Blog Hop - Creative Charms

Happy Friday!!

I can't think of a better way to start your weekend than with a fun blog hop, complete with a great prize at the end. All of the details are on the Creative Charms Blog - HERE! Start there, so you can win the main prize.

***the secret word for my blog for the grand prize is CREATIVE***

I'll also offer up a little goody prize. Just leave a comment and I'll put your name in for the goodies! Lot's of Creative Charms yumminess.

>>but wait, there's more!<<
If you follow me, I will add your name in for another chance, so you'll have 2 chances!!

I did 2 projects with Creative Charms products. Both are cards Just Saying Hello.


And a closeup:


On this I used Creative Charms Vintage Velvet Poppies in black, layered with these delicate Black Sheer Flowers with beads.



And a close up...


This card is pretty simple, but I jazzed it up with my favorite Creative Charms Gradient Sticker Gems to make the birdie look like he's tweetin'!

Here is the blog hop list:

1. • Kristal – http://www.kandrewdesigns.blogspot.com/
   • Amber – http://www.thecountryscrapper.blogspot.com/
   • Sandra – http://www.scrappinmomof1.blogspot.com/
   • Jan – http://www.papercraftpleasures.blogspot.com/
   • Laura – http://www.lauraachilles1.wordpress.com/
   • Diane – http://www.capadiadesigns.blogspot.com/
   • Jennifer H – http://www.jenniferhansenscrapgallery.blogspot.com/
   • Michelle – http://www.chengunation.blogspot.com/
   • Lisa – http://www.lisadorsey.blogspot.com/
   • Chris(that's me!) – http://www.workforscraps.blogspot.com/
   • Jamie – http://www.jamielanedesigns.blogspot.com/
   • Amy – http://www.aimitup.blogspot.com/
   • Jennifer Y – http://www.thepinkroom.typepad.com/
   • Trudy – http://www.truesgiftsfromtheheart.blogspot.com/
   • Ellen – http://www.scrapstampnmama.blogspot.com/
   • Joscie – http://www.cutchens.com/
   • Ilene – http://www.whatabunchofscrap.blogspot.com/
   • Midori – http://www.scrapsforme.blogspot.com/

Have fun, and if you missed anyone, don't forget to start at the top with Kristal.


Go get your hop on!!!

Happy Easter

to you all. Today we celebrate the day that Jesus rose from the dead in fulfillment of the scriptures. I think a lot of that gets lost in bunnies and candy. I don't talk about religion too much on my blog, because it is a crafty/scrappy/arty blog, but I do believe.

As I was watching the Ten Commandments last night, watching the waters part, I thought how could this stuff be made up? If so, they had some pretty crazy imaginations.

Easter is actually one of my favorite holidays. It's right up there with Christmas for me. Seriously. It's so deeply rooted in tradition for my family. When I was little, it started with Lent. No meat on Friday's, and to give something up, which when I was little was always candy. Now rather than give up something I try to better myself. I'll try to not be judgmental or think badly of people. (we all do it)

On Good Friday from 12 - 3, the hours that Jesus hung on the cross, as children, we weren't allowed to play or watch TV. We had to pretty much sit silently. My dad would let us play cards. I don't do that to my kids. I guess, as a kid, we were 'suffering', at least that's what it felt like to me. Nowadays, people just go about their day, shopping, cleaning, watching tv... a lot has been lost in tradition.

Easter Saturday we'd go to the church and get our baskets blessed. You put your food in a big basket and take it to church and the priest blesses it. You put in your eggs, your ham, your kielbasi, bread, even salt and pepper. We would also dye our Easter Eggs.


(paska bread photo from allrecipes.com)

On Easter Sunday is the big feast after church, and I try to keep my end up here with the traditional foods. I'm of Slovak decent. There's a lot of meat on Easter. I make 3 kinds, ham, halupki's (stuffed cabbage) and kielbasi (Polish sausage). We also have Paska Bread, which is a sweet bread, kind of like Sweet Challah Bread. Sides are mashed potatoes, veggies and macaroni salad. Dessert we have nutrolls and apricot rolls. I also made a carrot cake, because I love it! Oh you also have to eat horseradish. I kind of don't eat it, but you are supposed to eat it with the ham. Sometimes we'll have a lamb made of butter on the table, but I think that might be an Italian thing that we borrowed. My mom used to make hdruka, it's this egg thing, where you cook it until the egg starts to curdle, kind of like scrambled egg, then you put it in a cheese cloth and hang it from something and let it drip, then you put it into the fridge and it kind of makes a scrambled egg ball. You slice it and serve it with the Easter dinner. Weird. I don't make that. It's good with 2 pieces of paska bread and a slice of ham for breakfast the next day.


