Hand dipped Primitive spice candle tutorial

 Hi everyone! I thought I'd walk you through how I made these primitive spice candles. My friend Brenda is the one that told me about them and explained to me online as to how to do it. Thanks Brenda! How did I do???
First off grab yourself the tallest food can that you can find. I happened to have a tall one that had green beans in it that seemed to work just fine. Then place that down inside a large pot filled with water to make yourself a double boiler. Then for the can that I had, it took about 2 and a half boxes of Gulf paraffin wax that is placed down inside the can a couple at a time to melt. If your cutting your blocks in half for some reason we found that if you dip your knife in the hot water it cuts the wax or will shorten your taper candles easier cause it cuts through them like butter!

 After you have the desired amount of paraffin wax melted have your taper candles handy. You can pick up these inexpensive candles about anywhere even the Dollar Store. You will also need a set of tongs that will hold tight to the wick of the candle.

 Go ahead before you start dipping and prep your spice rolling area. I laid out some wax paper and used allspice, cinnamon and cloves for my mixture. I also placed another sheet of wax paper down as well close by to lay my finished candles on to keep from having wax all over my counters. Be sure that the length of your spices are at least as long as your candle itself and wide enough for the candle to roll in.

 Now your ready to dip your candle. Use the tongs and you have to work pretty fast here cause the paraffin wax dries rather quickly.

 Dip your candle in the paraffin wax....

 and immediately roll it into your spice mixture. Keep repeating this process until you get your desired look. I found that with the tops of my candles I had to hold the bottom of the candle after I had the bottom the way I wanted it in order to coat and cover the top of the candle and the wick.

 Here are the three that are finished.

 They smell so good and would be so nice with a tad of homespun wrapped around them and just sitting around OR.....

You could do what I did and take a piece of worn out patchwork quilt and make something to put your hand dipped candles in, like the above picture.
I have never attempted to make candles but let me tell you I wasn't the only one that had fun making these....my husband helped me and we had a blast doing it and plan on making more. Be sure to save your food can filled with paraffin wax cause it can be heated back up and reused over and over again.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask and I'll do help in any way I can. Thanks again Brenda for sharing this idea!!!

Spreading the Christmas Cheer!!!!!

 Merry Christmas everyone!!!! I know that you saw my house all decorated last year but I have done a few things a little different. I thought that you might want to see it one more time, before I totally transform the living room. It want look anything like this after the first of the year and I'm sooooo excited to get started on it. It will take me a while with all the breaks I'll have to take but will be so worth it!

 I thought this little stackable snowman fit just perfectly right there with the birdhouses.

 I just love these winter pictures that I got for a steal on ebay a couple years ago.

 Here's another picture of the pretty winter pictures that I picked up on ebay. I just love them.

 My best friend Suzie sent me the woolly sheep that she made and the stack of books was something that I put together. You just simply take the backings off the books, add ribbon and embellishment and waaaaa laaaa you have a decoration.

 I really tried my best to keep my decorations to a minimal this year as you can see on the top of the cabinets in the kitchen.

 And TA DA! This is probably my most favorite thing in the entire line of Christmas decorations that I have out other than my white Christmas tree. I'm using this glass vase filled with Christmas balls, snowflakes and silver beads strands. It makes me smile when I eating.

 And here's my white and robins egg blue Christmas tree again this year...yes its in my kitchen decorated with the vintage shiny brite ornaments that once again I was able to find for a little of nothing on ebay. Then I made birds nests, bird houses and took a feather boa and cut it up to tuck in the tree in random places.

 Here's another view of the tree with the kitchen table in clear view and YES I did hang snowflakes from my chandelier!

 I put the NOEL sign on the mirror above the kitchen table....I found that on clearance but can't remember where now...didn't give hardly anything for it.

 The this ceramic reindeer I found on ebay also and I bought a set. The other one is on top of the kitchen cabinets. I had to add robins egg blue ribbon to them. I thought it was so pretty sitting underneath our message board that my best friend and sis (Suzie from over at Happy Shack) made me.

