It's Here!!!

In April, I entered a giveaway to win a Silhouette SD machine from
A Bowl Full of Lemons.

I've never won anything in my life. And, I was merely 1 entry in a sea of 2600. She has an amazing blog, and many followers. Plus, I was brand spankin' new to the blogosphere, and it was my first giveaway.

BUT I WON! I won. Little ol' me! I could not believe it! I screamed when I read the email, and I think I scared the husband! :)

Well, it finally came today! I'm so excited to use it and make all the wonderful projects I've seen in blogland...

...but, I have to clean my craft room first. :(

Lucky Duck!

Today I was making cookies for a cook-out we are attending with friends this evening. I asked husband to take out the trash for me, so he gathered it up and took it out. He came back a few minutes later and asked if we had any bread because there was a baby bird trapped behind the dumpster. We both go back outside and find a baby duck-- like seriously couldn't been more than a week old! I love ducks-- I feed them our stale bread every time they come by our apartment and John just rolls his eyes at me, but I can't help it. We put socks on our hands (we didn't have gloves!) and took our cat carrier out to put the baby in to carry him down to the pond. It took some persuading, but we finally coaxed him out onto the grass.

He wandered into the pond and was reunited with his mom and siblings! Ah-- the cuteness is killing me!

You can bet your sweet bippy that whenever we own a house we will be having a pond with ducks!



ABC Gum Magnets

The other day I was shopping, and I saw a wad of chewing gum stuck to the side of the wall.

First of all, gross. Swallow it.

As I was staring at the chewed up germy gum with disgust, I had a eureka moment!

May I introduce................. chewing gum magnets!

They were super easy to make, too. And I had everything I needed already (love that!).

Here's what you'll need:

• polymer clay (I used a mixture of dark pink and a cream color to get the color above)
• strong magnet
• clay glaze (I used gloss, so it looks all spit-filled and gross)
• paint brush for glaze
• card stock or index card to bake the clay on and a GLASS pan to bake it in (not pictured)

After working with the clay to soften it up, form it into a ball approximately ¾" in width. Now, for this part, you SHOULD probably make a mold from a real chewed piece of gum.

OR............... you could just do what I did (thankfully, Mom doesn't read my blog) and actually chew up the clay. I didn't put the whole thing in my mouth-- just pressed my teeth into it here and there.

Next, I added a strong magnet to the back. Since I wanted it to actually look like gum was holding up my pictures, I didn't want to just glue the magnet on.

I placed another piece of clay over the magnet and smooshed (it's a technical term) the seams together.

Placed the "gum" on card stock, and then onto a glass baking pan (DO NOT USE METAL--- the magnet will stick and pull out of the clay!).

Bake for 15 minutes at 265 degrees, and glaze when cooled. Put on fridge and gross husband out!

I'm linking up here:

Barbeque Chicken Pizza

Look what I made for dinner tonight! Mmm!

I just made it up as I went along, and it was delicious!

It was my first time making pizza dough, so I was a little nervous.

I just searched the web for a recipe and used that. It was just ok I

(will definitely use my mama's recipe next time).

After I spread the dough onto the pan, I spread barbeque sauce down instead of pizza sauce.

Next, I sprinkled mozzarella cheese down, followed by shredded chicken (I just boiled a chicken breast, shredded it with 2 forks and stirred some barbeque sauce into it).

I then layered some fresh mushroom slices and topped it with more cheese.

Then, (you ready for this!?) I drizzled Ranch Dressing on the top! Mmm!

Baked at 500 degrees for 10 minutes, and IT. WAS. AWESOME!

Cute As A Cupcake {Stand} with Zero Calorie Cupcakes

So my mom's birthday was a couple weeks ago, and I wanted to make her a cake stand from thrift store china.

I found some pretty plates and an old candlestick (gave him some love with spray paint), and stuck them together with super glue.

I was going to make her some sort of dessert to put on it, but she's watching calories, so I didn't want to tempt her.

Even though everyone knows calories don't count on your birthday.

After trying to find a healthy alternative, I gave up completely and decided to just give her the stand.

One day when I was rummaging through the massive piles of junk and chaos looking in my craft room closet, I found some leftover Plaster of Paris as it fell on my head from my wedding.

So, I whipped up some NO CALORIE cupcakes, and my mama loved them!

