Happy Thanksgiving Freebie + Grab Bag GIVEAWAY!

It's the Sam & Hailey Designs

Black Friday Blowout Sale!

50% off Everything Sam & Hailey

Friday and Saturday only!  Shop early starting Thanksgiving Day, too!


Click to Shop Now!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!  I hope today you've given a few minutes thought to all the wonderful blessings in your life.  Here are my top 6 {not necessarily in order of importance}!

1. My Heavenly Father and my Savior, Jesus Christ

2. My hubby and kids

3. Grandbabies

4. Being together with my brothers and sister on Thanksgiving for the first time in years

5. My Mom and Dad

6. The fact that chemotherapy seems to finally be having a positive response for my Mom!  Best news I've had all year!

Okay, number 7 definitely has to be all of you!  Faithful blog readers, new friends, old friends, customers, and those who've just stumbled upon me for the first time.  You are all wonderful and I'm so grateful for you.  So, this weekend, In order to give back, not only am I having the amazing sale {see above}, I've also got a little die cut design to show you all how I feel.  I hope you can use it to show someone else how you feel about them!  After you've downloaded your freebie, be sure to keep reading to find out how you can get a chance to win the November VDBC Grab Bag GIVEAWAY!

This one would be a nice addition to a card or scrapbook layout.  Have fun with it!

Boring but Important Legal Stuff: My terms of use are included in each zipped download. If you have any questions about how you may use this file, please read it. By clicking to download the file, you are agreeing to abide by the terms. If you'd like to share it, please don't. Rather, send your friends a link to this blog post. Once it's no longer available as a freebie, you might be tempted to share it with someone. Please don't! 'Nuf said!

Sorry! This download is no longer available. Look for it and more in the Sam & Hailey Designs Store!

Okay, want to find out how you can win the fabulous November VDBC Grab Bag?  This is a grab bag chock full of awesome cuts.  Three from Sam & Hailey Designs, three from Show Me Scrappin' Cuts, and three from Chris Durnan!  Sweet!  If you already have this November Grab Bag, it's okay, I'll trade it in for a $7 gift code to the Sam & Hailey Designs store!  

Here's how to enter:

1.  Like Sam & Hailey Designs on Facebook (if you already do, that's okay, you can still enter).

2.  Leave a ♥ or type the word "Love" on the Sam & Hailey Designs Facebook Wall.

3.  Come back here and leave a comment saying that you did so!  Be sure to include your name and a way to contact you.  You'll want to leave your Facebook name in your comment so I can verify you completed steps one and two!  

This giveaway will be open until Sunday night 11/27.  One winner will be chosen at random on Monday from all entries that qualify!  Don't forget to do all three steps or you won't be able to win!

I hope you've all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and have a wonderful weekend!

Time to get crafty, people!

Fantabulous Friday Freebie: Thanksgiving Cupcake Wrapper Sample + Recipe

Weekly Wrap-Up:
Make Your Own Monday: Chevron Paper
Trendwatch Tuesday: Chevrons
Project Wednesday: Subway Art on a Shutter

Soooo..... Thanksgiving is really next week?  You aren't kidding me?  I know any moment I'm going to wake up and it will still be October.  Pinch me... please!

No?  Well, I suppose it's time to face reality.  And that reality is that I'm way behind on just about everything!

If you are feeling like me, be sure to check out the VDBC Annual Holiday Gift Giving Guide for quick and easy gift ideas.  It's so huge, we had to do it in two parts!

VDBC Annual Holiday Gift Giving Guide - Part 1

VDBC Annual Holiday Gift Giving Guide - Part 2

If you are going ahead with this "Thanksgiving is next week" concept, I might as well help out with a little recipe and a little free sample.  Who doesn't love free samples?  Oh, and there's going to be another BOGO deal in the mix, too.

First, I'd like to share with you the easiest and most delicious muffin recipe you'll ever taste, make, or lick the bowl from.  It's No-Measure Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins.  It took longer to type that name thank it does to make them.  Seriously easy and hilariously delicious.  I'm also sharing my secret muffin baking methods.  I guess they won't be secret anymore.  But it's too good to keep to myself.

You may have seen as similar recipe floating around the pinterest-sphere.  That recipe insists that just the cake mix and pumpkin will make great muffins.  I'm sure they'll be fine, but I think the eggs are my secret ingredient for getting fluffier muffins.  I wouldn't make them without the eggs but you certainly can try.

And as for the chocolate chip addition... welll, duh!   What doesn't taste better with chocolate chips?  Okay, maybe a few things wouldn't but just go with me here.  They totally enhance the muffin experience, so put them in.

FYI, you can also substitute other cake flavors.  Spice is my favorite, though.

Pin It

No-Measure Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 box Spice Cake Mix
1 can Pumpkin
2 eggs
1/2 bag of chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400° F.

