It’s Not Easy To Eat Green: St. Patrick’s Day Dinner

In our almost 12 years of marriage we have never done the “green thing” for St Patrick’s day but this year I felt like it might be fun to do something for it.  Originally I thought I’d do the whole Corned Beef Brisket with cabbage, taters, and carrots thing, but then I got to thinking about it… the last time that Brent and I made corned beef brisket neither of us cared for it that much so down the disposal it went.. blech.  I made a command decision this afternoon to change the menu plan…

I decided to make GREEN Fettucini Alfredo (homemade sauce) with a GREEN salad with GREEN ranch dressing and GREEN garlic bread.  For dessert, GREEN frosted (airbrushed by the bakery) cupcakes.  It’s fun what you can do with a few drops of green food coloring… tee hee!  Oh, I also picked up some Mt Dew for a green beverage, but then remembered it’s more yellowy than green. (We’ve given up soda at our house… it’s a rare treat now.)    Brent chuckled when I told him what we were having for dinner, but I think he also appreciated me NOT making corned beef brisket…

Here are a few snapshots of our fun meal.

 

It was VERY strange to be eating green alfredo sauce and green ranch dressing.  I kept anticipating green frosting with the alfredo sauce, lol!  It didn’t taste any different, but it kind of tweaks your brain a little…   The garlic bread burned on one half of each piece (due to it rolling on its side and us not paying enough attention) but it still tasted good.  We just cut the breads into normal slices once it was cooked and tossed the burned parts.)  I printed the cupcake wrappers from the Tip Junkie website because I didn’t have enough time to create my own in MTC and cut them out.

Here are some tips when coloring your food green:

1) Soften your butter to near melted before stirring in your food coloring or you will be chasing it around the bowl forever.

2) Add your food coloring to your cooked sauce at the very end.  For the recipe we made (about 1 qt) we used roughly 22-23 drops of food coloring.

3)  Shake your ranch dressing like mad to prevent streaking. (I use the Tupperware shaker when I make my homemade ranch.)

4)  Buy your cupcakes pre-sprayed at the bakery.  mmm!

Hope you had a terrific St Patty’s day!

Inky Smiles!

 

PS… Back soon with charm pics. I’m sooo behind in editing pics, but they are next up!

Enabler Alert! Free Photo Book AND Dollar Days Sale!

Hey friends! I’m still “off” for a few days, working on some spring cleaning projects that are driving me out of my mind but need to be done.. lol… but I got some fun info from my blog “sponsors” that I wanted to share with you! {I’m putting both “ads” in one post so that I don’t flood you with emails.}

First off… PICABOO has a CRAZY deal available for new Picaboo X users.  Simply set up a new account with them and you can receive a FREE Classic 20 page photo book!!  (This is a $30 value.) You just pay shipping.  If you have been wanting to try a Picaboo Photobook now is the time to do it!  Hurry!  This offer expires on March 22nd, 2011. 

 
Here’s the FREE BOOK Scoop:

Don't forget! From now until March 22, new customers can receive a FREE 8.5x11 Classic Custom book from Picaboo using code FREECC. This offer is valid for either a hardcover or softcover book but will only work for our Classic Custom style.

The cost of one 20-page 8.5x11 Classic Custom photo book (up to $39.99) will be deducted from the order total. If the book contains more than 20 pages, the customer will be charged for the additional pages at a cost of $0.99 per page.

Taxes and shipping charges are additional.

This coupon is for new Picaboo X customers only.

******************************************************************************

Also, Lettering Delights is having their DOLLAR DAYS sale on all fonts AND SVG files (those awesome little files that you can use with

Make The Cut (MTC) and your Cricut machine! You can also use these darling SVG files and fonts with MTC 3.0 beta’s new feature “print and cut”. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMAZING little feature!
 

Here’s the DOLLAR DAYS scoop!

Dollar Days starts tomorrow, March 15th!  All fonts, doodlebats, graphics, clipart, alphabets, and paper packs will only be $1.  All SVG's will be $2.  Mini albums will be $3.

In addition to the slamming dollar days deals, you can also receive the following amazing deals:

1) Over $40 in FREE PRODUCT with new account sign up.  We have now added SVG's to the new account product.  If you already have a an account, you will find the new product available in your library.  (image attached)

2) 9 Free Fonts are available to everyone who signs up for the newsletter

3) $5 off if you refer a friend who signs up for the newsletter.  You'll both receive a $5 coupon good on any purchase of $15 or more.

4) Monthly freebies.  This month's freebies are the Modern Miss Alphabet (available through Try Me Now Tool) and the Fancy That Digital Paper Pack.

{Shameless self promotion: on a personal note, I’m saving for something fabulous for Brent’s birthday next month… if you sign up as a new user for Picaboo and click through my links to purchase from Lettering Delights I earn money towards this gift.  I’m way stoked and hope that I can make it work!}

Back soon with another Creative University Charm Swap recap!  Be prepared to drool. I am SO happy with how the Charm Swap turned out!

Inky Smiles!