This is how I did it--

You'll need:

• Plaster of Paris
• Water
• An old spoon or plastic spoon
• Old bowls to mix the plaster in
• Acrylic paint (if you choose to make a certain "flavor"
• Spackle or nail hole filler
• Icing bags or Zip Loc baggies
• Icing tips and coupler
• Toppings-- glitter, "cherries", coffee beans, cinnamon, cocoa powder, plastic or clay candy and fruit, fabric paint

I mixed the plaster at a 2:1 ratio and stirred it up really well (I used 2/3 c. plaster and whatever half of 2/3c. is of water just eyeballed how much water). You have to work quickly, or it will harden and then you'll have lumpy blobs and not smooth cupcakes. The amount I used allowed me to make about 4 cupcakes at a time.

While I was mixing the plaster and the water, I added acrylic paint to change the color of the cupcake. In this case, I made yellow cake:

Next, I filled an old muffin tin from the $1 Tree with some paper cupcake liners I had. It should be the consistency of batter. If not, add a little more water. Then, blob it in the liners, leaving about a half inch of space. Remember to work quickly!

Let them harden for at least an hour (wash out your dishes ASAP so the plaster doesn't harden!).

They'll still look wet, and they will feel cold, but it'll be OK.

Now here's the fun part-- frosting and toppings!

Take some spackle and plop it in a bowl. These are the kinds I had at home:

The one in the tub is more 'whippy' than the other, and I think I like it better. It already looks like frosting, but I wanted to add some color. For butter cream, I added a little bit of beige paint to make it look more natural. I decided to go with pink frosting for my yellow cupcakes, so I added some red.

You have a little more time with the spackle to play with colors, since this doesn't dry as quick as the plaster does. Stir the paint in well, or you might have streaks on your finished cupcake (unless that's what you're going for!)

Next, I picked out an icing tip (I think it's #12... it's just a large circle) and prepped the bag.

Fold it down and fill it with the "frosting", just as you would for real cupcakes, and pipe it on!

I made swirls and just started on the outside edge and worked my way in. It also looks good with a star tip.

You can also frost them with a knife or spoon, if you're going for that look, too.

***Wash out your icing tips and bowls RIGHT AWAY!

I used super hot water and q-tips to make sure it was all out.

Now, add the toppings. If you want vanilla bean icing, adding black glitter to the icing works really well.

I've used glitter glass, little berries from an old Christmas wreath, coffee beans, cinnamon, cocoa powder, and plastic candy to decorate the cupcakes. 

Decorate while the spackle is still wet, so the toppings stay put. 

On the ones with blue icing, I used those little silver dragees that you use for cookies (but aren't supposed to eat--- what's up with that!?) and they discolored the spackle a little. Probably would be OK on vanilla icing though. You can also use that puffy fabric paint to make a glaze or swirls, like I did on the picture above (they have one called "Hot Chocolate" that looks like the real deal!).

And the best parts?! I didn't have to buy anything but the dishes, the cupcakes last forever, and they don't have any of that bad for you junk!!!

Oh, and I linked up to my first ever Frugal Friday linky party at:

Yaaaay! 

Mad Hatter Candle Holder

One day, while spending entirely too much time online looking at blogs, I came across this post:

Sarah's China Teaware Lamp.

LOOOOVE.
I've always wanted to have a bakery or cake shop, and if that dream ever happens,
you can bet your sweet bippy, I'll be havin' a lamp like this!
In the mean time, I decided to make an easy version...

All the dishes can be found at the thrift store-- for cheap!

I only spent $0.30 per item! Heck, yeah!

I came home and spray painted the mugs white because they had an ugly orange and blue flower pattern (not matching) and were totally from the 70s.

The two saucers and the bowl matched perfectly and I decided to leave them as is, for the time being.

I used a saucer on the bottom for stability, glued the squatty shaped mug on top of the little dent in the middle of the plate, and then glued the bottom of the bowl to the lip of the mug.

If I really cared, I probably would have measured to find the center, but meh.

Inside the bowl is the taller mug and on top of that is another saucer.

Ta da! Just plop a candle on top and you're good to go!

Practice Makes Perfect

Well, here we go! My first ever blog post!

I decided to start blogging after spending countless hours online looking at other crafty, thrifty blogs.

Lately I've been obsessed with redecorating and all the awesome remodeling I've seen, but being as we are renters, I can't really paint and build.

Although, I CAN'T WAIT until someday when we get a house. :)

In the mean time, I'm creating decorations for my apartment and for gifts, and right now trying NOT to buy anything to do it.

This is the first time I've ever blogged, and to be honest, HTML codes TERRIFY the heck out of me! I have no clue what I'm doing whatsoever, but thankfully I'm a pretty quick learner, so here goes nothing!

{Here's a picture of my cat, Ben, being a lil' too comfortable.}