...and The Wood Connection gift certificate... goes too...

...and The Wood Connection gift certificate goes too...

Jessica Olson


Congratulations! You can pick up your gift certificate at the front counter the next time you visit The Wood Connection. It's good for $25 of craftin' goodies! For those of you who didn't win, keep checking back, we'll be doing more tutorials and giveaways! :)

Giveaways

We'll be giving away a $25.00 gift card to The Wood Connection. BooYah! To enter the drawing to win, become a follower on this blog. We'll be announcing the winner this friday! Have A Great Week!

Guest Designer for The Wood Connection

This week, I'm the guest designer for The Wood Connection. How ExCiTiNG!!! I LOVE The Wood Connection! I teach classes for them. I absolutely LOVE to craft and I have a BLAST teaching their classes!!! With many changes at the beginning of this year, I'm getting a late start on classes. But it's time to get very EXCITED! We'll be announcing our April & May classes in the next couples of weeks. If your interested in joining us, keep checking the blog for more information on sign ups. We always have a great time crafting!!! It's a great way to learn new techniques or just to come for a Girlz Night Out!

I must have the birthday bug because lately, I've had birthday decor and crafting on my mind. I've so many cute decorations for each holiday except for birthdays. I thought it would be very special to put birthday decor up for a spouse or kids on their birthday. When they wake up or get home from school or work, the house is decorated just for them! It's sounds really fun & cheesy! I can't wait to try it myself! 

So Let's Get Started....

Step 1: Trace Block Letters

• Tools: a sharp pencil to trace your balloons and your decorative paper

• Use the backside of the paper you want to display when tracing. 

• Press and hold the wood with one hand so that your image doesn’t shift while tracing. With the other hand, trace around the image. Before moving the wood look to make sure that your trace has not shifted, otherwise when you cut it out, it will not fit correctly. Great Job! Tracing is one of the trickiest parts. You can relax a little and have some FUN now! 
• Note: Always trace before painting! If you forget (like I did with the picture shown above), you'll have tracing marks around the wood. I had to touch up after tracing which added extra time and an extra step. :/

Step 2: Paint Wood

• Tools: paint & sponge brush 

• Paint ½ inch border around the front of the balloons

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• Paint complete sides and backs of balloons

 Step 3: Cut Paper

• Tools: a pair of scissors to cut your balloons and to do any trimming. I find it easier to cut detailed areas, etc. with a smaller pair of scissors. Paper cutter or trimmer to cut rectangles for bases.

• Cut letters right on the line that you traced. Don’t worry if when you lay down your image on the wood if it is a little smaller or larger than the block. I'll teach you in a later step how to disguise your imperfections.

• Cut rectangles for bases. You'll need 4 rectangles per base. The dimensions are 3 1/2" wide X 1 1/4" tall. 

Step 4: Distress Paper

• Tools: Everyone has there own technique and tools for distressing. I prefer to use what I call a cat eye.  It is a small inkpad that is in the shape of a cat eye. Color Box is the company that makes them. I usually recommend chalk only ink, pigment inks are a little too harsh when distressing. The only exceptions I make with this is if you really want the Black or Dark Brown to really be solid and pop, then use a pigment ink. We carrying these in The Wood Connection. If you need to distress with a color you don't have, you can use a technique called dry brushing. 

Distressing with ink pad

•  Take your cat eye or distress tool and flick around all the edges of the paper. Start very light and if you want more, you can add. It’s always better to have too little than too much.

Dry Brush Distressing

• Wood Connection has an awesome tutorial on how to do this. For more information, you can click on this link... Dry Brush Distressing.

Step 5: Glue Paper to Wood

• Tools: you’ll need Darice Wood Glue and sponge brush for this portion of the project.  

• Sponge wood glue on the front of one piece of wood at a time. ***Try to use it sparingly, a thin layer, not too much. It will cause your paper to bubble after you adhere it, if you put too much on. *** 

• Once you put the glue on the wood, line up starting on one side and add your paper. Be sure to press firmly all along the surface to prevent bubbling. Repeat same steps on all of your wood.

• As you’re adhering your paper to each piece of wood, continue to go back and put pressure on areas that may be starting to bubble on past wood. With pressure you can, in most cases, work out bubbles that seem to form. I have found that with less glue, fewer bubbles form.

 Step 6: Create Banner

• Tools: Petite Pennant Punch, Smooth cardstock, Stamps, Embossing Powder, Embossing Gun, Mini Hole Punch, Distressors, Ribbons, 3 Dimensional Adhesives, etc.

