Snowflake Mandala to color and news

I know the quote

I love cookies baking. During the winter, they have these candles that smell like cookies, and I always buy like a hundred of them.

Jared Padalecki

doesn't actually have much to do with the art. It's a stretch- snowflake, winter. But it was good enough to be a good excuse to use a quote about cookies.

So here's the news- Don't Eat the Paste has had over 5,000,000 page views, and there are a few giveaways planned. The first will be starting soon, and I'll be giving 3 readers a copy of one of my favorite books from last year- Snowflakes, Sunbursts and Stars. It's a collection of origami and kirigami projects to paper craft snowflakes, sunbursts and stars shape.  Now two copies I'll give away here. The 3rd I'll be giving away on my Facebook page! So go like the page if you want a chance to win there. When I send them, they will include some Alaskan postcards, a touristy plastic Alaskan key ring and one of my Don't Eat the Paste wooden coins that say "Ubicumque homo est, ibi benefici locus est" around the edge. It means "Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness."

But before that, it has snowed here, so here's a snowflake to color! Click on the image for a larger version.
Small jpg:

Transparent png version:

Skull damask printable boxes

I hope you enjoy these skull damask printable boxes for spooky treats! Click on the images for larger versions, print on card stock, cut out, score fold, fold and glue. Would you like these boxes with a purple or orange background as well?

And welcome to all the new readers!! Thank you all for helping get the total hits to Don't Eat the Paste to 5,000,000 a few weeks earlier than expected! If you look on the right hand side of the blog you'll see social buttons so you can follow me in other places. If you're really into geeky things,my daughter pins to a board on my Pinterest that's absolutely unsorted but updated regularly with all sorts of very geeky fandom things.

Book Review- Effortless Bento

Wow. Seriously, just WOW. This cookbook is my favorite new cookbook for the year.

It's released by Vertical Inc., so as you can guess, it's a carefully edited English edition of a Japanese book. So this is the real thing. The bentos aren't cute, this isn't a how to make cartoon characters out of carrots, nori and rice cookbook. There isn't a hot dog octopus in the whole thing. The focus is attractive and delicious food that can be prepared ahead to pack into a lunch box and the recipes are just as appropriate for adults as for children. These are the lunches you pack to make your co-workers jealous, and to give you a good reason not to skip lunch.

So starting at the beginning, there is a very good overview of how to safely pack lunches so you don't risk giving yourself a case of food poisoning. It talks about the different kinds of bento boxes, how to keep things cool, and how to pack the lunches so everything is at the optimum temperature.

Then the recipes. 300 of them! Now, I know that some recipes aren't going to appeal to everyone. For example, my husband won't eat squid. My son will. My daughter is hit and miss with nori, and my son eats it toasted instead of chips. Well, actually I think every single recipe in this book is something my son would eat. He loves Japanese food. This cookbook has a lot of tasty options for Americanized tastes. You cook a certain number of servings ahead of time, and freeze or refrigerate them so packing lunch is fast.

Some of the ingredients can be tricky to find if you don't live in an area with great markets but a lot of the recipes are a lot more accessible. So you might not be able to find fishcake and lotus root- but pork cutlets and panko crumbs are easy to find. Some recipes you can make substitutes. Like if you can't find kabocha in your area, substitute butternut squash. The cooking methods are easy to learn.

The truth is, as much as I'm loving the recipes, the book is worth it for the tips, hints, and quick recipes sections which include furikake (rice seasoning), pickles, vegetables, instant soups and a nice collection of onigiri (rice balls) recipes.

I'm loving this cookbook, and happily recommend it.
Like Vertical Inc on Facebook to find out more about the cookbooks, craft books and manga they publish!


Amazon.com affiliate links don't affect your cost, and provide extra income to me personally, which helps support this site.

I received a complimentary copy of this book to review, I received no other compensation, and my review is my honest opinion of the book. You can read more about my review policy here.

Rainbow moon coloring page

This weekend was awfully busy, but it was all working on other things like the new coloring book, some more fabric designs on Spoonflower and a ruffly crocheted bracelet (well, that will wind up being posted here). So this coloring page was part of a project that I was working on a while back. I hope you like it! If you print it on a translucent paper to color, it would be pretty in a window.

