Today's Inspirational Quote and Did You Know!

Today's Inspirational Quote:


"If you want happiness for an hour---take a nap.
If you want happiness for a day-----go fishing.
If you want happiness for a month--get married.
If you want happiness for a year----inherit a fortune.
If you want happiness for a Lifetime---help someone else."

--Chinese Proverb--


Did you Know.......

that today is invite an Alien to Live with You Day?
On the birthday of Robin Williams, the alien Mork of
"Mork and Mindy," invite an alien to live with your or,
at the very least, invite a stranger to lunch!
Williams was born on July 21, 1952, to Chicago, Illinois.

Be Safe, Cool and Creative!!!

A Free Doodle Pattern

Here is a new Doodle Pattern that is free, just right click and save to your computer and then have your fun

crafting away. You just CAN NOT RESALE pattern as is, but you can sell as a completed project

at craft fairs, craft malls, your websites and blogs. Mass production you will need written permission.

All we ask is that you give us credit as the designer. Enjoy and have fun

using in many different mediums.

Happy Creating from A Crowe's Gathering

Be Safe, Cool and Creative!

If you like Buttons here's a Sale

Button Galore is having a great sale on there buttons and if you like

to accent with Buttons and Charms, you will need

to check out this site at:

http://us.mg1.mail.yahoo.com/

Here's some of the items that are on sale.

these are the pet eyelets that are .50 a package.

These brads are to only .50 a pkg.

I love Button Frames and there's so much you can do with them

and they are only .75 a pkg

Plus these celebrate tags are only .75 a pkg.

and they are regular 3.49 a pkg.

Just wanted to let everyone know about this great sale, so stop by and

check it out.

Be Safe, Cool and Creative!

Pam - ACG

Little Mermaid 2 Coloring Page

Little Mermaid 2 Coloring page.

This is a free coloring page for the kid and adults or just anyone who

like to color. All you need to do is right click on the picture and save it

to your file or folder on your computer and then print it out and your

ready to go, it's just that easy!  Enjoy and have fun...

Recipes and Tips for the Crafter

So many times we run out of things at the most inopportune time, or your in a small town and you don't have access to a lot of products and you have to order what you need.  What ever it maybe we have all been in that situation at one time or another.  Here are a few things to help you out when your in a pinch.

Have you ever ran out of Snow Paste and it's midnight, nothings open, well here is a tip and I use it all the time now, I just seem to like it so much better than the store stuff.

Materials Needed:

2 Styrofoam balls (the coarse kind)

Container

White Glue

Craft Stick

You sand your Styrofoam balls together over a container for the shavings, once you have the amount of shavings you need, add your white glue and mix to farm a paste.  That's it, how simple is that.  Store in and airtight container.

Sometimes I will add Mica Flakes or Glitter for some variations. I pick up Styrofoam at the dollar store or when I find it on sale, so I always have a supply of stashed away.

Grubby Snowman Heads

Materials needed

Styrofoam Balls approx. size 2.5 to 3.0 inches

Joint Compound or Plaster

You can coat your Styrofoam balls with your joint compound or plaster and let dry. I like to insert a stick in the styrofoam balls so it is easier to coat the balls and let them dry. Once your heads are dry then you are ready to paint them, you can hand paint or spray paint the heads completely.(This also will help your joint compound and plaster cure and get hard.)

Add your faces and ear muffs, hats and what ever else you want to decorate your heads with and also remember you can shade your snowman heads too. If these are going to be an ornie then attach your hanger and your ready to go.

Grubby Jars

Material Needed

Jar

Old Cookie Sheet

Sponge Brush

Wax Paper

Glue

Cinnamon

Ginger, Nutmeg, allspice - optional

Spray sealer

Take your jar that you want to have the grubby look and paint a thin even coat of white glue over the whole jar. Then put your spices in the bottom of the cookie sheet and roll your jar in the spices until the whole jar is covered with spices and tap off the excess and let dry approx. 1 hour. Then repeat the process until you have achieved the desired look that you want, once that has been completed use your spray sealer and seal your project and let dry and you might want to put two to three coats, letting each one dry completely before you put the next coat on. The type of spray sealer is for your desired look, I like the Satin or Matt sprays the best, gloss and high gloss are just to glossy for me, but it is your preference and the look that you want.

Variations: You can use instant coffee grounds to dust with and it will make a darker look for your project.

