coffee cake

I hope you all had a great Easter! We did... how can you not have a good time when chocolate, mimosas, and lots and lots of baked goods are involved? Our family gets together for an Easter brunch, so every kind of breakfast food you can think of we had.. and then afterwards we had dessert too!
I was to bring a coffee cake. I have a big bag of frozen raspberries that we picked last fall that I thought I'd use. I found a recipe for raspberry almond coffee cake on allrecipes and it was really tasty. I think everyone liked it. And it actually looked like a coffee cake! I wasn't really expecting that.

I'm a guest blogger today on Cathe Holden's blog, Just Something I Made (a warm welcome to those of you who are visiting from there!). Cathe is incredibly creative and she does some amazing things with clip art. I'm always inspired when I visit her blog.

I put together a little tutorial to make a business card holder. You can check out the post here, or download a PDF version of the directions right here.

easter crafts

(photo from Curbly)

Some Easter/spring inspired things to make or print:

Learn to dye eggs naturally at Curbly (pictured)

Print some cute Easter gift tags from babalisme

Make faux-chocolate bunnies from Martha

Knit Easter finger puppets at the Purl Bee

Craft little chicks from pom-poms with Fiona Carter

Download free Easter embroidery patterns from Tangarang

Make a wheat grass centerpiece with Martha

Make paper tulips with cheeky magpie

felt food

I've been a little into felt food lately (never mind that I don't have kids!). They're so cute and the perfect thing to work on while watching a movie. I figured a purchased pattern would be a great place to start, so I bought this one from Etsy seller umecrafts (she has a bunch of really cute patterns. I'm still thinking about getting the veggies).

Pictured above are my creations. The banana has a removable skin.. neat right? And the apple has velcro on it so it can stick together, but I won't make any more apples like that. It wasn't fun hand sewing the velcro on and it looks silly all stuck together, not at all like a whole apple.

But anyway, when I was searching around for free tutorials and ideas for other foods I found a few links that I thought I'd share:

- A pattern for a loaf of bread from cherrymix. I just noticed that she also has a pattern for a cupcake and a fortune cookie (and more) on her site.

- A couple tutorials here including a strawberry. (This is umecrafts's blog.)

- Ravioli, lemon slices, tomato slices, ice cream, egg and orange slices all from One Crafty Mumma

- Finally, here and here you can find a ton more ideas, photos, instructions, and tips.
Oh, and about the felt. I used this ecospun felt that's made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic bottles which I think is awesome. It's a good quality, nice and thick and strong. I bought it at Joann's on sale for 8 for 96 cents or something like that. If you want real wool felt (which I love.. maybe someday I'll make some out of wool..), you can find a large selection here, or here if you want to shop from Etsy.

Tutorial Tuesday - Drawstring Bag

I love drawstring bags. They are so useful! I use them to store little projects and my toiletries when we're camping. I think they're such a better container than plastic bags or bins. So it's no coincidence that all of my handmade gifts for Christmas were housed in drawstring bags. The last time I made one I took some photos and wrote up a little tutorial for you all.

You can find the tutorial right here.

Enjoy! Oh, and tomorrow you'll see what's in the bag pictured above. :)

Little house ornaments & Bookmarks

Itching to start some Christmas crafting? Well this adorable house ornament from Pimp Stitch would be a great place to start. You can find the tutorial here.

And, just added to the shop: Holiday bookmarks! (I'll be posting regular bookmarks too.) :)

Tutorial Tuesday - Baby Bib

There were no babies in the house when I was working on this, so Henry helped out instead. :)

Click here for the bib tutorial.

Click here for the bib template.

Tutorial Tuesday - Matchbook Notepad

Just a note, the title of this post isn’t necessarily a promise for future “Tutorial Tuesdays” (although I think it would be fun if I could pull it off), I just liked the sound of it! :)

Anyway, I've been making a few things as little gifts to include in my Etsy packages and these cute little matchbooks are one of them.

