Monday, May 28, 2012

Trendy Tuesday #2

It's time for Trendy Tuesday #2!  So happy to have all of you here.

I always look forward to seeing your projects each week.  And for those of you that have been at my turquoise lovin' party for all of this time, just know that I still especially notice those turquoise projects.  {grin}

Anyone else enjoying springtime?  I LOVE spring even though it means a lot of rain {and snow for some people!} and dark days.  I don't like the dark, but I DO sure love the green grass!  Hurray for spring!

I just LOVE these features for this week.  So happy you shared them here.



1.  Gorgeous craft room at Raising up Rubies
2.  Fun Moo Milk Bottles at Giggles Galore
3.  Cute DIY Boy's Room Frames at Kid's Craft
4.  Adorable Girly Bling Themed Party at Vixen Made


GREAT job ladies!  Love your creativity!!


And now its time to party!  I hope you have LOTS of projects to link up!  Please grab a button so you can share the fun!



Sweet Little Gals






Party Rules...
1) Please follow Sweet Little Gals
2) Link up your projects, one and all, big and small
3) Try to comment on at least two other posts.
4) PLEASE grab a Trendy Tuesday button on the sidebar so you can share the turquoise fun with others.
5) No giveaways or shops please.



Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Specially For Kids #3 {Monster Cookies}

If you can believe it, I have NEVER tried making monster cookies before.
Or, let's put it this way, I have never been successful at making them before.

So when I ran into this recipe, I was excited, but kinda skeptical.

But I thought I'd try it anyway.  And seeing that they were called Montana Whoppers, I REALLY thought it might be worth trying.

And I can't lie, I was pretty happy with the results.

Here are the infamous cookies which were eaten within a day.  SO yummy!!






And here's the recipe! {I got the recipe from Taste As You Go}

Montana Whoppers

INGREDIENTS
  • 2/3 cup butter
  • 1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups chunky peanut butter
  • 3 eggs, beaten
  • 5 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
  • 6 ounces M&M Minis

INSTRUCTIONS
  1. Melt the butter in a small pan over low heat. Once the butter has melted, pour it into the largest bowl you can find.
  2. With a large wooden spoon, blend in the brown sugar, sugar, and peanut butter. Allow the mixture to cool slightly and then add the beaten eggs. Stir until the batter is just mixed.
  3. Stir in the baking soda, the white chocolate chips, the milk chocolate chips, and the M&Ms.
  4. Add the oats, one cup at a time, stirring after each addition. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and chill for at least two hours.
  5. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
  6. Drop dough on parchment-lined baking sheets with a large spoon, making sure the dough is fairly well packed. Flatten slightly.
  7. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Watch the cookies carefully, as they have a tendency to burn easily.
I'm SO happy I found this recipe!!
Hope you enjoy!

Thanks for coming back for another...







Monday, May 21, 2012

Trendy Tuesday #1

Here it is, just as I promised!  Trendy Tuesday #1.

I am hoping I didn't lose too many of you in the party changing process.

I really did enjoy the turquoise lovin' party, but I think it was time for a change.  It was way too hard to always explain that my party was called turquoise lovin' but that ALL projects could be linked up.

And I really do want everyone to be able to link up.  It's more fun that way!

So here's the new party, and I'm super excited about it since I am always up for parties!! 

And here is my new nifty little button I made just for today. Yes, friends, I FINALLY kinda figured out how to make a button!!  {Hope it works, cross my fingers}




Sweet Little Gals



And I thought I would feature a few of my favorite projects from the last Turquoise Lovin' party.

 I just ADORE these Mother's Day gift boxes from Brown Girl Decorating.  So much fun and SO gorgeously turquoise!!  I want some pretty please?!!!





And I love this cool dress up play station from Confessions of An ADD Housewife.  
Can you believe what you can do with an old TV stand?  Brilliant!




And now its time to party!  I hope you have LOTS of projects to link up!

Party Rules...
1) Please follow Sweet Little Gals
2) Link up your projects, one and all, big and small
3) Try to comment on at least two other posts.
4) PLEASE grab a Trendy Tuesday button on the sidebar so you can share the turquoise fun with others.
5) No giveaways or shops please.



Sunday, May 20, 2012

A Touch of Vintage #6 {Vintage Printables}

Today I want to share a list of fun vintage printables for you to enjoy that I've found
around blogland.

