Cooking with Creativity

 

It's important to be as creative with cooking as you are with crafting.  Even though I bake goodies that everyone loves and requests, sometime I just want to put a different spin on tried and true recipes. My mom's  banana bread recipe is a classic but she also loved making fruitcake during the holidays.  Since I had the overripe bananas and an ample supply of dried fruits, I decided my mom would approve of a Banana 'Fruitcake' Bread.  It was a tasty and successful experiment.  Because of the bananas the loaves are more moist than fruitcake so I think this will be my holiday baked gift to friends and family.  

Another of my baked goods which always gets a request for the recipe (it's Martha Stewart's original).  I love the taste of the cookies but as with most peanut butter cookies the look of the cookies with just the crisscross markes is rather boring.  I decided that sprinkles (I hve lots of them because I mistakenly purchased a gigantic container online LOL!) would spruce up the look of the cookies.  I dipped each ball of dough in sprinkles before flattening and baking them. The festive look of the sprinkle colors really adds to the yummy Peanut 'Sprinkle' Butter cookies.  An added bonus to the sprinkles is a crunchy texture.  As with your craftwork, I hope that you will experiment with your cooking because you never know what marvelous goodies you will create.  Think out of the box and make life more interesting and tasty!

Pompompurin Zip Bag shaker Card

Of the Sanrio characters, Pompompurin is probably one of my favorites, so when I saw the small Pompompurin zip bag (set of five) at Daiso; it was a no brainer to put it in my shopping basket.  I thought the image would be super on a card front so I carefully cut out Pompompurin and the cart with balloons.  Next I made a simple shaker card using Lawn Fawn card stock and printed vellum for the heart shaped window. All of these supplies are available at HM Ben Franklin Crafts along with the double stick foam tape that was used behind the heart opening to form the shaker element.  I left the double stick tape unexposed just above the heart so that the Lawn Fawn confetti could be filled in.  I glued down the cut out printed bag with small dots of clear glue.  Because I didn't like the white card front showing, I added strips of colored card stock to the edges of the card.  I am happy with this card that uses an inexpensive zip bag featuring the cute Pompompurin . (It was difficult to take a good photo of this card because of the glare. I had to use my cell phone and a computer that is not my regular one.)  Anyway, I hope you are inspired to incorporate images you love into your crafts....make yourself smile!

 

Pumpkin Carving Squirrels Shaker Card

As soon as I spied the Lawn Fawn  sparkling  Autumn leaf confetti, I knew I had to get it and make a shaker card.  Using a maple leaf die, I cut out a shaker opening, backed it with acetate and lined foam sticky tape around the opening.  I also put foam tape around the edges of the brown card piece so that the piece would be an even level on the card.  I took off all the sticky tape backings except the one on the top. After the front piece was adhered to the card, I filled the section around the leaf opening with the confetti leaves and removed the backing to the top sticky tape. 

Once the top piece was done, I worked on the Lawn Fawn stamped squirrels and carved pumpkins. The finished pieces were positioned on the card with sticky dots.  

For the inside of the card, I decided to use the cut out maple leaf (waste not, want not!).  I rubbed the leaf with some gold ink and added it along with a card stock message from my hoarded stash.  This card was easy and didn't require a lot of supplies.  I love the autumn season and can't wait to send this card to someone special!

Halloween Cat Spell Card and Tag

 The inspiration for this card and tag came from the cute Lawn Fawn stamp set images.  The card base was made from a 12x12 printed card stock from my stash.  Using circle dies ( Spellbinders), I cut out circles from marbled iridescent paper ( Recollections).  Next the cats were stamped and colored (with Copic pens) and attached to the card/tag with foam sticky dots.  The words were die cut from the leftover marbled foil paper. Because the letters were rather fragile, I decided to run them through the Xyron sticker making machine rather than applying glue.  Applying the sticker letters was easy to do and they could be aligned as desired.  The yarn for the tag was from my ever-growing stash of interestingly textured fibers (mostly from Japan).

I am thrilled that the card and tag came together easily and were visually pleasing.  I think the marbled iridescent paper was really the highlight of the pieces and definitely catches your eye Making Halloween greetings need not be labor intensive...after all, Halloween only lasts for one day...so craft and enjoy it!

                                        

Beach Collections

I love collecting pretty shells, rocks and other items washed up on the beach.  My grandson is a magpie collector like me but after a while all the beach treasures get misplaced or become clutter.  I decided to teach my grandson how to make Plaster of Paris paperweights to keep his beach treasures together.  At the beach we gathered some sand (about 1/2 cup) in a paper cup and whatever shells, rocks, beach glass,  etc. we wanted to save. Once we got back to the house we placed a layer of sand in each cup and pressed the beach goodies on top making sure that the pretty side was faced down in the sand. The Plaster of Paris (from a hardware store) was mixed up according to the directions on the box. This mixture was poured over the items in each cup and allowed to harden overnight. Once the plaster was hard the paper cups were torn and the beautiful beach collections revealed. Names and the date were written on the bottom of each beach treasure paper weight.  My grandson's piece turned out the best because he put lots of collected beach memories in his cup.  We all had a good time admiring each others crafty skills and now have a permanent memory of our special time together at the beach.

Watercolored Coaster Tiles

 I discovered some watercolor paper tiles and watercolor crayons at a tourist shop in Cape Cod and immediately thought that they would make good small art projects for my grandson. He loved drawing on the tiles and painting water over them to see the colors wash and blend.  Even the adults at the beach house had fun designing paper tiles.  After they were dry, I glued them to cardboard and adhered clear contact paper to the tops to waterproof them. Now we all have pretty memory coasters that remind us of the fun we had at the Cape Cod beach house.  If you can't find small tile watercolor paper, you can always cut them yourself from large watercolor sheets.  I think the watercolor crayons should be available at most art supply stores like HM Ben Franklin Crafts. Color yourself some beautiful memories!                                                              

Halloween Candy Bar Envelopes

 Halloween Trick-o-Treat candy doesn't have to be handed out from a bowl.  You can make cute decorated envelopes to enclose a much desired chocolate bar.  Starting with a long colored envelope from Daiso, I used a Whimsy die set to cut out the background for each envelope.  (The moons were cut from marbled foil paper purchased at HM BFC.)  Next, it was easy work to stamp out the characters (Lawn Fawn), color them and die cut or hand cut them out.  

Even the backs of the envelopes can be decorated...in this case with die cut Lawn Fawn  ' Trick-o-Treat' words.  I think especially older Trick-O-Treaters will love receiving  treats like this. Making these candy bar Halloween envelopes is a fun way to pass out some sweet treats. Your home will be the top Halloween house on everyone's list!