Wedding Shadow Box

I made a wedding shadow box that includes my wedding announcement, Garrett and I walking out of the Temple, bubbles that were blown at us as we left our reception, a bag of kisses from our reception, a letter M for Mattson, and other random decor.

The picture quality is really poor and it makes the shadow box not look nearly as cute, but you get the idea.

Christmas Count Down

I bought blocks a while ago to make a Christmas count-down. I mod-podged Christmas paper to all the sides of the blocks. My mom is letting me use her Cricut for a while so I cut out numbers to put on my Christmas count-down. I haven't finished this project yet because I need to figure out the lettering for how I want the bottom part to look. I guess that will have to wait until next year.

Christmas centerpiece

After making the wreath, I had left over pinecones and ribbon. So I decided to use what I had to make my house more Christmasy. I put some pinecones into a vase, cut up some ribbon to mix with the pinecones, and then tied a bow around the vase.

Christmas Wreath

This Thanksgiving Garrett's sisters and I got together to make homemade wreaths.

Gluing beautiful items onto the wreath.

Kami is an expert at making beautiful bows.

The finished products.

Picture Holders

My brother, Jacob, is on a mission. I sent him a Christmas package. It is so hard to come up with gifts to give him that will be easy to pack around and that aren't just food. I decided to make him picture holders. They were so simple to make. You just take paper clips (I am not sure if that is the correct name for them). Then I cut out paper that would cover the front, bottom, and back of the base of the clip. I then used double sided tape to stick the paper to the clips. That's all! An easy gift that is small to ship in the mail. Now Jacob has a way to display some pictures, notes, etc.

Christmas Advent Calendar

I do an amazing job at looking at peoples' blogs, getting ideas, thinking about doing their idea, and not following through with the idea. I have been wanting a Christmas advent calendar. I have looked around in stores and couldn't find anything that appealed to my eyes or taste. I goggled "Christmas advent calendars" and got the idea to make one from a muffin tin. The most amazing part about it is that I got the idea Wednesday and completed the project two days later! It was a very fun project.

Here is how I made my Christmas advent calendar:

1. I bought a 24 cup muffin pan from Walmart for 4 dollars.

2. I bought sheets of magnetic paper from Hobby Lobby.

3. I bought cute Christmas paper, stickers, and embellishments.

4. I cut 24 squares that were 2 1/4 inches.

5. I glued the paper squares to the magnetic paper and cut out the squares again.

6. I used punched out circles to put number stickers (1-24).

7. I inked the edges of the circles and squares.

8. I added embellishments to some of the squares.

9. My amazing husband drilled holes on the top of the pan so that I could thread ribbon to hang it on the wall.

You can put treats in each cup. I am going to put a piece of paper that has something for us to do for the day. Such as bake cookies, watch a Christmas movie, look at Christmas lights, make hot chocolate, etc.......

The finished project, hanging on my wall.

Craft Night- Believe

My Aunt Jan invited me to go with her to a craft night to make signs that say "Believe." It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot too. It especially felt good to finish a project in one sitting.

Pumpkin Dinner

Here is our dinner Garrett and I ate on Halloween. We cleaned out the inside of the pumpkin and through in all kinds of delicious food.

Bone Bread sticks

I went to my friend's house for a Halloween party. I made bread sticks for our dinner. I tied the ends of the bread sticks into knots so that it would look like a bone. The only problem was that I let the bread rise too long so they got a little big. They tasted good though.

Halloween Rice Krispy Treats

I wanted to make a treat so I decided to spice up rice krispy treats. After making a normal batch of rice krispy treats I cut them into rectangles. I dipped them into melted white chocolate and sprinkled them with Halloween sprinkles. We gave them to the families Garrett home teaches (people from church) so we only got to eat one each. But what we did eat tasted delicious.

