Scrap Spaces Challenge - ribbon

As you can tell from my lack of posts lately I haven't had much of a chance for crafting lately. This is due to the fact that my crafting spaces are a disaster and I can't find anything, hence the reason I joined the Scrap Spaces Challenge group at Simply Scrapping Crafts.

The first thing I did was organize my ribbon that was stuffed in a huge box all tangled. It went from this:

to now looking like this:

Another idea for ribbon organization is to buy wooden clothes pins from the dollar store, wrap your ribbon around them, secured with a pin, and storing them in plastic shoe boxes. This was a suggestion from a fellow organizer in my challenge group.

Hope either idea has helped you in your own organizational goals!

Sweets Box

Whenever the chocolate is gone, my dad says "your mom ate it all" and my mom says "your dad ate it all". So for this Valentines Day, I made a special sweet chocolate stash just for my dad filled with his favorite dark chocolates.

The box is just a crosstitch thread container covered with pattern paper from the dollar spot at Target. I then added felt letters and some bling with clear gems.

And don't forget to cover the inside to hide all your glue from the other side of the box.



Now my dad will have his own secret chocolate stash to enjoy when "mom eats" all the other chocolate in the house.

Valentine Bookmarks

I wanted to do something special this year for my niece and her classmates for Valentines Day. They are in the first grade and learning to read, so I thought why not make a bunch of bookmarks. Using digi stamps from MyGrafico, some cardstock, glitter glue, and leftover yarn I was able to create these cuties.

Sure hope all the kids will enjoy them!

All Scrapbook Steals Giveaway

Look at the awesome giveaway from All Scrapbook Steals for the month of February.

How can you get a chance to win this huge giveway package? Here are the rules posted as posted on the All Scrapbook Steals Blog:

1. This giveaway is only open to residents of the United States and Canada.

2. Enter by leaving a comment on this post about which product is your favorite product for Spring. You can check out all the products here.

3. Receive a second entry if you post about the giveaway on your blog or website. Please leave the link to your post in the comments section here so they can verify your second entry.

4. Entries will be accepted until Midnight PST on Feb. 10th.

5. Winner will be randomly chosen from all eligible entries received by midnight Feb 10th by random.org

6. Winner will be announced on Feb. 11th here on the blog.

Good luck to everyone!!

Simply Scrapping Crafts

Join the Simply Scrapping Crafts site and enjoy groups such as Color Combo Challenges, Card Weekly Challenges, and my favorite Scrap Spaces Challenges.

I mentioned in my earlier post about a scrapbook organizational class that I was taking. It is actually through the Scrap Spaces Challenge group at Simply Scrapping Crafts and there is still time to join. Participate in the challenges, discussions, share with your scrappy spaces, problem areas, storage suggestions, tips, solutions, ideas, products, and questions.

The weekly agenda for this 24 week program includes:

• Week 1 - Overview

Inventory your space. What bothers you the most? What is your biggest Storage issue? What would you change first

• Week 2 – Vision-Your Dream Space

What does your perfect space look like?

• Week 3 – Let’s get a MOVE on

Get boxes, your favorite beverage, great music, and lets getting packing. Everything you don’t NEED.

• Week 4 – Purge the Paper

I have paper everywhere. Stacks and Stashes, Scraps and more Scraps. We are going to organize your paper

• Week 5 – Pieces of Scraps

What are you keeping? What are you Tossing? How are we going to organize those pieces we can still use.

• Week 6 - Embellishments

Solutions for your Small Embellishments. Brads, Buttons, Clips, Beads, Flowers, Gems, Jewels and more.

• Week 7 – Incomplete pages

Let’s brainstorm on how to organize your projects that you have ½ completed.

• Week 8 - Ideas

I have ideas all over-stacks of printed off ideas, papers with written notes, magazines pages, and more. We need to get these in order.

• Week 9 – ABC’s

Let’s put our heads together and come up with ways to store our letters.

• Week 10 – Rub Ons & Stickers

When you box runs over and stack falls over. They are getting bent and coming off the sheet. Or worse stuck to something else.

• Week 11 – Ribbon-Fibers-Stitching Threads

Our beautiful adornments.

• Week 12 - Ribbon, Thread and Fibers

My pretty little things!

• Week 13 - Stamps

Organize and put away. Know what you have and where they are at.

• Week 14 – Ink, Ink Pads, Embossing supplies

What do you do with these when they take up a lot of room and space. I know you have ideas.

• Week 15 – Paints, Stickles, & Pearls

How to deal with these little things that take up so much room!

• Week 16 - Punches

Border Punches, hand punches, big punches, little punches.

• Week 17 – Adhesive

Glue dots, Glue Bottles, Tabs, Foam, Tape, let’s get it all together for easy reach.

• Week 18 – Chip Chip Chipboard

Let’s get our raw chipboard in one place.

• Week 19 – Pens & Pencils

From Copics, to Journaling Pens.

• Week 20 - Templates

By theme and by color

• Week 21 - Dies & Die Cutting Machines

Sizzix, Cricut, Quickutz, Cuttlebug

• Week 22 - New Items and Keeping it Neat

How to keep your space neat and not get into this MESS again.

• Week 23 – Cards & Card Supplies

The box is full, you have enough cards to send for the next 5 years. What to do with them?

