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!

Cupcake Saturday

It's that time of the week again. My favorite day- Cupcake Saturday! And this weekend is even better since it is a long weekend and our birthday weekend! Very excited to not have school on our birthday this year, just saying. :)
Anyway, here are today's Cupcake Saturday cupcakes. In honor of Memorial Day, we knew we would have to make something patriotic.

We just took white cake batter and dyed half red and half blue. After they were cooled, we cut them using the pop holder, and layered them with vanilla frosting. The final touch was the stars and stripes sprinkles on top!
We found these cute little push pop containers at Target yesterday (and they were on sale, so even better!)

They're perfect for a picnic this weekend or later on at a 4th of July party. Either way, they look and taste great.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday, America!

It's hard to believe that last summer we were only 10 days into our cross-country road trip and spending the 4th of July at Mount Rushmore, which was pretty cool (Day 9 and Day 10 from that trip). A lot of things have changed since then, but some things haven't, like our charcoal grilling. Ok, it's gotten a little bit better than that first hot dog experience, but still. (We are much better with a gas grill.)
Anyway, since it is July 4th and we are having a picnic later, we needed a little decoration for it! So here is our tablescape.

We wrapped the table with stars.

Our Firework Flowers

 Flag placemats with napkin rings and clothespin place cards.

Hope everyone enjoys their day off today!

Thanks for stopping by!

Today's Party Trivia:
- Unsurprisingly, today is also "National Barbeque Day" and "National Country Music Day". Sounds like a pretty good day!!
- The US Military Academy opened in 1802
- In 1862, Lewis Carroll told the story that would become Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The book was published three years later.
- Today's flag, with all 50 stars, was introduced in 1960, ten months after Hawaii became a state

Happy Memorial Day!

I hope everyone is enjoying their Memorial Day weekend so far, and took some time out to honor the men and women who serve and protect us. A big "thank you" to our brother, who served the country for five years.
In keeping with the birthday theme, today's project also incorporates the holiday. (A card like would be nice for someone in the military, or when your family has two birthdays that can fall on the holiday.)

The second picture is a side view of the card. As you can (hopefully) tell, the star is 3D. It reminds me of the metal stars you see around. The banner also pops out and has a simple greeting on it. As for the rhinestones, without them, it can easily be for a guy's birthday. It's a rather simple card, but it works.
Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of the long weekend!


Today's Party Trivia:
- John Muir organized the Sierra Club in 1892. This club has been responsible for establishing and protecting many of our National Parks.
- The first set of quintuplets to survive were born in 1934. (And you thought twins were bad...)
- Noah Webster, of dictionary fame, died today at the age of  85.

Cupcake Saturday!

It's our favorite day of the week again! Welcome to another Cupcake Saturday! We were trying to think of a patriotic cupcake to do for today, but most of the ones we found were like our Mardi Gras cupcakes, except with red and blue food coloring. We wanted to try something different, and decided to use fruit instead. These are our Berry Pecan Cupcakes:

They are vanilla cupcakes filled with strawberries and blueberries. They are topped with a pecan streusal.

They also have a berry compote on top. These cupcakes are delicious! And, since we used real fruit, they aren't overly sweet like some of our others.

Don't they just scream "summer picnic?! I think they would fit quite well in that treat box ;)
That's all for today. Hope everyone has a superb weekend and join us next week for a theme we are super excited about!!

Today’s Party Trivia:
- In 1780, smoke, fog and clouds completely blocked the sun over eastern Canada and New England. It lasted for more than 24 hours. Many believed it was Judgment Day
- Johns Hopkins was born in 1795. After his death, he donated $7 million dollars to fund a college and hospital. (It had been the largest gift in the US)

 

Kid-Friendly Friday

Since next week is the unofficial start of summer, we thought that we would help out with the, "What are we going to do with the kids?" question. So for the next few weeks when the kids are home, we'll be sharing some easy kid-friendly projects that need only minimum adult supervision.

Here's today's project: A Star-Spangled Windsock

Materials:
Construction Paper (We used cardstock because it was on hand)
-Here are the sizes we used. You can use any size you'd like, but make sure it's big enough to make into a cylinder shape.
     *White- 8.5in x 20in, plus extra for the stars
     *Red- 10in x 4.5in, cut into 4.5in x 1.5in strips
     *Blue- 4.25in x 20in
Glue or tape
Pencil
Stapler
Scissors or paper trimmer
Streamers, cut into 12-14in lengths
Hole Punch
String

Step One: Stripes
Glue the red strips to one long edge of the white paper. (We like to keep things pretty uniform, so we used other strips to keep the white spaces the same size. Since children will be making these, chances are the spacing won't be as precise, which is just fine!)

