Kraft Brown Paper and Paint Chip Sample Thank You Note Idea

The punch and glue dragonfly paint-chip sample card is at the end of this blog post...if you've come to my blog because of this photo (found on Instagram or Pinterest) I thank you for the visit!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I take vitamins daily, which worked in  my favor until the day after Christmas!  I caught a mean, lean, bug that parked me on the couch for a few days.  As I said, at least it was the DAY AFTER Christmas.  How to turn the proverbial lemons into lemonade? Make mine pink, please...

(source)

A couple things: The number one sweet deal was Netflix.  We have successfully stayed away from Netflix through the years.  But when you live out in the country and just need a movie, and you are sick, not able to drive to town to rent one (too much gas anyway!), Netflix starts to look pretty promising.  And throw in a month's free trial? 

I spent the next two days watching every episode of DC Cupcakes.  I have never watched the show on TV, I don't even know what channel it comes on or if we even receive it.  But I sure loved watching every show.  It was the perfect prescription for a sick girl, me!  The sisters interaction was fun to watch, as were all their creative cupcakes creations. 

The following Tuesday I was so excited when our daughter and family said they were coming over.  Someone to make cupcakes for---yippee!  I whipped up a batch of white chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate whipped icing.  To. Die. For.    I had been researching how to make yummy cupcakes using a store bought cake mix, and was successful. My mistake: I sent the ones we didn't eat back home with them, so that I wouldn't be tempted to eat them.  I was sick with the realization that I just made the best tasting cupcakes in my entire life and didn't keep any for us!   Oh well, Melissa and family enjoyed them. 

The second thing I did while sick was to put together a sort of craft box.  When I was in first grade I had whopping cough (yes, I really did, not a fun disease).  I missed about a month (or more) of school but my sweet mother was creative in keeping me busy.  I remember the Brand New Tablet she brought home one day.  The pages were multi-colored, so clean and new.  I may have had one pencil and a few crayons, but I was in heaven: a new tablet!    So when I'm sick on the couch for a few days I make up a "sick girl" box for myself, filling it with pretty paper scraps, glue and scissors.

 

With the paper scraps, stamps and pink paint chips (I use a lot of PINK in my sign painting business) I made "thank you" notes for all the lovely Christmas gifts I received. I used a dragonfly paper punch and punched a row of dragonflies (fly, flies?), gluing them onto fold brown Kraft paper scraps, cut to fit envelopes.  I used white stamping ink to stamp the "THANK YOU", as the white pops off the brown paper.  I called this my "Ombre Thank You Notes" and posted it to Instgram and Pinterest, attracting some attention!  Which is always fun. After this note tag was posted I had about a bajillion new followers to my Pinterest "Paper Love" board. 



The dragonfly punch is by Martha Stewart. It was a gift given to me by my sister a few years ago. I checked with her and she said she purchased it at Ross.  Since then I've checked and found this is a discontinued punch. But...there's always eBay!  You could use any design punch to get the same results.

 

Have a wonderful weekend. Blessings, Heidi

Hello friends! Yes, I'm still around! It's just that between all that I'm trying to do something had to give, and it was my blog! My intention is to post occasionally, so here I am! So much going on, but one of my favorite activies is to.... BE GRANDMA HEIDI!

Summer in Oregon begins, oh, say....around August 1 and ends...oh...say about September 1. Just kidding! But summer on the southwestern coast of Oregon DOES get off to a slow start! I had the grandkids here for a few hours yesterday and though I wanted to have them slide down the slip-&-slide like this time last year...

(last year)

..it was chilly out so I built a little fire in our outdoor fire pit and had them roast marshmallows.

Mark made this heavy metal fire pit for me last year. He cut and welded all the pieces, making it the exact height I asked for, welding on "legs, then painting it black. I think he used 1/2" metal, because this fire pit is h*e*a*v*y--luckily my brother was here the day Mark moved it out of the shop!

