Rachel's Christmas Gift 2011

I love these altered Oatmeal canisters used for hair goodies. 

 I made one for Jessica now everyone is begging for one.  I can't eat that much Oatmeal peeps;)

Below is a CHRISTmas gift for my niece who loves pink and purple.

I also altered a few barrettes and some headbands.

Now for the inside goodies I recycled a cardboard tube to hold the hair bands and a magnetic paper clip holder for those DARN bobby pins that are so in love with my  vacuum!!!!

I cut a felt circle for the bottom of the tube so the inside can be used for storage of more bands.

So one gift down and many more to go.

She is going to adore this, can't wait to gift it.

These ideas can be found on my pinterest boards, I have been a busy on pinterest as of late;)  I need to stop getting distracted and get back on the crafty MAKING track.

If you live in my area and have Oatmeal Canisters please if you would save them for me.  Thank you;)

Have a happy stamp day!  God Bless!

Pumpkin Place Cards

My Aunt and Uncle called me this past week asking if I would have time to make some place cards for Thanksgiving.  Heck Yes, sounds like fun to me.

They turned out really cute here is how they are done.

Punch 8 circles, fold them in half and run your score tool over the fold.

I used quick dry adhesive to stack the eight half circles.

Cut off a small amount of the bottom so they will stand correctly.

Glue halfway up a toothpick and insert into the center of the pumpkin.

LET THIS PART DRY, does not take long but makes life easier;)

On the computer I generated all of the names and used the center point function on the cricut to cut the names out on the leaf.

Emboss the leaves that do not have the name printed on them.

Tie bow right above where your toothpick was inserted.

Glue on the leaves, placing the name leaf on the right hand side.

(I also glued leaves to the back to make the project looked finished from all sides.)

Tie button and adhere with dimensional foam dot.

Trim down toothpick so it is just above the leaves.

Products used...

SU DP, card stock, impression plate and ink

Quick dry adhesive

Circle punch

Toothpick

Computer and printer

Cricut and Plantin Schoolbook cartridge

PTI twine

Here is the link for you to my Pinterest pin so you can see where my idea came from.

Happy Stamp Day.  God Bless!

My Live is Pinteresting Part 3

You may be wondering why I am not posting cards or scrapbook pages.  Well, for me right now it is just to painful to sit in my design room. However, I was able to get to a 104 degree bend this past Monday.  Standing  in the kitchen is strengthening my knee quickly so hopefully I will be able to create paper crafts again soon.  

These have been some really good tips, hope you are enjoy them.

Today I worked out a perfect dish washing powder that works well for our old school hand washing of dishes.  With 5 of us they sure can stack up quickly;)

What you will need...

EQUAL Parts

1.  Washing Soda

2.  Kosher Salt

3.  Ivory Bath Bar

4. Fine Grater

5.  Jar to mix and hold the powder

Yes, your soap does have to be this fine otherwise it will not dissolve in your hot wash sink.

**As for the post on laundry soap you will also need your bar soap looking like this.**

Now this works perfect for us, I tried many other combinations with not so good results.  Basically, everything else left a yucky film on the plastic dishes.  This mix does not leave that film and works well with our rural water.  It takes one heaping Tablespoon per sink load.  Another money saver and a greener way of doing things around the Paschal household. 

If you have some DIY household tips you love to use please share in the comments.

Happy Stamp Day.  God Bless!

My Life is Pinteresting Part 2

Oh, how I love thee Frigidaire Affinity!!!!  

The Gear Box went out on our old set and Jesse said he was not going to fix it this time.  So Veterans Day we went shopping (NOT RECOMMENDED) every store was busy.   Anyhow, we did find something I liked...

High Efficiency, large capacity, with steam washer and dryer set.

You can see my handmade Downy Dryer sheets soaking and waiting atop the dryer...LOVE THEM!

One problem with the new HE washers, you can not use regular laundry detergent.  All the bubbles created will clog up the small capacity pump and do damage to your washer over time.  So...what to do????  Not going to use the HE detergent way to expensive to be using on a family of five, it would totally break our budget for cleaning supplies alone.  So with some research and the help of PINTEREST I found this...

Greener Living Blog

We found everything side by side on the shelf at Walmart. 

I had the numbers crunched and the cost per load is 2 cents.  That is right 2 cents, one penny for the pre-wash cycle and one penny for the wash.

Two hard parts for me in the creating of the soap

The bar soap was hard for me to grate, you need to use the super smallest size you have making it look like shredded cheese.  Any larger pieces are hard to melt during the process.  

I am not sure if it was hard just because I was not feeling a 100% or if the soap is just that compact.

It also takes along time to cook down to a honey consistency, stir and watch carefully.

We all love it, works wonders on the laundry and does not bust the budget.

Give one or both of these a try and let me know what you think.

Now I just need Jesse to get that outdoor laundry line up for me!

So that is my two cents;)

Happy Stamp Day,  God Bless!

My Life is Very Pinteresting

You can always take the link to my pinterest board it is found under my header.
Since it is really difficult to sit in my design room I have not been able to create for blog posts:( however to build up some strength in my knee I have been in the kitchen more than usual. Hence the post for today done with help from little j.

This can be found in my tips and tricks board about fabric sheets.
1. Cut up a kitchen towel on the fold lines giving us six sheets.
2. Poured 1/8 cup Downy over the towels.
3. Let them soak in sealed container.
4. Ring them out and let them dry.
5. Throw dried cloth in with load.
6. It is stated that each sheet will last 40 loads.

Helping to save some on the monthly budget and help green up the planet with less plastic and dryer sheets.

God bless!