Citrus Sugar

Have you ever used infused sugar?  I had heard of it but never thought to make it myself until I ran across this post last week and just had to give it a try.  

Used the trusty Microplane to zest the fruit.  The skin that got microplaned from the back of my thumb did NOT make it into my sugar. . . 

Look at the lovely fragrant piles of zest!  My kitchen smelled splendid!

Once it dried overnight and was diced up a bit the zest easily fit into two tiny bowls.

I put 2 Tablespoons of zest per one cup of sugar.  BTW - If you, like me, think that it would be so cute to cover the top of your jar lids with chalkboard paint (first prime with metal primer and then add 5 thin coats of paint) - it is seriously not worth the trouble.  Managed to scrape off part of the paint despite all my precautions - aarrgghh!!  The sugar should be ready to use in about two weeks.

Linking to Creative Every Day

May Arts Challenge -

May Arts Ribbon frequently holds challenges and I finally mustered up the courage to jump in and try my hand at one.  DCWV co-sponsored this particular challenge and provided patterned paper from the Snapshot Stack.  Click here to see the original challenge post and the supplies I had to work with. . .

Decided to try my hand at making a simple set of desk accessories which I think would make a fabulous teacher gift.  My favorite part is the reworked stenographer's notebook - used wire cutters to snip out the top binding and then recovered the front with pretty patterned paper - repunched the holes with a tiny hole punch and then rebound ("modified" blanket stitch - "modified" meaning that I was too lazy to look up the correct way to do blanket stitch) with May Arts twine folded in half for extra strength.

Probably the simplest project that packs a big punch is to customize your tape dispenser.  Take the tape off the dispenser and remove the paper label - you can either trace that onto your patterned paper and cut out or do like I did - glue it directly to the paper and then cut it out.  So simple that I may just decorate all the tape dispensers around here 'cause that is cute and sometimes cute is the way to go.  

Pop over to the May Arts blog to see the winners of this challenge!

Chalkboard Gift Bag

This project is featured on the CREATE blog - A blog for scrapbooking and crafting enthusiasts brought to you by the fine folks at Scrapbook Trends, CARDS, and Simply Handmade magazines.
Last week we registered for school and picked up Caleb's school supply list and the teacher's wish list and thought it would be fun to pick up some things to start her year. When we got home we only had about an hour before we had to head back to school for meet your teacher night so I was in a hurry to bag up the supplies and did not have a teacher card or tag ready. What to do?! How about a chalkboard giftbag?

I used painters tape to mark off the area to be painted and then painted on 3 coats of chalkboard paint (1). Note the ingenious use of the fan to speed things up (2). Then to easily make the frame, I cut out a piece of paper the same size as the area that was painted on the bag and taped strips of 1 1/4" A Muse woodgrain paper on the outside not being careful about measurements (3). When I turned the paper over I lined up the ruler and marked the corners with a pencil (4). So easy to do - Caleb cut on the pencil lines and when the extra paper is removed you have perfect mitered corners with no complicated measuring!! (5,6). Making the frame may seem unnecessary but removing the painters tape causes some destruction so the frame handily covered that up (7). Sign your name and stand back and admire your work (8,9).

This is a super fun easy project to do - took no time at all! If you are really following the directions for chalkboard paint you would need to let it cure and wait a day before writing on it but the quick and easy way suited our plans for that day. Typical of me, I posed the bag with apples for the teacher but then didn't think to put one on the bag until we were running out the door so there is only the one pic of the embellished bag - If you try this idea I'd love it if you shared a link.

A Muse - Special Teacher

A special teacher deserves a blue ribbon, doncha think??!! This fun "apple" medallion was made from A Muse Ocean Shimmer Couture Paper - Adds a fancy shimmer that reminds me of satin ribbon. The apple (Martha Stewart punch) is shimmery too -If you look really closely you will see that I stamped the A Muse Solid Apple in red all over the background. I meant it to be subtle but not THAT subtle. My favorite part is that the ribbon is attached with temporary glue dots so that it is easily removed and can be placed upon your favorite teacher!! Do you want to make a blue ribbon for your teacher? I adapted it from this tutorial. . .

