Maries Info Source

2006-12-27T19:24:00.000-08:00

Ok now that the Holidays are over and you have all of those precious pictures that you have taken, how do you keep them so that you will have those memories forever. Have you ever tried scrapbooking. That would be a wonderful way to save them forever. Here is an article about saving those favorite Holiday Memories.

Holiday Scrapbooking Ideas – Making Memories for Years to Come

There are many important characteristics of a good holiday scrapbook, and it is all a matter of personal preference. Since the idea is to compile your own memories into your own personal album, it is important that you choose them carefully.
Photos One of the key ingredients of a holiday scrapbook is your photos. The images you portray are much of what actually make up a good part of your holiday memories, and often depict a true representation of your family and friendships. Since there are probably several from which to choose, you might consider coming up with a central theme for your holiday scrapbook and base everything you decide to include on that idea. For example, if your scrapbook is a Christmas album, you would want to use pictures that are representative of that holiday.
Use a wide variety of photos within your central theme. If you have children, include pictures of them taking part in various holiday activities. Also include photos of other friends and family members, and then tie it all together by using group photos that show the involvement of your entire clan. You can use pictures of your child sitting on Santa’s lap, photos of people opening presents, and images of everyone around the Christmas tree.
Use images that are unique and will easily show others your dynamic personality. Decide on striking images in attractive settings that will make the viewer stop to look at and admire them. Choose carefully, and have fun creating your holiday scrapbook.
Sliding Cards Microcut sliding cards can help take your holiday scrapbook to another level. They make it easy for you to include the photos you want on an attractive card that you can embellish as desired. Simply scan your photos into your computer, then use the included software to put two separate images together for one card. Then, print and assemble the cards to create a page that viewers won’t miss. You can get more information about sliding cards from the Internet, where you can also purchase the software and necessary supplies. Also check your local scrapbooking supply stores for this product. Sliding cards are fun and easy to assemble, are very unique, and add fun and originality to your holiday scrapbooking project.
Paper Patterns The type of scrapbooking paper and particular paper pattern you use are also very important elements when personalizing your holiday scrapbook. Because this project is all about you, your family, and those around you who help make your life special, it is a good idea to choose patterns that depict just that. For example, if you are putting together that Christmas scrapbook, you will easily be able to find patterns of Christmas scenes, Christmas trees, snowmen, and so on. If these are patterns that will give others an idea of your holiday memories, then they are the ones you should choose. You can, however, go for something a little more personal by piecing together paper patterns that will reflect an array of events and activities. If you have a large family, you will want to show that, so choosing patterns that include Santa or ginger bread houses, along with the others mentioned above, can add personality to your pages.
Paper patterns can also be an effective way to add subtle beauty to your pages by serving as a backdrop to your photos. Since the photos are often what you want to stand out, choose something that compliments them. You can also choose different patterns for different types of images, and mix and match as you desire.
You can find various patterns in your local supply stores, or shop on the Internet to find, view, and purchase paper patterns. There are also numerous web sites with pictures of holiday scrapbook pages that others have used, along with other paper pattern tips and ideas. The key is to simply make it your own.
Journaling Journaling is another important part of your holiday scrapbook. While not everyone chooses to do this, it is a good way to keep track of the memories that go along with the photos. By writing down the date and time the photo was taken, the names of everyone in it, and other information such as the location, event, and various activities that took place at that particular time, you will be able to easily recall the day as if it had just occurred. This is especially important if the holiday scrapbook is passed down from one generation to another, because often times later generations either weren’t old enough to remember the actual event as it took place, or weren’t even present at that time. Journaling is also a good way to add character and personality to the images, and helps them tell a story.
Urge others whose images are included in the holiday scrapbook to write down their memories and ideas. What better way to add variety to your memory book than to include special memories and sayings from those you love. Not only will you have their pictures to remind you how wonderful the holidays were, but you’ll also have their words. This will definitely help make your holiday scrapbook unique and eye-catching.
Mementos Add mementos to your holiday scrapbook. If you have received greeting cards that hold special meaning for you, paste them on pages designated just for this purpose. If there is a specific Christmas or holiday poem that you find poignant, include it as well. You can also add other mementos such as holiday pictures your child has drawn or colored, special holiday stickers, or cards with holiday sayings that go along with your images and theme.
Family Project Make your holiday scrapbook a family project. Encourage everyone in your family to gather items and photos that are of special importance to each person, then designate pages for those items. Give each family member a page if possible, and if your family is too big for one book, consider putting together a second. Combine items where there aren’t enough to fill up one whole page, but be sure to keep it all in order. Holiday scrapbooking can then be enjoyed by the entire family from beginning to end, and each member will have played a special role in putting it together.
Though holiday scrapbooking can become a big project, it can be a fun one as well. Encourage those around you to take part, and to continue the tradition. If your children help you put it together, they are more likely to teach their children, and your family scrapbooks can then be enjoyed from one generation to the next. A holiday scrapbook should tell a story, after all, the holidays are about family, togetherness, and the memories gained through these special times and experiences.
Michele Cardello, director of marketing and creative for Life Imprints, has been making lasting holiday scrapbooks and other scrapbooking supplies a part of special memories. Cardello has worked in the photo packaging industry for 10 years and helps customers find creative ways to preserve and appreciate a lifetime of memories.

