I miss you! Please come back to me!

If you are reading this post, Something is Terribly Wrong!

That's right. The only possible way you could be reading this is if you are looking at Carissa's Creativity Space through a blog feed reader of some kind. This means you are probably following me in the wrong place!

You may have noticed (or maybe you haven't) that it's been really really quiet around here. That's because back in February, I re-launched Carissa's Creativity Space as Creative Green Living.

If you want to keep up with all my tutorials, recipes, giveaways and more please use these links to re-follow me the way that make the most sense to you!

• Blog Feed - Choose Your Favorite Reader
• Twice Monthly Newsletter (summary of posts, giveaways, and faves from Pinterest and Instagram)
• Daily Emails - get an email every time a new post goes live!
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Google +
• Instagram

Whew! That's a lot of ways to stalk me!

If you are already following me as Creative Green Living, THANK YOU! I know some of you missed the first announcement so I just want to let you know I'm still here! If you have not seen the new site yet, please pop over. I'd love to hear your thoughts on my new look.

Thank you for coming on this journey with me!

ANNOUNCEMENT: Carissa's Creativity Space is becoming Creative Green Living

I am so excited to make the announcement that next week Carissa's Creativity Space is officially becoming Creative Green Living! I've been blogging in the same place for the last 6 years and am glad to have a more focused space with room to grow. I know change always comes with questions so I want to take a minute to answer some of them here.

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Why the Change?

There are several reasons but there are three primary ones:

First: Allows me to Refine my Focus

I started Carissa's Creativity Space a little over 6 years ago in the pre-facebook days. Early posts were about things like having a bad day at work, missing Seattle, a recipe I made for dinner, pictures of my dog, etc (the kinds of things that would go on Facebook...if I had been on Facebook then). It evolved to be about knitting and cupcakes. About two years ago it became a much more focused endeavor about crafts, recipes, and gardening with a special emphasis on tutorials. I was writing the kind of  posts I wanted but I also felt limited by my site's history. Changing to Creative Green Living lets me keep writing about crafts (my first love!) and recipes but allows me some more room to write about other issues I care about like green parenting and easy green lifestyle choices.

Second: Less confusing

I realize most people have probably never noticed (although it drives me bonkers!) that my site's name is Carissa's Creativity Space but my site's address is CreativeCarissa.com. They have not matched for 6 years and this issue has really been bugging me for the last 2. Creative Green Living will live at CreativeGreenLiving.com. 

Creative Green Living is also a more appropriate name name because it tells you what the site is about. If you aren't already familiar with my site, and hear Carissa's Creativity Space, do you know what the site is about? Probably some girl named Carissa doing, uh, creative stuff? It's a little vague and I want to help clear up the confusion there. Creative Green Living will open more doors for more people to join us and find the great stuff the site has to offer.

Third: More Space for Features!

I've posted my share of round ups and featured other bloggers' content here. But with my name in the title, it felt a little awkward. Creative Green Living will be an online resource featuring lots of original content but pointing readers to some of the best craft, recipe, and green living content on the web. (This also means if you are a blogger and write about any of these things, I want to feature you! Please let me know about your great crafts, recipes, gardening, green lifestyle or parenting posts!)

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What about the posts that live here?

All the previous posts from Carissa's Creativity Space have already been moved into Creative Green Living so that no project will be left behind. Over the next week, an auto re-direct will be set up so if you have a previous project pinned or bookmarked, you'll still end up in the right place!

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Improvements for Email Subscribers:

For most of the last 6 years, I have worked full time and blogged in my spare moments. Which sometimes meant going weeks in between posts. I am now a full time blogger and want to start posting more regularly (probably 5-7 times a week) but held back in part because I didn't want to flood the inboxes of e-mail subscribers! I realize that many e-mails a week can get tedious for those of you who get every single post in your inbox. Creative Green Living will give you options for how to subscribe. You can choose a weekly newsletter which will give you a re-cap of things that happened on the site that week OR you can also choose to subscribe to individual posts still. It's up to you! Want to set up your e-mail subscription, pop over here and choose how you'd like to subscribe.

