Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas to you all
and a happy New Year!

The Scrap Shoppe's blog will resume on
January 3rd. See you then!

T-Shirt Tuesday - More Time to Scrapbook!

This week's T-Shirt Tuesday was completely inspired by my lack of time to scrapbook during this crazy holiday season. Sure, I've been crafting here and there, but I can't for the life of my remember the last time I made a scrapbook layout!

So for all of you scrapbookers out there as swamped as me, this one is for you!

All I want for Christmas is more time to scrapbook!

And if you have found time to scrapbook, I salute you! lol! :)

Candy Gift Containers & a Recipe

This year I decided to make a big batch of Ho Ho Hash and other baked goodies to package up for teacher gifts at my son's daycare. I wanted to share how I decorated some of the containers I used. I'm also sharing the recipe for the "Ho Ho Hash" that is in the containers. See the end of the blog post for the recipe.

Here are 3 of the containers. The one on the left and the one on the right are a pack of 3 plastic jars from the Joann's Essentials line. They are regularly $6.99, but I was able to get them when they were 60% off (that's <$1 per jar!). The lids come in pink, blue, and purple (not shown), which turned out well with my Christmas papers.

The container in the middle is actually a recycled bread crumb container. When I used up all my bread crumbs a couple of weeks ago at dinner, I knew that container would come in handy for something!

I just used scrap paper from my Fancy Pants Frosted papers

To decorate the Joann's jars, I cute a piece of scrap paper ~2" x 12" and attached it with glue dots. The jar is too large for the paper ends to meet, so I cut a large circle (~3.5" in diameter) to cover the gap. I cut out the Christmas trees by hand and added a rectangular scraps to the back as the tree stumps. I attached the trees with pop up glue dots. Added a little Stickles magic to glam them up. Stamped "Merry Christmas" with some Christmas stamps I snagged a while back for $1.

To the lid I cut two different sized circles (3.5" and 2.5"), inked the edges, and stamped "Joy" (from the same stamp set).

I did the exact same thing to this container as the above container. Just played around with the Stickles a bit more around the edge of my large circle on the front of the jar.

The bread crumb container I cover with scrap paper, but the circumference of the jar was bigger than 12 inches so I added some other decorative paper from the paper line to cover the gap. I hand cut several trees in coordinating colors. I ran a sticker around the base of the container and attached the trees just above the sticker. Every other tree I attached with pop up glue dots. All the other trees are attached with regular glue dots.

I added a cicle of paper to the lid and another Christmas tree with some Stickles thrown in for extra decoration.

To all of the containers I attached some ribbon and a card stating what was inside.


Ho Ho Hash
1 bag holiday M&M's *
1 bag chocolate chips
1 bag butterscotch chips
1 can cocktail peanuts
1 bag holiday marshmallows *
1 box Christmas Capt Crunch cereal *
1 box of Cheerio's cereal

Mix all ingredients together and ENJOY.

* I substituted holiday mint M&M's, used regular marshmellows, and peanut butter Captain Crunch. Love how it all tastes together!

*Note* This recipe make a lot of Hash! Not only did I fill up the containers show above, but also 3 or 4 other containers roughly the same size. Be warned!

Confessions of a Fancy Pants Addict

Yep, that pretty much sums it up. The only thing is, I didn't really realize it until this last weekend!

Like I said in last Sunday's blog post, I visited The Scrapbook Superstore and Clearance Center in Sevierville, TN last weekend with some girlfriends. It turns out that a lot of last season's Fancy Pants products were in the Clearance Center... and I might have gone a little wild buying it all up! We're talking papers, rub-ons, transparencies, buttons... I could seriously go on and on.

As I started to do some research on Fancy Pants Designs for this blog post, I realized that I've always been drawn to their collections. I never really paid attention to scrapbook company brands until a few years ago. But it turns out that many of the papers I've used in the past are in fact from Fancy Pants.

Here's a current example of my unknowing Fancy Pants addiction. I found a fabulous Christmas project to work on at the Superstore over the weekend and needed some fun Christmas papers to go with it. I was drawn to a fun, bright colored, whimsical, distressed set of papers. Yep, you guessed it. Turns out it was all from Fancy Pants. *sigh*

This is their brand new Christmas line that I now own a majority of. Cute, yes?

I'm pretty sure I snagged a few of their Valentine's papers, too. Again, without realizing the company.

I've been "trying" to stop buying Christmas papers as I seem to hoard them and have a collection large enough to last me at least 20 years. So I don't have much from the Christmas Magic collection that was released over the summer... though I know I did pick up one of the glittered overlays from this series over the weekend. What can I say? I have a problem!

I discovered this line at the CKC convention over the summer. I'm a sucker for jungle animals so you know I have a lot of this Little Sprouts collection. And this time I didn't even realize it was from Fancy Pants until I saw it on their website yesterday.

