Give this graduation gift a try – Book safes are my favorite thing to give to kids heading off to college – things tend to “disappear” in dorms and it’s good to have a hidden place to store extra cash and credit cards! This post with video is also on Lifetart Instagram account!
I was at Costco last week and saw these grill mats and thought “Hey! I’ll bet those would be great for working with glue guns!” – they are!
1. They are designed to withstand heat.
2. Glue peels right off of them.
3. The mats are big so you won’t accidentally lay the glue gun down on the table instead of the mat.
4. Four sheets are $16 instead of ONE silicone baking mat for the same price! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻😊
With Spring Break just around the corner, I thought I would share how I make travel photo books! Too many times the photos I take on vacation either stay on my SD card or phone and never make it onto my computer – and if they do happen to make it onto my computer, they never get any farther than that!
Last summer, we took a three week trip to SE Asia and I was determined to record it, share the photos with friends and family while we were in Asia and have a photo book at the end!
I came up with this idea and it worked flawlessly!! Enjoy!
STEPS:
1. Set up a new Instagram account for vaction photos – i.e. JaneDoeVacationPhotos. (I prefer having a special account for vacation photos so I don’t have to sift through all my day-to-day Instagram posts to see my vacation photos.) If you already have an Instagram account you will need to provide a different email for your new Instagram account – just open a new email account – i.e. JaneDoeVacationPhotos@gmail.com)
2. Make your new account private or public. I made ours private because we were gone for three weeks and I did not want strangers to know we were away from home.
Last night I was making Ina Garten’s Raspberry Crumble for a school function and thought I would use that recipe as a base for thumbprint cookies. I played around, added a few ingredients and came up with this recipe for these cookies! Half were gone by this morning – a sure sign of a good cookie recipe! Hope you enjoy it!
I have searched and searched and SEARCHED for how to tie a straight bow! FINALLY I found out how!! Recently I received a gift of Jo Malone perfume from my dear husband. Upon looking at the bow on the box, I noticed how beautiful it was – how symmetrical – how even – how it didn’t tilt to one side like MY bows! As I carefully untied the bow, I took photos of each step of untying (it would drive me crazy to watch someone open a gift as slowly as I did – he is a very patient man!) and I made a video of how to tie this most perfect of bows! Here is a link to the video – for your reference and my own!! Enjoy!!
I had a cocktail party in my studio last night and served these amazing scone ham sandwiches and thought the recipe would be a good one to share because everyone at the party asked for the recipe!
Savory Cheddar, Thyme & Sweet Corn Scones
Astoundingly good, savory and wonderfully chewy!
Makes approximately 30, 2″ scones
Ingredients:
2 c. Self-rising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp. English mustard powder
1/4 tsp. ground Cayenne
Paprika for sprinkling
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. minced fresh thyme + about 30 whole leaves for scone tops
1/4 c. cold unsalted butter
2 c. grated cheddar cheese
1 can of corn
3/4 c. 2% milk plus extra for brushing
juice of 1/2 lemon
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
1. In the bowl of a food processor, mix flour, baking powder, mustard, cayenne, salt and minced thyme leaves. Cut butter into 6 slices and add to flour mixture. Pulse until the mixture looks like fine crumbs. Add most of the cheese and all of the corn and pulse until incorporated. Mix the milk and lemon juice together and with the processor running add to flour mixture through the feed tube. Very quickly, it will form into a thick batter/dough – don’t overwork the dough. Don’t panic! This is a very wet dough!
2. Put dough on floured board, sprinkle with flour on top and knead a few times. Using a medium spring-loaded scoop (like a small ice cream scoop) – or a spoon, drop 1/2 golf ball sized pieces of dough onto prepared baking sheet.
3. Brush each scone with a little bit of milk and lightly press ball down with brush. Sprinkle with a bit of cheese and paprika and add a thyme leaf or two.
4. Bake for 7 – 12 minutes or until scones are risen and golden brown. Cool on rack.
Add shredded ham to dough while kneading or add Herbed Cream Cheese Spread and ham to make little cocktail sandwiches!
Herbed Cream Cheese Spread
1/2 c. cream cheese
1 Tbs. butter
1 tsp. minced fresh thyme
Salt & Pepper to taste
Mix all ingredients and use as spread for scones.
Recipe adapted from: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/749706/cheddar-and-sweetcorn-scones
Since most of the jewelry I make it is quite large by most standards, it is difficult for me to come up with things for teenagers – because they like things small! I came up with these for my daughter for Valentine’s Day and thought they would make such a fun project for you! If you have some experience with silversmithing, these should take about 30 minutes! Enjoy!!
