Sheet Music & Recycled Starbuck's Bird Ornaments

 The original inspiration for the bird ornaments below started from this paper bird ornament I found hanging on a tree at the store.At first I thought I would make them out of stiffened felt sheets, I did tried it  but they were too plain looking.What I really liked about the bird ornaments I originally saw was the sheet music they used on one side.  I still like the idea of felt but I think I'd like to actually make some and stuff them.

Paper Sheet Music Bird Ornaments

For the above ornaments I  first downloaded a bird template HERE.  You can print them out onto decorative paper, but I decided to print out only one and use it as the template and then traced the bird shape onto decorative cardstock so that I could get several birds per sheet of cardstock.. 


After I cut them out I ran them through the 
Xyron and then laid the adhesive side onto 
Vintage Sheet music I had scanned. 
(click HERE to save and download a 
copy of the sheet music.)


Once the sheet music and cardstock were adhered I cut around the bird shape and then added silver glitter glue.  I just used the cheap glitter glue found in the craft section at the store.  You can use German glitter glass  or any loose glitter.  I think I would have preferred the sprinkle glitter because the glitter glue took FOREVER to dry!


After they were Finally dry I punched two small 
holes to tie the jingle bell on for the eye and 
for the hanging ribbon.

Upcycled Starbuck's Bird Ornaments

Again with these I used the bird template I had previously 

printed out (see link above) and traced around it on

on a open coffee sleeve from Starbucks (see below) 

then finished it off by embellishing them.

For the last 4 or 5 years I have been using Starbuck's Christmas coffee sleeves to make cards and other projects with.  I actually look forward to seeing what each year's sleeves look like.  They usually have a saying on the front that will lend itself well to making it into a Christmas card.  Click HERE to view some past projects using Starbuck's coffee sleeves.

Here I've used a Christmas themed Starbuck's 
paper coffee cup to make a paper bird ornament.  
I just cut the cup down the seam, tore off the 
bottom and traced the bird onto the cup then cut.


Artistic Inspirations to help you create!

www.OutsideTheMargins.com

Calendar Grlz--October

Its been awhile since I posted pics from the 

Calendar Grl Round Robin I'm in. I had a really 

hard time getting into this calendar this time around, 

not sure why but I just wasn't feeling inspired.

If you'd like to view past calendar pages click

HERE and scroll down.

Artistic Inspirations to help you create!

www.OutsideTheMargins.com

Pumpkin Biscotti Printable Recipe Card

Printable recipe card 
(save and print)
If you love pumpkin flavor you'll love these 
pumpkin biscottis I made this yesterday.  My 
sister gave me some she baked and I fell 
in love with them and had to make some 
of my own.


Make them ahead and have them available 
Thanksgiving morning or give as a gift 
with the above recipe card printed out and 
attached to them.


Click HERE to scroll down & view 
other printable recipe cards


Artistic Inspirations to help you create!

www.OutsideTheMargins.com

Crafty Blogger Blurbs

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery 
See how to make a recycled bottle lid broken heart charm inspired by the book Fantastic Recycled Plastic

Mixed Media Artist 
Cyndi is giving away a copy of her new ebook on using found objects and unusual materials in your bead embroidery! 

Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter 
Heidi Goes Glam Necklace and Madge's Pre-Debut Debut on JTV!

Eileen - The Artful Crafter 
Here's a cute tote idea incorporating a sticker embellishment made of cardboard and coated with epoxy. Yes, just plain cardboard!

Crafty Princess Diaries 
Square time! Tammy is working on creating a simple (and hopefully fast) baby blanket pattern

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world 
This week at Craftside there is a chance to win a copy of 1,000 Type Treatments and my Sizzix twist cube project it inspired, a tutorial on how to make serged thread chain and braid, a dining room mixed media assemblage and one of the quilts from the book-Journey of Hope.

Carmi's Art/Life World 
Carmi makes a set of meaningful Remembrance Day cards with a free digital download.

About Family Crafts 
If you are looking for an almost instant Thanksgiving activity, check out these free, printable Thanksgiving projects. 

