First Communion Art- Free Printable

My son Christian was celebrating his First Communion this past spring and he had decided he wanted no gifts, instead he wanted to donate to World Vision. He created a wish list on the World Vision website and we told family that if they wanted to give something, he wanted to provide gifts to others in greater need. I was and am so proud of him. He put great thought into each item he selected.

• He wanted chickens because they have lots of babies and they would grow quickly.
• He picked a fish farm, so the people receiving the gift could have a business of their own. 
• He picked school books and lunches for school aged kids because he could relate to them and he was upset to think children are hungry. 
• He asked for soccer balls and other sports equipment because he felt every child should be able to have fun. 

He was 7 at the time and I was amazed at how mature he seemed. I can cry every time I think about it.

Well, he decided he wanted to decorate the house with things we already had in the house. So we tried to use some of the items I made for my daughter's First Communion last year but much of it had not survived being stuffed in a storage tub. So, I framed some photos of him from his baptism, hung balloons and streamers which we had already in the house, and made him an 8x10 with a nice quote for the buffet table.

I had stumbled upon Lisa Moorefield's site and found her list of favorite chalkboard fonts and chalkboard background download and I was inspired!

I searched online for quotes, saying, etc. and found this. Someone on a forum had suggested it as something to write in a card and I loved it.

I won't share all the details how I made this. I am just going to provide you with the images that you can download and print yourself if you want to. I have included a few different colors so you can use it for a boy or a girl. If there is another shade you prefer that would match your room better, let me know and I can see if I can make another one. Won't guarantee anything but I will try.

To download one this 8x10 image:

• Leave me a comment and let me know which you like the best
• Right click on the image and select open in a new window or tab
• On the full size image, right click again and select 'save as'
• Save it to a place on your computer where you can easily find it
• Send it to your favorite photo developer and find a frame
• Please only use these for personal use!
• Enjoy!!

What do you think? Let me know if you would like this as a 5x7 and I can reformat it.

Have a great day!
Stephanie

The Best Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe!

I am not going to become a food blogger, as I have stated when I shared my rotisserie chicken recipe, but I have a few recipes that I absolutely love and though you would appreciate them.

After posting my glassed etched cookie jar, I thought I would share my recipe for the best chewy chocolate chip cookies in the world! If you are not a chewy cookie lover, just stop reading now because these are not for you. Granted if you cook them for a longer time they would not be as chewy, but still, there are plenty of crunchy chocolate chip recipes out there, go find one of those :)  For all of you, who are like me, who love the chewy cookie, this will be a favorite of yours too.

These cookies freeze amazingly well, taste great frozen and are a personal favorite for Christmas baking!

I am not a food blogger so I didn't photograph the process but I think you can clearly understand the instructions.

I have been making these cookies since I was in University (sad to say that was almost 20 years ago~ wow I feel old) and don't recall where it originated but I have made minor changed to it from the original recipe.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened (my trick if I don't plan ahead and it is not softened, I grate it with the large opening on a cheese grater. Works like a charm!)
• 1 cup lightly packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract (2 tsp if you like less)
• 1 egg (at room temperature)
• 2 cups all purpose flour (I have used the unbleached before but have not tried with whole wheat flour)
• 2 tsp corn starch (this is the important ingredient to make it chewy)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 - 2 cups chocolate chips (I tend to use 2 - but you can decide)

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 F
• Cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Add the vanilla and the egg and mix well.
• With mixer off, add flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt on top of the butter/egg mixture. Gently mix dry ingredients together with a fork and then mix with the creamed ingredients.
• Stir in chocolate chips
• Drop by spoonful onto parchment lined (or greased) baking sheet and bake for 8-12 minutes depending on the size. You will know they are done when the edges turn brown. If you like a crunchier cookie, let the top brown.
• Leave cookies on hot sheet for approximately 5 minutes to set before transferring to a cooling rack.

 Yields 36 cookies (I make the cookies medium size)

Has anyone else ever used cornstarch in cookies to make them chewy?