*** feel free to make these for yourself and as gifts – but please do not sell them….because stealing isn’t nice.
Here are process photos of how I finish needlepoint ornaments! There are many ways to do it, and this is how I do it! I am not great at responding to comments, so please do not feel bad if you do not hear from me – just thought you might enjoy!
…..and a different way to finish the top loop……
I LOVE A KID IN A CAPE AT THE GROCERY STORE….
You know when you see a “kiddle’ in a grocery cart and he/she has on a CAPE?! They feel so invincible, so awesome, so everything?!
I FREAKIN’ LOVE THAT!
And you know that Mom – the one that let them wear that cape or princess dress to the grocery store?
I FREAKIN’ LOVE HER!!
I was listening to a group of women talk about dressing their children (they were not talking about special events, but rather about daily life) and how important it was because they felt their children’s appearance was a direct reflection on themselves. I about spit out my coffee!
While I agree it is important to help choose their clothes initially, after the purchases have been made, LET YOUR CHILDREN DRESS THEMSELVES.
PLEASE, just let them dress themselves….they are so much better at it than you are and it is IMPORTANT to them – I mean seriously, everything in their life is controlled for the most part – what they eat, where they go & what they do.
I look at pictures of my daughter and her outfits and think “I would have NEVER put flowers and leopard print together – but she totally rocks it!”
When you look back at photos of them, dressed in whatever they wanted to wear…..you will be so glad you let them dress themselves!
Pick their wardrobe….but let them dress themselves. It’s like Scrabble with clothes!….and it is awesome!
I mean seriously, would you rather have photos of how YOU dressed them…or how they dressed themselves? (Hint: they will never dress themselves like this again…too soon the pressure to “fit in” will affect their fashion choices….and then they will look just like everyone else.)
Awwww…did you see the boots?!
PART 2 -Apps I love & how I use them. Grids, Fun labels & Filters (tutorial)
My daughter loves our scrapbooks – it is like an illustrated fairytale of her (our) life – how could you not love that!?
I love the IDEA of scrapbooks and I love scrapbooks themselves.
I love all of the little stickers, stamps, tapes and decorations for scrapbooks.
I love having a hard copy of the most important photos on my computer.
What I do NOT love is the stress of scrapbooking.
When I bought an iPhone, I discovered some fantastic, easy apps & the stress disappeared when I developed a “SYSTEM” that is fast – and fun!
I still get to use all those wonderful little decorations and we actually have a scrapbook to sit down and look through – which is better than a box of mixed up photos any day!
Scrapbooking with Iphone apps – made EASY, divided into three posts (I post on Wednesdays at 11:30 MT).
1. Scrapbooking with an iPhone – my SYSTEM & apps
2. Apps I love & how I use them. Grids, Fun labels & Filters (tutorial).
3. Tying up the loose ends from parts 1 & 2, extra apps – everything comes together!
SO HERE WE GO! PART 2!
Apps I love & how I use them. Grids, Fun labels & Filters
VISUAL TUTORIALS OF MY FAVORITE APPS!
This app allows you to combine up to 5 photos into a grid and add labels.
Click to enlarge
If you will be using your photo grid for a 5×7 postcard with the app PhotoCard, be sure to click the 3:2 measurement in the upper right corner (See #1).
2. Montage Magic ($.99)
This app allows you to combine tons of photos, label them and has great backgrounds – wonderful when you want to use more than 5 photos!
I previously posted a tutorial of this app and you can find it here!
3. Bill Atkinson’s PhotoCard – Postcards ($0.99)
This is my MUST HAVE app. It is the backbone of my scrapbook – I use grids, filters & labels on my photos and always import them into PhotoCard to send a finished 5×7 laminated photo postcard to myself for my scrapbook.
Click to enlarge
FILTERS & LABEL APPS
No tutorials on these apps – the filters are either super easy or difficult enough that I just mess with them until I get something I like and then save it; the labels are the same!
LABEL APPS
(great for adding a cute label to one photo)
(great for speech bubble photos and text)
Love this app! Let’s you add text like a ransom note with cutout letters!
FILTER APPS
Easy
Easy – SUPER FUN
– only works for square photos – it will force you to make your photo a 1:1.
This is my “go to” for editing
Easy photo editing; great filters
Easy
Hard – unless you just play around with it until you find something you like.
Play around with it.
***********
NEXT POST:
Pictures of my scrapbook pages
Comparison of other photo postcard apps – Pros & Cons
Scrapbooking apps
Tying up loose ends!
Next Post: WEDNESDAY, JULY 25th @ 11:30 a.m.
Be well! Have a safe weekend and July 4th!
By Eleanore Macnish
