A Piece of Life's Pie

Boo To You Party Invite!

Posted on October 15, 2012 by apieceoflifespie

I can’t believe it is the middle of October already! I love Halloween and that is a great excuse to throw a party. Last year I went a little over board with our party and at one point I think we had a total of 73 guests milling all around our house and backyard! NOT KIDDING! I remember telling my husband right after closing the door to the last guest, “NEVER AGAIN!” Don’t get me wrong, the party was a HUGE success and I have had many of last year’s guest recently asked me if there was a “save the date” for this year’s party. However, I am only insane once and decided to scale WAY back on the invite list to a few very close friends and their kids.

I wish I could say I came up with this idea on my own, but not so much:-) Thankfully I “blog pal” around with some amazingly talented ladies and this idea came from Ribbons and Glue. When I saw her project, I just knew I wanted to do something like it and when I started thinking about party invites, I thought how cool it would be to make a party invite that is very personal and can be used as Halloween decor for years to come.

In another project I saw from Ribbons and Glue, she had these little ghosts that she found at Target. I loved them the minute I saw them, but I have a thing for ghosts and snowmen so that was not too far of a stretch for me to HAVE TO find those. Sadly, I could not find them right away until last week when we were in the $ bin area at Target and my oldest spotted the LAST box of them! WOOT! WOOT! Those were scooped up in a NY minute and the project stated to take shape!

I found some scrap wood the hubs was tossing out and sanded it down, painted it black and then did a layer of white/orange at the same time to give it a “candy corn” feel with craft paint. I let it dry and then sanded it down again to distress it.

Using Simply Charmed, I cut the “font” BOO at 3 1/2 inches. I ran it through my Cuttlebug Spots and Dots. The ribbon I used was from the Celebrate It line from Micheal’s and the little purple bling I picked up there too. Using twine from the Twinery, I made a “spider web” behind each “O” just fastening twine with tape. I added a little black gem to the middle to appear as a spider.

The paper is from a Holiday stack from Cloud Nine Designs. I added additional ribbon to balance out the block. I then glued the paper over the ribbon using Zip Dry. I also used the same paper and glued it to the back of the block where I then added another removable paper piece with the details of the party information on it (sorry no pictures of that… did not want to risk having 73 people showing up on my doorstep:-))

As for the little table scatter ghosts, I wrote the names of all the members in the family with a fine tip Sharpie and added bows to the girls. I used glue dots and added googly eyes (totally scrap-lifted that from Holly- I am really not craft stalking her, I promise! However, if you have not seen her blog, I highly recommend it! Her blog has inspired me greatly and actually has lit a fire of creativity in me when I felt like I was losing my creative mojo) and then used medium sized glue dots and added the ghosts to the “BOO”. I then used pop dots to the BOO.

So far the invites have been a hit and they love that it is something that can be used for years to come and it was so personal.

Thanks for sharing a piece of “not your everyday ghoulish invite” pie with me.

Linking Up To:

Everyday is an Occasion-Sunday Funday

Paper Issues – Halloween Harvest

Craft-O-Maniac

Decorate To Celebrate

Really Reasonable Ribbon – Halloween Ribbon

My Sheri Crafts- Halloween

Pink Cricut Link It Up Tuesday

Pink by Design – Fall or Halloween

12 Comments

Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog #133 Down on the Farm

Posted on October 15, 2012 by apieceoflifespie

Happy Monday everyone! Just in case any one may have “a bad case of the Mondays” (line reference from the movie Office Space), this week’s challenge over at FCCB should perk you up! The challenge is to make a project using a farm animal. Since it is fall and many are heading to their local farms to gather pumpkins how perfect is this theme! Head over and link up some farmin’ fun.