Enjoy and happy baking!
Stephanie

Glass Etched Cookie Jar - My Christmas Gift Ideas Have Officially Started

I am sorry for being away from Full of Great Ideas for so many months, but I have struggled to balance work, life and blog. Blog always fell to the bottom of my to do lists. After months away it stopped being added to the to do list all together. I have not stopped thinking about it or stopped crafting, I just didn't have the time to share what I have done.

As you know, I am a mom to two wonderful kids that are growing up too fast and I didn't want to miss anything.  I realized I was watching life through a camera. Don't you find that? You go to a special event or on a trip and you watch everything that is going on through the view finder! Yes I have some great photos, but the experience is not the same. I had to step back and  reevaluate.

Well I hope to be back to blogging on somewhat of a regular basis. My posts might not have as many photos or be as complicated. But I will try my best.

I thank everyone for their notes and comments wondering where I was and I am sorry for not responding. I really do appreciate them.

Well on to my first post now that I am back...my glass etched cookie jar.

My close friend had her birthday last week and I wanted to make her something small to celebrate it.   She is not one to bake and always appreciates when we drop by with homemade items, so my kids suggested cookies. I had been planning for our second annual Homemade Christmas (I know you all just gasped with the fact I am planning Christmas already, but that is me) and I had pinned an etched cookie jar. Sorry can't share the pin because I got smart this year and I hid my Christmas pin board. I found out the hard way last year that my family follows me on Pinterest and none of my ideas were surprises.

I knew I wanted to put their monogrammed initial on the cookie jar so it could be used for other items after the cookies were all gone. I designed three images and my children picked the easiest one, the EileenCaps font letter Z. I know most of you do not have a Cricut or Silhouette machine to cut your own letters, but this can be done with wall vinyl or stickers you can buy at the dollar store too.

It is pretty, isn't it?

I bought the cookie jar for $6 at Walmart. It was an Anchor brand I believe. To be honest with you I should have looked closer at it before I opened the packaging because it did not have the rubber ring around the lip to seal the jar nicely. It was reasonably priced and a perfect size, but I would have preferred to spend a few more dollars to have it seal.

I cut the 4 inch square design out of vinyl with my Cricut and stuck it on the cookie jar. Because the jar is straight up and down, I did not have any problems with the vinyl laying flat! This was the easiest placement of the vinyl I have ever had.

There are many options for everyone to do this craft even without an electronic cutter. You could spell out words like cookies, a name, funny saying etc with stickers from the Dollar store and there are people on Etsy who sell vinyl for a few dollars if you are interested in purchasing it.

Using a foam brush, I put a thick layer of the glass etching cream all over the area to be etched. I made sure to lift the cookie jar up to look at it from the back side through light to see if I missed any spots or corners. As you can see, I lay the cookie jar on a crumpled old towel to keep it from rolling.

Now here is the hardest and longest part of this project, walk away for 25 minutes. My bottle of etching cream has warning labels covering the instructions so I don't know what the bottle suggests, but over the past while I found this to be the best amount of time.

Here is an important tip...once the time is up, use the same foam brush, and carefully scoop up the etching cream and put it back in the bottle. Someone recommended it to me in my comments and I have done it ever since. This stuff is pretty expensive if you don't use a 40% off coupon so you might as well save as much of it as you can. I have been etching gifts for years and have barely used any of the jar because of this!

Once you get as much off as possible, run the entire thing under water. Work as quickly as possible because if the etching cream sits on another spot of glass it will create a shadow. Don't worry too much about this, just run it under a good stream of water and scrub it off.

So here is the etched cookie jar. It is hard to get a photo of it, but I think you can get an idea how amazing it turned out!

My kids and I baked a batch of the best chewy chocolate chips cookies in the world an filled the jar with them. We tied a bow around the lip of the jar and called it a birthday gift!

I think this is going to be my go-to gift for this year. Teachers, friends, coworkers will all be seeing cookie jars under their trees this year.

What do you think? How would you feel if you got this as a gift?

Stephanie at Full of Great Ideas.

My Oma is...Coasters from Grandkids

I know it is really early for Mother's Day gift ideas, but if I don't share this now I am going to be too busy and not get it posted in time. So at least this way you have plenty of time to use this idea for yourself.

