how it goes. 

Thanks for stopping by today for me to teach you how to make the pie dough. I always enjoy having people in the kitchen with me chatting away. lol You know I'm a chatter! As always I appreciate your lovely comments. Crafty and baking hugs, Brenda