Welcome to my blog!!! This is Miss Roxydog. Roxydog will grace many of my pictures. She is incredibly spoiled and highly intelligent. I guess I'm biased...she is my furbaby.

Come visit my etsy store!

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Origami box

Well it's almost December and it's time to start thinking about gifts!  Now that I've begun my online etsy store, I'm looking for easy ways to ship my earrings and tags and after too much time on the internet, I found a great alternative to buying boxes...making them!  When I was a little girl, I used to fashion origami boxes out of my lined notebook paper, but now I have a found a use for the odds and ends of scrapbook paper that clutter my workspace.  Hooray!  Reduce, reuse, recycle!

Check out this link for easy origami box instructions!

You can use larger squares of paper to make larger boxes, but remember, the larger the less sturdy the box will be.  Happy folding:)

Monday, November 8, 2010

Sachet Placeholders

Last Spring my mom and I hosted the girls in my family at a Spring Tea at the house.  As little favors, I used these tiny sachets as placecards.  I ran across the pictures recently and thought they might be cute for upcoming holiday dinners.  These particular sachets are from Greenleaf .  You can find retailers at http://www.greenleafgifts.com/.  I found them at my favorite little boutique in Montrose, called Fiona's.  Fiona's is run by, you guessed it, Fiona.  She is the cutest little elderly lady you'd ever want to meet.  She always greets you with hot cider and a cookie and always has an amazing assortment of goodies you never knew you needed.  Anyways, I picked up different scented sachets, tied them up in ribbon and stamped each guest initial on a tag!  The ladies in my family loved them.  And, they are a nice little reminder of that afternoon with the girls!

Monday, November 1, 2010

Getting Organized!

Can I share a little secret?  I have more crafting supplies than I know what to do with.  Now that my husband and I share an "office/craft room" I desperately need to organize my stuff.  So, I found this bulletin board in the garage.  I'm pretty sure it is from like 7th grade but I decided that a little bit of paint and paper could really spruce it up.

First, I painted the frame in plain white.  It took three coats.
Then I added some fun polka dotted paper.

I found the little cafe curtain rod and clippy curtain hangers at Target.  They are perfect to hold notes, inspiration and embellishments.  Then I watercolored these fabric flowers to match and added some buttons for fun.  The two pockets were created out of enveloped that I sealed and tore in half.  And, voila!  A multi-purpose bulletin board!
Happy organizing!

Happy Halloween!!!



I hope you have a wonderful Halloween with lots of tricks and treats!  I just had to share Roxy's costume this year....adorable:)  Unfortunately, the costume was not really great for walking in.

This would be the pumpkin that my hubbie designed.  I designed the happy eyes.  He drank the beer!

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Pumpkin bread tastiness!

Well it's officially Fall in California.  This morning I went for a walk with my hubbie and Miss Roxy and it was crisp out and a little chilly!  Crazy how it can change overnight from sweltering temperatures to ugg boots and scarves.  Anyways, it felt like it was time to break out a favorite recipe of mine:  Chocolate chip pumpkin bread.  This was first introduced to me by my mother-in-law.  Every Thanksgiving, she'd bake a bunch of loaves when we visited, and then she would always send us home with a loaf (which never actually made it through the 8 hour car ride!)  The following recipe is actually from a good friend of mine.  I tweaked it a bit as hers did not include chocolate chips...and let's face it, everything is better with chocolate chips!
This recipe will make one regular loaf plus 5 mini loaves...the perfect amount if you want some for yourself, and then 5 little gifts for friends or coworkers.

Time Required:  30-50 minutes
Serves:  3 regular loaves or 48 mini muffins or 5 mini loaves and 1 regular loaf
Preheat oven @ 350 degrees

Grease and flour loaf pans
In a large bowl, mix until well blended:
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup water
2 cups white sugar
1 cup brown sugar

In a separate bowl, whisk together:
3 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. ground cloves (I leave this out...not a big clove fan)
1/2 tsp. ground ginger

Stir dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended.
Mix in 1 (12 ounce bag) chocolate chips...I usually add about a 1/4 of a bag more!

Topping:  Blend 1/2 stick room temperature butter
1/2 cup brown sugar

Pour pumpkin batter into pans.  Drizzle with topping.

