Stay At Home Nation...: May 2011

Monday, May 30, 2011

How to Make a Pretty Bow & My Favorite Things Link Party #2

Hello to all of my wonderful readers! I wanted to give a big Thanks for all who entered my link party and started following me last week =D

I will be posting a really cool giveaway from f2images June 1st, so be sure to check that out.

But for now, let my show you how to make a quick, pretty bow.

I made my very first bow when I made my
Lovely House Rules on A Canvas
when I felt it needed a little extra oomph..

First, I took some pretty ribbon & measured the width of where I wanted my bow to go on to my canvas. I cut that length & another half of that. Mine measured 11" & 5 1/2".

We will work with the shorter length first. Go ahead and place it print side down. Then you will fold one side over onto the center point of the ribbon(it makes a loop)

then place a dab of hot glue to secure it & hold for a minute. Careful, the glue is hot!

Now bring the other side of the ribbon over like you did with the first half,

you are going to slightly overlap the 2nd half with the 1st half that is glued down.

Glue that end down & now you have 2 loops.

Cut another piece of ribbon long enough to wrap around the center of your bow (I made mine a little long because I was making it up as I went)

Set that aside & bring your longest length of ribbon in front of you ( the 1st one you cut)

Place your ribbon with the 2 loops onto the long ribbon and glue it where you want it to sit.

Then place the smallest piece of ribbon on top & on the center of your bow vertically (I placed mine print side down for a contrast)

Then flip the entire thing over, where now your center ribbon will be on the bottom & showing the print side.

Place a dab of hot glue in the center of the back of your bow & glue one end down.

Trim the other end so that it ends at the back of the bow. Glue that down too.

Flip it over & your done. Look at how pretty. Now wasn't that simple?

OK It's time for anther party!!

Please come link up to My Favorite Things Party #2

Rules to my Party:

1-Show off your favorites(crafts, recipes, DIY, anything you have posted on your blog that you love.

& Link up (2 entries allowed)

2- Paste my button (located at the top of my sidebar) into your entry post(Mandatory)

3-Follow Me if you like my blog-not required but it would be nice =D
Let me know & I will follow you back!

4-Leave me a quick comment just to say hi so I know who's partying with me this week

5-Check out at least 1 other entry & comment on their post & let them know you saw them at my party.

Entries will list in reverse order-giving everyone a chance to shine at #1.

I do apologize that there aren't thumbnails this week, as I am deciding which link tool site to use.

My party will be open all week, so tell your friends~the more the merrier!

Thanks for stopping by!

~Iffy~

Partying with

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Sweet Tooth Satisfaction #2 ~ Cream Cheese Danish Bake

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OK, so I know that this is not good for trying to lose my extra post baby weight

but if you're like me, sometimes you just gotta have something sweet.

Doesn't this look yummy? Well it is! I warn you that once you make this, you will want to make it again SOON.
I found this on allrecipes.com (great site btw). I always tweak the recipes to my liking though.
It's so easy, here's what you will need
(2) 8oz cans refrigerated crescent roll dough
(2) 8oz packs plain cream cheese
1 cup white sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup butter (melted)
1/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp or more ground cinnamon

Go ahead and preheat your oven to 350 F & grease a 9"x13" baking dish(I use a glass pyrex)

Then open 1 can of crescent roll dough, unroll them, & press in a single layer into the bottom of your dish.

In a medium bowl, mix together
both packs of cream cheese
(you can soften them in a glass bowl in the microwave for 20 seconds for easier mixing),
1 cup of sugar, &
1 teaspoon of vanilla

until it's smooth & creamy.

I used a handheld mixer to cream it nicely.

Then spread your creamed mixture evenly on top of your bottom crescent layer with a spatula.

Next, unroll the other can of crescent roll dough & gently place on top of the creamed layer. This doesn't have to be perfect but try to cover the cream cheese mixture with your top layer of dough.
See how mine ripped so I used the smaller pieces to "patch up" where the cream cheese layer was showing. Trust me, this doe not have to be perfect....it still will taste yummy!

Go ahead & pour your melted butter over the whole top crescent layer.

Then in a small bowl toss 1/4 cup white sugar & 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.

Sprinkle that over the top of the butter.

You can change this up to your liking, which I do sometimes by adding 1/2 cup chopped pecans to the cream cheese layer
Yum!

Place your baking dish into your preheated oven & cook for 30min.

The result......

Sweet Tooth Satisfaction for sure!

Enjoy!!