You can also mix glue and your spices together and paint this on in thin layer and let dry and repeat the process until you have the desired look you want and then seal once completely dry. If you put this mixture on to thick it will slide down the jar and glob around the bottom and peel off, so your key to success is to apply think layers and let dry dry between applications.

We hope these tips and recipes help you with your up coming projects.

Enjoy and Happy Crafting

Little Mermaid 1 Coloring Page

Here is a Free Little Mermaid Coloring Page for the kids,

all you need to do is right click the picture and save it to a file

or folder on your computer, then print it out and the kids can have

fun coloring, it's just that easy.  Hope they enjoy!!!!

Did You Know and Quote for the Day

Did you know...

... that today is USA Woman VP Day? In 1984, Democratic

presidential candidate Walter Mondale chose Geraldine Ferraro

as his running mate. She was verified at the party convention

a week later on July 19th. Ferraro became the first woman to

run for vice president from a major party.

~~~

Today's Inspirational Quote:

"If you think somebody cares about you and believes your life

is worth saving, how can you give up?"

-- Geraldine Ferraro --

Dutch Babies Yummy Good

Dutch Babies

Ingredients

2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1 pinch ground nutmeg
1 pinch salt
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar for dusting

Directions

1.Place a 10 inch cast iron skillet inside oven and preheat oven to 475 degrees F (245 degrees C).
2.In a medium bowl, beat eggs with a whisk until light. Add milk and stir. Gradually whisk in flour, nutmeg and salt.
3.Remove skillet from oven and reduce oven heat to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Melt butter in hot skillet so that inside of skillet is completely coated with butter. Pour all the batter in the skillet and return skillet to oven.
4.Bake until puffed and lightly browned, about 12 minutes. Remove promptly and sprinkle with powdered sugar.
 
Prep Time:

8 MinCook Time:
12 MinReady In:
20 Min
 
This looked so good I must be really hungry..lol not a good time to go looking at recipes.
Enjoy!
 
Be Safe, Cool and Creative!
ACG-Pam
 
 

Home Made Vanilla

Home Made Vanilla

This is to die for and the best vanilla ever and it is so easy to make and a lot cheaper and it's fresh.

Ingredients

10 vanilla beans, split lengthwise
1 liter vodka

Directions

1. Place the vanilla beans in the bottle of vodka and seal. Store in a cool, dark area such as a kitchen cabinet for 3 weeks, shaking the bottle every week. Three weeks is the minimum, store it 6 months for the best flavor. After using, replace with more vodka. The same beans will continue to flavor the vanilla for up to a year.

I have been making this for a while now and it just gives an awesome taste and the vanilla been, well you just can't get any richer taste. You can also bottle this and makes a great holiday seller too. I hope you all enjoy!

Be Safe, Cool and Creative!

ACG-Pam

Our New Paypal Store Front

We now have a Paypal Store Front where you can purchase some of our product right from our blog.
The Store Front is located at the bottom of the blog. If you have any questions regarding shipping or other
questions please e-mail me before completing your order. If you click on the box in the upper right
corner of the store front it will tell you the shipping and this is included in the shopping cart. Once you have
decided to complete your order just follow the instructions, it's just that easy.
If you have any questions you can e-mail me at acrowesgathering@yahoo.com
and we will be more than happy to help you. We can also do special orders and we will be adding this product to our Wholesale site soon too. But if you qualify for wholesale you can also e-mail me at the above
e-mail and will be able to give you the pricing information.  We are still working out the bugs, so if we
over charge you for shipping we will refund the difference to you via paypal.
We Thank you for shopping at ACG and our Paypal Store.

Be Safe, Cool and Creative!!!

A Father's Day Free Doodle Pattern

Well has everyone gotten there Father's Day Shopping done? My Dear Hubby is never home for most Holidays, except Christmas, he's a long haul truck driver. Here we have a Free Doodle for the males in your home.  These doodles can be resized, used in different mediums, can also be digitized for embroidery, if you want to mass produce you will need writtem permission and to you may NOT sell them as is or colored as your own. But you can use the designs and sell them to family, friends, gifts and on your web sites, just give ACG credit as the designer. We DO NOT require a license.  Enjoy!

Now all you have to do is right click on the picture and save it to your computer and then you can print it out, it's just that easy, if you have any problems please contact me at acrowesgathering@yahoo.com