For this project I found a mirror picture frame on clearance at Target for only $4.98! I was thrilled and turned it into a chalkboard wall hanging. I used chalkboard spray paint and painted the mirror (after I sanded down the mirror so the paint would stick). I then took out the glass from the 4×6 picture frames and cut down some paper from the Stampin’ Up Design paper series Domestic Goddess (which I used for the whole project and isn’t that paper just perfect!), and adhered it straight to the photo insert with my ATG.

Using my Cricut Cartridge, Country Life, I cut out the hens at 2 1/4 inches from page 43 and 44 only using the main cut and layer 1 and 2 in shift position. I then added some cream burlap twine around each hen’s neck, added some buttons and stamped a sentiment from Closet to My Heart stamp set, It’s Your Day using a silver ink I found in the Michael’s $ bin . . . bad idea (had to try to fix with silver Sharpie- once again Sharpie saves the day!). Sometimes the $ bin can come back and haunt you. 🙂 I used Pop Dots and my ATG on the hens and used Glue Dots mini and medium sizes for the buttons.

For the banner, I cut it out from Country Life as well at 1 3/4 inches. I wrote the lettering with a silver Sharpie and ran some burlap twine through it and added the buttons at each end using Glue Dots mini size. I adhered the banner with Pop Dots.

I love how this project turned out regardless of my stamp ink issues. The colors and patterns are fun and I feel I turned a boring picture frame into a functional and fantablous gift for my sister-in-law.

Don’t forget to mosey on over to FCCB’s challenge and see what the rest of the amazing DT has in store for you and link up a fun project!

Thanks for sharing a piece of “down on the farm with Cricut” pie with me.

2 Comments

Posted in Cricut Cartridge: Country Life, FCCB(Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog) Design Team Projects and tagged do it yourself chalkboard ideas, do it yourself chalkboard picture frames. Bookmark the permalink.

What Happens When Crafting Hands You Lemons!

Posted on October 14, 2012 by apieceoflifespie

If you love someone, set them free. If they come back they’re yours. But, if it just sits in your living room, messes up our stuff, eats your food, uses your phone, takes your money, and does not appear to realize that you had set them free… You either married it or gave birth to it.

Last weekend I headed off to the local craft fair that is held at the fair grounds each October. I do this every year and this is where I find some fun and special goodies for Christmas gifts and MOST of all great ideas on things to make.

One of the things that caught our eye was a sign with a play on the famous saying. We howled at the sign and my friend really had a liking to it, but it was not quite something that would look cute in her home. So here is my version of that idea and I think she is going to love it. I like that I made it have a very classical and elegant feel, so it will draw a person in to read it expecting it to be inspirational and sappy and then POW not at all what your were expecting with a side of chuckles!

I found this wood box structure at Michael’s and it is 12×12. I then painted layers using craft paint colors of brown and buttermilk. Using Cricut Craft Room and the Wild Card font, I made a stencil of this saying…I then ROYALLY messed up with the execution the original idea and had a huge mess of paper, Mod Podge and paint and had to pull apart the big mess and sand for quite some time. Once that was over and I slept on what in the heck I was gong to do.

I decided to cut the saying with a light brown vinyl and transfer it onto the project using transfer tape. OH THE PAIN of taking out all the nested portions to the letters. YUCK! Then I had to face the reality that the lettering was too light for the project and instead of scraping off all the vinyl and cutting it out with black vinyl (like I should have and ALMOST did), I traced each letter over with black Sharpie!

Once that nightmare was over, I played around with several embellishments and decided to pull out Flower Shoppe and cut some scalloped flowers out in 2,3 4 inches sizes. I added some pearls and ribbon.

I used some pretty scrapbook paper from K&Company Designer Paper series and framed the outside boarders using Zip Dry paper glue! That stuff is awesome!

I guess you could say I originally made this project into a batch of lemons and somehow managed to salvage it into a solid glass of lemonade!

Thanks for sharing a piece of “never give up on your lemon moments, just add some sleep and heart to squeeze out some sweet lemonade” pie with me!