Combine the first three ingredients in your mixer and beat.  Stir in chocolate chips.

Fill muffin tins and bake for 10 minutes.  Reduce heat to 350° F and bake for 15-20 minutes longer.

Remove from muffin tins and cool on a wire rack.

Jan's Tips for Big Muffins

You know you want big muffins with a high dome, right?  But every time you make muffins they come out looking like measly little cupcakes, barely risen out of the pan.  Here's my secrets for getting the highest, fluffiest dome on a muffin.

1. Fill your muffin cups almost full (not 2/3 like some recipes will tell you).  This will require that you have a fairly thick batter.  If your muffin batter has a cake batter like consistency, add some more flour until it's more like brownie batter.

2. Fill any empty muffin cups with water.  The recipe above will make about 14 standard sized muffins.  If you only have 1 muffin tin that makes a dozen muffins, don't fill all the cups the first time around.  Leave a few empty and fill the empty ones with water.  A nice humid oven is good for muffins.

3. Bake the first 10 minutes on a higher temperature.  Then lower down to the regular temperature for the rest of the baking time.  Why does this work?  I have no idea, it just does, so I go with it.

Seriously, just look at the size of the dome on that muffin!

Now, what's a delicious muffin without a pretty wrapper?  I couple of weeks ago I tried making Pumpkin-Apple muffins using some pretty autumn patterned cupcake papers.  Wow, what a mistake that was!  The muffins stuck to the wrappers like undeserved fame on a Kardashian. Won't make that mistake again!  For Thanksgiving, how about cutting out some "post-baking" decorative Cupcake Wrappers!

This one is from my Cupcake Wrappers - Thanksgiving set.  So easy and so pretty!  Just pup the muffin inside and you've got instant eye candy.

Before I give away a little free sample, I want to let you know that if you buy the whole set of Thanksgiving Cupcake Wrappers from the Sam & Hailey Designs store this weekend, you'll get my Thanksgiving Placecards set absolutely free!  More fun and easy Thanksgiving decorations for free? Why yes, thank you!  I'll have seconds! Remember to get the deal, you'll need to put both of those products in your cart at the same time.  Don't make me have to track you down to give you your free file!

Okay, on to your free sample!  Gobble up this Pilgrim Hat and Leaf Cupcake Wrapper right now!

Boring but Important Legal Stuff: My terms of use are included in each zipped download. If you have any questions about how you may use this file, please read it. By clicking to download the file, you are agreeing to abide by the terms. If you'd like to share it, please don't. Rather, send your friends a link to this blog post. Once it's no longer available as a freebie, you might be tempted to share it with someone. Please don't! 'Nuf said!

This design will be up until Monday. Get it while it's hot! Click to wrap up your favorite file type:

Sorry!  This download has expired!  Look for this design and plenty of others in the Sam & Hailey Designs store!

Don't forget about that BOGO deal!  Only good through Monday!

Time to get crafty, people!

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Project Wednesday: Subway Art on a Shutter

Every once in a while I venture out of my hermit-like existence.  I like home.  I'm the epitome of the term Homebody.  When I do make it out, it's usually to go shopping.  I try to go with a purpose when I do shop.  Sometimes, like last week, I just feel like wandering the aisles.  Lucky for me, I did this at the local thrift instead of Walmart or Target.  Also, lucky for me, they happened to have some interesting things.  Like this sort-of-old shutter.  It was marked $4.  It really must have been my lucky day because all yellow tags were half of.  Score!  A $2 shutter!

My dear husband, if he were reading this, would roll his eyes and say... "Oh great, how I'm going to have an old shutter hanging around the garage."  Well... to him I say... Ha!  I actually did something with it!  "It's a miracle", he says... I know him as well as he knows me.

I decided that I would take one of the designs I made for the November VDBC Grab Bag and make a Subway Art piece for Thanksgiving decor.  SO, without further ado...

Today's project is... Subway Art on a Shutter

Here's my fabulous find from the thrift.  The paint job on the shutter was more bad-paint-job than vintage-paint-job.  So, I skipped the vintage look and went for sleek shiny painted look.  Either way works for me!  Just call me eclectic... really... do... I prefer it to scatterbrained or cluttered.

I first painted the side I plan to apply my vinyl to.  About 30 seconds into the paint job, the nozzle miraculously stuck open.  This might be a bad thing, but I used it to my advantage and painted the whole thing in one gulp {so to speak}.  It sure saved me from getting "spray paint finger" for which I am grateful.  Luckily, I was able to turn it off when I was done.

In all, it took two cans of paint to cover both sides of the shutter.  I think it turned out quite nice! Since I wasn't planning to actually use this as a shutter, I didn't bother taking any of the hardware off.  I just painted the whole thing.  Remember, deep down, I'm lazy.

After allowing the paint to completely dry, I applied some nifty vinyl decals to it.  I cut them from my Subway Art- Thanksgiving design.  This is only available as part of the November VDBC Grab Bag in case you were wondering.