(last year)

Ellie's marshmallows immediately caught fire...

But she ate them anyway! She had melted marshmallow all in her hair and on her clothes, but I knew I was sending them home soon...that's how Grandmas are, you know!

Claira just sat in a chair watching...and eating...it wasn't necessary to toast her's!

John Mark ever so patiently barely toasted his, he was so careful to NOT have any charred marshmallow.

We also played around with the sidewalk chalk:

 So what else?  I continue to spend moments on Pinterest (while on HOLD on the phone, as I'm working! I can PIN a LOT while on hold!!! LOL)...

        Here's just a sampling of a few Pins I actually did:

(filled strawberries...a sweeten creamcheese filling!)

(banana white chocolate chip biscotti -- these are SO GOOD!)

(homemade Ritz crackers... again SO good!)

Time to get some work done! 

Thanks for visiting and blessings to you!

   ~Heidi





Pinterest Pins I Used -- and a few wins!

A few wins, first!  I was just notified I won a copy of the new Stampinton & Company publication called "Mingle".  I'm excited to get to read this when it arrives.  We don't have stores around here that would ever carry this!

At at recent Home Based Business Fair and show I won a set of Tupperware bowls from my consultant!  It's the 3-PC Wonderlier Bowls.  You know you will win when you put your name in drawings, right?  It just takes a few minutes!  I had a Tupperware Party (Linda is my consultant) last year and we had fun making lots of foods with Tupperware products.

One of the first fellow bloggers I connected with years ago is Natelea of Kandeland.  She is one of the most generous bloggers out there!  Very crafty and artsy, and an all around genuine girl.  Her daughter is a Mini-Me to her!  Natalea had a "700th Posting" giveaway a while back and guess who one?  :)   I don't have a photo of what she sent me, but here's a photo that I "borrowed" from her blog:

I have the kit right here on my craft table.........I often save "good stuff" a little too long, thinking I need to do it justice!  I really need to just open it and have fun, not worrying if I will live up to Natalea's artsy craftsy skills!  Thank you, Natalea, you rock girl!

Now to the subject of Pinterest.  I do pin.  I do pin a lot.  Okay, I'm an image lover!  Also, pictures inspire me!  I don't subscribe to magazines anymore, at least at this very moment!  So my pinning on Pinterest is my magazine time!  And I do use what I pin!  Here's a few examples:

I made this pearl nest necklace today:

I learned how to make it after seeing and going to this Pinterest link:

And...let's see....I made these Two Ingredient muffins from a Pinterest link:

Very good. Very easy. Very Pinterest.

I'll just post one more....Gorp!  I found the Pinterest picture right before our camping vacation (which was a blast!).  I made it and we loved it!  Great for hiking, boating, bike riding and snack by the campfire:

The Pinterest photo:

My done-deal-Pinterest:

Thanks for visiting today!  



Pinterest and my flop!

Just keeping it real here, girls.  I love Pinterest.  I've made several recipes from Pinterest links, with great results.   Until this one, Strawberry Lemonade Bars.  This one took a couple weeks to make, as each time I set out to make it I would be short an ingredient.  So finally this week I got my act together and made it, carefully following the "test kitchen" recipe.

(these were not mine, but from the K&K Test Kitchen blog)

I had made these to take to my ladies Bible study, but had to leave them home! Yep, not even sprinkled powder sugar was going to make a save:

I'm not sure if I should try again or not?  Have any of you made this recipe yet?  Maybe I should just stick to lemon bars!  And eat my strawberries with plenty of whipped cream on the side!

If you'd like to take a look at my "Baking Corner" board on Pinterest, you can see my collection here:

Heidi's Baking Corner

I really want to make the Texas Roadhouse Copy Cat Rolls next......hope my yeast doesn't let me down! 

Back to work now....I'm painting sign orders, and also packaging up "Vintage Scrap Packs" for Jenn's event next month, "Once Upon a Dream", which I am a sponsor.  I'm sure the girls there will have fun, Jenn's got lots lined up and she throws an event like no other!