Here's what you'll need:
- Heavy-ish scrapbook paper for the outside. One piece of 12x12 paper will make 8 books. I like the double-sided kind because once you open the matchbook you see another pretty pattern inside. (see photo below) I found that Scenic Route paper is a great thickness.
- Filler paper. This can be anything you want (Junk mail? old school papers?). I used 8 ½" x 14" sheets of old accountant's work sheet paper I found at the thrift store.
- A paper trimmer (or just use a cutting mat, ruler, and xacto knife)
- A bone folder
- ruler, pencil, stapler

1. Cut all of your paper. I cut the filler sheets 2 ¾" square and the scrapbook paper 3"x6". I used 15 filler sheets per matchbook.

2. On a cutting mat, lay out a few of the scrapbook pages, with what will be the inside of the matchbook facing up. Using the ruler as a straight edge, measure over ½", using the marks on the cutting mat as your guide (see photo below). Use the bone folder to score along this line.

3. Fold up the little tab.

4. On the tab, measure and mark with a pencil at 1" and 2". This will be where you staple.

5. Take your little stack of filler paper, put it under that tab and staple staple. I like two staples but you could also just do one.

6. Fold the top flap of scrapbook paper up and around, tucking the edge under the stapled flap.
7. Use the bone folder to get rid of the arch in the scrapbook paper, making that top fold more like a real matchbook. (I hope that makes sense...)

And you're done! Wouldn't these be cute as stocking stuffers??

Oh, and I know this would be easier as a PDF, I'm sorry. I plan on working on that soon!

Cute Crafty Projects

While cruising around to various blogs I found a few cute projects that I love..

An adorable free embroidery pattern from Craft Pudding.

A tutorial for a sweet little needle book/sewing kit from Nini Makes.

And The Small Object shows us how to make fabric covered floss bobbins. What a great idea, no?

Homemade Lip Balm

I've been making my own lip balm for a few years now, and I love the recipe I use so I thought I'd share it here. It's very, very simple. This makes about 3 tubes.

-2 tsp. beeswax (chop or grate it, then measure)
-2 1/4 tsp. jojoba oil (you can use any oil you like, but for me jojoba's the only way to go)
-about 6 drops of peppermint essential oil (again, you can use anything you like. Grapefruit would be good!)

Melt wax and jojoba oil together in the top of a double boiler, or you could probably put it in the microwave for a bit. Stir to combine. Then remove it from the heat and add the essential oil. Pour into your containers, but don't fill up completely yet. Wait a minute or two, keeping the reserved mixture melted, then top the containers with the rest of the mixture. This gives you a nice looking top. Let cool for about 20 minutes and enjoy!
I like a bit of a waxier lip balm, so if you want it glossier just add a bit more jojoba oil.. maybe 3 tsp? Experiment to get it how you like it, that's half the fun!

**********************************************************************************

Edited to add:
There's been a few questions, so I thought I'd add my answers here so they're all in one place.

-Where do you get those screw bottom containers?
I get them from a variety of places but the prices on ebay are the best I've found. Just do a search for "lip balm tube." I also save old ones I've used up and reuse those (only for myself of course!)

-How do you pour the balm in the tube? Do you just pour it from the pot?
I used to use a plastic pipette to get the melted balm into the tubes, but I found a little enamel pot at the flea market and I use that now. The pipettes work fine but the balm will harden in it if you're not fast enough. You can also find these on ebay. Search for "plastic pipette."

-Where do you get your beeswax? Online? Or can I use the left over wax from my honey and just try to remove the remaining honey?
I buy my beeswax from Mountain Rose Herbs or from local beekeepers (check farmers markets). Often they will have little chunks of wax by their displays of honey. I don't see why you couldn't use the wax that's in honey.. I've seen other lip balm recipes calling for honey but whenever I try it the honey separates from the balm, but if you get most off it should work!