I'm admitting my addiction and have even posted the label at the top of this post in my sidebar. I'm not ashamed to say I'm addicted to Fancy Pants!

And wouldn't you know it, the same day I blog about my addiction to Fancy Pants, PeachyCheap.com (yes, I still visit there first thing in the morning EVERYday) has them as the deal of the day? I rushed to add it to my shopping cart then realized I had no credit card to pay with. We just found out yesterday someone in Russia of all places tried to use our CC number to purchase $1500 worth of stuff. No worries. The CC company didn't let it go through, but we did have to cancel our cards and are waiting for the new ones to arrive. So no PeachyCheap for me today. :( Not like I need more Fancy Pants product... ;)

T-Shirt Tuesday - Scrapbook Supplies

You're thinking it. I know you are. I am, too! All I want for Christmas are scrapbook supplies!

Okay, maybe one or two non-scrapbook related items like a food processor and a mini tripod for my digital camera... but mostly its scrapbook supplies!

Pretty please, Santa? I've been good!



We are offering a FREE shipping upgrade to ensure holiday delivery*

*Choose Standard Shipping, and at no extra cost we'll automatically upgrade you to 2-Day Shipping (when needed) to ensure delivery on or by December 24, 2009. Delivery address must be within the United States and cannot be a PO Box. Promotion ends on December 16, 2009 at 11:59 PM (EST). Cannot be combined with any other coupons or promotions.

Jar Full of Goodies

Its that time of year... time to exchange gifts with my best girlfriends! We just had our yearly retreat (the husbands, too) in Gatlinburg, TN. We like to chill out, scrapbook a bit, hit up the Scrapbook Superstore & Clearance Center for some new loot (I found a great Christmas tree project that I'll share later this month), play some games, and just enjoy each others company.

I decided to give my girlfriends some of the paper flowers I made a couple of weeks ago and some homemade fabric flowers a la Prima. I bought some jars at Hobby Lobby to put them all the flowers in and did a little decorating to spruce them up. Here's what I did to the jars...

I bought some Creative Cards on PeachyCheap.com a few weeks ago and thought they would great toppers for my jars. I cut the cards into circles and distressed the edges with brown distress ink.

Since the lids of my jars are a bright silver color, I dulled the edges that would not be covered with paper by putting distress ink on it with a sponge dauber. You should be able to just make it out in the photo above.

I glued the paper on to the lid of the jar and dressed it up with some Stickles.

I glued some ribbon around the edge of the jar and added some rub-on monograms to each side of the jar. To the front side of the jar I also added a 3-D sticker of a butterfly and added stickles to the monogram.

Other sides of the jar...

Time to fill the jars! I added the paper flowers and fabric flowers.

I also added some of my custom die cuts like the ones in my Etsy store.



And here are all 4 of the jars complete and ready to be wrapped!

Brown Sugar Body Scrub

I was recently reading on another blog (I can't for the life of me remember which one - I visit too many!) that the blogger had found a recipe on a sugar website to make your own body scrub out of brown sugar and a few other ingredients. Color me intrigued! I decided to investigate...

What I found was 3 recipes on the C&H Sugar website: one for Sweet N’ Spicy Brown Sugar Scrub, one for White Cane Glimmer Sugar Scrub, and one for Brown Sugar Body Scrub.

I decided to try my hand at the Sweet N' Spicey Brown Sugar Scrub. I have an aunt that I always find difficult to buy for. If this turns out, she'll be getting some under the Christmas tree!

Recipe:
1 cup - C&H® Dark or Light Brown Sugar
1 cup - C&H® Pure Cane Sugar
¾ cup - almond oil
2 tsp. - cinnamon, powdered
2 tsp. - ginger, powdered
2 tsp. - nutmeg, powdered
1 16 oz. - glass container with lid
Cinnamon sticks, optional

I had read on that other blog that the almond oil could be difficult to find and that regular EVOO would be a suitable substitute. When I hit the baking aisle at the grocery store I found that, indeed, the almond oil was not going to be found. I did find some apple oil, but upon reading the label discovered it was just EVOO with an apple peel in it. I wanted something that had a good aroma so I decided to try the bath aisle.

Jackpot! I happened across some foaming bath oil scented with lavendar. Now I'm set!

Since I was using the lavendar oil, I changed my recipe up a bit. Just 3 ingredients: the oil, brown sugar, and pure cane sugar. And you can see I'm using generic brands. They work just as well and save you a few cents.

First things first, I mixed my two sugars. Then I added the oil and mixed it in. I found that by adding 3/4 a cup of oil to a cup of brown sugar mixed with a cup of pure cane sugar left me with a body scrub that seem awfully thin. So I just added more of each sugar to thicken it up. Probably about another cup to a cup and a half of each. As you can see in the picture on the far right, the substance started to thicken up a bit as it dripped off of the spoon.

This made a LOT of body scrub! Plenty for my aunt and a little left over for me.

Here you can see that my 3/4 of a cup of the oil did not really cut into my overall stash. I can make this several times over!

