Birgit's Daily Bytes: 08/01/2010

Thursday, August 26, 2010

New Product, a free SBG kit with purchase and an all day chat!

I have lots to tell you today, so buckle up :)

1.) First of all, my new product:

For some time now I wanted to take the idea of recipes a little further.

I have the index card type of recipe box, and that is just fine for every day cooking.

I did however want to record the favorites in a different way. The recipes that stood the test of time, that come out again and again, the recipes that have a story attached to them, that grace the holiday table over and over.

I want to periodically collect those recipes for my family. And the photos that go with it ... and the stories, so that it may not just be a collection of recipes, but a book of memories. I think these family cook books would make lovely gifts once printed and or bound into a book!

The color scheme for this family cookbook is very neutral. I really want the photos and the recipes to be the stars here!

For your convenience I have made several quickpages, so all you have to do is drop in your photos, add your stories, memories, little notes, recipe variations etc.

On the other side of the book would be the actual recipe. I have left those pages quite unadorned as some recipes will need more space than others but with the extra elements included in this kit you can add a few embellishments if you like, once you have typed out your recipe!

This is only the first edition of this kit, there will be more installments in different color schemes along the way.

I chose an 8x8 size for these, mainly because some of them will end up in a kitchen for cooking and it seemed a good size for that.

These pages are print ready for you. This means I have already made sure that they are 7.95 x 7.95" and have the required "bleed" areas. I also included an overlay that will serve as a guide for your recipe pages, so you can make sure that your typing is within the required bounds too.

Anyway, enough talk, here is the Family Cookbook Quickpage Album!

We also have more things going on for our birthday party.

2.) Get the latest SBG collab kit free with purchase this weekend!

For more information, please go here: http://www.scrapbookgraphics.com/2010/08/impressions-of-7-playday/
3.) I have turned on the Golden Oldies Bundles for this weekend too, for those who might have missed it!

You can find the Crumpled Borders and Templates Bundles at 56% Off:

the Valentines Bundle at 60% OFF:

and the World Traveler Collection at 40% Off!

And don't forget that you can get the Impressions of 7 Collab Kit for free with a $17 purchase this weekend too!

4.) And then there is the all day chat this weekend:

And here's an exclusive sneak peek and what's coming to the chats!
(we'll be giving away our designers autographs--one about every 45 minutes)

For more information, please check the more detailed forum post here!

Phew! If you have stayed with me this long - thank you!
I hope to see a lot of you at the chat on Saturday! It promises to be a fun time!

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Sunday, August 22, 2010

Something a little different

Hi everyone!
Since I have been rather engrossed in various home improvement projects, construction and what not over the last few months, I thought I'd share a few of my other projects with you, now that it's time to decorate. The fun stuff!
Here's the Apothecary Jar project I did yesterday. Quick and easy!

Behold my latest obsession. Well it isn't so much "latest" ... I've always loved this kind of thing. As well as decorative bottles and decanters etc. However, these are all the rage now, so my obsession is renewed:

Yes, I'm loving the apothecary jars. And dessert tables. And desserts. Especially the combination of gorgeous glass vessels and desserts! If I didn't have two rather rumbuncious 5-year olds around the place, glass vessels would be all over the house. I do however have not quite 5-year olds and well ... no apothecary jars to speak of.

We do have dessert though lol

Max and Anna are turning 5 this October (can you even believe that ??) and we're having a party! With grown-ups and children alike! And I get another chance to do a dessert table, so I do really need some gorgeous vessels.

But alas ...Behold the price tag on these things ...

And I don't even need anything that fancy anyway. I am loving them with and without lids!

So I set out to find something to immitate these things! I have a vague memory of reading on a blog somewhere (forgot where! sorry) about glueing candle sticks to glass vases!

Behold some dollar store finds!

2 different kinds of candle sticks. 2 /$1 on each of those. ====> $1

2 different kinds/sizes of glass vessels. Also $1/each. ====> $6

4 glass finger bowls. 4/$1. I actually bought more of those, as I also want to use them for other things on the dessert table, but more about that some other time! For this purpose however ====> $0.25

Then I remembered these two beauties that I got at Walmart for $3 last year. They are upside down as this gave me the better base to glue :)

Initially I thought I'd employ my hot glue gun, but I I know from experience that it may not hold well enough for any length of time, especially if I need to wash these vessels, so out came fish tank/silicone glue I have for glass projects. Gorilla glue will do too though. Just follow the instructions on the tube.

Turns out that the curve of the small candle stick fit the curve of the finger bowl absolutely perfectly! No gaps! Yay! I love it when things work out!

However, beware that these things are from the dollar store, which can mean that they are a tad warped. So when you pick them out, try and get the straightest ones! Especially for the candle sticks, since they will keep the whole thing up!

So first of all I glued the candle stick to the upside down bowl. I let it sit for just over an hour with a few small books on top of it, to apply pressure.

Then I glued all the "stems" to the glass vessels, and let it all set for about an hour.And voila, I had 6 rather great looking apothecary jars for around $10!

I know, right? !!

And doesn't that tallest one look just like this WS one?

I didn't have a pillar candle at hand, so I filled it with these little balls, but you get the idea!

It was so quick and easy. Honestly, what took the longest was to get the labels off the bottoms of the vases. I will never understand why they use the "impossible to get off" glue on dollar store price tags. What are they afraid of? That somebody will switch a price tag???

And there was the waiting for the glue to set up. But the actual hands-on time was mere minutes!And now if one should fall and break - well not much is lost and I can always make another!And I'm thinking that thrift and dollar store may even carry lidded jars from time to time that could work to make one of the lidded apothecary jars!