Linking Up TO:

Everyday is an Occasion-Sunday Fundays

Craft-O-Matic

5 Comments

Posted in Cricut Cartridge: Flower Shoppe, Cricut Cartridge: Wild Card Cricut Cartridge, Cricut Craft Room and tagged DIY fun and elegant signs using Cricut Craft Room, DIY if you love someone signs, home decor ideas using Cricut, home decore ideas using vinyl, how do you recover from doing mod podge wrong, How to distress soemting. Bookmark the permalink.

Best Witches!

Posted on October 9, 2012 by apieceoflifespie

Today I committed to get in the craft studio and get some stuff done that I had on the board before I allow Pinterest to over inspire me and I end up with twenty projects piled up half done!

Before I get into the details of how and why, I want to note that you may be seeing an” up in my game” with my photography. My fellow design team member over at FCCB and newly found blog buddy, Holly, from Ribbons and Glue has been such a wonderful cheerleader and inspiration. One of the things that I have really noted about her blog is her photography. Granted her projects could be posed atop a trash can and no one would ever notice. However, her attention to detail, lighting and props really adds additional WOW factor. So if you see that some of my newbie staging looks somewhat familiar, yes I am gleaning from the MASTER and will settle in my own style soon enough.

Now on to the project! This is a little hat I picked up at Michael’s a few months ago with my sweet neighbor in mind. I wanted to make her a Halloween goody for her home. Yes, I know that a few months ago would mean August, but Halloween comes out before the Fourth of July fireworks cool down.

I painted the hat with black craft paint (about three coats). As the third coat was drying I dusted the whole hat with black glitter. It added some pops of bling! Then I used some mini orange feather boa around the brim. Note: this stuff gets everywhere! It is way worse than glitter!

Then with Flower Shoppe Cricut Cartridge I cut out 3 scalloped flowers at 5,6,7 inches and made the flowers (first time ever making these flowers and I have the hot glue burns to prove that!). I used buttons for the flower buttons. I the made the little sentiment sign using My Pink Stamper’s Spooky Puns stamp set, Story Book Cricut Cartrige cut at 1.5,1.75 and 2 inches and embossed with Cuttlebug’s Musical Flourish. Attaching to a cut down skewer.

Linking Up To:

Pink Cricut – Link it Up Tuesday

Decorate to Celebrate – Halloween

Sunday Fun Day Link Party

My Crafting Channel – Halloween

Die Cuttin’ Divas – Fall Colors

Paper Issues – Halloween Harvest

Paper Playtime #85

Little Scrap Pieces: Fun Fridays

Joyful Stamper: Inspire Me Fridays

Simply Create: Linky Party

Simply Crafts: Halloween

CraftyMess- Anything Goes

Cardz TV: Buttons and Boos

Thanks for sharing a piece of “keeping on task and leaning new things” pie with me!

30 Comments

Posted in Cricut Cartridge: Flower Shoppe, Cricut Cartridge: Storybook Cricut Cartridge, Cuttlebug Folders, My Pink Stamper Spooky Puns and tagged center pieces for halloween, crafting halloween decorations, diy table decor for halloween, Halloween decorations, Halloween paper crafts, halloween witch hat, Halloween witch hats. Bookmark the permalink.

Chicken Broccoli Alfredo Subs!

Posted on October 8, 2012 by apieceoflifespie

Sometimes you just need a quick meal, one you can make in no time flat that meets my three musts:

E. Easy = Exactly what it means.

A. Available = Ingredients you can access easily and are available anywhere

T. Tasty = Again, exactly what it means.

My kids love this meal and it is one of those quick meals that shakes up just opening up a box of Hamburger Helper!

This meal could be an easy pair with leftover grilled or roasted chicken.

