BFB God Gave Us Family

God Gave Us Family by Lisa Tawn Bergren is a cute children's book explaining what makes a family. It starts out with little pup from the wolf family asking why he is the only child in the family. He points out that of his friends, one has 8, one was adopted... Papa explains that God gives us family in many different ways. It goes on to explain about different family dynamics with working parents, some children live with grandparents, etc.

You can see another book I read by  the same author HERE.

• More Info
• Author Bio

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

Book Review: A Plain Leaving

A Plain Leaving by Leslie Gould is the first book in her The Sisters of Lancaster County. This book was so good, I read it in one day. We were travelling and it was a great time to get some reading in.

I loved the format of this story. I combined the current story of Jessica Bachmann who had walked away from the Amish faith only to return when she received word that her father had died, to the story of her ancestor Ruby Bachmann from over 400 years before whose story was a lot like Rebecca's.

Both women had 2 men who loved them, one of the Amish faith and one who was not. They both had loss of family and hard decisions to make.

It was wonderfully written in a way that makes you want to read for more. Now it will be hard to wait for the next book in the series.

**I received this book for free from Bethany House in exchange for my honest review.**

Halloween Candle and Pill Bottle

I went to throw an empty pill bottle away and thought it would make a fun pumpkin project. Well, it went a different direction. I spray painted the lid and added some fun elements. I filled it with Reese's Pieces.

More Halloween Projects

Here are a few more projects I've created...

Pencil Holder, tutorial can be found HERE

pillow box using Inky Antic's stamp

pillow box with one end not scored and punched with an oval punch to make a handle

Mini Coffee Cup Holder

I have a fun project to share with you using Dawn's tutorial for this mini coffee cup holder. You can buy the Mini Coffee Cups and Mini Coffee Cup Lids online. I have had these in my stash for a very long time. I've used a few from time to time for fun little gifts, but I really like this project.

 The straw is cut in half to fit in the little drink spot.

You can fit 2-3 snack sized candies into the cup and then the band in the back holds a gift card. What  a fun idea to give to a teacher, friend, family member with a gift card to their favorite coffee shop.

AFTER I cut one cup apart to make a pattern to add patterned paper to my cup, I came across a blog that has a free cutting file...cut file for covering coffee cup

Small Halloween Loaded Bag

This Loaded Bag is made with a smaller flat bag that I got at Hobby Lobby. The package came with orange with white polka dots and black with white polka dots.

In the front pocket a treat sized bag of Skittles. 

In the back pocket there is a pen and altered mini composition notepad. 

 cute little epoxy spider peeking out

Medium Halloween Loaded Bags 2 more...

Here are 2 more Loaded Bags using the medium sized flat gift bags.

 altered mini composition notepad

Medium Halloween Loaded Bags

Yesterday I shared a Halloween Loaded Bag using a lunch sack. Today I have 2 medium sized ones to share with you. These were made using a flat bag. Our drug store uses these when one buys a card or flat item. I had purchased some from them many years ago and decided to use them for something.

I am just going to show you the bags and items in them. If you would like any details as to any products I used, just let me know.

Loaded Halloween Gift Bag

It's been awhile since I have posted something creative. I showed some goodies that I had made to a friend and she told me I needed to put them on my blog. I've been busy canning, so today is the first time I've had a break where I could photo and edit to get something up.

I've actually made several items, so my blog will be a bit busy showing what I've created over the next few days rather than post everything here at once.

Last year when I was laid up for months with an ankle that wouldn't heal correctly, I watched a lot of YouTube videos and came across something called A Loaded Envelope. I had some sacks in my stash from many years ago and decided to take that idea and use the sacks. There were also some fun ideas on Pinterest, so this is just a accumulation of all those ideas that I saw last year and put my spin to it.

This started out as a regular sized lunch bag. Walmart has single sacks this size and I had bought a few black ones years ago to make a paper bag album and never used them.

I covered the front and back with cardstock and then folded up the bottom gusset piece and added adhesive to the sides to make a pocket. In the back pocket is a notepad and pen and cocoa packet and straw. The notepad and pen are from Walmart a couple of years ago after Halloween and marked down. I think the straws were also from Walmart. I've had them for awhile so not sure. They could have come from the Target Dollar Spot.

On the front pocket I covered one side of a clothespin with washi tape I got at the Target $ Spot and some orange gems from Dollar Tree. The sparkly ribbon is also from Target $ Spot. On the back is a magnet, so you can put it on your refrigerator and It can hold notes, etc.

close-up of the rosette, the 2 ribbons are from Target Dollar Spot and the black tulle is from May Arts ribbon

In the front pocket is a wrapped candy bar. You pull up on the bow and the candy appears. I learned how to make this push/pull project many many years ago. Orange ribbon is from May Arts Ribbon.

The bat is from Silhouette Design Store , Happy Halloween ticket stamp set, candy sticker, and rosette die are all from Tim Holtz. Designer paper was a Halloween paper pad I got at Hobby Lobby about 4 years ago. I don't know if they still carry it or not.

bat cut file: https://www.silhouettedesignstore.com/view-shape/12283
rosette die: https://www.amazon.com/Sizzix-Sizzlits-Decorative-Strip-Rosette/dp/B0044JMOIO
Happy Halloween stamp: https://www.amazon.com/Stampers-Holtz-Large-Cling-Rubber/dp/B0048IC2HY/ref=sr_1_1?s=arts-crafts&ie=UTF8&qid=1507998503&sr=1-1&keywords=tim+holtz+odds+and+ends
candy sticker: https://www.scrapbook.com/store/pp-av-th93050.html
black tulle: https://www.mayarts.com/ribbons/3-inch-tulle/