Glass Etchings

I was trying to figure out something fun Garrett and I could do/make for a wedding gift for our friends. I found the idea to etch on glass cookware. So Garrett and I went searching for the perfect pan, contact paper, and armour etch. After searching we found the contact paper and armour etch at Michaels.

The supplies you will need for the etching includes:

1. Armor Etch (Michaels); I bought mine with a 50% off coupon.
2. Contact Paper (Laminating sheets, found at Michaels with a 40% coupon)
3. Exacto knife (razor blade)
4. tape
5. Template (We printed off the writing from Word)
6. foam/ paint brush

Garrett and I weren't too confident that the etching would turn out or look good so we first etched on glasses that we got at the dollar store. Next, we etched a bread pan for us with our last name on it. Then we etched a pan for a wedding gift.

Here are the steps to etching a glass surface:

1. Wash and clean your glass surface.
2. Cut out a peice of contact paper that is bigger than your stencil. You will want the contact paper to cover quite a bit of your glass surface to protect the glass from coming in contact with the cream where you don't want it. Carefully peel the backing off of the contact paper and stick it onto the glass. Be careful that there aren't bubbles or creases in the contact paper. You may need to rub some of the smaller bubbles out with your fingers.
3. Put your stencil where you want it (on top of the contact paper).

4. Tape down your stencil to keep it in place.

5. Take your Exacto knife and carefully cut out your stencil. You will have to push harder to make sure it cuts through the paper layer and the contact paper.

6.Remove the contact paper where you want your glass to be etched.


7. Paint the etch cream over the glass you would like etched. We left the cream on for about 10-15 minutes. You can also reuse the etching cream. So when the time is up scrape it back into the bottle.

8. Then leaving the contact paper on your vase, rinse off the cream with water. Be careful where you rinse your cream off. The package cautions you from using porcelain sinks since the cream may damage the surface.

9. When the glass is clean peel off the contact paper.
*** When etching a pan you need to etch the bottom of the pan, this means that you will have to etch the name backwards so that when you look at it from the top you can read the name correctly.

Here is our finished bread pan:

Homemade Crayons

I have been trying to think of something I can give my students for Christmas and for Valentine's day. I was searching around the blogging world and found a great idea and the best part about it was that I had all the supplies and didn't have to spend a cent.

In my class I have a bucket of old crayons. I always find crayons laying around my classroom so I throw them in the bucket or students put their old crayons in the bucket that they don't want anymore. Most of the crayons are broken and very dull. Thus, creating a difficult time coloring with the crayons. I thought it would be fun to "recycle" the crayons and make something useful again. I found this idea over at Making Memories... One fun thing after another.

Here are the instructions to making cute homemade crayons. They are so easy, fun, and exciting!

* Make sure all the paper is removed (Garrett discovered that removing the paper is easiest by slicing the paper with an x-acto knife).

* You can use any kind of baking pan. I used a silicone one that has six heart shapes in them. (Thanks to my mother-in-law)

* Add like colors. I think it looks neat when you mix the same colors but one color is a darker shade. It makes for a cool effect!

* Bake in a 200 degree oven for about 30 minutes. The bigger the pieces the longer the cooking time.

* Remove from the oven and let them cool completely!

* Once cool, pop them out of the pans.

I put two in a sandwich bag and tied a ribbon around them to give to my students. Hopefully they will appreciate them. I sure had fun making them.

Cookies on a Stick

I had a bunch of friends over for a girls night over the summer. We made a ton of "cookies on a stick" to give to others. We had a great time baking and hanging out. I have some awesome friends!

In August Garrett and I left Utah to go to Oregon and Canada for three weeks. We were going to miss 3 Sundays with our Sunbeam class (3 year olds) so the day after my friends and I made cookies I went to each child's house and delivered cookies to them. The cookie recipe is sooooo delicious.

I found the recipe at allrecipes.com, here. It makes 72 cookies.

