July 4th Recipe cards and coloring page

As usual, click on the images for the full sized 100 ppi versions. 

The recipe card set also includes a matching folder for them. 

Two recipes from Grandma's recipe box today because I just couldn't decide which one to offer.

The first one is a basic recipe for tapioca. My Grandma had a serious sweet tooth and this was one of her favorite desserts.

Tapioca Pudding

1/2 cup pearl tapioca

3 C. milk

2 eggs well beaten

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 C. sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla 

Soak tapioca 24 hrs. in 1 cup milk. Drain, using 2 qt double boiler, add 2 c. milk, tapioca, eggs, salt and sugar. Cook for 15-20 min. stirring constantly. Remove from heat, add vanilla and allow to cool for 10 minutes.

As a kid, I loved it when Grandma made tapioca. As an adult, I use the same recipe more or less. I like it with half white sugar, half raw sugar, 1 more egg, and a tablespoon of vanilla instead of a half tsp.

Salad Dressing

1 10 1/2 oz. can tomato soup

1/2 c. oil

1 c. sugar

3/4 c. cider vinegar

1 tsp. mustard

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce 

1/2 tsp. pepper

small bell pepper and onion

Blend all in blender, Refrigerate over night before using.

*Vi says she uses prepared hot mustard with horseradish

This is pretty close to a French dressing prepared according to this recipe, but Grandma always made mine with a lot more vinegar and no sugar because I preferred vinaigrette type dressings. Vi was a friend of hers. I never tasted the dressing made that way, but I think I'll try it on the 4th this year. 

July 4th printable boxes and paper

I had fun drawing this teddy bear. I hope you all like it as much as I do. Click on the images for the full sized 100 ppi versions. Tomorrow I'll do a matching recipe card set.

More photos and a shawl pin project

The rose was taken today, the eagle a couple days ago. If you click on the images, you'll get the full sized version. You have my permission to use the image for scrapbooking and other non-commercial uses.

I posted a new shawl pin project at Beadwork at BellaOnline. This is what it looks like.

Reclaimed rubber bracelets

The people at Alaska Bicycle Shop have been very kindly saving damaged bike tire inner tubes for me. When I went to pick them up they had 37 in a basket for me. More than enough to make lots and lots of bracelets, but given how versatile this material is for crafting, I suspect still not enough.

If you have a bicycle tire inner tube from your own bike, or can get them from a local bicycle shop or friends, these bracelets are very fast and easy to make.

You will need:

A prepared piece bicycle tire inner tube

snaps and snap setter - I used Dritz snaps

scissors or craft knife- I used tiny sharp scissors that aren't quite sharp enough anymore for my beading thread, but still in fine shape for the rubber

a light colored gel pen

rubbing alcohol

stencil

To prepare a piece of the inner tube, cut off a length that's an inch longer than the bracelet you want to make. Cut it open and with hot soapy water and a dish scrubbie, scrub off the white powder residue from the inside of the inner tube. Let dry.

Prepare the stencil. I just printed it out on paper and cut out the pieces. Click on the image for the full sized version. You may need to modify it somewhat for the width of the inner tube you are working with, making the flower petals a little closer or maybe a little bigger. 

Using the stencil, trace the design on the back of the inner tube using the gel pen, then cut out the negative spaces. 

Cut around the whole design leaving about 3/8th of an inch border around it and tabs on either side to attach snaps to. Double check the size on your wrist before cutting the tabs!

Attach snaps following the instructions on your package of snaps. The gel pen marks from the back can removed with a bit of rubbing alcohol.

On, these look almost like tattoos. The rubber may try to curl some when it's lying flat, but once it's on it's flat. Some of the inner tube may have printing on it, and that adds a nice bit of character to these sorts of bracelets. My son plans to do some mystery braid bracelets using the same material. Absolutely one of the best reclaimed materials I've ever worked with.

Comments locked because of spam. Sorry about that! 

Wood burn effect boxes

My son wood burned a box for his grandfather for Father's Day. This is the pattern he used. Feel free to use it for craft applications or just for coloring!

I played around with a wood burning effect, and these are the two printable boxes I made. Click on the images for the full sized 100 ppi versions.