• Note: If you have more questions about the banner portion of this project, or are interested in Petite Pennant Punch, I do sell them for $16.95. You can email me at theartsyaddict@live.com.

 Unitl next time... Happy Crafting!

Where oh where have I been?

Well Hello!

It's been way too long since I've posted! There have been many changes in my personal life that have not allowed much time to blog or craft lately. Most of them have been really really good changes and I'm really ExCitEd! I've have many really ExCiTiNg new ideas to share so be sure to stop by to check things out over the next few weeks! :)

Pumpkin Crème Brulee, 96 calories, Wow!

This recipe is from Chef Cameron from The Biggest Loser Ranch! You really can have scrumptious desserts during the holidays without blowing it! Enjoy!! 

Pumpkin Crème Brulee

Servings: 11

Serving size: 2 ounce portion

1 ½ cups Fage’® Greek style yogurt

1 package Mori Nu® Vanilla pudding

2/3 cup So Delicious® Coconut milk – 50 Calories a cup

2 Tablespoons dehydrated cane sugar

1/3 teaspoon Agar Powder

¾ cup Pumpkin pie filling

½ teaspoon Pumpkin spice

In a sauce pan add the coconut milk and bring to a low simmer. Whisk the agar into the coconut milk and simmer for 5 minutes. After cooking the coconut milk add all the ingredients, except cane sugar, to a blender. Blend until smooth and fully incorporated. Using a piping bag fill 11 – 2 oz ramekins and refrigerate for about 4 hours. Just before serving, sprinkle on a ½ teaspoon of cane sugar to each Ramekin. Using a butane cooking torch very carefully melt the sugar slowly until it crystallizes. If you do this too fast the sugar will burn.

Per serving: 96 Calories

No More Holiday Body Blues!!!

Recently, I had the opportunity to go to The Biggest Loser Ranch. It was truly an amazing experience! Chef Cameron, the dietitians, and trainers taught me loads of great information about healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle. I'm hoping to gradually pass on the information to you and that you'll be able to replace some of your favorite meals with a healthy version of the same recipe.  

I didn't realize how uneducated I really was, shopping in the grocery store, cooking, and eating out!! I thought some products were at least a little healthier, like a yoplait yogurt and my favorite, Chicken Caesar Pita from Chili's. They both sound healthy... right? Oh man how I was wrong! They're crammed with sooooo much sugar, calories, and sodium! I can't believe how deceiving these things can be. But we can at least take control of them! Just because the item in the grocery store says it's healthy on the front, doesn't mean it is, read the label!! When your eating out, even if your doing a calorie look up, I guarantee that the nutrition facts on whatever you want to eat, are not right! The day they studied the nutrition facts on there food, was when the chef had least seasoned and buttered everything. They don't want it to look as bad as it really is!!! And the chef in the back is not measuring everything out exactly to help you watch your calories! His job is to make it taste good! Products and restaurants stretch healthy terms and calorie counts a little too far! Of course we're going to eat out! We love to do it! Just make wiser choices on the menu, eat more vegetables or leaner meats, and don't eat the whole plate! It's not portion controlled! Try to eat out a little less and cook a little more! You can measure and know exactly what your eating at home. It makes it much easier to keep track of your intake during the day!

So yes, calories can be very scary during the holidays! I think alot of us go on strike with the healthy eating about mid October, right before Halloween. Then, we get the body blues by keeping our eyes closed to our calorie intake until January 2nd, when were making our New Year's Resolutions. LOL! I'm definately guilty of that! This year I'm not letting that happen!! It's ok to have delicious things just in the right portion and COUNT THE CALORIES! In most cases, unless you have some health problems like thyroid, etc, when you look in the mirror your body doesn't lie about how many calories you've been eating. Sad, but true! 

So my goal is to eat the things that I Love! All the time! Just making the less calorie recipes that are still scrumptious! I'll be sharing alot of the recipes with you. Please give some feedback if you like what you see. :)

Crafty Giveaways!

Wow! Where has the year gone? December is here and it's already flying by so fast! In celebration of the new blog opening this week, I'm giving some SUPER crafty giveaways! Starting next week, I'll be doing a random pick from my followers and posting 1 giveaway weekly for the next 5 weeks!

So how do you enter to win these craft giveaways?

It's easy! Just become a follower on my blog! 

I'll announce the winners weekly on FaBuLoUs Friday!

Week 1 Giveaway: Winner's Choice, Vintage or Bright Peppermint Trio Kit! Booyah! Someone's Merry Christmas a little early! ;)

Thanks for stopping by! More ExCiTiNg ideas we'll be posting soon!