So I was cruising Pinterest the other day and found a great little tutorial to melt perler beads and make a little bracelet.(http://craftandcreativity.com/blog/2012/05/25/meltedbeads/ I want to give credit where credit is due.. )
I wanted to share with my Craftster friends what I did to make these using the perler Biggie Beads.

  I used the larger Biggie Beads,instead of the little ones in the tutorial on the nets, which are easier for my hands to get a hold of. Heat your oven to 250 degree F. for these larger beads. The smaller ones you heat to 200F. Line a pan with aluminum foil or parchment..line your perler beads like this

 and place them in the oven and keep an eye out..mine took about 15 minutes to look like this.

 There was no odor but put a fan on just in case. Pull them out...let them cool. When mine were hot I smushed them a bit with a magazine but you don't have to do that. I strung mine with the Stretch Magic cord and easy peasy, a little "candy" bracelet.

 This would be a great project for girls (or boys!) with supervision with the oven, of course. Easy little beads to make, inexpensive and they or you! can string to their/your hearts content.
 

I had some crafty fun last night and made an inexpensive wreath for Halloween.

What you need is pretty simple and inexpensive....

you need a orange plastic table cloth
about 2-3 black plastic bags
a form..I used a wire floral form
scissors to cut the plastic
and doodads to go in the middle

You want to cut your plastic bags and table cloth into 5-6 inch strips about 2" wide.
Start tying them on!

This takes a bit of time but I found several episodes of The Big Bang..so I was set!
When your done...fluff it up and add other things to it or leave it as is. Looks good either way...I think. It'll withstand the wet weather as well.
I wanted to add some other stuff to it...so....I did.

Glitter....everythi ng is better with glitter.  I also added some little sparkly bats and a ghosty kitty to make it a little more spoooooky!
Now I have a fun little spoooooky Halloween wreath that didn't cost and arm and leg.

I made this gluten free dessert for a friend who is gluten intolerant. I'm not the greatest cook in the world..but let me tell you! This was sooo easy and tastes like something you would get out of a restaurant...no joke. If you want your friends and family to think your the most awesome cook in the world...make this..



Here is the recipe Flourless Chocolate Cake

I'm going to post it here with my own pictures and what I did differently in parenthesis

Ingredients

    1/2 cup water
    1/4 teaspoon salt
    3/4 cup white sugar
    18 (1 ounce) squares bittersweet chocolate
    1 cup unsalted butter
    6 eggs

Directions

    Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Grease one 10 inch round cake pan and set aside.

(I greased the pan and dusted it with powdered cocoa..here's the chocolate squares I used as well)
    In a small saucepan over medium heat combine the water, salt and sugar. Stir until completely dissolved and set aside.

    Either in the top half of a double boiler or in a microwave oven melt the bittersweet chocolate. Pour the chocolate into the bowl of an electric mixer.
( I made my own double boiler by putting a bowl on top of my big pot. I made sure the water didn't touch my bowl..I didn't want the chocolate to seize)
    Cut the butter into pieces and beat the butter into the chocolate, 1 piece at a time. Beat in the hot sugar-water. Slowly beat in the eggs, one at a time.

    Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Have a pan larger than the cake pan ready, put the cake pan in the larger pan and fill the pan with boiling water halfway up the sides of the cake pan.

    Bake cake in the water bath at 300 degrees F (150 degrees C) for 45 minutes. The center will still look wet. Chill cake overnight in the pan. To unmold, dip the bottom of the cake pan in hot water for 10 seconds and invert onto a serving plate.
(I used a 9" pan and cooked it for a little longer (8-10 minutes) I did the jiggle test..if it jiggled too much, I left it in there for a bit longer. Make sure and chill it overnight..the consistency is really good well chilled.)

This was sooooo flippin good! I kid you not..it's smooth and creamy and it was really easy. I followed the directions to the T though..I've made it twice and both times it was perfect.

I hope you all try it!

 

So, my partner in the Mini Poppet swap, squire_inaria, has received so I wanted to post the Belly Dancer Poppet that I sent. I spent a lot of time on her and wanted to show and tell. I'm pretty proud with how she turned out.

Here's a close up of the detail on her clothes, click the thumbnail for a larger pic. Sorry, for the blur.


I made her little gold panties/thong. She had a split up to her hip on her skirt and needed something to cover her cha cha.  


Thanks for taking a look!

I've been making Sock Monkeys lately. They're so soft, cuddly and really easy to do. I thought I would share how I did them hoping to inspire anyone to make one. There are lots of Tutorials out there, so I thought I would add one to the mix..

