Monday Night Meatballs

Who doesn't love a good meatball? They're bite sized, packed with flavor, and (when eaten in moderation) are actually pretty good for you! Did I mention incredibly easy to make? 

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Here's what you'll need: 

*Grape Jelly

*Chili Sauce *Meatballs

*Crock Pot 

Seriously, that's it! I used frozen meatballs for this recipe to save me some time in the kitchen (And because my husband and I bought a 6 lbs bag at Costco this past weekend) 

Put all of the ingredients into your crock pot and stir, making sure the jelly breaks up and combines with the sauce. 

All that's left to do is get cooking! Turn your crock pot onto low and cook for 6 hours, or onto high if you're impatient and want them in 4.  

NOTE: If your crock pot is anything like mine, you'll want to make sure that you set it to HIGH and not WARM. I made that mistake one time with BBQ Chicken and didn't realize it until 6 hours had gone by and my chicken was still pink. 

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Serve up these meatballs in the crock pot when entertaining, or lay over a bed of rice and veggies for you and your family. 

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Paper Shamrock

Easy Peasy Paper Shamrock

While trying to figure out my next project, it donned on me that Saint Patrick's Day is THIS Monday! These awesome paper shamrocks are so incredibly easy to make and take almost no time at all! 

Since I'm all about trying to utilize what I have at home and minimize the amount of trips I make to the craft store (especially since I live 20 minutes away from one), this craft was perfect! All you need is some scrapbook paper (white, light green, & dark green), scissors, a stapler, and glue. All of which I have already in my giant collection of craft supplies.  

To get started, you'll need to cut 6 strips of each color about 3 cm wide (2 of each color for 1 layered heart). Make your dark green strips the longest, the light green strips a little bit shorter, and the white strips the shortest.

TIP: Don't worry too much about getting exact measurements. Once everything is stapled together, you'll never be able to tell.

Now you're going to lay all of the strips together in this exact order:

White, light green, dark green, dark green, light green, white

Line up the ends and staple.

Starting with the two white strips, fold both ends down and staple together. Now fold both light green ends down to the same point and add another staple. Do this again for the dark green strips and add one final staple. 

All you have to do now is create three more of those layered hearts and glue the ends together to create the shamrock! Don't forget to add the stem!

Add some string and hang these around your house or office to create an awesome Saint Patrick's Day look!

Share your Saint Patrick's Day craft with us on our facebook page and your art will be featured in an album designed to give our fans inspiration for their next project! 

Give us a 'like' while your there, too! :)

3 Piece Canvas Wall Art

Project Nursery!

3 Piece Canvas Wall Art 

This project took me about a day to finish and was so simple and fun, I had to share it with you guys! 

Materials Needed:

• 3 10"x10" stretched canvases 
• 3 fabric swatches (either cut to size or pre-packaged size of 18"x21")
• Thick cardboard letter (not wood!)
• 2 giant flowers (or decoration of choice)
• Ribbon
• Acrylic paint (about 2 fl oz)
• Tacky Glue 
• Staple gun (watch your fingers!)
• Glue gun 
• 3 or 4 Q-tips 
• Sponge paint brush
• Paper/Plastic plate
• Iron
• Scissors

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Okay first things first, let me tell you about these awesome fabric swatches I got at my local craft store. Instead of finding a giant roll of fabric that I like, taking it all the way to the cutting counter, grabbing a number from the machine, and waiting for about 15 minutes to finally get it cut, I found some beautiful fabric swatches already PRE-CUT! They come one in a package and are roughly 18"x21", which is perfect since we'll only be using about 3/4 of that. Did I mention the price? I kid you not, these bad boys were only $1.66 each! Before you start this project, PLEASE go see if your craft store has these. 

Once you have all of your materials purchased and ready to go, you'll want to start prepping some of your items. Remove all labels and packaging and make sure you've stuck to your color scheme. One of the most important prepping you will do will be getting the fabric ready to be put onto the canvas. If you were able to find those awesome fabric swatches, you'll notice that they were wrapped up all cute in their little package. Unfortunately, this means that our pretty little fabric square has wrinkles! Not to worry though, this is where your handy dandy iron comes in! 

Who knows how long these fabrics squares have been packaged, so getting those wrinkles out may take some time. Try flipping the fabric over a couple of times so that you can get both the front and the back. 