 I have a small china cabinet and this is what I did with it....

 Here are the outside decorations as you step up on the deck to come in the door.

 I trimmed some of my pine trees and put them to good use. Then added red berries and flocked pine cones and a ribbon to embellish the pine clippings. Oh I found the ice skates at Goodwill for a little of nothing either and added some red socks to dress them up a bit.

 Just another picture of the old foot locker decorations.

 Here is how I decorated the buffet out on the deck this year.

This is just another view of the buffet and that concludes the "Christmas tour of my house" I hope that everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year. God Bless each and every one of you and thank you for coming back and I look forward to having some more fun stuff to show you soon! So come on back...you hear???

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving to each and every one of you out there that have been so gracious to stop by my blog over the past year or so. As I've been going over the things that I'm so grateful for over the past year you all are part of what I consider a blessing!
I guess you all thought that I had gone to the ends of the earth or just left the planet cause I haven't posted anything in a while. But I've been extremely busy working on getting my house decorated for Christmas plus I've been making some gifts and on top of all of that I even managed to go to a scrapbooking retreat a couple of weeks ago for 4 days. So I've been busy busy. But even with all that I'm still grateful that I was able to get well enough to get all that done as well as go on my trip that I had been looking forward to since this past summer.
But getting back to what all that I'm grateful for......
1.  My health...although it's not that great most of the time..I do know that it could be worse.
2.  My family!
3.  My husband! If it weren't for him some days I don't know what I'd do, he's a huge blessing.
4.  My son! I thank God daily for allowing me the priveledge to be his mom! He's awesome!
5.  My grandparents...they may have passed on but I still stop and think of them cause they are what I feel like who helped me become the person that I am today.
6.  My mother. I know I mentioned my family but I have to give more credit to my mom cause she's one of the strongest people I know. She's had cancer and it never got her down. She continues to fight and has taught me to do my best to do the same.
7.  My Lord and Savior!
8.  All my friends! Gosh how could I ever go through a list of blessings without thinking of them often! They keep me on track, lift me up when I'm down, encourage me in my adventures and push me when I need a good shove.
9.  Necessities!!! A roof over my head, food in my mouth and clothes on my body
10. All of my blogger friends who inspire me on a daily basis. You all make me want to get up and go do something just so I can share it with you. It helps me mentally more than you all will ever know.
So what are you all grateful for???? I'd love to hear your list....that's just my top 10. I have soooo many more things that I'm grateful for.
Hope that you all have a WONDERFUL day of reflecting and enjoy some good food and great fellowship with your family and friends.

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Hi everyone and Happy Halloween! I finally drug myself out of bed today where I've been being held captive by first a stomach virus and now what seems to be the flu. I had been craving something that I could actually taste. So I got up and made a big pot of chili, a pan of mexican cornbread and then I wanted something to do with pumpkin so I ran across this recipe on the internet and just had to try it. I wanted to do something nice for my boys today and for myself as well. So I just had to share with you this recipe cause it is sooooo good! The muffins are really moist and just so yummy.
I'm off to the doctors in the morning. As soon as I wake up I'm calling and begging for them to please get me in. I've taken all this mess that I can possibly tolerate.
So anyway, here's the recipe....hope you enjoy!

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

3 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin (15oz can)
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
1 1/2 cups raisins
1 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped (I used pecans)

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine sugar, melted butter, oil, eggs, pumpkin and water. Beat for 90 seconds or until well mixed.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices, stirring until no streaks remain.

Combine flour mixture and pumpkin mixture. Stir in nuts and raisins. Stirring only until all ingredients are mixed.

Cover batter and allow to stand at room temp for one hour.

Preheat oven at 400 degrees

Fill greased muffin tins 2/3 of the way full.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until muffin tops spring back after lightly touched.

Brush tops of muffins with melted butter while still warm and sprinkle lightly with sugar.


Now kick your heels up and ENJOY!

Alice in Wonderland Haunted House mini album...

