Dallas Cowboy Picture Frame

So it's been forever since I have blogged... seems as though I have forgotten just about everything there is to know about creating a blog post.  What should have taken 15 minutes has now taken over 3 hours.  Good thing I have a very patient husband! This cute picture of my son and granddaughter was taken by my daughter-in-law and I LOVE IT! I got the idea to make Josh a Dallas Cowboy frame for Father's Day and this is what I came up with.  It's a $1.00 frame from Michael's.  I used 3 coats of Ceramcoat Navy Blue and added the silver glitter stars from Reflections and 4 white brads in a license plate that reads...

GAME DAY - BEST DAY OF THE WEEK

I just happen to agree with that statement! I can't wait for football to begin!
Happy Crafting ~ Vicki

Missionary Name Tag Rice Krispie Treats...

Here is the marshmallow mixture ready to be smooshed in the pan...

I used a buttered glass to press the mixture together and to get a more even texture...

After I spread on the melted Black Chocolate Candy Melts...

When Josh told me that Jaden (my sweet daughter-in-law's youngest brother) had requested that I make Rice Krispie treats for his missionary farewell I was stoked! I love making them... but I don't ever make them in the pan... I use molds. I've been collecting them for 25 years now... you can see some of the molds here  but I didn't have anything that looked missionary like. I thought about it for a few days... and I kept coming back to dipping the rectangle shapes into black chocolate and then writing on the top with white chocolate to look like an LDS missionary name tag. It's been so hot lately... my mom thought the chocolate would melt... so I went back to the drawing board again. I decided to make them in the pan like above... but use the black sugar instead of the black chocolate... yeah bad idea! I admit it... I made a pan of them... and besides the fact they looked terrible and the white chocolate writing would not stick to the top... everyone would have had black teeth and tongues. Not what I was looking for... so I went back to the original plan of making them with the Wilton Black Chocolate Candy Melts. I used white chocolate chips and melted them in a baggie in the microwave... then snipped a tiny corner off and that was how I wrote his name on the treats. The problem was... I made them all the morning of his farewell so they would be fresh... but I was concerned about stacking them on top of each other and white chocolate name melting... so I just kept them in the pan... not the most attractive presentation... but Jaden said they tasted great and that is what is most important! Jaden is a wonderful young man and is going to be an amazing missionary... I can't wait to send him his first batch of Rice Krispie Treats when he arrives in Oklahoma!

Here's my recipe for my Rice Krispie treats...

1 Cube of Butter

1 16 Ounce Package of Kraft Jet-Puffed Marshmallows ~ don't use the mini size

10 Cups of Rice Krispies ~ I use the Malt O Meal brand... they taste just the same and are much cheaper!

Melt the butter in a large tupperware bowl in the microwave for 1:10.

Pour the marshmallows in and stir the melted butter to coat all of the marshmallows. 

Put back in the microwave for another 1:30

*Please note the marshmallows will expand so make sure you have a large enough bowl.

Stir the butter/marshmallow mixture together for 15 seconds

Add 10 cups of Rice Krispies and stir until all of the Rice Krispies are covered.

Pour into your buttered pan or a butter holiday mold...

Magic Mesh Wood Carrot...

I LOVE Magic Mesh... I just haven't used it in forever!  But that's what is so awesome when you have a room full of craft supplies... you can dig some of those old "favorites" out an use them in different ways.  I'm not a big fan of orange... so I decided to soften the color a bit. I painted the carrots orange the covered them with Magic Mesh... on the top carrot I used a dark orange ink and on the back carrot I used the white ink. I just kept stamping until I had the look that I wanted. On the top carrot it was hard to see the lines so after it dried I went back over the top with a little of the white ink...I love how the orange and white looked. I couldn't find any "greenery" I liked for the tops... so I cut 2 green pipe cleaners into 3 even sections and curled them around a pen and then glued them into the hole on the end of the carrot. I cut the "Bunny Treats" from my Cameo with white vinyl.

Birthday Title Pages...

Here's a list of birthday page titles... these are mostly for the younger birthdays

but I'm working on one for the "older" birthdays too...

 

Football Headers...

 I know it's still 120 days until pre-season football begins... 

but if you are like me... I've still got plenty of football pages to do from last year

or maybe even a few years prior to that ;-)

Here is a list of some of my favorite football headers...

Dad's #1 Cowboy Fan Stick

 The front and back of stick...

 My Uncle Ace ~ My Daddy ~ My Uncle Darrell

Our first Memorial Day without my daddy...

With the kick off for the first game of the season just a few hours away... I find my heart is excited for the kickoff... but saddened that my daddy won't be here with us to cheer them on! My dad passed away in February and I miss him every day! 

 I made this stick for Memorial Day for him. The front has #1 Fan that I painted in Cowboys blue and then used some silver metallic chalk around the edges. Our family wears jerseys every game day...so that is why I had the #82 ~ #88 ~ #9 ~ #19 and #94 on the stick to represent each one of us.  I used the stick to hold a picture of my dad and Josh we had taken 2 years before... I first put it in a heavy sheet protector and then taped the back down so the water from the sprinklers wouldn't get it wet. Then weaved the stick in the holes to hold it up. I also added a ribbon that is not in the pictures...

