Peaches and Cream Pie - and a project

Yum ! Fresh peaches ! I bought a small bag of locally grown peaches at a roadside stand and decided to use some to make a Peaches and Cream pie =) Really quite easy to make and oh so yummy !

Peaches and Cream Pie

3 cups peaches, sliced
1 pie crust, unbaked
1 c sugar
1/3 c flour
1/8 t salt
2 eggs
1/2 c sour cream

Line pie plate with pie crust. Place sliced peaches into the unbaked crust. Beat the eggs and sour cream together; add in the dry ingredients and mix well. Slowly pour over the peaches.

Crumb Topping
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c flour
1/4 cup cold butter

Mix together the flour and sugar. Combine the butter into this mixture with a pastry blender or fork until it makes small crumbles. Sprinkle on top of the pie. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 55-60 minutes, until golden brown. Cool for several hours before serving. Refrigerate leftovers.



Now for the projects:

And above are two paper craft projects somewhat related to the pie: a card and a recipe scrapbook. I entered them into a contest, but they did not win. I had fun experimenting with the idea though !

The stamp set I used was a limited edition from Stampin' Up!, only available during Sale A Bration in 2009. Another creation I made with this stamp set is posted here, Punched Tin.

The recipe scrapbook started as an ugly "scrapbook" bought at a dollar store. I recovered it, and created the card, using supplies from Stampin' Up!
The "ribbons" tied onto the spiral binding are scraps of fabric.

The faux wood (it is not real wood!) was made with card stock, ink and scissors. Creamy Caramel card stock and ink as well as Close To Cocoa ink. I cut the strips first, mitered them then distressed by rubbing ink pads on the tops and lightly gouging it with the scissors. The knob is done the same way after being punched out with a circle punch. Attach with a dimensional / pop dot.

The punched tin was created by stamping metallic silver card stock with Black Stazon ink. I also made a version by punching each dot with a needle.

Thanks for looking !

Small Plastic Box Transformations

I've saved and reused all sorts of containers over the years, cheap starting points for items to donate to the elementary school holiday bazaar. I don't have many photographs of the things I've created since I didn't have a digital camera or think about photographing the projects for future reference. I remember most of the things I made, but in this digital age of the world wide web, it would have been fun to share more of those old projects.

Below are a few projects I do have photographed.

Clear plastic packaging, from around ribbon rolls for example, can easily be made into a cute little box. The packaging on the ribbon rolls I bought did not have plastic ends, they were just a "sleeve' of plastic, so I made my own ends out of card stock. I would trace around the square end of the box then add however much I wanted the sides to come up, an inch for example. So if the end of the container was 2" square, I would make a 4" square, scoring in 1" from each side. NOTE: make a sample from scrap paper first to make sure the pattern fits. Usually I needed to alter it slightly by 1/16" or so on each side to allow for the score lines. These cute little boxes can also be made from scratch using acetate sheets for the sides. Here is a link to a tutorial :
http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/acetatebox/

Chocolates wrapped in red tissue paper that I stamped to match. All stamps, card stock, ink, punches and organdy ribbon are from Stampin' Up!

This box held a jingle bell snowman ornament that I made.

Recently I bought new shower curtain hooks so I saved the two containers to do something with. I whipped up this sample, have yet to use the other.

The flower was punched with the large fancy flower punch from Stampin' Up! (actually all of the supplies used, except the paper ribbon and box, were from Stampin' up!). I tried to recreate the cosmos flower from the seed packets inside the box with the punch.

Originally held cotton swabs. The sticky label on the top was impossible to remove so I just covered it up with stamped card stock (Soft Swirls from Stampin' Up!) and attached a gift card to the inside of the lid. I should have stamped address labels or scraps of coordinating paper to wrap around the candies to make them look nicer...........

Originally held cotton balls and cotton swabs; I bought candy after Halloween for half price to put in it, wrapped it with fabric and raffia scraps, added a stamped "tag", donated to the school bazaar. Riveting from Stampin' Up!

