How to make your own cards- the EASY way

In the current days of instant messaging, cards may seem old- fashioned, but, in my opinion, taking the time to send a thank you or hello in the mail, never goes out of style. I have found a fairly easy way to make cards, it's perfect for the busy lives we lead with the personal touch we all need. Once you get a few of the main ingredients- you can make bundles of cards with just minutes of your time and little mess, or stress.

Ingredients to make cards- I usually do batches when I have everything set up:

1- 50 count box of textured cards and 1 packet of self -adhesive card stock - both can be bought at a craft store- I peruse the papers for coupons and usually buy these when I have a 50% off coupon ( about $5.00/per item at Michaels )

2- An assortment of scrap book scissors, some to cut edges and some to cut corners. You can get a variety for about $3 each at Michaels. You will use these to cut the corners and edges of your cardstock used for lettering and the adhesive paper. A paper cutter is always good, but, a nice sharp pair of scissors will work just as well.

3- A stack of 8x 11 card stock- you can go with neutral or funky colors, depending on your style of cards.

4-A box of Zots ( raised adhesive glue dots)~ About $5 at Michaels and these last FOREVER and really add a little pop to your card.

STEPS TO MAKE CARDS:

1- On a word document make a page of whatever you want to be written on the card, Thank you, Get Well, Happy Birthday....etc. This will be your lettering that you will cut out to go on the front of the card. You can make your words in multiple fonts and colors and print them out on whatever color card stock you choose.

I chose to make Thank You cards for the upcoming holidays. I used green and red on white card stock.

2-Take a sheet of the adhesive paper and cut it into half- this will be used on a 4x6 card. With your scrap book scissors cut out the corners, or around all four sides. This will add a little bit of design to your card. Remove the adhesive backing and place onto the card.

3- Cut out your words from your card stock with the decorative scrap book scissors. Use a ZOT to stick it on the card.

5. Admire your work! These are so easy and you can make many different variations.

The Mittleider Grow Box Gardening Method

In my quest for building a vegetable garden I was sent, by my mother, 4 books regarding a grow box gardening method, written by Dr.J.R. Mittleider. These books were recommended to my mother by her father, an avid lifelong gardener. He claims the results are nothing short of a miracle. Of course, I have to find out for myself, which is one of the reasons why I have built garden boxes (see previous post). Our soil in our yard is horrible, nothing but bald patches of crab grass survive and I knew that for a successful garden, I would need a tried and true method to control and maintain the soil quality and space so that our veggies have a chance of making it to our table.

The Mittleider Grow Box Method makes sense for small families, as well as, large villages. I was fascinated by what Jacob Mittleider was able to grow in areas of the world that are notorious for poor soil that leads to agricultural failure and eventually starvation. Just reading these books makes me a believer and I am definitely motivated to join the Mittleider Grow Box movement.

From what I have read, the Mittleider method of gardening has been proven to provide more abundant crops in less space ( several items grow upwards), fewer problems because you make and maintain the soil with minerals (shown in the books exactly what you need to buy, how much to make and where and when to put it) The books also provide so many tips, it gives beginning gardeners, like myself, hope in obtaining a garden that will give a family healthy organic produce to live on.

Watch my posts and follow along as I begin my Mittleider Grow Box journey.If you are interested, try it for yourself. You can buy the same book I am using right here on my blog. Also, check Rosies Links for further enlightenment.

How to build a raised garden bed

This week, I received the raised bed corners for my vegetable garden that I purchased ($13 for 2 corners) on a gardening website. They are awesome! Especially for those short on time. Here is how I did it.

I went to Home Depot and searched for 2"x 10'x 12' cedar lumber to make 2- 4'x 4' beds. I wanted to stick with cedar, it's rot resistant and not treated ( don't want to eat termite treatment in my veggies!) However, cedar was available, but, not in 2" thickness. So, I opted for Pine, although it is a soft wood and susceptible to rot, I can treat it with non-toxic oil that can keep it fairly resistant. That will have to be another post though..this one is for finally building the boxes!

1. I got 3- 2"x 10"x 12' pieces of lumber ($10 ea.) and had them cut the boards into 4' pieces at the store, otherwise, I would have had 12' pieces of lumber hanging out of the back of my minivan on the way home. That was all I had to buy at Home Depot. The corner brackets came with all of the hardware that I needed.