Well, this last week has been a little overwhelming. I'm getting to my email now. It started with my husband's b-day on Saturday. He prefers no celebration at all. That's not an option but we do keep it very low key, and I make him one of his favorites for dinner. This year it was chicken and dumplings with 2 kinds of dumplings, the first kind, his favorite, is a basic egg noodle recipe which I roll in walnut sized balls then flatten with my hand to about 3/8th of an inch thick to make flat round thick noodle dumplings. The second kind is the more traditional sort. Big fluffy dumplings using your choice of biscuit recipe basically. For those, I used baking soda and baking powder, combining leavening almost gets rid of the baking powder flavor. I also put in a tablespoon of vinegar with the buttermilk. That much acid wound up making the fluffiest dumplings I've ever made (it actually looked really disgusting boiling and fluffing up in the pot). Flour for both was a whole wheat pastry flour. Lots of veggies in the soup as well. Mike was a very happy man. Dad was happy because we got chocolate cake and let him take most of it home. 

Well.. actually it started Friday with Mike taking me to the mid fair feast. But that's a whole 'nother post I need to get pictures for.

Sunday we had errands to run, picking up some hair sticks from the blacksmith (photos with the post about the fair feast when I write it) and to pick up damaged inner tubes from the bicycle shop. The teens and I are making jewelry and other things with them. Look for a tutorial soon. The bicycle shop has been nice enough to be saving them for me for a while and wound up giving me 37 inner tubes. That's a LOT of free black rubber for bracelets and such!

So this week we've done wood burning, cleaned cut sections of bicycle inner tubes, it's been raining off and on all week. Tuesday it pretty much did in my arthritis and so I spent the day reading and trying to distract myself. Wednesday went to pick up snaps for the bracelets. Tomorrow, going to pick up more. I don't like the snaps I got even a little bit.  Today was working with those very bad snaps and getting frustrated and making pretty wood burn effect boxes. Tonight we are going to watch a show we picked up on DVD a couple weeks ago and I'll finish my crocheted clock face which I had to frog because I messed it up the first time.

I really seriously need to start following some of Rachel's excellent organizational tips. She gets so much done and never seems to feel as though time is running her over like a steamroller.

There are some new reviews up on MyCraftReview.com

Alaska boxes and photos

I haven't done photo boxes since last summer. I hope you like these. I just resized some of my photographs to fit the cube templates to make these. Click on the images for the full sized 100 ppi printables.

The last one was an accidental photo.I was trying to take a picture of a raven in flight but it was too fast for me to get focused on it. So I wound up with a picture of the branches of the tree overhead!

Here are the photos. If you click on the images you'll get the 50% sized version.  You can use the photos for personal non-commercial use.

All taken with my HS10 Fujifilm camera.

Little Notebooks- printable

I'm learning how to use WordPerfect X5 Standard, so the first thing was to make a pdf for a printable project of course. These little notebooks are actually one of my favorite projects using scrap lightweight packaging cardboard and paper that's been printed on one side, but I've never actually made a template for them before. I'll make a template in the next day or two if you want to do recycled versions.

I didn't specify in the PDF how to cut the pages, but you cut them so they fold down the center line, so only the top 4 pages have the decoration on them. The tab tucks into a slit on the back to keep it closed. 

You can download the US Letter sized pdf here.

I also posted the strawberry pattern from my Sweets Earring set on BellaOnline.  You can get the strawberry pattern for free at Beadwork at BellaOnline and buy the complete set of earring patterns at my Etsy Store.

Science museum and clocks

Last Friday evening, we went to the new science wing at our local museum to check it out and see a show at the new planetarium.
The show was Wonders of the Universe.
"Peer deep into space through the eyes of the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope and travel back billions of years in time to witness the birth of the universe. On this breathtaking excursion you’ll witness the formation of galaxies and explore some of the most wondrous nebulae and astronomical structures yet discovered. As your travels continue, you’ll fly deep into our own Milky Way galaxy and return home to Earth on a spectacular tour through the solar system."


It was lovely and the new science wing which combines our old children's science museum with bigger and better exhibits has lots of interactive fun. The kinetics area which explores physics in a hands on way was our favorite of course. 

I'm currently working on a few projects, my favorite is a clock face I'm crocheting. It's a fairly basic pattern worked in the round on a multiple of 12.

I'm in a clocky mood.