50 Free Holiday Cards

It is that time of year to start thinking about your holiday cards.  Can you believe Christmas is only 4 weeks away??  I heard of a fabulous deal today and just had to share it with all of you.  Shutterfly has a lot of fun products and now they are even giving away free holiday cards!  I love sending and receiving Christmas cards each holiday season, so when I heard about this promotion I was really excited.  They have so many cute designs to choose from that I am having a hard time picking just one.    Here are a couple of my favorites.

 
It is such a hard choice! Maybe I will just have to have more than one design for my cards this year. If you would like to get your 50 free holiday cards head on over to Shutterfly.

Hot Buys of the Week

Happy Fall everyone! Starting today, The Crafting Corner has a new exciting on-going event.  We will now be having HOT BUYS OF THE WEEK!  Every so often, we will have a Hot Buy of the week, which is a certain item in our store that will be drastically reduced in price for the entire week, or until it sells out!  It is the perfect opportunity to stock up on gifts for the upcoming holidays.  We will notify our customers of the Hot Buy through Facebook, Twitter and our blog so make sure you keep in touch with us online.  Our first Hot Buy is already listed in our store, so check it out before it sells out!

Homemade Playdough

It is definitely summertime and that means trying to find fun things for the kids to do.  It has been so hot here lately that indoor activities are a must.  I found a recipe for HOMEMADE PLAYDOUGH at Skip to My Lou and thought it would be such a fun indoor activity to try.  I also love that the ingredients are things that most people already have in their pantry! 

Ingredients needed:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup warm water
• 2 teaspoons cream of tarter
• 1 teaspoon oil
• 1/4 cup salt
• food coloring

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients (except food coloring) in a medium-sized saucepan.
2. Stir over medium heat until smooth.
3. Stir continuously until the dough balls (about 1-2 minutes).  Remove from heat.
4. When dough is cool enough to handle, knead until smooth.
5. Form into a ball.
6. Divide into as many colors as you'd like to make.  A single batch makes a good amount for four colors.
7. Add food coloring to the divided dough.  Gel food coloring works quite well.  I have not tried liquid food coloring.
8. Knead the food coloring into the dough. To protect your counter top, knead over wax paper.  To protect your hands, wear plastic or rubber gloves, if you have them (you could also put the dough and food coloring inside a ziplock bag and have the kids squish it around inside).
9. When the dough is a consistent color, ball and set aside.
10. Repeat with the rest of your colors.
11. Put the dough in separate containers.  Toddler-sized snack containers are a good size, and I have also wrapped the colors individually in wax paper and stored in zip-lock baggies.
12. Store in an airtight container until ready to use. 

Lemon Ice

How good does this look on a HOT summer day like today?? 

You should definitely try out this Lemon Ice recipe from THE IDEA ROOM.

3 cups water
1 cup sugar
1 cup lemon juice (we used 3/4 cup lemon juice)
1 Tbsp grated lemon zest

1. Mix water and sugar in a 2-qt saucepan; bring to boil over high heat. Boil uncovered, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes or until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat; stir in lemon juice and lemon zest.

2. Pour into a 13 x 9-in. baking pan. Freeze 1 hour; stir. Cover; freeze 2 hours or overnight until firm.

Picture List Mini I Spy Bags

We have had a lot of people ask for this and we are so happy to finally make it available to our customers.

PICTURE LIST MINI I SPY BAGS 

These Mini I Spy Bags still have the fabric printed list sewn on the back of the bag to prevent losing the list, but now you have an additional detachable picture/word list as well.  The detachable list has pictures of each item hidden in the bag on one side as well as an additional word list on the other side.  The extra picture/word list helps those that are not able to read yet to locate the items in the bag as well as allowing parents to detach the list and call out the names of the items in the bag for the child to find while in the car.  We are really excited for this fun new additional feature and hope you all like it too.  We will be adding more patterns to our shop throughout the week that have the detachable list.  Be sure to check them out!

Giveaway Winner

And the winner is......

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:

12

Timestamp: 2010-06-30 01:29:38 UTC

Congratulations Who's Sew Cute Designs!!

Mini I Spy Bag Giveaway

We are having another GIVEAWAY!!  We are feeling the excitement of the 4th of July, so we are giving away one of our Stars and Stripes Mini I Spy Bags.  You can see a picture of the bag below or check it out in our store. Since the 4th of July isn't too far away and we want the winner to have the bag in time for their 4th of July activities, this giveaway is not going to be open as long as usual.  Here is how to enter:

First, leave a comment telling us what you are doing for the 4th of July and be sure to include your email address so we can contact you if you win. 
 

Want to double your chances? Post about the giveaway on your blog, linking back in a comment, of course.

A third, fourth and fifth entry? Do one of the following (or all three)
a) become a follower of our blog
b) post about The Crafting Corner giveaway on your Facebook page
c) become our fan on Facebook or Twitter

Just be sure to leave a separate comment for each thing you do. The giveaway will close next Tuesday morning (June 29th), at 5 PM.   We will let you know who the winner is that day!

