Who knew Red Hots were so hard to find?

Seriously...

I spent well over an hour, driving to SIX (yes 6!!!) different stores to find Red Hots. I figure at this time of year I'd have my pickings but no. All of the Valentine's displays were sans Red Hots, even the regular, non-heart shaped ones. I even stopped to look up on my Blackberry to make sure they still manufacture them. Sheesh...

FINALLY, in the regular candy section at the second Walgreen's I went to, I found them. Good thing too because I could not have done this cutie project without them.

Today, Carolyn is hosting a DT challenge where we were supposed to make a Valentine project for a non-significant other. Be sure to check out the entire team's projects! Kendra has some blog candy too but only until Wednesday so be sure to pop over there and enter!

Amber Kroening
Carolyn Mustopa
Cathleen Torina
Deb Felts
Dee Jackson
Kendra Wietstock
Loretta Lock
Lori Tecler
Meredith Socha
Sarah Anderson
Tracy Schultz

So for my project I decided that I wanted something to give out to friends and neighbors. They count as non-significant others!

Cute right? And, in case you're wondering why I *needed* Red Hots, it is because I made that popcorn.

Red Hot Popcorn recipe:

4 quarts plain popcorn

1/4 cup light corn syrup

1 6 oz. box Red Hots

1/2 stick butter

Pop your popcorn - just use plain. Place it in a GIANT bowl...way bigger than you need it to be. Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Coat two baking sheets with Pam or other non-stick spray (really well).

Melt the Red Hots, butter and corn syrup in a heavy duty pan, stirring constantly (I mean it) and bring to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes and then pour over popcorn and mix it up really, really fast to coat as much as you can before it starts to set up. Before it sets up, spread out the coated popcorn on the two baking sheets and bake at 275 for 1 hour, stirring them every 15 minutes.

The oven heat allows the Red Hot mixture to soften up a bit more and when you stir it on the baking sheet you will cover more of the popcorn. I use my silicone spatula to do this so the mixture doesn't stick to my spoon. Plus, it makes the popcorn nice and toasty - kinda like REAL Kettle Corn popcorn. YUM!

For my packaging I used a clear card box, wrapped with a belly band of SU! Real Red cardstock, stuck on with some i {stick} papers redline tape. Then I wrapped some of the totally cute pink sheer edge heart ribbonLarge Oval and Scalloped around and secured in the front. I dressed it with an oval medallion from my Nesties and pierced each scallop.

The saying is from Many Hearts, stamped with L'Amour Red Palette ink, omitting the little hearts that are on the bottom of the phrase.

I finished off the medallion with a red puffy heart and some adhesive heart pearls (also used on the corners of the bellyband).

Lastly I stuck a few pink puffy hearts on the box, just to tie in the pink against the red popcorn.

So what do you think? Would you know I liked you a whole lot if I gave you one of these?

Hurry up and get that heart ribbon...it's seasonal and when it is gone, it's gone! I'm also heading to CHA in a couple of weeks so I've got a bunch of stuff on sale to help make some room for all the new goodies I'll have. During CHA I'll be sending back coverage of things so be sure to get the word out and check in here every day!

Thanks for stopping by! I'm taking my dad in for cataract surgery so I'll be a little out of touch for the rest of today! Have a great day!

Five Minute Friday #2!

Yes, another card that only took me five minutes! How awesome is that? Five Minute Friday...hmm...maybe I should make a serial from that. What do you think? Every Friday a card that you make in 5 minutes? Thoughts? Ok, while you're think about that I'll go on.

I'm back to using my favorite faux suede - this time in light pink. It is a perfect match for SU! Pink Pirouette and my Palette Toile Pink ink. So it was pretty much a no brainer.

I love, love love these Card Company vases and wired flowers. Admittedly they are too chunky to mail without a padded envelope but they are so simple and elegant. I love them. Can you tell?

This card is so simple. Pink Pirouette base with a layer of white with the very bottom edge cut and embossed with my Petite Deckled Scalloped Borderabilities. (Psst...they're on sale too!) The rest is pretty obvious I think. The Love Always sentiment is stamped with the Palette Toile Pink and is from the same All Occasions Messages set I used yesterday.

The roses are stuck to the vase with a glue dot and then the dot is on a pop dot. You kind of have to use a pop dot because the wire stems are a little bulky and even if you hammer them flat, the vase still doesn't want to lay flat. So, reserve these for hand delivering or just use a padded envie.

And, look what got delivered today! Lucky me!! Isn't it gorgeous? You really need to check out her stuff. It is gorgeous and all hand hammered. And, if you're interested in getting something, let me know. That little card in the picture is a pass it on to a friend coupon for 10% off!

OK...that's it for tonight. Have a great weekend! Thanks for stopping by!

Still clean!

Testing blogging from my BlackBerry. As you can see, my studio is still clean!

Scroll down for my real post!

Easy Peasy card and new stuff! Five Minute Friday #1

Hello! How have you been? It's been a while since I've posted. I've been busy de-Christmasing the house and gearing up for CHA. I've also been working on a little project and I finally finished it (top secret). It is in the mail! So...in 2 or 3 days, once it gets delivered, I'll be able to post it - along with a a tutorial.