All you do is grill up two chicken breasts with a little garlic seasoning and salt and pepper. Slice it up into small pieces.
Steam up about 2 -3 cups of fresh or frozen broccoli.
Line a cookie sheet with foil or parchment paper and place hoggie rolls on cookie sheet. Begin to fill sandwiches by adding a layer of chicken, then broccoli, spoon desired amount of pre-made Alfredo Sauce (I find the brand from Trader Joe’s, but your local grocery store will have several brands to choose from) and then layer the top with mozzarella or provolone.
Bake at 350 for about 10-15 minutes (or until the cheese has melted and slightly browned and the alfredo sauce has heated through)

5 Comments

Posted in Pie's Recipes and tagged chicken alfredo subs, easy chicken meal ideas. recipes made with alfredo sauce, easy kid friendly meals, easy weeknight meals, italian sandwiches, quick and easy meals, sandwich ideas. Bookmark the permalink.

31 Days to Boo-Day Countdown Candy Jar!

Posted on October 2, 2012 by apieceoflifespie

As most of you know I am a mommy to little girls ages three and four! Now that fall has started so has the endless questions of, “when is Halloween?” and “When is Santa coming?”. So I decided to make something fun to help them count down the days till Halloween by making a little jar filled with the correct number of candies to do the 31-day countdown. We are on day two and they are thrilled every afternoon to get their little taste of what is to come at the end of the month!

In celebration of owning my Cricut for 2 years, I decided to use one of my fav carts and the VERY FIRST EVER cart I used, Simply Charmed! It will ever be close to my heart because of that!

Thanks for sharing a piece of “is it Halloween yet” pie with me!

Some fantastic challenges I am linking up to:

My Craft Spot: Boo to You

Scrappy Moms Stamps – Terrific Tuesdays

Craft-O-Maniac

Joyful Stamper: Inspire Me Fridays

More than Favors: Wacky Wednesdays

Recipe:

Cricut Cartridge: Simply Charmed cut at 3 inches

Stamp: Peachy Keen- Simple Sallies

Stampin’ Up Pastels – for the cheeks and mouth coloring

Gelly Roll ink pens – for the eyes and freckles

Ribbon All Celebrate It brand from Michael’s – I make a homemade rosette

Tulle

Stamp Ink: Stampin Up- Classic Black

Jar- Michael’s

Glue Dots (mini and medium sized)

11 Comments

Posted in Cricut Cartridge: Simply Charmed Cricut Cartridge, Peachy Keen Stamps and tagged countdown jar idea, do it yourself coundown jars, fun halloween ideas for kids, halloween countdown candy jar, halloween decor, halloween projects, halloween projects using cricut. Bookmark the permalink.

I Feel the Love Project

Posted on September 28, 2012 by apieceoflifespie

Hello everyone! I have been very behind in posting, but not without reason. Last Sunday, while I was training for my ocean swim in the ocean, I had a kidney stone attack and have been passing them all week. If anyone has ever had kidney stones, you will know it has been a challenging week and to come down with passing one while swimming 1/4 mile off shore, the shark risk was no longer a worry. And I am not kidding about the fact there was a true shark worry since there has been several sightings of hammer heads and great whites off the local coast thanks to a random colony of 300+ seals that took up residency on the “world’s safest beaches” of Carpinteria and Summerland. I sadly admit I had to be pulled in by a support kayaker; not my most shinning moment.

So here I am finally getting back into the craft room, even though I am still not finished passing my stones to make a project for the I Feel the Love Project of making a Halloween card for the kids at Casa Pacifica. As I mentioned in an earlier post this cause hits close to home and is close to my heart. You still have time to participate in this awesome cause! Deadline to link up is September 30th!

Thanks for sharing a piece of “swimmin’ with the sharks” pie with me!

Recipe:

Cricut Cartridge: Create a Critter 2 (house cut at 3.5 inches Fence cut at 1.25,1.5,1 inch Bat (hid the work “scary”) cut 1.25 ) and Mini Monsters (Light Post cut at 2.75 inches)

Paper: Papertreyink – Halloween and multi color paper

Cuttlebug: Traffic Jam

Stickles: Diamonds!

