Gift Ideas from my Kitchen - Crunchy Pumpkin Pie Granola

Hi Everyone!  I hope you had a wonderful weekend!

Since it's cooled off I've been able to turn the oven on again and test out some recipes!  After my craft room, the kitchen is my next favorite place to create.

 I've started thinking about Thanksgiving.....this is my third year hosting dinner for my family.  I was so nervous that first year!  And, while I don't have all the kinks worked out, I try to have fun with it and not be so stressed.  My biggest obstacle is time management and getting dinner on the table as scheduled and not having everyone starve while they wait. Last year, for each person,  I decorated some small mason jars and filled them with a snack mix.

This year I wanted something different that incorporated the flavors of fall - to me, that is pumpkin and apple.  I came across a recipe for Crunchy Pumpkin Pie Granola on Allrecipes.com and tested it out this morning.  This granola is so yummy, took only 15 minutes to mix up and made my house smell wonderful!

Fresh from the oven

I found these little zip lock bags to package the granola in.  I find zip lock bags are much easier for my son to open and close instead of a twist tie.  Less mess for me to clean up too.

And of course I had to dress them up and make them look nice!

I used the cricut Art Philosophy cartridge to cut the fry box at 9" - you can get 2 of these from a 12 x 12 sheet of paper.  I used one of the  designs from the Huntington paper pack for the box and the coordinating cardstock in the pack for the other cuts.  For the turkey and the sentiment I used the Perfect Fit - Thanksgiving stamp set with the cricut Artiste cartridge.  I used Barn Red ink to stamp the turkey. 

And I used Cocoa ink for the sentiment and Olive ink for the flourish.  I used Goldrush to ink all the edges of each piece.

And here it is all put together.

Cute and yummy!  One detail for Thanksgiving done!  Yay!

Here is the link to the recipe at Allrecipes.com.

Have a wonderful week!!

Linking to:

BBTB2 - fry box challenge

Little Scrap Pieces - any project

September Specials!
You are My Happy - National Stamping Month
Poster Tidings - Stamp of the Month

Poinsettia Gift Box - Christmas in July # 4

Hi Everyone!  Welcome to project # 4 in my Christmas in July week!

Today I have a little gift box to share with you.  Going back to using the cartridges I don't use very often, I pulled out Garden Soup and Joys of the Season cartridges.

I cut this cute little hexagon box from the Garden Soup cartridge.  It's found under button 41, honeycomb layer. I cut it at 9 inches, fit to page with red cardstock.  I measured the sides and cut 6 pieces of pattern paper 1 1/2 x 2 with my paper trimmer.

Then I found a basic hexagon to go on the top under button 35.  I used CCR to layer it over the top of the box image to get the perfect size.  It came out to 3.292 x 2.819.  The pattern paper is from My Mind's Eye, Sweater Weather, 6 x 6 pad.  The stamp on the front is from a Fiskars stamp set called Seasons Greetings and I stamped it with red ink onto kraft cardstock and fussy cut it out.

The poinsettia is cut from the Joys of the Season cartridge.  It's under button 38, the layer feature.  I used CCR hide option to hide the berries and only cut the petals.  The bottom 2 layers are cut at 2 3/4" and the top 2 layers are cut at 1 3/4".  I used a quick dry liquid glue to attach them all together in the center.  I curled the petals with a pencil and inked the petal edges with New England Ivy.  Then I added some more liquid glue to the middle and poured some chunky gold glitter for the center of the flower.  I adhered it to the top of the box with liquid glue as well.

To finish it off I added a magnet closure to the flap and the front panel to keep it closed.

I hope you enjoyed todays Christmas project!  Have a wonderful day!!

Ice Cream Cone treat box

Hello Friends!  I have a cute treat box to share with you today!

I used cricut cartridge Sweet Tooth Boxes.  The ice cream cone box is the second one.  I cut it at 8 1/2", once assembled it came to 7" tall and 3 1/2" diameter at the widest point.

I used papers from the Chantilly paper pack to make this project.  The bottom is cut with Champagne cardstock that comes in the paper pack, or can be purchased separately. 

The sentiment is from D1525, Casual Expressions stamp set.  

This is one of the Artiste coordinating stamp sets.  I cut the oval at 1 1/4" as stated on the stamp set in white daisy and then at 1 1/2" in the Chantilly paper to layer.

