Best Recipe Website Ever, Really

To take a small break from crafting I wanted to share with you all a great recipe website that I swear by. It's called All Recipes.

I know there are fifty thousand different recipe websites and they are all good in some way but here are a few reasons why I really love this site and use it often.

1. It's really easy to navigate through the website. You can find anything with a few short clicks.

2. You can register and the really easy tool bar next to each recipe is a tool bar that you can customize the recipe, add the ingredients to a shopping list, print, share, and add to your virtual recipe box.

3. Probably my favorite is how you can change the serving size and they will automatically adjust the amounts of each ingredient. Pretty fantastic if you ask me!

4. There are reviews from real people and lots of people. The people in the reviews tell you how they changed the recipe to make it different and maybe better.

5. They have fun holiday tabs with loads of fun recipes and such.

Those are just the top five reasons. There are lots more features and it's mucho fun. Sometimes I get a little lost in everything but I realize what I can actually make in a 24-hour period. I get a bit carried away at times, can you tell? So have fun looking around.

Family is Gone but Tags Are Here

This weekend has been crazy and fantastic and exhausting all at the same time. I really wish my family could stay for like a month but I know, I know - everyone has to go home eventually. I'll be traveling to Africa with Four Corners Ministries in four days so there are lots of things to be done. Along with all the fun my dear friend Kayla is coming over to spend the week while her husband is out. I love family and friends. I would have people over at my house all the time if sweet Mr. Phillips would let me. He needs man cave time though.

I found a really cute gift tag tutorial that is SUPER easy to do. It even uses a program most of us already have. Thanks to Life in Grace blog. I can only try to describe the feeling when I find a easy, creative way to say 'you're the best' or 'I love you' or "Happy Anything." They're so cute.


So here it is:


The following is a pic-tutorial of how to create your own labels in Microsoft Word.
A few words to the wise:
1. Print on plain paper first
2. Use solid sheets of “label paper” {so they will be stickers--that you can cut out in your desired shape}. Be sure you get ink jet paper for an ink jet printer or laser paper for a laser printer.
3. Make your margins smaller so you can squeeze more on a page


**(Tutorial says to do the above but I like using the avery labels that are 2'' to make it quicker and easier. These are just my quick steps) 

Start by inserting a shape/object onto your document and then size it according to your preference.

  Other ideas for this fun little sticker. I'm making some pronto!












I like the tags too. If you have any other ideas to use them for feel free to comment.

Sweet Drink Lovies

I love things that are simple, direct, and warm. Which is why I love these sweet (and oober easy) stencils. With the holidays coming up you could use them for all the fun baked goods while you're at it. So here they are and the how to. You are going to love how easy they are. I found them at how about orange blog.

Step 1: Draw the design on a piece of paper

Step 2: Lay a plastic lid on top. (This one is from a deli container.) With an X-acto knife cut through the plastic, tracing along the design underneath. A tip: you'll never be able to cut the shapes out in one pass. Make many cuts on top of each other until you break through.

Step 3: Lay the stencil on top of your mug and sprinkle with cinnamon or cocoa. Dust the powder through a sieve or strainer to make a very fine layer.

Violia you're done and really happy about it too! I have thought about doing a few and putting them in a cute little container under a counter for quick access.

Monogrammed Candles

I have had a long love affair with monogrammed anything for some time now. My favorite is to see things from Pottery Barn that are monogrammed and L.L Bean is a close second. Maybe it's a southern thing or the fact that it looks really clean but I really like it. We, at the Phillips house, love to give monogrammed gifts as well so I found a really sweet and easy monorammed candle that is so very inexpensive. Found this little dandy over at Life on Grace blog. By the way, can you believe it is almost the middle of November? There are times I wish we could just freeze time and look at it a little. I guess it is a reminder of how finite we are.
Anyway, here is how you can do this cute candle.


Products: Glass and Tile medium, black acrylic craft paint, and a tiny paint brush. All these items should cost you arouns $3-$5 at a craft store.

A candle (my current favorite is this brand from Bed, Bath and Beyond). Candle manufactures come and go, as soon as I fall in love with one they will stop making it. Try out a few and see what works best for you. There are lots of great, affordable candles out there. Big lots can have great deals on candle packs or the Dollar Tree (you know I love them!).

