Epic Letterpress Machine Giveaway

Okay, this is a pretty big deal here on my blog. I have an awesome giveaway and review to share with you about the Epic Letterpress Machine. I was able to get my hands on one and try this bad boy out. It is the slickest thing since the Silhouette and Cricut cutting machine.

I personally love the look of letterpressing and wish I had a machine of my own. But forget it, when you think about the learning curve, the cost and production to have one. But now I (and you) can have one! And it is easy to store, easy to use and easy to create. This little machine allows you to letterpress your own cards, tags and really anything you want.



I was a little nervous to get the machine out to play with, thinking it would take a long time to get the printing right and that it would take a long time to learn how to use the machine. But, it wasn't hard at all. It was very, very simple. I just read their little booklet with 4-5 easy steps and I was producing cards (and good looking cards) right away. It is amazing how something so nice can really be so simple to use.

Sorry the photo doesn't show the embossing as well... I wish I could make it better for you to see how crisp and clean it is.

I am more of a simple and less is more kind a gal, so I really, really love the plain, clean look of just the embossed card without any ink or embellishments. Clean, white and embossed. I think that is beautiful all on its own. But then of course i had to work with the ink and colors and again, just the simple colored letterpress pattern make such a statement!





The Epic Letterpress Machine has so many cute letterpress plate designs that it is easy and fun to create cards based on any occasion. Weddings, birthdays, greeting cards, thanks you cards, etc. So many options. And they have a great blog that is full of inspiration and great letterpress ideas.

Lastly, this machine not only letterpresses but it die cuts too. And the reason I love this feature so much is because i can cut shapes around items that I have already printed onto cardstock. WIth my cricut it is hard to use paper I have already printed something on and then cut around the item I printed. But with the Epic Machine, I can cut shapes around my printed text... I love that!

Now for the best part... the giveaway! I have a Epic Letterpress Kit to giveaway to one lucky Bushel and a Peck reader. The giveaway is for the kit you see above. It runs from today until midnight April 6th! All you have to do is leave a comment on this post telling me if you have every heard of this neat little letterpress machine and your favorite letterpress plate designs. Click here to view them.

And I also have a special discount for my readers. You will receive 20% off of anything from www.lifestylecrafts.com. Use the promo code - BLOGBUSHEL now through April 6th for this discount.

Good luck. I know that whoever wins this giveaway is going to love this little machine. You can do so much with it and it will make you look like a crafting star!

Birthday Planning again

So, I have my soon-to-be 7 year old daughter's birthday coming up in a little over a month and i have already been preparing. She wants another Alice in Wonderland party and why not? It really is a great party to throw! So, here is a a few of my birthday preparations... a sneak peak!

Silhouette Fabric Projects

I got my hands on some Silhouette Fabric Interfacing and so I got straight to work on creating some fun projects.

I wanted to create a shirt for my son's birthday party that is coming up ( in two months... i am planning ahead big time). And then thought, why not create a matching banner too. You can't tell, but the letters on the banner are in the same brown polkadots. He will be turning two so we are having a puppy party, since he loves dogs. It was a toss up between cows and dogs, but dogs won.

This fabric interfacing is great for cutting fabric on your cutting machine. I have tried to cut fabric on my machine before, but it wasn't that easy to do. This stuff makes it easy.

And great news! Silhouette is offering A Bushel and a Peck readers a fantastic deal! You can get a Silhouette SD machine, one of each fabric interfacing (clean cut & sewable) and a roll of white flocked heat transfer material for $229.

Just so you know: the clean cut interfacing is thicker and used on projects that you won't be washing (like my banner). And the sewable interfacing is for projects that will be washed so need to be sewn to keep the fabric from fraying and being destroyed (like my shirt).

Also, readers that already have a Silhouette can get 25% off fabric interfacing. This promotion will run from March 21st through the 27th. Just use the code “craftsrock” to get these great deals!

St. Patty's Day Treat

We made these little St. Patrick's Day treats for teachers. Cute and easy, my kid of craft. I got the idea from here.

searching for...

calling all ideas and help from my fellow bloggers. Does anyone have any ideas where I can find a tree like this. This would be the perfect tree (from Pottery Barn Kids) if it weren't for the pastel leaves. I am looking for a tree like this to use for any holiday season. To I can hang different holiday ornaments on the tree. If anyone has any ideas where I can find something like this I would be soooo grateful!

Disney Trip

We went to Disneyland last weekend. It was fairly busy (busier than I thought it would be), but we had fun (of course). We ate had Breakfast with Minnie and got to meet Gepetto for the first time. We had fantastic seats for World of Color (no obstructed view) and we were 2nd row center for the Alladin show.

We finally saw and met Buzz after all these years of going to the park. I didn't even know he was out and about until a few months ago, so this trip I was bound and determined to find him and get our picture with him.

Hannah stayed up each night to shut the park down with her dad. She definitely has her dad in her. It didn't phase her at all to stay up late, really late. She is the perfect companion for Chris.