Winner of The Bauble Earrings

We have a winner! I used Random.org to draw a winner!  I took out the double comments and my comment and we had 13 entries in this contest.
Random.org selected our winner… drum roll please…. tappppity tap tap tap tap tapppp….

Our winner is #2 – Kandi G!!  Shoot me an email with your mailing address, Kandi, and I will pop these little darlings in the mail to ya!

Thank you for playing everyone!

Inky Smiles!

PS.. I’m going to take a couple of days off of the blog and do some cleaning in my studio. It’s quite awful and I’ve got to kill some dust bunnies.  Be back soon with some more fun goodies for ya!

Mini Purses – Quickie Party Favor “Bags”

Quickie post today.  I was working on a small project with my friend, Amanda, for a church activity. She needed to cut our some “party favors” - 40 mini purses and tags to hold little candies so we went to town.

I have to say

THANK GOODNESS FOR MTC!!!!!  I don’t mean the LDS Missionary Training Center.. I mean MAKE THE CUT and my Cricut Expression!   I’ve been playing with the demo version for a while and finally a month or so ago bought the full version of it.  I love the endless possibilities of using my existing digital art and most of all FONTS… I don’t have to buy a zillion font cartridges. SO HAPPY!

Now, before you Cricut professional ladies go ape on me and tell me I could have done it all with a cart and my dial, I know, I know I could have…. I specifically needed to resize these purses and tags by scaling them and not just tweaking the measurements on the roll-y dial or on my Gypsy (which I haven’t played much with YET).   I downloaded some FREE images from the MTC forums and loaded them up.  I stamped an image on some scrap paper to figure out the exact size I needed to make the tags.  I loved that I could scale it all on my computer right in front of me.

I cut out 48 purses and Amanda and I scored and assembled them and then she came back over last night and I cut out 40 bracket labels and left them on the mat while I stamped a sentiment in each one. It went soooo fast!   Then we adhered the labels to the mini purses and stuck little flowers on with some Glitter Glue and added glitter centers to the flowers and popped little Hershey nuggets in each one.

These are really super simple and boring but they needed to be quick and easy peasy. Not a lot of Erin Fru Fru on here, but hey they are cute and they will work :) YAY!

   

Creative University Recap #2 – Cluster Necklace – My Class

Sorry for the delay – I got a little distracted by some things at home.  Back today with another Creative University Recap.

Tresa asked me to be a teacher for C.U. waaaaay back in the fall of last year.  I was so excited and nervous and had a trillion ideas going through my head and then she specified that I would be teaching a Jewelry class. Oh boy… more ideas started swirling around… and then I settled on one idea. 

Here is the cluster necklace/junklace that we made for my CU Jewelry class.

                   

I went to a few gem fairs and jewelry shows with my friend, Valerie, and started collecting goodies that I could incorporate into my project and started making a prototype. I spent a couple of weeks hemming and hawing over the last couple of elements for it.  I had a budget but I liked the rolo style chain better than the “gangsta style” curb chains and I had an idea for a fabulous “souvenir” style charm that I just HAD to squeak into the budget.  Well, I threw the budget out the window and spent a little extra on my project. It was so fun and so worth it. 

Packages of goodies in my studio.. It was like Christmas.. a big, fat, blingy Christmas!

 

 

Here I am adding the first sneak peek to the CU students facebook page. Buwahahaha. I loved being just a little sneaky!

I pre made 120 charms for the necklaces.  First, I did 61 (I broke my first one, which is why I premade them) crystal drop charms shown below tied together like a chandelier.

And then I premade 60 of the custom designed mother of pearl CU “souvenir” charms. I designed the artwork in Photoshop Elements and then brought it over to Valerie’s office and she laser engraved them for me.  BUT, laser engraving was not the last step before they became charms.  I hand filled them with silver paint and then cleaned each individual charm and set them to dry. My fingers were painted in silver splotches for a couple of days.  Here are a couple of snap shots of my CU souvenir charms.

Once my two premade charms were completed and ready to go I set out to sort out parts for 60 kits.  Holy moly… this was a LOT of sorting of teeny weeny pieces. 

And then I packaged them all up into neat little bags and topped them off with cute little cardstock “toppers”.

Ready to go to Creative University!

I taught two classes at CU.  One Friday night after dinner and one bright and early Saturday morning.  Here are some snapshots of the two classes.  We had so much fun and everyone finished their projects before they left class!

Teaching wire wrapped loops with Erin’s Pipe Cleaner-Noodle Method.  Not sure WHAT I was saying or thinking or cheesing with that crazy look on my face but I love the sexay apron that Tresa made for us teachers!

I had four FABULOUS teacher’s assistants/Charm Fairies (two for each class) who were amazing and helped keep us all on track with our charms and necklaces.  My Fairies were Kari Seals, Tamara Werderber, Melody Pugh, and Michelle Johns.  I made each of them a special charm as a thank you gift.

 

Here is a pic of me and three of my Fairies… I’m not sure why Tamara isn’t with us but I went back through my pics and found one of me goofing around with Tamara and Kimberly.

