Halloween Gummy Kits

I am always in the Halloween isles of every store I go to and when I spotted these gummy brain and heart kits I knew that I wanted to give them a try.I am glad I did, they were super easy, only use the microwave, and were ready very fast. All of that added up to a super kid friendly Halloween activity and the molds are reusable!I sprayed the molds with cooking spray and the gummies popped right out. The only thing that I didn’t really like about these kits were the flavors, they weren’t exactly great, but they were edible and now I can make these gummies from Not So Idle Hands and reuse the molds. We’ve made home made gummies before and they really are good and easy. I guess the only thing I have to add is that home made gummies have more of a Jell-O flavor and not a gummy bear taste.
I had a short, unexpected blog vacation last week (did you miss me?), we have been enjoying fall so much and a lot of our time has been spent outside that I haven’t really been working on anything new craft wise. What I am currently working on is building stock for craft show season and you guys have seen these projects before. I have two weeks until my first show and I will be working on some new displays, I can’t wait to share them with you, if you want to see some of my inspiration check out my display pin board.

Organized: Clutter Corner

The kitchen is the only area of my house that gets cleaned and de-cluttered daily, however there is one corner that is out of control.This area is supposed to be for my cookbooks and recipe box.  It is also where I keep our frequently used medicines and reusable tissues.  I have a lot of baking soda for some reason and there is a package of undershirts and a package of underwear in this mix too.  This is really the “I don’t know where to put this so I’ll just shove it here” corner.  The biggest problem is this mess makes it really hard to get to my recipes and plan my meals.
I found this free printable recipe binder cover on Prudent Baby (there are a variety of colors to match any kitchen) and decided to get the clutter corner under control.  Everything got sorted and properly put away and all of my recipe books, cards, magazines, and print outs got hauled to the dining room table to be sorted and stored.  I printed out extra cover sheets to make my dividing pages, I added a label over the top of the word RECIPE and I used self adhesive tabs to label all of the category pages.  I used a combination of sheet protectors and photo protector pockets to fill in the book.  It took a while to sort all the scraps of paper out, but it was worth it.
The recipe books will be filed away in a cupboard, I don’t use them often enough to keep them out, but I do use them enough to want to keep them (for now).  I will be working on the drawers on the left next and hopefully there will be room for me to store my binder away in one of them.  I think the bottom drawer has every kitchen towel I have ever owned in it and I only use the three that match the kitchen, so there might be some room in there.  I also might store the binder with my command center, the recipes for the weekly menu are stored in the menu planning organizer I made, so I don’t need to use the binder in the kitchen daily.  I only need to use it when I plan the menu, which I do in the dining room anyway, hmmm, definitely storing it on the command center (which also need a make over).
I am slowly getting everything the way I want it, now I’ll need to start working on some more decorations for the kitchen.  I have several half finished projects that need to be wrapped up (cough, curtains and giant spoon and fork, cough).

Conversation Heart Ornaments

Nothing says Valentine’s Day to me like conversation hearts. I remember sorting through them and reading each one. Where I work they have a Christmas tree that they leave up year round and they are always looking for new ornaments to decorate it, so I decide to make some conversation heart ornaments using basic salt dough.

Basic Salt Dough Recipe:

1 c. salt

2 c. flour

3/4 – 1 c. warm water

Mix salt, flour, and water together until a large ball forms. Knead on a lightly floured surface. The better you knead the dough the nicer the dough. Roll out 1/4” – 1/2” thick and cut shapes with cookie cutters. Place on parchment covered baking sheet and bake 3 – 4 hours at 200 F. I have a collection of different alphabet stamps and I used a set of those to make the words. Make sure to really press the stamp into the dough, I found that it was hard to get a good letter impression without printing the edge of my stamps too. If you look closely you can see the imprints on the hearts on the right hand side.

The salt dough dries really well in the oven and the final texture really reminds me of the real conversation hearts. Once they were dry I painted them. I think that if I made them again I would tint the dough and then I would just have to paint the letter, plus they would have been a softer pastel color like the real hearts. I need to seal these really well to preserve them and then string them on ribbon and they’ll be ready for the tree. These would also be cute with a hole on each side and hung as a banner. This was a really fun, simple project that I think I will revisit again, maybe next year we’ll make monogram ornaments for all the teachers.

Home Made Dryer Sheets

I love the way fabric softener makes my clothes feel and smell, but what I don’t love is the price! I have seen several different versions of making your own dryer sheet and basically the instructions are make a cloth napkin and dip it into vinegar and throw it in with your clothes, but where oh where is the good smell? I found this recipe (unfortunately I don’t remember the link) and knew it would be perfect.

2 c. water

1 c. vinegar

2/3 c. any hair conditioner – I used suave cucumber melon splash

Mix by stirring, (I used a whisk and it worked great!) not shaking. Soak a rag in liquid, ring out until slightly damp and add to the dryer with your clothes.I put mine into an empty country crock container (as you can see from this exciting picture), but anything with a lid will do. It looks just like the store bought stuff and it smells great and I plan on using an old washcloth for my “dryer sheet”. I spent a dollar for the conditioner and I had the vinegar on hand, so this was a pretty frugal mix.

I’m off to do some laundry and see how well it works, very soon I will be making my own liquid laundry soap, so stay tuned!

***Update***

The consistency of the mix reminded me of regular fabric softener and so I tried using some in my "Downy" ball and it was awesome! I will be using this more like liquid softener instead of like a dryer sheet.

How to Make Your Own Water Color Paint

When I was a little girl my mother used to come up with all sorts of things to keep me occupied and so in the family tradition I decided to make my own water color paints. 

There are a lot of recipes available on the ‘net for a variety of art supplies, pick a supply and google how to make it.  I think it is important to show my children that you can actually make some things instead of just rushing to the store and buying them.  Any who, on with the recipe, you will need:

1 T. white vinegar

2 T. baking soda

1 T. cornstarch

1/4 tsp. glycerin (this can be found in a drug store, with the laxatives(see pic.), make sure to get the liquid and not capsules)

1/2 – 1 T. water

liquid food coloring

Plastic bottle caps, empty paint box, or styrofoam egg carton

Mix the vinegar and baking soda in a small bowl, I used the measuring cup.  Be prepared for the chemical reaction, it’s going to foam up a bit.  I stirred my together and then once it stopped bubbling I added the cornstarch, glycerin *, and 1/2 T. of the water(as we all know you can always add more water it it’s too thick).  

Pour into the bottle caps (or whatever sort of container you’re using).  One batch filled six bottle caps.  I think that the egg carton would be perfect for younger children, but my eggs come in a cardboard container!

Now for the fun part, add the food coloring.  I used two drops of each color for the paints in the top row.  For the bottom row I got creative and started mixing.  From left to right: a dusty lavender, teal green, navy blue, reddish brown, and black.  I used toothpicks to mix the colors in.

Let dry overnight and start painting.  Mine have been drying for 8 hours and they are still wet on top, but the bottom appears solid.  I’ll let you guys know how they turned out and get some samples posted tomorrow.

*I bought my glycerin at Walgreens and they did not have it in a bottle, (I had bought it that way before to use as a ink retardant for printing), so I had to get in in prefilled suppositories.  If this is how you buy yours make sure to squeeze out the “lubricant” in the tip before measuring your 1/4 tsp.