Teacher Appreciation -

This is Teacher Appreciation Week - A Muse Instructors - Geeta, Jennie and Lori have shared some great ideas all week long - I linked up to my favorites of their posts but be sure and check out all their many great ideas. Here's what I made for my son's 3rd grade teachers -
I made each gift "color matchy" - FUN! Each gift consists of a post-it holder, two personalized pads of "from the desk of" (40 sheets each) and a mechanical pencil.
The post-its are made of 4" square chipboard coasters that I've had in my stash forever - the outsides are decorated with adorable A Muse Kitchen and Yellow Petite Gingham paper, stamps and ribbon - the inside is full of colorful flowers, a matching post-it pad and flags. Do you see where Caleb signed his name?
Simply packaged up in glassine bags (PTI) with a quick topper made with A Muse paper, stamps and a Martha Stewart punch.
These were so fun to make - it isn't too late for teacher gifts - if you are interested in me making some personalized notepads for your teacher drop me a quick e-mail at msmathey@gmail.com
Did you realize that I opened a Zibbet shop? The link is in the right column -

FTL87 - Shimmer thanks

It is getting to be teacher appreciation time of year - wouldn't a set of these notecards make a fun and easy gift for one of the teachers in your life?? So, so simple but WOW what an impact the shimmer paper makes! Layout is courtesy of Clean & Simple Stamping - FTL87.
A Muse Apple Red Shimmer Damask (and solid) Couture paper coupled with a Martha Stewart apple punch make a great combo - Did you know that this A Muse sentiment (3-8039B) is one of my favorites? I use it ALL the time -

Amuse Bouche!!

It is that time again!! A Muse Bouche - Usually I am rushing to finish teacher gifts at the end of the school year - not this time!! This year I am going to get in good with Caleb's teacher at the beginning of the year. I've gathered a lot of things from her wish list and I'm going to give them to her along with this card.
The front actually is a window with the apple stamped on the inside - I used white pigment ink for the sentiment to look "chalkboard-y". The inside is cute too. I've been noticing that lately a lot of visual interest is put on the inside of cards too - not just the outside.

If Ms. Olssen decides she loves me this year I'll have to give part of the credit to A Muse!!

Stamps - 3-4159C Solid Apple, 9-8596B Thanks for all you do, 9-SCHLSM Clear set - School Time

Ink - Momento in Tuxedo Black and Ladybug

Paper - A Muse Woodgrain 8.5" x 11" paper, papaya 4b and

Accessories - A Muse Swiss red polka dot ribbon, scallop edge punch

Class Treats

Caleb is 7 (nearly 8) and very picky about class treats now - he doesn't want to look like a "baby" so he was very specific in what I could NOT do with his end of the year treats. NO patterned paper, NO clear bags with a topper, NO animals, NOTHING cute!! What is a mom to do? Well, the new A Muse summer release came in handy cause what could be possibly offensive about the sun?? I still think they are cute but don't tell Caleb!
Caleb's job was to put the candy in the bags - Helps to have the right headgear to get in the mood, right??

I am so relieved that Connor just wants me to make a cake for his class - that should be fairly harmless - hopefully -
Stamps - A Muse 2-4148C Sun, 9-8332B Summer Fun, 3-pscsm Personal Stationery Set, 7-PDLSM Polka Dot Lower Case Small (alphabet)
Ink - Tangelo Momento Ink, Tempting Turquoise from SU!
Accessories - Small paper bags (bought on clearance a few years ago from Hobby Lobby - can't seem to find those anywhere now!!), clothespins, Scalloped circle punch from SU!

Teacher Gifts -

Finally finishing up the teacher gift sets - seems like I've been working on them forever. I downloaded the desk set template from PTI and made a total of 11 sets of stationery. Found out today that I spelled one of the teacher's names wrong!! AARRGGHH - Need to fix that tonight and deliver tomorrow.

The Guidance Counselor at the elementary school is retiring so I wrapped up a set of coasters as a gift to her - We just got the Bow Easy in at Serendipity and it is so easy to make up pretty matching bows in no time flat.

