d's delights- cooking and crafts

If you are a beginner at this scrapbooking, stamping or card making thing, you may want to know the best adhesive to use. I will say that there are several kinds that you can choose from, and you will find that different types work better for the different items you may want to adhere. First, for basic paper and photos, I find that a tape runner is best.   You could use glue, but it’s messy, and messes up the integrity of the paper.   Here is my favorite kind to use.   It doesn’t get gummed up, and the adhesive does not dry out with papers and pictures falling apart.   You can get repositionable tape runners for those things that you may want to move around, or for pictures you may want to take off someday. For anything bulky-like buttons or ribbons, I use glue dots.   These were the best thing I ever discovered, because it meant that I didn’t have to get my glue gun out for ribbons and buttons!   These glue dots come in different sizes and can also come in removable ones.

If you know me at all, you know that I love to scrapbook and make cards.   I am not sure why I am so obsessed with making cards, because I am so bad at sending them to people. (case in point:   I have several handmade cards that even have my thank you messages on the inside from all of Will’s showers.   If you never got one, this is why.   I assure the cards are gorgeous!) Anyway, I guess I love making the cards because you don’t have to have any pictures available, and it doesn’t take long, and I wind up with something pretty that is also useful.   The number one time when people send cards is, of course Christmas and the Holidays.   So, I find it a lot of fun to make Christmas cards for people!   Sometimes I sell them to others, and sometimes I give them to my friends and family. When I make cards, I usually am inspired to design them from the paper that I have.   I get sets of paper that work together, and then the mix and matching is much easier!   I also use some stamps

Photography…a first visit with Santa I got really excited when I saw that Beasley’s Orchard was having a Christmas day with pictures with Santa!   I thought that these would definitely be better than the obligatory mall photo (they were-   this Santa had a real beard!)   So, we went out to Danville, Indiana to go to the orchard.   We arrived to an already long line of parents and antsy children.   I would guess that Daddy and Will were in line for over 20 minutes while Grandma Hartman and Mommy looked around and bought lots of cool orchard-y type stuff.   (I have a lot of apples!) Of course, Will was a perfect angel in line.   He took it all in, watching everything…and giving looks of disbelief to the misbehaving children.   (One was even telling his mother that he hated her.)   By the time we got up there and handed him over to Santa, he was utterly confused.   Why was Daddy no longer holding him?   Why was Mommy trying to take his picture??   WHO was this man that he was sitt

I’ve seen this project on Pinterest, and have wanted to do it for a while.   So, when I was on a walk with Will in the park, I collected several sticks from the ground.   I had an old White Barn Candle Co glass container that I’d been saving… for something…???   And I broke the sticks all into sort-of-even pieces.   I wanted to make sure that I had enough sticks to go around it, so I used a rubber band to put the sticks around.   I was all proud of how it looked, when the rubber band broke, and all the sticks went everywhere.   (don’t use an old rubber band!)   Finally, I was able to find some time to actually glue the sticks on.   I got my glue gun out and went to town!     I just put enough glue on to do 2-3 sticks at a time, and I made three strips of glue going horizontally.   I made sure that I put the sticks on while the container was upright on the table so that they would be even and so the container would still be able to stand up.   Here is my finished product

I am so excited to officially welcome Karen Woods into the family in December!   I had a small shower for her, and here are some of the decorations I had fun putting together.   The wedding is going to be a very elegant evening winter wedding, with the colors being black and silver.   It totally matches the classiness of this adorable couple.   I made these tea candle holders out of- you guessed it- baby food jars.   They are just so cute, and I had been saving some up for the occasion to make something out of them!   I used some wrapping paper (that I bought AFTER Christmas really cheap!) and tied a bow around the top.   So simple, and so elegant!   You could do this with just about any kind of paper you want.   Very quick and easy deco!  I also made up these boxes (bought at Michaels) for a favor.   I added the black bows.   I think I may recycle some of these at Christmas time, and make ornaments out of them!   I love when I can throw a party and make it look themed and

Dollar Store Craft I found these little shadow box frames at the dollar store and figured I could find something to make out of them.   It has kind of been a trend in the scrapbooking world to make some scrapbook shadowboxes, but of course the ones they sell are overpriced.   It’s wood nailed together, people.   The one I bought was in a raw form, and definitely needed staining or painted.   So, I stained it with Old English!   It worked really well, and look how it turnedout!     Now…What   to do with it?     I also stained this frame which I got at the dollar store:

Wow.   I haven’t written in a while… sorry about that.   I think I’ve been just very blah and uninspired.   Hopefully I will be on an upswing soon. I haven’tmade any great new recipes lately, and haven’t had much time to be crafty. L   BUT I did do something Pinterest-inspired.   I did something to help organize my closets and clothes. I had seenon Pinterest a suggestion to use shower curtain hooks over a dowel rod to hang your purses in your closet.   I have those wire type shelves in the closet, so I didn’t have a dowel, but the holes in theshelves made a great place to put these open end shower curtain hooks . I have a lot of shawls that I accumulated over the years-   I used to wear them ALL THE TIME, especially in summer, but I figured out a way to wear them now with my sweaters.   The bulky scarf look is in these days, and I might as well be almost fashionable.   Before, my shawls were all in a basket, folded or wrinkled up.   Now,I can get to them easily.   I also need