Blessings, Heidi

 



Pinwheels (Pin Wheels) for a wedding!

A sweet friend of ours is getting married in a couple weeks.  Her wedding will be in a beautiful park setting.  This sweet girl loves color and selected pinwheels as a way to bring color into her wedding.  The challenge was to figure out how to make these colorful pinwheel in all sizes, and how to get them pinned onto dowels (or sticks).

I played around the ideas for a days.  I tried pins, push-pins, tacks, nails and more, but just couldn't make them stick without the fear of them popping off in an outdoor setting.  Then one morning as I was running the light bulb in my head went off.  (It seems my best thoughts and ideas come when I'm on my run!)  Use my nail gun!

I used the smallest finish nail my nail-gun would shoot.  Then I stuck the dowel, or sticks (we're using both), on the crack of our deck boards, shooting the nail into the top, so that it goes through the other side, but doesn't actually get nailed to anything!  Perfect.  Now just make the paper pinwheels!

To make the paper pinwheels we used various sizes, 12" squares down to 4" squares.  I fold them corner to corner, and open them back up.  This gives me a line to use for my cutting.  I cut down to about an inch or two from the center. 

Then fold one of each tip into the center. Set this on top of the nail and push through.  Now on the nail I put a pearl or bead, then take a pair of pliers and bend the nail back down onto the bead.  This holds it all in place. 

Because we used so many kinds of papers we often doubled up the thinner papers, which also gave contrasting colors and patterns. To make sure the papers didn't separate I just dabbed some glue on the corners of the papers.  For the smaller ones we used straight pins, with white heads.  Using a pliers I cut off the ends and curled them so a skewer stick could be used.  Then a dab of hot glue to make sure they stay attached.

The bride will line the isle of the ceremony chairs with pinwheels.  She'll also use them all around the reception.  Then as centerpieces on the tables, we'll have vases filled with sand and 5 pinwheels in each vase.  The pinwheels will be used on the cake and food tables, too.  Should be colorful and fun!

   Have a great day!  Blessings, Heidi

(Linked to Between Nap's Metamorphosis Monday here,and Tip Junkie Homemade Projects Tuesday here.)

Pinterest: Better than Flickr, or a magazine or Google image search!

My Pinterest page...

I had read about this a while back, but yesterday I jumped in and joined thanks to Between Naps on the Porch's personal invitation....I joined and I'm hooked!  It took me a little bit to figure the whole thing out, but I'm slowly getting there!

For an image-graphic-picture-thinking sort of girl like me, (I think I am even a image-hoarder) this site fits me to a "t"!  Now, instead of saving anything I find online to my "favorites", OR even worse yet, printing out pictures using all my printer ink, I can just click "PinIt" to pin to one my Pinterest boards.   I tell you....you can find some fun photos here...

(from Pinterest)

Oh, another bonus is by using this site, I don't have to feel so guilty for being so inspired by all the creative people out there!  You can pin any photo, image, graphic, etc., from any website.  This is as good as the invention of sliced bread.  Almost.  My daily breakfast is one slice of bread and enough butter to know it's real butter....which led me to laugh at this one (orignally from Etsy):

(from Pinterest)

So, if you want to join, and be a follower of me (you don't have to), just give me your email address on a comment here, and I'll "invite" you to join.  If you want to go through the Pinterest site and ask to join I hear it takes a little longer.  Also, please let me know if you're already there, then we can follow each other!

(from Pinterest)

Let's see, now I'll make a board for our two daughters;  "Ideas to show Melissa", "Stuff to show Jessica"...oh I love this site!  (Both empty, for now....watch how fast I can fill them up!)

This is my first pin for Melissa:

(from Pinterest)

This is my first pin for Jessica:

(from Pinterest)

Okay, now, are you in for it or what?
          ~Heidi