Please excuse the blurry pics (not sure what is up with that!!) but the little butterfly is punched from one piece of patterned paper and one piece of acetate. Any adhesive would have shown through the acetate so I got the idea to use a piece of copper cord to tie the two pieces together. Matched the box perfectly and ended up looking like antennas!! I think that was my favorite touch.
BTW - my cuttlebug B plates are in horrendous shape - very battle weary and scarred from lots and lots of cutting - In fact, I have another set of pristine B plates for embossing since using the old plates embosses all the scratches onto your paper - In this case, with the leaves, I thought that embossing the scratches would add texture and "veins" to my leaves. Love that little SU! Sizzlet.

Teacher Gifts -

It is Teacher Appreciation Week around here and since I am ALWAYS on top of things - my boys' many teachers have gifts ready for them. SIGH - I wish!!! The gifts should be finished up over the weekend - I'll post pics of the desk sets I'm making for all of them then - in the meantime, however, I did manage to get Mrs. Ring's name frame finished. She is Caleb's 2nd Grade homeroom teacher.
This is my favorite part - I ran the ribbon under the letters and the glass but I attached the button/ribbon embellishment on the outside of the glass with a gluedot. FUN and added a kinda cool 3-d effect to the frame.

Newly Hatched - amuse bouche - Part 2

Time for another sneak peek of the new A Muse stamps!! This time I used the Dandelion stamp embossed on white against kraft paper to alter a notebook from Michael's. I really like how this turned out!! Naturally, I used my Nestabilities to cut out and "nest" my layers.
My parents host "family night" every Thursday. We take the kiddos to play with their cousins and we all enjoy a wonderful meal. My mom is constantly topping her last effort - here is what I mean. Last night was no exception - wish I had thought to take a picture of the Lemon Cake she whipped up (she even made up the recipe). Glad I had made this little notebook to give her as a token of our endless appreciation for all she does! A notebook is no good without a matching card.
After I made the notebook for mom I thought that this would also make an excellent teacher gift. Now that Connor is in 6th grade he likes a more mature looking gift and I thought that this might fill the bill -
I really like how sophisticated this turned out -

Stamps - A Muse 2-4146E Dandelion, 9-8558B Home is, 9-8244B Just because, 8-8455B For a special teacher
Ink - Momento Dye in Rich Cocoa, Versamark Ink

Paper - A Muse Juliette paper in Sky Blue and Latte, kraft paper

Accessories - A Muse Sheer Ribbon in White, Nestabilities, buttons, heat gun, white embossing powder and dimensionals

Sneak Peak - March's JRS class

Next week I'll be teaching a monogram notecard class. I've had my JRS monogram stamper for over 2 years now and that baby has seen some action!
Anyone thinking teacher gifts? bridesmaids gifts? just because you are my friend gifts?

I've always loved monogrammed things so this stamper has been just what I needed! Not only will we make monogrammed cards but we will make a matching case to store them in that has a magnetic closure. Isn't this Basic Grey paper gorgeous??!! There are a few openings left so call Kim at Serendipity to sign up! See ya then!

BTW - I'm just lovin' how these cards match my blog!

Teacher Gifts -

I've been a fan of JustRite Stampers for a long time now - I bought my first monogram kit back in 2006 and have made dozens and dozens of monogrammed notecards as gifts since then. Here are some pics of some teacher gifts I made a couple months back -

I'm loving that they offer the alphabets in so many different fonts and sizes now - these sets of cards feature the BRAYTON font. Justrite Stampers is getting ready to introduce lower case fonts soon - I can't wait!!

I have featured the monogram kit in two past classes at Serendipity but it has been a long time since I've had another. I'm pretty excited about what I am working on for my March class - We will be using Nestabilities, Cuttlebug folders and, of course, the JustRite Stampers kits to make monogrammed notecards and a case to hold them.

Kim has loads of JustRite Stampers merchandise at the store - Since they've become so popular there are more and more items being introduced all the time - Come to Serendipity and add to your collection -

P.S. Megan's Name Frame is featured on the JustRite Stampers Design Gallery - you may have seen it at the shop!