Lastly:

Thank you all so much for following me on this journey!

It means a lot to me that so many of you read my e-mails and show up on my site each week. I know you will love to new site even more. I'm excited to see what the next year has in store!

Consumer Crafts Sale Through February 4th

You all know from my love of dollar store crafts that I have a special place in my heart for affordable crafting. I have discovered a new website this week that is about to give the dollar store a run for their money! They have SO many affordable supplies. Most of their things are way less than you'd get them for in a big box craft store. They are also having a sweet sale right now where everything on their site is an extra 15-25% through Feb 4th.

Right now they are focusing on their "Back to Basics" stuff. Some of the best stuff on their site is in that Craft Basics section! Wreaths, yarn, wood crafts, cutting tools, fabric crafting...so much stuff!

Check out some of the things I picked up from the Craft Basics section when I ordered this week...

 

(i have some great magnet projects in mind coming up and these were great prices)

(to dye some of my white cloth napkins that are showing wear and tear and have minor stains)

(this is the best price on printable magnet sheets I've seen. I will be using them for home school)

(i have definitely been bitten by the glitter bug...plus what a great price!)

(my old craft knife is dull and needs a replacement. now I have a great mat to use it with, too!)

(another product for a great price! i'm going to use it in my upcoming command center project)

These are just some of the things I ordered. I hope it gives you a feel for the kinds of things on the site and their everyday awesome prices (the prices shown are not the sale prices...if you order during the sale, you will pay even less). Keep in mind that due to the sale, I got 15% off on everything shown above as well!

I've got some great projects coming up with some of the stuff I ordered but in the meantime, make sure you check out their sale. While you're at it, be sure to like them on Facebook so that you can keep up with future sales and inexpensive craft ideas!

I am posting this as part of a campaign through The Blueprint Social. I have received compensation including free product from Consumer Crafts for posting this review and linking to their site. All opinions expressed in the review are 100% mine. I was not paid to give a positive review. They earned my praise by being genuinely awesome. See my full review policy here.

How to Make Yellow Tomato Soup

When I grew my garden last year, I grew several varieties of yellow tomatoes. Part of this was motivated by my fascination with non-grocery store colors of food (purple potatoes, yellow zucchini, purple carrots, etc). The other part was motivated by an amazingly delicious yellow tomato soup I was served while touring the English countryside with my grandparents when I graduated from high school. This soup was amazing enough that I remember it more than a decade later and it motivated me to grow yellow tomatoes just to recreate that soup. It was that good.

And I think I did it. When I told my husband we were having yellow tomato soup for dinner, he was skeptical but he is now a believer, too.

You'll never believe how easy it is to make tomato soup. Just add all the ingredients to a pot, simmer and then blend. You'll never want to go back to the canned stuff after this.

Ingredients

• 4 pints canned yellow tomatoes (I used 3 cans taxi, 1 can yellow brandywine. Use what you have. Even red tomatoes will turn out well)
• 1.5 onions, chopped
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 3.5 cups chicken (or veggie) broth
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp dried basil
• 2 Tbsp dried oregano
• 2 tsp dried thyme

Directions

1. Add all ingredients to a large pot and stir to combine. Bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered about 30 minutes to allow flavors to blend. Taste and adjust salt and spices as necessary. Simmer an additional 10 minutes.
3. Use an immersion blender (I like this one) to blend soup until smooth. 
4. Serve hot and garnish with Parmesan cheese and a dash of dried thyme or fresh basil leaves.

This batch turned out a little orange looking because of the orange brandywine tomatoes. To make your really yellow, use Taxi tomatoes. You can also use this recipe to make red tomato soup.

Cards for Carmen - Will You Help?