Also check out this article to help you get started with Scrapbooking

Beginner Scrapbooking - Your Basic Supply List

A supply list for beginner scrapbooking is essential for anyone starting this consuming hobby. Without a list to guide you, you will jump from shop to shop, website to website and buy anything that takes your fancy. Before you know it, you'll have spent more than you intended, and purchased items you don't know what to do with. So, let's start off with our list and add just a small amount of detail to ensure you understand what you're intending to purchase.
Basic Scrapbook Supplies List for Beginners
Scrapbook Album
Adhesives
Scissors
Photo / newspaper clipping
Pen
The Scrapbook Album
The scrapbooking album is used to present in a special way all those things that are meaningful to you. There are many different colors, sizes and designs of albums. The most important thing you need to know about an album is whether it is acid and lignin free. It must be both of these to be suitable for scrapbooking.
Cost is another aspect of the album and it can vary widely. Pick an album that you feel will suit your needs. To start off your hobby choose a smaller size album that is easier to fill. A popular size is 8 1/2x11. Move onto a larger size when you gain more confidence.
Adhesives
Be very careful when choosing adhesives as the wrong type will ruin a photo and possibly other sensitive items you have on your page. Always choose a photo-safe adhesive. Having said that you can buy this type of adhesive in the form of glue sticks, glue dots and double sided tape to name a few.
Scissors
The truly experienced scrapper, tends to have some pretty fancy gear including scissors with a patterned cutting edge. You don't need these to start off with (except if you really want them of course). A nice sharp quality pair of plain scissors will suffice.
Most scrappers also have a cutter enabling you to slice off paper etc. with a straight edge. This is not essential when you are learning as it is an additional cost, but if you have difficulty maintaining straight lines this item will solve your problem
Photos and Clippings
These are the central items that you will put into your scrap book. These provide the subject and hence the theme for your page, and their selection will determine what your scrapbook is all about.
Choose the best quality photos or clippings, with good color that are sharply focused. If you use poor quality or out of focus photos or clippings, it will downgrade the quality of your work.
Pen
This is something that is easy to overlook. Beginner scrapbookers tend to focus so much on what they need to put into their album that they tend to forget that the album is incomplete without some sort of detail describing what the page is all about.
This is called journaling and you can not use any old pen, it has to be one that does not bleed (leak out into the paper away from your writing). A good first choice is a pigma pen, and the best color is black.
In Closing
I hope this list has provided you with the guidance you need to make informed decisions about what you will purchase when you do select your first scrapbooking supplies.

2006-12-01T05:48:00.000-08:00

Here it closer and closer to Christmas. Everyone is getting excited about what Santa is going to bring them. This is the favorite time of the year. All of the children are making out their list to Santa. It is such a magical time of the year.

Here is a wonderful Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe to help warm you up on a cold Winter Day. It has been snowing and icing here for the last day and a half so this will help warm up the young ones. Hope you enjoy.

HOMEMADE CHICKEN AND NOODLES

1 chicken, about 3 lbs.
1 onion, chopped
1 tbsp. dried parsley
2 qts. water
1 recipe homemade noodles or 1 pkg. egg noodles may be used
1 stalk celery (opt.)
1 carrot, grated (opt.)
1 tbsp. salt
2 chicken bouillon cubes

Wash thoroughly and cut up chicken. Put in stock pot and ad all above ingredients except noodles. Cook until chicken is tender. Remove chicken. Let cool and remove from bones. Cut in bite size pieces. Return prepared chicken to broth and add noodles and cook about 20 minutes or until noodles are tender. NOTE: 1 (8 oz.) package egg noodles can be used. Homemade noodle recipe below.