This might be our last trip for awhile, since our passes don't work on the weekends until September, so that is it... we are officially on a Disney break.

Growing Handprints

We have a collection of handprints of our children. About every year or so, we paint the palms of the kids hands (which they love) and make handprints on canvas blocks. Well, I remembered I haven't done it for awhile and so we did it last week for Family Home Evening.

Here is our collection. It is growing nice and big and so are my kids.... this is proof.

Activity Days - Modesty Fashion Design

I wasn't able to go to Activity Days this week, but I sent this activity along for the girls to do. I got the activity from here (I love that everyone shares ideas on the web, so we can all benefit from each others talents and creativity!).

The pictures comes from Wendy's Activities too.

Daddy Daughter Dance

Hannah had her Daddy Daughter Dance last week. She was so excited to go. She kept saying how happy she was to go out with her dad - just the two of them. And to make it even more special, her dad got her a corsage for her to wear. She loved the flowers and was so excited to show it to me.

When she came home after the dance and ice cream... she told me the best part was the ice cream (no big surprise!) And she told her dad, that if she were with me.... I would have said "no to ice cream, because it was too late). My motto to the family is that dad is definitely the fun parent! She clearly is aware of that.

I love these special nights when your children are so excited to just be with you and have the special one on one time. I can't wait until I can go to the Mommy and son dance!

Flamingo Party Thank Yous

Here are the thank yous that we sent out for Ella's birthday party. They painted the ceramic pieces and then I went and got them glazed and fired and returned them with a thank you note. Simple and done!

Need to Know About Bread!

I found this post very interesting about store-bought bread. Information I didn't know about and information I think the general public should know.

I buy Great Harvest Bread, but mostly for myself. For the kids I buy whole wheat bread (they don't know what white bread is). But after reading this information about store bought bread... I am thinking it is GHB for them too or possibly I just might start baking bread myself. I don't have a bread maker, but it might be my next big purchase.

Key Points to know:

Your bread should be whole wheat
It should have more grams of fiber than sugar
The cheaper the bread the worse it is for you. The more expensive, the better.

It is amazing how bad and un-nutritiuos our food is becoming. So many thoughts, but I won't get on my soap box today. But this post is worth a read.

I made so many tissue pom poms for Ella's birthday party. My girls love them so much and don't like me to take them down, so I had an idea. Why not put them in their room as decoration. And that is exactly what i did. All fourteen of them. Now the girls can enjoy them while making their room all the more festive and cute.

Now looking at the picture, I think I need to make one more to balance out the sides of the room :-)

President's Day Excursion

We decided that for our day off, we would head up to the mountains and enjoy some time in the snow. We left our town with sun and blossoms coming out on the trees to a snow-filled winterland. A mere 45 miles later and we were deep in snow, snow, snow.

The kids went sledding. Ella only did it a couple of times (we are finding out that Ella is a bit more timid and nervous about things than we originally suspected). But because we weren't really dressed for the snow (jeans and tennis shoes), Ella got cold and went back to the car. But not until after we took a beautiful walk through the forest.

Hannah on the other hand, loved every minute of it and just kept sledding and sledding and sledding. Jake loved it too. He was so cold with his little teeth and chin chattering, but had a smile on his face the whole time and just loved being in it all. He fell once and wasn't loving the wet, cold sensation on his hands and legs, but as long as he was held or on a sled, he has happy as could be.

We have since decided it is a great family activity and will be investing in snow clothes, boots, gloves and sleds.

Ella's Birthday Cont'd

This is the last of Ella's birthday celebration pictures. Between her birthday, school class celebration and her party, there were a lot of pictures. These pictures of from her classroom birthday celebration. The kids in her class made her this birthday banner which we had up in our house for awhile.



And these are the treats I took to share with Ella's class. I printed up the brown paper bags and altered this design to fit Ella's birthday. Simple donut holes with sprinkles are always a winner! And how easy too!

Activity Days: Daughters of God

For Activity Days last week. I had the girls trace their body on a big roll of butcher paper. Than each girl decorated their bodies with yarn for hair, draw their faces and clothes. Then we used magazines to cut out things that represent each girl as they see themselves and also how Heavenly Father sees them. The important traits they possess as daughters of God. They put those items on their clothes like patches or t-shirt designs.

You could also bring gems and sequins to have the girls use as bracelets, necklaces and earrings. To "bling" things up a bit :-)

I talked to the girls about how in Primary they learn all about what it means to be a Child of God. But that as they get older and enter Young Women's they will learn what it means to be a Daughter of God. And we discussed those important traits.

The girls had fun decorating themselves and I hope their "bodies' are hanging up in the room to remind them of the importance of being a Daughter of God.

Flamingo Birthday Party: The Details

Here are the details to the party.

I decided to make the water bottles cute (like every other birthday party out there in blog land). I loved the flamingo straws I found. I found these "giant" marshmellows at Winco and thought I better dip them in chocolate and pink sprinkles. I made these easy ham and cheese sandwiches (without the poppyseeds) and the rest of the lunch consisted of: chips, cheese stick, grapes, carrots and half a frozen go-gurt. I figured a nice variety of food would cover all the different kids tastes.