And here are some random fun shots of my classes.

I had such a fun time teaching this class!  I think everybody learned something new or sharpened their skills or opened the doors to a new hobby.  

Inky Smiles!

 
PS.. If you’ve read through this entire post, thank you!  Leave me a comment on this post and tell me why you need a new pair of earrings  (be creative) and I will draw a winner for a pair that match this necklace!   Winner will be posted on Thursday night after 8 pm mountain time. Winner will have 2 days (claim by Sat 8pm) to claim the prize before another winner is drawn. Please email me your contact info once your name is drawn.

 

It’s Great to Be EIGHT Layouts – Digital Scapping!

(I haven’t forgotten to come back and post the rest of the CU pics and fun, but I’ve gotten a little distracted the past couple of days. I’m working on them and I will be back with more!)

This morning my friend, Suzi, came over for a visit and to work on some projects for the kids in Primary (church young children’s group).  She needed some layouts/templates for the kids who will be turning eight and getting baptized this year.   We had a lot of fun going through some of my digital supplies this morning while I threw these layouts together.  I think I really need to get my digi schtuff moved over to the ehd and organized here asap!

Here’s what we came up with.  These layouts can be printed straight up and have a pic adhered to them or they can be used as a “quick page” in PSE and have a digital photo inserted in the layout. These pages will be used as a cover for a little book that Suzi is making for each child for their baptism day.  The layouts are a standard 8.5” x 11”.

I did one layout for the boys.  I used papers and elements from “His Playroom” by Tracy Reid from Sweet Shoppe Designs.  The font is Rockwell.  Not sure who designed the stitching…

For the girls we did two layouts… but not intentionally. LOL!  We got the first pink one done and noticed that the paper did not extend all the way into the frame on the right side, and then we decided to try a different paper just in case some of the girls weren’t “froo froo” pink girls.   I love them both, but I really like the yellow paper layout! I think it’s a little more versatile.  The papers and some of the elements came from the Shabby Miss Jen “Sweetie Pie” kit.  The stitching, lace trim, photo frame, and tab came from miscellaneous other kits that I separated before I tagged, so I have no clue who they came from.  The font is BrodyD.

Thanks for popping in!

Inky Smiles!

Creative University Recap Post #1

Oh my gosh, I have been SOOO sick this past week.  Hopefully since this is my birthday (I’m celebrating the sometheenkth anniversary of my 21st birthday on Tuesday) week it will get better and we can have some fun with cake and ice cream and friends this weekend!  I did go back to the dr again last night and he gave me antibiotics for this bronchitis and it seems to be workin already! YAH!

The crappiest thing (can I say crappy on a blog?) is that this sickness has put a real downer ending to a really FABULOUS retreat with some AMAZING women at Creative University.  I had a most wonderful time but I feel a little like that come home “high” from the retreat was stolen from me so I’ve been trying to “regain” my “high” by looking at the pictures and projects from this AWESOME weekend! I had SUCH a good time and think this year was even more fun than last year!

Here is our CU 2011 class photo.  I made it to the photo this year! LOL! Let’s play “Where’s Erin?” and see if you can find me :)

Creative University Recap Post #1

Part of my birthday celebration was Brent and I spending some time together on this trip.  The other part comes later this month… more deets later.   So anyway, Brent and I drove up to CDA (Coeur d’Alene) on Thursday and camped out at the Days Inn hotel.  It was quite a beautiful drive with the exception of the snowstorms we hit in the night as we crossed over the Rocky Mountains two times on curvy mountain roads.  I think if it wasn’t dark it would have been more of a fun adventure, but driving in the dark in a snowstorm is always a bit scary for me.  Friday morning we loaded up in the car and headed over to Camp Lutherhaven so I could get checked in and unpacked and start the fun.

Friday during the day was mostly free for us.  I packed my little “go to” crafty crop bag ($6 @ WalMart – sweet!) full of goodies and started playing…  We had a fabulous “Card Boutique” that was presented by Sheila Bennett and Donna Smith.  Here are the projects we made.  I didn’t follow all the instructions so if mine look slightly different than others you may see  on other blogs, that’s why.

 
Sheila’s Cards:  These are all little cards that you can slip gift cards in… or a wad of cash…..

 
 

Donna’s cards:  Super fun cards with some springy new CTMH papers.

Also on Friday morning I had a mini class with my Charm Fairies/Teacher Assistants to help them make their projects for my class since they’d miss being students in my two classes.  From left to right:  Kari Seals, Michelle Johns, Tamara Wederber, and Melody Pugh.  These girls were so awesome and so much help!!

I taught one class Friday night and one class Saturday morning.  I will share pics of the class and the project tomorrow.

Also on Friday Tresa presented her teachers with some fabulous gifts… sexy aprons and some va-va-vooom hair bows!  I absolutely LOVE mine.  It’s perfect and totally me!

 
I will be back tomorrow with some pics of my class and class project… here’s a teaser:

 

Inky Smiles!