Homemade Noodles

40 min prep

3 egg yolks
1 whole egg
3 tablespoons cold water
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour

Beat the egg yolks with the whole egg until very light.
Beat in the salt and water.
Stir in the flour and work with hands until blended.
Divide dough into 2 parts.
Roll out each part as thin as possible on a lightly floured board.
Let stand until partially dry (like chamois skin), at least 1 hour, then roll up like a jelly roll and cut into strips of any desired width.
Shake out strips and allow them to finish drying before using or storing them

Homemade Apple Pie

HOMEMADE APPLE PIE

6-8 apples,
6 c. pared (thinly sliced)
1 c. sugar
2 tbsp. flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
Dash of nutmegDash of salt

Combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Mix with apples. Line pie plate with crust and fill with apple mixture. Bake at 400 degrees for 50 minutes or until done.

TOPPING FOR PIE:

1/3 c. sugar
3/4 c. all-purpose flour
6 tbsp. butter
Mix 1/3 cup sugar with the flour; cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over apple mixture.

CRANBERRY - ORANGE NUT BREAD

The early settlers learned to cook with cranberries from the Indians of the Cape Cod area, who added cranberries and nuts to their corn breads. Cakes of dried venison and cranberries, called pemmican, were a mainstay of the Indian diet.
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 c. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 c. butter, softened
1 tbsp. grated orange peel
1 egg
1 c. cranberries, chopped
1/2 c. chopped nuts

Heat oven to 350°F.

Grease bottom of loaf pan, 9 x 5 x 3 inches. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Stir in butter until mixture is crumbly. Stir in orange peel, juice and egg just until all flour is moistened. Stir in cranberries and nuts. Spread in pan.
Bake until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 55 to 65 minutes. Loosen edges of loaf with spatula; remove from pan. Let stand at least 8 hours before slicing.
If using self-rising flour, omit baking powder and salt. Reduce baking soda to 1/4 teaspoon.

PEANUT BUTTER KISSES

1 1/4 cup peanut butter (creamy or chunky)
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Hershey Kisses

Preheat oven to 335°F degrees and grease baking sheets. In a bowl with an electric mixer, beat together peanut butter and sugar until combined well.
In a small bowl lightly beat egg, milk, baking soda and vanilla, then beat in melted butter. Beat egg mixture into the peanut butter mixture until combined well. Chill dough for 30 minutes in freezer or 1 hour in the fridge. Roll level teaspoons of dough into balls and arrange about 1-inch apart on baking sheets. Bake cookies in batches in middle of oven until puffed and pale golden, about 8 minutes.
Immediately place Kisses in the center of the cookie. Cool cookies on baking sheets for 2 minutes before transferring. Cookies may be kept in an airtight container at room temperature up to 5 days.

PUMPKIN PIE

3/4 cup pumpkin
2 tablespoons molasses
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons flour
2 eggs, separated
milk combined with 1 can of evaporated milk
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
2 tablespoons Myers rumPie shell

Separate eggs. In a clean bowl beat egg whites only until slightly foamy.
In a measuring cup, add 1 can of evaporated milk. Add regular milk until level in measuring cup reaches 1 1/2 cups total.
In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients except egg whites. Beat one minute. Gently fold in egg whites.
Pour into pie shell.
Bake at 425°F for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°F and continue baking for 30 more minutes.

THE EASIEST PEANUT BUTTER FUDGE

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup peanut butter

Put sugar and milk in pan and bring to a boil. Boil two and a half minutes. Remove from heat and add peanut butter and vanilla. Stir just until mixed well.
Pour into greased pan (the smaller the pan, the thicker the fudge will be). Cool and cut.

QUICK 'N' EASY ROCKY ROAD

750g cooking chocolate
200g mini marshmallow
1 cup of crushed nuts1 cup of coconut

1. Fill a saucepan with water, then put a bowl over the top. 2. Melt the chocolate in the bowl over the heat 3. Mix in cocnut and nuts 4. Add in marshmellows(be quick as the marshmallows might melt!) 5. Put foil in a tray 6. Put in the fridge 7. slice up into squares or whatever shape you prefer 8. EAT AND ENJOY!