Pop Dots

Note I layered the house 3 deep.

4 Comments

Posted in Cricut Cartridge: Create a Critter 2, Cricut Cartridge: Mini Monsters Cricut Cartridge, Cuttlebug Folders and tagged charity projects for halloween events, Halloween cards, halloween cards made with spookey houses, haunted house cards, I Feel the Love Project, layerd halloween cards, paper crafting halloween projects. Bookmark the permalink.

Fantabulous Cricut Challenge #129 End of Summer

Posted on September 17, 2012 by apieceoflifespie

Happy Monday everyone!

Today we are having another fantastic challenge over at Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog. The theme is bitter-sweet since I love summer and hate to see it slowly and I do mean slowly fade away (this weekend has been full of record-breaking heat here in Southern California with not much of a let-up for this week) but fall is nearing fast and that comes with so many wonderful things to look forward to as well.

Today’s inspiration came from me loving the beach and how it brings me such peace when I spend time there, especially at the end of the summer when the marine layer has lifted and the days and water are much warmer. The chair was cut from Life’s a Beach. I distressed it just using stamp ink, sponges, and little Q-tips to give it the “beach weathered” feel.

Now it is your turn to head on over to FCCB and link up your fantabulous project and get in the running for the goodies and being one of our Top Picks!

Thanks for sharing a piece of “life’s a beach” pie with me!

Recipe:

Cricut Cartridge: Life’s a Beach cut at 3.5 inches (pg. 81)

Paper: Papertreyink – Pure Poppy, Vintage Cream, Ocean Tide

Cuttlebug: D’vine Swirls and Distressed Stripes

Ink: Close to My Heart – White Daisies and Chocolate

Ranger Perfect Pearls – Biscotti (used dry on layerd embossing to add a slight shimmer)

Burlap – Got at Jo-Anns

Stamp: My Pink Stamper – Christmas Wishes

8 Comments

Posted in Cricut Cartridge: Life's a Beach, Cuttlebug Folders, FCCB(Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog) Design Team Projects, My Pink Stamper - Christmas Wishes and tagged beach themed cards, beach weathering paper crafting, burlap, challenge ideas, distressing paper crafting to make look like beach weathered, encouraging cards, inspirational cards using Cricut, inspriational card, summer cards, sympathy card ideas, using burlap in paper crafting. Bookmark the permalink.

Exploring Cricut Guest Designer – Happy Boo Day!

Posted on September 17, 2012 by apieceoflifespie

Hi everyone!

If you are hunting for the Monday’s Fantabulous Cricut Challenge, please click HERE.

If you have popped over from Exploring Cricut today you are in the right place! It has been so much of an honor to be a guest designer for Exploring Cricut and I had a a lot of fun making this project for them.

I love Halloween! I can really get into the spirit of it and I decorate my house just as much for Halloween as I do for Christmas. I made this wreath for one of my kiddos bedroom doors. It is a simple 12 inch green foam wreath I got at Michael’s. I then wrapped it with yarn. I wanted to go for a candy corn feel, so I used white, yellow and orange and wrapped different block sizes for the colors, like that of a real candy corn.

My little ghost was cut via Cricut Craft Room from the Dress Up Paper Dolls cartridge and I hid the face, so I could use Peachy Keen’s Simple Sallies face stamp. The sign the ghost is holding was also cut via Cricut Craft Room where I manipulated the layers to meet the needs I had to be able to use the “Boo” stamp from Close to My Heart. I ran the black layer through my Cuttlebug using the Seeing Spots embossing folder.

Using my Crop-a-Dile, I punched a holes through the hands of the ghosts, and then ran black and orange Baker’s Twine though both the hands and sign and tied bows at each end. I also made a small bow using 1/8 inch ribbon to attach to her sweet little head. Hey, I have two little girls and everything must have bows!

