Archive for May, 2012
Thursday Tidbits: Creating a Summer “Bucket List”
Ever since the movie came out several years ago with the same name, people have been creating "Bucket Lists" of all kinds. Usually, a "Bucket List" is a list of things you want to do before you kick the proverbial bucket. So, for now, we will create a list of things we want to accomplish before the end of summer. This is a great project for families or individuals, for those who are keeping a 52 week digital scrapbook or those who are simply keeping a journal of all the things they wish to accomplish, or for anyone wishing to add a little bit of spice and excitement between the summer solstice and the autumnal equinox. I suggest actually writing down a list and crossing each item off as you do them. This gives a visual account of all your actions and encourages you to finish the list in entirety. Keep it in your journal, on your blogsite, or even in your purse or on the fridge. Just make sube that it is in a place that you will see often enough to remind you that summer is a great time to accomplish goals, not just to sip fruity drinks by the pool.
So, how is one to make a "Summer Bucket List" for a family. Here is a short and sweet answer to the question:
1. Brainstorm on a sheet of paper things you would like to accomplish over the summer with your family. Have one of the younger members of your family be the "secretary" and have everyone suggest things that they would like to do. When brainstorming, you do not eliminate any of the answers. Try to come up with about 100 things you want to do as a family. You may want to consult your city's or state visitors' enter website for family friendly events in your area.
2. Cross out the items on the list that are out of your summer budget or are simply impractical. This might include things like "going skydiving" or "taking a trip to Antartica." I promise that some kids will have suggestions like these. Gently explain that those goals are too big for this summer, but are great goals to have on their personal "Bucket List" and that you only have about 60 days between the times when school lets out and begins again. Do not discourage creativity, imagination, and big dreams.
3. In your family meeting, agree upon at least 50 items you wish to accomplish over the summer. Make sure you include fun activites as well as academic ones. This might include "finish a summer reading list for school," "visit the library for storytime," or "take a trip to the local science center." The goal here is to remind the family that just because school is out for the summer, learning does not stop and learning can be fun.
4. Have an adult type up the completed list and print it off the computer, and post the list in a visible place.
5. Each day, have a child pick out one activity that they would like to accomplish during the day. Complete the task and cross it off the list for all to see.
Remember to make your list achievable. There is nothing more disappointing than creating a list that is unrealistic and unable to attain. Here are a few simple ideas
that you may wish to include in order to get the ball rolling in the right direction.
1. Make homemade popsicles.
2. Built an indoor fort.
3. Catch lightning bugs.
4. Take a picnic to the park.
5. Decorate a pair of flip flops.
6. Tie-dye a T-shirt.
7. Plant a small butterfly garden.
8. Eat a funnel cake.
9. Visit the zoo.
10. Have a watermelon seed spitting contest.
11. Go fishing.
12. Read a fiction novel.
13. Build a tree-swing.
14. Watch a matinee at the movie theater.
15. Visit the neighborhood pool.
16. Color the sidewalk with chalk.
17. Create a puzzle.
18. Go on a bike ride.
19. Make cookies.
20. Pick berries at a farm.
For those moms who would like to space out events according to free time or pay days, you may wish to create a summer calendar with a different activity for each day. You may do this on your physical home calendar, your computer or phone, or even in your scrapbooking software. I would suggest doing this if you are a Type A personality like myself. This gives you time in advance to prepare that picnic, buy supplies for art projects, or get discount theme park tickets. There are definitely times when planning ahead is better than being spontaneous. Only you know what is best for you, your family, and your schedule.
For those of you who are taking vacations or are making a scrapbook for the year, you might want to make a page for your scrapbook that simply includes your "Summer Bucket List." This will make a great addition to any memory book. This week, I have created a sample of a scrapbook page with a "Beach Trip Bucket List" using the kit Sand Dollar from Sugar Moon Designs. You may find this kit at Divine Digital.
When creating your “Summer Bucket List” page, be sure to include pictures of you or your family doing activities from the list to make the page more memorable. I also suggest checking off the activities instead of using a strike-out font. Strike-outs make the list a little more difficult to read, and the goal is to show what you accomplished instead of what you did not.
And as always, make a memory today and be sure to have a camera on hand to capture it!>
Scraplift Throw-Back
Hi Shanna here with your Wednesday Challenge. After looking through old layouts for inspiration I found this layout and thought it would be a good one to re-scrap. Have you ever wanted to red0 a layout or just loved the layout design and wanted to use it again? Well that’s sorta what I did here.
This is a layout I did back in 2008 from JenLin Designs “Free Fourth” kit at Digital Candy
I decided to redo this layout and sorta just scrap-lift it using a new kit and pics. I used Sugar Moon’s kit for my new layout.
