More Christmas gifts

Think I am finally done making gifts!  Whew...lol I was a little worried there for a moment that there wasn't going to be enough time in the day to make what I needed to get done.  But thankfully it's all finished and all in all I am pretty happy with the way things turned out.  I did 13 double walled glasses w/straws for Rick's/our Davita family.  24 Redneck wine glasses for Rick's and my family memebers.  Another 6 Double walled glasses w/straws, 2 coffee mugs, and 2 water bottles for Rick's side of the family!  It has been a busy few days!  TFL

Boise State Bronco Gift set

Rick's Cousin and his family are huge Boise State Bronco fans. So, I did this gift set for them for Christmas, and even got lucky enough to find some Boise State Bronco Tortilla chips to throw in as well! TFL

More teacher gifts

My grand kids needed a quick gift for their teachers so I did these cups with the schools mascot on one side and the teachers names on the other. I am happy how they turned out for being a quick project. I filled them with a variety of drink mixes and then made little flags to slide onto the straw that say, "Thank you for quenching my thirst of knowledge". tfl

Teacher Gifts

My youngest grand daughter is in head start and she has 4 teachers...lucky grammy got to make the gifts for them lol. I bought two really cute melamine plate and bowls that matched at the dollar store. turned the bowls upside down, glued them to the bottom of the plate and had an instant cookie serving tray to which we added Christmas colored oreos (red) then wrapped them in some cute plastic gift bags and tied them with a personalized ornament for each teacher. quick easy and fun...but then, I was informed that she has two main teachers but that she has 4 teachers in her room daily...lol so back to the store I go for two more sets only they didn't have any more that matched...they had the bowls.. no plates.. I was freaking out wondering what I could do.. I ventured over to the regular dish area and found two plates that kinda sorta matched, they had red, green and blue stripes around the rim with a white center. They actually looked just as cute, but evidently I didn't take a pic of them before sending them out. tfl

Dog Treat Jar

I originally bought this jar for my ex husband because he has a huge stash of candy that he always has on hand for the grand kids, but has nothing to keep it in. I was going to vinyl it up with some little saying about Poppa's treats, but then he calls me and says that he bought a jar to keep his candies in.. .I was like..oh you did? lol and turns out it is idential to the jar I got...sooooo I thought ok, I'll just vinyl it for his dog instead as he keeps almost as many treats on hand for her as he does the grands! Anyway this is how it turned out. tfl.

Christmas for Barbie

Coby decided to turn the attic of the barbie house he made for his sisters into a Christmas setting.  A fantastic artist, seamstress and miniatures artisan gave Coby a Christmas tree that was in 1/6 scale (barbie's scale) along with several sets of clothes that she had made quite some time back.  Coby decided to make a bead garland for the tree and wrap the barbie clothes for the girls and place them under the tree so that when they open their present, each of them will have two more presents to open that contain 4 barbie outfits.  What a great idea, a present inside the present!  Am so excited for the girls to be able to open their gift on Christmas morning.  It's going to be a very exciting Christmas. You can't see it but there is a beautiful golden handmade Star of David that adorns the top of his beautiful little Christmas tree!  Thank you Cheryl Empson for helping to make Coby's gift to his sisters even more special!

On another note, I have so so many posts to make, but unfortunately they are all about the Christmas gifts that I handcrafted this year for my family, freinds and Davita Family.  Once they are all given out, I will have alot to blog about :)  Until then, Here's wishing you and your's a very Merry Christmas and an even bigger and Brighter New Year!

Kitchen Completed

Doll house is finished, and Coby and I finally got the kitchen done.  The bathroom pieces are in the oven baking as I write this... will blog about it after they are out, cooled and place in the bathroom.
We printed off a 3D stove and refrigerator onto some heavy yellow cardstock with black printing and placed them in the Kitchen.  We made the kitchen table from a bevel edged octagonal mirror glued (E6000) to a crystal candlestick for the base of the table.  It turned out quite pretty.  For the chairs, we used the ends of a wire hanger, snipped off and bent into the shape of a chair.  For the seat and chair back, we used heavy duty cardboard wrapped in white naugahyde. (fake leather)  They turned out so cute.  We liked the second pic because it caught the lights of our tree in the reflection.  Not may days left until Christmas, but I think we're going to make it!  TFL

No More Store for now....