 Hey everyone! I know, I know...your wondering why in the world would I make another Halloween album when I barely had enough pictures to put in the first one...BUT. I had bought this Graphic 45 paper this year and couldn't stand it...I just had to use it. So I figured that each year I can sit the little album out and in many years to come I can put my grandbabies pictures in it. The front of the album is actually 3D but it's not showing up in the pictures for some reason. Alice is 3D and all glittered as well as the little pumpkin and the keyhole is completely covered in glossy accents and then of course there is the metal key in the upper corner. I also have tabs that pull out from each corner. Oh by the way this is an exploding box along the same lines as the envelope exploding box but there wasn't a store bought envelope one used in this album.

 Here is one of the side views of the little house. I used Martha Stewarts iron gate fence. This fence is actually purple but is showing up blue for some reason.

 Here is another side. All 3 sides are the same with different tags tucked behind the fence.

 When you open it of course you can see all of it but I thought I'd take you through each "layer". The first layer are all doors to mimick the doors that Alice encountered in the movie. The little playing card is moveable so you can place a picture up behind it. I used keyhole brads on each door as well.

 Then when you open the doors there is a pocket on the back side of the door with a tag and a mat on the opposite page with another moveable small tag in the upper corner.

 Here is the second "layer". Now for this layer I used the smaller black paper bags that you can get at Michaels. I tucked a tag inside and added a big pretty rhinestone brad and at the bottom of each bag there is a name plate where you can actually tuck another tag. Sorry I forgot to put my shipping tags behind there so that I could show you.

 Then here is the 3rd and last layer. This is the only envelope that is in the album. I actually used my envelope template and some cardstock to make them. and then I added tags and key brads to the tab tops.

Then POOF here is what it looks like when the roof is taken off the top. I added a big nice flower and a little mouse. I like to add my finishing embellishments once my pictures are in my albums so that's why it's a bit on the plain side. But I do hope that this inspires you all in some way.
I'm hoping that everyone is having a good weekend and I'll be seeing you soon....come on back ya'll!

BOO! My first Halloween mini album....

 Hey everyone! Well here it is.....it's not only my first Halloween mini album but it's also my first paper bag mini album as well. Let me tell ya...I had a lot of fun making this one but was a bit disappointed when I went to looking for pictures to go inside it. I still don't have them printed off and placed in the album yet but I had such a hard time coming up with pictures of my son dressed up. It was so disheartening to me. I'm not sure why I didn't take many Halloween pictures. I had thought that I would have to make 2 Halloween mini albums to get all the pictures in but that's just not the case at all. But anyway...enough of my sorrows about the pictures, let me go ahead and describe the album to you.
First off, just about everything in this album came from scrapbuck.com. I don't think that I shared my haul with you when I received all this great stuff several weeks ago. But just about everything in here came from their online store. I first used We R Memory Keepers Heebie Jeebies paper line along with some plain cardstock. The roof of my little haunted house was used cutting strips of black cardstock using the Fiskars sunflower scissors and then layered on top of one another so that it would look like shingles. I also used a Martha Stewart punch to make the top decorative piece...it was an edge punch but I don't remember the name of it. I'm thinking its something like gothic arches or something like that. After I did all of that I sprayed the roof of the house with glimmer mist (Diamond Dust) and it gave the roof a nice patina. Then of course I used the new Martha Stewart iron gate deep edge punch for the widow walk on the roof....that is what those are called right? There are little bats on the fence that I added some glitter too so that they would stand out. Now onto the body of the house. I haphazardly cut small strips of chipboard and laid them out so that they would form my windows. There are several layers to the windows...first off after I cut those chipboard pieces I used some charcoal ink to make them look old then I used some of the acetate packaging from some stickers I had used to make "glass" for the windows and added some coffee stained cheese cloth as my torn and tattered "curtains" then I added a sticker on top of the acetate but behind the "panes" so it looked as if you were peeping into the windows....or that someone was peeping out..whatever be the case. Then I used some glittered ghost stickers, an Enter at your own risk sticker above the door and then I used the Martha Stewart iron gate edge punch again at the bottom. I'll get to the door in a second...