I love traditions. I love that they come from our heritage. I love learning about other people's traditions.

(hopefully, that hasn't bored you to tears!)

I made some Easter cards to send out this year, mainly to family. I used my Spring Slice Card, and cut out these Peeps.  I sprayed them with some yellow Glimmer Mist because my yellow cardstock wasn't the right yellow. I then put diamond glitter glass all over and it looks like sugar. I was super happy with how they turned out:




And a close up of the peeps:



So, tell me, what are your Easter Traditions, if you celebrate, or if you do Passover, what do you do? I'd love to know.

Happy Easter!

"Two"gether

It's tax season, so I've been busy gathering receipts, 1099s and other miscellaneous documents that you need to file your taxes with.  When you own your own business, taxes take a bit longer than when you're just filing a simple 1040, and you never get money back. You usually owe. Fun times! It's not too bad since we've been paying in all year, so it will go quickly. I should totally scrap this, all the big piles of receipts, the Turbo Tax box & 1099s! Really, it's a part of life, so maybe I will.

I figured I'd take a break and update my blog real quick. I think this layout is one of my favorites to date. I didn't use any patterned paper, which is pretty unusual for me, because I love patterned paper.

I used my Silhouette for the title and the leaves. For the background, I used the actual brochure that was at the conservatory. My husband and I took a day off, and went on a date to Phipps Conservatory in Shadyside. I got some awesome shots of plants.

Here's the layout:



I got the leaf image from Keri Bradford's blog. She has some nice designs for die cut machines.

Here are a couple of close ups:




I guess I need to get back to the taxes. I only have a few more things to print out, then we can get to it.

So tell me, are you the type of person who does their taxes right away, or do you wait until the last minute? I think if I was getting money instead of paying, I'd do it a lot sooner. ;)

Grandma's Day

Oh, poor 'grandma'. Her birthday was less than perfect this year. Grandma is actually my mother-in-law, not my grandma.... she is Matt's step-mother. She's really the only grandma my kids have, so we all call her grandma. She never had any kids of her own, so she really spoils us rotten. I seriously can't complain.

Matt's dad had back surgery a week before Grandma Barbara's birthday, so we just went to their house for pizza and cake. She was kind of bummed because she wanted to go out to dinner, but we tried to make it the best we could. About a month later, we did all go out to eat to celebrate her birthday... again! This family is funny, I swear we celebrate all of our birthdays at least twice, once with friends, once with family.

Here's the layout I did for Grandma Barbara:


Isn't the quote perfect on the paper? I thought it was nice, since she's the step mom, but family to us. I'm still using up old paper. {Truthfully, I haven't put a dent in my stash.} This is old Websters Pages paper.

I used my Slice to do this banner title, buttons and some Colorbok letters:


And a little cluster of flowers. Can you tell how much I love my Creative Charms velvet flowers? Love this soft brown color.




How was your weekend? We had dinner at the Hofbräuhaus in Pittsburgh's Southside. After dinner we walked around the shops and happened to go into Sur La Table... they had a sale on ice cream makers, not that we were looking for one, but we had mentioned now that we're eating cleaner and more organic it would be neat to make our own ice cream. It's a Cuisinart ice cream maker, and it wasn't super expensive.

You do need to freeze the bowl for 24 hours before you make ice cream, but, if you have a big freezer or an extra one, you can just keep the bowl in the freezer all the time so it's ready. We have a big chest freezer so we'll store it in there.

Let me tell you, if you think Ben & Jerry's ice cream is rich and delicious, you should make your own. Wow! We decided to make chocolate, it was really easy, and so yummy. We're going to try a custard ice cream next, and also a soy ice cream for my son. Soy ice cream is expensive and hard to find sometimes, but if I can make it for him, he'll have a tasty treat all the time. It makes a pretty good amount, and you just put it in a container and store it in the freezer like you would regular ice cream.

All this talk of ice cream... I think I need a little bite of some!

Have a great week!!