Click on the images for larger versions to print and color.
Small JPG version:

Large transparent PNG

Stained glass effect pumpkin gift box

It's nippy outside! After taking an enforced break due to an injury (pinched a nerve in my shoulder and my arm was going to sleep every time it was in the wrong position e.g.: drawing) I'm back and hard at work on my next coloring book.

I hope you enjoy this pumpkin printable gift box!

In other news- I'm still really wanting a pair of knee high Gipsy Dharma boots. I keep winding up on her site and just drooling over the gorgeous boots. 

The Amazing Turnip Girl has Twitter now! Look for @TATG_Kairi if you'd like to follow her. She and I are planning a wand tutorial soon. 

Printable paper gemstone rounds

I love magnets, especially the ones that are made by members of my family. These are super easy, but you don't have to use the paper gemstones for magnets. They can also be used as decorations on cards, glued on to bobby pins that have a glue pad, or turned into jewelry for part of a Halloween costume.

So for people who like to print and cut, you'll click below for the larger image, print out this page on card stock and cut out.

Now in a minute, I'm going to tell you how I did them. but the finishing methods for both versions are the same. 2 layers of cardstock are pretty stiff which is why they work as magnets and accessories. If you use any kind of ink that might smudge- spray the color printed disks with a clear sealing spray. After that dries, use Mod Podge to adhere a blank disk to the back of a colored disk. Mod Podge over the top, and let dry. Mod Podge on the bottom and let dry. Now you can choose if you're going to use Dimensional Magic. I did, and I like the look but the finish did crack on a couple. Let that dry for 24 hours, and use a strong glue to attach it to what ever you're using them on! (Small round ceramic disk magnets on mine!)

So what did I do different? Print and cut with the Cricut Explore. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE this thing? The new update allows you to print using your home printer and then cut out your image. So all of my disks were perfectly cut and so were the blank backs. So when you update, and go into Design Space, you'll calibrate and watch videos that show you how to use the new update. 

The new update works with PNG files!! So here are those files for you to use (and you have my permission to use them in other Cricut projects)- click on them to download and save the transparent PNGs

So I went to edit, and put them all at 1.5 inches in size- this is what my print preview looked like after getting them laid out. It shows the bleed of my outside color so if the alignment is even a little off, it still looks great. 

Then after I printed and cut that, I flattened all the images, and switched them to cut and cut them from another sheet of card stock. 

Yes, it does work with more detailed cuts. I'll show that later this week! 

Using my Amazon links helps pay for this site and helps fund my book addiction.

Book Review- Travel Origami

I love functional origami, and paper crafting with unexpected materials. So this book is a perfect fit for my interests, and hopefully for yours as well.

The projects are for novice to advanced beginner folders. They are fairly quick with some modular designs and some single sheet designs which use materials like paper money, postcards, maps and comic books. Because the paper styles are adaptable and sourced from things you can find easily, you could also use glossy magazines or sometimes newspapers.

The models are diagrammed in a modified traditional style and laid out right to left with a clear back and front of the paper done in bright colors that's easy to see and read. The guide to the folds is clear and easy to follow which makes it good for novices.

The models themselves are mostly functional. Lots of wearable projects like rings, a bracelet and a necklace. The suggested papers are just that- suggestions. You can cut any paper to fit the dimensions which are clearly stated.

There are picture frames, little dishes to hold small things in, envelopes, gift wrap bag and decorative items like the modular postcard star on the cover. My favorite project is the modular money bowl which is a cute bowl with feet. It does require adhesion so you can just use a dollar as a pattern on a different type of paper to make it if you'd like.

I love the idea of saving your memorabilia in a way that it can be used and displayed daily, and this book is a way to do that.

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Not related to this wonderful book- Don't Eat the Paste looks like it's going to reach 5 MILLION page views this month. So I got some coins made up to celebrate.

I had them made by Gainsville Mint, and recommend them if you ever want things like this made. They were easy to work with, my original art include the logo heart and the ring with my URL in it using the same font that's in my header. They put in the create it text and the quote on the front which reads "Ubicumque homo est, ibi beneficio locus est. - Seneca", translated Ubicumque homo est, ibi beneficio locus est means "Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness" 

Amazon.com affiliate links don't affect your cost, and provide extra income to me personally, which helps support this site.

I received a complimentary copy of this book to review, I received no other compensation, and my review is my honest opinion of the book. You can read more about my review policy here.