~Iffy~

Oh and be sure to
come party with me all week long & link up @ My Favorite Things Party

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Lovely House Rules on A Canvas ~ My Favorite Things Link PARTY

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Here is my latest creation

This was so simple to do and I absolutely adore how it turned out.
I know I'm a little late jumping on the subway art bandwagon,
but that's OK because I do things on my own time.
More so when I want to, not because everyone else is doing it. I had ordered a picture on canvas about 2 years ago, but when I received it, there was a bunched up area of protective coating. They replaced it with a perfect photo canvas & told me to keep the messed up one.
Since I knew I was not going to use the image that was on it, as I had a replacement & since this one was damaged.

I held onto it thinking maybe one day I could do something with it.

So today was that day.

First I carefully peeled the protective coating off of the canvas. This in turn lifted the photo along with the coating.

I then painted the whole canvas with 2 coats of white acrylic craft
paint,

letting it dry 3 hours between coats for good measure.

While the paint was drying, I typed up our house rules using different fonts and sizes for each.

I even put a few words in different colors to make them stand out.

I was inspired to do a subway art "rules" canvas by Stephanie over at Full of Great Ideas .
I printed my house rules directly onto
tissue paper(thanks Stephanie!).

I cut the tissue paper just shy of a piece
of 8.5" x 11" printer paper so it wouldn't
jam in the printer.
I folded the tissue paper over & taped it to
the back with a piece of
clear packing tape.

I then cut out my rules and paired them up as to
how I wanted them to read.

Next I arranged them on the canvas to get an idea of where
I wanted them placed.

I poured some Mod Podge into a small bowl and with a foam brush,

I painted a light layer of it onto my canvas working a section at a time.

Little by little I painted a row of Mod Podge, then (while still wet) I laid the first row of rules down.

I continued this until my canvas was covered in rules.
(Be sure to smooth the tissue paper down as you go)

I let this dry for about 20 minutes and then painted the canvas with

two top layers of Mod Podge
(letting it dry 30 minutes between each).

This helps protect your canvas from peeling up.

Be careful not to brush over the tissue paper too much, as it is delicate

and could tear & smear.....like mine.

Which I'm totally fine with as it adds a distressed look.

After the canvas was dry, I decided to add some ribbon around the edges.

I really love this sweet, romantic print on the ribbon.

I started at the bottom of the canvas, and glued the ribbon around the trim with my hot glue gun.

I glued a little at a time and laid the ribbon down then gently rubbed the ribbon to smooth it out.

I continued this until I made it back around to where I started.

Then I cut the ribbon and glued that down too.

I wanted to add a little something to the front of my canvas as it felt a little boring to me.

So, I cut some ribbon the width of my canvas, & added a bow to that.

I had never made a bow before so I just improvised (please don't critique my bow as I just made it on the spot & had no idea what I was doing)

It's not perfect but I like how it turned out, so I'm happy.

You can check out my tutorial on how I made the bow here..

So I then glued the bow to my ribbon with
hot glue and

then hot glued the ribbon across
the front of the canvas.

You could do this step first(before the ribbon along the trim)
to avoid the edges from being frayed.

Isn't it a nice little touch?

I also had some small white artificial flowers that have been sitting in my craft drawer,
so I cut off 3

& then hot glued them down onto my canvas.

I found that the closer you cut them to the base of the flower, the flatter they sit....I know common sense right? I thought I had cut them short enough until I stuck the first flower into the hot glue. See the one on the left is a little tipped?

I think the flowers add even more of a feminine feel to it.

With all the little imperfections from the wrinkles in the tissue paper,
to the fray of the ribbon,
I love it because it's one of a kind just like my family.

Just lovely, isn't it?

So now it's your turn, link up to My Favorite Things Party

Grab my button code below:

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How to Join My Party:
1-Grab the code to my button above & paste it into your entry post
2-Show off your favorite things(crafts, recipes, DIY, anything you have posted on your blog-But
Keep It Clean!)
& Link up below (2 entries allowed)
3-Follow Me if you like my blog-not required but it would be nice =D
4-Leave me a quick comment just to say hi so I know who's partying with me this week
5-Check out at least 1 other entry & comment on their post & let them know you saw them at my party.
Entries will list in reverse order-
giving everyone a chance to shine at the #1 spot.

My party will be open all week, so tell your friends~
because the more the merrier!
Please help me spread the word about my blog as I will have some really great giveaways once a month, beginning in June, so be sure to check back often!
Thanks for stopping by!

~Iffy~

Partying with