Homemade Amaretto

I've been a busy little elf lately. Last night I finally got down to business and altered those little coke ornament bottles I've had in my stash.
First I removed the labels and the little ring that is left around the nexk of the bottle when the cap is removed. Then I went outside and spray painted all the lids a shiny gold. While they were drying I washed out all the bottles and then used a little bit of fingernail polish remover to take of the black manufacturing numbers on the side and neck of the bottle. When the bottles were clean and dry and I applied Chrismas rubons I had in my stash and then set about making the Amaretto.
I swear it tastes like the real thing...

In a saucepan over medium heat combine:
1 cup water
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
Heat until just boiling and until all the sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Next add:
2 cups Vodka
2 tablespoons almond extract
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Stir well.

Fill your bottles with your homemade Amaretto. (One recipe above fills 2 bottles.) Add your gold lid and tie with a beautiful bow. Be sure to add a Homemade Amaretto tag!

I'll be giving these bottles to my friends and neighbors along with some Snickerdoodles and Nut Roll cookies.

If you aren't an Amaretto fan a quick search on the internet will turn up recipies for homemade Bailey's Irish Cream too!

Christmas Cards

The pressure is on. For quite a few years I have been sending homemade Christmas cards. I love making them, but now everyone expects one and I am not one to disappoint. This year I thought and thought and thought about the card I wanted to make. I've done cute. I've done country. I've done clever. Hmmmmmmmm. So this year's card is elegant. Yep, I know kind of out of the box for me. Hope you like it. I got the idea for the tree from Impress Rubber stamps. To make it I used a snowflake punch and 2 shades of blue green Bazzill Cardstock and red Bazzill Bling Cardstock.
The snowflakes are glued in just the center so the edges jut up and stick out-just as the branches of a tree would.
I cut the Happy Christmas words using my Cricut and their Christmas Soluntions cartridge. The silver stripe and tree trunk are from silver paper that I have had in my stash for so long I have no idea where they came from....the silver stars however are a completely different story. They are Hotfix metallic stars. If you aren't familiar with Hotfix- it's awesome. Metals, beads and crystals in all sizes and shapes you can imagine that when touched with the heated Hotfix wand aheres in seconds to whatever you want to place them on. Fun, product that I will Blog more about later this week.

Folded Ornament

I tried making these folded ornaments the other day and they are really fun to do! They kind of remind me of when I was a teenager and we made gum wrapper chains. Here are the step by step instructions....
Step 1: Cut 8 equal squares of Scrapbook paper or Gift Wrap in any size you'd like. The larger the squares, the larger the ornament.

Step 2: With the wrong side up- locate the center of your square and fold all four corners into the center.

Step 3: Fold the bottom point of the square up to the top, making a triangle.

If you find your folding isn't tight enough to hold the pieces in place..Add a little drop of glue to the points and repeat the final step.


Step 4: Fold one flap down to the bottom edge.

Step 5: Fold the triangle in half away from you- making a smaller triangle. The "smooth" side goes on the inside.

Step 5: Slide the flaps of one triangle into the pockets of another. Repeat with all 8 squares until the ornament is completed. Add a hole and string to hang.

Homemade Holidays Open House

If you're strolling around the internet today or tomorrow and are looking for something to do...I suggest dropping in at the Homemade Holidays Open House at Rocky Mountain Hobbies. You'll find it listed under the Cyber Crop Central section of the message board. The Design Team has put together fun Homemade Packaging ideas for their favorite homemade holiday goodies and have included the recipes. Fun,fun, fun!
For the crop I made little gingerbread houses from half pint milk cartons and included a recipe for microwave Peanut Butter Fudge as my project. Hope you'll stop by!

Christmas is Coming!

"This year I will be done with my shopping early. This year I will be organized. This year I will bake cookies for all my friends and neighbors. This year I will enjoy the holiday and won't let the stress get to me." This is my new mantra- I vow to say it to myself whenever I feel Christmas becoming a chore. Oh how I secretly long for those childhood days when it was all filled with excitement, fun and magic. That being said I truly am one who would much rather give a gift than receive one. I just wish I could fold my arms and nod my head ala I Dream of Jeannie and have everything cleaned and decorated, bought, wrapped and baked.

To get myself started in the Christmas spirit I made a gift bag and matching card.
To make these I tried something new. I used an ink pad that has no ink. It's glue!
I then used an acrylic stamp with the glue the same as if it were ink. The applied glitter to the glue. You can use a fine lose glitter or you can purchase glitter sheets. This also works with flocking. I then used Stickles glitter glue and added bulbs to my trees. It's hard to photograph- but it's really worth the effort. Very pretty. The result is much more professional looking than in the photograph. I can think of a thousand ideas for this technique. Adding names to ribbons. Making decorative edges on To and From tags. I highly recommend trying this technique so you too can get some of the sparkle, shine and magic back into your Christmas. Last year I did a country Christmas, this year I think I just might be putting on the Ritz! Not one to usually go for "bling" I think a little glitz might be fun for a change.

Funky!

I have advice today. It's my birthday. I'm getting older and feel like this qualifies me to give advice. Be bold. Be daring. Take risks! Maybe it's just a scrapbook page- but, I went out on a fun, funky limb for this one and I love it! I stitched, I inked, I stamped. I used patterns and colors I never thought I would use. I cut and layered and then I layered some more. I say go for it! There are no rules when it comes to scrapbooking!!! Just have fun.

Oh MY GOSH she posted in her blog!!

I know- I know it's been way to long since I posted. Life went into warp speed for a while- but, things are back to normal (I hope). Anyway- I am getting caught up on my scrapping, it feels GREAT. Love this Granola line by Basic Grey. The combination of Blue and Brown seems to be my favorite lately. No the boys aren't in trouble- they spent a day volunteering to clean up a roadway to prevent all the litter and trash from winding up in rivers and creeks. This layout reminds me of something I learned recently. Whenever you are using a group of photographs it's important that one stands out and becomes the focal photograph of your layout, otherwise if all the photos are competing for attention your eye doesn't know where to look and everything becomes visually jumbled together. For this layout I chose Jake's face to be my photo focal point.

This layout left me a bit puzzled when it comes to color choices. What to do with the flourescent yellow that is in most of the photos? I decided to ignore it. What would you have done?