 Here you can see that on the binding I used a small skeleton that I found at Dollar Tree. I added some googly eyes to him as well as a little black and white bow around his neck. (I just had to make him a bit cute) then I cut strips of the coffee stained cheese cloth and tied that to the binding as well. I hung Mr. Skeleton from the binding using a Tim Holtz clasp.

 Here's a peep of what appears when you open the front door....it's just an old witch stirring her brew. On the outside of the door I used a Memory Makers metal keyhole brad and then since I had an entire string of those skeletons, I decided that I'd cut one of them up to see what I could make with the "parts". So I sliced his skull in half and added some red glitter to his eyes and it now adorns the front door. (hmmm this description of how I dissected the skeleton sounds scary ) then I needed something for my hinges so I cut slits of the Iron Gate punch and glittered them to make my hinges and added an EEEK 3D sticker.

 For my closure I used a Tim Holtz Hitching post and one of his swivel clasps. Squeeeeak! Now lets open the album and see what's on the inside.....if you dare...

 Like I said this is a paper bag album and my very first one. But before I talk about the pages I need to mention that the moon in the upper right hand corner is cardstock covered chipboard with a plastic rubberised bat that I found at Dollar Tree as well. Now back to the paper bag pages.....I just quite simply slapped 2 of the black paper bags together (I found those at Michael's) and then as I glued the two flat sides of the paper bags together I only glued 3 sides to that I could have a pocket in the center of the bags for a large tags....after all these albums are all about the pictures right??? At least they are to me anyway and I like to have as much real estate as possible in one.

 So when you pull all the tags out for these pages you can see that there are several places to put the much cherished pictures. For the tag that slides in between the 2 glued paper bags I used the McGill tab punch and just alternated it as I made more pages so that they are stair stepped and on this tab I also added a plastic spider that I also found at Dollar Tree.

 Here are a few more of the pages with all the tabs pulled out or shifted. The images at the bottoms of the tags in the purple and black are actually flocked and really added a nice touch I thought.

 I will embellish the album even more once I get the pictures printed and placed.

 And a few more pages.....***note the tab pull on this one...yep you guessed it its an arm bone and hand ... connected of course (are you humming that song yet? Let me help you.....the hip bones connected to the leg bone and the leg bones connected to the ankle bone) nayyyy I'll just stick to my day job...you all don't want me singing to you...chances are I got the wording wrong anyway.

Ok so here is that last page. I plan on using the front and back covers to put notes and journaling to my son. I know that one day he will get all these albums so I wanted to first off apologize to him for not taking more pictures of him dressed up but then also talk about all the things I remember about Halloween when he was just a little fellow. It just breaks my heart that I don't have more pictures than what I do of him dressed up. However, I do still have 2 of his Halloween costumes from when he was a toddler. I used to order his costumes from The Disney Store...so he was both Pooh and Tigger.....the sad sad thing is...I don't have a picture one of him in his Pooh costume and he loved Pooh the best. Let me tell you when he was a toddler Pooh was playing on tv 24/7. I had memorized every line to every Pooh video there was and yet.....not one single picture of him in his costume. I plan on saving those costumes and one day maybe I'll get to take pictures of grand babies in them.
I hope that everyone is having a wonderful Tuesday! As for me I'm headed back to the craft room to see what else I can get brewing in my cauldron and as always you all know that I'll be sharing with you what else I come up with......so come on back and visit soon.

I've been blinging my world.....

 Hey everyone! Remember me telling you about this new Creative Memories scrapbooking luggage that I had bought and I was doing something to it???? Well here it is before I touched it.....but it's kind of boring and plain huh? So what's a girl to do?.....

 THIS is what she does! She pulls out her glue and bling and just starts have a good time. Now for some odd reason it isn't showing all the pretty bling that has been added to all 3 pieces but the bling is crystal and pink and anywhere there was white daisies on the bags....that got blinged! I also added some pretty pink ribbon on all the pulls. I decided on pink since the inside of all the cases are pink.

