ListEn iN

My hubby has returned...

from a fun weekend away in Denver with one of his best friends, Kade. They flew in to watch the Broncos vs. Bears football game. My hubby is a Bears fan and Kade is a Broncos... Bears won. Here's a snapshot he took that I had to share.

Bottling Green Beans...

This afternoon I was able to get some beans bottled. The beans in our garden did not come up this year and so I had a sweet neighbor who allowed me to come and pick some of her beans that she didn't want. Eric's sweet Grandma snipped them all for me. For those of you have never bottled beans before here's how my cute Mother-In-Law taught me:

You will need: Green Beans, Pressurized Cooker, Stovetop, Salt, Glass Jars (I use pint), and new lids.

Bottling:

1. Snip your beans and then break the beans into half or thirds.
2. Wash your beans in the sink or large bowl by rinsing them in warm water and lightly rubbing beans together.
3. Heat  lids in scalding water.
4. Add 1 tsp. of salt to each jar.
5. Fill beans in jar. (I put the beans to the "neck" of the jar)
6. Fill jars with water making sure beans are all submerged.
7. Add the lids and caps.
8. Put the required amount in water Pressurized Cooker (read your instructions).
9. Add the bottles of beans.

Cooking:

1. Once you have all your bottles in place, add the lid onto the cooker.
2. Heat the cooker up until steam is rising from the gauge.
3. Steam for 10 minutes.
4. Close steam gauge
5. Let pressure inside cooker heat up so that you are between 13-15. Once you are at that level time them for 25 minutes. You will have to adjust the heat on your stove so that you can keep the pressure level.
6. After 25 minutes remove your cooker from the heat and allow time to cool.

Day Five with Mary Ann...

I made this Family Photo Frame just for me!  I have it sitting in my scrapbook room. Since it was just for me, I used my favorite color, pink!

I cut Adornit’s Pink Pop paper to 8x10 to fit my frame.  I added a picture of each person in our family. For the beautiful center, I stuck the Elegance Black sticker to a piece of cardstock, so it would stand out on the pink paper. Letters were added to the center. A glitter butterfly with more Pink Pop paper was added to the corner of the frame.

I love how fun and easy these are to make, and have to decided to make these for friends and family for Christmas. A family name could be added to the center for even more personalization.

Adornit Supplies:
22178 Pink Pop 12x12
91430 Elegance Clear Sticker

Once in awhile you take a photo that you love. This was one of those photos. I liked how the cute little yellow fish stood out against the bright blue water. I knew I wanted the photo to stand out too, so just a few strips of patterned paper was all I needed.  A coordinating Adornit journaling sticker for the date, and some alpha stickers completed this quick and easy layout.

Adornit Supplies:
22166 Hullabaloo Paper 12x12
22168 Twitch Paper 12x12
22167 Twinkle Paper 12x12
91419 Celebrate Boy Cardstock Sticker

Day Four with Mary Ann...

Have you ever seen a piece of patterned paper and thought to yourself, “I know exactly what I want to use this for!” That’s what I did with the fun red and white swirly wishes paper I used in this layout. As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to use it to make a school layout for my son. The funny thing, it’s really Christmas paper! I love paper like this that you can use for any occasion. It would look great on a 4^th of July layout, birthday or even pictures of pizza night.

I also used the Groovy Daisies paper, that has more of a vintage look, as the notebook paper by simply cutting off the brown and rust borders, and will keep those scraps to use on another layout or card.

Adornit Supplies:
22182 Swirly Wishes 12x12
22153 Groovy Daisies 12x12
22167 Twinkle 12x12
91420 Christmas Cheer Cardstock Sticker
91424 Butterfly Dreams Cardstock Sticker
91411 The Good Times Cardstock Sticker

 

Pictures of Goofy’s Kitchen at Disneyland require papers that are magical, bright and colorful. Adornit’s Flutter Flight papers couldn’t have been more perfect to showcase these photos.

I added the Flutter Flight sticker border to the edge of my paper. I love the scallop edges! Journaling was written between, and then another border sticker from the Flutter Flight Collection.  I cut 3” circles, and wrinkled and gathered the paper to look like dimensional flowers. Stickers and gems make up the centers.

