Last Day and a Count Down

Well, it's the last day of December, the last day of 2011 and the last day of my personal creative challenge.  This year has been an exciting time of creative projects and working out of my comfort zone.  Reflecting on the past year and all the projects I was able to work on and complete, I decided I would do a top ten post to end the year.  So here are some of my favorites and some of the most visited posts of this year...

No. 10

The gifts and packages I made for my mom & sister's and niece's

 annual birthday tea.

No. 9

A brunch I catered for some friends.  We had so much fun that day.

No. 8

A set of cards I made for a special Aunt. They actually got put in the mail to her (I won't tell you when)

No. 7

A card I did for a challenge. I still like this orange and blue combination.

No. 6

 Pinky and Dotty the owls, I found the instructions on the internet and wound up making several to give away.

No. 5

December's Valentine Bear.

No. 4

A card I made for a challenge that honors the famous NM question.

No. 3

Another challenge card that earned a spot in the top 10 on the Heart 2 Heart challenge blog.

No. 2

Polka dot love! This was for another challenge and actually won the top honor for the month.  As a result I got to be the guest designer on the Heart 2 Heart challenge blog.  It was quite a thrill!

 

And finally, the No. 1 
post for 2011, it was the most visited and I actually won something!

 
Well, there you have it!  My creative highlights of 2011.  I already have big plans for 2012, I hope you do too.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you come back often.  Have a safe, healthy and happy new year.  I'll talk to you again soon.


**Edit** Joined the link to top ten @ Someday Crafts.

Miniature Messages

Today is day 30 of my personal creative challenge

Practicing my blanket stitch in miniature. Little tiny envelope with tiny little messages inside.  After I stitched it together I thought I'd attach it to another project. This time I used a small bear that I made a few weeks ago but didn't like the buttons that I had sewn on for eyes or the ribbon around his neck.  So, I reworked him a little bit, painted on a face and heart and added the small message holder.  Now he can deliver sweet notes for me. 

I like him a lot better but I'm still going to work on him a bit more.  He needs something...

Thanks for stopping by today.  I'll talk to you again soon.

Scrapbooking

This is day 29 of my personal creative challenge

I am a very slow and a bit of perfectionist when it comes to scrapbooking.  Today I worked on a couple of pages for a book that I'm putting together for my parents.  We took this road trip not last summer but the summer before.  I know! I am so slow!  This is the first page, I used the editor at Costco to put together pictures that represented each part of the trip.  

Our first stop was a tiny farming community in Il. where my dad spent part of his childhood. 

We also made a stop at the cemetery to visit grave sites of family members.

That's it! That's all I have so far.  The whole book is organized, pictures are sorted and papers have been picked out, I know what pictures are going to go on what pages and I have an idea of the journaling for each page.  I'm just really slow.  Maybe I'll get it done by this coming summer, that's my goal.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Two more days of my personal creative challenge.  Some days have been easier than others, we will see if I can make it to the end of the month.  I'm close!

Thanks for stopping by today.  I'll talk to you again soon.

Mini Birdhouses

It's day 28 of my personal creative challenge

Just a quick post.  Today I played around with some paper scraps and tiny wooden birdhouses.  I've had these forever and finally decided to dress them up a little bit.  They are a work in progress, I'm thinking I might add them to a springtime wreath or something like that.  Not sure, still in the thinking process.  These are done using a couple of my favorite colors, I use pink and green in varying shades most often.  The rub-ons are also left overs from a sheet that I had lying around.

Thanks for stopping by today, I'll talk to you again soon.

Valentine Bear

Today is day 27 of my personal creative challenge

Ok, I know it's still a month away and it's only 2 days after Christmas, but this morning I woke up thinking about Valentine's day.  I recently found this new publication from the UK called Mollie Makes (molliemakes.com) every issue has cute felt projects and other hand crafts.  Well issue 8, their Christmas issue didn't get here until it was too late for me to make anything for Christmas, but they did a feature on one of my favorite designers, Tone Finnanger, she is Norwegian and has a Scandinavian style.  I have one of her books, which I look at all the time.  

Anyway, this little bear design was in the publication as a Christmas bear so I thought I could change it up a little and make him a Valentine bear with a little red heart and everything.  I think he turned out pretty cute.**Edited I linked my bear to Sew Cute Tuesday**and Someday craft's Whatever goes Wednesday.**

Thanks for stopping by today, I'll talk to you again soon.

Ribbon organization

 Day 26 of my personal creative challenge

Organization is not my strong suit, I struggle with getting things into a working organizational style, but I did score these great boxes when our tech was unpacking some speaker bars for the computers at school.  The empty boxes are the perfect size for ribbon storage and organization.  In case you haven't noticed, I do love ribbon and over the years I have collected a lot.  This system has helped me keep the ribbon in better shape and organize it by color.  I labeled the end of each box with the colors contained in it.  They stack neatly above my desk on the wire shelves my sweet DH installed for me.  At a glance I can grab the box with the color I'm looking for and take it to my work table to try out the different sizes and textures to see which one will work with the project at hand.