Just wanted to take a moment to thank all of you who have been loyal customers throughout the past few years.
A few months back I recieved some emails from a person, who shall remain nameless, wanting me to give her all of my contact information so that she could make and give away my files in another cutter format.  She  became quite angry and couldn't understand why I was not ok with this as she wasn't going to "sell" the files but rather give them away to her cutters group and friends.  When I refused, she started telling others on a private group page that I didn't have permission and that I was lying about having said permission.  It just so happened that a good and loyal friend, sent me the posts through email to bring it to my attention since I wasn't there to defend myself and I understand she has caused alot of problems for other small business owners as well.   I contacted the woman and asked her to cease talking about me or I would bring a lawsuit against her.  She sent back a flurry of angry emails and told me that she was still going to seek permission to do this on her own and told me that she had contacted the company regarding my website.  Well to make an even longer story short, last month, I got a phone call from an attorney for Wilton, who is the parent company of EKSuccess Brands who is also the parent company of Inkadinkado stamps.  They asked me to send them the permission, which thank God, I kept.  Today I recieved another phone call letting me know that I needed to take down the website until such time that I email Wilton with the serial numbers of all of the stamps that I plan on using.  Many of you know that this business has been my only source of income for the past year since my boyfriend had been diagnosed with end stage renal failure.  This income allowed me to be able to transport him to his Dialysis sessions and not have to worry about missing work to do so.  I just hope that She is happy with herself and the outcome that she has transpired as a result of her actions.
But, all in all, I have to tell you that I still feel Blessed.  I know that everything will turn out just fine and even if I am not granted a second permission to reopen the store, I am a very resourceful person and I will survive, irregardless of the actions of this woman. You can bend me...but I won't break!!!  I am also blessed that I got to know so many of my customers on a deeper level.
Thank you all for everything, and if you are the praying type...please keep me in your prayers!
Thanks again,
Kim

Star Cookie Trees

Had my grand kids over for the weekend and we made these cute cookie trees!  These are the softest cookies ever!  You can find the recipe we used HERE (we tinted our dough a bright green). Since each tree takes 21 cookies, we tripled the batch.  I am sure this will be a new go to recipe in our home as they are super easy and just taste so good!  You don't want to roll them too thick either as they rise quite a bit!  The recipe called for a regular sugar cookie glaze, but we decided that cookies that soft and yummy needed a yummy cream cheese frosting to make them even more delectable...but we wanted our frosting to be a bit more Christmasy flavored, so we added 2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice and a tsp of orange flavoring.  I kid you not when I tell you that our frosting tastes just like the orange glaze that comes with the Orange Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls.  It's the kind of frosting that once it hits your mouth, you have that surreal moment when you just think you are in heaven! lol  The trees were made to be part of our Christmas dinner Centerpieces (of course they will be removed from the plates and placed among some greenery), We had a small amount of leftover dough, we made 40 miniature gingerbread men so the kids could sample their wares.  They were bite sized...and there were absolutely no gingerbread men left by the end of the day...they were THAT good!  TFL  and hope you are all having fun making memories with your little ones as well!

Sign for my daughter

My daughter turned 28 today, Dec.6th, and I made this sign for her as one of her birthday presents. I love this sign as it is so true of any mother and their child...it is an unbreakable bond of love that cannot be measured!  TFL

Last and Littlest, but definitely not the least

A few weeks ago, it was Indika's turn to make her gifts for her siblings.  For her bother, she chose to make some very simple mini marshmallow shooters.  She had a blast putting them together, and then of course before she wrapped them up, she had to make sure they worked!!! lol

For her sisters, she made some headbands with pretty bows made from wired ribbon so that they would hold their shape.  She had a hard time wrapping these up for her sisters because she wanted to keep them up for herself! lol I finally convinced her that I was sure her sisters would share them with her once they were opened and let her wear them too! lol

Owl and Pillow Monster

Lylli finished her bother and little sister's Christmas Presents today. She made a large owl for her brother in his favorite color, her younger sister had already made one for him that was small, chubby and blue. She said that his little blue owl would need a big brother to watch over it and we should have put a bow on the little blue one.  She told me that the owl was so much fun to make because you  just have two lines to sew!  She had fun and wanted to keep him when she was done...lol

We were looking for something relatively simple to sew, since she is only 6, when we came across these really cute pillow monsters on the Whimsical Whimsies.Com blog.  This is Lylli's own version of what she wanted the monster to look like for her littlest sister.  TFL

UPDATED: Upcycled Doc McStuffins Christmas Present

My 5 year old grandaughter loves Doc McStuffins, so for Christmas her 6 year old sister made her an upcycled Doc McStuffins Doctor set.
The upper part of the stethoscope was made from an old head band that she wrapped with ribbon and then put the white felt pieces on the end to make it soft for the ears.   The ribbon and the felt pieces were attached with permanent double sided tape by Scotch Brand.  Lylli braided some doubled green yarn for the connector and for the actual stethoscope, with my cricut, we cut two circles from the glitter foam in white, a bandaid from the tan which Lylli colored the square piece with a pink highlighter to make it look a bit more realistic, then a red heart for the bandaid out of red glitter foam.  I used the deep cut blade and it worked like a charm.