WHITE-CHOCOLATE ROCKY ROAD

2 lb white chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 cup macadamia nuts, halved
9 oz white marshmallows, halved

Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over simmering water and stir until melted and smooth.
Removed from heat, then add the coconut, macadamias and marshmallows; mix to combine.
Pour the mixture into an 11 x 7 tin lined with baking paper. Refrigerate for 2 hours or until set.
Remove from tin and cut into squares.

2006-11-19T17:18:00.000-08:00

Christmas is closer then ever now. Here are some great Recipes that I have found.

One Bowl Chocolate Fudge

Prep: 10 minutes Total: 2 hours 10 minutes ( includes refrigerating)

2 pkg. ( 8 squares each) Baker's Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate

1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup chopped Planters Walnuts

Line 8-inch pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides of pan. Set aside. Microwave chocolate and milk in large microwavable bowl on High 2 to 3 minutes or until chocolate is almost , stirring after 2 minutes. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Blend vanilla. Stir in walnuts.

Spread into prepared pan

Refrigerate 2 hours or until firm. Lift fudge from pan, using foil handles. Cut into 48 pieces

Makes 4 dozen pieces or 24 servings, 2 pieces each.

Kraft Kitchen Tip:

Rocky Road Fudge: Prepare as directed, adding 2 cups Jet-Puffed Miniature Marshmallows with the vanilla and walnuts.

2006-11-11T10:21:00.000-08:00

Do you know that there are only 7 Saturdays left until Christmas. This is the time of the year that people are more giving, caring and alot friendlier to people.

It is the time of the year that people start cooking their favorite foods, making special crafts, and decorating for the Holidays. There are so many beautiful lights to see all of the wonderful displays to see. Moving Santa's , the snowmen , the elves. Oh I just love Christmas.

If you are one that loves to make decorations there are many places on the Internet that show you how to make beautiful decorations.

The best ones that I have found to let children in on the fun and make their own crafts is....

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/christmas/

http://familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts/season/specialfeature/christmas-ornaments-ms/

http://www.allfreecrafts.com/christmas/index.shtml

http://www.rats2u.com/christmas/christmas_crafts.htm

http://www.makingfriends.com/xmas_decorations.htm

There are so many projects that the children can make. Christmas trees, stocking, candy train, snowmen and so many others. Plus you get to spend quality time time together.

If you are looking for some great Christmas recipes that the whole family will love there are many recipes the will bring a smile to their face.

http://www.santas.net/recipes.htm

http://allrecipes.com/recipes/holiday-cooking/christmas/main.aspx

http://www.razzledazzlerecipes.com/christmas/

There are many other sites with recipes that you may enjoy. Just look on google and find the ones that interest you.

Here are a few recipes that I found that you may like;

Santa cupcakes

RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
Cupcake
White and red icing
Mini marshmallow
Shredded coconut
Blue and pink gel icing
Red candy
1. Frost the cupcake with a layer of white icing. Add the red frosting hat, curving it around the side of Santa's face, and a marshmallow pom-pom. 2. Sprinkle on a ring of coconut to make Santa's beard and hair. Draw on his eyes and cheeks with gel icing, then top it all off with a red candy nose.

Fool Proof Fudge

(12 ounce) bag chocolate chips 1 can sweetened condensed milk 2 teaspoon vanilla 1 cup favorite chopped nuts 1 1/2 cup mini marshmallows

Mix chocolate chips and sweeten condensed milk in large microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 5 minutes or until chips are melted. Stir in vanilla, nuts and marshmallows. Pour into wax paper lined 9x13 pan and chill for 2 hours until set.

Homemade Noodles

1 egg, beaten 2 tablespoons milk 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup sifted all purpose flour

Combine egg, milk and salt. Add enough sifted flour to make dough stiff, about 1 cup. Roll very thin on floured surface; let stand 20 minutes. Roll up loosely; slice 1/4 inch wide; unroll, spread out and let dry for 2 hours. (if desired, store in container until needed.) Drop into boiling soup or boiling salted water and cook, uncovered about 10 minutes.

There are many more ideals to help you get started. Just look on the Internet and get started because there is only 7 days more Saturdays left until Christmas.

Wishing everyone a Happy Holiday