More is More

Happy Monday!  I promised a cute and easy project, so here we go.  For my third project in class Friday night I had originally planned to teach Reverse Spotlighting (to go along with the Spotlighting project – scroll down), but after struggling with two UGLY samples I gave up on that idea and decided to go with some super cute magnetic clippie frames made with coasters. (I can’t settle on what the heck to call them.  LOL!)

I got the idea from my friend Debbie Jackson who used a similar project for her StampMania shoe box last year.  She told me she got the idea from SCS so I really don’t know who originated it.  First I made up a bunch of them for my friends who came from far and wide for StampMania.  There is a group of us who chat almost daily – some of us for several years now.  The group consists of about 20-25 women from around the country and there were 14 of us here for the SCSM weekend.  I think that is the most ever in one place together.

I made these red and white (actually it’s ivory in this retired SU designer paper) with a bashful blue accent to go with the SCSM color scheme.  I packaged them up in cello bags with some blue curling ribbon for a simple presentation at dinner Friday night.

For class I decided it would be fun to cut up different papers so each person’s project would be unique.  It was more work on my part but so fun to see the results!  Start with a chipboard coaster.  You can get these at restaurants like Chili’s and Outback Steakhouse (they will be printed) or you can get blank white ones from eclectic Paperie.  I’ve found different versions of the magnetic clips at several places.  The square ones I used for class (see photo below and the one on the right in the photo above) were from Office Max and come in a 6 pack for $4.29.  For these you can use a 1″ circle punch to decorate them.  The other type of clippie (left in the photo above of the red ones) is from Big Lots.  Those come in a 2 pack for only .88 and you can decorate them with a 1/2″ circle punch.

Here’s a photo of the completed projects my girls made Friday night.  Aren’t they cute?

 Click on the thumbnail to see it larger.

Simply cut 2 pieces of designer paper 4×4″ and use a corner rounder on all corners.  Adhere the paper to the front and back (back is optional with the blank coasters) with glue stick.  I gave everyone 2 coordinating colors of cardstock cut 2 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ – one of those pieces will be the photo mat and the other piece they used to punch both the scallop circle and the photo corner.  They were also given a 16″ length of coordinating ribbon and one ink pad.  I had Big Flowers and  Riveting on the table.  Riveting is retired and I would have prefered to use Circle of Friendship, but I don’t have it.

These will be perfect for a photo cropped to 2 1/4″ x 3 1/4″ or it would also be cute with a tiny tear off calendar.  These would make great party favors.  I honestly just love this project!  And I feel it was well worth the extra time I took to allow each class participant to create something different and all their own!  If you’ve made some of these leave me a link – I’d love to see them.

Last night I was craving cake so I busted out a devil’s food mix and baked one up in a 9×13 pan.  The best part of a chocolate cake like that is eating a piece hot from the oven with butter on top.  Curt loves it too, but he was laughing last night that I think it’s *normal*…apparantly other people don’t eat hot chocolate cake with butter?  That’s just crazy!  Growing up we didn’t have dessert every night after dinner – only ocassionally.  Sometimes my aunt would bake a box chocolate cake and put it in the oven just before dinner was ready so it would be fresh and hot just when we finished dinner.  We would slather it with butter and enjoy.  Mmmmmm.  Then the rest would be frosted the next day, but the frosted cake was never as good as the buttered cake.  Am I the only one who loves hot buttered chocolate cake? If you haven’t tried it, you really MUST and then report back.  Go on….right now…you know you have a chocolate cake mix in the cupboard.   And it’s Monday – you deserve a treat!  Mmmmmmmmmm.