Boosting Business: Referral and Following Program

2014 is the year to try to boost my Etsy shop and product.  I love that people who read my blog are also some of my clients.  I have decided to create a referral and following program to try to get more readers.  If you do any of the below, you can get some major discounts on Personalized Stationery or cups from my Etsy shop.

1.  Follow WantToGetCrafty on 2 of the 3 below and receive a 10% discount on an item.  Follow me on all 4 and get a 15% discount.

o   Facebook 
o   Pinterest 
o   Bloglovin 
o   EtsyFavorite shop

2.  Refer a friend to my Etsy site and have them place an order and receive a 20% discount on an item.
3.  Place a second order from me and receive a 15% discount.

All you have to do is either respond to this email, message me on facebook or send me a note through etsy telling me what you did and I will send you a coupon code for the discount.  Do more than 1 of the above to get a combined discount (max discount of 35%)

Crafty Love: TuTu Bags

This last summer we went to Grapefest in Grapevine, TX.  We take the girls and they go on rides, we drink some wine and everyone has fun.  We met our neighbors out there and had fun looking at all the crafts for sale.  We came across some cute bags and both thought “we can do that”.  Hence our TuTu Bags.

 

TuTu Bag

 

These were so easy, even for someone with minimal sewing experience.

Supplies:

-        Canvas Bag

-        Tulle (2-3 different colors)

-        Ribbon

-        Sewing Machine & Thread

-        Straight Pins

-        Embroidery or Heat Transfer for Monogram

Steps (we were drinking wine while we did this so didn’t think to take pictures of all steps):

•  Pin the tulle to the front of the bag in a straight line.  We took the first color and looped leaving spaces between then and then filled the other colors in.  So really only cut the beginning and end of the tulle
•   Make sure you don’t pin to the other side of the bag
• Sew the tulle on the bag (again making sure you are only sewing on the front of the bag).  Trim were needed
• Pin the ribbon to the bag on top of the tulle – we put the ribbon all away around the bag and it looked really good.  Make this as straight as possible and it can correct any crookedness of the tulle
•   Sew the top and bottom of the ribbon to the bag – the bottom seam has to be on the tulle, the top one does not matter
• Monogram – my girlfriend had hers embroidered, I used my awesome Silhouette and heat transferred it.

So cute!!!!

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Tried It…Ate It…Loved It: Terribly Terrific Toffee

A.K.K Christmas Crack.  I have no idea where my original recipe came from but here is mine with a few notes.

Terribly Terrific Toffee (Christmas Crack)
1 cup unsalted butter (no margarine allowed)
1 cup brown sugar, packed tightly (ok to mound)
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
40 saltine crackers (or enough to fit the whole cookie sheet)

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a 15x10-inch jelly roll pan or a 12x17-inch cookie sheet with foil and spray with non-stick spray. Lay a flat layer of crackers out on the foil. Melt the sugar and butter until a boil is reached. Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 5-6 minutes or until mixture is thickened and sugar is completely dissolved. Pour this mixture over the crackers and spread to coat evenly. Bake for 8-10 minutes (mine only takes about 4-5 minutes), or until the toffee becomes bubbly. After removing the pan from the oven, let it sit for 3-5 minutes (I sprinkle the choc chips right away). Sprinkle on the chocolate chips, let them soften and melt (I pop mine back in the oven for about 45 sec-1 min), and then spread them into an even layer.  You can add nuts, cracker crumbs, or whatever else floats your boat at this point) Let cool or refrigerate until hardened. Break into pieces the size of your choice.

This is a recipe that I used to only make at Christmas but it is so easy and so well loved that I have been making it all the time.  I had a party to go to and knew that the hostess loved it.  I made a double batch and dropped it off at a girlfriend last weekend who loves Valentine’s Day.  We have new neighbors and I brought some over to greet them.  It is simple, yummy, and a great size that it fits nicely in a little bag or take out box.

Come see me at these fun link parties
 

Crafty Love: Valentine's Handprint

I love creating keepsakes of my girls.  They will only be small once and they are already growing up so fast.  We did this fun craft the other day after school.

Supplies:
 - Canvas (any size)
 - acrylic or tempera paint - 2 colors
 - paper cut in a heart
  - paint brush - I used the Styrofoam type

I cut a paper to a heart and taped it on the canvas.  My kids are old enough that they knew to just press down and up.  If you have younger kids, you may want to make a heart out of sticky paper or use spray glue to temporarily glue the paper to the canvas.  I poured some paint onto paper plates and then painted their hands with a paint brush.  Each girl had a color and I wrote their names at the bottom in the color they used.  I removed the heart paper when the paint was still wet as I didn't want anything to bleed or stick.  I wrote the year on the back so I could remember.

Love how it turned out.

Favorite Things: Nora Fleming

I love my Nora Fleming napkin holder. I think it is so cute to be able to make one platter be for each different holiday.  I have a local store that sells the minis and I try really hard not to get too many of them.  I am really eyeing the garnish dish which I think would be fun to have out for parties.

Nora Fleming Valentine's Heart

Don't you love the cute napkins my girlfriend gave me.  I do try to live by it.  Now if only there was a wine glass mini...

Loved the Pages: Books becoming Movies

I love to read and I love movies.  Two things my husband could do without.  I read all type of books - mystery, romance, young adult, chick lit, historical... you name it.  To me a good book is a good book no matter what it is about.  Recently most of the books I have been reading have become movies (or are becoming movies).  I personally prefer to read a book before I see the movie unless it is about something that I know I will never read.  What about you?

Good book series and Good movie (my husband liked the movie even without reading the book)

I thought the first 2 out of 3 books were good in this series.  I think the movie was good but only if you had read all the books as there were parts in it that seemed unnecessary if you didn't know what was coming.

I liked the books better than the movies because I could picture the characters differently.  As a vampire girl (going back to Anne Rice books in junior high), I thought the whole series was entertaining.

I have read almost all of these.  I think Janet Evonovich writes very entertaining books that are great Saturday afternoon reads.

I fell asleep during this movie but my husband liked it.  I really liked the book.  If all history books were written this way I think I would have enjoyed that subject more.  Killing Kennedy is also good and I am halfway through Killing Jesus.

Had to include this since I read the books way before the movies were out. I love that there are kids in elementary school who are now reading them (or parents reading to them)

This is a book I read and did not love as much as everyone.  I have skipped the movie completely but heard good things about it.

All I can say is "tears and more tears"

 This was a book that I made myself read before I saw the movie.  I liked the movie way better than the book but I have talked to many where the reverse was true

  The book was great.  The movie had Matthew McConaughey - need I say more.  Rumor has that there may be a sequel

This was a movie that I couldn't believe was made.  I couldn't even finish the book, but obviously others disagreed.

Book was excellent - haven't seen the movie yet

Here are a few books I have read and heard they were coming to movie which I am so excited about:
   

These are books that haven't made it to movies but think they would be great:

• Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff
• 11/22/63 by Stephen King
• Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
• Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Crafty Love: Valentines Wreath

Last year I got a little carried away with making wreaths for every holiday.  If you haven't used Deco Mesh yet, you have to try it.  They now sell it in every craft store when before I could only get it in Canton {{BTW - love First Monday (which isn't on Monday)}} The wreaths are so easy to do and I think they look good no matter how you do them.

Here is the one I made for Valentine's Day.  I just picked up a little plaque to go in the middle from Hobby Lobby when it was 60% off.

Deco Mesh Valentines Wreath

Here are some good tutorials on how to make the wreaths if you are interested:

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/53409945554319641/

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