I decorated the jar I'm going to give my aunt. A piece of round paper up top with the edges inked to distress it, covered with a couple of pieces of sheer green ribbon. More ribbon wrapped around the jar with a slot to put a spoon for dipping out the body scrub. A small tag letting my aunt know what this substance is and directions on how to use it. And a Melissa Francis vintage label from my stash was perfect to go on the front of my jar.

Here is a close up of my label. Too perfect! And to make the slot for the spoon I simply tied the ribbon in a knot around the jar then loosely tied another knot around the spoon. Since I left it loose, the spoon could move easily in and out of the slot.

So let's talk money for a minute:
jar: $3.99
spoon: $1.47
bath oil: $3.99
brown sugar: $1.49
pure cane sugar: $1.99
TOTAL: $12.93 -> Not to mention the fact that I have enough ingredients to make at least twice again what I already have. I would just have to get more jars and spoons. I consider the paper and ribbon used as scrap since they came from things already laying about.

Can I just share with you how much this stuff retails for?? How about $65 according to the Fresh website.

I don't own the expensive stuff to compare my homemade scrub to, but I did give my stuff a go in the shower and, let me tell you, my skin felt divine afterwards. I'll be making more of this for myself in the future!

The only thing I might add to this, if I can find some, would be some actual dried lavender. Just to rest inside the jar atop the scrub. Purely for visual purposes. :)


Linking up to

T-Shirt Tuesday - Dreaming

This T-Shirt Tuesday we're featuring a fun twist to a Christmas classic. While our little ones may have visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads this time of year, the rest of us scrapbookers are dreaming of a scrappy Christmas full of decorative scissors, fabric flowers, and patterned paper!

Homemade Kentucky Derby Hat

When DH came home and told me his office was having a Kentucky Derby themed holiday party, and the women were encouraged to wear derby hats I almost flipped out. Those things are darn expensive and there was no way I was buying one just for that one night! So I set out to make one...

The first thing that had to be done before anything else could even be attempted was to find a hat to use as my base. Find a hat = finding your color scheme. It turns out that finding a good hat for what is typically a May event is very hard to find in late November!

Lucky for me, my mom had several hats in her collection that she let me choose from. I selected this brown hat. I love the brim and thought I could have a lot of fun with the colors.

Next I headed to Hobby Lobby to get some supplies. I ended up with several feathers, an extra large flower, tulle, ribbon, and some remnant fabric. Everything was on sale so I saved a bundle!

The first thing I did was tie some of the fabric around the hat. I just tied it in a knot and trimmed off the extra. I'll be covering it later with all my other supplies.

Then I gathered my tulle and wound it through the knotted fabric so there were several loops of it to help add volume to the hat.

Using a hot glue gun* (I'll have a note about the glue gun use at the end) I started adding feathers and then the flower. I also took some of my decorative ribbon and glued it over the fabric for a more decorative look.

Here's a side view so you can see all of it put together better.

I also snuck in a couple of fabric flowers that I made onto the hat so that my fabric flower necklace would match a little better.

My friend Allison and I at the party sporting our fab hats.

And a for fun photo... :)


*I wanted to mention that I tried very hard to NOT use glue while putting this hat together. The hat is so pretty all by itself, that I thought if I stitched all of my supplies on, I could remove them later. Did.Not.Work.

Stitching the materials on let too much weight hang on the brim so that it sagged badly. Using the hot glue I was able to keep all the materials up off of the brim. Its a sacrifice of the hat, but I love the way it turned out! And I received a LOT of compliments on it, especially when people found out I made it myself. ;)

My total $$ spent on the hat (including the cost of the hat itself, even though my mom gave it to me) was less than $25. So next year, ladies, do not hesitate to make your own derby hat instead of spending hundreds of dollars on one!



Linking up to:

The Scrap Shoppe's Etsy Store!

You may not remember, but waaaaaaay back in September I blogged about using Etsy as a source for scrapbooking supplies. While I was having a blast perusing Etsy for all kinds of cool stuff I decided I might as well grab my own shop. Its just been sitting there sad and lonely, until this week!

As of right now, these are only available as downloadable files in .pdf format. Hopefully soon I will be able to print some on nice cardstock, cut them out, and offer those for sale as well. But the great thing about .pdfs? You can print them as many times as you like from your own home printer!

I've put together some fun items for your Christmas craft projects including holiday bingo cards, journaling spots, and gifts tags.

I also have two set of 2010 calendars by month. One has a simple square border for easy cutting, the other has a fancy border if you feeling like digging out your X-acto knife. Also available are two sets of journaling spots, both with distressed/aged looks about them. I love all things vintage! And its reflecting in my work. ;)

These black & white journaling spots and mark your own date calendars are next up to be added to the shop. So you're getting a sneak peek!

I hope to continue to add downloadable designs over the next few days. And look for preprinted die cut designs soon, too!