Step Two: Blue Field
Glue the blue strip to the other long edge of the white paper.(We made the red strips longer so the blue would overlap. This is ok! It will look neater that way.)

Step Three: Stars
Using the star template below, or your own pattern, trace 8-10 stars on white paper. Adults may need to help younger children getting to the inner points of the stars. Once they are traced and cut, glue the stars to the blue section of the windsock.

Step Four: Streamers
Flip paper over. Using tape, attach the streamers to the plain white side. (Using tape will help avoid the streamers from tearing when the children use too much glue!)

Step Five: Windsock
Now it's time to make the windsock round. A stapler will come in especially handy here. The glue did not want to stick the papers together very well. It is heavily reinforced with tape. Double sided tape would probably work best. An adult should use the stapler. We don't want any small fingers getting in the way.
(Funny story side note: During the move, the stapler and staple remover both made it. The box of staples, however, did not.)

Step Six: Adding String and Hanging Up
Punch two holes on opposite sides of the windsock. Thread string through both holes and tie a knot so it doesn't fall when it's hung up. Voila! You have a nice decoration that kids of any age can make!

Here is a star template for you to use. Of course you may use any star you like. We actually used the star from Plantin Schoolbook and our Cricut. (Those inner corners are sometimes hard for us, too!) Ours were about 2 inches, but again, you can make yours any size you'd like.

Thanks for stopping by! We hope the kids get crafty with you too. Stop by tomorrow for another edition of Cupcake Saturday!

Today's Party Trivia:
- Mount St. Helen's erupted in 1980. It killed 57 people. (If you ever get the chance to go, it's definitely something worth checking out.)
-In 1860, Abraham Lincoln won the Republican nomination for President.
- Today in International Museum Day.

Uncle Sam Treat Box

Happy Thursday! Here is another patriotic project for this week. This is another one I'm proud of! I think he is such a little cutie. Back around Halloween time, I was looking at different sites for treat boxes and found a few that were decorated to look like Frankenstein. I put the idea in the back of my head for another time. So, fast forward to this week, and I thought, "Who doesn't like sending their guests off with something special after a picnic??" I thought this was such a cute idea!! I'm actually really surprised that I haven't seen Uncle Sam on a treat box yet.
Here are some pictures of it:

How cute!! Think of all of the possibilities! The one thing I would change would be the handle. Although it matches nicely, I like the look of different ribbons wrapped around the handle. I think it adds more flair to it! I hope you enjoy it!

Today’s Party Trivia:
- The New York Stock Exchange was formed in 1792.
- The first televised sporting event took place today in 1939. It was a baseball game between Columbia and Princeton.
- The Supreme Court ruled in the case of Brown vs. Board of Ed in 1954. It ruled that it was unconstitutional to segregate schools.

Our Exciting News!!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Wednesday today. I know we are! We are in the middle of another beautiful day! Not as arm as it has been, but the sun is out and shining! (Sorry for everyone at home who’s been having rain…) Our big news of the day is kind of exciting, at least for us it is! So, in the paper crafting-blog world there are a ton of challenges that different people put on. Anyway, we entered one of them with our Mother’s Day project. And we were fortunate enough to be chosen as one of the “Top Five” entries! It’s just so exciting to see your projects on another blog, because it means there are people who are looking at it!
OK, back to today’s project. As going on with our theme of the week, we made an invitation for a summer party or picnic. It’s a very patriotic invite. I wish I had some people to invite over so I could use it! 

The first picture is of it "closed". The second is the card open. It rests nicely on the point of the star. I like how you can read what it is even before opening it up.

This last picture is of the center, up close. The hat sits nicely on the rosette. It matches the banner from earlier this week.

One more thing before I sign off for today. I kind of like the idea of leaving you with some interesting facts of the day. I like to call it “Party Trivia”. You never know when it'll come in handy!!
Today’s Party Trivia:
     - The first nickel was minted today in 1866. There used to be a half-dime piece.
     - The first Academy Awards were held today in 1929.
     - The first can of Spaghetti-O’s was sold in 1965. (Probably should have stayed in the ‘60’s…)