I have always loved printables because I can do whatever I want with them.  That way I can always make my very own version.

I know this printable was originally intended for Valentine's Day, but for me, it would work for every day of the year!!  Love this one very best.  You can get this vintage printable from Sissy Print



 These round vintage labels from World Label are so much fun.  
Any package would look lovely with them on it.




Here's some more adorable ones from World Label  These ones could have
SO many uses!






I can't get over how darling these vintage camera printables are from The Handmade Home
Just think of all of the fun things you could do with these!




Also from The Handmade Home are these cute vintage alphabet printables





And these have to be one of my very favorite I've found!!
Darling lemonade labels from J Bartyn Design.
{Can you say awesome?}



These are just lovely from World Labels again...
LOVE the colors!





Have you found any cool vintage printables lately?  I would love to hear about them.

Also if you have any vintage fun to link up, you are always welcome to. 

Thanks for joining me for another 



Friday, May 18, 2012

Guest Post {Sommerfugl Design}

{*I am SO excited to introduce Desirae Rasmussen from
Sommerfugl Design and The Not So Ugly Duckling as my guest blogger today! 

This is my very first time having a guest so it's a big leap for my little blog. 
And I am even MORE excited because Desirae is posting about photography, 
 my very favorite subject. Hope you enjoy her tutorial as much as I did.*}


 First of all, I would like to say thanks to Sara for having me! I am excited to be guest posting on her blog today. It is also my very first guest post. Exciting right!

Today I have decided to share a little tutorial for creating your own, more artistic color pallets from one of your own photos.

Monday on my design blog I talked a little bit about color pallets and shared a couple of resources. One of these resources was a Photoshop action to create a color bar for you photo like this:



Pretty right? It is nice and clean. You can get this action here. However, sometimes it is fun to get a bit more creative, and do something more like this:




Since I know for a fact that Sara uses Photoshop Elements, I am going to show you how to do it there. However the idea is the same for Photoshop.

Step 1: Crop Your Photo




The first thing we are going to do is crop your photo. Like in the picture above, you are going to choose an aspect ratio of 5 x 5 in.

Step 2: Adjust Your Canvas Size
Next we are going to make some space for the color bar on the right hand side of the photo. To do this you are going to go up to Image : Resize: Canvas Size as in the photo below.




Next you are going to change the width to 7. Make sure that the dimensions are in inches.




Right underneath is something called the Anchor. This is going to tell the program with way to expand your canvas. To get it to expand to the right, click on the arrow that is pointing to the left to set the anchor for there. Yours should look like mine after you have clicked. 

Click Okay. You should now have some white space to the right of your photo.

Step 3: Make a New Layer


You don't really need to do this step, however every time I do a new thing to my photo I do it on a new layer. That way I can always get rid some what I was doing without actually getting rid of the original image.

Step 4: Choosing You Color
Okay now time for the fun bits. You are now going to use the eye dropper to choose a color from your photo. I like to start with the lighter colors first and work my way darker.




Step 5: Paint It On



Once you have chosen your first color, choose a paintbrush, adjust the size and paint it on in the empty white space. Next repeat step 4 with a new color and paint again. Continue to do so until you have all the colors you want.

Step 6: Save
Flatten your image and Save As. Do not just click save. This will save over the original photo and it will be replaced with your color pallet photo.

And that's it! You now have a fun, creative color pallet photo.

*As a thank-you to Sara for allowing me to guest post here I would like to offer all her readers 50% off any service at Sommerfugl Design. Just make sure to put 'I found you through Sara' in your service request form.

{*Thank YOU Desirae for sharing your talents here on Sweet Little Gals!!  It was SO nice to have you here.*}

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

A Touch of Vintage #5 {Camera Signs}

 {I'm taking a couple of weeks break from my Turquoise Lovin' party as I am not sure what I'm doing with it in the future.  I think I will be coming back with a Tuesday party for all projects, but I want to change the name and get a button and all of that before I do it again.  Hope you all won't forget about it in the process!}

Welcome back to A Touch of Vintage #5!!  I have a REALLY fun project to share with you today.

It combines my love of photography with my crafting love and it can't get much better than that, can it?

For Christmas this year I was lucky enough to get a Silhouette Cameo.  I've just started to discover what I REALLY am able to do with it.  And now that I have done stencils, the silhouette world is mine!  ha!

I made these signs with simple wooden boards from Wal-Mart, cheap as can be!

