New Year's Craft-olution

Happy 2012!

With the start of this new year, I am really looking forward to trying some new things.  I've always loved doing crafts, sewing, baking, and trying new and different types of projects.  This year, I've been inspired to try something new each month, in addition to the little projects I'm just doing for the house or for fun.

What inspired me?  Actually two things.  First, Pinterest.  Yes, it is a serious addiction.  My husband jokingly (I think) suggested starting a support group for the husbands of women who have fallen victim to this website.  I am one.  I love the ideas and inspiration I find there!  Recipes, craft projects, design ideas, kids activities.  Ahhh...  If you're on Pinterest, feel free to check out what I've been pinning lately.  I have so many things in my list of things I want to work on, I probably will never get them done!

The second thing that inspired me in a round-about way was my sister.  She has a blog that she just started, where she is committing herself to blog once a week.  She has a "January project" for each year, which she wrote about back in November, and it seems like a good idea.  So my New Year's Resolution, or January Project as she calls them, is to try a new craft project each month.  (You can check out her blog here.)

I've got a list of things I'd like to try.  Card making, amigurumi, quilling, faux stained glass, jewelry making, just to name a few.  I'm off to a good start.  I've made a bunch of thank you cards for Christmas presents.  I'll be posting about them in the next couple of days.

A friend of mine is thinking about starting a crafting co-op.  It was somewhat inspired by a cooking co-op we're involved in.  Basically a group of 12 women would commit to each hosting a gathering once during the year.  When it is your turn to host, you plan a craft, provide the supplies, and teach the other members how to do it.  Everyone then goes home with a new project.  Right now it's still in the planning stages, but if it gets off the ground, I'll be sure to post some about the projects we are doing there!

Happy New Year and Happy Crafting!!

Cub Scouts Bug Me (hehehe)

The scouts don't really bug me.  In fact, my den of Tiger Cubs are really pretty sweet.  I have 9 of them, and it has been so much fun working with them this year.

We have our monthly den meeting tonight, and are going to be working on completing an elective of making decorations.  Our Blue and Gold Banquet is next month, so I thought it would be fun for the boys to make decorations for the banquet.  I did some searching on the internet, and most of the ideas I found were just too difficult for 6 & 7 year old boys with short attention spans.  I found one that I modified a little bit to make it easier for the boys.  So tonight we will be making Cub Scout Yarn Bugs!

I cut long lengths of blue and gold yarn, which the boys will wrap around 5" strips of cardboard.  Then they will tie a short piece of yarn under one side, flip the cardboard over and cut through the loops to make a yarn pom pom.  I stuck a white pipe cleaner through an egg carton section so that the two ends come out in the bowl part of the carton.  These will eventually be the legs.  I took a blue pipe cleaner and stuck it through in the opposite direction for arms.  Then I spread tacky glue all over the outside of  the egg carton section and plopped the yarn pompom on top.  I glued on a set of googly eyes.  I took the white pipe cleaner and made loops on the end that I flattened out.  Onto the loops I taped (glue wouldn't hold) a piece of blue craft foam, cut into the shape of feet.  I used a short piece of white pipe cleaner for a flag pole and glued on a piece of gold cardstock cut into a flag, and the words "Pack 129" in blue cardstock that I cut on my Cricut.  The original design I saw had a cap, which was cute, but I think what I have done here is enough to keep my boys occupied without completely losing their interest.

New Year - New Curtains!

Happy New Year!!  

With the end of 2011 came the end of the ugly blue, cat-scratched, torn-up couch and chair in my living room.  They had gotten so bad I literally cringed every time someone came over and had to come in my house.  Cub scout den meetings or PTA book fair committee meetings were down-right embarrassing.  But, much to my joy, they are gone.  Several people stopped by as they were sitting on the curb (in the rain) to check them over, but alas, they met their end at the hands of the local garbage collectors.  In their place are some new, more stylish, and definitely better looking pieces of furniture!

However, with the loss of the blue couches, the blue and yellow striped curtains also needed to go.  I had seen an idea on Pinterest where someone took plain white curtains and “dressed them up” with some ribbon.  I thought, with the stripes on the new chair, that would be a great plan for our living room, and pretty inexpensive, too.  

I bought some plain white, linen, grommet-style curtains.  Then I chose three colors of ribbon in different widths.  I used a 2-inch wide chocolate brown, a 3/4-inch golden yellow, and a 1-inch deep red.  I lined the chocolate up with the hem line on both the top and bottom of the curtains and used fabric glue to attach it.  Then I measured 1/2 inch away, and attached the yellow, and another 1/2 inch from that to attach the red.  I used a ruler to keep my lines straight, and they did turn out pretty even.  They are pretty simple looking, but I love the way they turned out!

I made a matching lamp shade out of a square white lamp shade.  I used the same ribbon widths and fabric glue, and I used the same pattern that I used for the curtains.  I did have to miter the corners on the lampshade, and that turned out to be a lot harder than I thought it would be.  It still looks pretty nice.  

So, we are starting 2012 in basically a new living room.  It’s warmer, cozier, and cheerier.  I hope your 2012 is all those things and more!

My First Cricut Project = Gift Tags!

I have finally entered the world of Cricut.  Why didn't I do this sooner?!?!  I LOVE this thing!  And I don't even have one of the new, fancy models.  A friend of mine was going to sell her Cricut "Personal Electronic Cutter" (one of the old models) at a garage sale.  So, I told her I'd buy it from her instead.  So, for $15 I got a Cricut.  It doesn't do the big shapes, but really for what I'm probably going to do with it, I don't need anything big right now.  If I decide I want something bigger and fancier some time in the future, I can always upgrade.  The only downside to buying it used is that it came with no cartridges.  But, Cricut has an online design room that comes with a few really basic shapes, so I was at least able to try it out.

