winter fun

30Jan

Caramel Corn

January 30, 2010 by Crystal Brothers 6 Comments

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Love this stuff! It’s way easier than I thought it would be and a lot better than the kind you buy in stores…always a good combination!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup honey

1 tbsp molasses

1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

10 cups popped popcorn

1 cup peanuts

Directions. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In a small saucepan on low heat, melt butter. Add honey, molasses, vanilla, salt. Turn to high heat and bring to a boil. Boil for approx. 30 seconds. Pour mixture over prepared 10 cups of popcorn and mix until popcorn is coated. Spread covered popcorn onto rimmed cookie sheets and bake at 300 degrees for 10-15 minutes.

For a fun gift, buy some cone shaped icing bags. Fill each bag with approximately 1.5-2 cups of popcorn, and secure with a ribbon. Enjoy :)

13Jan

Snow Day, and an awesome DT Call…

January 13, 2010 by Crystal Brothers 5 Comments

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So, I’m a little sad about it, but my term designing for A Walk Down Memory Lane is coming to a close. But, that is fantastic news for all of you wonderful designers because they are having a DT through the 19th. You can find all the details HERE. But, it has been a fabulous DT to work with! The best part is that rather than receiving an assortment of items from the store chosen for you, you receive an allowance each month to choose your own items! And, if you order anything on top of that, there is a very generous discount. It really is a sweet deal, because you never have to worry about getting stuff that is difficult to work with every month. Lisa has a well-stocked store also, so that is just icing on the cake and she is a super nice person!

And, I promised some snow pictures. We had a great time. We got a few inches of snow, which is the biggest snow we’ve had in years. It was frigid cold, but we still got out and went sledding down our big ole hill. Here are a couple pics, enough to show the whole family. If you’re on my facebook, you’ve probably already seen them, along with several more. If you aren’t, feel free to add me :) I’ve been having fun with posting things and chit-chatting with people I know IRL who I wouldn’t normally get a chance to talk to, KWIM?

Finally, here are some projects that I haven’t yet shared here. A few months ago, I had the pleasure of working with this kit from KNK. I think it was their August or Sept. kit. Anyway, to be honest it was a bit of a challenge for me, but I was excited to create a few projects that I was pleased with still :)

And, I should add that as of a couple weeks ago I have made the decision to no longer work with SNR. A lot of thought went into the decision and there are several factors that influenced my decision, not the least of which is my desire to simplify my commitments a bit.

I hope you all are having a wonderful week! Also, please remember the people of Haiti and the various missions who have been affected by the major earthquake which hit Haiti yesterday.

21Dec

Decking the Halls

December 21, 2009 by Crystal Brothers 5 Comments

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in more ways than one! We’re getting ready for Christmas around here and I couldn’t be more excited about it! My semester is over at school. I ended up with an A and a B, which I’m satisfied with. I think having two babies while I attend school has cured me of being a perfectionist where grades are concerned and I’m thinking a B isn’t too bad. :) Only 2 more classes to go now until I can graduate with my masters degree!!!

Anyway, it’s just going to be a great week. I have a few things in the works, but they are all do on the 28th-30th, and will just have to wait until after Christmas. So, this week will be filled with family time, wrapping gifts, baking, and fun stuff like that :) I just love this time of year and was determined this year to enjoy it. Plus, we’ve scheduled a last minute shopping trip with my mom and two sisters and I on Tuesday afternoon. We’re going to hit a couple of stores for last minute gifts and go out to eat together. I’m ridiculously excited about it because even though we don’t live too far away, we don’t really get together that often like this, so it will be fun.

I have also been working with Jen’s kit this month from Jen’s House of Scrap. It is a FABULOUS kit!!! I added on both of the add-on kits (a tag kit and an ABC kit), so for $35, here is what you could get–lots of fun stuff in here!

And, here are some of my projects with it. I also have a super cute flower tutorial coming with another layout as soon as I can get that finished. Maybe tomorrow or Wednesday.

When I saw those chipboard houses along with the BG eskimo kisses, I just knew that I had to make a little Christmas village, and I’m actually pleased with the way these turned out.

The thing I love about this kit is that it is so versatile! The contents are definitely Christmas, but they can be used for so much more. Here are a few non-Christmas things. This first layout is of my best friend’s daughter at her first birthday. Too cute! I left some plain white in the bottom corner so she could journal.

Another non-Christmas project. For some reason, some of the papers in this kit just reminded me of a sunset, and I ran across this picture when I was looking through pics and knew I had to do something with it. I added black cardstock to complete the matted photo. I’m going to frame this to hang on the wall.

This is one of my favorites for a fun reason. See that text paper? It’s from the Collage Press line. Well, I just decided randomly to start reading the text, and was thrilled to find that it is an excerpt from one of my favorite novels–Pride & Prejudice! It was a fun moment for an English student :) I almost didn’t want to cut up the paper, but I did anyway.

And, here is another Christmas layout. I just LOVE the great mix of vintage colors in this kit with the Collage Press and the Cosmo Cricket in the tag add-on.

And, that’s it for now, but remember be sure to check back later for at least one more layout and a SUPER easy flower tutorial using the beautiful gathered ribbon from the kit.

11Dec

Christmas Layouts :)

December 11, 2009 by Crystal Brothers 15 Comments

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Over at SNR Magazine, we have been featuring a TON of manufacturers lately, and a lot of the stuff we’ve been working with has been Christmas. So much fun because I love all things Christmas :)

Here are some layouts that I created using Karen Foster’s beautiful Christmas collection.