Meet Carmen. Carmen is a bright, thoughtful, sweet 8 year old girl who loves baking, cupcakes and her family. Carmen was also recently diagnosed with Extraosseous Ewing's Sarcoma...a rare form of cancer. 

I first met Carmen's mother, Jaci (like Jackie), when we were both in high school and participating in a community program for high school girls together. I've since moved away but I've remained connected with her family via Facebook and through my mom who is also friends with her family. So of course hearing that such a great kid has this huge cancer fighting journey ahead of her hit my heart.

Why am I telling you all this? Because this sweet 8 year old girl has just one wish this Valentine's Day: 

A Whole Lot of Valentines Cards

And if doing something as simple as sending a card to this great little girl will help her battle against cancer, I can definitely find some time and a stamp to make that happen!

I'm telling you guys because most of my readers are either 1) Crafters and/or 2) Moms. And I know that crafters, moms (and especially crafty moms) are the kinds of generous people who might want to help make a little girl's day by dropping a card in the mail.

So are you in?

You can send your cards to Carmen at:

Carmen G

PO Box 156

Suquamish, WA 98392

Carmen two weeks ago before deciding to preemptively shave her head

What kinds of cards would be good?

Store bought cards

Hand crafted cards

Kid crafted cards

Cards with cupcakes

Cards with Johnny Depp

Happy cards

Cute cards

Clever cards

Any Kind of Card!

If you're interested in following Carmen's journey, you can also stay connected with Carmen on the Caring for Carmen Facebook Page and the Caring for Carmen website. 

Thanks so much! Please drop me a comment and let me know if I can count on you to help send cards to Carmen!

THANK YOU!

Make a Panda Bear Hooded Towel

My son loves panda bears (love panda bears, too? You might like my panda party, panda ears tutorial or panda pancakes). Now that he's 2 and huge, he needed some bigger towels for bath time. What better creature to make a hooded towel like than his favorite snuggly panda?

I followed the same technique taught by Amber at Crazy Little Projects. If you have never made a hooded towel, do yourself a favor and read her very thorough tutorial. Then come back here and see how to adapt it to make a panda.

Supplies

• White bath towel
• White hand towel
• Black bath towel
• Black washcloth
• Fusible Interfacing (I used Heat'n Bond Lite Iron-on Adhesive)
• Matching thread
• Sewing machine, scissors, iron, Walking Foot if you have one.

Cut list:
White hand towel: Cut in half across the narrow width
Black bath towel: Cut off the top third of the towel across the longest width of the towel
Black washcloth: Cut out 4 ear shaped pieces (remember to cut them bigger than you need them). Then iron on the fusible interfacing to the remaining washcloth material. Cut out two kidney bean shaped pieces for eye shadows and a nose.

Hood

1. Fold in the front edge of the towel past any band that might be on the towel. Using white thread, sew across. This is the front edge of your hood.
2. Switch to black thread. Stitch around the curve of the ears, leaving the flat edges open. Flip ears so stitches are inside.
3. Iron down the eye patches and nose. Use a zig zag stitch to applique these pieces to the hood.
4. Cut slits in the hood where you want the ears to go. Insert ears and sew to hood from the inside.
5. Fold hood in half down the middle of the face, right sides together and sew with white thread.

(Are these instructions not making sense? They assume you're familiar with basic hooded towel construction. Be sure to read Amber's great hooded towel tute if you haven't yet.)

This is what your finished hood should look like:

Body

1. Placing right sides together and being sure to line up any bands on the narrow ends of the towels, lay the long black bath towel strip along the long edge of the white bath towel . Sew together and open. 
2. To keep the seam flat, I opened up the back side of this seam and stitched down the length of the towel on both sides.
3. Make a tuck along the top edge of the black section and pin in place (refer to Amber's tutorial).
4. Center the hood seam to line up with the tuck and sew, attaching the hood to the body of the towel

Enjoy!

