EtchAll Mug

Hello friends! I hope you're all enjoying the nice weather we've seen here lately. If not, then get ready because the project I have to show you today will warm you up!

Scrap-Mart is now carrying the Etch All Cream so I grabbed a bottle and thought I'd give it a try. I picked up a blue glass mug at the store to try it on. Here's what it looks like:

I cut a snowflake from the Making Memories Slice FaLaLa design card out of Quickutz Vinyl. For the etching you need the "negative" of the shape so I removed the snowflake and used transfer paper to get the negative onto the glass. Once I had it centered where I wanted it I smoothed the vinyl onto the glass all around the snowflake ensuring there were no bubbles or unattached spaces where the cream could "bleed". I poured the cream onto the vinly...DO NOT pour it onto your shape or it will leave "ripples"...then I used the squeegee to pull the cream onto the shape. It sat for about 15 minutes then I scraped the cream back off. It's reusable so I just put it right back into the bottle then washed the mug under warm running water and pulled the vinyl off. That's it! It does take a bit of time to make sure you're getting it set on straight and all but it's actually a really simple process. Here's a closeup of the etching:


I'm going to package this mug in a clear box with some hot chocolate mix, some marshmallows and candy canes and send it to my mom! I'll call it here "Winter Warm-Up Kit".

Grab you some EtchAll and go create something! When you're done send me some pictures at Katie@scrap-mart.com and we'll feature it on the blog!

Thanks for stoppin' by! See you soon!
Katie

I don't know

about you but I LOVE cake! My mother-in-law got me a new bundt cake pan for Christmas. I really enjoy cooking and trying out new recipes but I've never tried my hand at baking...other than a store-bought mix and an occassional Banana Nut Bread. Well, the bundt pan she got me was a Christmas tree pan so I thought I'd try to make a cake for Christmas. Mint Chocolate Chip is one of my favorite ice creams so I thought I'd try to find a recipe for a Mint Chocolate Chip cake. I searched the internet and found one. I altered it a bit to make it the way I wanted it and fortunately it turned out. It was soooooo delicious! Super moist. I also made a homemade Cream Cheese frosting! Yummo! Here's what it looked like:


By Dec. 23rd the store was all sold out of candies like red hots and those silver bead things so the decoration on the cake was limited to tinted frosting and a sprinkle of powdered sugar. My hubby insisted on helping so he frosted the last bit and added the "snow".

I'm spending the weekend with Laura from Scrap-Mart and Christi at The Scrappin' Pad next weekend so I'm going to bring one of these cakes for us to eat.

I have big plans for this cake pan. My son, Cody, is turning 4 in March and I'm going to make him a volcano cake using this tree pan! I'll bake a tree cake and one 9" round with the round cake serving as the base. I'll put the tree cake on top and frost it green but will leave some of the chocolate cake showing in spots. Then I will put plastic trees on it and on one side of the cake it will have red icing flowing down the side of it. Hopefully I can find some dry ice for the center! How cool will that be!?! I can't wait!

Thanks for stoppin' by today! If you're looking for some inspiration be sure to check out whats happenin' on the Scrap-Mart blog. We have some fabulous things in store for our readers in 2009!

See you soon!
Katie

Continuing Education Classes

Hello all! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday filled with family and friends! It was CRAZY here at my house. LOL! My kids got more stuff than we know what to do with and I promise you that is no exaggeration!

A few months back Christi, owner of The Scrappin' Pad, was approached to see if we would be interested in teaching a series of continuing education classes on scrapbooking for Northeaster State University! When I got the email from Christi my jaw hit the floor. I, of course, said YES! What an amazing offer! Here's the write-up from the brochure they mailed out.



Class will be held at The Scrappin' Pad every Tuesday for 6 weeks beginning the first Tuesday in January. We are requiring a minimum of 12 students so we are still waiting to hear whether or not the class will make. Either way, I'm honored to have been asked to participate in such an endeavor. Thank you NSU for your invitation!

If you're in the area and would like more information or would like to sign up for the classes you can call NSU's Continuing Education Office at (918)444-4610. The cost of the 6 week course is $156 and that includes everything except your adhesive.

Well, that's all I have to share today! If you're in the shopping mood, hop on over to Scrap-Mart for some awesome sales! From now until Dec. 31st there will be some great savings. Each day a new "item of the day" will be chosen. Today's item, the Making Memories Slice Design cards, are 40% off! You can sign up for their newsletter and get automatic daily updates!

Thanks for stoppin' by!
Katie

I know I've been....

neglecting the blog lately and I'm sorry! I've been super busy getting ready for today. Actually, I think I overloaded my schedule....but shhhhh, don't tell my DH I admitted it. LOL! But, now that everything is done and I'll be off work during the day, I can play and create!

I would like to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas. I hope your day is full of love, laughter and happiness! And don't forget to take lots of photos (wink!)!

Merry Christmas,
Katie

Baby, it's cold outside!!!

And when I say cold, I mean COLD!!! We woke to a chilly 17 this morning. Whoa! I know it's colder in other spots but that is pretty darn cold for the Tulsa area.