Ingredients

• 2 cups butter, softened
• 3 cups white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon butter flavored extract
• 7 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Cream margarine and sugar. Add eggs and flavorings and mix well. Stir flour, baking powder and salt together. Add to batter and mix well.
2. CHILL 3-4 hours or overnight before using.
3. Roll cookies out approximately 1/4 inch thick and insert cookie sticks at least 1/3 to 1/2 way into cookie.
4. Bake cookies at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 8-10 minutes. This dough keeps well in a covered container in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks.
5. Decorate as desired. Display 3-7 cookies in a 6 inch clay pot (depending on size of cookie). Weigh pot down with dried beans and cut a circle of Styrofoam to fit snugly into top. Add ribbons and enjoy

Canada: A trip to remember

This summer my family went on a trip to Canada. We canoed the islands of Barkley Sound. We had an amazing time. One evening Devin, my dad, Garrett, and I canoed to a smaller island that most people don't stay at or go to. It was an unbelievable sight. It was so gorgeous and the sand was so neat. The sand had a bunch of miniature shells in it and dried up small crabs. The sand was not your typical thin sand. There were chunks of shells. I collected a bunch of the sand. The next day we went back to the island and we found starfish. In memory of our amazing trip this summer, I made a shadow box. I bought the shadow box and painted the back blue. I then hot glued the starfish to the back of the frame. The hardest part was getting the sand into the shadow box without it getting everywhere. I am pleased with how it turned out.

Visiting Teaching Message

The visiting teaching message for October is on Temples. I put together a little treat for the sisters I visit teach. I bought DOTS from Target. They are ghost DOTS. They are a cool green color. They taste the same as the regular dots.

Cool and Easy Pie

This is a easy refreshing dessert.

what you need

2/3 cup boiling water

1 pkg. (4-serving size) JELL-O Strawberry Flavor Gelatin

Ice cubes

1/2 cup cold water

1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed

1 HONEY MAID Graham Pie Crust (6 oz.)

make it

STIR boiling water into dry gelatin mix in large bowl at least 2 min. until completely dissolved. Add enough ice to cold water to measure 1 cup. Add to gelatin; stir until slightly thickened. Remove any unmelted ice. Add whipped topping; stir with wire whisk until well blended. Refrigerate 15 to 20 min. or until mixture is thick enough to mound.

SPOON into crust.

REFRIGERATE at least 4 hours or until firm. Store leftovers in refrigerator.

Homemade chicken noodle soup

I have never made chicken noodle soup and we had tons of chicken from the two whole chickens we bought and boiled. I used a recipe that I found at Allrecipes.com. That is my favorite place to find new recipes. They always taste so great. I decided to make the soup last minute so I didn't have all the ingredients the recipe called for, such as carrots which are a key ingredient. I also made the chicken broth from scratch. We loved this soup and it is much better than Campbell's chicken noodle soup.

11 Layer Bean Dip

I wanted to make something that I have never made before and after looking in the fridge I thought it would be fun to throw together a bean dip. As I continued to take things out of the cupboard and refrigerator I realized that it was going to be lots of layers. After making the dip I was worried that I made too much--- wrong. It was eaten in 2 days. Don't worry, we had some helpers.

Layer 1: Refried beans mixed with taco seasoning

Layer 2: Cream cheese mixed with green chiles

Layer 3: Cheese

Layer 4: Salsa

Layer 5: Green Peppers

Layer 6: Olives

Layer 7: Onions

Layer8: Green onions

Layer 9: Tomatoes

Layer 10: Lettuce

Layer 11: Sour Cream

Oreo Truffles

I discovered a new recipe as I was exploring fun blogs. It looked so delicious that I couldn't pass it up. They are oreo truffles and are pretty simple to make, except for the dipping part. Check out Bakerella's blog and she has the instructions on how to make the truffles. I was unable to make my truffles as pretty as hers so I crunched up and shifted oreo "dust" over my dipped oreo truffles to hide the flaws.

Sorry about the quality of the photograph. They look much better in person!