Here's to a new season for the Cowboys... and a new season for my family I know my dad's going to be watching... and cheering right along with us... cussing out Romo for turning sideways when he throws... Witten dropping his passes or getting upset with the O-line for their penalties. Cowboys let's make this an awesome season and head to the Superbowl!

GO COWBOYS!

 

Dallas Cowboy & Texas Longhorn Hard Hats...

 The Freshly scrubbed white hard hat...

 Josh and Joey modeling their new hats... minus the insides that hold the hard hat up...

 I put their names inside the brim of each hard hat...

 Joey ~ Josh and Big Al with their new hard hats...

Fireworks West has been in over-drive for several weeks now... for most states the 4th of July celebration is over... but in Utah, we celebrate the entire month of July since we celebrate Pioneer Day... for those of you not familiar with Pioneer Day it is an official holiday celebrated on July 24th. It commemorates the entry of Brigham Young and the first group of Mormon pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847, where the Latter-day Saints settled after being forced from Nauvoo, Illinois and other locations in the eastern United States. Parades, firework, rodeos, and other festivities help commemorate the event.

So in getting ready for firework season... Josh sent me a picture of a Dallas Cowboy hard hat he wanted to see if I could replicate... I told him that if I did one for him... I would need to do one for Joey too... since he's my "adopted" son... and they set up and shoot all of the fireworks shows together. Josh agreed and he and Joey found the "best looking" hard hats that had the least amount of scuffing on them. Joey decided that he wanted a Texas Longhorn hard hat... and asked if I could make one for his dad, Al... aka The Boss. So in typical Vicki fashion I waited until the night before they needed them done to get started. I downloaded the official Dallas Cowboy and Texas Longhorn logos into my Silhouette Studio and worked my magic... yeah... since I use it so often it takes me forever to remember what in the heck I did the last time I used it... I really love my machine... but Pintrest has taken over my life and I don't use it near often enough!

Luckily I had the darker blue vinyl color that Josh wanted and I thought the burnt orange vinyl color was pretty close too!  Then I cut out the shapes... and put them on both sides of the hats.  Inside the brim of each one I put their names... Josh ~ Joey and Big Al.

They stopped by the office to pick them up before the show... and the boys loved them! The last picture is the night of the show... Josh had his sideways so that we could see the star... I love July and I love this men!!!

Valentine Stackers...

I'm still playing "catch up" on my blog posts... this is a cute Valentine stacker set that my mom, Kendra and I all made back in January... we painted the wood blocks in red ~ pink and black and used white and black vinyl for the lettering.

 

Jaden's Grizzly Pretzels...

Jaden is Kendra's (my daughter-in-law) youngest brother and he plays football for the Logan High Grizzlies!  We were making Halloween pretzels when I thought it would be fun to make some special ones just for Jaden.  We pulled out the red and gold as well as the black candy melts and Kendra decorated away. I made the tag with my Quickutz football die... then cut the letters for his name and #... put the pretzels in a plain cellophane bag, punched a hole in the tag and tied it with red ~ yellow and black ribbons... he loved it and we love him!

Stead Wedding Sign In Book...

Pretty purple lace with purple and green flowers with a brad in the center...

 Green velvet ribbon with antique brads...

 Metal embellishments for the black and white pages...

I used a metal frame to help the rings stand out in this one...

 We are Dallas Cowboy fans... so it's only appropriate that we have a Cowboy star...

 These are the pages all set up and ready for signing...

Wow... I'm learning that it does pay off to take a "straight" picture... I really need to get my tripod out when taking these... some of them look like I don't have the pictures or embellishments on very straight... I promise I do... they ended up getting distorted when I tried to crop off as much of the background as I could...

These "sign in" pages were for Josh and Kendra's wedding.  We laid them out on the table and people were able to come and sign them at some point during the luncheon. Since her colors were purple and green I did the pages on plain (not textured so it was easier to write on) black cardstock and used gel pens in purple ~ silver ~ white and green.  I love how you can write something special to the couple instead of just a line to sign your name. I did a few other pages (but I forgot to take pictures of them ~ what can I say it's been a crazy 10 months) for me and Kendra's parents to sign... I used the whole page and hopefully was able to express my feelings of love and happiness to both of them.  Hopefully the book will be something they treasure for many years to come!

 

Stead Wedding Sign...

The Steads ~ Joshua & Kendra

Let me introduce you to my handsome son, Josh and my new beautiful daughter-in-law! They were married on August 3, 2012 they also get to share that special day with my parents who were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary! Kendra wanted the sign to be in neutral colors ~ so I painted the board black used my new Cameo to cut the letters... cream for the last name and white for their first names.

Stickles ~ On A Dress...?

 What happened after it was dry cleaned for the first time... no more gold...

It's been a while since I blogged... lots of "life things" have happened in the last year... my son got married... I got married... my dad passed away and I finally after years of pain got my left knee replaced and looking forward to the right one in August! Enough about that... I figured I better get caught back up and show you some of the crafty things I have done in the past year!

I bought this cute knit dress and the thing that I loved about it was the gold shimmer on the palm trees.  This is the front of the dress and there is also a cute palm tree in a smaller version on the lower right side of the jacket... I was sick when I picked the dress up from the cleaners to discover the gold was missing.  One day while I was playing with my stickles I thought... I wonder if it would work on the dress... you can see in the first picture there was still a "dried glue line" so I just followed that... and let it dry over night... just like new!