Canning Peaches in Colorado

Hi, again. Just wanted to show you something fun I like to do at the end of summer - can peaches! There is a great little town in Palisades, CO, that has the best peaches ever. My friend and I bought a huge box that we split together. Those peaches were bigger than my fist!!!! We set to work canning them and even got my two boys involved in the process.

Once we were done with all our canning, we set to work on getting a cute presentation ready. We needed cute labels, cute lids and cute tags!

We used some labels that my friend bought along with her jars. We used alpha block stamps and a Lizzie date stamp so we would know when we canned the jam and butter. We also made some little gift tags that matched our lids. For the peach embellishments we used my cricut. I have some of those supplies in my etsy store in my Just Peachy TWeeK (Teensy Weensy Kit).

Each jar came out so mixy matchy and I love the homespun feel it gave me. Have you ever tried canning anything? Do you have a favorite recipe? This is only my 2nd year doing it but I'd like to do some more before the last of the fruits are gone for good.

Leave me a comment and let me know! Thanks for stopping by.

Just Peachy- Teensy Weensy Kit

I love giving hand made cards because I feel like i give a little of myself with it; my time, my creativity, and my feelings about the person receiving it. But life can be extremely busy and I don't always have the time to sit down and make a card. I try to customize each card that I send with that person in mind so that it has a lot of thought and meaning behind it. Yet there are times which don't afford me that luxury and I have to grab one from a stash that I have tucked away for those occasions.

That's why I love my teensy weensy kits; they give me the chance to mass produce cards but on a smaller scale. I wouldn't want all my friends receiving the same birthday card now would I?! And while I make a few batches of cards here and there I like to put some of them up in my shop for you, too. It gives you a chance to make a few cards when you have time and then have them ready to send out. You still get the opportunity to use your creativity and make a card but the cutting is done for you and it makes the assembly that much easier.

Wanna see what I mean? Okay, twist my arm... I'll show you! ;)

Here is one of the cards that I made using my Just Peachy TWeeK (teensy weensy kit). The cardstock that I use for this kit is a great quality and the patterned paper is Prairie Hill from Pink Paislee. Let me show you how I made this card using the kit items.

I used the pre-cut pieces and adhered them to the kraft front. The grid paper is just one long strip so that you can cut it however you want. I chose to make mine like a ribbon and snipped the ends in an upside down V. I also distress a lot of the pieces using ink.The chevron or zig-zag die cut is already cut out extra long so I measured it and cut it to size. After I laid the pieces out where I wanted them I went ahead and used my sewing machine to stitch them in place.

One of my favorite things to make are little tags. It's like a mini canvas on top of the card. I distressed my tag with ink but you don't have to. The sentiment banner and the aqua banner are both distressed already.

Next, I used some distress ink on my stitched peach. I also added an extra layer to mine for the middle. I trimmed the "whiskers" and used some pop dots on the back. Once adhered I made sure to fluff up all the layers to give it some dimension. I also added the button to the corner of the sentiment banner and stamped a flourish on the grid paper.

 Here's what comes in the kit. It's enough to make 4 cards; you just need to use scissors and adhesive. And a little imagination. ;)

I'll be posting something in a few days that will show you how else I used my Just Peachy TWeeK. A friend of mine came over and we spent the day making Peach Preserves and Peach Butter! We dressed up our tasty gifts with some fun tags.

Thanks for stopping in!

Spreading Friendship In a Cup

I just love fall and one of the reasons I love it so much is that the weather cools off. And nothing is as wonderful on a cool crisp evening than holding a hot cup of coffee, tea or hot chocolate! So from time to time I like to make fun little gifts and give them to my friends for no other reason than to make them smile and let them know that I love them.

I thought it would be great to make Friendship Tea (or it's also called Russian Tea) mix and package it in a mason jar. A cute label, tag and note and they'd be all set to go... I looked online and found a recipe to make the powder mix; it consists of instant unsweetened tea, Tang, lemonade, spices (like cinnamon, clove, nutmeg) and sugar. Super easy to whip up and pour into clean mason jars. The next step is to make it look cute because we all know that presentation is half the gift! So I whipped out some jar labels using various things that I had on hand. When it's all assembled it looks like this:

I am going to give this to some of my friends this week because over here the public schools go on fall break already. And with the cold front that just came in, this weekend is going to be blustery. :) They could use a good cup of Friendship Tea!

Oh, and before I forget to tell you, this week at Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge the sketch is a simple ornament shape to interpret however you want. I am going to enter the lid label in that challenge since it is the same shape. I love looking at all of the ornament/tag ideas over there so be sure to check them out!

Thanks for looking and happy Friday eve! ;)

(Mason Jar decorate with: )
Paper: patterned paper, manila paper
Inks: distressing ink (TH), brown marker (SU)
Dies/Embossing Folders: Preserves Cartridge (Provocraft Cricut), Pumpkin die (TH), tiny tag (MS), embossing folder is from SU
Embellies:  baker's twine, raffia, ribbon, buttons (PTI), DMC floss