"fun little fundraisers"

Hi everyone,  happy Wednesday!  Since the rainy weather kept us indoors today, my crafty friend Sue & I decided to each create at least one new project and blog about it...for fun.  I've been kicking around some ideas for small ticket items to sell at the PAWS (Partners of Animal Welfare Society) booth for Fall Fest in our town this weekend.  I already created some fun "carmel apple pops" favors earlier in the week so I decided to stick with a Fall candy theme for my projects.  So first here's a look at the carmel apple pops.......

I started with a bag of tootsie pops in caramel apple flavor and used my cricut & the doodlecharms cartridge to cut apples from green patterned papers.  Next I handcut the "caramel" topping from kraft cardstock and added foam tape to the back for a little more dimension.  I adhered the caramel piece and a small button to each apple & used more foam tape to adhere the apples to the tootsie pops (with the sticks pointing up.)  Then I slipped the apples into a small cellophane bag and tied it with a piece of twine, a clothespin comes in handy to hold the bags closed while you tie the twine!  I used my new stamp set from Papertrey Ink to stamp the little labels & sentiments (I love their stamps, so clever how they work with each other) and adhered them to the outside of the bags with a dab of craft glue.

I finished each one off with a color ribbon bow & piled them in a basket...I love how they turned out and I think they make a fun Fall treat  :>  My next project started with a bag of Dove Bar single bites, minus one or two (I had to check the quality! LOL)   I just love all of the color Fall mums this time of year and was inspired to create a flower favor.  So I used my big punch and some brown patterned papers to punch the basic shape and then used a circle punch & some gold papers for the flower centers, easy peasy!!!  I inked the yellow centers to make them stand out a little more and then used my same little stamps to add the sentiments.  I added a little bling to the circles and adhered them with a small strip of foam tape.  A bright, yellow bow adds a cheerful touch.  To create the favors I adhered the flowers to the flat side of the candies with glue dots.  I arranged them on a doily-lined baking sheet & they look like little cookies :>

After making just over 2 doz. of these, sadly I ran out of Dove bites :o(   so onto the next idea!  Now I'm down to my last 2 bags of candy...some Mary Janes in cool new flavors & colors that I've never seen before.  Looking at the colors I was reminded of fall leaves & acorns & the like so I went in search of an acorn shape in my cricut cartridges and lo & behold there was one on the doodlecharms cartridge (this is a great cartridge, it has basic shapes for nearly every season/holiday.)  I did run into an issue with cutting the acorns...they could only be cut with a group of shapes: a leaf & a small berry,  so I decided to add some leaf-shaped favors too. Next I went to my stack of favorite go to papers, the BoBunny Dots collection and found some deep, rich fall colors to use.  Since I wanted to cut  my leaves in different colors I also ended up with acorns in several colors & decided I liked them in these fun, funky colors!

I also cut a sheet of leaves & acorns in a tan color and cut the acorns apart and layered the tops & bottoms over the colored ones.  I inked the edges of all and added a little tiny bit of bling to match.  I love my silly colored acorns  :>   I think I may add a little twine bow to the leaves or maybe stamp a sentiment on them. 

Attaching the paper acorns & leaves to this type of candy wrapper (waxed paper) proved to be a challenge and in the end I found that good, ole masking tape did the trick!  I had so much fun, on this gloomy rainy day, creating these favors & spent most of the day working on them.  Things just seemed to go together quickly and I was so pleased with the finished items...it reminds me of something my grandmother used to say  "when you set out to do right, God will guide your hands" and today was a perfect example of how right she was!  I hope you all have a good evening & don't forget to count your blessings  :>    delisa

the perfect tomato sandwich (southern style, y'all)

Hello again my friends!  It's been a long, long time since I last blogged (computer issues & a whole bunch of other stuff....Life!)  but I hope to start my blog again with some fun new projects for the upcoming seasons.  But before I do that I must pay tribute to our last tomato harvest of the season....boo hoo hoo!  I do so hate to see them go :(     So I thought I would share with you how to make the perfect tomato sandwich, southern style y'all.  Now right off the bat, don't even think about making this without  some perfectly ripe, delicious, homegrown tomatoes.....it's just not done, ever!  I don't know what those look alike things are that they sell in the grocery stores but they're not tomatoes.  So here's what else you'll need:  some plain ole loaf bread (white or wheat, whatever you like best), some good cheddar or colby cheese (kraft singles or velveeta slices are just fine too), your favorite mayo, yellow mustard (I like Heinz when I can find it, but French's is good too), some fresh, crispy lettuce & a little salt & pepper (for the maters!) 

Okay, so here we go.  First spread the mayo on both slices of the bread.  Next add a little of the yellow mustard to one slice of the bread, just go ahead & smear it right on top of the mayo, they like each other!  Then add a slice or two of cheese to the bread and your fresh lettuce to the other slice of bread.

Now take some good, thick slices of tomato and salt & pepper them to taste and put them right there on the nice little bed of lettuce.  Putting them in between the cheese & lettuce keeps your bread from getting too soggy before you finish eating your sandwich! 

Now put the slices of bread together and cut your lovely sandwich in half, & don't worry if you get a little dent in the bread while you're cutting it (like I did) it still tastes really good!

mmmmmmmmmm......I told ya it was good!

This is one of my favorite summertime sandwiches and I ate plenty of them growing up & I still love them!  Now you can fancy them up with dijon mustard, or specialty cheeses or breads from the deli but a good ole southern style "mater" sandwich is hard to beat on a hot summer day or anytime you're lucky enough to have good, homegrown tomatoes.  In my pre-vegetarian days I would throw a piece of good thick-sliced bologna on there & be in hogg heaven (ugh, sorry!)  but if your maters are good you really don't need it!  So that's all there is to it.  Like a lot of good eats, it's the freshness of the ingredients that make this simple sandwich so tasty and a true summertime treat. 

One more quick little note, this sandwich can be a little messy to eat (on account of the ripe, juicy maters) so grab plenty of napkins.....or if no one else is around just stand over the kitchen sink & eat it!  Enjoy them while you can  :>     delisa