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I took each part of the design, sized it up, and moved it around so it would fit my shutter slats.  I absolutely love how it turned out.  Now the only question is... where to display it?  It's in my entry way at the moment. I like it!

Time to get crafty, people!

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Color Swatch Thursday: Vintage Thanksgiving

I've got a huge blog post with lots of tutorials coming tomorrow.  Since I've been spending my time working on that I totally missed yesterdays blog post.  Sorry!  It will come next Wednesday.

I almost decided to skip today's Color Swatch, but then I came across this vintage Thanksgiving card and couldn't resist!


This week's color swatch is: Vintage Thanksgiving

You can download an Adobe Swatch Exchange File for this color scheme from Adobe Kuler.

I love the colors in this card.  Soft and muted.  The turqoise, green, and red together make a nice triad.  I've included the card here for you to download.  It's not very big but it's so cute.  I love the look on the turkey's face.  It's like he knows he's just being fattened up for Thanksgiving but he just can't help himself.  That innocent little girl just leading him to the dinner table.  Cracks me up!  Click on it to open it larger for saving.

Time to get crafty, people!

Trendwatch Tuesday: Subway Art

What do you think of when I say that words "Subway Art?"  Okay, you can't actually hear me saying them, just imagine with me here.  What do you think of?  Graffiti?  Spray paint?  How about typography?

Typography, you say, Jan?  Yes!  Typography!  A new hot trend is the combination of different font faces with words or phrases on a theme.  The inspiration is vintage subway signs.  Today's designers are taking the original concept and turning them into delightful works of typographic art.

Here is an authentic vintage New York subway sign from the mid-1900's.  This is one of many on the SubwaySigns.com website.  Pretty cool, huh?  Want one?  It'll cost you a cool $799.00.

$799.00? Whoa!  If you are like me and don't have that kind of dough to drop on a vintage sign. Why not make your own?  A lot of folks are!

Most designers creating subway art typographic posters have moved away from just one plain font and are using a nice mix of serif, sans serif, and scrip typefaces.  Many even throw in a little graphic here and there, usually just a silhouette.  I especially like those that mix negative space fonts like stencils on a colored background.

In fact, I've got a little roundup of several free printables for Christmas and Thanksgiving!  Be sure to read to the bottom for a link to a tutorial to make your own in Photoshop.  There's also a link to where you can purchase a Thanksgiving themed one to cut on your digital die-cut machine. It's a good deal. Don't worry, I won't steer you wrong.

First from the wonderful eighteen25 a gorgeous Christmas printable Subway Art Poster plus a banner!  Bonus!

Here's one from Mine for the Making:

There's a whole set of gorgeous Thanksgiving printables over at Blooming Homestead.  This one's my favorite:

Lots of colors to choose from on these from Today's Fabulous Finds:  Christmas...

and Thanksgiving versions!

If you want to make your own from scratch, here's a good tutorial from The Daily Digi to make one in Photoshop.

Lastly, if you want a file you can cut on your cutter, here's how to get it!  I've got a great Thanksgiving themed one in the November VDBC Grab Bag.  It's only $7 for $45 worth of designs!

The Subway Art - Thanksgiving design also includes two printable versions (light and dark backgrounds) for us lazy folks who just want to print and frame!  No, I didn't call you lazy, I called ME lazy!  I'd totally print it. But, you who are not lazy might want to cut the design out of vinyl.  I know you will, so go on and do it!

Time to get crafty, people!

Color Swatch Thursday: New England Autumn

With the crazy weather that's going on back in New England this year, can I say that I'm sad we moved away?  Nope.  Sorry.  I do miss my friends and family back there, though.  I sure hope everyone get's power back soon.  If not, just come on out here for a visit!

I always said that Autumn in New England was my favorite time of year.  I love when there's a bite of cold in the air.  You can smell the wood stoves and fireplaces start up and everything just has the promise of warmth and coziness.  Plus, with the holidays right around the corner, what's there not to love about Autumn?

One of my favorite things was leaf crunching.  You know, going for a walk and crunching every dried leaf on the ground along the way?

This week's color swatch is: New England Autumn

You can download an Adobe Swatch Exchange File for this color scheme from Adobe Kuler.

I came across this photo a couple of weeks back as I was reminiscing about Autumn in New England.  I love how the camera captured the vibrance of the time.  With most of the leaves on the ground you can see the grey-blue of the tree trunks.  It always cracked me up to be driving down a road I'd traveled before and realize there are several houses back in the woods that I never knew were there.

This palette is a little non-traditional, and that's what I like about it.  You've got the brown, orange and tan in there, but a little punch of subdued turquoise along with a big punch of bright green thrown in as well.  Perfect for some contemporary fall crafting projects.

Feeling inspired yet?

Time to get crafty, people!