Even in this picture...you can see that there is bling there but it's not showing the correct color....I need to get better with a camera or my lightening was bad or something. Not sure what happened but trust me IT IS BLINGED! and sooo pretty. I'm starting to think that my favorite color is "Sparkle"!
Now these bags will be all ready for next month when I go to the scrapbooking retreat! I'm so excited to get to go to it again. Remember I went back in Feb or March of this year and had the time of my life! So I'm getting things ready to go again.
As far as my Halloween mini album....well I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I worked on it a bit more today but have been having some problems with my back so I can't sit for very long at all cause it irritates my back even more. So I'm just taking my time finishing that album up and babying my back. But I'll be sure to show it to you all just as soon as I get it done.
Hope that everyone is have a great start to the week and I'll be back soon, so come on back by........

Debbie's album completed and delivered!...

 WARNING! This post has lots of pictures....
So I finished Debbie's little album then had been so busy doing other projects and such that I forgot to post pictures of the final outcome. On the front cover I used some Prima flowers, a butterfly that came from scrapbuck.com, some pretty pearl bling, a paper doily and some bling from scrapbuck.com. Then I also added a pretty pearl brad that I picked up at Michael's to use as my closure. The little white hairband wraps around it to keep it snug. It turned out quite "chunky" to say the least. Matter of fact....

 it was so "chunky" that instead of using the bind it all I had to lace it up using some pretty ribbon. Actually I thought it turned out even cuter that way. On the "binding" I added a pretty flower paper clip with some beads dangling from it as well as a distressed metal heart and added the letter D on it. Then added some extra ribbon clippings from my stash.

 I don't think that I took pictures of all of the little things pulled out for the rest of the album. But that's ok cause you all have the idea of how I was making the inserts.

 This is another one of the pages that opens waaaay up into a full 12x12 piece of cardstock.

 I had to set this picture aside to stand on it's own cause Suzie's house is so pretty and it has so much CHARM!

 This was some pictures of us when we went on a shopping trip.....NO we couldn't even behave ourselves out in public....it's not much fun when you do is it??

 Those masks were so pretty. I would of bought one if I could figure out what to do with it once I got it home...they were gorgeous!

 Here is another one of the pages that opens up to a 12x12 page with loads of room for pictures.

 I will give you a total at the end of just how many pictures I was able to get into this little mini album. I think you will be shocked to find out just how many it really held.

 OOPS! This picture turned sideways on me and I don't know how to make it go the right way...so just turn your head crooked and you'll be able to see it.

 Ok that's it for the album but I did take pictures of one more of the little "booklets" that opens up into a 12x12 page so you can see how I added pictures to it.

That one sheet of paper will hold a lot of pictures huh?
Ok are you ready for the GRAND TOTAL of how many pictures I was able to get into this little mini album? ..... Drum roll please.......97 pictures!!! No, you aren't seeing things. I actually was able to get that many pictures in this one little album. I had the most fun making this little album. I laughed so hard as I was adding the pictures cause it took me back to when they were actually being taken and believe me if you can't have fun and enjoy yourself at Suzie's house then there is something seriously wrong with you. I can honestly say that this is by far my most favorite mini album that I've made so far. I just loved it and hope that Debbie gets many of good laughs out of it and enjoys it as much as I enjoyed making it for her.
So what else have I been working on??? Well I have been working on a Halloween mini album. I just about have it all complete except for my pictures but as soon as I finish with the pages I'll go ahead and show it so you don't have to wait for me to get the pictures printed out and put in the album. I've also been working on blinging my my new scrapbook luggage that I got this past weekend at one of the crops. I've been wanting this piece of luggage forever cause it's so big! Plus it's Creative Memories stuff and if you've ever bought anything from them you know that it's good quality stuff that's built to last. So I'm working on personalizing it so that it will be all ready to go next month when I leave for the scrapbooking retreat. Looks like I'm going to have to make a trip to Hobby Lobby though before I can finish that project cause I'm out of rhinestones. I'll show you all that finished project once it's done as well.
Hope that everyone is having a wonderful week and I'll be seeing you real soon.....