New Year's Eve Nibbles

For New Year's Eve, my husband and I always stay home and watch the New York celebration. To make it a little special, we eat appetizers for a late dinner and toast each other at midnight. We have had parties in the past, but this year it's appetizers and family.

Here's a good one if you like potstickers. 

Mine don't look like this, they look less yellow in real life, but they are sooo good!

And this cold taco dip is a classic. Just layer 8 oz cream cheese and  8oz sour cream with a taco seasoning pack, layer it with a small bottle of taco sauce (not salsa, too watery), cheese, lettuce, tomato and other fave taco toppings and you're good to go. Serve with tortilla chips of course.

If you're having a party, I love this idea for favors from Martha Stewart magazine.

And if you want to do some fun activities, you could write down the bad luck you've had this year and then burn the in the fireplace, bake a coin in a cake and see who gets the luck for the year, write fortunes on slips of paper, slide into balloons and then blow them up, then pop at midnight to see who gets what fortune for the year or just watch some old home movies. I love seeing the kids when they were little, you forget just how cute they were!

Happy New Year's to my crafty friends, wishing you a year of all good things!
Chark

Wrapping It Up

Here's a little gift bag I made using a regular brown paper bag and some lavender felt flowers I made and burlap hearts I cut out. 

I made it for a magazine call for wedding submissions and this one didn't make the cut, but two of my projects did! I have to send them off to be photographed and then I'll let you know when the Spring issue of Craft Ideas comes out, just in case you want to peek at them.

Short and sweet post today! 
Happy Monday!
Chark

Fastest Favor Bags In The West

On today's post at a2z Scrapbooking, you can see the project I made in minutes. I don't think they show it, but they were fast and easy to make. I'm usually behind even when hosting parties that I've know about for weeks. 

Mostly because I tend to think I have more time to do things than I actually do. For instance, I had all day to finish a list I made of errands and chores. I even put some specific hours to be finished. And yet...here I am, with three things left undone and it's midnite. oops!

But I'm getting this post up :) and it wasn't even on my list, so yay! Hop over and say hi and see the Hero Art Stamp & Cut I used that's currently on sale for $7.50! 

Happy Friday, friends!
Chark

Hop On Over Here, My Friend!

Hi, I'm Chark and welcome to my stop on the Hero Arts and a2z Scrapbooking Digital Blog Hop! You should be arriving from the talented Miss Chitra's blog. You can find the hop order below. 

Although I'm not an exclusive digi creator, mostly because I super enjoy playing with the supplies, I do love having the option of sizing stamps and layering them. And digital stamps are perfect for big projects, like making party favors, classroom treats or a lot of cards. 

Today I've used the Hero Arts Digital stamp sets called Astral and Spooky Labels to make Halloween favors. 

For the treat bags, I got the little bags from Michael's and I printed the starry sky from Astral Digital Stamps on my black and white printer. My sky is now a little spookier (although the blue is very pretty when I use my color printer). I combined two of the digi stamps from Spooky Labels to make the labels and added Diamond Stickles to my bats and randomly to the sky. 

For the glamorous favors, I used the Spooky Labels, black lace seam binding, purple sequin ribbon from Jo Ann Fabrics, diamond gems from Hero Arts, black grosgrain and white eyelash ribbons, and skull washi from Stampin' Up and dotted washi from Recollections.

The spider tops are from dollar store spider rings, with the HA diamond gems added with Glue Dots to their backs. I used Glue Dots to secure the lace as well. The font I used to put names on the spider labels is called Black Adder. I filled them with silver Hershey Kisses so they still looked elegant, but any candy will work.

Didja know—a2z Scrapbooking Supplies is offering a $50 Gift Certificate to the a2z Store?! The prize winner will be randomly selected from ALL comments received on the participating designers' blogs. The more comments you leave along the way, the better your odds of winning, so be sure to leave a little love at each blog, starting with this one! You have until Sunday, August 31, 2014 11:59 EST to comment on each blog. Winner will be announced on September 3rd. Good Luck!

Here's the hop order if you get lost.

Hero Arts

Tami Hartley

Kelly Latevola

Kymona Tracey

Lisa Spangler

Michelle Liimatainen

Kathy Wade

Lucy Abrams

Chitra Nair

Char K  *you are here*

Ruth Bosner

Jocelyn Olson

Zoey Scarpelli

Stephanie B

Kelly Rasmussen

a2z Scrapbooking

Off you go to see what the super talented Ruth Bonser has in store for you...hope you're having fun hopping!
Chark

p.s. Additional Giveaway Alert—I'm giving away a free Hero Arts stencil or Hero Arts digi stamp set (your choice from the a2z shop) to a random follower of my blog. So, if you're interested, just follow the blog and leave me a comment letting me know what name you're following with—I'll close the giveaway the same time as the hop giveaway (Sunday, August 31 at 11:59pm EST) and announce a winner on Monday, Sept. 1. Check out the the a2z Scrapbooking Supplies shop to decide what you'd like if you win! International followers are also eligible for this prize!