Jordan's T-shirt Scarves

Hey, it's Jordan!

I was cleaning out my closet one day of clothes that I never wear to make room for an upcoming shopping spree. I wanted to up-cycle these old clothes because recently I have been on a crafting kick. I googled T-shirt Scarves and found several helpful sites. Here is how I did mine.

The best fabric to use is Jersey Knit-it's soft and extremely stretchy. Cut the shirts in several different lengths and widths to add variety to your scarf. Save the arm sleeves for later. After you have cut the shirt into strips of fabric, pull on both ends of the strips so that the sides of the strips curl up on each other and hide your jagged cutting.

You can assemble then in any way that floats your boat. Braid, twist, or fringe to your liking. Once you are happy with the way your scarf turned out, use the arm sleeve to to wrap around and hide the back of your scarf where you have stitched your strips of fabric together. After all was said and done, I still had some left over fabric. What to do? Make T-shirt Bracelets!

You can braid them, or do what I did which is a little more complicated, but still, extremely easy. I found this website on Pinterest that helped me figure out a spiffy way of braiding.
http://www.vanessachristenson.com/2011/03/v-and-co-how-to-jersey-knit-bracelet.html

Best wishes in making your own T-shirt Scarves!
-Jordan

Winter Break Crafts

So, I've lived in the same apartment for a year and a half, and I haven't really decorated because I've been too busy baking all the time. Go figure.

BUT the combination of getting a pinterest account and having a long winter break has gotten my creative juices flowing.

Some of the projects below I came up with myself, and some were stolen. I'll put links for the stolen ones.

Colored Pencil Vase and Coffee Filter Flowers

I came up with this one on my own! I did see some coffee filter flowers online and I couldn't really find any instructions, but I found that it's pretty much a make-it-up-as-you-go-along kind of flower.

This project really took me MAYBE ten minutes. It was crazy easy. I bought a cheap straight vase and hot glued colored pencils around it in rainbow order. I really love rainbows. More on that later.

Anyway, then I used some plain ribbon to make a bow. I used four coffee filters for each flower, and used a combination of staples and tape to attach each to a left over green colored pencil. I put a ball of aluminum foil in the bottom of the vase so the flowers would sit where I wanted, and BAM! This is a craft project I think I'll remember for future birthday/housewarming/etc. gifts.

Crayon Art

Ok, this project is all over pinterest. I saw a lot of different cool ideas and designs, but I decided this would be a really cool project if I used pictures of my roommate and myself. Art imitates life, I guess?

So I printed pictures on cardstock and cut out our silhouettes. Then I used a black marker to color the pictures. A little hot glue attached the silhouettes to the canvas, and then I covered them with modge podge to make sure they stayed down and looked extra shiny.

I peeled the papers off of the crayons and hot glued them to the canvas. After cooling, I used a hair dryer to melt the wax. It was surprisingly easy, and definitely fun! This is a project that you could get really creative with.

Book Monsters

This project was a blast! Really, it was entirely stolen. Here is a link to where I found it:

http://nheilke.com/blog/?p=2628

I had so much fun that I accidentally made a million. Here are my book monsters eating an anatomy book.

I can imagine that these would make a great project for kids, as it only really involves scissors and glue sticks.

Anyway, I better get back to crafting before classes start back.

Susie :)

Getting Crafty

Well, see, the thing is, we discovered Pinterest. And everything changed from there.

And we figured, well, if we keep up with that old blog, we can use our own photos on pinterest.

So here we are.

Let me start with some great recipes I found on pinterest and used for a holiday party. And let me tell you, they. were. delicious.

Cake Batter Fudge

This fudge was DELICIOUS! But be warned, also very sweet. I have an enormous sweet tooth, so I loved it.

INGREDIENTS:

1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk

12 oz. white chocolate chips

3 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. almond extract

Rainbow sprinkles

1. Line a 9x13 in. pan with parchment paper. Butter parchment paper.

2. Heat condensed milk and white chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl for 30 second increments, stopping to stir between each, until melted and smooth.

3. Add vanilla and almond extracts and stir in thoroughly.

4. Add desired amount of rainbow sprinkles (I used about 2 tablespoons) and mix quickly. If you over mix, the colors will blend and your fudge will turn into an ugly gray. Ew!

5. Pour into prepared pan and sprinkle with more rainbow sprinkles. Let set in fridge or at room temperature until solid. Slice and serve!

(recipe altered slightly from http://pursuitofhippieness.com/2011/10/01/funfetti-cake-batter-fudge/, a blogger I love because of her cake batter fetish.)

Southwestern Pinwheels

These pinwheels were DELICIOUS, and could be served at any time during the year. I used this Christmas tree design because I brought them to a holiday party!

INGREDIENTS:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 cups shredded mild cheddar cheese
1 cup (8 oz.) diced green chiles
1 cup (about 6) sliced green onions
1/2 cup chopped black olives
1 cup diced red bell pepper
1 1/2 tsp. Southwestern seasoning (optional. I used Pampered Chef brand.)
Deli sliced turkey
8 12-inch spinach tortillas
Salsa (for dipping)
One slice of toasted bread
Cherry tomatoes
Yellow bell pepper

1. In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, cheddar cheese, chiles, green onions, olives, bell pepper, and seasoning.

2. For each tortilla: Cover tortilla with a thin layer of turkey. Then spread a thin layer of the cream cheese mixure across turkey. Roll tortilla tightly, then roll with plastic wrap. Place rolled tortillas in the refrigerator for one hour, or until firm.

3. Remove plastic wrap and cut into 1-inch thick slices. Place on a large platter in tree formation. Decorate with cherry tomatoes and yellow bell pepper as ornaments, attached with toothpicks. Cut toasted bread into a star for tree topper.

(recipe altered from http://realmomkitchen.com/736/chile-and-cheese-spirals/)