Then I painted the boards with two coats of the first color.  {I am HORRIBLE at taking pictures along the way...I like to just get the project done!!  Sorry...}

I let the first color dry completely.  Then I cut out the camera stencils on my silhouette on adhesive cardstock.  You can find these particular patterns if you look under cameras on the silhouette site.

I stuck the stencil onto the board and made sure it was stuck very well.
Be careful to center it right the first time since
it can be hard to get off without tearing.

Then I painted the second color on very carefully!  The second and third times, I used my round sponge painter...and just painted everywhere over the stencil.  {Kind of like stamping!}
I waited about two or three minutes and took the stencil off.  You may be able to take it off after the paint dries, but I was scared that it would stick too much so I didn't.

After I let the second coat dry for a few hours, I took some sandpaper and distressed the edges and sanded around the whole sign just to give it a vintage look.

I fastened them to the wall with my very first command strips which I am now IN LOVE with!!

In some of the last pictures you will also see my fun chevron sign I made that I hung up to go with my camera signs.  It kind of adds a bit of interest to the mix.

I just LOVE how everything turned out!!  Hope you enjoy looking at pictures as I ALWAYS overdo it.   {grin}






















Remember, you are more than welcome to 
link up YOUR projects here too, just to share them.


Thanks for joining me for another




Sunday, May 13, 2012

Photography Club?

I've been wanting to do something like this for awhile and am hoping to find some other people who would like to do the same.

I am just wondering if any of you would be interested in joining a photography club where we would post pictures, tips, photography challenges, everything photography to help us grow as photographers?

I really am hoping to find some people who are wanting to be actively involved in the group, so that it is not just me posting if you know what I mean. 

I am thinking we would start with a FB page or group and just make it so everyone could share their thoughts and pictures.  And definitely LOTS of tips and editing info. 

I want to make it so that people from my own area join and are able to meet together once every few months, but if you are not in the area, you could still get in on the fun. 

What do you think?  Are any of you interested?

Anyone else out there have a photography club that YOU belong to?  I would LOVE any ideas from you on how you organize it and what fun stuff you do together.

Anyone interested AT ALL?


Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Turquoise Lovin' #37

I'm sorry this is SO late getting up...it's been crazy here. 

I'm just going put the party up without features or it won't end up getting up at all!!! 

Ok, it's time to party!!  Time to link up YOUR projects from the week!!

Party Rules...
1) Please follow Sweet Little Gals
2) Link up your turquoise/red projects at the top linky...anything else in the bottom linky. Excited to have EVERYONE join from now on! We'll still feature a couple of your turquoise projects every week...
3) Try to comment on at least two other posts.
4) PLEASE grab a turquoise lovin' button on the sidebar so you can share the turquoise fun with others.
5) No giveaways or shops please.


Enter all of your TURQUOISE  projects here...



Enter all OTHER PROJECTS here... 

 

Monday, May 7, 2012

A Touch of Vintage #4 {Mother's Day}

Today I thought I would share some fun Mother's Day ideas I ran into.

If this is your first time here you probably missed my first three posts, A Touch of Vintage {First Edition}, A Touch of Vintage #2 {Retro Tray Redo}, and A Touch of Vintage #3 {Vintage Book Flowers}. 

I've been having a ton of fun thinking of vintage projects to do!!  And thank you to those of you who have been sharing your projects as well.

One thing I thought I should note is that the linky I do here on A Touch of Vintage is kind of an easy going linky party...mostly just for sharing between all of us vintage lovers.

So I don't have a button with a code or anything fancy like that...just enjoy and don't worry about the technicalities.  Maybe I will eventually make it into a large party, but for now, I just think I'll keep it easy.  One big party is enough for my week!!  ha!

Here are some fun Mother's Day gift ideas I found that I thought were awesome.


I love this rustic wood cutting board I found on Etsy So stinkin' cute!



This Vintage Styled Bag is so lovely!!  I can't think of any mom that wouldn't like this!
 



I would LOVE to have this vintage photo frame in my own house...SO cute!




And look at this gorgeous Vintage French Photo Album!  Love all of the details.




Here's one for the modern moms out there...a Pink Roses i-phone case...how darling!





And last but not least, what mom wouldn't LOVE to have a vintage tea party? 
I love the clock idea!



Hope you all have a lovely day!! 

Thanks for joining me for another




Link Within

http://www.mysweetlittlegals.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss