Happy New Year!!

Hello, Friends! Just a short and sweet post today, as I caught the flu from my hubby and son and have been under the weather for the past couple of days. Definitely NOT a fun way to ring in the new year.

Anyhoo, I would like to wish each and everyone of my blog readers a WONDERFUL new year! I hope that your 2013 will be filled with lots of love, laughter, peace, joy, prosperity and happiness! Thank you for being a part of my little world during the past year...I hope that you continue to read and enjoy the articles that I share with you here at Scrappin' Becky B., and that I can bring a little smile, a giggle, some inspiration, a creative or useful idea to your life with the subjects that I share. I truly appreciate your comments/feedback!

Have a fun and safe New Year's Eve and New Year's Day! Oh, and PLEEEEASE don't drink and drive...have a designated driver and a plan in place before you begin to celebrate. I do not want the new year to begin or end with a terrible, heartbreaking tragedy for anyone!

May God richly bless you in 2013,

Recipe of the Week: Spicy Cream Cheese Chicken Rollups

Hello, Friends! I hope that you had a terrific Christmas! My sweet hubby was recuperiting from the flu, and our son came down with it, so we just stayed home so as not to infect anyone else! Our son only lives about 3 miles from us, so I ran some ham, scalloped potatoes, hot rolls and cranberry salad over to his apartment and put it all in his fridge so he could enjoy some good food when he got to feeling better.

With  New Year's Eve only a few days away, I thought I would share a recipe with you for a wonderfully yummy appetizer...Spicy Cream Cheese Chicken Rollups. There are lots and lots of variations of rollups, but this is my version...I hope you enjoy it!

Ingredients:

•  2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts or 4-5 chicken tenders
• 1 jar diced pimentos, drained
• 1 can sliced green chiles, drained
• 1 - 8 oz. pkg. low-fat cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 8 - 10 flour tortillas
• chili powder and cumin to taste
• salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Grease a casserole dish and set aside. On a cutting board sprinkle both sides of chicken with chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper. Place seasoned chicken in prepared casserole dish, cover with foil, and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. Once chicken is cooked, shred chicken with forks. (OR, if you have a KitchenAid mixer, toss cooked chicken into the mixing bowl and using paddle attachment beat chicken at a medium-high speed to shred it. I learned this AWESOME tip from Pinterest...worked like a charm!!)

Toss drained pimentos, green chiles, softened cream cheese, shredded cheddar and garlic powder into mixing bowl with shredded chicken. Mix until all ingredients are comined. Spread mixture on flour tortillas, roll up, place on large plate or cookie sheet, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm. Before serving, slice each rollup into about 1 inch thick pieces, place on pretty serving dish, and serve. (NOTE: to keep from crushing/smashing rollups, when slicing I use dental floss instead of a knife. Simply wrap a strand of dental floss around rollup, criss-cross the floss on top and pull taught...TADAH!! Perfectly sliced, unsmashed, pretty rollups!!)

These are great served alone or with warm Rotel cheese dip. Be sure to refrigerate any leftovers!

Wishing you a fun and safe weekend!!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas filled with peace, joy and love!

Blessings,

Last Minute Gift Idea Tutorial: Ribbon Lip Balm Key Chain

TADAH!! Here's the tutorial that I promised to post...it's a lip balm holder, (made from ribbon!), to attach to a key chain! I made and gave these away to several of my gal pals for Christmas, and I think they would make terrific stocking stuffers. They are really quick and easy to create, so you will have time to whip up a few of these just in time for Christmas for the gals in your life too!

Begin with a roll of 1 1/2" grosgrain ribbon. (I love all of the pretty designs that grosgrain ribbon now comes in!) Cut the ribbon into 7" lengths:

Fold the ends of the ribbon under twice and press to hold the folds in place to make stitching easier:

Next cut 1/4" grosgrain ribbon into 2" lengths. These will form the loop to hold the key ring on your lip balm holder:

Now for a little basic stitching! Fold the ribbon in half, aligning the sides and folded top ends. Stitch along one side of the folded ribbon as shown, using about a 1/8" seam allowance:

Flip the lip balm holder over. Slide a key ring onto the 2" piece of ribbon which has been folded in half. Tuck the ends of the 1/4" ribbon inside the upper edge of the 1 1/2" piece of folded ribbon as shown here:

Carefully stitch down the side of the ribbon that has the key ring loop as shown here:

Cut away any strings. Your lip balm holder should look like this:

If desired, hand stitch a decorative button along the seam on the front. Insert a tube of lip balm and then attach the key ring to your key chain:

And now you'll never again need to dig through your purse in search of lip balm! :)

Just for fun, I created a couple of lip balm holders from denim...I tore the denim into strips to give a fringed look before stitching. I had a couple of cute ladybug charms in my stash, so I stitched them to the fronts and added mini crocheted flowers and glittery button flowers as well:

Thanks for checking out my tutorial...I hope I've inspired you to make some of these cute little lip balm holders to give away to the ladies in your life this Christmas! After all, with winter upon us who wouldn't appreciate a fun, yet practical, gift like this to ward off chapped lips?? :)

Wishing you a blessed day,

Oh There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays...

I love decorating our home for Christmas, so today I thought I'd give you a little tour of our home by sharing a few pics of our holiday decorations. The first decorations you'll spot are on our front porch and front door:

As you enter the foyer, you'll spot a little Santa collection on the side table. The snowman and bushel basket are a couple of my Affair of the Heart finds, which decorate a corner in the foyer:

Right off of the foyer on the right is Mike's "man room", so I decorated a little spot in there with a fun antique sled and old ice skates that I purchased at Affair of the Heart. The camo/hunter snowman was a gift from my friend Stacey...isn't he adorable?

 Although this isn't a Christmas decoration, it's the newest addition to "man room"...the mount of the buck that Mike harvested last year.  (I'm thinking that maybe I should have hung some ornaments or something from the antlers just to be festive...bahaha!!...just kiddin'!!)

Since we spend so much time in the kitchen, I always like to add a few decorations around the top of my kitchen cabinets:

Here's our little dining area...

Here is a close-up of the vases I filled with ornaments to create a centerpiece for the table:

A close-up of the top shelf of the baker's rack in the corner:

On Pinterest I saw a dining room light that had been decorated for the holidays, so I decided to use some ribbons and ornaments that I had on hand to add a little pizazz to our light:

Remember back in November when I went to Affair of the Heart with my friends Jamie and Joy? Well, one of the uber-cool finds that I brought home was this old wash tub with a snowman painted on it:

Well, here's why I bought it...to put our Christmas tree in! We downsized this year to a 6 1/2 foot skinny tree, and I knew that I wanted to find something unique to display it in. I think the washtub fits the bill nicely, don't you?

Here's a close-up shot of the coffee table with the cute Santa and sled that I also purchased at Affair of the Heart in November:

Last, but not least, here's my little nativity set which decorates the top of our piano. My mom gave me the piano earlier this year, and I would love to take lessons in the near future.

Thanks for dropping by today! Be sure to check back this week for a quick gift tutorial that I know you'll want to make for all of the gals on your Christmas list!

Have a wonderful week, friends!

WHEW!! Counting Down to Christmas...

Can you believe that Christmas is only 12 days away??? WHEW!! Between work and trying to get some last minute Christmas projects finished up, I've been mega busy! I'll be posting lots of Christmas goodness on my blog next week, so be sure to stay tuned! One of the posts that you'll see will be a tutorial on how to make a SUPER CUTE gift for the gals in your life...they are perfect stocking stuffers! (Sorry that I can't give you the details or post pics yet...I don't want to ruin the surprise for my peeps!!)

My family will be coming to our home this weekend for an early Christmas celebration, and Justin will be playing his guitar with our church's praise and worship team this Sunday. It will be a special Christmas music presentation, and I can hardly wait to hear him and the others play! After next week, school will be closed for 2 weeks for Christmas break - YIPPEE!! - so I'm reeeeally looking forward to a couple of weeks of just padding around the house hanging out with my little dog Tony and working on crafty projects!

If you're not already in the Christmas spirit, maybe this funny photo of Tony with a little reindeer hat on will get you in a holiday mood...

Isn't he just so cute?!?!?

Enjoy your weekend, be safe, and don't forget to check back here next week for some Christmas fun!

Quote Sunday

Blessings,

Silly Saturday

Today is my pal Jamie's birthday!!! Happy birthday and hugs to you, girlie!!

Have a fun and safe weekend!!

Engagement Card

TGIF folks!! Just a quick post today to show you the engagement card that I created to go with the Mason jar goblets I made for Trevor and Chelsea's upcoming wedding reception.

Have a great day and a terrific weekend!!

Mason Jar Goblet Tutorial

The oldest son of my best bud Jamie is getting married later this month. (Congrats Trevor and Chelsea!) It will be a country themed wedding, and the bride/groom want Mason jar goblets for the reception. So, being the crafty and thrifty kind of gal that I am, I told Jamie that I could make the goblets for a lot less than they would pay for them for at a specialty shop!

Here's how I made them:

I purchased 2 glass candlesticks from the Dollar Tree for a buck each. I then picked up two Mason jars with handles from Hobby Lobby using a 40% off coupon. I also bought some Liquid Fusion adhesive at Hobby Lobby, which will hold the the glass pieces together nicely.

Begin by thoroughly washing and drying all of your glassware:

Next, squeeze a generous amount of Liquid Fusion around the top rim of the candlestick. Place the Mason jar on top of the adhesive area of the candlestick, centering the candlestick on the base of the Mason jar. Repeat with the second goblet and set aside to dry.

Once the adhesive has completely dried, and the jar is firmly attached to the base, tie some pretty coordinating ribbon to the handles of the goblets. Since the wedding colors are black and red, I chose red satin ribbon and black polka-dot organza ribbons for my bows. Here's another look at one of the finished goblets:

And there you have it...cute, country Mason jar goblets for a fraction of the cost that you would pay for them at a boutique!

I hope you've found this little tutorial helpful and that you have a wonderful day!!

Happy Crafting!

Scrap-It-Girl's December Challenge: Tick Tock...Let's See a Clock!

Happy Monday, Friends! This month's challenge over at Scrap-It-Girl is to create a project with a clock. You can use an actual clock, a photo of a clock, paper with clocks, clock charms...you get the idea!

The winner of this month's challenge will receive this fun prize package:

Contents of this package include the following items:

• Cosmo Cricket 8×8 Art Angel paper pad; matching element deck and chip board stickers
• Mini chip board flower book
• Snow flake grommets
• Scrap perfect glue
• Twine
• Buttons
• Tickets
• Webster’s Pages trim and mini petals
• Tim Holtz mask

The challenge is open through December 31st, and you can link up your project HERE. I can hardly wait to see your terrific clock projects!!

 

Have a great week!!