I had these marble tiles laying around from the many other coasters I have made in the past. The first was the half-marathon bib coaster I made for my husband and the second set was the monogrammed coasters I made for a girl friend who was retiring. I purchased these tiles at Habitat for Humanity's ReStore but you can find them for really reasonable at HomeDepot or Lowes.

My mother is lovingly called Oma by her five adoring grandchildren. As with every family, each child has his or her own special relationship with their Oma. So, I thought what better way to express that unique relationship then to ask each of them to describe their Oma with one word and make a set of 6 coasters with those words.

I love how each description was a representation of each child and my mom knew immediately which coaster was from which grandchild. 

Materials

• Marble tiles (unsealed)
• StazOn permanent ink stamp - This permanent stamp can be purchased at Michael's for around $7 (I believe) and if you use a coupon you can get it for 40% less.
• Vinyl or stickers to use as template
• Sponge brush

Method

There are many ways you can do this craft. I designed and cut the templates out of vinyl with my Cricut, but you can use stickers from the dollar store or even stamps to make them.

I started off by cleaning the tiles with a damp cloth. When I purchased them, they seem to have a powder all over them.

Once dry, I stuck the vinyl directly to the tile. I placed the vinyl in different locations and directions on the tiles so they were more whimsical.

Using StazOn permanent stamping ink in black, I brushed the stamping ink over the vinyl with a sponge brush.

I found it worked best to wipe the brush across the template as opposed to dab it. I waited a minute and did a second coat to get a really dark black.

Here is the one tile I dabbed the sponge on; you can see how the ink bled under the vinyl and didn't give a crisp line. It did not look horrible but not as nice as the others.

Here is one where I brushed the ink across the vinyl like I was painting it on. See much crisper.

Once all the tiles are stamped and all the vinyl/stickers have been removed, you need to bake the tiles to make the stamp permanent and fade resistant.

Don't judge the how dirty my toaster over is...I use it for everything!

I baked my tiles in my toaster oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Once the time was up, I turned off the toaster oven and let them cool in there. They retain the heat for a long time so please be careful.

Also, don't venture too far away when they are baking just in case your tiles do not like to be heated. Just be careful and aware!

I did not put a sealant over the tiles they they can absorb the sweat from cold drinks.

After they were cooled, I put rubber stoppers from the dollar store on the back. I have used the soft felt ones before but found they slid off tables really easily. So these work much better!

I had each of the kids write their names and date on the back of the tiles with permanent markers.

My mom loves them and the kids love to use their own coasters when they visit. The kids have even noticed when Oma was using their coaster, so she now has to pay attention to not use one all the time. Share the coaster love amongst all the grand kids :)

So that is it. Simple, easy, cheap but most importantly personal gift idea!

What do you think..do you see the possibilities with this? Mother's day gift, father's day gift, teacher gifts...really you could give these for so many different occasions.

Stephanie

Free Custom Birth Announcements Template

I designed this personalized birth announcement for a good friend of mine who was expecting her second child before Christmas. She did not know if she was having a boy or a girl, so I created one design for a girl and another for a boy.  That way, when the baby was born I was quickly able to update my template and have a beautiful and personalized gift for her while she was still in the hospital.

I personally favor the little girl birth announcement with the beautiful flower but what parent of a little boy wouldn't love the trains too.

Each image has been designed as an 8x10 in Microsoft Publisher. I was going to share with you step by step how these were created, but it is really easier for all of us if I just provide you with a free template to start your own with.

As always, I ask that you use this only for personal use. Please do not sell these.