Finalizing this step, with tulle and candy corn ribbon I made a simple “flower” bow by tieing two strips of each (in layers) to the wreath and folding under to make the bow portion using straight pins to fasten to the wreath. I then attached the ghost to the “flower” bow with hot glue.

Using Simply Charmed Cricut Cartridge, I cut the pumpkins and their “blank” layer and ran that layer through my Cuttlebug using Distressed Stripes embossing folder. I cut the end pumpkin off of the cut and discarded. I touched the stem, leaves and vines with Diamond Stickles for that extra bit of bling. I layered the pumpkins using Pop Dots.

Using Sweet Shop again via Cricut Craft Room, I made another sign. I ran the black layer through my Cuttlebug using Seeing Spots embossing folder and stamped the top layer with “Happy Boo-Day” from My Pink Stamper’s Spook-alicous set. I attached the sign to a 4 inch lollypop stick from Wilton with hot glue then attached the pumpkins to the stick. I then attached the whole embellishment to the wreath with hot glue. I made a candy corn bow and attached to the sign with hot glue!

Using a festive ribbon, I wrapped and tied a bow to the top of the wreath, for easy hanging.

The hardest part of the whole project was wrapping the yarn around the wreath. It was a bit time-consuming, but I did it while watching TV, so that made the time fly by.

Thanks for coming and sharing a bit of “Exploring Cricut” pie with me today!

Recipe:

Cricut Cartridge: Paper Doll Dress Up (ghost cut at 3.7 inches x 5.5 inches and hide face) Simply Charmed (pumpkins cut at 5 inches x 2.5 inches) Sweet Shop (sign cut at 1.8 x 1.35 and 2 inches x 1.45 inches)

Paper: Recollections Multi Color Cardstock

Stamps: Close to My Heart , My Pink Stamper, and Peachy Keen

Ribbon: Celebrate It, Twinery and Tulle

Gelly Roll white gel pen for freckles

Stampin’ Up Pastel Chalk for cheeks

Ink: Stampin’ Up Classic Black and Pumpkin

Wreath- 12 inch foam

Yarn

Hot Glue, Quick Dry Adhesive, Pop Dots

Diamond Stickles

Crop-A-Dile

Straight Pins

9 Comments

Posted in Cricut Cartridge: Paper Dolls Cricut Cartridge, Cricut Cartridge: Simply Charmed Cricut Cartridge, Cricut Cartridge: Sweet Shop, Cuttlebug Folders, My Pink Stamper - Spook-alicious and tagged Candy Corn inspired crafts, DIY halloween decorations, Halloween Candy Corn Wreaths, Halloween crafts, Halloween decorations, Halloween door wreaths, halloween projects, halloween wreaths using Cricut, halloween wreaths using yarn. Bookmark the permalink.

Easy as Pie Trifle

Posted on September 16, 2012 by apieceoflifespie

We had a busy day going to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History ‘s Butterfly Alive exhibit and when we got home I was needing to get dinner started since our really good friend was coming over. Since it has been so hot here, the house was million degrees so the thought of turning on the oven to make a dessert was just plain insanity. So as I was rethinking what to serve for dessert I came up with this idea. Let ‘s just call it the Heavenly Lemon Berry Trifle!

I sent the hubs up to the store to pick up a premade angel food cake and a box of instant pudding. I grabbed a large lemon off my tree and washed and prepped some raspberries and strawberries and pulled out some all natural cool whip (from Trader Joe’s) I had. Once I had all the ingredients I pulled apart the angel food cake into hearty pieces, mixed up vanilla pudding with lemon juice from a whole lemon and zest of lemon. I then pulled out the Trifle dish that has been in my family for three generations and began building the trifle one layer at a time and popped into the fridge for about an hour or so before serving.

It was YUMMO and so easy. It tasted like I spent all day on that dessert and will be a good staple to have on the menu in our house.

For a little extra- here is one of my camera shots of the day at the Butterfly exhibit. I call it “Butterfly Kisses”. I could not believe my luck on getting this moment of my oldest little one.