Saturday, January 1, 2011

All Because He Ate His Cabbage Casserole - Tutorial and a recipe

I was able to make a lot of fun things for Christmas this year, but this was one of my favorites.  As a family, we wanted to surprise our M&D with something they could have that would show their WHOLE posterity. Let's face it, with 10 children and their spouses, 48 grandchildren, a grandson-in-law and 1 great grandchild, it is not likely we would ever get together for a picture again.  And...you would never be able to see everyone anyway!  So, when I saw this idea at The Idea Room, my wheels started churning.  I was not sure 10 families would work, but it did! 

For the saying above the arrangement, I really wanted something unique to our family.  Something that would be a great conversation piece for them.  My mother was reminding us of the story about when my dad met her family for the first time.  Her family had a tradition of making cabbage casserole for huge gatherings.  My grandmother told my dad if he wanted into the family, he had to eat his cabbage casserole.  To his credit, he pretended to like it and ate it all up.   So...we played around with this story and that is how we came up with the saying.


In December, we had a good portion of my family here, so my sister from Headfirst Photo took pictures of those who were here and did all of the editing into black and white..  

Ugh, I really wish I owned a good camera

I used photoshop to create each picture used.  To make sure they printed as a square photo, I opened up a new document, sized it for a 4x6.  I added some digital scrapbook paper behind the picture and this is where I added the name and age.  




I sized the picture to fit a 3-1/2 wide x 2-3/4 high space (after many trials, this is the perfect fit for a 1x4).  When you print these out, they print as a 4x6 and you just have to trim off the white area around the picture.  If you don't have photoshop, you can use any 4x6 picture and just crop to the above measurements.  Walmart does 4x6 prints for only 9 cents each.  Make sure if you use their online ordering, you check the prints to see if they were cropped right.  One more lesson learned.  
  
I used 1x4's for the wood (which is not REALLY 4 inches at all and caused me great grief in how many times I had to redo 50+ pictures...).  I painted the boards black, modge podged the pictures on.  We hung each picture onto the wall first and then used white tulle to hang them around a curtain rod. 


Here is somewhat of a closeup so you can see detail.  Click on the picture for a closer look.  I used high gloss modge podge and did fun texturing with it.

With 48 grandchildren, we wanted to make sure Grandpa would never forget their names.  ;).  Each picture has the first name and age of each child.  Each plaque has the last name and year the family was established.

Cabbage Casserole
I know you are all dying to know the recipe for the cabbage casserole right?  Here is how I make it:

1 cabbage shredded and steamed and drained
1 box of stuffing (Stove Top is easiest) mixed with 1 cube of melted butter
cheese sauce

For the cheese sauce, melt 1/4 real butter in a sauce pan, add 1/4 cup flour and mix to make a paste.  Add 2 cups of milk or cream and stir until thickened.  Add 2 cups of cheese and stir until melted.  (If there is nothing more this recipe is good for, it is the cheese sauce.  It makes THE BEST homemade macaroni and cheese and my kids LOVE it over steamed veggies.)

Mix cabbage and sauce together and place in a casserole dish.  Evenly distribute the Stove Top mixture on top and bake on 400 degrees until the Stove Top is crispy and the cabbage is bubbling.  

If you had to come up with a saying for a wall arrangement in your family, what would it be?


As always, if you have questions, please feel free to ask!






I am linking up to any and all of these great linky parties here


Sumo Sweet Stuff

45 comments:

  1. What a super cute idea and it turned out awesome! I think I'd like to make one for Jon's mom for her birthday. I'll let you know how it turns out if I do. As for the cabbage casserole, I like cabbage, I do, and to be honest the casserole sounds really good right now. Of course I am starving and would eat just about anything placed in front of me at this point (I also suspect a hint of a pregnancy craving in their as well). Either way it sounds good and I'm definitely going to give it a try. Thanks for the idea and recipe!

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  2. This is a very cool idea, and it turned out beautifully!

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  3. Yeah! I love how it turned out! You did a great job! I love this project because it is a fun way to display so many family pictures in a small space. Your ten sets of families fit great there! So glad she loved it! Thanks for sharing it and for the link.

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  4. Wow! All that hard work definitely paid off...I love that you have unique wall art to display your photos rather than typical photo frames. I bet all of the family loves it too...

    Take care,
    Lisa

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  5. thanks for sharing! what a great way to make family feel special and loved.
    found you at someday crafts.

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  6. mmm, sounds good :) I following you! Found you via the weekend blog hop. Hope you'll check out my blog and follow back!

    ~Crystal
    www.thecraftycrystal.blogspot.com

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  7. That photo wall hanging is gorgeous! The idea is so creative and it looks great!

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  8. Wow, what a fab-tabulous photo display! I love the curtain rod set up!

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  9. Super cute, just added this to my list for next Christmas!

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  10. Love it- I hope it motivates me to get my pictures on the wall!

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  11. That is so awesome, it turned out just fabulous. The saying is so cute, and perfect, given the story behind it. I love it so much.

    THANK YOU so much for sharing at my weekly party **Amaze me August** AND for adding my button to your list, I really appreciate it.

    Come back anytime Bonnie, my party is open all week, every week :)

    Bella :) your very happy newest follower

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  12. Looks great & I'll have to try out the recipe.

