American Girl Doll House

This was my daughters Christmas gift from us, it was six months in planning though only four weeks to build and decorate. It is two feet deep, eight and half feet long and seven feet tall.

The kitchen appliances were from eBay and they are from the 50's.  My husband and father made the island and the cabinets hanging are from Hobby Lobby.  The hanging lights are for lockers, I used Velcro to secure them.

I stamped the walls with a stamp set from Close to My Heart.  The bed was a brass bed I painted, and the dresser was from Hobby Lobby which I painted and covered with paper.  The desk my husband made.

Made to look like Kit's room from the movie.

The floor was painted to look like tile.

The bunk beds Jeff and I made a few years ago for Emily.

I recovered the sofa and chair.  Jeff made the fireplace and the bricks I made from egg cartons.

1.I will update later with more pictures.

Dotty for You National Scrapbooking Month

There are 3 ways to
get yours:
Place an order of $35 or more in products from the Spring/Summer 2012 Idea
Book between April 17th and May 31st, and add the Dotty for You paper packet for
just $5.
Host a Gathering with a sales totoal of $400 or more (excluding tax,
shipping/handling, and Operation Smile donations) between April 17th and May
31st, and receive a Dotty for You paper packet FREE.
Join Close To My Heart as a new Consultant between April 1st and May 31st
and receive a Dotty for You paper packet FREE.

24 Cards

I made three cards from each of the new paper packs from CTMH. I used three background and texture 6x6 pieces of paper from each paper pack and coordinating cardstock. To get the most out of my papers some of the die cuts are cut from a section of paper which is covered up by another piece. These three cards are from the Stella collection and the stamps are also CTMH. The die cuts are Spellbinders.

Pemberley

Lucy

Two different versions of one design. Diecuts are from the

CTMH AP cartridge.

Footloose

Victory

Florentine

Card on the right I used a Martha Stewart Punch the others are from the CTMH AP Cartridge.

Superhero

Superhero and Cruisin'

Love Birds

CTMH retired paper, birds from the CTMH Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge.

Christmas Cookies

Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites

Ingredients

1 cup creamy peanut butter

2 tbsp softened butter

1/2 cup powdered sugar (maybe more)

3/4 cup brown sugar (maybe more)

Pretzels

1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions Combine peanut butter and softened butter in a large bowl with a fork or whisk, or in a stand mixer. Add the sugars and mix to combine. At this point if the filling will roll easily into balls without sticking to your hands you’re ready to go. If not, add a little more of each sugar until you reach a consistency that is easy to roll (I used about 3/4 cup of each sugar).Use a teaspoon measure to scoop the filling. Roll each portion into a small ball, then sandwich them between two whole pretzels. When all the balls are rolled and successfully sandwiched, stick the whole tray in the freezer for about half an hour.Pour the chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl and heat at 30-second intervals, stirring occasionally until completely melted. Remove the pretzel sandwiches from the freezer and quickly dip each half-way into the melted chocolate. Return to the tray and repeat with remaining sandwiches. When all are dipped, return the tray to the freezer to set up completely. Store the sandwiches in the refrigerator until serving time.

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

For the recipe check out here:

http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/mint-chocolate-chip-cookies/22bebeda-ea36-441a-9909-ae78409d6da6

Swirled Chocolate Mint Layer Bars

2 cups finely ground creme-filled chocolate sandwich cookies

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1 1/2 cups chopped nuts

1 cup flaked coconut

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

1 cup chocolate mint chips

1 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in 13x9 pan in oven; remove from oven. Sprinkle cookie crumbs over butter, press. Sprinkl with nuts and coconut. Pour sweetened condensed milk over top. Sprinkle chips, press down slightly. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool completely.

Birthday Girl

Wings

A great thing about acrylic stamps is you can shape them. I used a border stamp from Wings which is straight but placed my block on top of the shape I wanted to stamp on. Then I formed my stamp to fit that shape, then ink and stamp.

Here is where I saved paper. My feelings are if you can not see it then you can use it for somewhere else.

Backside of the layout. This layout is from Close To My Heart's Magic found on page 28 and the paper, stickies and stamped images are from the Wings Collection. I would like to thank Myra Grodzuik for the idea of paper and stamp choices. The ribbon is new to CTMH it comes pleated but I ripped out the stitching and scrunched it, holding it in place with staples. I like to save paper wherever I can so these pictures show how I was able to save some paper.

National Scrapbooking Month Promotion

Check out what CTMH has for you for National Scrapbooking May 1 to May 31, 2011. During May, when you place a minimum order of $50 US / $55 CAN for any Close To My Heart products*, you can grab an exclusive You & Me scrapbooking kit for just $15 / $16.50—that’s more than half off the retail value of the kit! You can also purchase the kit outright for $34.95 / $38.95 with or without a minimum purchase.

Crafting Life's Pieces Blog Candy

Check out Crafting Life's Pieces for some great blog candy. Chelsea will pick a winner on April 5th.

Cranberry Orange Muffins Anyone??

If you are looking for a really good recipe for cranberry orange muffins then try this one here.

I did make one change I substituted the 1/4 cup of oil with applesauce, a great way to make them even healthier.

Blog Candy over at Created by Katie

Check out this blog candy over at Created by Katie offer is only good until Friday, March 18th at Noon MST time.

Mojo Monday 181

Here is my Mojo Monday interpretation. I used paper from My Mind's Eye new collection Stella and Rose, Gertie. The stamp image is one I have had for a long time from Stampabilities, called phonograph.

I Won!!

I was so excited to find out last week that I won all of these goodies from Love My Paper. Emily already claimed some items for herself. I can not wait to use my new Cricut cartridge for Emily's dance recital pictures. Thank you La-kesha for this wonderful gift of goodies.

Triplets

I have been meaning to post this for awhile. I made Emily's Christmas dress along with one for Rebecca her American Girl doll. For Christmas she got a My Twinn and a dress to match also. I know enough about sewing that when you make more then one item and add up the amount of fabric you need for each to purchase you will have some extra, since you can move the pattern pieces around to fit better and save fabric, but more then three yards extra was a lot. With all of the extra fabric I decided to make myself a skirt to match, I still could of made something else out of what was then left.

The Last of A Delightful Waste of Time Blog Challenges

First I am sorry for the quality of my picture, but I had to use my point and shoot to take the picture. This was for a color challange over at A Delightful Waste of Time.

Sketch Challenge

Here was the sketch challenge from A Delightful Waste of Time.


I used Wings workshop stamp set from CTMH. Stamped and then embossed with CTMH red embossing powder.

Gift Packaging Challenge

I decided to post this for A Delightful Waste of Time's blog challenge on gift packaging. I just used a plain brown bag for this with white tissue. The papers are Close to My Heart from the Creative Basics Mistletoe Collection along with the Adorn-able stamp set to create the ornaments. The Merry Christmas came from the St Nick set. I embossed most of the stamping on this. The bottom picture I am showing you how the bag covers look from the front and back side. To make the bag topper cut it the width of your bag and then decide how far you want it to come down and then double that length. Fold your paper in half and cut a slit a quarter of an inch wide and for the length cut it a quarter of an inch longer on each side then the width of your handles. The bottom border I used a Martha Stewart boarder punch. For the tissue paper I random stamped using CTMH All the Best stamp set in cranberry, cocoa, and new england ivy.

Photo Courtesy of Martha Stewart

This was the inspiration photo for Meredith's blog birthday challange over at A Delightful Waste of Time.


The paper I used was Brenda Walton from K and Co. which I have had for a long time, the Rose sticker is also from Brenda Walton. I ruffled my own ribbon using my sewing machine.