I even added buttons to look like character we all know and love.

Adornit Supplies:
22159 Lollidots 12x12
22158 Flutter Flight 12x12
22157 Doodly-Doo Daisies 12x12
91408 Flutter Flight Cardstock Sticker

Day Three with Mary Ann...

After having 3 boys, it has been so fun having a little girl. The cute clothes, the hair bows, WOW!  I really like being able to do girly scrapbook pages too!

The Adornit Frenzy Bracket Paper is just right for a girly layout. On this page, I cut around the bracket, just leaving a small edge of blue showing. I trimmed the edge off of the left over scrap so it would fit next to the bracket on my 12x12 page.  With a pen, I “stitched” around the bracket. Rhinestones were added to the center of flowers. I made the large flower out of Peace and Girly Glam Cardstock stickersand added cardstock leaves. So sweet!

Adornit Supplies:

22175 Frenzy Bracket
91416 Girly Glam Cardstock Sticker

91410 Peace Cardstock Sticker

Day Two with Mary Ann...

We live in Southern California, in the city, but when we visit Grandpa and Grandma, the kids instantly turn into country kids. They love the freedom of dirt roads and hearing frogs by the lake.

The Vintage Groove line from Adornit was perfect to use for these photos I took of my youngest son enjoying the good times and Grandpa and Grandmas.

To my cardstock background I added the Groove Move border sticker.  I trimmed ½” from three sides of the Swirl Border paper, and then 1 ½” from the fourth side so I could tear, curl and ink the edge.

I added a rectangle cut from Grove Thing paper, and then placed my photos on top.  The “Enjoy the Good Times” sticker was just right for this layout, but it had a yellow border that didn’t quite go with my photos, so I used a marker to color it brown! Adorn it stickers are cardstock, so they color so nicely!  To add just a bit more brown, I even colored in the blue triangles on the Swirl Border Paper.

Adornit Supplies:
22156 Swirl Border 12x12
22154 Groove Thing 12x12
91409 Groove Move Cardstock Sticker
91411 The Good Times Cardstock Sticker

 

When I am scrapbooking, my hands tend to get a bit messy from the glues, inks and paints I use on my layouts.  I like to keep wipes handy to clean my hands, but the plain “baby wipe” box just looked so ugly sitting on my scrapbook table.  With just some scraps of paper, I turned it into a cute box that looks great sitting on my scrapbook table.

 I traced the lid to the wipe container, and cut pieces to fit all 4 sides.

Elegance Black Clear Stickers were added just for fun.

So quick and easy to do!  You could even decorate to match a baby’s room!

Adornit Supplies:
22160 Doodly-Doo Dots 12x12
91430 Elegance Black Clear Sticker

Day One with Mary Ann...

The Adornit Girl Birthday collection was perfect to use for this Birthday Banner.  I think it turned out so cute, that now I need to make one using the Boy Birthday Collection! I cut chipboard into five triangles, 7” tall by 5” at their widest point at the top. I covered them with Girl Birthday papers, and hung them from ribbon. I added cupcake baking cups, glitter, and Girl Birthday stickers. This was so easy to make, and will be fun to hang at our next party!

Adornit Supplies:
22170 Birthday Wishes Girl 12x12
22171 Blossom Stripe 12x12
22172 Candy Stripe 12x12
22173 Sweet Treat 12x12
22174 Wistful Wishes 12x12
91412 Girly Wishes Cardstock Sticker
91418 Celebrate Girl Cardstock Sticker

 

I love old black and white pictures, and I am always drawn to Adornit papers because they work so well with the old black and whites as well as photos from 2009. 

After I printed journaling on my background paper, I added three, 3 ½” squares along with my three photos. I added the green scalloped border sticker, and also the pink and yellow border strips cut from paper.The flower stem is a new Adornit Clear Sticker, and a sticker for a flower center.  I added Tiny Alpha Cardstock Stickers for the date.