Many times dollar store items are packaged in clear plastic containers that can be reused. I've reused "pillow boxes", small square flip lid boxes, round pop top containers, small plastic zip top pouches and more. Nearly every single plastic box has a sticker on it that needs lots of patience and goo gone to remove if you want to reuse the box - or cover it up with card stock, decorative paper, etc !

If you do not have small plastic containers to reuse, acetate sheets (overhead transparency or "window sheets" from Stampin' Up!) can but cut with a die cut machine or by hand to make boxes from scratch. Be sure to use super sticky tape to hold it together !

Also, plastic packaging (such as the large front to a box of stationery) can be cut with a die cut machine to make clear snowflakes, flowers, tags, etc, just be sure to flatten it out first by cutting off any edges.

Thanks for looking !

Repurposing Ice Cream Container Lids

Funny thing to reuse, but the idea worked pretty well! Since I didn't have a scrollsaw, I was trying to think of an easy way to recreate a snowman plaque. I saw a pretty simple and inexpensive idea in a magazine years ago that I wanted to make for the holiday bazaar. I decided to try using the lid to an ice cream container, the type that has a plastic band around a cardboard insert. It probably took more time to make using this as my base, but it was cheap, didn't require a saw and kept something out of the landfill.

I don't have photos of that project since it was so long ago, but I can describe how it was done:

1) lightly sand the glossy finish on the lid
2) coat with gesso (may require two coats)
3) base coat with white (may require two coats)
4) paint on the snowman face / features
5) create a simple hat out of a fabric scrap
6) add extra embellishments such as a scarf, greenery, snowflakes
7) attach something to the back to hang with (hot glue a loop of ribbon or wire for example)



Last winter I created this from a different brand of ice cream container lid, much smaller than the one I used for the snowman:

Rather than spending all of the time painting, I stamped and adhered a piece of card stock to this lid project, wrapped ribbon (reused from a gift package!) around the edges and tied in a bow. Even the beads in the center of the flower are reused: they were once part of a beaded napkin ring !

Obviously not as sturdy as wood, but ice cream lids make great, cheap bases for many plaque ideas: "Shhhhh... baby is sleeping" door sign; name sign for a bedroom door; "I'm out/studying/etc" for a dorm room door; attach a note pad and pen then hang from a pantry door to write a grocery list on; so on.

Another great use for them: to mix paints on/ hold paint "puddles" ! I have used them, upside down, to water down or mix acrylic craft paint on or to use as a "stamp pad" for a shallow puddle of paint to dip sponge stamps in for kids to use.


Thanks for looking !

Repurposing Jars

I enjoyed finding uses for jars (any reusable container really) for the holiday bazaar ! I decorated them so many ways and used them for different things. I do not have many photographs of my projects since I made them years ago before I had a digital camera or thought of photographing them to archive my past projects.

Empty food containers, new mason jars or sometimes finds from yard sales, even baby food jars were all used for many varied projects. The best sellers involved food items for a mans gift; I always had difficulty making things for men.

Below are a few projects I do have photos of.

Painted Jars - I used indoor/outdoor acrylic craft paints, following the manufacturers directions. The country star jar (painted, stamped, antiqued, baked according to the paint manufacturers instructions) and bases of the lamp jars are painted. I've painted them like flags, jack o'lanterns, snowmen and more.

The lighthouse jar is also painted, baked according to the paint manufacturers instructionsand then decoupaged with a stamped image. I stamped tissue paper with permanent black ink, trimmed around the image, adhered it then sealed.

Another fairly inexpensive thing to make, although not really the most useful but could be a neat decorative item: a basic lamp. I bought battery operated window candle lights and shades that are easy to find during the holiday season at dollar stores. Two dollars for the lamp supplies, a couple of batteries, foam core cut to fit the mouth of the jar to hold the candle in place, decorate the base of the jar (paint, fabric, decoupage, etc). I stamped and adhered cardstock to the storebought lampshades on some of them to make them "masculine'.

