The Red Pencil Box: December 2012

I got this idea from this cute blog: http://jhsmith88.tumblr.com/post/25449246805/i-think-im-going-to-start-craft-blogging and made it for a white elephant at a holiday party. It's a great idea if you have a bunch of extra scrapbook paper laying around and the materials were cheap.

Few pieces of advice:

Don't put thick layers of mod podge; if it's too thick it dries white instead of clear and smooth
Glue the edges down well. The blog where I got this idea from says you only need a few dabs, but I tried that and the edges of the petals kept getting folded over and messed up when I applied the mod podge
The original blog post with this idea doesn't say how much mod podge you need so I bought the big expensive bottle, but the small cheaper one (~$5) will be enough

Materials pre-paint

Wait for the acrylic to dry before gluing down pieces

Petals. Try to stick to a general color combination or theme

Post-mod podge application (it will dry clear as long as you put this thin of a layer)

DIY flower canvas

Sunday, December 23, 2012

My friend (http://littlepiecesofbliss.wordpress.com) recommended this adorable DIY idea: http://www.lemonjitters.com/2012/10/diy-patterned-heart-tights.html, and it turned out fantastic!

A few pieces of advice:

You don't need adhesive vinyl. We spent quite a bit of time trying to find some to no avail. As long as you use good cardstock and hold the stencils down hard when you paint, you'll be fine
Acrylic paint is permanent, so be careful
Don't forget what I did and remember that if you're doing a special pattern, there will be room on the tights you need to leave for your feet. I wanted to do a pattern with a lot of hearts on the bottom and then fading as you moved upward, but I bunched a lot of the hearts at the feet that you won't be able to see unless I'm not wearing shoes (scroll down to see what I'm talking about)

PS- sorry for the poor photo quality!

Try to avoid patterns on the foot area

Maroon tights + gold metallic acrylic paint

hearts

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Continuing with scrapbook entries...

Foam football stickers

football tournament

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

I realized I never finished posting all of the pages from my scrapbook I did for a school organization earlier this year, so without further ado, I present the picnic page!

I love the summertime feel to this page

The sun rays are half-flowers. The clouds were hand drawn and the lettering is rubber stamps with waterpad ink and I then embossed clear powder onto them. I don't use the clear powder very often, but it does leave a subtle effect

Cute popsicle stick stickers I found on sale

picnic page

Monday, December 17, 2012

I take my chocolate chip cookies very seriously. A recipe boasting perfection takes on quite a burden and a mental note of "we'll see about that" from yours truly.

I tried Emily's recipe for chocolate chip cookies from her book (here: http://www.amazon.com/Cupcakes-Cashmere-Defining-Reinventing-Entertaining/dp/1419702106/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334164387&sr=1-1).

Sorry I'm not able to post the recipe on here, but I can put some general tips besides the directions. When the recipe claimed things like "wait until butter and eggs are room temperature and do not microwave them to make them room temperature", I thought that was a little ridiculous. I'm not sure if that's what did it, but these cookies did have a certain softness. Also, the recipe called for "over 50% cacao chocolate chips" which were a challenge to find. I later realized that these chips were way too bitter for my taste, so in the future I will stick to milk chocolate chips.

Lastly, and I recommend this for no matter what recipe for chocolate chip cookies you use, placing the cookie dough in the fridge for an hour before baking instead of baking as soon as you make the cookie dough is, in my opinion, what made these cookies so good. Letting them sit and cool allows the flavors to mix well.