 

Now my next decision is to try to figure out how I want to cover the boxes so they go with the color scheme in my room, or do I leave them plain?  They are mostly white with the black spots, so on one hand they are kind of cute and would go with any color scheme I might go to in the future, but on the other hand they do have a company name plastered all over them.  Decisions, decisions...

 

I'm kind of proud that I was able to figure out a re-purposing project with these, I usually don't think of things until it's too late.  It was kind of a happy accident that I grabbed these before they went in the dumpster.  

I'm cleaning up the the craft studio right now, making yet another attempt at organization.  My next struggle, cause, conundrum, is what to do with all the magazines I collect!!! They are beginning to take over every horizontal space in the room (including the floor!).  They contain so many great ideas I have such a hard time parting with them.  I would go digital but I love holding them in my hands and turning the pages.  I read and re-read them all the time.  What to do!?

Thanks for stopping by today I know I rambled on a bit.   I'll talk to you again soon.

Merry Christmas!

Day 25 of my personal creative challenge

God bless each of you on this day and all through the year.

Homemade Caramel Corn

It's day 24 of my personal creative challenge

The caramel corn is done and packaged up in it's Christmas popcorn boxes.  Yes, there is a prize inside each box.

This caramel corn is delicious and it turns out crisp not chewy every time.  I put a little prize in the bottom of each one.  Lip gloss rings for the girls and dinosaur erasers for the boys.  I found the prizes in the party isle at the big store down the hill.

It's almost time to deliver the goodies.  I hope your Christmas eve is filled with the love, joy and hope of the season and you and your family get to celebrate the birth of Christ and His gift to each of us.  I'll talk to you again soon.

Cowboy Christmas Cookies part II

This is day 23 of my personal creative challenge

If you've been reading my blog the last few days you may remember that I make a batch of Cowboy Christmas cookies for my gift platters.  Well, they didn't last long enough to go on the platters.  I went in to the pantry yesterday and found that the container only had about 4 cookies left, the guilty party admitted to eating them but said he thought I had more somewhere else and didn't realize these were for the platters.  Oh well, a second batch went together today and I think these turned out better than the first batch.  

 I started packaging them up as soon as they were cool enough so hopefully they'll make it out to our friends and neighbors.  For this gift I used another one of the cute little buckets I got at Target.  Then I made labels for the top of the containers.  I've still got to add a tag and some ribbon but, they're almost ready to go out the door.

I hope your day was filled with fun and laughter too.  I'll talk to you again soon.

Chocolate, chocolate cookies

It's day 22 of my personal creative challenge

Today I worked on some gluten free chocolate cookies for a friend of mine.  They have a meringue base and lots of chocolate.  I think they turned out pretty good and DH says "they rock", high praise indeed!  

I found these cute clear paint buckets in the Target $1 bins.  Perfect for a dozen of these little chocolate treats.  I just need to add a label and tag and ribbon, of course.  More goodies to be made tomorrow so I'll talk to you again soon.

Yum... lunch time

This is day 21 of my personal creative challenge

I've been working in the kitchen on sweet stuff all day and needed a little something to cut through the sweet.  I made this quick pasta salad with linguini, zucchini, carrots, scallions, avocado and a home-made balsamic vinaigrette, topped off with a sprinkling of over crisped turkey bacon.  It was delish!  I've also been experimenting with truffles.

I thought they would be easy but my filling is not cooperating.  They do taste decadent though.  I'm using cheesecake as the filling and then dip/rolling that in semisweet chocolate.  Two of our favorite flavors in this house.

I'm going to keep working at it.  I wonder if I roll the chessecake ball in something before trying to roll it in the warm chocolate if that would help?  Any suggestions?  Leave me a comment and thanks for stopping by today.  I'll talk to you again soon.

10 minutes or less

This is day 20 of my personal creative challenge

A very quick card for the top of a cookie tray.  One stamp, one color of ink, a little glitter, ribbon and a tag I already had.  I really like this lime green color it's not a traditional green but I like it's brightness.  I'm making more goodies in the kitchen and hoping to post pictures soon.

Have a great evening.  I'll talk to you again soon.

Snow theme

Today is day 19 of my personal creative challenge

It snowed most of the day today.  Big fluffy wet snowflakes that melted when they hit the ground (until about 4:00)  tomorrow's commute for some folks will be a bit dicey.  Thankfully, I'll be spending the day in the kitchen working on cookie platters.  But for tonight, a cheery little snowflake card.  Thanks for stopping by.  I'll talk to you again soon.

Day 18 of my personal creative challenge

Nope, no pictures, although I've spent the last four hours editing almost 400 pictures from the weekend events at church.  What an amazing weekend!  You'll just have to take my word for it that I was creative with my camera for two solid days, what a blast.  Tomorrow I'll be back with something "made" to show you.  Until then, have a great day tomorrow and I'll talk to you again soon.

Fabric Stamping

This is day 17 of my personal creative challenge

Switching gears, or crafts today.  I did a little stamping and coloring on fabric to make these cute little fabric patches.  I'm still in the thinking process about how I'm going to use them.  But for right now, I think they are cute just the way they are.  When I figure it out I'll be sure to share it with all of you.  

Have a blessed Sunday tomorrow.  I'll talk to you again soon.