If you have the proper drill and bit, you could drill into a jar to run a lamp kit through it; fill with any sort small collection of items such as buttons, naturals, little toys for a fun lamp ( I never made true lamps for the bazaar since all items were sold for less than $5, preferably $1-$2).

I also used faux stained glass paints on jars for a neat effect. The glowing star jar below is an example of one style I made using rubber stamps to heat emboss the star image first followed by stippling on clear stain glass paint to mimic etched glass.

No photographs of my other projects, some of which I remember are: cookie/brownie/soup mix/snack mix in a jar (the jar was left clear but I wrapped the lid in fabric, ribbon, cute recipe tag); votive holder (similar to the painted star jar but left clear and filled with potpourri, votive candle cup in the top and wrapped ribbon around the neck); wrapped with fabric, tied with ribbon to be used as a vase for cheap "silk" flowers from the dollar store; utensil holder with wooden utensils; peppermints in a small jar that was painted with "candy cane seeds"; bird seed; candies bought on clearance after Halloween to fill the jars with, decorate the lids with a theme; Teacher's Survival Kit; emergency sewing kit; painted and filled with dog treats; baby food jars for gel air fresheners, candles, bath salts, etc. I have a few other creations that were holiday related, maybe if I can keep this blog project going until the winter season I will share them then ;)

Not to mention the many uses for old jars in your home: holder for all sorts of things like paint brushes, ribbon scraps, etc in a craft space; vase; container for cotton swabs, etc; larger containers to be decorated and used for dry food storage; catch all by the washing machine; candle holder to light the walkway or hang from a tree outdoors; base to a centerpiece for any occasion; fill with a collection of items and line a few up for a decoration; fill it up with loose change; make a mini herb garden in a windowsill; storage of nuts, bolts, etc in a garage (TIP: attach the screw top lids to the underside of a shelf, then screw on the jar freeing up workbench space) ............... The list goes on and on.......

Thanks for looking !

Repurposed Mini Video Cassette Case

Whew, has it been hot and humid and stormy these past few days!!!
Power outages and intense lightning during the storms have kept me away from the computer. I spent a bit of time in the craft dungeon staying cool and reorganizing (not crafting).

This idea came to me when my sister told me about her young children playing with the many gift cards they had received - but not yet used! - and were misplaced. I was shocked to hear that she doesn't keep them in a wallet or anything and allowed the young boys play with them. 

Why did I have an empty mini cassette case laying around to use for this project ? I guess one of the old videotapes had been misplaced so I kept the empty case hoping one day the video would show back up. That empty case had been sitting in my desk drawer for quite some time, so I had an "A-ha!" moment. Not sure what made me think of it or to even repurpose it into this creation, but when I discovered that gift cards fit perfectly in the empty case, I got busy decorating it.

I lined the inside with card stock then stamped an image for the front to coordinate with the colors in her kitchen finished with a magnet adhered to the back. TIP: save those advertising magnets you may receive, they can be useful for many craft projects.

When she was presented it at Christmas she didn't know what to make of it (I don't know that anyone would have). After I explained it, she thought it was pretty neat: it is a magnetic gift card holder to stick up high on the refrigerator. The idea was it would be in sight all the time so she could keep track of the many gift cards her family receives - and be out of the children's reach. 


Thanks for looking !

Repurposed Paper Clip Box

We had power surges followed by an outage that lasted a few hours last night. Must have been because of the extreme heat ? Anyhow, when I tried to restart the computer this morning I kept getting the error message that Windows could not repair this computer - what ?!??? Good thing most of my photos are backed up to an external hard drive, but still, I didn't want to lose this computer and the remaining files. The third attempt was the charm and it worked, so here is a quick repurposing project for today.

These little clear plastic flip top lid boxes that originally held paper clips were the perfect size for a gift card and six chocolates !