TIP: If you're still having trouble with those pesky wrinkles, try laying a damp wash cloth over the fabric and continue to iron. It will take effort, but trust me, those wrinkles will come out!

Now that everything is prepped and ready, we can officially begin our project! 

Because this is the most time consuming, let's start off with the cardboard letter. Please keep in mind that I am talking about cardboard and NOT wood. I've tried big wooden letters on wall art and haven't had any success. The glue doesn't hold on as tight and they end up either sagging, or straight up falling off. So just stick to the directions and get cardboard! (I'm pretty sure they're cheaper anyway)

For this part of the project, you'll need your letter, acrylic paint, that nifty little sponge paintbrush, and some scrap paper. 

Like all projects that require paint, please just assume you're going to make a huge mess and plan your space accordingly. I'm talking, paper towels at the ready and either newspaper or scrap paper over the entire work space. You may think you're going to be careful and not make a mess, but you will. You will. Just play it safe and prepare yourself. There really is nothing worse than trying to get paint off of your table, hours after the project has finished and it's had time to really sink in and dry up. 

Use that paper/plastic plate for your paint so that all you have to do when you're finished is throw that sucker away! (and rinse your brush. ALWAYS rinse your brush)

This part's pretty simple. Just lay your letter down on some paper and start painting! Keep in mind, you'll need to do multiple layers, especially if you're using a light colored paint like I did. 

TIP: Use long brush strokes from top to bottom, that way you're reducing the amount of lines that show up on the letter as you paint. 

Also, remember to wait 15-20 MINUTES between coats! If you just keep adding paint, the only thing you're going to accomplish is spreading it around, creating uneven layers. Like I said above, this part of the project is going to take the longest, so channel your inner multitasking skills and let's get started on the next part while we wait for the paint to dry. 

Yay! Time to start covering the canvases!

First you'll need to lay out the ironed fabric FACE DOWN on a flat surface. Place the canvas over the fabric (also faced down) and fold over one edge. Grab your staple gun and staple down both corners and the center to the wood on the back of the canvas. Now you'll go over to the opposite side and fold up the fabric over the edge and give three more good staples. Make sure you're pulling your fabric tight, keeping it straight as you do so. 

Now that you've got two edges complete, here's where it gets a little tricky. 

Think back to the holidays when you were wrapping gifts left and right. Folding these last two edges is going to be exactly like using wrapping paper. Fold the two corners in, then tuck the remaining fabric over and staple down. This will create a smooth corner on your canvas and a tighter pull on the fabric. 

Is the paint dry on your letter? Probably not. Go ahead and add another coat, then start covering the rest of the canvases!

Now it's time to add some ribbon to the edges to give them a little POP! when they're hanging on the wall. 

All you'll need for this part of the project is your ribbon, scissors, canvases, Q-tips, and Tacky Glue. 

To make sure the ribbon is the correct length, I unravel it around the entire canvas and cut where the two ends meet up (giving myself about an inch extra just in case). Then, starting with one end, I squeeze a line of glue from one corner to the other. Now, pay attention. Do NOT lay the ribbon on yet! If you lay the ribbon on while there is a line of glue on the canvas, you'll forever have a bulge running down the center of the ribbon and there will be absolutely nothing you can do about it..SO, grab your Q-tip and spread that stuff all over the edge to make a nice even layer. Next, you guessed it, lay the ribbon tightly over the glue and press down for a couple of seconds to ensure a solid stick. Continue all the way around and you've got yourself a beautiful border! 

At my local craft store, there is a HUGE selection of silk flowers ranging from super tiny to giant, so I was able to grab two of these gorgeous pink and white flowers for about $5 (using coupons!). 

For the decorating part of this project, it's really up to you to decide what you want to do. I chose two of the same flower because I like how simple and elegant they look together. But feel free to mix it up a bit and add some buttons, ribbons, or even a giant bow! The possibilities a virtually endless. 

Adding the decorations to the canvases is probably the easiest part of this project. There really is no technique. Just heat up your glue gun and go! You'll want to make sure that everything is centered and that your letter is completely dry before you do any gluing though. 

And that's that! 

All you have left to do is find the perfect place to hang them and enjoy! There are so many different hanging options for these three piece sets, so play around with them a bit and see what works best for you.

Well, how'd it go? Snap a picture of your unique canvas wall art and send it to my facebook page! Your art will be featured in a special album designed to give inspiration to others that are wanting to start this project. 

 Don't forget to give us a 'like' while you're there! :)