Peach Jam

Summer is here and the Georgia peaches are ripe. I saw these blushing beauties at the grocery store last week and couldn't resist. They found their way into my cart and came home with me. Time to make jam!

It's been a long time since I've made any kind of jam or fruit butter.  Usually I make a batch of apple butter in the fall, and often some sort of jam in the summer, but I think it has been a year and a half since I've put anything up. My pantry definitely needed restocking!

I didn't do anything fancy, I just used the recipe that came with the fruit pectin box. I once had a lovely peach butter that I bought at a farmer's market that was amazing. If anyone out there has a good peach butter recipe, please share!

In the meantime, I look forward to slathering my morning toast with this peach goodness!

Peach Jam (from Sure-Jell)
makes approx. 7 cups

INGREDIENTS
4 c. finely chopped peaches (approx. 3 lbs.)
5 1/2 c. sugar
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 box Sure-Jell fruit pectin

PREPARATION
Bring boiling water canner, half full with water, to simmer.

Wash jars and screw bands in hot, soapy water; rinse with warm water. Pour boiling water over flat lids in saucepan off the heat. Let stand in hot water until ready to use. Drain well before filling.

Measure exact amount of prepared fruit into 6- or 8-quart pot. Stir in lemon juice. Stir 1 box of pectin into fruit.

Bring mixture to full roiling boil on high heat, stirring constantly.

Stir in sugar quickly. Return to full roiling boil and boil exactly 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim off any foam.

Ladle quickly into prepared jars, filling to within 1/4" of tops. Wipe jar rims and threads. Cover with 2-piece lids. Screw bands tightly. Place jars on elevated rack in canner. Lower rack into canner. Water must cover jars by 1 to 2 inches; add boiling water if needed. Cover; bring water to gentle boil. Process jam 10 minutes. Remove jars and place upright on a towel to cool completely. After jars cool, check seals by pressing middle of lid with finger. (If lid springs back, lid is not sealed and refrigeration is needed).

Vintage Tag Trio

Here is the last set of tags I made last week using these fun vintage images. The bicycle again makes an appearance, this time accompanied by a Ferris wheel and phone booth. I really couldn't stop once I'd started, they were so fun to make! 

I am moving on from the bicycle image (at least for now) but I do have more tags in the works. They are addicting to make once you start. It's been fun to play with the smaller format, like little miniature canvases!

Vintage Bicycle Gift Tags

Here is a second set of gift tags I made using the same bicycle image as last time. For these I embraced the vintage style of the image and used black ink on kraft card stock. Also, rather than centering the image on the tag, I rather like how it looks offset. I have one more set of tags with this image to share, so stay tuned!

Bicycle Gift Tags

I love hand made gift tags. They dress up a package beautifully, can be made to complement a card or the gift itself, and they are proof that good things come in small packages. And I went a little crazy making them this week!

I used a vintage bicycle image for this set (quite a few sets actually, more about those in the coming days) of gift tags. But while the image itself is of a vintage bike, I think these tags have a very modern and graphic feel to them because of the pop of white against a dark gray background. I love that juxtaposition!

I love these tags so much I have listed them in my Etsy shop to share. Take a look!

Pedal Pusher

Whenever my parents come to visit, my mom brings her crafting supplies with her. Gotta love that! Also gotta love that I get to play with her toys while she's here. :) During their most recent visit I tried out her Pedal Pusher set and matching dies. Such a fun set! It's like playing with paper dolls for bicycles because the basket has so many different filler images. Isn't this bicycle sweet? It's stamped in Coastal Cabana ink, one of SU!'s new In Colors. I think it is a very vintagey looking color and complements that vintage style bicycle well.

 photo credit

Sorta like this!

SUPPLIES
Stamps: Pedal Pusher (PTI)
Paper: Stamper's Select White (PTI), Ruby Rose (SU!), Gray Dot (Michael's)
Ink: Smokey Slate, Strawberry Slush, Coastal Cabana, Old Olive, Creamy Caramel (SU!)
Embellishments: enamel dots (My Mind's Eye)
Tools: Pedal Pusher die (PTI), Scallop Border punch (SU!)

Chevron Birthday

Happy Monday! Popping in today to share another birthday card. This one uses my new chevron set by PTI. Fun! The chevron stripes are stamped in Kiwi Kiss and Pacific point inks. I matted the focal panel on Kiwi Kiss card stock, which is then mounted to the card base with dimensional adhesive.

That's it for now, have a good week!

SUPPLIES

Stamps: Background Basics: Chevron Stripes, World's Greatest (PTI)

Paper: Stamper's Select White (PTI), Kiwi Kiss (SU!)

Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Pacific Point, Basic Black (SU!)

Welcome Little One

This past weekend I attended a baby "sprinkle" for a friend who is expecting her second baby, a little girl, and this is the card I made for her. (As an aside, do they do baby sprinkles where you live? I had never heard of this term until I moved to the South.)

The little elephant from Sweet Baby was die cut and stamped in Pink Pirouette ink. The gray pattern paper is from Michael's, and the pink paper is an older SU! pattern called Bella Rose. The heart border mimics the heart on the elephant and givers her a place to stand.