Here is what you need to do to create your own personalized baby birth announcement:

• Download the girl's birth announcement template here and 
• Download the boy's birth announcement template here.
• Note when you click on the link, Google documents will give you a note saying "Sorry, we are unable to generate a view of the document at this time. Please try again later." That is ok. Simple click on the arrow down button (next to the print symbol) to download the file. You will have no problem opening it in Publisher after you download it. Or it will say "click here to download original file" you can save it by clicking on the link. Be sure to download and not open with Word.
• Open the file in Microsoft Publisher. No, I do not know how to convert these to a Mac compatible program...sorry.
• Download the fonts (fonts can be found on free font websites or you can use your own favorites). Here are the free fonts I used:

Name, date, time - Poor Richard
Weight and inches -  Fang Song
Flower - Kalocsai Flowers

Name, date, time - Poor Richard
Weight and inches -  Fang Song
Train -  Miltrain

• Personalize the numbers, text, colors, and anything else you want to.  
• Here is a link to a post that will help you with stretching text so that it fits nicely in the space provided. 
• Each row is in a separate box, so you can manipulate each row independently. Remember you can always Undo, so don't be afraid to change it around.
• Sounds like lots of work, but the template will help and it really isn't hard to use.
• Once you are happy with the design, save the image as a high resolution JPEG (to do this in Publisher follow theses steps: 'Save As', 'Save as type', 'JPEG', 'Change...' (Resolution), 'High quality printing or commercial printing (300dpi)') .  
• Upload the image to your favorite photo developer and you have a beautiful but very cheap reasonable baby gift!

Please leave me a comment to let me know whether or not you have been able to download the file and if you create your own.  I would love to hear which file you like the best and I would love to see your finished products. Send them to me at fullofgreatideas(at)gmail(dot)com and I can share them with others on this post so we can all benefit from each others creativity.

I was able to give my girlfriend a beautiful baby gift for under $10. I could have done it for even less if I reused a frame I had laying around the house or something I found at a thrift store.

Do you know anyone who you could make one of these for? What do you think?

Have a great day,
Stephanie

A Dad is...DIY Wood Quote/Magnetic Photo Holder

As I previously mentioned, I set a goal of making most of my Christmas gifts from scratch this past Christmas; however, I really struggled with the gifts for my husband and my brothers.

I had Pinned something similar to this ages ago (here) that I liked but I didn't know how to create the exact look I wanted.

I was talking with my sister and we came up with the idea of using a piece of old barn board flooring from her barn (built over 120 years ago) to make this. My sister found a piece of wood that was approximately 12 inches wide and lightly planed it to get a smoother surface.

If you, like me, don't have access to old wood, you can buy freshly cut 12 inch wide planks from a local hardware store and distress it to get a similar look. Take a hammer to it, scratch it up, sand it a bit here and there. It is quite easy to do.

We cut 12 inch squares and lightly sanded the rough edges. We loved the imperfections, so we did not sand the top and once we were happy with the look, we sealed it using the same sealant I had laying around and used for the tree stump coasters.

Isn't the color gorgeous!? That is without staining it!

I designed and cut the saying out of black vinyl on my Cricut.  The metal circle was something I had laying around from the Dollar Store (it was used to hold 5 magnets that I purchased). It was originally bright silver, so I spray painted it Oil Rubbed Bronze. Once it was dry, I hot glued it to the wood.

I found pictures I liked of my husband with each of our children. He didn't like how I picked photos of him with his glasses on but we can always change them!

I put metal hangers on the back of the wood so we could hang it, but I prefer standing behind my couch on the table using a plate stand. Either way I display it, I love it!

Since we found all the materials for this project around the house, we were able to make these for nothing. If I didn't have all the materials, I think I could do this for around $10 each (if making a few).

What do you think? I know need to find something equally great for Father's Day!

Stephanie

Free 'What a Difference a Day Makes' Template

Do you remember last year where I made the Special Date Art on my $0 Budget? I used some of my favorite scrapbook paper and cut out the numbers on my Cricut. I love the end result but it took too long and was too tedious to make it as gifts for Christmas this year.

So, since I am becoming a wiz with Publisher, I thought I would try my hand at designing one with Publisher. It was very easy and I just love the end result. Grand total to print it was $0.89 and $8.00 to frame. I had amazing Christmas gifts for under $10.

I created two designs, one for a family of 4 plus a wedding date and the other for a family of 5 plus a wedding date.

Aren't they great!?

