Made With Heart Blog Hop!

Howdy Bloggers and welcome to the Made with Heart Blog Hop, hosted by Kristin at Lil' Sweet Pea's Place. If you've been following the path, you've no doubt come across some fabulous inspiration along the way, including my predecessor, Liza! If you've not hopped down the path, please feel free to start at Lil' Sweet Pea's Place and follow the path of lovely creations and delicious blog candy!

As you know this Hop is all about handmade, heart felt gifts/ cards/ or scrapbook Layouts and our theme is Valentine's Day. Below is my project:

And here's how I did it:

1.  Pop out the handle and silver handle holders.

2.  Trim down 2 sheets of patterned papers to 6 5/8"x12" and adhere to Bucket. 
3.  Trim out Paper in the handle holes and re-insert Handle pieces.

3.  Cut "Love" on the Cricut using Reminisce Accents Cartridge at 2" and chalk with brown ink.

4.  Adhere "Love" to red paper and trim edges by hand.

5.  Adhere "Love" to can as desired.

6.  Decorate Bucket with Flowers as desired.

7. Tie assorted ribbons to bucket handle as shown.

Supplies:

Large Paint Bucket - Michael's

Pattern Papers - KP Valentine Paper by K&Co

Die Cut Flowers - Lucy's  Linens - Marcella by K&Co

Chalk Ink - Color Box - Chestnut Roan

Ribbons - assorted from Stash

Adhesive - ATG Gun and CM Tape Runner

Cricut Cartridge: Reminisce Accents
And here is some yummy Blog Candy:

12x12 Martha Stewart Valentine's Holiday Paper

Greenhouse Paper Flowers by American Crafts

3 yards of ribbon (ivory lace, dark red velvet, pink floral)

"Jenny" heart Mini Album by Creative Imaginations

Wanna win these delicious goodies?  Here's how:
1.  Follow my blog.
2.  Leave me a comment and include a way for me to reach you.
3.  Have fun!! (I'll assume you are already having a good time because you're here!)

My husband will draw a winner on Monday after work so be sure to check back Tuesday Morning to see who our lucky winner is!

So now that you've stopped in for a visit, it's off to the next fabulous blog: Joey

And don't worry - if you've lost your way, or just want to venture along the list, here's the Happy Path of crafts Made from the Heart.

Kristin: http://lilsweetpeasplace.blogspot.com/

Stacey: http://staceyscreativecorner.blogspot.com/

Nicki: http://idreamcreateinspire.blogspot.com/
Paula: http://ponderingsofpaula.blogspot.com/
Jenny: http://jennysscrapsoflife.blogspot.com/

Nikki: http://nikkistamps.blogspot.com/
Kimberly: http://hellocutiecrafts.blogspot.com/
Janneke: http://myblog-jannekescreations.blogspot.com/
Tabitha: http://zippity-do-dah-tabitha.blogspot.com/
Liza: http://pinkcandystripes.blogspot.com/
Jessi: http://themyersmemories.blogspot.com/
Joey: http://joeysworldofstuff.blogspot.com/
Emily: http://branchoutdesigns.blogspot.com/
Patricia: http://www.thinkingofinking.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/
Kate: http://ippitysimplicity.blogspot.com/
Dee: http://sprytebyrd.blogspot.com/

Thanks for playing - now make something with heart!

Monday Monday....

Happy MLK Day Bloggers!

While I do enjoy getting the day off, I also am very proud of this holiday because I am proud of how far we've come as a country in terms of civil rights and civil liberties.  We're not 100% finished with what Dr King and so many others started, but we've definitely come a long way.

Monday also brings a new Challenge over at Paper Therapy.

Shape ~ a ~ licious!!

This week the challenge is to make a shape card.

Anything other than rectangle or square.

How you do it is up to you!!

Please have your project posted by

Saturday 1/22.

This one was another tough one for me - I'm so used to doing simple, rectangular cards - easy to send, easy to find envelopes....not so much this week, but I loved it once it was all done!