First gather your goods, I used the Red Heel socks, sewing machine(or you can hand sew), scissors, thread and needle, stuffing, eyes (buttons, safety eyes, google eyes etc.) a ruler, pins..I pin everything.

Turn your socks inside out and with your sharpie on the first one.  Measure three inches from the heel and make a fine line down the center. Round off at the ends like the picture. These will be your Sock Monkey's legs.

On the other sock, starting about an inch above the top of the heel, draw a straight line. This will be your arms. In the middle of this section draw a line and round off the ends where the white/cream is.  On the legs and arms, sew 1/4 inch away from the line and don't forget to round your ends.

On the body, after you've sewn up the legs,with your scissors cut on the line past the line you drew for the legs about 1 1/2 inches and turn it right side out. On the arms, sew up the center, round your ends and using your scissors cut up the center,on the line, and cut them out on the line you drew across.

Turn them right side out. Stuff the body and arms.

Now on the piece that's left over, after cutting out your arms, you're going to make your tail and ears and cut out your mouth. Do the tail first. You want to draw a line one inch from the mouth and about half way in. (make sure and look at the picture) Draw on a tail. Draw on your ears and draw 1/2 inch away from the cream color for the mouth.

Cut them all out making sure you leave half and inch seam allowance, except for the mouth, cut on the line there. Sew your tail, cut it out, turn it right side out and stuff it. Cut out your ears sew wrong sides together, turn them right side out. Sew the little hole closed.


Here is everything drawn out then sewn and cut...



I like to pin everything on before I hand sew it on by hand. The mouth can be a bit tricky, make sure you leave a good half inch seam allowance and stuff it a bit, pin where you want it and tuck in the edges as you sew it on. I use safety eyes with the shank cut off and glued on. If you make for a young child, make sure you use the safety eyes with the back. Here it is stuffed and ready to sew..



and done!


I hope the instructions were easy enough to understand and I hope you'll try it!

Hope I'm putting this in the right spot...?

So..I love to watch the show Cougar Town with Courtney Cox..super funny! "Pennnny caaaaannn!" Anyhoots, in Jules's kitchen, in the background is the word EAT on her wall, done in what looks like those big cardboard letters...I wanted that in my kitchen, it was super easy and I thought I would share the process with mah Craftster friends...

You start with this....EAT in those cardboard letters. I got them at Joann's. Fun paper, modpodge, paint brush for glue, ruler, sharp exacto knife..(needs to be sharp, please be careful!) and a cutting board.  Oh! and scissors..

Really easy to cut out...lay it out on the paper, trace around, cut..I also covered the sides but you could paint that and leave it.

Glue it on with Modpodge..I used Matt-podge. I also sealed the whole thing when I had all the paper on...looks better.


And wahla!  There you have it!  I like it...fun easy project!

So..I wasn't going to post this but I'm really proud of it and worked really hard on it so I thought...what the heck!  It was for a swap with the wonderful puamelia in the mini poppet swap. She really liked  Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter..so this is MY interpretation of him.I'm just insanely proud of it!


I wish I took better pictures but there you have it.  Excuse Chelsea in the window (my dog)  She's wondering what the heck I'm doing.

thanks for taking a gander!

FoxyBlue and I are doing a personal swap (I'm sooo not worthy..but..) here's what I'm swapping with her....
This is Breeze..she's a butterfly caretaker and she provides the breeze for the butterflies very first flight. 
I hope you like her FoxyBlue..


I sooo wish I could take better pictures...she's so much prettier in person if I can say so myself...

So...for the new year, one of my resolutions is to get better at cooking, but to know the foods I'm putting in my body...staying away from colorings, preservatives and eat more whole foods. And no more meat. (well..try anyway)
I made pasta last night...super easy and worth the time..Here's the meal finished....
the pasta is mixed with garlic, carrots, broccoli, olive oil and butter that I cooked up first.....

I started with four eggs, two cups flour, pinch of salt, and a bit of olive oil....now.......kn eed...kneed...kneed ..when you think you've kneeded enough..kneed a little more...go for at least 10 minutes, you need it really firm then let it rest a bit

roll it out really thin... and cut with a pizza cutter into thin strips

 boil and salt your water and cook your pasta only 2 to 3 minutes..when it floats to the top it's done then.....
EAT!

Next time I'll get a pasta machine and make the pasta real pretty like...because after tasting homemade pasta? I'll never buy packaged again.

It's just July but I'm thinking about making some Christmas ornaments! Would anyone be interesting in doing a small swap with just one small Christmas ornament?  I've never organized a swap before and not sure I'm confident in doing so...would anyone be interested in organizing if there's any interest?  Eh.. Maybe it's just a silly thought.