Pretty in Pink cardstock and classic ink from Stampin' Up!
Riveting stamp set from Stampin' Up! (retired)
Vanilla 5/8" grosgrain ribbon
scrap of decorative paper
Scalloped edge border punch, scalloped circle punch, circle punches and paper piercer from Stampin' Up!
heart embellishment- dollar store find


I am now off to make certain all the remaining files are backed up externally, just in case. . . .

Thanks for looking !

Eeeek! to Wow !

After posting the mushroom container redo yesterday, I thought I'd share over the next few days more items I've repurposed. I have "recycled" various items over the years, most of which were donated to the elementary school holiday bazaar that I ran for many years. This was before I owned a digital camera or even thought about archiving my projects so most things I do not have photos of to share and many of those that I do are several years old.
Nonetheless, they might inspire someone =)

Not only did I try to find new life in items destined for the trash, I also liked to buy dollar items to redo. One of my favorite things to do for the bazaar was to find dollar items on clearance for 50C, once or twice I even found some things for 25c ! I knew no matter how ugly (or in the case of todays post creepy/scary) an item was, I could change it into something more appealing. Being an at home mom and lover of all things crafty, I would work year round on shopping and redoing or crafting from scratch items for the bazaar. I miss those days.................... sigh.......

I found this notepad in the dollar bin at a local store for 50c. I normally would never, ever buy something with a spider on it and still am surprised I even bought it to redo, eeeeek!

There are easier ways to recover a notepad, such as wrapping it in decorative papers, but this particular pad was a fun experiment.

I first lightly sanded the cover the remove some of the gloss finish. I then gave it a couple of coats of gesso.

Once dry, I layered on acrylic craft paints, slightly darker at the bottom. I finished with stamping two different background stamps from Stampin' Up! : French Script and Harlequin, both retired. A quick spray of sealant and the background was done.

The top stamped piece was created from layers of card stock from Stampin' Up! The image is from the retired Stampin' Up! set More Petal Prints.

The "M" medallion was created from a small circle of Sculpey that I stamped with the "M" from the Alphadots stamp set, retired Stampin' Up! then painted with acrylic craft paints. Bake according to manufacturers instructions, adhere with hot glue then attach to the stamped card stock piece. Wrap ribbon around the stamped piece then adhere to the cover with super sticky glue/adhesive. Lastly, knot pieces of ribbon on the spirals and Wow!, I think it turned out pretty nice !



Before: Eeeek !





After : Wow !





Below is another set I did in a similar manner:

Thanks for looking!

Repurposed Mushroom Container

after

before

"Hello, my name is Heather and I am a hoarder of all things reusable." Well, not all things, I cut back since I have a good sized stash of items to repurpose as it is and no use for them once they are done. I started saving items to repurpose when I ran the holiday bazaar at the elementary school years ago; it was a cheap way to make gifts for the children to buy. It was also nice to resuse items at least once more before they ended up in the landfill.

Anyway, I could not resist keeping this pink plastic container that fresh mushrooms came in from the grocery store ! I'd never seen them in a container like this before, solid plastic and PINK ! It could find a new life being used for many different things, but I chose to make it into a cute little bath set gift basket. So easy to do and made a cute, fairly inexpensive gift.

I stamped white tissue paper and white card stock with the stamp set Island Blossoms (retired Hostess set) from Stampin Up!. I used various Bold Bright classic inks from Stampin' Up!, also retired. The orange scalloped edge was punched with a border punch from Stampin' Up!; the rhinestones were bought elsewhere.

Thanks for looking !

Retirement Card

I haven't made any new cards/projects for quite a while, but the past week I've had a need for three cards. I have a stash of premade cards, but sometimes they just won't work so I need to whip up a new one. Today I am sharing the retirement card I made last weekend using Stampin' Up! supplies.