Bake:
3 loaves: 50 minutes
Mini muffins: 11-12 minutes
Mini loaves: 30 minutes
* Cooking times vary.  Test doneness with toothpicks!  Insert toothpick into center of loaf.  If it comes out clean, it's done!
*The "boo appetit" tag was easy to make.  Cut two different pieces of printed paper.  (2"x3" and 2 1/2" x 3 1/2").  Stamp "Boo" on smaller piece and emboss with silver or black embossing powder.  (I used the color marcasite by Stampendous.)  Print "appetit" with fine marker.  Affix smaller piece onto larger with gluestick.  Use a glue dot to stick ghost embellie (this one is from ghost fabric trim) and tie onto package with black eyelash yarn!  Boo-tiful:)

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Baby Brag Book

A good friend of mine just had a beautiful baby boy. This little brag book is simple to make and easy to personalize for anyone. Here's how:

Supplies:
~Chipboard (you can buy it or just use the cardboard backing you find in scrapbook paper packs or notepads.)
~Scrapbook paper 2-12x12 sheets and coordinating scraps for matting and embellishments
~7 3/4"x 26" piece of artist paper (I buy a large piece from a local art supply and ask them to cut multiple pieces to be used for other books.  Generally I will get 3-4 books out of one piece!)
~Gluestick (you will probably use at least one full stick)
~Papercutter
~Embellies: Here I've used coordinating scraps of ribbon, stamped images, stickers, punches, brads etc.
  1. Cut 2-4x8" pieces of cardboard and 1-1/2x8" for the spine
  2. Lay pieces on a 9 1/2"x 9" scrapbook piece of paper leaving 1/4" in between pieces.  You should have at least 1/4" margin all the way around.  It should look like this:
3.  Using a glue stick, cover entire area of the three pieces of cardboard and affix to paper.  You can use a bone folder or just your hands to make sure it is smooth.

4.  Cut corners on the diagonal as close to the corner of the cardboard as possible.  An exacto knife works best. 
5.  Now glue edges down.  Here's what it looks like now:
6.  If you would like to use ribbons to close the book, center and glue them now!  Glue a coordinating 8"x8"piece of scrapbook paper on the inside.  I usually set mine just inside the border so that a little bit of the cover paper shows.  Depending on how far apart the cardboard pieces are, you may have to adjust the measurement.  It looks like this:
7.  If you want to add the giftcard pocket, simply cut a scrap of paper slightly shorter than the height of the giftcard and fold the bottom and two sides about 1/4" in.  Use a gluestick to secure on the front panel.  Only glue the 3-1/4" folded parts so that you create a pocket!
8.  Now take your 7 3/4" x 26" piece of white artist paper and accordian fold it making each panel approximately 3 1/2" wide. 
9.  Glue the first panel of the accordian to the back (right side) of the book. 

10.  Now you are ready to embellish each panel with fun papers and embellies.  As you can see here, I used two panels to form one layout for a larger picture.

Let your imagination run wild and you will have an "out of this world" gift for a loved one!!!! 
p.s. I tore the front panel of the accordian for a different look.  This also works well when your accordian piece is a little short of a full panel!
Hope you enjoyed this project!  Let me know how your's turns out:)

Friday, September 24, 2010

Dressed Up Recipe Boxes

This is one of my mom's original recipe boxes. She loves them because they hold 5x7 cards. I decided to spruce them up with a little tlc.
First I laid out the box top and cut the paper 1 and 1/4 inches wider than the box. Next, I used mod podge to secure the paper to the box top. After securing, I used my exacto knife to cut the paper from the corner of the box to the corner of the paper.

I applied mod podge to the side of the box top and secured the paper on the inside of the box top.

I wrapped the remaining paper and secured with mod podge.

Repeat this process for the bottom portion of the box. After all sides were secure, I brushed two coats of mod podge over the paper to give the box a nice glaze. I happened to have a few extra pieces so I used them to coordinate the two boxes.

Voila! Brand new boxes for my mom's ever growing recipe collection.

