Pinter-addicted…
**Stands up**
“Hi, my name is Brandy and I am Pinter-addicted”. Talk about the coolest thing since chocolate! I don’t think I have strayed from the DYI or Foods page. But before I get sidetracked, here is CreativeBrandy.com on Pinterest and some of the cool projects we (my daughter & I) have found exciting. I never follow directions to the letter, most of the time I get sidetracked (don’t tell the husband) and forget something. Lucky for me it works out more often than not. Here is one of our favorites and the adaptions. Meddle away!
Leprechaun Hats
(Click the Pick to follow the Pinterest Link)
Ok, these were neat, but again we changed it up a bit.
- We used Keebler Grasshopper cookies as the bases
- dark chocolate to dip the marshmallow
- Lolli Pop sticks from the craft store work great for little hands to dip safely in a low heat (sterno heated) setting
NOTE: For melting the chocolate, in the past we have heated the chocolate in spurts of 20-30 seconds in the microwave, stirring in between heating. Then set up a bowl, heating pad (without the cover, is easier to clean if it gets messy) and a smaller bowl with the chocolate in it. This works best if you melt the chocolate in the smallest bowl so the heating pad isn’t doing much but keeping the inner bowl warm. This is a great “chocolate melting” method if you have little ones who want to help as it is warm to the touch and no real danger of burns. I say that because my heating pad is 10 yrs old, so I am not sure if the newer ones can get hotter? You can see Our Hats decorated with Tube Green Icing posted on our facebook page here, courtesy of a friend (who shall remain nameless because we both ate WAY too many of these bad boys). I have to say the dark chocolate made these absolutely fantastic! No left overs there either 
Well, it is probably good for my midsection when we share.
Now off to see what more pinterest trouble I can get into.
I am going to apologize for not sourcing this correctly. Creativity is my thing, blogging is still a work in progress. http://blog.hwtm.com is the direct website reference.Car Art, Vinyl Decals just for you!
Many custom options available.
Car Decals to fit your interests.
Everything from Stick Families (with tons of customization from skiing families to four-wheeling families), Beachy favorites (crabs, seashells, flipflops, bare feet), to Animal Tracks! Check out my facebook page for the full catalog. This little “Just Beachy” crabby is 5.5″ tall by 4.5″ wide. Decals of this size are $5.00/each.
Contact me for pricing on multiple decal purchases (i.e. family decals). Custom Car Decal work is also welcome and is quoted on square foot of cut vinyl ($10-$15 per foot), additional fee for local (Long Beach, WA area) application services.
Current colors in stock are Black (Matte), White (Glossy), Red (Glossy). Other colors are available upon request, I will post the color pallet soon.
Custom Car Decals
Eat Your Heart Out Brownies
Sometimes I make a mistake when I cook…put too much in or not enough of something…sometimes it works. Sometimes the dog won’t eat it.
I like to think of this as the joys of living with an accident prone artist. My husband eats the edible mistakes and that makes it all better.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 c (2 sticks) butter melted
- 3/4 c SACO Premium Cocoa (I use DROSTE when they mismark it $)
- 1 c Sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 c all purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
DIRECTIONS:
- Preheat oven to 350%F.
- Melt butter in microwave (don’t over do it…it blows up. I speak from experience)
- Add cocoa to butter and stir until blended.
- Add sugar to mixture and stir until blended.
- Add Eggs & vanilla and stir until blended.
- Add Flour & salt and fold in until blended. DON’T Be an “over mixer”.
- Spread mixture into 8 x 8 x 2 inch pan (I prefer glass). DON’T Grease…you have enough butter in the mixture to skate across the Hudson.
- Bake as follows:
- Regular Oven = 25 – 35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
- Conventional Oven = 20 – 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
Enjoy! I will post a picture of my next batch if they ever stay whole long enough to get a picture.
ENJOY!
Vinyl Cutting capabilities!
Yipee! I love it when I over think something and eventually decide to get it.
I have a new toy! Well, tool…but still lots of fun to me.
I can cut shapes (some) and letters up to 5.5″ tall on my new Cricut machine (which should be arriving shortly).
Let me know what you have a need for and I will shoot you a quote!
Die Cutting on a Budget
Eventually, every avid scrapper gets to a point in their discovery of cool gadgets for scrapbooking/crafts where they start to seriously evaluate what tool is best/affordable/compact…etc.
So here I would like to share a little insight into Die Cutting Machines. I have used only manual crank die cut machines, to date. Electronic ones worry me because I think of how often I am buying a new printer and I just can’t make myself do it. Someday.
Now, don’t get me wrong I am a pretty thrifty person. But crafting is my weakness. Minus the fact that whomever invented the names for half of these machines/dies ought to be drug out into the street, glued and glittered.
Cuttlebug, fits dies about 5″ wide. Very limited in that aspect and if you stick with Provocraft dies, you will be using lots of kid inspired patterns. Nothing truly fun and inspirational there. With the Cuttlebug, like most die cutting machines, you can explore other brand die cuts. Sizzix is another common one and is compatible in the Cuttlebug with the spacer plates in place (if using the wafer thin dies like the Sizzlits). If you are paying more than $64.00 you are getting ripped off. Department craft stores carry this frequently and are always having sales. (NOTE: JoAnn’s gives away 1 40% off coupon per flyer, but it doesn’t work on sales). I bought mine on Ebay brand new + shipping for $58.
Sizzix BigShot, my current cream of the crop. I love this machine. And no, it isn’t because I lucked out and Sizzix was discontinuing their Hello Kitty BigShot line and this machine was onsale for $62 (Normally retails for $99). Dies normally retail from $5 (Clearlits/Sizzlits), $40 (Bigz, Bigz XL), $120+ (Alphas). However, don’t let that give you sticker shock, because www.sizzix.com lets you sign up for email notifications of sales/coupons. Hence the reason I was able to snag a pink/black BigShot with pink jewel accents (my daughter thinks it is cool, and it works as a great icebreaker for scrap parties). I also pick out 95% of my dies from their website, wait until they go on sale (because they do that alot), spend enough for free shipping (Normally $75/$100 per order). Go in with a few friends and order together and just ship it to one address.
The BigShot is much more versatile for those crafters who wish to make their machine pay for itself. For instance, there are many “bags & boxes” dies on the Sizzix website. I use these for fundraisers, make goody bags for customers as party favors…etc. The list goes on. But the BigShot, with the Extension pads, Extension Adapter pad and Extension cutting pads, lets me do just about any longer die out there. The only Sizzix dies that won’t work are the BigShot Pro dies, which is still new so most of those dies are simply larger replicas of the Big XL.
Photoshop Tutorials…what works…
I have taken a look at many a tutorial. I know my way around a book, list of directions. And personally, I don’t do so well with video tutorials because I like to take notes.
Here are a few to get you started.
HP Learning Center – Much to do, all free. Worth taking a peek. Especially if you are new to Adobe, photography or just plain business. Even the veterans might pick up a few good points they forgot.
Layers Magazine – My new BEST Friend for all things ADOBE related. I have the CS4 suite so sometimes I have to adapt the older tutorials, but I am new to Adobe and this site has been my saving grace! Awesome stuff, they make learning fun. I will warn you…lots of video tutorials (hit and miss). But even those are worth humbly watching in awe.
I am also starting out with one book at a time of the CS4 “Bible” Series. I have the Illustrator one. Very Easy to follow, good stuff. I think next I will try to tackle the Photoshop one and Dreamweaver…wish me luck!