The scraplift I felt was a success and I enjoyed redesigning a new layout using inspiration from an old layout I did years ago. I challenge each of you to go through those old layouts and either use them for inspiration in creating something new or go back and redo a layout you aren’t happy with and make it better. If you do and would love to share with us please do, we love seeing our reader’s layouts inspired by our challenges. Have a fabulous Wednesday and have fun scrappin’ old memories!
Tags: Challenge, Scraplift, Stars & Stripes, SugarMoon
Memorial Day QP
Hello everyone, sorry for the delay on todays post. We had some issues with our server and were down for a bit. Thankfully we are back up and running and I can offer you todays freebie! In honor of Memorial Day yesterday I wanted to offer you all a QP I made using Sugarmoon Designs kit Stars and Stripes. I love all of the great elements she has included in this kit and it is perfect to scrap your memories from Memorial Day or the 4th of July.
I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend and once again thank you to active and inactive military men and women who are protecting our country and to their families as well!
Here is a Layout I made using the QP I have for you all today
Click the image to download 
Happy Memorial Day!
Happy Memorial Day! Today I’d like to thank all of our active and inactive military service men and women who are protecting our country. Thank you also to the families who sacrifice time with their loved ones so we can be protected.
Today I’m sharing a favorite cook out recipe of mine. It’s a Two-Bite Chocolate Cream pie! Thanks to My Recipe for this recipe!
TWO BITE CHOCOLATE CREAM PIES
Ingredients
- Cooking-oil spray
- About 30 chocolate cookies, such as Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers
- 3/4 cup sugar, divided
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
- 2 large eggs (1 separated) $
- 1/2 cup chopped bittersweet chocolate
- 1 tablespoon butter $
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 5 teaspoons Dutch-processed unsweetened cocoa powder, divided
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
Preparation
- Preheat oven to 350°. Spray 2 mini-muffin trays (12 muffin cups each) with cooking spray. In a food processor, whirl cookies into fine crumbs. Measure; return 1 1/2 cups crumbs to food processor, along with 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp. sugar, the salt, and 1 egg white. Pulse to blend evenly.
- Spoon 1 tbsp. crumb mixture into each muffin cup. Press crumbs over bottom and up sides of cups. Bake until set, 15 minutes.
- Put chocolate and butter in a microwave-safe container and heat in 30-second intervals, stirring often, until melted.
- In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup sugar, the cornstarch, and 4 tsp. cocoa. Pour in a few tbsp. of the milk and whisk into a smooth paste; whisk in remaining milk. Transfer to a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until thickened and large bubbles appear, about 3 minutes.
- Put reserved yolk and remaining egg into a medium bowl. Whisk in about 1/2 cup hot milk mixture. Scrape egg-milk mixture into milk mixture in pan and cook, whisking, until just starting to boil, about 30 seconds. Whisk in melted chocolate and butter.
- Spoon hot filling into chocolate shells. Press plastic wrap over surface of mini pies to prevent a skin from forming. Chill until set, at least 1 hour and up to 2 days.
- Remove pies from trays. Whisk cream with remaining 2 tbsp. sugar into soft peaks. Spoon a dollop of cream onto each mini pie. Dust pies with remaining cocoa.
Tags: chocolate, cream, memorial day, pie, recipe
Silly Sunday ~ Hot Summer
Happy Sunday Everyone! Christie here today. Well I live in Georgia and it is really starting to heat up. It was over 100° here the past few days. I have been wanting Summer for so long, but now I think I want Autumn to come. Here are a couple jokes friends posted on facebook.
Friday finds
Happy Friday Everyone! Today I have some sales for you from Missy’s Bits Designs and Withlovestudios.
These two are at WithLoveStudios!
Missy’s Bits sale at WithLoveStudios
And Missy has her kits for sale at Divine Digital and Mymemories
And Sugarmoon is also having a sale for Memorial day!
And as school lets out, I wanted to share this fun summer activity for the family that Shanna shared with me. Kids can get 2 free games a day, you just pay shoe rental when you can sign up for a Family pass with 4 adults on your list. The Kids get 2 games per day as well for only $29.95 for the whole summer along with your shoe rental.
http://www.kidsbowlfree.com/ If going to the movies is something your family enjoys more than bowling, you can find wonderful deals for movie theaters that do deals during the summer.