In the meantime I've gotten some new stuff over at the store including the new Sugardrop paper from Memory Box!

It took me longer to photograph this than it did to create it! Seriously! Since it is 11:30PM the light in my studio is not so good so I took about 15 shots of this until I got one that could pass for acceptable.

Anyway...the base of this is SU! Sahara Sand (not one of my favs but worked for this...could probably have used Kraft also) and a layer of Pretty in Pink with two of the corners rounded. This opens on the right side. OK, now for the super fast magic...

Trim down the Sugardrop paper (yea, the branch pattern is already on the paper!), glue dot some of my new favs, Beaded Daisies (yea, the little shimmery bead is already attached for you) right onto the branches, stamp your greeting from the All Occasions Messages set in Palette Burnt Umber right onto the paper...punch two little holes, thread your pink/light pink reversible satin ribbon (so silky!) through the holes, stick it all together and VOILA! I made this a Get Well card but it could be a sympathy card, a thinking of you card, a friend card...virtually anything!

So there you have it. A 5 minute beauty. The best part (I think) is that you get the shimmeriness from the beaded daisies with no mess of glitter, no waiting for Stickles to dry and no paint brushes! And, in case you're wondering, the daisies come in packs of 30 by color...pink, white, blue and yellow.

I'll be back again soon. Monday the design team has a challenge so be sure to check in here and on all of their blogs. I'll probably be back again before then though. I've missed all my friends in Blogland. :)

Have a great night! Thanks for stopping by!

Phew! Balance Check #1

Two posts in one day! It must be a big day!! :) If you missed the first one, go here for sale news.

I have my room back - the floor, the table, the shelves, everything. It was A LOT of work and I found a lot of things that have been missing for a few months (buried under the piles). Balance check #1...good to go.

I'm exhausted but it was worth it.

Missed what this looked like before? Go here and you'll see why I'm so exhausted! :)


I generated an embarrassing amount of garbage but that is mostly because I tossed a lot of stuff I've been hanging on to for no good reason. I tossed things like alterables that I continue to generate such as Crystal Lite containers and toilet paper rolls. I tossed almost all of my cardstock scraps except pieces I might actually use (quarter sheets and larger or wide strips). I tossed ribbon scraps and a ton of other things that I'm sure I won't miss. It was hard actually doing it but now I feel so much better.

Now, to try to keep it neat (not sterile) but usable. I know it isn't realistic to keep it like this but if I've got more than 4"x8" of workspace I think that is good! :)

Have a great night!

Still cleaning and product liquidation

Just checking in...I hope to finish my cleaning today. I can see more than 8"x4" of my table now so I'm making progress! I was also inspired to liquidate a bunch of stuff in preparation for my upcoming CHA trip. So, be sure to go and check out the sale section of the website. LOTS of good stuff including some Nestabilities!!

I'll be back later! Enjoy your Sunday!

Cleaning and one more DE project

Hello! Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful time last night whether you stayed at home and relaxed or whether you partied it up until the wee hours.


We had a small get together with family/friends (only 5 of us total, and the dog). I also finished up my last Decor Elements project since I'm doing Christmas tomorrow with one of my dear friends. She is a HUGE Life is Good fan and when I saw the Decor Elements of that saying, I knew immediately that I HAD to get it and do something for her. Plus, she just recently moved into her new condo and the bedroom was already blue. So, blue and brown - PERFECT!


The frame job is AMAZING, courtesy of my favorite shop that I've talked about before, Frames for You in Summit NJ. What you can't tell from this picture is that the saying is on a piece of glass that is floating underneath the top two mats. The blue mat is behind all of it.

So, in case you're looking to reproduce this at your own local frame shop, the stack is (from front to back): top glass, white mat, brown mat, foamcore spacer, glass (with Decor Elements applied), foamcore spacer, blue mat, foamcore backing.

I applied the Decor Elements to the glass and then some of my rub-ons from last year's SU! SAB (Love and Happiness) to the blue mat. Here is a close up. I love the dimension and the shadows that are created from the Decor Elements on the glass.

I'm so glad that a few others have decided to join in on the One Little Word for 2009. I've heard from a handful of you and really encourage you to visit Ali's blog and read about it. I'll be giving you Balance Checks occasionally so you can see how I'm doing. This ties in again with my gymnastics background. Coaches are always telling you (especially on the beam) to constantly do balance checks to make sure your center of gravity is where it needs to be.

Moving on...

I love before and after pictures. I desperately need to clean my stamping studio. I know I've said that before but I've been too embarrassed to show it to you! But who cares, right? We're all friends here. :)

Plus, now that you've seen it in its disaster form, you can appreciate all the hard work that went into it once I post after pictures! This is what I'm working on over the coming days. Be sure to click the picture for the larger version to see my 8 x 4 working space in all its gloriousness. It's hard to believe that in a 250 square foot room that all I have is 32 square inches of space to work in! That has got to change...and soon!

Do you have embarassing, messy pictures of your space? I'd love to see them! It would make me feel SO much better! Please link to them below if you care to share! I'll be back (hopefully sooner rather than later) with after pictures to show you.

Have a great day! Thanks for stopping by!