Paper Purses

I had to wait to post this because it was a surprise for our Relief Society this year. The Relief Society president asked me to make some paper boxes that they could fill with candy for the sisters' birthdays this year. So, it couldn't be boring, right?

I bought the Stampin' Up! Bigz L Petite Purse Die for this project. Then pulled a whole bunch of paper from my collection. I barely made a dent. Most of the paper was flocked pattern paper that I thought would look nice as real purse.

I used a couple of the smaller SU! punches as metal tags that you would find on purses, Little Labels, and Modern Label punch. And used a gem on the front.

Use tiny brads to attach the purse handle and the little jewelry tag punch. The brads help so you can fold the handle down so it doesn't get crunched.

I used the That's the Ticket stamp set and the Ticket Builder Duo punch for the birthday greeting. Then fill with candy.

The Stampin' Up! Party Recipes

So my Stampin' Up! Party isn't closed yet and I get asked for the recipes for all the treats that were there. Including the one that I didn't plan for, but hubby brought for his mini-LAN party upstairs with the boys.

Spiced Apple Cider

1 gallon fresh pressed apple cider (preferably from New Harmony, UT Apple Festival) (The closest tasting to that fresh cider is Simply Apple brand)

1 orange, sliced

10 whole cloves

1 cinnamon stick

fresh ginger, peeled and cut into 6, 1-inch long pieces

Put all the cider in a 5 qt crock pot. Push cloves into orange slices and float on top. Drop in cinnamon stick and ginger pieces. Heat until warm, on high if you want it warm faster.

Orange Cranberry Bread

That recipe came from here: Sally's Baking Addiction--Orange Glazed Cranberry Bread

Strawberry Bread

That recipe also came from here: Sally's Baking Addiction--Strawberry Bread

Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Bread

Same website for this recipe too: Sally's Baking Addiction--Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Bread

If you can't tell yet, Sally seems to have lots of good quick bread recipes that turn out yummy!

Now for the one that my hubby made...

Bowtie Pasta Salad

1 lb. box of bow tie pasta cooked and drained (save some of the pasta water)

1 large can of cooked chicken, shredded (or 2 small cans)

1 cup frozen peas

about 1 small jar of Kalamata Olive pieces, no pits, drained

about 1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese, shredded, to your liking

about 1/2 cup Romano Cheese, shredded, to your liking

1 bottle Olive Garden Italian salad dressing

pepper to taste

This is really a mix until to your liking recipe, but here's the basic instructions. Mix the chicken, peas, olives and cheeses together in a large bowl. Dump in the warm pasta and mix to melt the cheese. Then start mixing in the salad dressing until everything is coated to your liking. You might not use the entire bottle. Add pepper to your liking. If the salad dressing is too thick, you can stir in some of the reserved pasta water to thin it out.

If you don't like something or want more of it, feel free to change it up. But apparently this was the last variation that everyone liked the most.

Vintage Ceramic Christmas Tree Makeover

So I finally got around to fixing this sad looking thrift store ceramic tree I found for $4.00. I didn't take a before picture but, imagine this medium 8" tree with a string of light bulbs poking out of the holes of this ceramic piece. And the inside is covered with Scotch tape holding the wires against the inside wall so the light bulbs would stay put. Anyone who has ever had one of these trees would think it was laughable and pretty dumb looking.

It took me about an hour to peel all the tape off and pull the broken string of lights out to get it down to just the plain glazed ceramic mold waiting for those pretty peg lights. I found a bag of assorted medium plastic peg lights and shapes for $2.00 at another thrift store, and it had just enough of the white twist lights to use on the tree. (I still have the other assorted lights plus a white star if anyone thinks they need them).

So here's the tree back to its former glory

Doesn't it look much better? Do not use a glue for the lights that is acrylic or solvent based like super glue. Those kinds of glues will eat the plastic and damage the glaze on your ceramic piece. The recommended glue is actually Elmer's white glue or Elmer's Glue-All. So if one of your lights becomes loose, it's easy to get the glue off the finish and glue it back in with Elmer's glue.

This particular tree is a McCoy Ltd ceramic tree, 8 inches high and didn't come with a base or a light cord when I found it. The two I looked up on eBay didn't have bases either and had colored lights in them. I like the all white bulbs myself against the green glaze. I found a light cord that I thought could work with this tree. It's actually a cord that has a spring hinge that fits in a hole for a ceramic house or building, but has a flat side that could stand up on one end. Anything else was meant to screw into a ceramic base, that I didn't have. So I made a cardboard base for the light socket to stabilize it and keep it upright in the tree.

The recommended light bulb wattage for my medium tree was 15 watts tapered bulb. If your tree is about 2 feet tall, then up to a 25 watt bulb is recommended. Don't use a higher wattage bulb or your tree will get very hot and probably cause a fire. It's an enclosed space and you want to keep it as cool as possible. I got a 15 watt LED bulb from Walmart that only uses 3 watts, so it's very cool to use in my tree. Now I'll probably have to put it away and bring it out next Christmas since it didn't get finished this last year.