Another Love coloring page!

 

I posted a coloring page just to my FB page recently, and then after talking to one of my readers, promised one that said love soon. So here it is! I hope very much you all like it. I'll post the hope one tomorrow. 

Click the versions below for larger versions to save and print. Print on landscape mode. 

Small jpg version of love coloring page: 

Large transparent png version of love coloring page: 

Vote coloring page

 It's that time of the year! 

I voted by mail for convenience and didn't get a sticker. I'm a little sad about that but will stop by one of the voter locations and ask for a sticker. 

Anyway! Click the images below to save and print to color. 

Small jpg of vote coloring page: 

Large transparent png of vote coloring page:

Quick Basket Decor Craft with Fall Flowers

 

Oh the crisp cool days of fall! A lot of hustling, last minute garden harvests, berry picking, apple picking. 

And a moment for a bit of simple crafting with one of my favorite plants. See the picture above? The little nosegay off to the side is a bundle of dried yarrow I picked earlier this year and wrapped in pretty yarn and hung to dry. 

Yarrow dries beautifully, means a lot of things to a lot of cultures, has been used as medicine everywhere it grows and I always have a bundle hanging by my door. 

You will need: 

• An open work basket with an edging big enough to thread flower stems through
• a plant you like the look of that dries well 
• a pair of sharp scissors
  
  

The basket I used was made by my son. He wasn't really happy with how he finished the edge of this one. That said, any basket with a decorate edge or a bit loose weaving towards the top will work. 

Cut the yarrow so the stems are about 5 inches long, but shorter will work for some sections. You just need them long enough to weave them in a bit. 

Get comfortable, and start weaving the yarrow into the top. Pull it as close to flush with the basket as possible so looks nice and full. 

Weave the ends in a couple inches. As you add more yarrow, you can also weave the ends into the other ends of yarrow and the basket. 

After the edge is completely filled in, go around and snip off any pieces of stem that are too long. 

Hang, and enjoy it while it's drying. 

You can also tie a ribbon or piece of fabric in a bow under it, but if you do that, do it before the yarrow dries so you're not breaking off the yarrow. 

Dried yarrow has stayed nice looking for me for a couple years. Since I'm not sealing this, when it does start fading in a few years, I'll carefully break off the dried yarrow and replace it. If you don't want to do that or if you're giving the basket as a gift, you can use a clear spray sealing spray on it after it dries completely to preserve the colors. 

DIY Craft Foam Crown Headband

 

I really meant to get in progress photos but it's harvest time up here and my family is doing a LOT of harvesting of wild plants and stuff. 

I've started selling some of my salves in partnership with a good friend. You can follow her page and see what are doing together at Da Love Bazaar on Facebook. 

So instead of in progress photos, you get the printable pattern and a written explanation. That said, I plan to do more styles of these and will get photos of them in progress and it's the same method. 

You will need: 

• The printable pattern! 
• Sheets of a flexible but firm material to cut them from- I used craft foam
• appropriate glue for your material- hot glue works well with craft foam
• sharp scissors
• a blank headband 
• stuff to decorate it with- I used rhinestone tape with this one 
  
• clips to hold it while glue is drying if necessary
• pen that will mark on your material
• bottle or narrow glass that the base of the crown will fit on. 
  
  Click the image below and print it out at 100% or fit to page. This is pieces to lay out two crowns to cut them.

Cut out the pieces, then lay them out on your foam and trace them. 

Cut out the foam. 

Glue the two disks together, if you're using a glitter or textured foam, it's better to have the smooth/wrong side against your hair. 

Curve the crown piece around, and use the small tab to connect the edges in a circle. 

Trim a SMALL amount off the disks so they fit tightly in the base of the crown piece and run a bead of glue inside the crown to attach it. 

Now is where you need the bottle that it fits over. I used a tall amber pill bottle. I put the crown upside on that, then used the larger tab to attach the headband. That protects the points from being crushed while you're attaching the headband. Align the headband on the crown base so the seam/connecting piece is in the back. That puts the center point in the front. 

After all the glue is set, it's time to decorate it!! 

