Happy 4th!

I know it's a bit late, especially as I am listening to the fireworks going off, watching the All-American movie Forrest Gump as I write this, but I hope that everyone had a safe and happy Fourth of July today!

This is how I celebrated today, doing what I love, by creating this little banner and garland- pretty much the extent of my decorating for the holiday.
Have a great night!

4th of July Layout

So I've decided that the best way to keep on top of scrapping every day moments and celebrations is to do them right away. Go figure, right? Says the girl who hasn't finished her's from several summers ago... Maybe now I'll actually do it. Maybe...
Here's a 4th of July layout to share today. I found the sketch over on SOUS (and entered it into their challenge here.) It was perfect to show off our 4th picnic.

We've had this paper floating around for a while and I couldn't figure out anything to use it for. Even though the colors are your "normal" red, white and blue, it is definitely patriotic, and therefore perfect for this. You can see it better in the picture below, but there is a really fun starbust-type design in the corner. I didn't want to cover it with the elements from the page, so I tried my hand at cutting around the design to put it on top of the elements. It came out better than I thought it would! Not perfect, since the blade is a little dull, but definitely got the job done.

Now that the layout is done, I just need to add photos. So much for finishing a layout on time.

It is also linked up to the SOUS Die Cut Flourish Challenge here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cupcake Saturday!

Welcome to another edition of Cupcake Saturday! Like we promised yesterday, today’s cupcakes are our Independence Day cupcakes we made for our family picnic. Before we begin, we would like to clarify- it was been 90-plus degrees out, so our cupcakes don’t look perfect. Unfortunately. But, like they say, don’t judge a book by its cover!

These are vanilla cupcakes with berry frostings. The blue frosting is a very berry flavor and the red is a strawberry frosting. We wanted to get the three colors onto our cupcakes, and I would say we succeded in that! We were looking online for some decorating ideas, we saw something similar to this. So, the first step is to cut the tops off the cupcakes and use a small cookie cutter to cut the shape out of the middle (or, in our case, a turkey baster. Ingenuity at its best.) Then you take some frosting and top the stump with it and then put the top back on. If needed, you can use a piping bag to fill the hole in some more. Our next issue was trying to cover up the cut in the cupcake. At first, we took the opposite color and made a ring around the cut. Within a few minutes, it started drooping, so we had to do something to cover it up. Fortunately, we had sprinkles we could use to make it look nice! These are nice because they aren't super-sweet. There isn't a whole lot of frosting, but just enough to add some pizzazz!

On a side note, we would like to thank everyone who reads us. Or at least clicks on our blog three or four days. Or those darn spammers (OK, not really them.) We have had 17,000 pageviews. It may not seem very exciting, but it makes us feel good! So, thanks! 

Thanks so much for stopping by! We hope everyone has a wonderful day! Try to stay cool out there!

Happy Independence Day!

Happy Friday! We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday yesterday. We were fortunate enough to be able to spend it family we haven’t seen in a while. Our brother and his crew came up from Virginia, so that put some pep into the party! A lot of food, some running around, and a few broken glasses later, everyone slept well last night! 

Today’s post is a round-up of projects and desserts we made for the party:

Our party kind of started the night before. We wanted to try something fun with sparklers and our camera. This is the middle picture on top. Although we were just fooling around, the picture does look pretty neat! The big picture here is of our tablescape. We had so many other ideas but ran out of time. Too many favors, not enough time… There are a few close-ups from the table, including the centerpiece we threw together with pieces on sale at Michaels, and the little Uncle Sam favor in the bottom corner. We included some glow sticks and bubbles. There were also the desserts, including the cupcakes (more tomorrow) and the s’more bar (absolutely delicious!) Who knew there were so many options for a s’more?? We only had a few options, like the favorite “peanut butter and jelly” ones (honey grahams, peanut butter cups, and strawberry marshmallows), or the mint ones (Andes mints), and the cookies and cream one. We have a book we got on our trip a few summers ago, but forgot it at home, unfortunately. (As I was writing this, I thought, “Ooh, mint chocolate chip”- an Andes mint and a marshmallow, layered between two chocolate chip cookies?? Yes, please!)

Thanks for stopping by! Join us again tomorrow for our holiday edition of Cupcake Saturday!