It's a perfect day to share this tag I made for Scrap-Mart's 12 Tags of Christmas Blog Contest.

I used my Making Memories Slice to create this. The snowflake and snowman are from the FaLaLa design card and the layered label are from Noteworthy. The snowman was cut three times...once in white for the snowman, once in black for the hat, and once in brown for the arms...and paper pieced. I cut a piece of the American Crafts ribbon down to make the hat band. I didn't have a die or brads small enough for the eyes and buttons so I took out my Crop-a-dile and punched out of the black cardstock from the small side. For the nose, I just cut a corner off of a piece of orange cardstock. I had some 1/8" satin ribbon and I wrapped that around the snowman's neck to create his scarf. After I assembled the snowman, I covered him and the snowflake with ultra fine glitter. They really shimmer in real life.

Scrap-Mart is having a blog contest right now...as I previously mentioned. All you have to do is create and decorate a tag using your dies (we prefer you use ones sold by Scrap-Mart, but it is NOT a requirement!) and email it to me at Katie@scrap-mart.com by midnight Tuesday, December 16th. The Scrap-Mart design team will vote on their favorite and the winner will have their tag posted in the final blog post on Friday, December 19th and will receive the Quickutz Chopstick alphabet set! WOW! You still have plenty of time to enter so get busy! I can't wait to see who wins. You can read more about the details of the contest here.

Materials used: Making Memories Slice Digital Design Cutter, MM Slice Noteworthy Design Card, MM FaLaLa Design Card, Prism Kraft Cardstock, Making Memories FaLaLa patterned paper (red label frame), ultra fine glitter, American Crafts ribbon, other: white, orange, black, brown cardstock and satin ribbon.



That's all I have for today! I hope to see your entry for the contest in my mailbox. Stay warm!

Katie

Happy Friday and an Announcement!

Hello friends! I hope you are all having a wonderful Friday! I keep referring to tomorrow as if it's still days away. This week has gone by so fast! Tomorrow I will be kitting for Tuesday's calendar/planner class and working on some other goodies. A friend of mine referred someone to me who wants to give a scrapbook as a gift to a friend for Christmas. So, I have an album to complete....and quickly!

Now for my announcement. I kinda mentioned in my last post that I had some exciting news to share. I've referenced Scrap-Mart in previous posts and mentioned that I was applying for their design team. Well, I've been asked to be their Blog Editor. What does that mean? Well, that means you can read about me on 2 blogs! LOL! Just kidding! I will work with the 5 members of their DT to bring the Scrap-Mart blog readers some FABULOUS projects! You will be amazed at what this team creates! Next week we'll be debuting the CUTEST candy holder (I don't want to reveal more than that!) and a picture tutorial for some quick, last minute gifts. Oh, and on Tuesday I'll be posting some details on a contest! That means prizes!! So, bookmark it, visit it, play along! And, if you have some projects you create with your dies send them to me at Katie@scrap-mart.com so we can showcase your work too! If you don't have a diecutting system, Scrap-Mart carries all the popular brands like Quickutz, Spellbinders, Bosskut, and the new Making Memories Slice! And, just for future reference all dies ship FREE!!!

I can't post without sharing a project with you. Here's a cute little box I made with some clear plastic sheets. I used my scor-pal to score the plastic and the cardstock.

Gotta run for now! You can read the full details on how I made the box on the Scra-Mart blog.
Thanks for stoppin' by!
Katie

My new hair cut, Shelby and Mom, a Project, and a Class

My friend Rae asked me if I'd share a picture of myself with my new hair cut so here it is! I really like it short. It takes MUCH longer to get ready in the morning now but I think it's worth it.

Ignore the funny face...I'm not a very photogenic person! LOL!

This picture is one taken of Shelby and me on Thanksgiving Day. Remember I told you all our dinner was being catered at the Doubletree hotel? Well, it wasn't a traditional Thanksgiving meal! I was very sad. There was a turkey but the rest was kind of a modpodge of appetizers. It was good, but not Thanksgiving. Now, the Pumpkin Cheesecake is a whole other story! LOL! Anyway, here's our photo:

Next up is a little book I designed with my Bind-It-All machine. I call it a Flip-Flap book.

The base of the book is a 5" square. The pages measure 4"x4 1/4" and are bound on the 4" side. The idea of the book being that the pages can fall in any order...i.e. they can flip or flap! It is a SUPER simple little book and I'll probably be doing a video tutorial in the next week or so. I used Sassafras Lass papers from the Mini-bundles. They are double sided so it makes assembly of the book even easier. I included some plain kraft cardstock pages as well as some transparency pages. I taught this class 3 times!!! It was a hit! Stay tuned for the tutorial but if you have any questions about it in the mean time just shoot me an email. Here's a picture of the book open:

And, last but not least, a picture of me teaching the last Flip-Flap book class this past Saturday at The Scrappin' Pad.

We had a great turnout...11 students with 3 young girls! They all did a great job and I'm looking forward to my next class...which is creeping up on me! It's next week already! LOL!

I have 2 very exciting announcements to come later this week so stay tuned...I may even let the cat out of the bag early! Thanks for stoppin' by! Katie