Watching YouTube and What Does That Get You?

I have quite a time getting to sleep at night.....this is not a new development.  I am pretty much down to taking medication, which I had resisted for a long time.

Even taking something, it still takes me awhile and my recent bedtime thing is watching YouTube on my tablet.  Now I know what the experts say about watching TV or computer screens....don't care this seems to work and I am learning all kinds of things.

What started all of this was getting my new Cricut Air.....let's just say this is one fun little toy!
It cuts, yes....but it scores and writes.....and that is just the beginning. 
 

I figured out pretty quickly, it wasn't like my old one and I needed to learn the Design Space program, so I started trolling for YouTube videos, which has been great.  I have been able to crank out a couple projects pretty quickly, which is what you want to be able to do.

Here you can see some card parts for a recent birthday card.  The "eat cake" and the sentiment were printed by the cricut.....did you get that.  And the sentiment is placed exactly on the banner.....whooo hoo!

Here is what the inside of the card looked like.....

Added a little stamping on the front....

Then added the cut out with some pop dots to raise it up and inked the edges too. 

Here is the file I am sharing with you, I am an Access member, so all the images I used were free.

40 Birthday Card File

Now here is an Anna Griffin design.....a frame for my granddaughter's prom picture.

The cutting is amazing!

Here I am taking it off the mat, I haven't quite cleaned it totally up.....most of the pieces fall right out.  It is beautiful.

I have decided I like YouTube, so much, I am going to give it a whirl.  So did a little maiden voyage...I will show you what I am doing with this frame among some other little treasures I have found recently.  What do you like to watch on YouTube?

https://youtu.be/XOMMhLBRFys

Party Time Chap. 1

We have had lots of company lately....a couple weeks ago, our daughter and her husband graduated from the University of Northern Iowa on the same day.  They had both done some of their schooling several years ago when they were first married and like a lot of couples, the children starting coming.....4 to be exact....so that put a halt to that plan for a time.   Recently, with help from the GI bill because of our son-in-law's service in Iraq.  They were both able to complete their degrees.  Yippee, skippy!!!!  So the Silver Fox and I wanted to celebrate their accomplishment.

I have a little primitive cupboard sitting on my kitchen counter is filled with mini's and I changed the alphabet blocks to say the kid's names.

When I do a party, I like to do simple, with special, personal touches to the honored guests.

I have a sideboard in my dining room that I had a plate glass top specially cut to fit it.  Just so I could lay flat items under it.....I had Sara give me some of their special remembrances from the past weeks to use.

I took the cover from the graduation program and cut up the pages with the kids names in it, stamped it and included a photo or two and draped their tassels over them.

This is a fun idea if you like to do scrapbooking and have those supplies any way.  Put together a traditional scrapbook page and then to display them for a party.  Go to the craft store and buy frames that fit 12x12 inch pages.  The glass pops off the front and you can hang them on the wall or display them in a pretty stand.  Then when you are done with them, take the pages out and put them in your scrapbook.  Easy peasy!!!!

This is the back cover of the program and a couple more nice pictures from the day.

About 10 days before the party, I scored a free photo book on Shutterfly, so I slammed out one of those and prayed it would come in time and thankfully it was in my mailbox when I had to have it.  They are so fun and always appreciated.

I really had no plans to make a centerpiece for the table, since I had planned on more of an open house type venue.  But I was walking past my "floral tree"........I will explain that another day....another story.  Here I had a bunch of purple & gold flowers.....then I have a pile of baskets ready to fill and give away.  So in a few minutes, I had a simple, fun arrangement, that Sara can have and enjoy and when she gets tired of it....place it outside on her patio.  :)

Sara and Shane enjoying the celebration.

