The Twinery & PSA Essentials Blog Hop

Hi Everyone! Hope your having a great time and getting LOTS of inspiration so far! I'm so excited...this happens to be my very 1st blog hop...EVER!
(I know...where have I been?!) hee hee! :) Be sure to scroll all the way down, I have several ideas for you today!

You should have arrived here from Kelley Eubanks blog. If you didn't get a chance to start from the beginning then head over to The Twinery blog.

A little bit about PSA Essentials
PSA Essentials manufactures custom,
self-inking stamps (think return address labels.) We have patent-pending
Peel & StickT technology which allows you to PEEL away your custom stamp and
STICK on a new design, and we have thousands of designs - from Holiday,
Birthday, Sentiments, and licensed Peanuts, Hello Kitty, U.B.U., Smirk,
College & Universities, and Greek Life, making PSA Essentials perfect for
crafting! The self-inking stamper (and 22-ink cartridges) give a crisp,
clean and consistent impressions every time, the technology allows you to
interchange your designs quickly for scrapbooking, cardmaking, creating gift
tags, bags, wrap, making favors and decorations.

PSA Essentials can be ordered HERE and all orders will receive a 30% discount when ordered between June 6-10 only. No discount code is needed.

A little bit about The Twinery
Our twine is made from 100% cotton, it's eco-friendly and made in the USA.
Whether you're gift wrapping, crafting or tying up baked goods to give to a friend, our baker's twine adds a fresh,
yet nostalgic look to any project at hand! Our baker's twine comes in 11 delicious colors
and is uniquely twisted against a bright white hue, creating an eye-popping burst of color
and a creative embellishment! Our twine has lots of color which lends to a fun, candy-striped look.

The Twinery is offering a 15% DISCOUNT on all orders placed between June 6-10 only with the Discount Code PSAHOP15.

PRIZE GIVEAWAY INFORMATION
The Twinery Prize Pack
Winners choice of 6 spools of baker's twine (value of $84)
PSA Essentials Prize Pack
1 stamper & 3 Peel & Stick packs, and 1 Monogrammed Tote Bag (value of $75+)

HOW TO WIN
Enter from June 6th at 12:01 AM EST to June 12th at 11:59 EST
LEAVE COMMENT ON EACH PARTICIPATING DESIGNER'S BLOG

FOR EXTRA ENTRIES
o Follow the PSA Stamp Camp Blog – 1 entry
o Follow The Twinery Blog – 1 entry
o Like PSA Essentials on Facebook – 1 entry
o Like The Twinery on Facebook – 1 entry


Winner will be chosen on 6/13 and announced on The Twinery blog as well as on the Facebook pages of The Twinery and PSA Essentials.

I started loving Hello Kitty around age 10! Some 30 years later my girls love her too! The Hello Kitty line offers a stamp for every occasion!

First up... I have a little card for a friend going to California this summer. I love adding bits of twine to buttons! Here I've used Cappuccino!

Next up... I have a fun thank-you card for a friend who really went the extra mile to help me out of a bind.


Another fun little project are these flat glass marble magnets. Now as you can see I didn't quite finish. But all I need is a little diamond glaze and a strong magnet!
Hey...a good craft project for my kids this afternoon!


Finally, I have a little winter ensemble using Fancy Flakes. Some friends of mine got married last Dec.31st, and their theme was snowflakes! How perfect would this have been back then!


A couple of sweet and simple cards. I think the charcoal twine really sets it off!



Here I made a matchbook notepad which slides into the bag nicely!


And a sweet little tin with some yummy treats!
Thanks for visiting with me! From here you'll hop over to Kim Moreno. Can't wait to see what she has for ya'll!

~Caroline

Mini Pom Pom Fun!

Hey there! I'm here to share a few ideas using mini poms! I have made pom poms with my fingers, a piece of cardboard and I even went out and bought a little Clover pom maker. I wanted to make itty bitty poms so when I came across this technique on Pinterest, I had to try ....
This is my own version tutorial.

1. Get the color of your choice Twinery twine, a nice sharp pair of pointed scissors. ( Mine are Fiskars) A long tined fork and waxed cord. I bought my Darice waxed cord at Joann's for $1.99 . It's located in the beading section by the stretch & hemp cord. Your going to wrap about 30 times around 2 of the tines.

2. Take a 4" or 5" length of waxed cord and go around the baker's twine tightly tie once. I then slide it off the tines, pinch hard, pull on the waxed cord and tie again. The waxed cord holds really well and you don't have to worry about your little pom coming loose!

3. The waxed cord is perfect to hold onto when you start cutting your loops too. I actually cut from the back to the front it's easier to get the point of your scissor in there.

4. After the loops are cut, keep trimming all around to shape it in a ball. I pinch the ball to flatten so the edges line up better.

