Showing posts with label arts n crafts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label arts n crafts. Show all posts

Friday, July 20, 2012

book page markers

Thank you Pinterest.....again.....


These came to life because a friend of mine sent me a photo saying she needed a few, so here they are!


Book page markers.
Super cute.
Relatively simple to assemble once I figured out how I wanted to do them. Let me say btw...I never did find an actual tutorial that I liked and thought was easy to understand so I had to go figure it out for myself.
And, being of the old-fashioned group of people that still loves to actually hold a book in their hands, these are pretty handy.


Here's how to do this:


Cut some squares of fun paper. 
I did 4x4 and a couple 5x5 - whatever size you choose should work fine - just make sure they are  perfectly square.
Cut out a 2x2 corner - but save that little 2x2 square - you may want it to cover the plain white portion.
You now have an L shaped piece of paper with 2 small 2x2 sections. These need to be folded into sort of a diamond.
Then fold the top corner down to the opposite side.
Repeat with the remaining diamond piece to the opposing side.
Then tuck the flap portion.
Can you see where I used that 2x2 cut-out? Trim it down a little bit and stick onto the white section.
There will be a small gap on the top part of the triangle area. I used a piece of double-stick tape before folding the last corner down. Didn't want that little gap.
Decorate as desired.
I used a 3/4 inch circle punch for the white portions of the eyes and then a 1/2 inch punch for the black dots. Just glued everything where I wanted them.
note: our favorites are the ones with googly eyes, but then your book wont close completely shut. Decide whichever you like best.






Tuesday, January 10, 2012

what i've been doing instead of cooking

Actually I did cook today. Most of the morning and afternoon in fact. But you ever have one of those days when you can't even boil water correctly? Today was one of those days for me. I made three different recipes today - four if you include all the different cookie batters - and only one turned out okay. So I went and made a banner for my daughter's birthday coming up.
Here it is...
























Here's another shot because I'm pretty happy with it and I know she'll love it.






















Back to what I was cooking. Like I said, her birthday is coming up and I thought it would be really fun to make those little cookie bowls I saw on Pinterest a while back. They seemed easy enough. I have all the ingredients for several batches of cookies so I decided to do a practice run before her birthday weekend. The first batch was good ol fashioned chocolate chip since those are one of her favorites. I followed the tutorial and here's what happened.
























I took them out of the oven early since it was apparent this batch was done for.
Second batch of cookie dough was made with a little less butter hoping it wouldn't alter the flavor too much but give the 'bowl' more stability. I also used a muffin pan that seemed to have smaller holes - not quite as deep so maybe the cookie wouldn't have as far to fall? (welcome to my weird little brain)
Here's the second batch.
























Ask me how happy I am at this point that I've wasted all these ingredients and made such a mess in the kitchen with nothing to show for it?
I tried one more time with a plain sugar cookie dough.
No luck and no photo since they all turned out the same way.


At this point I did concede defeat to the "Cookie Bowl" (for now anyway) 
I decided to make some chocolate ganache and meringue so I could make these little units.
























Little chocolate meringue pie bites. Pretty tasty. I will get that recipe posted soon.


I have now run out of time and need to go collect Ada from school. The kitchen is thrashed and I'm covered in flour and sugar and chocolate and still do not have a single cookie bowl!
This story actually ends here. I haven't had any luck with these but would love to know the trick. If any of you readers can give me the secret PLEASE do so.


tateskitchen@gmail.com


Looking forward to hearing from someone who can help me out.
:-)

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

what i've been doing instead of cooking

Where have I been? 
At home...completely crazed...preparing for the 44th Annual Christmas Arts and Crafts Show in Folsom, CA.  Yes, I realize this is a food blog and supposed to contain a jillion delectable 'edible' items, but these last couple weeks have been beyond nuts so unfortunately the family has been living on salad out of a bag and endless nights of hot dogs and fish sticks! There may have been some steamed broccoli in there somewhere as well. I can't really remember.


I promise to get back in the swing of things and start cooking again.
But today I thought it would be a good idea to give the world a glimpse of how I have been spending my time (in addition to all the time spent volunteering in my daughter's classroom and all the failed attempts to get this house clean and get some laundry done and maybe stop at the grocery for another frozen pizza) I really, really tried to be super mom and do ALL of my normal chores as well as ALL the prep needed for this huge show.
It didn't happen.
Something had to give so unfortunately the blog suffered.


But, the show is done.
I feel like I have recovered and gained a little of my normal sanity back.
(for those that know me it's probably more accurate to say "a little of my normal insanity")


There will be food soon (good food!)


Stay tuned.




Some photos of some of the products I made for this show are here. Many of the pieces will also be up in my etsy shop in the next week or so.
Majuk ink and paper is the shop name although it's pretty bare right now.
Here's a link if you're interested in checking it out. LINK  :-)

My friend liz said my house looked like Pinterest puked all over every flat surface available. Pretty accurate description.


I made a ton of coasters and trivets.




























Made a ton of cards.
Used my own photos for an entire card series.
Did quite a few mixed media pieces.
And of course had to do a whole gob of festive garland.
Some photo or card holders.
and a whole boat load of other items!

whew...it's been quite a few weeks of crafty nonsense.

am looking forward to getting back into the kitchen.