Tags: Kids bowl for free, Memorial Day Sale, Missy Bit, Summer family fun, wit
Thursday Tidbits: Making Matchbox Shrines
Hi there, all of you readers in blog land! This is Melissa T. here with your weekly Thursday Tidbit. Although May is National Scrapbooking Month, I have dedicated my portion of the www.scrappingartistry.com blog to what we in the digital scrapbooking world refer to as “hybrid projects.” If you have been following our blog over the past month, you know that digital scrapbooking kits with all of its goodies can be used for making things other than just scrapbook pages. So far we have covered file folders, cookie treat boxes, and Random Acts of Art Kindness Postcards. This week we will be learning how to make matchbox shrines using GIMP 2.0 (free shareware) and any “Outside Content” that you may have saved to your computer or external hard drive.
I love making matchbox shrines. They take a lot of time and effort, but anything worth having usually does. Matchbox shrines are simply artistic renditions of matchboxes which can be filled with anything that is the size of the matchbox. I prefer to use the small size which fits 32 matches instead of the larger size boxes. I like the feeling you get when you are able to hold a beautiful, multi-functional piece of art in the palm of your hand. It is almost like having your own personal treasure box. And, who doesn’t need matches from time to time? If you Google ”matchbox shrine templates”, you should find PDFs for both sizes. I am including one for the 32 count small matchbox in the blog today and have prepared a small template for your enjoyment.
Urban Chic Matchbox Shrine Template
Before we start with the tutorial, I would like to iterate that you may choose anything you wish to decorate your shrine.
If you don’t want to take the time to create a digital one, then simply print out the pattern on cardstock, glue images to both sides of the inside drawer and the top side of the outside wrapper, cut, glue, embellish, and allow it to dry. The only limits are the boundaries of your imagination! In the past, I have used beads, ribbon, digital images, photos, and even magazine cut-outs to create my matchbox shrines. Just choose a theme and let your muse guide you (as with all artistic
endeavors)!
This week, I have used the design pack from Missy’s Bits entitled “Urban Chic” to design a beautifully feminine matchbox. However, I always flip the inside drawer (it is easier to decorate in GIMP 2.0 this way), so I suggest printing out the template on printer paper before wasting a full sheet of cardstock. This will allow you to have a template of where to cut and glue considering I have covered over the shaded and dotted lines with digital paper.
Now, for the project at hand:
1. Download the Matchbox Shrine PDF and save to a file on your computer. (I have a folder just for art templates on mine, so that I always know where to find my goodies. If you are interested in more hybrid templates, check out Mirkwood Designs online.)
2. Open GIMP 2.0.
3. Select File and then Open from the dropdown menu. This will allow you to import your matchbox template directly into GIMP.
4. Starting with the ouside wrapper for the matchbox, choose a digital paper that you would like to show off. This will be the OUTSIDE of your shrine which everyone can see, so make sure that it really pops. Click on File then Open to select the paper from where you have your “Outside Content” saved. Select your paper and double click. Now, the paper will open in a new window. I suggest shrinking the paper to about the size of 350 X 350 pixels to start.
5. Copy the newly shrunk piece of digital paper (right click, edit, then copy) and paste it onto the matchbox template (right click, edit, paste).
6. Using the shrink button on the left hand side of the screen, adjust your paper to fit the outside wrapper. In order to delineate where to fold the matchbox, I have alternated the colors of paper. This takes longer, but it gives a clean, crisp look to the outside of your matchbox. If you wish to do the same, simply follow steps 4 to 6 again. To alternate papers, I suggest adjusting the size of one paper, then right click, copy, and paste the same paper. Click on the Move button to drag the paper to the new position.
7. Add embellishments by selecting File and Open from the dropdown menu. Shrink accordingly, and move the embellishment to the position you desire.
8. Repeat step 7 as many times as necessary until you have achieved the desired look for the outside of your matchbox.
9. Now, we can tackle the Inside drawer of the template. Choose the paper you wish to fill the middle, then click file and open from the dropdown menu. Shrink the paper in the new window, copy, and paste onto the template. Adjust your paper to the correct height and width before beginning to tackle the rest of the inside drawer.
10. Choose a paper which you would like to fill the outside walls of the drawer. Repeat step 4, and then adjust the size to fit the MIDDLE (Gray) portion of the matchbox drawer. Once in place, copy, paste, and move to the opposite side of the drawer.
11. Copy, paste, and move the newly sized paper to the top of the template. Rotate the image to 90 degrees, then shrink it to fit the top side of the drawer. Once the top is in place, copy, paste, and move the paper to the bottom to the template (make sure that it is in the Middle gray box so that the matchbox drawer is uniform all of the way around it).