My first project is a fun holly tag. I know it's early to start thinking about Christmas, but If you start now, think of how relaxed your holiday would be ;) wink!
I cut a length of honeydew and peapod twine, brought the ends through the front and tied a bow.

My 2nd project is a cheery birthday card.

I don't have step by step pics for the grass. But what I did was cut a 1/2" piece of cardstock the width of my card, wrapped twine all the way down. I carefully ran one edge through my sewing machine and the cut almost to the top of one side. That way I'd have longer grass in the back. I spread the twine apart and cut some of the cardstock away so it would not show. Then I adhered with hot glue for a strong hold.

I took the long ends of wax cord and threaded them with an embroidery needle so I could sew on the pollen. I attached it to the card, but I was going to make it into a little pin. My next little project is a 2 in 1. Hair bobby and gift tag. This time I left the waxed cord long so my little Caterpillar could have antennas!
I also used the extra waxed cord to tie the mini poms onto the bobby pin. It holds well and is less messy than glue! Isn't she precious! hee :)

Lastly, I have for you a little cupcake ...celebrating a milestone birthday. Mine! :) I'm turning 40 this Wednesday, May 18th to be exact! For the cherry, I used a little mono adhesive on a punched circle and twisted on Maraschino twine. Then I cut up little bits of twine for the sprinkles! This is me and my little family on Mother's Day!

I hope I have inspired you with a few ideas! I'd love to see YOUR mini pom ideas using the Terrific Twinery Twine!

Have a great week!

Caroline

Ladies' Retreat and Spring Twine

Yea! It's almost spring! I had a super fun and busy weekend making these fun tags for our ladies' retreat! My dear husband punched hundreds of flowers. Each tag had custom colors with 4 stacked flowers. Each flower was hand sculpted to create a 3 dimensional look! What was really great The Twinery has yummy bakers twine that matches perfectly! It also makes it a cinch to tie up the bags! For this project I chose Lilac, Caribbean and Honeydew....YUM!

The Wild Game Banquet 2011

Where did January go?

Did your January fly by as quickly? Mine sure did! I was super busy the last few weeks getting ready for our annual Wild Game banquet Jan 29th. My husband and I worked tirelessly building and decorating a cabin set and I designed these really cool hors' oeuvres tables out of logs. Good thing he saved a bunch for me to choose from! It's fantastic being married to an Arborist!
I'm actually going to sell these in my NEW Etsy store! I think they would be so great for a Woodland or Rustic chic wedding! We made 6 of them. They're around 3 1/2' to 4 1/2' tall. The bigger slices of wood are about 3' across.

So I'm submitting this fun little card before the strike of midnight to fulfill my duty as a Twinery design team member :)

I cut out a 3 1/4" cardstock circle and cut that in half. Took my mono adhesive....put a good amount on and adhered the twine. When I got to the Lilac, I just cut away the extra cardstock.
Since I didn't have a cute little "love" stamp, I hand wrote it with my white Signo pen!

That's it! Simple. Cute.

A New Year!

What a blessing a New Year is! A great time to remember all the wonderful things God did last year and a time to make changes for the better as a wife and parent!

This May, Lord willing, I will reach a milestone birthday ...the big 4-0! It's a wonder how OLD I used to think 40 was :) hee!

So anyways, Christmas has come and gone, and I wanted to share some photos of Christmas treats I made for my 3 kids school parties, Church decorations and THE wedding! Let me tell you how much fun that was .... and a ton of work LOL :0) I think I finally have gotten caught up on my sleep!

The round balls are candy cane Oreo truffles. My 5th grader brought those in. The pretzel rods went to my 1st graders class and the candy coated oreos went in with my 7th grader! A lot of work ,but my kids were very appreciative!

The next set of pics are what I was busily working on for our Christmas cantata! The man who designed the program graciously let me come up with the idea for the decor and execute it!

The hanging banners were inspired by Christmas decorations at Somerset Collection ( a beautiful mall 4 miles from my house) It's hard to judge the scale. They are about 5 ft wide and over 6 ft long. My great husband helped engineer these and hung them in the garage so I could decorate. I wish I had taken a close up photo so you could see all the gilded fruit piled high at the top. Miles of ribbon ,velvet roses, twinkle lights!

The white banners were a backdrop for Nativity images that matched the flyer for our Christmas cantata.
Here is a scope of the auditorium . I need to spruce up the wreaths for next year! I made them about 16 years ago. The center arrangement I made at least 5 yrs ago. I fixed it up a bit this year with gorgeous red berries and frosty boxwood greens! It's very sparkly in person. I try to get a close up shot later.

I need to go run an errand, but when I get back I'll show you pics of the wedding!