Texas Caviar

One of the recipes I served that day was Texas Caviar....let's just say right now.  Yum! Yum!  My good friend Normajean introduced this to me....and I will tell you right now.  I am not that excited about beans, but they don't taste like beans.  I took one bite of this and became instantly addicted to it.  I can say at the party that those that had never had it......had the same experience and they have been begging and waiting so patiently for me to get this posted.  So here you go and enjoy!!!

Dressing:

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup cider vinegar

1 Tablespoon water

1/4 cup salad oil

Pepper to taste

Mix.  Bring to a boil and cool well.  (You can even put it in the refrig to speed it up.) 

1 can black eyed peas

1 can black beans

1 can white shoe peg corn

Rinse and drain the above.

1 small jar pimento, chopped and drained

1 small jar green chilies, chopped and drained

1 small green pepper, chopped

1 small red onion, chopped

Mix all of the above.

Pour dressing over all.

Serve with Fritos Scoops

I love to serve them in nacho trays that you can buy at Sam's Club with a small compartment for the Texas Caviar and a larger compartment for the Fritos.

I think it is better if you make it a day ahead or at least 1/2 day for the flavors to blend.

Counties of Iowa & Hazel

I was recently reminded through a couple conversations with a cousin on Facebook about a neat poem that named all the counties in Iowa.

I used to do a 4th of July party every year and invited any and all family and friends and my great uncle and aunt would come.  She had a huge raspberry patch and she would make me a fresh raspberry pie and bring it to share at the potluck....BUT she would always tell me...."You know if you put this in the refrigerator and forget about it, I won't mention there is a pie and you can have the whole thing for later."  So guess what I did every single year.  :)

My husband always had a patriotic game for us to play and one year to all our amazement, Hazel recited this poem that she had learned at country school of all the counties in Iowa.  It was unbelievable.  I had never heard of it before.

So after talking to my cousin about the poem, I was able to find it online.  Then I used the poem and included it as a part of a digital scrapbook page for my family members.  I took mine after printing it out and included a special Iowa paper, ephemera, a couple family pictures and journaling to tell the story.  I love the way it turned out.

I included the link for those who would like their own copy of this special poem.  A little piece of Iowa history.

http://publications.iowa.gov/2152/1/Iowapoem.pdf

Paper Scraps

Every six month or so whenever I run out.....I take a day or two and make up a bunch of cards.  This is just as satisfying as making a scrap quilt out of small pieces of nothing, but a heck of a lot quicker.  I had a small pile of coordinating papers and some odds and ends of embellishments that didn't fit my filing system  very well.  So I had them all laid out and spent most of two days on my porch, cutting, pasting, rearranging & folding to end up with these.......



Notice on the center card I used some postage stamps ripped off a recent package. 


I have a thing for stamps.....but I come by it naturally.....my parents still collect a first edition stamp and block sets and have for years and my Grandma K. kept little envelopes of stamps she liked off of packages and letters which I still have......  of course.   So you see I really can't help myself.     :)

Here are a few mores cards done using Martha Stewart punches, which I must say.....I really like all of them.  The deep punch designs are beautiful and work very well and give you a wow factor with not a lot of effort.  Since I don't have a Michael's close by.....I pay attention to my coupons....if I know I am traveling and try to pick up a new one when I have the opportunity.

I did over 40 cards with that small pile of leftovers....so that should last me for a while.  Also another thing I like to do which is shown above......I use the word happy or happy day which is somewhat generic.....so it obviously could be a birthday card, but it also could be pretty much anything someone might be celebrating.  I like that so I can tailor what I write to fit any situation and make it very personal.

To streamline this process:

• Limit your amount of coordinating papers
• Limit your choices of embellishments
• Use your larger pieces of paper for card blanks and large embellishments
• Use your smaller scraps for small embellishments
• Use strips for borders and border punches
• Don't agonize over every decision, make a decision and move on....if you don't like something, cover it up with something bigger or throw it away....start over!!!
• Collage style or color blocking is a great technique when you are left with small pieces.
• When you are done, give what you have left over to your child or grandchild for their craft box.