12. To fill the inside flaps of the drawer, continue with steps 10-11 in the outside white boxes that are remaining.
13. You will now want to fill the inside tabs with color. Click on the Fill button that looks like a paintcan tipping over. Select the color that best matches the inside paper of your matchbox and click on the four remaining empty sections.
14. Now you can begin to place the embellishments for the outside of the inner drawer. Repeat step 7 until you get the desired effect for your shrine.
15. Using a small pair of scissors, cut out the template along the black lines. Using a bone folder or a ruler, fold the template on the dotted lines (or every place where the paper changes). Glue the gray areas of the template and fold the template edges to form a rectangular wrapper and the sides of the inside of the drawer. Press firmly and allow to dry.
16. Once completely dried, insert the drawer into the wrapper. Fill with matches, safety pins, a mini sewing kit, or even small candies. Remember that the inside is where you will find your treasure, whether it be tangible or artistic in nature.
Now, you have completed your matchbox shrine and can begin using it as a functional piece of art.
You may find the kit used in this template at Missy’s MyMemories Shop or at Divine Digital, entitled “Lipstick Jungle” and “Urban Chic” respectively.
Print your Matchbox Shrine on card stock before cutting, folding, and gluing your hybrid project.
Cut along the solid lines of the inside drawer and the outer wrapper before folding.
Using a ruler or a bone folder, fold along the dotted lines and glue accordingly.
This is what your finished matchbox will look like!!
If you have any other suggestions for hybrid art projects which you would like to see showcased on www.scrappingartistry.com, please leave a comment and a link to a template and I will do my best to accommodate your requests. Thank you for joining us daily and I hope that you have enjoyed our hybrid art projects as much as I have had making them. And as always, make a memory today, and make sure that you have a camera on hand to capture it!
Are You Getting All the Scrapping Artistry News???
Hi, Shanna here with your weekly challenge from our team here at Scrapping Artistry. This week is a simple challenge that will benefit you in the long run. We all love great scrapping deals right? Well if you aren’t signed up for the Scrapping Artistry Newsletter you are missing out each week on great sales, freebies, and more. So what are you waiting for sign up it’s right here on this page to the right. Here is a screen shot to help you find it:
Along with the Newsletter each of our designers have their own Facebook Fan Pages so you should also “LIKE” them for freebies and special Facebook only promotions.
And don’t forget their store’s sites that also offer great deals and promotions:
Our management team here also have some really great Facebook pages dedicated to their scrapping stuff and they run Exclusive Freebies from time to time so “LIKE” them as well so you can get all the goodies 
Also please don’t forget Kara’s Challenge to support CF Awareness this month! If you haven’t heard please go read all about it HERE and do your part to help support her disease!!
Tags: CF, facebook, missy's bits, Newsletter, SugarMoon
Tuesday Treasure~ Two Templates :)
Hi Amber here! Today I have for you two awesome templates made by me to match two kits from our designers Missy’s Bits and Sugarmoon Designs. But first I want to remind everyone that May is Cystic Fibrosis awareness month. I know we have talked about it alot this month but this is something important to us! If you missed the previous post or wasn’t able to dontate then and wanted to come back to do it HERE is the link to the previous post. Also Missy’s Bits and Sugarmoon Designs have their kits at WithLoveStudio on sale for only $2 and all proceeds will be donated to the CF Foundation! So now is a great time to pick up their kits you’ve been wanting and to help find a cure for CF!
Now on to our freebies… Like I said before today I have two templates for you. One to match Missy’s Spring Tea kit found HERE and one to match Sugarmoon’s Vintage Tea Party found HERE
Here is a preview of what you will be getting from me today!
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Enjoy and Happy Scrappin!
Monday’s Meal: Rolo Pretzel bites
Hi everyone! Cammi here with Monday’s meal. As the end of the school year approaches, many of our children will be having school parties. Today I’m bringing to you a super easy snack that the kids love! They are rolo pretzel bites. I made a batch of them one time, and had them sitting on the counter in a container. When I went to eat one, the container was gone! I tracked it down by the trail of pretzel crumbs, and located a now empty container in my oldest daughter’s room. The three oldest had devoured the bites in a matter of minutes! This made for one very unhappy mommy, and three overstuffed kiddos!
Thank you Glorious Treats for this photo!
Rolo Pretzel Bites
Small Waffle Pretzels
Bag of unrolled Rolo’s
Pecan Halves
Preheat oven to 250. Line cookie sheet with foil, and lay out waffle pretzels. Add a rolo on top. Bake in the oven for 4 minutes, or until rolo is soft. (Don’t cook too long! you want the candy warm, not melted) Add pecan half to each one, and press down.
Now you’re ready to enjoy!
