*Pecans*

My mother has made these pecans for years and they are so delicious!!!!  I made them this year to give to all my favorite neighbors.  I'm sharing the recipe with my favorite followers:)  Here it is,


1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup brown sugar
about 2 lbs. of pecans

In a large saucepan bring whipping cream and brown sugar to a boil...while continuously stirring mixture.  Turn off flame and add pecans to the mixture, coating pecans.

Place pecans on large baking sheet and bake at 350 for about 18 minutes.  After the first nine minutes stir pecans on cookie sheet and place bake in oven for another nine minutes.  Dump pecans on wax paper and let dry.

It is wise to place the pecans almost immediately after drying in bags....otherwise they will disappear:)  I used Wilton Icing decorator bags for mine and tied a ribbon to the top!

Classy Gifts

Andy decided he would like to give everyone in his class an ornament this year.  We went to the Caffco floral outlet and found these cute ornaments for under a dollar!  We used the cellophane bag that the ornament came in, cut card stock to fit the top of the bag.  I only guessimated the size of the paper....no exact measurements:)  I printed off the label using a piece of scrapbooking paper, with "Merry Christmas, (name)!"  "From, Andy" and used the girls are weird font from Kevin and Amanda. Again, this was a project done on the fly so I had no exact measurements for the labels.  Double sided sticky tape was used to mount the paper and colored staples to attach the base paper to the cellophane bag.  I have had the Santa add on for some time hanging around the house and attached it for some extra flair to the  package!  Andy was very excited about the package and how it turned out! 

Teachers Pet

Andy's teacher is a wonderful lady....but she has been keeping me SO busy! To not be working...I am working ALOT!!!!  So she wanted bookmarks made for the parents with their child's picture.  She gave me blue paper for a background, I painted silver and white snowflakes all over it with spray paint.  Then we hung it up, put a snowman by the kids and started snapping away!  I edited the pictures with Picnik by creating a border around the picture.  I ordered the generic white cards from Sam's Club.  

Picked up the cards, then mounted them to card stock, laminated each with heavy duty lamination.  Added a grommet to the top of the card and attached a tassel.  This little project seemed to take forever but the kids loved them and wrapping them for their parents made them super happy:)

Spray Glitter!

is the coolest thing EVER invented!!!!!  I absolutely love it, love it, love it!!!!!!  Only bought one can and going back for several more....very soon.   The cards below, I made for the boys teachers.  I have been creeping around The Graphics Fairy for several months now, let me tell ya.....she has some awesome talent!  Check out her page, tons of vintage graphics.  The pics below I printed out to attach to teachers gifts.

I printed these out in black and white....as luck would have it, my color cartridge happened to run out the day I decided to print. I think the black and white looks great!  Using the paper cutter I cut out each card,  and attached a background card.  

On  the opposite side of the card, I printed out another card with a message for the teacher from the boys.  I used the Girls are Weird font from Kevin and Amanda, where you can find fonts galore.  

After attaching everything, I  sprayed with spray glitter from Michaels. Hopefully you can see the glitter in this picture, it was very difficult to photograph.  I used ribbon from another project and finished the card up with a bow on top.

Endless Possibilities with Tassels!

I have been wanting to make my own tassels for quite some time now...I hadn't because it was difficult finding the finials for the top.  If I wanted to get really creative and up off the couch...finding a wooden topper, or ceramic topper would not have been a difficult tasking!  On the other hand that would have required drilling and all sorts of other tools that I would have to find and later put away:)  Truly I am not lazy but on occasion I like the easy way out! Finding these tassel toppers at my local Hobby Lobby about made my week, what could be easier??? 

Here are the supplies I gathered before sitting down to do my project:
Tassel Topper from the local Hobby Lobby
Assorted Ribbons of various sizes, colors, shapes, even rick rack, and beads.
Scissors
Hot Glue Gun
Wooden Wheel(this is optional)
2" Foam Ball

You will want to start out by cutting your ribbon.  If you want the ribbon to loop remember to cut it double the length.  A variety of lengths will be needed for each tassel.  While you are cutting the ribbon the glue gun can be heating up. Form individual loops and glue together.  Find your 2"foam ball, start gluing the ribbon around the circumference of the ball.  You can line the ribbon up side by side, use as many ribbons as you would like on each loop around the foam ball, working in rows. 

The following picture is a top view of the foam ball after all the ribbon pieces have been glued on.  I am not a neat crafter....please keep that in mind:)

This next step is optional...however if you choose not to do this step the top portion of the tassel still must be finished somehow.  I will show you two alternative ways to finish out the top of the tassel.



I found this neat stretchy ribbon that I used around the wheel, then  used a cording to break up the ribbon.  After being as creative as you care to be hot glue the wheel to the top of the foam ball.  Take your tassel topper and hot glue it onto the top of the wooden wheel.  Tie a ribbon onto the topper to use as a hanger.  Below is the first tassel I finished!

Now for a second finish to the topper.  This one is a little more tricky.  It is more of a pleated design around the top and I used ribbon.  I really think it might be easier to use fabric? So pick a starting point and start folding the ribbon.  The ribbon has to be glued on both the top and the bottom of the pleat in order to stay put.  This is the bottom ugly view!

Here it is sitting up.

Around the last tassel(pictured below), I pleated the ribbon on the bottom of the topper and then simply hot glued a wide piece of ribbon. 

I hope you all enjoy creating these as much as I did!!!! Thanks for stopping by:)