Adornit Supplies:
91426 Charmed Black Clear Stickers
22171 Birthday Stripe
22173 Sweet Treat 12x12
91412 Girly Wishes Cardstock Sticker
91416 Girly Glam Sticker
91417 Peace Cardstock Sticker
91396 Flirtatious Tiny Alpha Cardstock Sticker

Guest Blogger : Mary Ann Jenkins

Hi, I’m Mary Ann Jenkins from sunny Southern California. I’m lucky to be a stay-at-home mom, although it seems I am rarely at home. I have three amazing boys, ages 22, 19 and 8, and one sweet 9 month old baby girl, who along with my wonderful hubby are what I enjoy scrapbooking about the most. I’ve been scrapbooking for over half of my life, and although my style changes from time to time, (my layouts from 1986 will prove that!)  my passion for this hobby has never faded.

 

When I’m not spending time with my family or scrapbooking, you can usually find me

with a camera in my hand. I love to take pictures! There is nothing better than capturing the everyday moments of life.

 

Thank you Adornit for having me as a Guest Blogger this week. I’ve loved your products for years, so this is especially fun for me!  You can find me on my blog  www.irockpaperandscissors.blogspot.com, I’d love for you to stop by and visit! 

Boating with Friends...

I cannot call a summer complete without at least one trip on the lake in a boat. I *heart* boating! When I was little we went every summer with my grandpa where I loved going in the tube and learning how to water ski. When I was in college I had a really fun group of friends with a boat and I learned how to wake board (which to me is so much better than water skiing). Since being married and having kids I have found my summer boating happens much less since neither of our families own a boat. On Friday one of my friends called to take me and the kids boating and of course I jumped at the chance. We had so much fun! It was Boston's second time and he was still a bit hesitant about the tube but Dax just hopped right on without a second thought. I even got up on the wakeboard and now my muscles are wondering what I was thinking LOL. We stayed until dark and loved every minute!

Beginner Basics for Scrapbooking: August

It’s time for Beginner’s Basics from Adornit editor Debbie Raymond. Debbie writes: “This month I want to share the layout I made for Big Picture Scrapbooking’s free summer promotion called Summer Fun.  The sub-theme is: Busy Women: Out of Time, On a Budget, But Still Inspired. Each teacher* was asked submit a page about something that inspires them, an everyday photo, and a product that they use to help to stretch their budget. Also to create a layout that incorporated their inspiration. Below is what I submitted.

*Note: Georgana and I are teaching Cut the Crazy out of Christmas on BPS again – starting Sept. 24! Be sure to join us!

Something that inspires me, especially during the summer months when I have a chance to read on the beach, is a book that speaks to women in every stage of life, Anne Morrow Lindbergh's Gift from the Sea. If you only have a few moments to read (if you're chasing kids rather than relaxing with a book), start with chapter seven -- A Few Shells. Oh, and, be sure to control your budget by going to the library for this book! This link takes you to the Charles Lindbergh website (Anne's husband) and a little about her life which is very inspiring to me.

A product I use to help stretch my budget is any of the inexpensive alphabet sets from Adornit scrapbook company. Adornit has alphabet stickers in every size and color. I especially like using the tiny alphabets to spell out sub-titles in my layouts. (I'll do anything to avoid my own handwriting.) At 80 cents per sheet, these sticker sets are cheap cheap cheap! Easy to use and cute, too.

For a shabby typewriter look, which I used for the title of my layout "inspired," I used Adornit's Love Letters. Everyone seems to love using these twill letters - they come in five different colors with two of each letter and four of each vowel per package.

My layout reminds me of a favorite concept in Lindbergh's book - that of simplifying our lives. The photo of me collecting shells was taken on Sanibel Island in Florida, the next-door-neighbor island to Captiva Island where the book was written. You'll love reading about the essential needs, aspirations, obligations, and gifts of women by a woman who knew much of suffering and of joy. You'll love learning the importance of taking time to focus on yourself. Here are the author's precepts for living: "Simplicity of living. Balance of physical, intellectual, and spiritual. Work without pressure. Space for significance and beauty. Time for solitude and sharing. Closeness to nature and human relationships. A creative life." For me, that's a summer's worth of scrapping, journaling, and striving!