Artistic Inspirations to help you create!

www.OutsideTheMargins.com

Christmas Themed Wood ATCs

I'm participating in a wood Christmas 
themed ATC swap with a couple of
 friends.  Above are a few I've 
finished...instead of the 4" thick size 
some people use I used 1/2" thick.


Artistic Inspirations to help you create!

www.OutsideTheMargins.com

Pomegranate Liqueur

Picture of the Day
Don't these look tasty....what are they you ask? Arils aka Pomegranate seeds (thanks to my friend Kris I never knew they had another name).  As a kid I loved eating pomegranates, I think part of the thrill was getting the treasured seeds out.  We have a pomegranate tree so for my kids they were treasured gems to be traded at school for sugary treats they didn't get at home.  Here's a little bit about the medicinal qualities of pomergranates: More recent research has found that eight ounces of pomegranate juice daily for three months improved the amount of oxygen getting to the heart muscle of patients with coronary heart disease (American Journal of the College of Cardiology, Sept. 2005). Other researchers report that long-term consumption of pomegranate juice may help combat erectile dysfunction.

My mother in law use to make pomegranate jelly 

which my husband loved....that seemed like way too much work 

to me for jelly, but pomegranate liqueur now that's a different story LOL

Pomegranate Liqueur Recipe

Ingredients:

Pomegranates should be as ripe and red as you can get them. Too young, and the flavor may be weak. Too old, and they will, of course, already be rotten. Larger pomegranates are preferred, if only for yield. I generally get 12 ounces of juice (separate from the pulp) for each pair of pomegranates.  If your fruit yields much less than that, toss in another one or so, so you get about 12 ounces of juice total.  If unsure, err on the side of plenty.  I've run with as much as 16 ounces.

• 2 large pomegranates, pods only
• 1 1/2 cups vodka
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 3/8 cups water
• 1/2 peel, lemon, scraped

Preparation:

Remove pods from pomegranates. Throw away rind and pith. Press out all the juice with a good, sturdy press. Put the resulting juice and pulp in a 1-liter mason jar (any glass jar you can effectively seal works; I use Arc jars from France, and Fidenza jars from Italy). Prepare lemon peel, toss in jar. Add vodka. Seal jar.

Steep two weeks (though I have left it as much as four with no ill effects), turning it over once a day. Strain and filter. Squeeze the pulp moderately hard, but realize that the harder you squeeze, the harder will be the job of filtering later on. It's a tough balance to make.

Now, boil the sugar and water together. Let stand a moment to cool. Add syrup to mixture, and seal quickly. Age another month. Remove, filter again, bottle. You should note that there's a thick haze or sludge on the bottom of your jar, and you will find it incredibly difficult to filter out with anything but a serious wine filter. Instead, you might consider racking the liqueur (siphoning the good liqueur off the top, and discarding the sludge on the bottom). You lose a little bit of liquid along with the sludge, but you sure save yourself a lot of work filtering.

Yield: Total liquid (1.5 cups vodka, .75 cups syrup, 1.5 cups pomegranate juice) 3.75 cups. Proof: about 35.  Recipe compliments of: http://www.guntheranderson.com/liqueurs/pomegran.htm

Artistic Inspirations to help you create!

www.OutsideTheMargins.com

Starbucks Coffee Sleeve Projects

It's about that time of year again for Starbucks to change their coffee sleeves to Holiday themed ones.  For those of you who haven't seen my previous coffee sleeve projects I'm reposting a link to them HERE.
(Once you click the link above scroll down past this post to see the other projects)


Here's this years 2010 
Starbuck's Coffee sleeves.

Card open 

I used glitter card stock and 

will add a couple of pictures

Artistic Inspirations to help you create!

www.OutsideTheMargins.com

Incommunicado and Baby News

Wow! sorry I've been incommunicado, but blame it on good ole blogspot not letting me in! Its like they changed the locks and didn't give me a new key!  Just try and get a real live person from blogspot that's a real joke!  Anyhow, I am back in and have left the door ajar just in case LOL

On the grand baby news front, Tuesday we got to share a treasured moment seeing a 3D Sonogram of our grandchild to be, it's a boy! I had a feeling it was a boy, but since there are so many boys in the family I was hoping for a girl just so we girls weren't so out numbered LOL but that's okay we're well equipped for boys around here and I'm thrilled to pieces :-)

Artistic Inspirations to help you create!

www.OutsideTheMargins.com

About Family Crafts 
Read through these creative Thanksgiving tradition ideas and then share your own. 