Happy Doodling to you all

From a:

A Crowe's Gathering

My New Embroidery Machine Projects

Well the first part of May of this year a girl friend and I went to Boise to go shopping. I had remember a sewing machine shop that I really liked so it was still there and I stopped went in and looked at the all great new machines that you just drool over. So I just had to ask that question, how much is? Well I asked that

question and then proceeded to be shown how everything works, so then the brain starts working,

another big mistake...lol It's $699.00 for this and the card reader thing is $299.00 and the

art work digitizer something is $999.00. Then this machine you can use a card or plug directly into

your computer ( Computer!!! then I perked up and the brain went into overtime).

Then I asked,"You can save your designs on a flash drive, plug in your flash drive to your lap top

and use them that way?" No you have to have them on your hard drive."Well I can copy the one's I want to use to hard drive, use them and then delete them, right" Yes you could, but if you go a model you

can just plug in your flash drive to the machine. That bad question again How much is the that machine?

I should know better, it's$3000.00, I'm trying not to have heart failure, now I'm not really sure I even want

or really need one and you have now just jumped from $700 to $3000, so I decided we would do our shopping and then if I had decided I would come back by before we left town to go home.

So, we continued our shopping and I kept thinking (that bad thing I do), bu the time we had lunch I had decided to get the smaller one and for $800 verses $3000 I was a little happier.

I get home and I set it up and found out that I was right, all I had to do was to copy and paste my patterns to the removable disk use the ones I want and then delete them, I really didn't need the card reader, and there

are sites out there that will digitize your patterns at a reasonable fee and your set.  Yes if I was designing it would be feasible to purchase the digitizing packing, but since I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them, this was the better way to go an it was for me.  But i do have to say I am having all kinds of fun

with this machine.  My machine is the little Brother and it Embroiders and sews too and has

great stitches on the sewing side too.

Here are some pics of the projects I have done and are also on my site

http://www.acrowesgathering.com/

Set of 3 Coasters

Simplify Eye Glass Case

Can Huggers

Melting Snowman Checkbook/Calendar Cover

Coffee Cup Hugger

Boo Pumpkin Box
Checkbook/Calendar Cover

Hope you have enjoyed our new adventure!!!!

Be Safe, Cool and Creative!
Pam

Here is your Quote for the Day 6/2/10

Here is  a quote to help you through the day or just something to think about.

Today's Inspirational Quote:




"If you don't know where you are going, how can you

expect to get there?"



-- Basil S. Walsh --
 
A good thought for the day, enjoy and hope you find your answer.
 
Be Safe, Cool and Creative!!!!
ACG

Wednesday June 2, 2010 DID YOU KNOW!

Here is a little trivia for you to add to all of your vast knowledge...

Did you know...




... that today is 3-Ring Circus Day? In 1835, P. T.

Barnum ran the first major three-ring circus in the

United States. The Barnum & Bailey circus was later

formed on March 16, 1881.
 
 
This was for the Circus Lovers of all ages.
 
Be Safe, Cool and Creative!!!

Raspberry Chocolate Supreme Bars

Raspberry Chocolate Supremes

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup raspberry jam

3 ounces cream cheese, softened

2 tablespoons milk

1 cup white chocolate chips

2 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate, chopped

1 tablespoon shortening

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2.Lightly spoon flour into a measuring cup. Level off. In a bowl combine the flour and powered sugar.

3.Cut in butter with a fork and mix well. Press mixture into a 9 inch square pan.

4.Bake at 375 for 15 to 17 minutes until lightly brown.

5.To make Filling: Spread jam evenly over baked crust . In a small bowl beat cream cheese and milk until smooth. Melt white chocolate chips over low heat and add to mixture. Beat until smooth. Drop cream cheese mixture by teaspoons evenly over jam. Spread carefully and refrigerate.

6.To make Glaze Topping: Cut chocolate squares into small pieces and melt with shortening over low heat, stirring constantly. Spread over white chocolate layer. Cool completely. Cut into bars and store in refrigerator.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving Calories: 290
Total Fat: 17.7g
Cholesterol: 32mg



Nutritional InformationRaspberry Chocolate SupremesServings Per Recipe: 12

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 290

Total Fat: 17.7gCholesterol: 32mgSodium: 114mgTotal Carbs: 31.5g Dietary Fiber: 0.6gProtein: .3g