This would work equally well on shoe boxes, old hat boxes, pretty much anything that needed a little sprucing up! Btw, be sure to allow the mod podge to dry a full twenty-four hours. I used cups to prop the boxes and lids up so they wouldn't stick to my table.

Supplies:
box to be covered
two sheets of gift wrap (I got mine at the Paper Source!)
mod podge matte (you can get this at Michael's or any craft supply)
brush (I used an old paint brush)
exacto knife

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Yellow stairs


This cute little yellow step used to lead to our spa. It had been chewed up by the previous owner's beagles and beaten up by the weather. I decided it deserved a little tlc so I headed to Home Depot. I actually despise Home Depot but the two departments I don't mind in it are the paint department and the plant section. After a little chat with the paint dude, I purchased yellow paint, primer and a brand new sander!
After sanding down the steps thoroughly, I wiped them down with a wet rag. I painted them with two coats of primer (the wood was really porous) and then let it dry for an hour. Then, I painted the whole thing with this perky yellow paint. Cute, right? Now I have a spot for all of my potted flowers. And when I get bored with the yellow, I can repaint it with a new, spunky color!

Mason jar remix



So my husband is on a real mission to become a green minimalist. He has somehow persuaded me into a composting bin in the backyard, cutting my closet in half and to walk, instead of driving, a good 4 miles to get to the bank and pickup some lunch. He hasn't talked me into being vegan yet, but he's working on it. I guess his efforts are rubbing off on me because I'm constantly finding things that can be repurposed.


The best part about this little project is that it's free and you can find all the supplies in your house.
Supplies:
~mason jar (I used an empty spaghetti sauce jar)
~12 x 12 inch paper scraps (If you are a scrapper, you probably have a ton of these. If not, try newspaper, giftwrap, even a page from a magazine will do.)
~scraps of yarn or ribbon
~stamp or just hand drawn art
~double sided tape
~glue
~scissor or paper trimmer
Directions:
1. Thoroughly clean out your jar. I find that larger jars are perfect for a small bouquet of flowers but I love the smaller jars for storing markers, buttons, whatever.
2. Cut a strip of patterned paper about one inch thick. Cut another about 2 inches thick.
3. Glue the thinner strip onto the thicker one.
4. Fasten the strips of paper around the belly of the jar. You can glue the ends or tape them if you want to change the band later.
5. Wrap your string or ribbon around the jar a couple of times and tie a bow.
6. Cut a tag out of extra paper. Stamp with sentiment. Punch a hole at top of tag. Add a decorative brad. Use double sided tape to affix to the paper band.
7. Add some fresh flowers and voila! You have the perfect hostess gift.

Friday, May 28, 2010

40 & Fab!



40 is a big milestone in a woman's life! My girlfriend Zu is throwing herself (with the help of her doting boyfriend and moi) an amazing martini party this Memorial day weekend. Being that I have zero dollars but loads of paper, I decided to handmake some decorations to make things a bit more festive. Recently, on a trip up north to visit my mother-in-law, I gained inspiration at the local craft store for these fun-loving paper garlands. Luckily, they allow you to use their die cuts with the purchase of paper...and I never turn down an opportunity to buy some fun new prints! After I cut out the crowns, hearts and circles, I took them home and sewed them together. Of course, I couldn't stop there. I then used all my scraps to punch out the mini garlands using punches I own. Pretty sassy right?

The banner was simple too. I simply used the craft store's die cuts to punch out the words 40 & Fab! and then cut out flags to paste them onto. The ties are pieces of eyelash yarn (one of my fave finds at Michael's!).

Total cost of project:
3 sheet double-sided scrap paper-$3.00

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Cinco de Mayo


We had a low budget cinco de drinko this year. We made our own guacamole, our own chicken tortilla dip (technically, Fresh and Easy made chicken tortilla soup and I added a lot of cheese to make it chicken tortilla dip!), our own enchiladas verdes dinner and our own margaritas. We listened to the Gipsy Kings and then watched American Idol. Not what you would call an exciting evening but hey, we're not youngins anymore:)

All in all, the result was the same as if we had gone out: I drank 1/8th of my margarita and felt buzzed and my hubby had to finish it for me. We both ate too much and then didn't have any energy to do anything but lay on the couch and rub our full bellies!!!