Lylli thought we needed a blood pressure cuff to round out the gift, so we cut a rectangle out of brown felt.  I asked her what could we use for the squeeze part to which she replied, "Grammy we have all those pop and lock beads that we don't  play with anymore."  So I told her to go to the toy box and see what she could find.  I just happened to have some clear tubing from when my boyfriend was in the hospital for his knee surgery and I kept it knowing that it could be useful in the future.  It fit the pop lock bead opening perfectly.  We then sewed the other end of the line to the cuff and below is the result...pretty ingenious for being up-cycled and I think that it is a toy that they will have so much fun playing with.

We are still working on decorating a doctor jacket and face shield...stay tuned for more pics to come.  TLF

Here is the final pic.  jacket finished with Doc "McGia" as well as on the stethoscope and a pretty butterfly on the face shield.  TFL.

Hand made Christmas - Updated

My grandchildren are all at an age where they love to craft with grammy.  Christmas is coming so I have decided that this year, they are going to get a chance to make presents for their sisters and brother.  Each weekend one of my grand chileren get to spend the entire weekend and craft their presents for Christmas. This is teaching them so much I think.  It is teaching them that you don't have to buy something for it to be fun.  It is teaching them to recycle, to use products we already have on hand and it is teaching them to think about what makes their siblings happy, but most importantly it is teaching them to take pride in their work as well as learning to love the spirit of giving!
LOL not sure what she was doing with the mouth...trying to smile I guess lol...anyway, look for more kids crafts in the coming weeks.  My ten year old grandson is building a Doll house for his three sisters..he is having a blast finding things around the house that we can turn into barbie furniture. :)   I'll post pics as it progresses.

This is a cute, fat little owl that she made for her brother.  We got the idea from Ephemera Ink Blog.  I think he turned out great for her first try at it.

another barbie dress 

Pants and Midriff...this one made Gia giggle because Barbie's tummy was showing..lol

They argued about who should get to stay first, so grammy put number 1 to 4 in a bowl and they drew for the order that they would get to stay first.  Gia, my 5 yr old grand daughter was first and she chose to make barbie clothes for her sisters...she only got one set done, but for a 5 year old and it being her first project, I think she did marvelous!  She did all the sewing, and the color designing, I cut the patterns out for her and pinned the hems so she could sew them, but she sewed every single stitch!   This is how they turned out. I am extremely proud of her!  tfl

Teacher gifts and class party gifts.

I saw a cute little witch shoe with oreos to make the stockings.  didn't really care for the look of the all green stocking, so decided to try the orange and green together.  The shoe pattern I used is from Penny Duncan Creations.

The water bottles are for my granddaughter's class party.  Just did a simple drink holder with a bat on them.  The teachers didn't want any juice drinks that would leave any color on the carpet if spilled, so we decided to fill the drink holders with sugar free lemonade.  Was in a hurry to take a pic and just realized I put the drink mix upside down lol

TFL

Passing on my love of Crafting

My granddaughters are 6, 5 and 4 now.  And though they have always crafted with me, they are now getting to the age that I can teach them to do things all by themselves.  Last night I taught my 5 year old how to finger knit a scarf that she can wear this winter.   I showed her how to cast on her fingers and then helped her with the first two rows.  After that, she had it down pat and didn't need or WANT any more help!!! lol So I just let her go at it and watched her carefully.  She is such a quick learner!  Within an hour she had a very long piece completed before deciding she was sleepy and it could wait until morning.  So, I marked her stitches so she could resume in the morning.  She woke up this morning and the first thing she said was , "I wanna finish my scarf grammy!"  Wow, before breakfast even...and she did.  Here she is at beginning, midway and finished product!.  I am so proud of her! :)

New Files Added

14 New Fall/Thanksgiving/Harvest  SVG files have been added to the Creative Bling Vinyl Designs Store.  Click on the purple banner in the right hand column to go take a gander! :)

TFL

Homemade Oreos

My granddaughters spent the weekend with Grammy so we decided to make some homemade Oreos.  They turned out great and are so easy to make!  I used a small cookie scoop so that all the cookies would be uniform in size and found that the same cookie scoop made the perfect amount of filling for the middles!

Homemade Oreos Recipe

Cookies:
2 boxes Devils food cake mix
4eggs
2/3 cup oil

preheat oven to 325 degrees
mix all ingredients together until well mixed and smooth.
use cookie scoop to place cookies on ungreased cookie sheets.
bake for ten minutes (cookies will still be a bit soft, they will harden as they cool) let cool completely before adding filling. *makes 70 single cookies

Filling:
3 cups of powdered sugar
1/2 cup of butter
1/4 cup of crisco or lard
2 tsp Vanilla
Milk (just enough to make mixture smooth)

cream butter and crisco until well blended and smooth.  Add powdered sugar and vanilla, blend together, mixture may be crumbly looking, add milk by the tablespoon until the mixture just begins to come together.  You want it to be stiff enough to hold up in between the cookies.  Use same scoop that you made cookies with to add the filling between two cookies, gently press the cookies together just until he filling reaches the edges.  enjoy!  *makes 35 filled cookies.