That brad in the middle of the flower is actually holding the front and back of the card together.  The lucky recipient of this fun and smooshy message will have to swing the heart up to read what's underneath.

The heart and lacy accent is part of the Lacy Label Cricut Solutions Cart.  The note card is actually a die cut from Making Memories "Notheworthy" diecuts and the vintage valentine cut-out is from Daisy D's valentine patterned paper 2008.  The "loving you more each day" sentiment is from a set of Basic Grey Stamps a snagged on Scrappy Steals - love that site so much.  I keep looking a this card, thinking it needs some lace or ribbon or flowers, but every time I tried to add something, it just didn't fit...so I think I'll leave it alone.

Supplies Used:
Bazzill Basics - Chili Cardstock
Daisy D's 8x8 Cardstock Pad - Maybe Baby
Making Memories - Noteworthy Die-Cut
Creative Memories - Brown Chalk Ink - to chalk papers
Cricut - Lacy Labels Solutions Cartridge
Pearlized Brad - source unknown
Stamp - Basic Grey
Colorbox - Dark Brown (to stamp sentiment)

In other exciting Paper Craft news, I am participating in my first ever blog hop next weekend! 

I can't wait for you to join us starting January 21 - 23 for lots of fun, inspiration, and the opportunity to win some yummy blog candy.  Please stay tuned for more details.

I hope you all have wonderful weeks, get inspired and create some beautiful things memories and projects!  Don't forget to check out the other DT's Blogs for their fun challenge cards this week!  Go ahead - leave 'em some love.

Happy Monday!
Jessi

Baby It's Cold Outside!

Happy Monday Bloggers! 

Dallas is in the middle of a terrible freeze, but I am snuggly warm at home with Dave watching the temps drop.  This weekend was crazy - started with relatively normal weather and lots of Scrapping at Memory Lane Inn.  Ended with 5 inches of snow and a tricky ride home.

Now it's time to start a new week, and it's time for another fabulous challenge at Paper Therapy!  This week is a sketch Challenge:

You can use this to make a card, tag, layout, gift package - it just needs to be based on this sketch.  Here is my take on the challenge:

 Supplies Used:

Making Memories Paperie Collections  (Green and Brown)

Silk Flowers - Michaels

Pearl - Recollections

Brown Ribbon - May Arts

Cappucino Brown Cardstock - Paper Source

Cricut Cartridge - Lacy Labels

Brown Chalk Ink - Creative Memories

Expressions of the Heart - Creative Memories

This was a fun challenge for me - I tried to realy stretch myself to create outside of my simple clean lines.  I hope you can stretch yourself too.  Don't forget to post your challenge engries by midnight on Saturday, and be sure to chekc out our other Deisgn Team members - they really blew this challenge out of the park this week!

Have a great week!
Jessi

A New Year, A New Challenge and New Goals

Happy 2011 Bloggers!  I hope you all had wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year celebrations filled with love, family, and great memories!  Our celebration was wonderful.  My little brother is home on leave from the Navy and we've actually gotten to spend a lot of time together.  I love it!  Today we went to Gaylord Texan to see ICE and it was magnificent....come back later this week for pictures.

Today marks the first Paper Therapy Challenge of the New Year.  For those of you who still haven't made it over to Paper Therapy, we're a paper crafting group who love altering items, scrapbooking, and card making.  We do a weekly challenge, swaps, card of the month contests and more so stop by and check us out!  We'll be glad you did!

This week's challenge is to scrap lift your favorite blog creator.  I stalk several blogs, but my favorite lately has been My Chic'n Scratch - Angie Kennedy Juda super creative and talented SU consultant.  I love her video's and tutorials - she's made some super cute and simple gift ideas - and saved my rear a few times when I needed a quick idea for my team. My scrap lifted idea comes from a blog post she did while gearing up for Halloween.

http://www.mychicnscratch.com/2010/09/mini-lunch-sack-treat-holder.html

I loved the idea of using the top part of a lunch sack for treats or gift cards.  Here's my simple and clean version:

I've used these sweet little bags for Halloween as well - slightly more simplified but silly me - I didn't get pics before they went out. 

