Cooking? Only if it's out of a scrapbook!

Cooking is almost like crafting. ALMOST. You work with your hands, create lovely things and get to enjoy the finished product after you are done. However, cooking has some pitfalls that crafting does not....which is why at the end of the day, I choose crafting! When you are finished doing a scrapbook page or painting a frame, you can just throw away your scraps, drop cloth and be done with it. BUT, cooking....ahhhh! You cook for a bit and you have to clean a hundred little tiny things when you are done. You have to make sure you don't leave any extra food out, because if you do, you will smell something rotten in a couple days. Even if you cook something AMAZING, you only get to enjoy it a few times. You spend all that time cooking and then 'poof,' your husband gets home and the food is gone. You spend time crafting, and you get to enjoy it FOREVER!

I realize that my logic might possibly be a little skewed, but nonetheless, it is where my opinion stays: crafting will always trump cooking. However, since cooking is a must for this stay-at-home-part-of-the-time-wife, I have turned my cookbook into something worthwhile! A cookbook scrapbook. 

This idea is NOT my own, but I love it! My aunts (years ago) put all our family recipes into a 5x7 cookbook and decorated each page. I, of course, had to be part of this project! As time has gone on and many more recipes have made it into my arsenal of cooking, I have added on to this cookbook. Last night in fact, I could not sleep, so got out some new recipes of mine, typed them into the computer, printed them out, cut them to a 5x7 size, decorated each little 'page' and then found them a special spot in my cookbook.

How to do it: type up your recipe (set the page margins what your cookbook scrapbook will be), print it out in easily readable but CUTE font...colors are good too, cut the page to size, add simple border to the page (You will be SHOCKED how many random boarder stickers you might have!), then add some fun stickers or embellishments to the page. WaaLaa, done!
If you are not a scrapbooker, or just learning how to scrapbook, this is the PERFECT project, because it is very quick and you can make it as complex or as simple as you would like. And, then, when you finally do decide to cook, it will just warm your heart that at least something in your kitchen will last forever....well, at least longer than your food!





Where my recipe book sits open in my kitchen next to all my other "regular" cookbooks.

Bingo? Yes...and the dauber too!

Am I fan of BINGO?! More than my husband would like the world to know (Natasha, if you EVER read this, know that you rekindled my BINGO love in Colorado Springs). My favorite thing about this game of chance? The daubers!!! I get more than slightly amused by the dauber-dispensers that the fancy BINGO halls have. Ah, a whole vending-like-machine full of daubers. Any color you can imagine! Ah, it's glorious!!

Anyway, contrary to what it may seem, what I want to share with the world today is NOT my love for the BINGO dauber...But, in fact, a different type of dauber. A scrapbooking dauber! I am taking a break from discussing the creativity of my parent's home today and taking a little look inside the creative world of the "dauber." This dauber completely changed my world when I was first introduced to it a few short years ago. Ahhh!

Please take a moment to 'ooooh' and 'aaaaah' over the dauber (picture below).

Yes, they are little. Yes, they are sort of like a plastic thimble with a sponge on top. Yes, they are the most amazing thing that any card-maker, scrapbooker or crafter will ever lay their hands on.

What do you do with a dauber? You place them on your finger (I prefer my right index finger), daub (is that a word?) them in your desired ink/stamp pad, then go to town daubing the edges of anything and everything! I might have lost you there in that description, therefore I thought it best to show you some examples of what the dauber can do. Please, prepare to bow to the mighty dauber at the end of this!

This is how you add a little distressed look or some color to anything with the dauber.

Adding a dark edge to some captions with the dauber.

You can double-up the colors with the dauber. I used pink ink first and then followed it up with a black.

You can see how the dauber makes any captions/titles much improved!

Ah, clearly, I use the dauber too much on all my titles, but I LOVE IT!

You can use the dauber with colored ink too! Here it is in RED!

Now, you may have noticed that most of my pictures are just on white paper using ink to distress the edges of them. There are many other uses for the dauber! Below is a picture of the dauber adding a little dimension to a card. I have seen people use the dauber on nearly anything, even pictures themselves. If you have never tried the dauber, I hope you do sometime soon.

IGNORE the background in this picture. I was eating breakfast in my living room, while probably painting my toe-nails. PLEASE just focus on the amazing use of the dauber on this card, ha! :)

I will continue highlighting the amazing creativity of my parent's home in the next entries! But until then, please respect the dauber!!