We played "Pin the Feather on the Flamingo". I made the big flamingo and then made feathers with each kids name on them. One kid hit the mark exactly!


I found cute inflatable flamingo drink holders and put cute flamingo cups in them filled with candy and a little flamingo sucker. Can you tell our life was all about flamingos for a few weeks?


Here is the kitchen. I love the tissue pom-poms. They are easy, cheap and soo darn cute! That was about half of them. I had a bunch more when you walked into the house.

I made bags for the kids to hold all there candy in for the pinata.


I got these aprons and fancied them up a bit. I painted glitter flamingos on them and then added pink bows for the girls and blue buttons for the boys.


Like I already mentioned in my previous post, the big activity was each kid got to paint a ceramic hotrod bank for the boys and a heart box for the girls. This was a really fun activity for the kids and they did pretty well... thanks to all the parents that helped and stuck around :-)

Lastly, in case you missed it, here were the invitations I sent out.

Ella's 4th Birthday

I think I mentioned before that when I asked Ella what kind of party she wanted for her birthday, she answered "Flamingo!" I wasn't sure what we were going to do, but Flamingos it was. After months of thinking about it, here is what we did for her party.

Here was her cake. It was my first attempt at a double layer cake. I am definitely not a cake person. I am surprised the thing held up to be honest with you. But luckily it did! I used a glittery gel which kept running until I put the cake outside to firm up a bit.

We played lots of games and one of them was Flamingo Toss. The kids loved this game! It is the game they kept going back to whenever we were between activities.

Because it was a flamingo party, we had a one-legged standing contest to see who could stand on their one leg the longest. They really liked this game too.

The big activity was having the kids paint their own ceramic pieces. I have a friend that could get me supplies at cost, which made the activity very doable. I picked out car banks for the boys and Ella wanted heart boxes for the girls. The kids painted their own pieces and had a blast doing it. (I am getting the pieces fired up and will return them to the kids with their thank you cards.)

These are just a few pictures of the kids painting their pieces.



Jake enjoying some birthday cookie.

A few other things: we had a flamingo pinata that the kids tried to destroy, but since we had to do it inside and we didn't use a hard bat, we ended up just throwing the candy. But like the kids cared, they were just excited about flying candy.

Overall, it was a great party. The kids had fun. Ella loved having all her friends in the house and I was happy with how it all turned out. Pictures of all the details are coming soon.

Birthday Dessert!

What a week! It started out with Valentine's Day and ended with Ella's 4th birthday. We had a little family celebration on her actual birthday with presents and a new family tradition.... sprinkle pancakes.

I came across this idea and recipe and fell in love with it. I love it because I don't really need two cakes around the house (there was one for her birthday party), so this is a great idea to have a fun birthday dessert without another cake. And besides who doesn't love cake, pancakes and sprinkles. This is all in one!

I also thought it was perfect because one of the few foods Ella eats are pancakes. So, I knew she would eat it. But believe it or not, she didn't because of the sprinkles. Who is this kid? But that is a whole other story.

She loved finally turning four years old. She has been waiting for months to finally say "I am four." And now she finally can. You could tell she was so pleased to have the whole day be about her!

More to come about her flamingo birthday party!

Teacher's Valentine's

This year I saw this idea floating around the blog world. It was so cute and simple, yet fun... I thought that is what we are going to give to teachers this year and we did! It is great because the kids can help dip the fortune cookies. It is a fun activity to do together and I think the teachers liked it too.

Here is a link to my labels for download.
Enjoy!

Our Valentine's Day

A day late, but I wanted to post about our valentine's day. Mostly so it is documented and I will know where to find it next year when I am trying to remember what I did.

Valentine's morning, we had placed a small gift (I had purchased during the holidays for super cheap and thought why not give it to them now) at the table. Along with love notes, Chris and I wrote to the girls. We put them in their mailboxes with a little treat. The girls loved coming down for breakfast and seeing their valentine's day surprise.

The best part was that Hannah was more excited about the love notes than the present. It was the first thing she went for and I loved watching her read her letters to herself and then look up and with a big smile and an "ahhh" give us a hug. I know how much she loves to be loved and these letters definitely made her feel loved. Which made me so happy!

Ella might have cared a bit more about the present than the letters, but come on what 3 year and 352 day old wouldn't.

Later that night, for dinner we had an all heart valentine's dinner. I got the idea here! It was perfect for the age of our kids and especially for my picky eater. We had smoothies, heart shaped pancakes, strawberry syrup, strawberries cut like hearts and crescent-stuffed hearts. I also made Glass Stained Jello Hearts. My picture doesn't look that appealing, but they are fun and yummy.

Since it was Monday night, for Family Home Evening, we cut out hearts and wrote all the reasons why we love each member of the family and stuck them on our window. The kids loved this activity and loved coming up with reasons why we love. Ella loved practicing her writing too. A few of her hearts have her name on them and that is it... but why not? ... we all love Ella! :-)