Something else I've decided start doing again is to set craft goals.  We did this at Scrap-Diner, but when Sherine closed up shop I kind of let my scrapping fall by the wayside.  Part of that was the excitement of getting married and adjusting to married life and a new job, but now it's been a year.  Life is a bit more settled down now, and I've gotten back to crafting regularly thanks to Kristin and the gang at Paper Therapy.  So now it's time to get back to setting goals. Here are mine for January:

• Scrapbook 40 pages - I have a retreat coming up so this should be very obtainable.
• Create 20 cards for Operation Write Home
• Update Shop Handmade Store
• Re-Organize the scrap space.

I hope you join us at Paper Therapy, and I really hope I've inspired to you make some scrappy goals of you own.  I can't wait to see what you come up with. 

Happy New Year!

Jessi



Twas the Monday before Christmas....

And it's time for one last Challenge at Paper Therapy before Christmas!  This week our challenge is to create a Christmas Card or Layout.  Here's my Card this week:

All of the supplies used are Creaitve Memories - Love thier Special Edition Christmas papers this year.

I hope you can all come and play with us this week!

It's Monday...and soon it will be Christmas!

Happy Monday Bloggers! 

I can not believe Christmas is less than 2 weeks away...amazing!  Good news is my Christmas Shopping is nearly done, tree is up, and the cookie list is light this year...so far....

Last week was CRAZY!  With all the work, family, and shopping it's been such a blur.  It was good tho- tried some new recipes and Dave's still alive and nobody's been to the emergency room.  Yay! ;)  This week the favorite was Stuffed Pepper Soup.  It is super yummy and super easy - if you love Stuffed Peppers, you will love this soup!
Ingredients:
Large Bottle of V8 Juice
1lb Ground Beef
1/2 - 1 Minute cup Rice
1 Bell Pepper
Salt to season to taste

Instructions:
1.  Brown Ground Beef - season with salt / pepper to taste and throughly drain the fat.
2.  Dice up one green bell pepper.
3.  In large skillet, or 3 qt sauce pan, add V8 juice, ground meat and bell pepper.
4.  Simmer for 10-20 minutes - depending on how cooked you want your pepper.
5.  just before peppers reach desired tenderness, add 1/2-1cup of rice.  If you want a thinner soup, use 1/2 cup.  For thicker soup, use 1 cup.
6.  Let soup sit for 10 minutes while rice gets tender, and serve.

You can add additional seasonings to taste, but I like it just the way it turns out. You can also sub the V8 for straight Tomato Juice, but we've discovered the V8 is better - more flavor. :)  I love this recipe, and it is super good on cold days!

Now that we're done in the kitchen, stop by the craft room.  Today is a new challenge at Paper Therapy and this week's challenge is to create a card or project using snowflakes!  The Design Team Gals have definitely outdone themselves this week...I am truly in awe of these ladies.  I hope you can come join us this week - I know the holidays are busy, but what a great way to get your gift tags/ cards/ pages done, and join in the fun of a challenge!  Here's my card this week:

Supplies:
Day to Day Milestones Kit - CM
White and Brown Cardstock - CM - cut w/ Cricut Cart - Cheerful Season's - CM Exclusive
Candy Cane Stickles
Foam Adhesive.

I can't wait to see what you come up with!

It's Monday - and Challenge #10 at Paper Therapy!!

Hey there bloggers!

I am so happy to be back online...had some issues keeping connected yesterday.  We're back in business today - woo hoo!

It's time for another blog challenge at Paper Therapy!  This weeks challenge is another sketch -and it is a super one!

And here's my take: 

And here's a new video  - you'll get a little insite into my design process - yay!  I even used my new ATG gun to make it. :)

Supplies used for this card:

-Paper Source Red Cardstock

-Let it Snow by K&Co

-Sheer Ribbon from Michael's

-Brown Chalk Ink - Creative Memories

-Foam Adhesive and ATG Tape

Don't forget to stop by and join us.  We're having a great time and doing some fun swaps and chatting about Christmas - love to have you over.

Happy Scrapping!

Jessi