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  13. I love that wall hanging idea! My sister has 5 kids and this would be a nice way to get them all on the wall.
    Feel free to stop by and check me out at Kissingbunniescrafts@blogspot.com Thanks

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  14. I LOVE this!! What a wonderful way to get everyone's pictures all together!!

    AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME

    Thanks for letting us take a peekie!!

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  15. This is a fabulous idea! Incredibly creative - thank you for sharing it with us.

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  16. WONDERFUL!!! Just absolutely fabulous idea!

    xoXOxo
    Jenn @ Peas & Crayons

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  17. Thanks for linking up your idea! I LOVE this! I'll be featuring it on my blog on Saturday!

    http://sumossweetstuff.blogspot.com

    Thanks!
    Sumo :)

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  18. Thanks for linking to Take-A-Look Tuesday over at Sugar Bee Craft Edition - I featured you today! - Mandy, www.craftedition.blogspot.com

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  19. What an amazing project! Thanks for sharing...I may steal it as I am the youngest of 9, and my parents have 32 grandchildren. What do you do about great-grandchildren? I was trying to find your one great-grandchild in there, but no luck. Would you stick it on another board, or ?

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  20. My goodness! 48 grandchildren. That's a lot of individual pictures. One would think that it's too many to display in one place. But, no! You came up with a great idea.

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  21. This is a beautiful idea! I was just thinking that we have too many amazing photos to hang, so you've given me a way! I'm your newest follower. I love you to follow me back!

    Www.uvinyl.blogspot.com

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  22. Thanks everyone. It really is even more grand in person. My mother could not have been more thrilled with it.

    @ Amy: That is a good question. For the great grandchild and the grandson-in-law I just did a family photo for the spot of the married grandchild. The bigger the family, the harder this might be with such a small space. I am still mulling this over as we will surely be growing even more with more greats.

    Another thought we had was in a few years down the road, we can turn the boards over and do a whole new set of updated photos. Then how fun would that be to have both to compare.

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  23. Next to the couples, did you fit the names of both people? I love this!!! I see a wonderful mother's day gift in the making!!! Thanks for sharing!!! -Cassandra

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  24. I seriously could not love this more! What a BRILLIANT idea...love love love love love it!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks so much for linking it up to gettin' crafty on hump day! :)

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  25. @ Cassandra, Yes, I did add both names to the couples. I added a picture to my tutorial so you can see how I did it. Good luck I would love to see how it turns out!

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  26. I absolutely love this! It's amazing. Wish I had thought of it AND now I want to do it :) Found you over at the HappyHappyHousewife linky party! Following!
    http://beadsbuttonsbubbles.blogspot.com/

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  27. Cute idea! Looks beautiful! Thanks so much for sharing & linking up for Craftify It Thursday!

    Jennifer

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  28. This would be perfect for my father-in-law...9 kids, 46 grandkids and 3 great-grandkids. Thank you for sharing such a beautiful project! :)

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  29. Fantastic job with this, Bonnie!! I love it! I posted a picture on my blog this morning!! I'd love to do something like this!!

    Thanks for the inspriation!!

    inspiringcreativeness.blogspot.com

    Hugs ~~ Suz

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  30. Wow! I love it! Great job. Our family is so much smaller than yours, but I know my grandparents, well, even my parents would love this. Okay, who am I kidding...I was thinking of making one of just my 2 little kids for me. The possibilities are endless. Great work!

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  31. What a wonderful and personal display! And, wow, that's a big family!

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  32. That is a beautiful wall display! All because he ate the cabbage casserole (yuck!) :-)
    http://tencowchick.com

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  33. This is really LOVELY piece of art! I am SO impressed! Fabulous job! You are truely inspired!
    Thanks for linking up to Making It With Allie! I can't wait to see what you have for next week!
    AllieMakes.Blogspot.com

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  34. What a fabulous idea! Thanks for sharing.
    Suzie @
    staycalmandsewsomething.blogspot.com

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  35. I am in love with this idea! It is so darling and creative! I am going to have to try this out for my mother in law! Thank you for sharing.

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  36. what a great idea! what an awesomely large family!!!

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  37. What a great way to show off the family! Thank you so much for sharing!

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  38. I love this! Very nice!

    Thanks for linking up for Friday Favorites!

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  39. Hi Bonnie, just wanted to let you know I FEATURED you today, so please come grab yourself a FEATURED button, and display it proudly.

    Thank you for linking to **Amaze me AUgust** and I can't wait to see what you link up this week.

    Also just letting everyone know I am having a CSN store giveaway at my blog, so come enter girl, I would really appreciate it. :)

    Bella :)

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  40. This is a wonderful idea and great execution. It looks beautiful!

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  41. OK, I want to attempt this, and love how you have the est. date on each name. I'd love to do that, I only have Paint Shop Pro and Some other program (Lightroom, maybe?) Do you know how I could create the names with cool fonts and get those printed out. I'm not so crafty. I also have a daughter who passed away at a year and a half, and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how I can incorporate a row of pictures for her and not have people think I'm morbid.

    I'm so excited to do this, and you did a wonderful job!

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Wait! Don't read and run. I would love to know what you think. Good? Bad? (Okay, maybe not the bad. My ego is fragile still.) It is your comments that keep this little brain buzzing.

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