Recipe Friday: Pasta Salads

The weather is finally getting warm and soon you will be invited to backyard barbacues, family reunions, and outdoor events. This means quick and easy potluck side dishes that will sure to please the crowds.

Grilled Veggie and Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

2/3 cup Italian dressing

4 cups fresh vegetables, 1-inch pieces

1 package (12 ounces) farfalle (bow-tie) pasta

Directions:

• Pour 1/3 cup of the dressing over vegetables. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour.
• Heat coals or gas grill for direct heat. Drain vegetables, reserving marinade. Thread vegetables on each of eight 10-inch metal skewers. Brush with marinade. Cover and grill vegetables 4 to 6 inches from medium heat 15 to 20 minutes, turning and brushing twice with marinade, until crisp-tender.
• While vegetables are grilling, cook and drain pasta as directed on package.
• Remove vegetables from skewers. Toss vegetables, pasta and remaining 1/3 cup dressing, adding additional dressing if desired.

Speedway Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

1 package (16 ounces) wagon wheel pasta or rotini pasta

1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce

1 cup reduced-fat Italian dressing

1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil leaves or 1 teaspoon dried basil

1 tablespoon fresh dried oregano leaves or 1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms

5 roma (plum) tomatoes, coarsely chopped (1 1/2 cups)

1 large peeled or unpeeled cucumber, coarsely chopped (1 1/2 cups)

1 medium red onion, chopped (1/2 cup)

1 can (2 1/4 ounces) sliced ripe olives, drained

Directions:

• Cook and drain pasta as directed on package. Rinse with cold water; drain.
• Mix tomato sauce, dressing, basil and oregano in large bowl. Add remaining ingredients; toss.
• Cover and refrigerate about 2 hours or until chilled but no longer than 48 hours.

Chicken Parmesan Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

8 oz. (3 cups) uncooked pasta nuggets (radiatore)

1 cup fresh baby carrots, halved diagonally

1 cup fresh small broccoli florets

2 cups chopped cooked chicken

¼ cup sliced green onions

½ red bell pepper, chopped

½ cucumber, chopped

1 cup purchased peppercorn ranch salad dressing

¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

• Cook pasta to desired doneness as directed on package, adding carrots and broccoli during last minute of cooking time. 
• Drain; rinse with cold water to cool. Drain well.
• In large serving bowl, combine cooked pasta, carrots and broccoli with chicken, onions, bell pepper and cucumber; mix well. Add dressing and cheese; toss gently to coat.

Have a wonderful and sunny weekend!
Creativity Bug ~ Sue

BESTeam Weekly Feature - Our Home to Yours

Come check out this week's BESTeam featured site Our Home to Yours owned by Debbie and Amanda from North Carolina.

Debbi is a professional mother (the best job on earth) with bio kids, foster kids, and a newly adopted kid.  Art is her stress reliever and favorite hobby. She is excited to be running an Etsy shop with her daughter Amanda.

Amanda is a working mom with a toddler. She has a Masters in Graphic Design with Fine Arts as her background. She makes all of the avatars and banners for Our Home to Yours.

For  anyone that likes original and one of a kind items, you can find them at Our Home to Yours. When Amanda and Debbi create something, they almost never re-make it. Why? They like to try new things all the time, so if you saw something in the shop that is now sold, let them know and they will re-make it just for you, if they can. 

You will never see a piece of Our Home to Yours jewelry sold and re-listed. Debbi doesn't draw a design first, and rarely buys in bulk. She just piles her beads in front of her, and let's the jewelry design themselves. She feels that if you wanted to look like everyone else, you would be shopping at Wal-mart. 


Updated Vintage Blue Hat with Flower

A pretty steel blue vintage hat refurbished with new trim and flower. The inside measurement is approximately 22" in diameter. I removed the tattered netting and flower, and replaced it with new fabric and a great handmade flower by youaremysunshine here on etsy.

Handmade Silver Necklace with Blue Pendant

A long silver chain necklace with a deep sapphire blue pendant, the perfect accent for any outfit. The chain measures 22 inches long and the pendant is one inch around. The necklace features a layered look with a double chain.

The pendant boasts a delicate silver spray of foliage against the sapphire blue of the gem. A nice feminine touch to the boldness of the chain.

Crystal Dragonfly Necklace

Looking for the perfect accessory for that new summer outfit? Try this turquoise and lilac and gold beaded necklace highlighted with a bold crystal accented dragonfly. This handmade necklace measures 19" from end to end, and the dragonfly is 1 3/4" long. It's just the perfect length, not too short and not too long. Made with a gold lobster claw, this necklace will not last long, so grab it now!

Handmade Crochet Blue Flower Flip Flops

This is a too cute handmade flip flop. A two tone flower tops off the multi-hued straps of these sandals, great for a day at the beach, or just kicking around town. This is a size xs and measures approximately 9" from toe to heel.

These are only a few of the wonderful items available. Please check out the rest of this beautiful collection at Our Home to Yours Etsy Shop and also take the time to view the Our Home to Yours blog.

The Creativity Bugs love the opportunity to promote other artisans including the fellow Estians but especially the BESTeam group. These friendly, talented, and very hardworking individuals work together to promote their shops and help others with marketing, advertising, and tips and tricks for running an online business. If you are a seller on Etsy, have a blog, and either FB or twitter, then you might be interested in joinging the BESTeam. You can find information about the team, as well as apply for membership HERE!

Happy Shopping!

Creativity Bug ~ Sue

Tuesday Tutorial: Poofy Paper Flowers

Hello and Happy Tuesday! We are starting a new feature on Tuesdays that will include tutorials and trash to treasure ideas.  Hopefully my creative other half (sister Sandy) will have the time to post a few tutorials of some of the trash to treasure items she has created for her home.