-Any suggestions for what type of beeswax to use or where to get it? I noticed "pure," "unfiltered," "pellets," and all other sorts online. What's the difference?
I would take the term "pure" to mean it's just beeswax, no other ingredients are added (also look for 100% beeswax).

Filtered would mean that it's been strained of any other matter that may be in the wax (dirt, dead bees, etc). For use in lip balm I would look for filtered.

The pellets are just beeswax that is formed into little pellets. The pellets would be very easy to use, but I've never bought it because it's a bit more expensive, and, well, I can be sort of cheap sometimes. :)

One type of beeswax I would avoid is the "white" beeswax. The whiteness is obtained by bleaching the wax and I would think some of the many good, healing qualities of the wax would be lost when it's bleached. And I would be worried that some of the bleaching residue would remain on the wax.

I buy everything from Mountain Rose Herbs and I'm always impressed. They're the best company I've found that sells this type of supplies and I love that most everything is organic. They also supply lots of information. You can find the jojoba oil and the peppermint essential oil there as well.

-What sort of other oils would be nice in the lip balm?
I’ve seen different lip balm recipes calling for different carrier oils, including: olive oil, safflower oil, almond oil, castor oil, coconut oil, and sunflower oil. Sometimes they’re combined in one recipe; like castor and coconut oils; or almond, olive, and castor oils. I’ve never tried any of them because I love the jojoba oil.

And as for essential oils, I would think the citrus oils, like grapefruit, lemon, lime, or tangerine would be nice. Stick with edible stuff.. I don’t think lip balm scented with fir needle essential oil would be good, for example. Also be careful which oils you choose, some need to be avoided if you’re pregnant and others can’t be used on your lips or other sensitive areas. Mountain Rose Herbs has all of this information with their essential oils.

-Do you know about any laws in selling lip balm to say a local co-op?
No, I’m not familiar with the laws regarding selling products you’ve made. I would think some sort of preservative would be necessary, like vitamin E or grapefruit seed extract but I could be wrong.

Fabric Bookmarks

The leftover strips from the pencil roll were the perfect width for bookmarks and because I was using a torn piece of newspaper to mark my place in my book, I thought I'd make a few real bookmarks. After some trial and error, I ended up with some pretty cute ones.

I cut watercolor paper 1 1/2" wide x 6" tall, glued a piece of fabric to the back with fabric glue, then I glued smaller pieces on the front, overlapping a little. I didn't use a lot of glue, I was just using it to tack the fabric down so the pieces didn't slip when I went to sew them. The first few I made I didn't glue the front fabrics down (just the back), and they slipped all over the place and looked yucky. So glue 'em down, then sew all the way around and over the bottom of each little piece. Then punch a hole near the top, add an eyelet if you want, and thread yarn or ribbon through the top. The edges will fray a bit, but I think it adds to it, don't you?

Another cute fabric bookmark tutorial can be found here on Anna Maria Horner's blog.

Fabric Covered Altiod Tins

I had a few of these cute blank Altiod-like tins laying around and I thought they would be perfect little containers for sewing or knitting supplies. So I covered them in fabric, lined them with felt, and I have cute little tins to store my supplies in. Super simple, but here's how I did it.




Supplies:
Fabric (little scraps are perfect for this)
Felt
Selvage (or just strips) of matching fabric or ribbon (for the sides of the tin)
Scissors
Fabric Glue

Spread Fabric glue onto one side of the tin.

Lay it face down onto wrong side of fabric. Flip it all over, smooth out any bumps or wrinkles. (not pictured)

When slightly dry, trim extra fabric off of tin.

Now starting in the back, apply glue to edge of bottom half of tin, attaching the fabric as you go around. (I used the selvage along here because it doesn't fray, but I'm sure regular fabric strips would work just as well.) It's ok if the strips are wider than the area, just let it hang off the bottom and trim it later like you did with the top and bottom pieces.

After you've trimmed off any over hang fabric, the outside is finished. All you have to do now is cut two pieces of felt (I used pinking shears) to fit inside your tin, glue them in with the fabric glue, and you're done!