I die cut a Mat Stack 1 shape from the gray paper and stamped the coordinating frame in Pink Pirouette ink. The sentiment, from Script Sentiments, is stamped in Basic Gray ink. A little pink button from my stash finishes it off!

Thanks for stopping by!


SUPPLIES
Stamps: Sweet Baby, Script Sentiments, Mat Stack 1 Collection (PTI)
Paper: Rustic White (PTI), Bella Rose dp (SU!), Gray Dot (Michael's)
Ink: Pink Pirouette, Basic Gray (SU!)
Embellishments: pink button
Tools: Heart Border die, Mat Stack 1 die, Sweet Baby die (PTI)

World's Greatest Dad

I have been on a bit of an embossing kick lately. This is the third card I have made recently that is a riff on this same theme. I guess I need clean and simple when I have to get a card done during the baby's nap time!

For this Father's Day card I pulled out the Papertrey set World's Greatest.  I stamped the sentiment and neck ties in Versa Mark on a Wild Wasabi panel of card stock then embossed it all in white. I distressed the edges and adhered it to a white base with foam tape. Easy and done! How about you? Have you made your Father's Day cards yet?


SUPPLIES
Stamps: World's Greatest (PTI)
Paper: Wild Wasabi (SU!), Stamper's Select White (PTI)
Ink: Versa Mark
Other: white embossing powder

4th of July Flagged Border Card

This week's Make it Monday Challenge over at the Papertrey Ink blog is to create a card with a flagged border. Immediately a 4th of July card popped into my head. I have lots of red and blue pattern paper left over from the pinwheel crib mobile I made, so I thought I could put the scraps to good use on a patriotic card. Easier said than done! For some reason, after the initial idea, I really struggled with this card. It was difficult to get all of the little flagged strips to behave and then I was sort of stumped for the rest of the card. I am mostly happy with the end result, except for the stars in the bottom corner. I do like them, but as I was hovering the stamp over the paper to figure out just where I wanted them placed, I hovered a little too close and smeared the ink! Argh! Don't you just hate messing up the final touch of a card? Ah well. I hope everyone's week is going well and that you have something fun planned for your weekend!

*hugs*


SUPPLIES
Stamps: Banner Builder (PTI)
Paper: Stamper's Select White (PTI), various pattern papers (Michael's)
Ink: Ruby Red (SU!)
Embellishments: baker's twine
Tools: Banner Builder die, By the Numbers die (PTI), Cutter Bee Circle Cutter, Lacey Circles die (Nestabilities)

Pinwheel Crib Mobile

When my husband and I were planning out our son's nursery, we wanted to include a mobile for his crib. Every baby needs a mobile, right? As we started searching for one we liked, however, we noticed a few things. First, mobiles can be crazy expensive! Second, there are a lot of really cheesy mobiles on the market. And third, most of the mobiles are designed to be looked at from the side. If you looked at them from the baby's perspective you wouldn't see much! Discouraged, we never purchased one and our son's crib went sans mobile. This wasn't really a problem at first as he mostly slept in his bassinet. Now that he is older and does most of his sleeping in his crib, it really bothered me that he didn't have anything fun to look at. So I did what any crafty mama would do and made him one!

It was important to me that whatever design I chose would be interesting to look at from underneath. The whole point is for the baby to see it after all! After scouring Pinterest and Etsy for ideas I settled on making him a pinwheel mobile. Pinwheels are cute, face downward, and are easy to make. I could also choose pattern papers that complemented his nursery decor.

I went to Michael's and picked out some of their open stock pattern paper in reds and blues. Michael's often runs a sale on their 12x12 paper so I waited for one and got each sheet for 20 cents.

To make the pinwheels I followed a tutorial by Ashley Cannon Newell for one of Papertrey Ink's "Make it Monday" series. She was making pinwheels to put on cards, but I adapted the idea for the mobile and made them larger. I cut my paper into 3 1/2" squares, so that the finished pinwheels measure 4 1/2" across. Aren't they adorable?!

For most of the pinwheels, I adhered two sheets of pattern paper together. I also stitched them together with embroidery thread to make sure they were extra strong and wouldn't come apart. Mixing and matching the different patterns was a lot of fun!

The pinwheels hang from these dowels. I purchased two 3/8" dowels from Michael's and cut them in half. I made nine pinwheels; one hangs from each arm of the mobile and one hangs down the center.

Lashing the four pieces together was a bit tricky. I originally tried wrapping just baker's twine around them, but I couldn't get them stable enough. My brilliant Dad then suggested tacking them with hot glue in addition to wrapping with twine. It worked! I did go back and tuck in the loose ends of twine that are in this picture.

The pinwheels are suspended from the dowels by fishing line. The knot is on the front (as is the knot from the embroidery thread that helps hold them together) so I hot glued a button to the center of each pinwheel to cover it up. I had planned on doing that anyway, to add a contrasting spot of color, but it had the added benefit of hiding the unsightly knots.

I was giddy with excitement when I finished! I think it turned out adorable and I love that it matches our son's nursery. I also love that he has something interesting to look at as he falls asleep and when he wakes up (a bare white ceiling just isn't that exciting!) And the whole project only cost around $2 to make! 

Thanks for stopping by!