Birthday gift card

My nephew just celebrated his 40th birthday

and my niece had a surprise party for him.

Here is the card I made for him.

I had seen one with a similar design, so I made this

one with the dimensions I needed and made a little 

pocket for a gift card.

It opens to reveal a greeting

And the gift card can be placed in the bottom pocket.

To be honest, I wasn't crazy about the belly band I made,

so I didn't use it and put the card into an envelope with out it.

If I made this card again, I would stamp the

"Life is Good" and attach it to the belly band

and stamp the "Happy Birthday" inside.

This was a time consuming card, since I didn't have any 

measurements and there were a lot of

pieces to it, but it was worth it.

I think it turned out great.

And, by the way, he was totally surprised

when he came home to a party.

We had a lot of fun.

Thanks for stopping by today.

I hope you've been inspired in some way.

Happy Crafting!

S'Mores Maker Tutorial

Have you ever seen a project and you knew you wanted 

to make one, but you just couldn't find the right supplies?

Or it was just not the right size?

Or for whatever reason it just wouldn't work out?

I had that problem with making an indoor s'mores maker.

I saw this picture a couple times on Pinterest and facebook,

but a large bucket just wasn't going to work.

But I really wanted to make a couple of these.

I bought a couple buckets, but realized that they were 

far to large and once it was filled it would be far to heavy.

Finally I hit on an idea of how to make one.

Here are the supplies I used.

I found a metal planter at Joann's

Then came up with the idea of using the clay pot

and saucer for inside the planter.

Here's how you can make one of your own.

Turn the clay pot upside down and apply hot glue

around the bottom edges.

Place the saucer on top of the pot, so it

is glued on securely.

Now apply hot glue to the top of the clay pot,

turn it upside down and glue it to the 

bottom inside the planter.

I used my Silhouette software to create and cut the

design for the outside of the planter.

You can decorate the outside any way you want,

or not at all.

I bought these stones at The Dollar Tree.

I do love that store!

3 bags of these stones filled the bucket nicely.

This makes it heavy enough to sit safely, 

but not too heavy to pick up and move.

I placed a can of "Sterno" on top of the saucer.

This can be easily replaced once it is all used.

I bought skewers for roasting the marshmallows

and got corks to put on the ends for protection.

I thought this was a good idea, 

especially for anyone with children.

Also a good idea while storing.

Here is how my finished S'mores maker looks

all together.

As a gift I gave this along with a box of

graham crackers, chocolate bars and a bag of marshmallows.

This can be used indoors or out.

No need to build a big fire for just a couple s'mores.

And it's a fairly inexpensive gift to make.

The cost of the whole thing was around $20-$25.

I know I could have done this cheaper, if I hadn't waited

till the last minute to finish it.

Take advantage of the coupons at Joann's,

buy the skewers when they are 'in season' and on sale,

use coupons for the chocolate and other food products

and get them on sale.

I actually think the most expensive part of this project 

was the chocolate. 

Darn chocolate is expensive!

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial and maybe have been inspired

to make a S'more's maker for yourself or as a gift.

Really???  Who doesn't love a s'more?

Thanks for stopping by.

I think this is the last of my Christmas project,

but keep coming back,

you never know what I'll have to show you.

M&M ornaments

Hi!  

Today I want to show you how I finished off the 

M&M ornaments that I made.

In this post I showed you some of them when
I first made them.

I found this great feather trim and had to finish them off

with a little of it.

What a difference a little dressing up does for them.

I love them even more now than I did before.

Backstrom Favorites

I want to share with you my vary favorite 

Christmas gift that I made this year.

As I've mentioned before, my Mom is 90 yrs old

and has a limited budget.

She still wants to be able to give Christmas gifts 

to everyone.

This is what I came up with this year.

I have Moms recipe box and together we went through

it and chose the family favorites.

I scanned the recipe cards into my computer, printed

them onto card stock and made them into a cook book.

Most of the recipes are in Mom's handwriting,

some have stains from being used for so many years,

some are faded and/or yellowed.

BUT they are all hers.

Some of them are recipes that will probably never 

be made, but they bring back happy childhood

memories for me as well as my brothers, so 

they are included in the book.

The picture on the cover was one I took of 

Mom at my nephew's wedding in October.

I was thrilled with how these books turned out

and everyone seemed to love them.

We will have a "piece" of Mom with us forever.

Before I assembled the books, I was going to visit

Mom and thought I'd take a cover to show her what

it would look like.

I had a doctors appointment before I went to see her,

so I took the picture in to show Dr. P, as he was her doctor before

she moved to assisted living. I thought he'd like to see

a picture of her and how great she looks.

When I showed him the picture, he looked at it turned it over

then asked "Where are the recipes?  I want the recipes."

I told him I hadn't put the books together yet and he

said that he wanted one, that he would love to have

some of her recipes and that he wanted to buy one from me and

did I think she would autograph one for him.

I gotta say, I just love my doctor, he is absolutely 

wonderful, not only as a doctor, but as a person.

He just adores Mom and treated her with great

respect and care.

Well, of course, he got a cook book and she 

autographed it for him!

Brushes and boxes

My Mom is 90 yrs old and lives in assisted living.

She has 9 great grand children and needed something for each of them.

With a very limited budget, I had to come up with something 

for each of them.

The newest of the 9 was born on Mom's 90th birthday

in November, a cute little outfit worked for her

as a Christmas/welcome to the world gift.

The other 5 girls received personalized hair brushes.

I made each one with a different font and swirl design.

I think they really liked them, I know some of them were

using them right away at the Christmas party.

The boys were a little tougher, but then I came up with

the idea of these little boxes.

Kids always have some little "stuff" that needs to be 

kept somewhere.

So I personalized them for the 3 boys.

I don't know about y'all, but I have what I call

"fake relatives"

A couple of them also needed gifts, so we went with the

same ideas for them.

Here's what I made for them.

As I've said before, I love my Silhouette Cameo

and this shows why.

On a limited budget you can personalize some 

things and come up with some 

nice little gifts.

All the kids loved their gifts

and Mom was happy that she could still give them

something for Christmas.

Win - Win situation.

Everybody smiles!

Cookies and milk for Santa

There are a few little ones in my family, so I made a few 

of these sets this Christmas.

One of them was given on Christmas Eve, so I know 

Sophia was going to use it that night.

My daughter and her boyfriend are giving one to his niece,

but she isn't getting it yet, since she lives in a different area.

But next year, she will be all set for Santa.

Last year I gave one of my great nieces and nephews

a plate I made for them.  It was a ceramic one that

I had painted for them.

They now have a bottle for Santa's milk too.

I'm hoping to make more of these in future years for more

little ones in my family.

Thanks for stopping by.

Do your little ones have a special plate for Santa?

Dry erase board

Today I'm showing you one of my favorite gifts that I 

made for Christmas.

I have a 9 yr old great nephew who is very into

superheros and such.

I made him his own personalized dry erase board.

Some of these "symbols" are from one of the 

facebook groups I'm a member of.

The X in the "superman" symbol I made myself.

I put all the vinyl onto a piece of white mat board,

then put it into a frame with plexiglas.

Xavier can write on the plexiglas with the 

dry erase markers and erase it with the eraser I gave him

with the board.

I think he really loved it, especially having his 

name with the superman symbol.

I hope he has a lot of fun with this.

Thanks for stopping by today.

I hope you've been enjoying seeing the gifts I 

made this Christmas.

Hope you've been inspired in some way.

Come again soon.