Goodbye Fall 2010...

Today, I finished my last final at San Jacinto Community College. Starting in January, I will be a Lamar University Cardinal (Uncle Rob should love this!)... I cannot wait! But I am so excited for a month of relaxing Christmas-filled break.

Recently, I have been crafting some cute things for my dorm room. The first one is a simple photo holder that I made with the gold frame I found at an antique store here in Pearland. This frame has had multiple lives, first most likely as a frame, next as a photo prop (see it in use here), and now as a photo holder! 

I started by cutting a roll of cork into a 16x20 square. Then, I rapped the cork square with black fabric from Hobby Lobby. I used jersey cotton fabric, but I wouldn't suggest that because it was extremely flimsy fabric and difficult to work with! 

I cut the maroon ribbon and laid it out in a criss-cross pattern. Then, I hot glued it at the crosses and on the back. 

To finish, I added the flowers cut out of cute vintage-looking paper from Michael's and the buttons. I SERIOUSLY <3 BUTTONS! :) 

The next craft I worked on was the clothespins to hang photos in my dorm. The plan is to hang some black thick string and clip photos to it with clothespins. So... I mod-podged newspaper over the clothespins and added... what else... BUTTONS! 

Cupcakes and Crafts...

Happy Monday everyone! I'm praying for all the kiddos out there counting down the days until Christmas! :P


GREEK YOGURT CUPCAKES


As mentioned in my latest post, I made cupcakes! Now, I've never made cupcakes in my life. Weird, I know. But I haven't had ANY interest in the kitchen (unless it involves eating) ever before. But, I was watching the Seaworld Birthday Bash episode of Cupcake Wars and my creative juices got flowin'. So, my mom drove me to Kroger and we got:

• 1 box of 18.25oz Devils Food cake mix
• 1 cup (1 1/3 containers) of Greek vanilla yogurt
• Icing (big container!)

Once home, I:

• Added the whole box of cake with 1 cup of the Greek yogurt
• Then, mixed it all with 1 cup of water. 

I then scooped the cake mix into aluminum muffin holders and baked for 25 minutes at 350. (I did 12 at a time, but made 23 total..)

For the icing, I added about 3 drops of green and 2 drops of blue food coloring. Then scooped into a baggy, cut off a corner, and squeezed the icing on top of the fully-cooled cupcakes!

End result: 

Last night, I was tweeting about how I had made cupcakes. Well, a baker who appeared on Cupcake Wars of Food Network (@RedVelvetStef), asked me for a pic! Well, she wanted to feature cupcakes that people had made over the weekend when her episode of Cupcake Wars aired! So, here is the link where my cupcake is featured (unfortunately it's only an iPhone photo. :/) But still cute! 

http://www.redvelvetstefanie.com/category/blog/ 

P.S.- You can follow me at @CMcPhotography!

MINI-SCRAPBOOKS

Now, the other half of this blog post it titled Crafts, and here is why. I thought of a super fun craft idea to do with my kiddos I nanny! We've had so much fun this summer and so I thought it would be fun to make mini-scrapbooks with photos from our summer. So, I put together scrapbook kits for each of the kids to make their scrapbook..

Here is how to put together this easy and fun craft. 

1. Cut 2 pieces of card-stock in half, punch holes, and tie with string. 

2. Print pictures.

3. Pre-cut scrapbooking paper in different sizes, shapes, and colors. 

(sorry it's blurry. :/ )

4. Cut out individual stickers (this will prevent the use of TONS of stickers, costing you big bucks!)

5.  Add other fun craft items (here I added my favorites.. buttons and ribbon!) 

6. Add all the supplies together and you have a mini-scrapbooking kit! 

Note: Be sure to have scissors, double sided tape, and a chaperone! Have fun! :)