NOTE: I had intended this post to only be a tutorial sharing with your how you can make your own. But I really want to share with you as much as possible and I know most people aren't as experiences with Publisher as I am....so... I have tried to share my sample files on Google Documents. Scroll to the bottom of the post for the Download template links and instructions.  


Here is how I created my own from scratch (and how you will be able to edit the template you downloaded):

Open a new 8x10 file

To set a 0.5 inch margin around the image, select the 'page design' tab, 'Margins' and then set your margins to 'Moderate' .

Then determine how many rows of numbers you need. For example, if there are 4 people in your family (i.e. 2 parents, 2 kids) plus you want your wedding date, you will need 5 rows. To do this, I select on the 'Page Design' tab, 'Guides' and then 'Grid and Baseline'.

I enter 2 columns (so the middle of the page is clearly identified) and then 5 rows (for a family of 4 with a wedding date). If you are a family of 5 plus wedding date, you will need 6 rows. I keep the spacing between the rows at 0.

The next step is to insert a 'Text box'.

I draw the text box to be the full width of the page (between the two margin lines) and almost the full size of the row. This allows me to have space underneath for the names.

Insert the numbers and find a font you like.

The fonts I used are:
'Baskerville Old Face' for the numbers
'Nymphette' for the scrolls on either side of the name
'Adobe Arabic' for the names.

Insert another text box for the name.

Once you get the font and approximate size you like, you can play around with the spacing of the characters. This allows you to stretch the characters so they are the full width of the box (so all the numbers line up on either side along the margin).

Open the More Spacing box and the select Show Tool Bar (bottom left corner)

With this window you can make the letters/numbers further apart, wider etc. Play around and see what you like.

Once you are happy with the first row, I copy and pasted the text 4 more times. This will ensure you have the same font, spacing etc. Once you insert all the new numbers and text, you might need to play around with the spacing some more.

I added a heart in the middle of the wedding date just to add some color.

If you want, you can change the background by inserting a digital scrapbook page and 'send to back'.

You can see how many boxes I used to design this.

Once you are happy with it, save the Publisher file and then save it as a JPEG image. To do this, select File, Save As.

Change the Save as type, to JPEG

Then be sure to change the Resolution to High Quality Printing so that you will be able to deevelop this as a large image.

Save it someplace you can easily find. Either print the image at home if you have a good printer or send it to your favorite photo developer (my personal favorite is Costco).

I have made these for a few friends and family members and framed them in a floating frame. I love how they look and they are so much easier to create than the one I did a while ago where I cut out each number.

Wouldn't this make a great Valentines gift for your hubby?

DOWNLOADABLE Template:

Here is the link to the family of 4 plus wedding date and here is the link for family of 5 plus wedding date. Please leave me a comment below letting me know whether or not you were able to do this.

Here are the links again (I find they get lost in text) to the Publisher files:

• family of 4 plus wedding date 
• family of 5 plus wedding date

Here is what you need to do to create your own personalized baby birth announcement:

• Download the family of 4 plus wedding date and download the family of 5 plus wedding date here  
• Note when you click on the link, Google documents will give you a note saying "Sorry, we are unable to generate a view of the document at this time. Please try again later." That is ok. Simple click on the arrow down button (next to the print symbol) to download the file. You will have no problem opening it in Publisher after you download it.
• Open the file in Microsoft Publisher. No I do not know how to convert these to a Mac compatible program...sorry.
• Download the fonts (fonts can be found on free font websites or you can use your own favorites). Here are the free fonts I used:

'Baskerville Old Face' for the numbers

'Nymphette' for the scrolls on either side of the name

'Adobe Arabic' for the names.

• Personalize the numbers, text, colors, and anything else you want to.  
• See below on how I made the design to help you with stretching text so that it fits nicely in the space provided. 
• Each row is in a separate box, so you can manipulate each row independently. Remember you can always Undo, so get creative.
• Sounds like lots of work, but the template will help you alot.

Please leave me a comment to let me know whether or not you have been able to create your own.

I hope you are able to use the downloadable files. Please let me know if you were able to do this yourself and/or if you have any issues.

What do you think? Can you make your own or will you try the template?
Stephanie