Step 1: Now that you have your materials, print out a letter (or letter's' if you would like a triple monogram) off the computer in the font that you would like for your monogram. Position and center the letter on the candle. Hold the letter in place and trace the letter onto the candle with light, but firm pressure. I like to use the point of a mechanical pencil for this step because it carves a thin line onto the surface of the candle. Remember, some candles are softer than others, so take care to not press too hard which would result in large, deep lines in the candle. I will tape mine on because I don't have surgeons hands by any means!

Step 2: Paint on a very thin coat of the Glass and Tile Medium over the monogram on the candle as shown below. This coat will dry slightly "milky" so be sure to use a thin coat. Allow about 15 or 20 minutes to dry.

Step 3: Using your thin paint brush, paint over your carved letter with black paint. Keep your hand as steady as you can, and paint the letter to look as much like the letter you printed off the computer as possible. I would think you can try a paint pen for this too it just depends on the look you want.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
Step 4: Once you are satisfied, allow the paint to dry for at least 30 minutes before wrapping the candle. These candles look lovely wrapped in clear plastic cellophane wrap, tied up with festive ribbon. I keep lots of ribbon on hand, by simply changing the ribbon it becomes a great, unique gift for lots of different occasions. Just think they could be used for a baby shower gift for mom, Christmas, Teacher Gift, Valetine's Day... -- the possibilities are endless.   


 
Don't be afraid, you can do this! This is a simple way to create lots of affordable and personal gifts. People will love receiving them and they will enjoy many hours of the calming serenity that candlelight can bring into a home. Have fun! And don't get me started on how much I love cellophane to put around them!

Fabric Luggage Tags

Here is a super cute gift for Christmas or a cute idea just for yourself. I found it over at our Skip to My Lou blog. Did I menetion I love this blog! These luggage tags are so easy you could use scraps left over from other projects. You will need a sewing machine though.





So here's how to:

Step 1: To print name and address on fabric, cut white muslin and freezer paper 8 1/2" X 11". Iron shiny side of freezer paper to back of fabric. Send paper through an ink jet printer. You can also buy fabric especially made to go through the printer. I also talk about this technique here. Press printing when finished to help set ink. You could even scan in a business card and print that onto the fabric. (if you want you can always hand write the address on there and it gives it that sweet, "hey I made this for you and even used my own handwriting" look)

Step 2: Cut one 3 1/2" X 5" piece of printed fabric with name and address, 1 - 3 1/2 X 5" piece of fabric, two 3 1/2" X 5" pieces of heavy weight iron on interfacing and one 2" X 12 piece of fabric for strap.

Step 3: Following manufacture's instructions iron interfacing to wrong side of both 3 1/2" X 5" pieces of fabric.
Press strap piece in half lengthwise, open up, press each side to the middle then fold in half. Edge stitch down each side.

Step 4: Pin fabric pieces right sides together. Fold strap in half and place inside the fabric with cut edges sticking out 1/2". (Make sure not to accidentally stitch into strap as you sew around the edge.)

 
 
 
 
 

 
Step 5: Using 1/4" seam, stitch all the way around the outside edge, leaving an opening for turning.
Clip corners.

 
 
 

 
Step 6: Turn, press, and edge stitch along the outside edge making sure to close the opening. Stitch another row of stitching if desired.
 
 
So sweet. We are going to Africa in about a week and I'm totally making one of these for our luggage. We will know exactly which one is ours coming off the baggage claim belt. Yay! They would make cute little tags too. So have fun making them. I'll post pics of how mine turned out if I get to it. The fam is coming down this weekend for Thanksgiving so it will be lots of fun and food and family. All the best f's!

Oh How I Love Pottery Barn

Yep. I have a feeling you love it too. I love Pottery Barn. I love the feeling you get when you walk in the doors of the store. I love how clean and light everything is set up. I love every detail they put into their rooms and silly me to think any of my rooms would turn out like them. I wouldn't actually get to live in them if that were the case. Sigh.

I like Pottery Barn even better when I can recreate their fantastic ideas for well, much, much less than what I would buy them for. So here's something s-u-p-e-r cute from a sweet little blog called mad in crafts.

She is doing something called "A Dollar Barn Christmas" where she is doing fun things from The Pottery Barn with items found at the Dollar Tree. She has been able to pull off this look found in Pottery Barn.