Inside view

I cut the insert also with the same paper, you could use this to add a cupcake inside, or leave it out and put a small treat bag inside.

I think this came out so cute!  I don't use this cartridge enough!!  I hope you enjoy and are having a fabulous weekend!!

Linking to Bitten by the Bug 2 challenge and Die Cuttin Divas challenge

Halloween Coffin Treat Box

Hello friends!  Once I started Halloween, I couldn't stop!  Doesn't hurt that my Close to my Heart order came Friday with Halloween stamps!  I'll have some projects coming soon using them!  They will be available Aug 1st for purchase out of the new catalog!!

For today, I went back to the Cricut Artiste cartridge to make another coffin treat box. I love these!!!

For this one I used black cardstock and sponged around the edges with white ink.  The box was cut at the suggested size, 7 1/2". I used CCR so there are some unusual sizes for the rest of the cuts because I sized them to fit my project. The moon is a circle cut from George and Basic shapes at 1.417 and I lightly sponged the edge with slate ink.  The bat is cut from A Frightful Affair at 1.264, sponged lightly with white ink and adhered with foam tape for dimension.

The grass is just green paper that is torn and inked with Tim Holtz Peeled Paint distress ink.  I layered the pieces and only adhered the bottom so I could slip the tombstones behind.  The tombstones are cut from Life's A Party at 1" in slate cardstock and inked with slate ink.  I used a black gel pen to write in RIP.  And finally the fence is cut from Paper Doll Dress Up, sized 1.236 out of slate cardstock.  When this fence cuts there are a lot of little lines that cut to show the aging of the fence - for lack of a better term.  But they aren't seen unless you highlight them somehow, so I went over all the little cuts in the fence with my black gel pen and then lightly inked with slate ink to soften it up a little.

I have read a lot of posts that people don't like to use CCR but I have never had the Design Studio software or a Gypsy so I really love using it.  And what I love the best is that I can save all these files to my computer so when Halloween finally comes around I can have my son pick the one he likes the best and just start cutting.  All the work I did designing and sizing is already done.

Hope you enjoyed today's project!

Here are links to the July specials & deals:
Work the workshop special - 50% off
Let's Get Patriotic stamp special
July Stamp of the Month, Sweet Life
While supplies last - great deals!

A Halloween treat box

Hey everyone!  So I know a lot of crafters are doing Christmas in July and I LOVE Christmas and I love seeing all the projects early to get ideas.....

But I'm not in the Christmas spirit yet. And for me it makes sense to get a start on Halloween before Christmas because we really do a lot for Halloween in our house.  Then I figure by the time October rolls around I'll be more ready to work on Christmas.  Especially if we have one of those years where we have snow in October.  Once the snow hits, I'm in full Christmas mode!

So, I'll be starting to mix in some Halloween projects here and there with the rest of my projects and today's was inspired by flipping through and playing with the Cricut Artiste cartridge some more. I absolutely love this cartridge!  There are so many great images and I especially love all the 3-D projects it has on it.  The Art Philosophy cartridge is on it's way - and actually should be here today if the Fed Ex estimated tracking is accurate.  These are both exclusive to Close to my Heart and you can get yours by clicking on the link to my CTMH shop.  There's also a BRAND NEW cartridge that will be available Aug 1 called Artbooking an this one looks just as amazing as the other two - but more on that later.

For now, let's get back to my project.  So I flipped through the booklet for the Artiste cartridge and I found a coffin treat box for Halloween - how great is that!!

What's really great about these booklets too, is that they have added the size you should use for best results on these 3-D projects, taking all the guesswork and wasted paper out of it!  The coffin box and lid are found on page 76 under the 3-D object button, sized at 7 1/2 inches.

I used Slate cardstock and after I assembled the box and lid I inked around the edges with Slate ink. The web is from Creative Memories This & That cricut cartridge.  I used the Cricut Craft Room to design this and the web is sized at 2.639 an then I trimmed off the edges a bit.  The spider is from the October 31st seasonal cartridge and it is sized at 1.25 inches.  I also covered the spider with glossy accents and drew in a line with a black gel pen.

Don't forget about our July specials, Work the Workshop for 50% off with no qualifying purchase required and the stamp of the month Sweet Life for only $5.00 with a $50.00 purchase!

I hope you enjoyed today's project!  Have a great day!!!