• Week 24 – Décor

Spring Spruce up. Let’s make our space cozy and pretty.

Don’t worry if you do not complete your assignments. Just start at the beginning and remember there is NO deadlines to complete this.

Busy Life

Sorry not to have been making posts the last few weeks. My job has been keeping me extremely busy with training, new project releases, a lot of QA, and tons of additional work because of high absenteeism. In between all this, I started an organization class (to organize your scrapping space) and a weight managment class through Kronos to get my personal life in order.

Since I don't have anything crafting to share with you (I promise something to come later this week), I decided to post some of the things I learned in my weight management that might help others.

10 Foods You Should Eat

• Nuts & Seeds
  a. Healthy fat
  b. Provide fiber
  c. Helps avoid blood sugar spikes
• Leafy Greens
  a. Antioxidants
  b. Provides fiber, vitamins & minerals
• Berries
  a. Low in sugar and calories
  b. Provides fiber, vitamins & minerals
  c. Aids with memory and helps with UTI
  d. Antioxidants
• Beans
  a. Heart healthy
  b. High in fiber and protein
  c. Helps reduce cholesterol
• Salmon
  a. Omega-3 healthy fats
  b. Helps with memory
  c. Improves metabolism
• Sweet Potato
  a. Complex carbs
  b. High in vitamins A, iron, potassium, and calcium
  c. Antioxidants and anti-inflammatory
  d. Good for eyes and skin
• Tomatoes
  a. High in lycopene = cancer protection
  b. Reduces blood clotting
  c. High in vitamins
  d. Good source of potassium and fiber
• Barley
  a. High in fiber and vitamins
  b. Lowers cholesterol & blood sugar
  c. Reduces heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancers
• Dark Chocolate
  a. Flavenoids = antioxidants
  b. Helps improve moods
• Avocados
  a. Lowers cholesterol and blood sugars
  b. Reduces cancer risk

Valentine Idea

Valentine Bouquet or Center Piece

What started as this

Has turned into this

Directions:
Decorate tumbler with ribbon and foam stickers. Fill with 2 sheets of tissue paper; one loose and the other tightly packed. You could also use one sheet of tissue paper and floral foam for tumbler base.

Take 2 flower die cuts and punch a small hole in the middle. Feed rose lollipop stick through flower die hole; secure with floral tape if needed. Take 2 flower die cuts in coordinating colors and punch a small hole in the middle. Feed Dum Dum lollipops through flower die hole; secure with floral tape if needed.

Fluff up flowered/rose lollipops and insert into tumbler arranging as you go. Use flowered/Dum Dum lollipops as fller and to add color to your arrangement. Tie ribbon around heart pick and add it to the center of your arrangement.

Supply List:
Tumblers - $1 for three
Heart picks - $1 for seven
Foam Stickers - $1 for 200 pieces
Rose lollipops - $1 for 6
Dum Dums - $1 for a bag
Tissue paper - $1 for 30 sheets
Ribbon scraps
DCWV cardstock scraps
Making Memories printed paper scraps
Quickutz Revolution flower dies – REV-0173-S and REV-0174-S
Crop-A-dile (or any small hole punch)
Floral tape (optional)

Sneak Peak - Valentine Gift Idea

Need an inexpensive Valentine gift for someone in your life? Come back later on tonight to see what I made using Dollar Store finds (tumblers, tissue paper, lollipops, etc) along with scraps of DCWV & Making Memories papers, Quickutz dies, and left over ribbon.

Under Construction

Please bear with me! I am updating my blog page and will be up and running again shortly.

HG Kickin Faux Fried Chicken

Hungry Girl has done it again. Now you can have fried chicken fingers without the "fried", calories, and grease.

HG's Kickin' Buttermilk Faux-Fried Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup reduced-fat buttermilk (I used skim since I didn't have buttermilk)
• 1/8 tsp. paprika (Hungarian is the best)
• 12 oz. raw boneless skinless lean chicken breast tenders (about 10 pieces)
• 1/3 cup Fiber One bran cereal (original)
• 1/3 cup panko breadcrumbs (like the kind by Progresso)
• 1 tbsp. dry onion soup mix
• Optional: salt, to taste
• Optional: If you want a kick, add a shake or two of hot sauce to the milk

Directions:

In a large sealable container or plastic bag, combine buttermilk with paprika and mix well.

Add chicken and coat completely. Seal and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare a large baking sheet by spraying it with nonstick spray. Set aside.

Using a blender or food processor, grind Fiber One cereal to a breadcrumb-like consistency. Pour crumbs into a large bowl. Add panko breadcrumbs and onion soup mix. If you like, add a dash or two of salt. Mix thoroughly.

One at a time, remove each piece of chicken from container/bag, give it a shake (to get rid of excess buttermilk), coat it evenly with the crumb mixture, and lay it flat on the baking sheet.

Bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Flip carefully (tongs work well!), and then bake for an additional 10 minutes, or until outsides are crispy and chicken is cooked through. CRUNCH time!

MAKES 2 SERVINGS
Serving Size: 1/2 of recipe, about 5 piecesCalories: 315
Fat: 5g
Sodium: 586mg
Carbs: 25.5g
Fiber: 5g
Sugars: 3g Protein: 43g POINTS® value 6*