 

With just some ribbon to look like this.

  

Isn't it fantastic. I am totally getting pics from past Christmas celebrations to put in my frames. I think it would look really nice with navy matting too. Navy happens to be my favorite color! I think it's good for almost any season. 

All you need to do is glue the ribbon to the inside of the frame like so. 

Super easy right? I think so. In mad in crafts she says to use Grosgrain Ribbon but I don't see why satin ribbon couldn't work. So have a happy time going down Christmas memory lane with your sa-weet new photo frames.

Christmas Tags Round 2!

Here's round 2 ladies. More super cute tags for you to enjoy!

Remember I found them at our local Skip to My Lou.

From Delight.

Download HERE.













From Grand Revival.

Download HERE.

Scroll down on the page to find the download button from this site.  








From Martha Stewart (she's my girl!).

Download HERE.











From Angry Chicken.

Download HERE.









From Little Window Shop.

Download HERE.












That is all for now and I will send more as I find them. Yay for Christmas!!!  

Sorry Friends but I Made Up For It!

I have been a bit busy this week with Secret Church coming up tomorrow. So, I thought I would do a quick post to make all the friends happy. I have a whole SHLEW (I think that's a word) of free printable tags. They are so stinkin cute and all you need do is print. Yay!!! Can't you feel how much I love you that I would send you free things. Smile. Enjoy and feel free to share.

This time I will just focus on Christamas tags as that fantastic holiday is coming up soon but I'll be sure to add more as I find them. These are from my sweet Skip To My Lou. She's amazing!

From Bucklette

To Download click HERE.






She has four charming sets so make sure you scroll through her previous posts.







From Paper Crave

    





Download HERE.












From Mushy.

Download HERE. I LOVE these!!!











From Sew Mama Sew.

Download HERE.

These are great for those yummy homemade treats!






From Yoonie-At-Home.

   


Download HERE.

    

Download HERE.







From Inside a Black Apple.

 

Download HERE.












From LollyChops.

Download HERE.
















From Fanciful Twist.

Download HERE.












I hope that's enough to get you started and I'll post more tonight or tomorrow. Happy crafting all ya'll!

2 Cute and Super Easy Crafts

I have had quite a day. I went to Talladega Super Speedway today for the AMP 500 with my parents and Mr. Phillips. It was actually so much more fun than I thought it would be. I do have to admit we saw Alabama's finest there. Like people yelling out "alcoholism, woo." Pretty sad huh? It wasn't all that way though so it was pretty fun! We got the tickets free from a friend and I have been trying to get tickets for like 4 years and God totally sat them in our lap. We WON'T pay $70 for a ticket to almost anything. So they were an early b-day gift for daddy-o! We had great fun.

So on to the good stuff. I found two really cute projects. The first is fabric covered clothes pins from My Three Silly Beanz and the other is a photo mat re-do from MaxxSilly.

The first, the fabric colored clothes pins, is so cute and easy. All you need are clothespins, 3/8 wide ribbon/ribbon scraps, mod podge or spray glue.
OPTIONAL: round magnets & hot glue

Here's how you do it.

1. Measure ribbon and cut to fit on top of clothespin
2. Throw on some mod podge or spray glue
3. Set ribbon on mod podged/spray glued clothespin
4. Slap on another layer of mod podge or just let it dry if you used spray glue
5. Let dry

OPTIONAL: glue a magnet on the back

So very easy, right? You can find an entire bag of clothes pins at the dollar tree to do this cute project. Us them to clip up little people's art in a cute way or use for a super cute chip bag holder. The possibilities are endless. 

The second, the photo mat, requires some yellow 5 x 7 photo mats (via our trusty dollar tree) and cute scrapbook paper to your liking. You will also need an x-acto knife, scotch tape, scissors, cutting mat, ruler and a frame. All pretty inexpensive.

Then to make you follow these easy instructions.

1. Put the scrapbook paper under the matting on the cutting mat. Put the scrapbook paper face down so you can trace a line if you need. 
2. Use your x-acto knife or scissors and cut or use a rotery tool and do it super quick. 
3. Use double side tape and tape the four corners of the scrapbooking paper to the matting. Use more if you need it. 
4. Place with a great photo in your frame. 

Love it! I'm making the second one for someone for Christmas so they make great gifts too. Happy crafting!