Today is a tutorial on making what I call "poofy" paper flowers. The idea is inspired by Teresa Collins, which I saw demonstrated on YouTube by 217Creations in her video called How to Make a Folded Teresa Collins Flower.

The supplies you will need include:

stapler
glue gun
tulle
5 of the same sized paper flowers (2 inches or larger)
gems, buttons, etc

Step 1:  Take one flower and fold it in half (you will do this to all but one flower)

Step 2:  Fold the flower in half once more

Step 3:  Staple folded flower #1 to folded flower #2 slightly overlapping

Step 4: Staple folded flower #2 to folded flower #3 slightly overlapping

Step 5: Staple folder flower #3 to folded flower #4 slightly overlapping

Step 6:  Fluff the stapled flower parts to "poof" up

Step 7:  Take a 6 -8  inch piece of the tulle, fold it in half, push down in the center with your finger, and staple

Step 8:  Glue tulle to stapled flower

Step 9:  Glue remaining flower on top of tulle/stapled flower and bend petals for dimension

Step 10:  Glue gems, buttons, etc. to create center of flower.

You can add Stickles, spray flower or tulle with Glimmer mist, etc. Be creative and add your own style and flair!

These big poofy paper flowers would be a great addition to gift packages as a topper, embellishments for cards, picture frames, or scrapbook pages, or can be used on other paper crafting projects.

Later in the week, I will make a post and show you a few completed projects that have poofy paper flowers used as embellishments.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial!
Creativity Bug ~ Sue

Featured Freebies for the Week of May 9th

Happy Monday!

Here are this week's collection of freebie digital images and stamps that we found on blogs and websites or sent to us by friends.

Delightful Inspiration (Designed2Delight) shares with us a spring cupcake digital stamp

Craft Gossip shares a few digital stamps including love birds and frames.

Fonts for Peas shares a terrific set of doodles and dingbats

Tiddly Inks shares Kiki the Shih Tzu dog digital stamp

Wendy Made has a happy monster alien, a set of hearts, and a set of frame digital stamps

Lindy's Maid Wid Luv features an amazing medallion digital stamp

That's it for this week. Happy crafting!
Creativity Bug ~ Sue

Happy Mother's Day

M - O - T - H - E - R 

"M" is for the million things she gave me,
"O" means only that she's growing old,
"T" is for the tears she shed to save me,
"H" is for her heart of purest gold;
"E" is for her eyes, with love-light shining,
"R" means right, and right she'll always be,
Put them all together, they spell 
"MOTHER,"
A word that means the world to me.
Howard Johnson (c. 1915)

Wishing my mom, sister, and all the other moms & grandmas out there a very Happy Mother's Day!

Creativity Bug ~ Sue

Happy National Scrapbook Day

Hello and Happy National Scrapbook (Crafting) Day!

For my family, we will be spending the day with our cousin Hannah who is having her first communion. However, when the festivities wind down, I will be joining in on the National Scrapbook Day Ustream Hop. If you want to have 12 hours of crafting fun with some wonderful designing ladies and hilarious crafty chatters, then come join in on the event!

Here's the schedule and Ustream links to the 12-hour Ustream Hop on National Scrapbook Day, Saturday, May 7, 2011: 

     1)  9 am to 12 noon Pacific, Laura of Following the Paper Trail.

           The Ustream link is:  http://www.ustream.tv/channel/followingthepapertrail

       2)  12 noon to 3 pm Pacific, Gina of My Scrap Room.

           The Ustream link is:  http://www.ustream.tv/channel/my-scrap-room

      3)  3 pm to 6 pm Pacific, Roxi and Yolie of Your Paper Pantry

           The Ustream link is:  http://www.ustream.tv/user/yourpaperpantry

      4)  6 pm to 9 pm Pacific, Kathryn of The Scrap Beach

           The Ustream link is:  http://www.ustream.tv/channel/live-on-the-scrap-beach

To figure out your time zone to the Pacific (PST), West Coast of the USA zone, click this link: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

Have a wonderful crafty day!

Creativity Bug ~ Sue

Special Blog Team Member ~ Catie

I would like to introduce to everyone our special blog team design member Catie (aka. Catie Bug). This 8-year old little cutie is my lovely niece who is a craft addict like her mom and auntie. This is definitely a trait she inherited from our side of the family!

As her proud aunt, I have nothing but good things to say about her. Besides her crafting talent, Catie loves to dance and takes Jazz and Ballet classes. She loves dancing so much that she makes up routines for everyone to see her do a "one girl show". Her love of dance has branched out into cheerleading, which she is proud to dance and cheer for her favorite team (GO VIKINGS!).

A few week's ago Catie joined me in the kitchen to try out my new Sizziz BigKick. Forgetting that she is now a "big girl", she instantly pushed me out of the way and said "I can do it all by myself". Grabbing the Hello Kitty die, a few scrap pieces of paper, a star handheld punch, and her favorite glue (Tombow), she created this card for her mom.

I wanted to try out the machine too, but realized that wasn't going to happen anytime soon. Before I knew it, she pulled out the Cupcake die, more scraps of paper, and was creating this card for her oma & opa. Unfortunately for them, she liked the card to much that she hasn't given it to them yet!

While I had a chance to use the machine, she used the negative from her Hello Kitty die to create a cat card to give to her dad.

Catie is already working on some more projects, so I promised I would do another feature of her "artwork" on the blog in the next week or so.

Thanks for stopping by the blog and taking a look at Catie's creations!
Creativity Bug ~ Sue