Make a Book Page Pennant Banner

My latest addition to my Valentine's Day book page decor is this LOVE pennant banner (check out my Valentine's gallery wall for more great book page art ideas).  It was super easy and I love how it looks hanging on the mirror in my entry way.

Supplies

• Book pages (4)
• Red construction paper
• Scissors
• Glue stick
• Permanent marker
• Twine
• Font you like (I used Sketch Serif. You can get it here)

Instructions

Step 1: Cut your pages

I folded my pages in half and cut off the raw edge. Then I cut the bottom off at an angle to make points.

Step 2: Cut out hearts

Cut out four hearts. I made mine big enough to span the width of the text on the page. 

Step 3: Write your letters

To do my lettering, I pulled up a font I love (Sketch Serif) on my computer so I could use it as a guide for how to write my letters on my hearts using a permanent marker.

Step 4: Glue your hearts to the pennants

I used a glue stick to glue my hearts down to my book page pennants.

Step 5: Attach to twine

I cut a length of thick garden twine long enough to hang across my mirror plus about 6 inches. I folded down the top margin of the book pages, which made a nice little pocket for the twine. Then I glued down the edge on the back with the glue stick (and added a piece of scotch tape for back up).

That's it!  Super easy and quick

Valentine's Gallery Art Wall (and free printable)

Until recently, I have not been one for "themed" Valentine's decor. In fact, I normally don't decorate for Valentine's Day and opt for cranberry colored winter berry decor to last from Christmas until Spring. This year, though, I have been loving book page crafts (it all started with my book page pumpkins) and decided I wanted book pages and red hearts to be my 2013 Valentine's Day theme. Considering our level of book nerdiness and the size of our library, books are especially appropriate for us.

I have a narrow wall in our downstairs half bath that was more than ready for an art update. I picked up 5 frames from the dollar store (2 8x10 size and 3 5x7 size) and got to work.

Supplies

• Frames (2 of 8x10 size and 3 of 5x7 size)
• Old book
• Glue
• Red construction paper
• Printer
• Cardstock
• Poster board ($0.50 from Dollar Tree for a huge piece)
• Permanent marker
• Embroidery thread
• Paint and paint brushes

Painted Heart

To make this one, I glued down several pages to the back of the default image paper than came in the frame.  Once it was dry, I painted a heart with watered down red acrylic paint and added some black accents. I like that the heart is see through and you can still see the words on the back side.

Cut Out "Specimen" Hearts

For this one, I printed out the lyrics of the song that was sung at our wedding (A Page is Turned by Bebo Norman - totally ties into the book nerd theme!) onto a piece of cardstock and used it for a mat. I cut some extra hearts out of the lyrics and glued them down onto a piece of red construction paper with some colored hearts (I decided on black for contrast). 

Song Lyrics Tree

This was inspired by this pin. Sadly, there is no original source - it just points to a tumblr blog. Let this be a lesson - if you're a blogger, watermark your stuff! That way if you picture becomes unmatched from the source people can find you. But I digress. The tree is another piece of cardstock with the Page is Turned lyrics on it. Then I tied red hearts onto the branch with embroidery floss. Mine is admittedly not nearly as pretty as the original but I still like it.

Pop Out Heart Art

This was inspired by this 3D Butterfly Art. I turned a book page sideways and drew hearts on the back. I cut around most of the edge, leaving a core in the middle to keep the heart attaached when folding up the sides. I slipped a piece of red construction paper in behind it and put it in the frame in front of the glass.

Printed Branch with Hearts

To make this one, I cut a piece of book paper to 5x7 and then told my printer to print the graphic as if it were a 5x7 photo. I should have reduced the amount of ink it used because it did take a little while to dry but I really like how it looks. 

If you like it, I'm sharing my printable graphic with you guys. You can try printing it on a book page like I did or onto regular cardstock for use in your valentine crafting. Click here to download the full size heart branch graphic for printing.

Thanks for stopping by!