2. At home, I laid out my boards on a flat concrete surface and began inserting the boards into the corners.

3. I drilled the screws to attach and secure the boards to the corner brackets and finally placed the end caps on all four corners.

The total time from laying out the boards, screwing them together and having my hubby help me carry the boxes into the garden area was about 1 hour and 15 minutes, and that is with my 3 year old hanging on my back to "help" me.

How to make a Taggie Blanket...So EASY!!

I love projects that are easy, cheap to make, useful and gift worthy. This Taggie Blanket project definitly falls into that category. It's fairly mindless, repetitious and can be done in short spurts of time and put away quickly so the kiddies won't get into your supplies. The babies also LOVE these blankets and they are a perfect size for them to play with.

This Taggie blanket is of my own design, and not perfect in exact measurements, but, the results are still very nice. Remember you will get (if you want) 4 blankets out of this project.

Materials Needed for 4- 13" x 16" taggieblankets:

• 2 yards of flannel or soft blanket material ( I used no-pile flannel) in coordinating colors. One yard will be for the front of the blanket and one yard will be for the back.
• 5 rolls of 1" wide coordinating satin ribbon- cut into lengths of 4".
• Matching thread
• straight pins
• ruler/measuring tape
• scissors
• iron and ironing board

Step 1: CUT- Lay both fabrics on top of each other. Imagine dividing the fabric into fours. Cut a line vertically down the middle and then cut horizontally down the middle. You now will have 4 pieces of one color and 4 pieces of the other color.

Step 2: IRON-Take a piece of fabric that you will use for the back of the blanket and iron a 1" hem on all four sides, use pins at the corners to help keep the hem down. Do the same process for a front piece of the blanket. So now you will have a front and back piece with 1" ironed hems all of the way around.

Step 3: TAG-Each Blanket will have 20 tags, 5 tags on each side. To save on time I always cut my tags in advance and separate them out in baggies. To place tags onto the blanket, fold one 4" piece of ribbon into 1/2. Pin the folded ribbon 1" from the corner of the back blanket piece, leave about 1" on the outside of the blanket, this will be the piece the baby plays with. ( Make sure you are pinning onto the wrong side of the fabric-NOT the side that will be facing out) Continue around the edges of the blanket. Space the ribbons about 2" apart.

Step 4: SEW- Now that your ribbons are pinned onto your blanket, it is time to sew the front and back pieces together. Pin the wrong sides of your pieces together and sew about 5/8" in from the edge, make sure your hem and ribbon stays tucked in and remove pins as you sew. I use a zig zag stitch spaced close together, if you want to, you can reinforce the seam by sewing a second time around.

That's it, 4 steps! Very easy and a great gift idea for any baby.

Building a RAISED garden bed

Okay, so I have been thinking about starting my very first garden. My daughter is interested and I am in need of something to think about besides unicorns and fairies. I figured, we could both learn a little something and have our fresh veggies as a reward. After much research and hemming and hawing I think I have gotten to the point of where I would like to begin.

At first, I spent way too much of my precious time during the kiddies naps researching the best plan for building a vegetable garden.It had to be relatively easy and not too costly. I found fabulous plans for cedar boxes that I had the best intentions of building.

So, I take a trip to the local Lowe's and peruse the aisles for all of my materials-way more expensive than what I thought. I get to the lumber and they have none of the beautiful 2x12 cedar wood planks that I need. What is a girl to do? If I had the time and energy I would sit and think of how to devise a new plan to meet what they had at Lowe's, but, that is me in an alternate universe. So, I ditch my cart full of the 6"carriage bolts and screws and go back home to square one.

There has to be an easier way to build garden boxes without spending a fortune on all of the bolts, screws, boards not to mention the time to cut and saw and screw everything into place. I am all about efficiency, and I hate wasting time, especially these days when I have no time for a shower, much less, sawing boards.

Trolling around on the net I find my answer, corner brackets for raised garden beds. Who would have thought. I just slip my boards into the brackets and my bed is made. God, I love technology!

I can do it!

New Blog. Just for my attempts at fixin, cookin, dreamin, whatever. I love to try new things and hopefully, I can share what I do, others may learn and vice versa.