Friday, February 27, 2009

Online venues for selling crafty stuff

http://www.craftster.org/blog/?p=397


I am only posting this as it is no longer on the main page at Craftster and I had a heck of a time finding it again.

Batgirl at Craftster had a wonderful posting that compared online venues for selling crafty stuff and I wanted to keep it on hand for future reference.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Starship Enterprise ***ACCOMPLISHED FD ONE***

There is one at Instructables that uses 3 med. binder clips and 1 large one, 3 CD's and 2 pens and a Sharpie pens and put together with a hot glue gun that I still want to try to make sometime.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Build_the_Starship_Enterprise_from_useless_office_/

But I also found this site that shows how to make one out of parts from an old 3 1/2 floppy. You basically take the disc apart and use the center as the bridge and the metal clasp as the rest of it.
http://www.asciipr0n.com/archive/0013/bonnie/craft/

***ACCOMPLISHED***

I made this one out of a floppy disc and posted how I made it here:

http://craftsandcreationswithkathy.blogspot.com/2009/03/starship-enterprise-from-old-floppy.html

PUPPY POPS


I found these awesome pops over on Craftster by user sparrowowl and sometime will have to try make these into German Shepard pops (maybe for Kyle's Birthday).

They are based on original posting by Bakerella on her site

HOMEMADE PEANUT BUTTER DOG BISCUITS


I found this recipe at another cool site that I ran across, Chica & Jo
http://www.chicaandjo.com/2008/09/08/homemade-peanut-butter-dog-biscuits/

Recipe:

"Peanut Butter Dog Biscuits
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup
natural peanut butter *
1 cup skim milk
1 tbsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Combine the flour and baking powder in a bowl.

Combine the peanut butter and milk in another bowl, then add to the dry ingredients. Mix well, then knead into a firm dough with your hands.

Roll out to 1/4″ thick and use a
dog bone cookie cutter to cut into cute shapes (or just use a knife to cut into small squares).

Place on a cookie sheet about 1/2″ apart (close is OK - they won’t rise)
Bake at 375 for 20 minutes or until thoroughly dried.

Makes about 7 dozen 2″ biscuits.

* The use of natural peanut butter here is important. This variety is made from nothing but peanuts and salt, so it’s better for your dog than the regular stuff, which is loaded with added sugar."

GLASS JAR PHOTO FRAMES - ACCOMPLISHED




The above clever idea is from photojojo. Simple, yet functional and a great way to upcycle oldI am not sure when or what project, but I definitely want to incorporate this idea into a project sometime.




***ACCOMPLISHED***

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Eerie Elegance - for throwing an awesome Halloween party

http://www.eerieelegance.com/
Eerie Elegance Banner 625x153
There are lots of awesome Hallween receipes, including Eerie Eyeballs, Brittle Merginue Bones and a slew of other gruesome-awesome recipes that I plan to try out this Halloween and I may just have to buy her book!

http://www.britta.com/HW/HWr.html

Almond Coconut Granola

I ran across this recipe at the following and going to try it (or some version of it) sometime.

http://blissfullydomestic.com/blissful-kids/simple-and-tasty-granola/

From Gourmet, Feb 99 (Epicurious) :

Almond Coconut Granola
  • 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
  • 2/3 cup sliced almonds
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened desiccated coconut
  • 1/3 cup hulled green pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
  • 6 tablespoons honey
  • 1 cup mixed dried fruits such as raisins, cherries, and apricots

Preheat oven to 325°F.

In a large bowl stir together oats, almonds, coconut, pumpkin or sunflower seeds, and salt. In a small saucepan melt butter with honey over low heat, stirring. Pour butter mixture over oat mixture and stir until combined well.


In a large jelly-roll pan spread granola evenly and bake in middle of oven, stirring halfway through baking, until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Cool granola in pan on a rack and stir in dried fruits.

Granola may be kept in an airtight container at cool room temperature 2 weeks.

HieroConv V1.0 - Free English to Hieroglyphic software

In researching medicinal properties of onions for the "Folk Magic" cough syrup, I cam across this wonderfully informative site http://www.kingtutshop.com/. I clicked on the free section and they have free software to download to convert English to Hieroglyphics.

I downloaded it and it was simple to use - below is my name converted into hieroglyphic.
http://www.kingtutshop.com/offer/offer.htm

I am not sure what I am going to use this for, but know there is a craft application here somewhere. Maybe an Egyptian themed t-shirt, journal or calendar.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

PAC MAN PILLOWS


I saw these over at Craftser by user Luckynumber7
While this would make our living room look even more modern white trash garage sale than it already does, I am thinking these have possibilities as bed pillows for my bedroom.

Snow Globe Coca-Cola Cupcakes

I came across the above on Bakerella's blog and knew I needed to put this on my creative to do list as a future project, although I would opt for make a cake instead of a lot cupcakes or put some of the cupcakes on a cake. Although the look is amazing, with all of the fondant it would be a little too rich to eat and think it needs more of a cake to fondant ratio than what a cupcake alone can offer.
The globe itself is one of the little Coke bottles that you could buy at Walmart over Christmas time for $1. We only have 1 that Kyle got for his collection and I doubt he would sacrifice it for this project, so I am hoping that Coke offers them again this coming Christmas or pick some up at a garage sale. I do suppose that I could make a globe out of sugar by coating a balloon, cut not sure it would durable enough or clear enough.


Instructions from her blog:
"

You can download a pdf of the recipe from Coca-Cola's website. Go here and scroll down until you see Cola Cake. Click on the link and it will open a pdf that you can print. These were really good. I didn't make the chocolate frosting they recommended with it because I needed snow. So, I used the buttercream frosting one that I use all the time and it worked perfectly.Now, I had about 28 cupcakes in awesome red baking cups from confectioneryhouse.com, but I only used a few for the actual scene.To make the bear:I used rolled fondant and hand shaped the parts - similar to how I did this Care Bear Cupcake a while back except the polar bear is only about 2 inches tall. The eyes were black non-pareils and the noses were black candy heart sprinkles. The mouth was drawn with my ever-so-handy Americolor Edible Black Writing Pen. For the scarf, I bought red fondant this time, because it's really hard to get the color deep red and I didn't feel like mixing it and having my hands look stained.To assemble the snow globe:Make a sugar water spray (recipe here). Lightly mist the inside of the plastic bottle in the areas you want snow. Then, carefully sprinkle sugar inside. You will mostly want it on the sides, bottom, and back. Not too much in the front because you'll want to see your design. Set the snow globe top aside.Take one of your cupcakes, turn it upside down and carefully cut the bottom of the baking cup off. Then spread some buttercream frosting on the bottom (now, top) of your cupcake. Then, sprinkle some white sanding sugar on top of the frosting for texture. Place your assembled fondant bear right in the middle and attach one of the cola bottles with a little bit of water to help it stick. Then place the opening of the bottle right over the bear. The opening should be just large enough to rest on the cupcake without sliding all the way over it, like below."

Friday, February 20, 2009

EDIBLE EASTER NESTS


This looks like a fun and easy project for Easter that was posted by estherwaayenberg at Instructables.