*Open to U.S residents only

4th of July

I looked at the calendar today and realized that the 4th of July is a week and a half away! How did that happen?? Time is going so fast these days!  Are you ready for the 4th of July? I know I'm not.  So in an effort to feel a little more prepared I started thinking red, white and blue today.  I loaded our Stars and Stripes I Spy Bags into our store-

I also started searching for some fun 4th of July things to make and  found this really easy, but really cute idea from Baking Bites.

Red, White and Blue Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

1 pint fresh strawberries (approx 12 oz)
4-oz white chocolate
Blue sanding sugar or sprinkles

Line a baking sheet or cutting board with wax paper or parchment paper.
Chop up the chocolate roughly with a knife if it is in block form. In a medium-sized, microwave safe bowl, melt the chocolate in the microwave. Heat it in 45 or 60-second intervals, stirring between each time to ensure that the chocolate is melting evenly and not burning. Meanwhile, place blue sanding sugar into a small bowl and set it aside.
When chocolate is smooth, dip the berries 3/4 of the way into the chocolate, dip the tips into the blue sprinkles, and place on wax paper.
Berries can set at room temperature if you live somewhere cool, otherwise refrigerate them until ready to serve to allow the chocolate to set up.

I think this is such a fun new idea to take to all of those 4th of July celebrations this year!

State Prints

I came across a really fun Etsy shop today and just had to share it with you! {q.a.}design makes these fantastic state prints that would definitely brighten any room.  I of course LOVE the Texas one, but think all of the state prints are so fun.  She will even place the heart over whatever city you want for free!  She is currently having a giveaway here that goes through Saturday if you are interested in winning one!

Summer Time

Happy summer!!  We hope you are all enjoying your summer so far.  We are definitely feeling the summer heat here in Texas!  We have already hit our first 100 degree day and it is only June. Although it is crazy hot, the summer heat brings a lot of fun summer activities as well and we are always excited for those.  To celebrate the beginning of fun summer days, we have a new summer print for our Mini I Spy Bags. Popsicles!! I don't know about you, but I know my family will definitely be eating a lot of popsicles this summer.  We thought this was such a fun new print and we hope you all like it too!

Speaking of popsicles, we thought this Fresh Fruit Popsicle recipe from The Idea Room

 sounded like the perfect tasty summer treat solution. 

Fresh Fruit Popsicles  

 Slice up some fresh fruit-strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, marion berries and black berries. You could even use frozen fresh fruit. COSTCO has a great bag of frozen berries 

 Place the fruit into a popsicle mold (about 1/3 full with fruit). More or less depending on your preference.

 Then fill the rest of the popsicle mold with White Grape Juice. It has a mild, sweet taste and is clear so you can see the fruit inside the popsicle.

Freeze and ENJOY!

 

Crayon Wallets

I can't believe it has been so long since we updated our blog.  We now have a new super fun item in our store-CRAYON WALLETS!  

Durable and perfect for on the go entertainment, our Crayon Wallets are great for your child who loves to color or draw. They are also perfect entertainment for waiting in restaurants, doctor offices or traveling by keeping your kids happily occupied in their creativity.

They are designed to slip easily into a purse, diaper bag or backpack, so you don't have to worry about extra things to carry.

Each wallet contains 8 assorted colorful crayons and a blank 3x5 scribble pad. Be sure to check them out in our store and pick one up for your upcoming Summer vacation road trip!

New Burp Cloths

We are so excited to introduce our newest item to our shop, BURP CLOTHS!!  These are the best burp cloths ever.  If your baby spits up as much as mine did, then you know how important it is to have good quality, high absorbent burp cloths around.   We promise you will love these so much that you will want to throw all your others away! We will be adding more fabric designs throughout the week, but be sure to check them out in our store!

Giveaway Winner

Random.org chose comment #5 as the winner! Congratulations Amber!  

We will have more giveaways soon, so if you didn't win this time be sure to check back soon for another opportunity!!

Giveaway

It’s a new year, and we are excited to start it off with a Giveaway!!

We are giving away a Mini I Spy Bag of your choice. Browse through the Mini I Spy Bags in our store  as well as our sold section to see the full selection of your fabric choices.

Now, how to enter?

First, leave a comment that includes your email address as well as the name of your favorite Mini I Spy Bag. Simple and easy.

Want to double your chances? Post about the giveaway on your blog, linking back in a comment, of course.

A third, fourth and fifth entry? Do one of the following (or all three)
a) become a follower of our blog or add us to your blog reader
b) post about The Crafting Corner giveaway on your Facebook page
c) become our fan on Facebook (if you are already our fan, let us know and we will count that this time too!)

Just be sure to leave a separate comment for each thing you do. The giveaway will close next Saturday morning (Jan. 30th), at 9 AM.   We will let you know who the winner is that day!

*Open to U.S residents only