It's really easy to make one of these. 

The rhinestone tape is really easy to use and it's fun. It cuts easily with scissors and I have a lot of it because I use it for props frequently. These are Amazon affiliate links. Using them will not affect your cost but will help support this site. 

Rhinestone Tape
Multi-colored Tape Set

I've been having a "Tiara Tuesday" on my FB page for a few month now and plan to have more crown and tiara projects this next year. 

Super easy air freshener hack

 

I keep forgetting to post this really easy scent hack.

Bar coasters are made out of blotter paper- just like most paper type car fresheners.

So you can put your favorite perfume oils on them and either put them in a pretty bowl or punch a hole in them and hang them.

The coaster in this photo is one that came as a sample with some stickers from Sticker Mule and if you use my link, you can get 10 dollars off an order AND I'll get a 10 dollar credit. More than that? Coasters on sale right now.

Sticker Mule

Perfume is one of my favorite LE's from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab and was a gift from a friend- sooo.. I'm pretty stingy with it. But my newly anointed coaster will let me enjoy the scent in my room OR it can be used sachet like in my underwear drawer.

But hey, you don't need custom coasters. Seriously, just pocket them instead of throwing them away if you get them with a drink while you're out.

Color By Shape! Coloring page

 

I'm still working on getting back in the habit of drawing and this was an idea I had recently for coloring by shape. There are 6 different shapes in the circle, and my example was colored in using rainbow colors for each shape. 

It's fussy and hopefully calmly meditative for people who like coloring in simple designs with a lot of small areas.  

Click the images below for larger versions to print and color. 

Small jpg version: 

Large png version: 

Love and Hearts Coloring Page

 

OH! It's been a while since I drew and posted a new coloring page. I'm learning how to use the graphic program on a different computer and this is the first one I've done on that computer. 

Click the images below for larger versions to print and color. 

Small jpg version of Love and Hearts Coloring Page- 

Large transparent PNG version of Love and Hearts Coloring Page- 

Smoking Cheese - Electric smoker

 

Oh! It's been a long time. Sorry about that. 

But hey, it's that season again and my family is gathering food and doing summer stuff and one of the big summer things is smoking cheese. 

We don't have a cold smoker. Our smokers are both electric, and both are Smokehouse Products smokers. One was bought off season at a heavily discounted price- but honestly, it would have been worth full price for how much we use it. The other one is smaller and I got it from a garage sale for free. 

The primary thing we use our smokers for is CHEESE. My family loves smoked cheese but it's expensive. Locally it's about 17 dollars a lb. With a coupon, I can get cheddar cheese for about 3.00 a lb. 

So when it comes to smoking cheese, I've used green apple wood that my son and I whittled into chips, purchased chips, and purchased hardwood for smoking and grilling- also whittled into chips. 

The Chief line of smokers from Smokehouse Products use chips in a small pan on top of an electric element. Fairly low voltage at 450W in my Big Chief model. You set it up on a non-combustible surface for smoking. 

The big issue for smoking cheese in this kind of smoker is that it is NOT a cold smoker. In fact, it runs about 165F, and cheddar melts at 150F. Well, that's kind of a big problem if you want pretty and yummy blocks of smoked cheddar. 

So what we do is get blocks of cheese and cut them down to the sizes we want and put them on the top two racks ONLY. Then under that on a shelf, we put a big pan of ice. The ice helps cool the smoke- and we leave the top open an inch or two so it draws the smoke out of the top across the cheese. 

We like our cheese a little smokier, so we run 3 pans full of chips through it then let the cheese cool a bit before wrapping it in plastic wrap. 

I can do 4 or 5 lbs of cheese this way at a time, and it might be 3 dollars worth of wood chips if I used purchased chips instead of apple wood or other types of woods that are good for smoking that I can get for free, and at 450W, for a full 2 hours costs less than 20 cents to run the smoker. So if I get the cheese for 3 lb a lb, and do 4 lbs, finished cost is less than 4.00/lb to smoke it myself. 

My youngest LOVES our smoked cheddar. So it does get more expensive that way. She eats about twice as much cheese when it's smoked!