The Greatest of these is Love

Flameless Candles

 I recently joined the world of flameless candles. Yes I've used the little votive ones a few times, but after a customer told me about these wonderful flameless candles with a timer. I had to give them a try. They come in two sizes, and two colors. White or off white, and the off white are vanilla bean scented. Then the best part of all install 3 AAA batteries set the switch to 6h at the time you want them to come on every night and enjoy them every evening when the sun goes down.

 

The timer allows your candle to stay on for six hours, automatically turn off for 18 come back on for six! These are genius. We have a hallway that is a little dark in the winter months, no power outlet anywhere near. Turn these on at 5:00 the first night, and now every night at 5 they come on and go off at 11:00!

 

 

His Love

Shadow Box Frame

I was recently shopping in Ben Franklin and seen this wonderful little box transformed into a great shadow box. I love easy inspirational projects that I can Tweak to make my own. As soon as I seen it, I notice the little stamp under it and knew this was a Tweak for me.

 

 

Do The Tweak

 

Gift Tags

Gift Tags

 

This time of year is a reminder that we will have more than usual reasons to gift others. I've posted before I love to find reasons to gift and having gift tags on hand make that even easier. Also I love to decorate the house for Thanksgiving with the festive looking Christmas packages lining the rooms...So prepping for Christmas tags is now...

 

 

DO THE TWEAK 

 



Project Albums

Project Albums

 

Sometime it's nice to have a place to display photos of projects without a story or tutorial, or anything else. So I created the first Album so that pics can be viewed. Enjoy, ask questions if you have them.

 

Check it out!

Personalized House Warming Gift!

Home is where the heart is...

A fellow worker recently moved into a new house and even though it may not be an actual house warming party. I find it nearly impossible to drop in without it. So I made her a little tag. To go with her little gift.

The Resources

The Tag card basic design is SVGCUTS.com http://svgcuts.com/ Attic Treasures, Tag Card

 

The personalized inside greeting is home is where the heart is vinyl by Jennifer Wambach              the original art was a little differently laid out, so  I quickly ungrouped and rearranged to the space I needed for this little card tag.

 

 

Completed house warming basket.

Daily Life Recipe

Into Each Day Put: 

I have discovered it is important to surround myself with things that remind me of great things/times. So when a bad day creeps in I can ward it off with things around me. Chronic migraines tend to overwhelm me. (This is not a med blog, just FYI, these are managed, and I work with a neurologist)
So I find when I cannot leave my darkened bedroom for a few days and can barely get up to fix food. I need something in those areas to remind me to live 'today'.

This fun little saying seemed the perfect thing to put just above the stove in the kitchen. The fun fonts were all done in the Silhouette DE software.

DO THE PROJECT

Attitude of Gratitude

Fall into an Attitude of Gratitude

 

 

I struggle with debilitating migraines often leaving me not very capable of reasonable communication. Creating the necessity to have a fabulous pharmacy crew, physician, specialist and great people in my life that help me when I cannot reasonably take care of myself.

 

So being grateful is not only important, but a true sense. Recently my pharmacy crew was 'very' helpful and this little basket says it all. "I cannot say it enough" and then one dozen thank you's.

 

Life is short. Buy the shoes.

 

Reusable shopping bag. Triple layer vinyl project.

 

Shoes these days are a really big deal. Weather your a high heel Stiletto lover, simplicity of  flip-flops is your fancy, tennis shoes for running (after kids or on tracks), boots, or anything else for every occasion, people today buy lots more shoes than our previous generations.

So needless to say this saying is quite the hit with many people. However 26 years ago when I had been married only a short time I owned only 4 pairs of shoes. Yes, I only owned 4, 2 pairs of dress shoes; a pair of heels and flats, and 2 pairs of tennis shoes; a good pair and a work pair for mowing the grass, etc.

I went out for a shopping trip of essentials, and window shopping for our soon to be born son. When I seen a pair of shoes, the kind that put a smile on your face immediately and actually make your heart skip a beat. I knew the right thing was to admire them, try them on (wink), feel how comfortable they were, and put them back on the shelf.

At the end of the day my darling hubby asked about the events of my day, which I rambled all the highlights and minimized how wonderfully fabulous those shoes were I had seen. His response was "let me see them." I hid my surprise, and said I didn't buy them. "Why not?" I could think of a million reasonable responses, no reasonable adult would think I should have brought those shoes home at this point in my life. His shock increased as we spoke, deeply questioning, how much could they be? In his mind that obviously was what he had missed. My answer they were on clearance, and I actually thought they were yet cheaper than the clearance tag. "You really liked them?...go back and get them." I remember his very articulate convincing conversation, why I must go back and get them, lol, really true story.

So for me this is a reminder how much my dearest husband loves me, and how I really need to, sometimes (smile) live a little more in 'today' and not worry so much about the future as we do not know what it holds for us.

DO THE PROJECT

Blessings

 Count Your Many Blessings

 This is a project that is just as inspirational in it's completion as it was all along the 'tweaking' way.

 

I must add a little preface here... I love working with vinyl because when your done it's so crisp and exact.

For todays project I wanted it distressed. I also wanted to use this particular paint/stencil method. I also knew I wanted to add numbers because that's the latest craze, and just so worked out on the Silhouette America site that was the challenge of the week. So let's get started and pull this project all together.

 

 

 

See how it's done                                  



See how it's done.