Stamp Sets:
Along The Shore, Just Jeans - retired
Teeny Tiny Wishes, Wonderfully Worn - current
Card Stock:
Glossy White
Crumb Cake
Baja Breeze
Classic Ink:
Basic Black
Baja Breeze
Soft Sky - retired
Brilliant Blue - retired
Crumb Cake
Early Espresso
Markers:
Certainly Celery
Always Artichoke
Wild Wasabi
Crumb Cake
Ribbon:
not Stampin' Up!
white crayon for the crayon resist technique found here

I colored over the chair , cloud and scribbled on waves with the white crayon first. I then used a piece of torn scrap paper as a "mask" to cover portions of the image before inking. I covered the upper portion of the image, the sky area, and sponged on Brillaint Blue ink to create the ocean. I then used the other half of the torn paper to line up over that inked ocean to sponge on Soft Sky, Baja Breeze for the sky. Gently remove any ink that is on the crayon by rubbing with a tissue.

Thanks for looking !

Bath Set Tin and Card

Yet another class I created for the Stampin' Up! Demonstrator Class Ideas Challenge in 2009. The stipulations for this months contest, use items from the new Occasions Mini Catalog. I chose the A Great Friend stamp set.

It was not a winner, but was published on the Demonstrator only web site with several others. I kept on trying - and having fun coming up with ideas to share !

This class idea was to show how easy it is to decorate items found at dollar stores then create a matching card for a quick, inexpensive gift.


The first project I submitted to these challenges was the candy bar wrap/gift card holder I posted here; the second project was the A Happy Heart card and treat bag posted here; the third project was the Dream A Little Shadowbox posted here; the fourth project was two cards posted here; todays posting is the fifth project I submitted; the sixth and final project I submitted was the Bella Pets Scrapbook Wall Art project that I posted here.


SUPPLIES:
Great Friend stamp set
Stems & Silhouettes Jumbo Stampin’ Around wheel
Bashful Blue and Whisper White card stock: full 8‐1/2" x 11" sheet
Bashful Blue Classic Stampin’ Pad
Whisper White jumbo Stampin’ Around cartridge
Dazzling Diamonds Stampin’ Glitter
Whisper White 5/8" satin ribbon: 1 yard
2‐Way Glue Pen
SNAIL Adhesive
Glue Dots
Powder Pals
Horizontal Slot punch
Paper Snips
White tissue paper
Container: small dollar store type of item







A Great Friend Card
1. Cut Whisper White card stock in half along 8‐1/2" side. Fold in half.
2. Cut a piece of Bashful Blue card stock 4" x 5‐1/4".
3. Stamp butterfly, frame, and saying in Bashful Blue ink on portion of the Whisper White card stock.
4. Cut out frame and butterfly.
5. Use the 2‐Way Glue Pen to apply Dazzling Diamonds Stampin’ Glitter to white floral portions of butterfly.
6. Roll the wheel along the left side of Bashful Blue card stock. Adhere to Whisper White card front.
7. Attach frame to middle of the Bashful Blue card stock.
8. Tie knot in approximately 4" piece of Whisper White satin ribbon. Trim ends. Adhere to top of frame.
9. Slightly bend butterfly in half along body section, attach just above and to the right of frame.






A Great Friend Tin
1. Create a pattern to fit the container you bought.
2. Stamp the butterfly, frame, and saying in Bashful Blue ink on Whisper White card stock.
3. Randomly stamp butterfly in Bashful Blue ink on tissue paper.
4. Cut out the frame and butterfly.
5. Use the 2‐Way Glue Pen to apply Dazzling Diamonds Stampin’ Glitter to the white floral portions of the butterfly.
6. Punch two slots on the frame piece to create a ribbon slide.
7. Roll the wheel across Bashful Blue card stock.
8. Adhere to Whisper White card stock.
9. Adhere to container.
10. Run the satin ribbon through the slots on the frame, wrap around container, tie in a bow and trim the ends.11. Slightly bend the butterfly in half along the body section, adhere to top of frame.






Two (of the many I've made over the years) other gift sets I made. I loved these little $1 tins and have used them for so many things, each one decorated differently. I made several Christmas themed tins and cards one year to give cookies out in.

thanks for looking !