For my very first Cricut project, I decided I'd make some gift tags for all of those Christmas presents I have to wrap anyway.  So I made four different designs.  None of them were hard, and I only bought a couple pieces of paper.  Most of what I used was scrap card stock (or glittery red foam) that I had on hand from other projects.

I made this one using just white card stock for the scalloped oval, and red glitter foam for the Christmas tree.

The next one I cut a fancy doodad (I'm sure there's a name for it, but I don't know it) out of white card stock, and cut a small tree in that.  I cut a slightly larger doodad out of dark green card stock and used that as the backing.

I took the little tiny tree and attached it to a circle of light green card stock that I cut by using the "O" of the basic (free) font.  It was the inside of the O.  There is no circle in the free shapes, so it was the best option I had.  Then I attached that to a snowflake patterned rectangle.

I still had the actual O itself in the green card stock, so I attached that to a scalloped circle cut out of red card stock.  I added another scalloped circle cut out of "Merry Christmas" paper to that (to cover up the hole in the O).  I think this one is my favorite.

I'm hoping to get some real cartridges for Christmas and then I'll be able to have fun playing with cards and other projects.  Next year, maybe I'll do something a bit more creative with the gift tags, but for my first projects, I think they are pretty good!

Peppermint Hot Cocoa Mix

My daughter is SO excited to give Christmas gifts to her teachers at preschool this year!  She has had a great school year so far, and just adores her teachers.  So, when it came time to think of what to make (and yes, we always make the gifts for the kid's teachers) I wanted it to be something she could help with.

Last year, my oldest son and I did the "twelve cookies of Christmas".  That gift seemed like a great idea but once I had to come up with the 12 different cookies, then make them, it was more stressful than fun.  They did turn out great, though.  I'll see if I can find all the recipes and post them one of these days.  This year, I wanted to keep it simpler, but still as thoughtful and wonderful.

Then I found this idea on Pinterest.  Simple, easy peppermint hot chocolate mix.  It looks beautiful, makes enough to serve 12, and was easy enough for my 4 year old to pretty much do on her own.  It would have only taken 5 minutes to do, if it wasn't for unwrapping all of the peppermints to crush. :)

I made a star-shaped tag with the instructions on the back, added some glitter, and attached it with a red ribbon.  Simple, beautiful, and delicious!  I'm adding an angel ornament that I made to go with it.  Merry Christmas!

Kung POW!!

In addition to all of the crafts and things to do I've found on Pinterest, there are tons of yummy looking recipes.  The other day, I pinned this recipe for Kung Pao Chicken.  It looked SO good.  And, I already had most of the ingredients on hand.  So, with a few changes, this is what we ate for supper last night.

One thing I changed was that it was no longer Kung Pao Chicken.  We don't eat chicken much in our house, for medical reasons, so I substituted pork.  I just happened to have a pork tenderloin in the freezer. I also didn't have any linguine, so I used whole wheat spaghetti instead.  For the last substitution, I didn't have any red chili paste.  So I looked up substitutions, and found that you can just use red pepper flakes, which I have a lot of.  The substitution guide said to use 1/4 of the amount, which was 3/4 Tbsp of pepper flakes.  Ummm...next time, I think maybe a little less would be good.  That is why I have renamed this recipe Kung POW Pork! :)

1 lb pork tenderloin, cubed
1/2 cup cornstarch (more or less - I didn't measure)
oil for frying
1 lb uncooked whole wheat spaghetti noodles

1/2 cup chicken broth
2 Tbsp cornstarch
3/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup dry sherry
3/4 Tbsp red pepper flakes
1/4 cup sugar (I used evaporated cane juice, but you can do either)
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp sesame oil
1/4 cup minced garlic
1 cup dry roasted peanuts (use UNsalted - I only had salted, and it was pretty salty!!)
1 cup green onions (sliced)

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add spaghetti, and cook according to package directions.  When finished, drain and set aside

Meanwhile, toss cubed pork with cornstarch until evenly coated.  Heat oil in deep skillet.  Fry pork in batches until golden brown and folly cooked.  Drain on paper towels.

Mix chicken broth through sesame oil in a bowl.

Drain all but 2 Tbsp of oil from the skillet.  Add garlic and stir-fry for 15 seconds.  Pour in the sauce and add the peanuts.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until thick and bubbly.

Mix the pork into the sauce.  Serve over the spaghetti and top with green onions.

I served this with a side of Japanese-Style Sesame Green Beans.

Snowflakes, Snowflakes, Everywhere!

I think every child does it.  It's like a right of passage or something.  Paper, scissors, and a little imagination.  What do you get?  Paper snowflakes.  I decided today was a good day to introduce this magical paper artform to my oldest two children.

I personally have never been much of a paper-snowflake-artist.  My snowflaking abilities never really progressed beyond about the 5th grade level.  So when I saw these patterns on pinterest, I thought I'd give them a try.

I started by copying the patterns by hand onto graph paper.  I thought graph paper would make it easier, but really regular paper would have been just as good.

Then, when my oldest got home from school, we sat down to make snowflakes!  First, I had to teach the 7 year old how to fold the paper.  Of course, since I haven't  done this in YEARS, I had forgotten how myself.  So I looked it up here.  Then we cut.  I used some of my patterns.  He used his imagination.  The 4 year old made confetti.

I strung the finished snowflakes on fishing line and we will hang them in the window.  Mine may look a little "nicer" but his are wonderful.  I will treasure this memory forever.