Carmi's Art/Life World 
Carmi uses paper scraps to quilt some paper! 

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world 
This week at Craftside there is a chance to win a copy of Collage Lab with a tutorial on how to make a light up mixed-media mini house, a yarn necklace from the book Intertwined and step-by-step instructions for painting an olive.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world 
This week at Craftside there is a chance to win a copy of Collage Lab with a tutorial on how to make a light up mixed-media mini house, a yarn necklace from the book Intertwined and step

Crafty Princess Diaries 
If you have moved over to using e-readers, such as a Kindle, then you need something pretty and hand-crafted (of course) to protect it.

Eileen - The Artful Crafter 
When the going gets tough; the tough get going. Have you thought of making a bit of extra money by crafting in your spare time? Read Eileen's advice to "worried mom" Gina.

Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter 
Madge shares an update from 'the busy zone.'

Mixed Media Artist 
It turns out that rust and paint can be a great combination! 

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery 
See how to make a mini die cut leaf bracelet notebook inspired by Eco Books.

Artistic Inspirations to help you create!

www.OutsideTheMargins.com

Fall is finally here!

 

Its beginning to look a lot like fall here finally!  Hubby is finally off of crush at the winery after no days off since July and it was time to celebrate! What a beautiful day it is today! We even snuck in some Christmas shopping and found some good deals....I gleamed several good ideas for Christmas giftees, so stay tuned an I hope to share a them provided they turn out LOL

Click HERE to download some 
fall freebie e-cards!


Artistic Inspirations to help you create!

www.OutsideTheMargins.com

Christmas Gift Idea #1

Looking for Christmas gift giving ideas 
this is a fun little gift idea for kids and 
adults a like! Create your own unique 
Tic-Tack-Toe board


Click HERE to watch my videos 
on how I created the above game board
or to purchase your own kit!




Artistic Inspirations to help you create!

www.OutsideTheMargins.com

Picture of the Day 11-03-2010

It's so nice to be told your appreciated and thanked once in awhile!  After a particularly rough day with all the males in my household, my sons and hubby gave me these 2 beautiful cards and a flower from my son's garden. The nice gesture went a long way to redeem them after their escapades! The vase hubby made from found objects tossed at work, I think it's a pretty cool looking vase :-)


Artistic Inspirations to help you create!

www.OutsideTheMargins.com

I Need Your Help Blog Friends!

I received exciting news this morning the picture I 

took above is currently in the running to become 

Better Homes and Garden's winner of the week! 

 Voting ends 11/07/2010.

Get your friends and family to vote too! 

Just forward or share the link below:

http://photos.bhg.com/category/vote/photo/558728

Vote Daily!

Crafty Blogger Blurbs

About Family Crafts 
For some reason, kids and kitchens go together so why not invite your kids into the kitchen with you to craft. Sherri shares creative recipes to help you make your own home-made clay, colorful paint, bath and beauty products, and even creative snacks. 

Carmi's Art/Life World 
Carmi samples some new "print your own" decoupage sheets featuring Peter Rabbit. 

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world 
This week at Craftside there is a chance to win a copy of Illustration School: Let's Draw Plants and Small Creatures with an inside peek that contains info on how to add illustrations to photos, there is 4 of the 1,000 greeting cards from the book 1,000 More Greetings, a bunch of beading tutorials and some organizing tips. 

Crafty Princess Diaries 
Tammy shares a link to a survey conducted by the National Needlearts Association and wonders about how balanced the results are. 

Eileen - The Artful Crafter 
Have you considered designing and selling your own paper goods like cards, cupcakes toppers or party favors? Then you need to know a few things about incorporating the work of other graphic designers. 

Mixed Media Artist 
Cyndi never knew you could have so much fun with some rusty nails... 

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery 
As promised, see how to crochet a spider web skirt. 

Artistic Inspirations to help you create!
 

www.OutsideTheMargins.com