See How it's done!

Kitchen, Spice Jar Tweak

Spice Jar Labels

 

 

Todays tweak reminded me how it is those little things that make such a difference in our everyday lives.

 We have an RV and not different than most RVers we try to utilize every inch of space. However again like most RVers we also like to make things easy on ourselves as well.

We purchased all those little bottles of spices so we could conveniently put them in the small space, and not have to pack them from our home kitchen every time we head out.

Quickly we discovered not all 'small' spice jars are created equal so a few spices ended up in the built in spice rack and one ended up in the pantry cabinet, and the others ended up in yet another cabinet. Suddenly the convenience of it all was just too complicated, after all, all you really need on your eggs in the morning is a little pepper, right?

Anyway Bi-Mart carries little glass spice jars with plastic lids for about $1.00 each, open stock buy as many or as few as you like, so I did!

I used my Silhouette to make vinyl labels (see page for complete details). However you could use address printing labels to print and stick. Buy the new popular chalkboard labels and write your flavors with chalk. Cut out your favorite scrapbooking paper in your favorite shape and seal it to the jar with clear contact paper. So many options, just make it yours!

 



A few of my favorite things...

Shadow Box

Transformed Personalized Hanging Jewelry Box

 

Love this weeks Tweak, of course I typically love them all, (lol).

But a good tweak is when you can take an everyday item and make it useful for you, personalized for you and very special to you.

 

So I took one of those shadow boxes with the front magnetic opening (you can get them at Michaels).

I wanted cheap so I waited for a good sale and I bought the inexpensive one with a off colored background. I recovered the background with a black velour fabric (remnant end JoAnn's Fabrics). I've used it like that for years. However, I kept thinking I should put pictures in the front like you can buy them now. (Bi-Mart usually sells them at Christmas).

I however already had this one so I really did not want to purchase one, and it was working so why worry about it...

Then Silhouette America makes a challenge. "Do anything you want using your Silhouette".

I love hearts, I always want hearts...hmmm.... what to do...

The design was born hearts, our initial, and the year we were married. I cut it out in etched vinyl and applied. Love, Love :)

What can you find that you look at everyday and do something new to it and make it extraordinary?

Keep Tweakin! 

Interactive sihouette challenge

NO surprise here! Exploding greeting!

 

 Over on the Silhouette America Blog site the challenge this week is to use your Silhouette to create something with an interactive element.

I've been wanting to try these exploding boxes for awhile, so what a great opportunity.

The box is a download from the Silhouette Store a Snapdragon snippet design. (I love their designs)

 

 "No" I created with the sketch option, and cut through the middle like a monogram.

 

 

 

I embellished with simple Hello Kitty pictures and a tiny bling.

A co-worker is moving on to a new position and she loves Hello Kitty.

This seems more fun than your typical card.

 

 

Thanks Silhouette America for the challenge.

 

 

Twice the Easter Gift

I've wanted to do one of these spring celebration trees for years, and finally, the one piece that pushed it over to getting it done.

I heard you take down the cute tags Easter morning and put them on the easter baskets. I love this, celebrate decorate for a while and then pass them along... don't have to store them, decide when to take them down. Just naturally happens with the season. Love it...

The tree itself one of the Christmas season ones from

Bi-Mart, Mixed with black and white sticks.

I  created my tags single sided so I could put a note on the back.

I used the free shape down load  for the silhouette. But these would be easy to cut base outer edges and then decorate to your desire.

Making the most of small gifts

I love a good child care provider. Occasionally leading me to want to give a little bonus. However I am not sure if you all are like me, but I frequently find myself thinking, "I only have ____ to give."   It only takes a few minutes to make it a real heartfelt gift. Making the response a hug and treasured memory instead of an awkard money exchange.

 These are the simple match boxes I posted last month. Take your currency fold in half. Wrap tightly around a pencil, remove from pencil wrap with ribbon use glue dot to hold in place.

 

Love at first sight!

 

 A few weeks ago I stumbled on these little jewels when I was searching ideas for decorating small gift boxes. It was just a matter of time to find a reason to build. I found myself pleasantly surprised at the ease of cutting, assembling and then decorating. Nice addition to easy open ended crafts. Simple cut, and assembly directions... 



Storage ~ thinking outside the box

Scrap booking scissors in silverware caddy.

Sometimes when I look at new things I see an alternate use, sometimes I have to search for something thinking beyond the traditional use to fill the current need.

From the very first moment I seen this black metal basket from Spectrum Diversified Designs, I fell in love and I knew exactly what I would put in it.

This is a silverware caddy sold in the housewares section at
Bi-Mart. The perfect place to put my scrap booking scissors so they are conveniently within arms reach.


Life is short, Celebrate every moment of it!

 

Gifting a gift card inspires me to really take the time to make this amazing. I find any one can give, a gift card in a store bought greeting card. I wanted this gift to be super special.

4 mini matchbook notepads personalized with paper watermarked with the couples names and momogrammed.
Cutsom box for these to nestle inside.

a personalized crafted congratulations card.

personalized card specifially made to insert their gift card. Nicely placed inside matching envelope.

In the top of the bag are 2 (sour cream containers) personalized treat containers filled with a few of the new couples favorite treats.

A few final touches on the bag.
This moment has been celebrated!

 What's your next 'moment'?
Find a way to 'celebrate' it in a more meaningful way.