Category: How to’s

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Turkey Cookies

Note–I am purposely RE-posting today’s blog post. Forgive the previous submission. Moral of the story: Never attempt to write intelligently at 2 am. Sheesh

Don’t you just LOVE my sweet–and I mean SWEET–little Tom Turkey? Don’t you just want to gobble him up? Ha! Gobble.  Get it? That’s a good one.

These little guys would make a great neighbor treat or think how great they’d look on the Thanksgiving table.

Turkey Cookies

Ingredients

Fudge Mallows cookies

Iced Oatmeal cookies

Chocolate frosting

Swedish fish, candy corn and anything else you’d like to use.

You likely don’t need tons of instructions now–but just in case…

Cut the marshmallow cookies in half.

Glue it–with chocolate frosting–marshmallow side down, onto the oatmeal cookie.

Pipe a frosting “turkey body” straight up onto the marshmallow cookie.

Cut the Swedish fish up for feet, wings, beaks, eyes or whatever strikes you.

Give your little “Turkey-Lurkey” a face, beak, feet and a waddle from the decorettes and cut up Swedish Fish.

“Glue” tail feathers onto the back of the same cookies.

The little papooses will love this part…

and be quite proud of…

their little gobblers…

in the end. And rightly so.

Gallery of Turkey Creations

Sweet little turkeys nearly too cute to gobble.

I said, nearly.

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Turkey Cookies
 
Print
Ingredients
  • Fudge Mallows cookies
  • Iced Oatmeal cookies
  • Chocolate frosting
  • Swedish fish, candy corn and anything else you'd like to use.
Instructions
  1. Cut the marshmallow cookies in half.Glue it--with chocolate frosting--marshmallow side down, onto the oatmeal cookie.
  2. Pipe a frosting "turkey body" straight up onto the marshmallow cookie.
  3. Cut the Swedish fish up for feet, wings, beaks, eyes or whatever strikes you.
  4. Give your little "Turkey-Lurkey" a face, beak, feet and a waddle from the decorettes and cut up Swedish Fish.
  5. "Glue" tail feathers onto the back of the same cookies.

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T-Shirt “Yarn” Tutorial

I know what you’re thinking–you’re thinking, “t-shirt what?” You heard me. I said, T-shirt yarn. Get a load of this…

Oh, yeah…it’s cotton “yarn” made from a spiral cut T-shirt. I first saw this done over at Polka Dot Pineapple and was intrigued because, well…

does everyone on earth have a huge pile of orphan T-shirts that nobody wears, but they can’t seem to part with…

or is it just me?

So let’s get real green and do something useful with some of them…shall we?

Start with a regular t-shirt that has lived a good life…no guilt now. It’s going on to a better place…really.

Cut off the bottom hem.

Now cut the top off just under the sleeves…

so you have a tube of fabric.

Fold it nearly in half, leaving the under side sticking out about an inch.

Now cut from right to left all the way up to and just past the top fabric, but leave the one inch margin of the lower fabric uncut. Repeat about 1 inch apart. Now unfold the fabric…

it should look like this.

The easiest way for you to hold the fabric and cut it into one continuous strip is to slide your arm through the two layers of fabric 1 inch uncut margin running along the top of your arm. I drew dotted lines  showing where you’ll cut your fabric–but you don’t need to draw the lines. You’ll be amazed at how fast you can figure this out and it’s really fun too, and for some reason deeply satisfying.

If you need more instructions click HERE for a sweet little diagram and bag pattern.

When you’re finished cutting, you’ll have one long, long, strip of fabric. Are you ready to make it more “yarn” like? Here goes!

Going down the entire length of your fabric, take a hold of it by one end and gently stretch it. It will magically curl up and behave it’s self just like it should. Very obedient stuff, I tell you.

Next, roll it into a ball and think of the stuff you can knit or crochet or weave with it. I’ve seen trivets, handbags and rugs…

but that color is too…too…orange not to be used properly.

Fear not. I’ll show you as soon as it’s finished. In the meantime–

go dig out the old shirts. The stack’s about to shrink.

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Soma Cube Solution

As promised–here is just one of the solutions to yesterday’s Soma Puzzle. Don’t you just love things that are good for your brain? Of course you do…

Remember there are 7 different sets of blocks that go together to make a square cube.

Begin with this one.

Second move.

Third.

Forth.

Fifth.

Sixth.

Seventh and final.


I flipped it upside down so that you could see the bottom side. If you get terribly stumped just click here you’ll find all the solutions you need to feel like a smarty pants…

or a cheater. ha.

—————–

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Soma Cube Tutorial

Have anyone at your place that loves a challenge? Here’s a fun little puzzle–called a Soma Cube that’s SIMPLE to make and not all that easy to solve. Luckily there are over 200 ways to form these blocks into a square cube, so it just may not ever go together the same way twice!

I’m thinking–perfect gift for all the wise guys in your world…think Christmas.

First step: Grab some unpainted wooden blocks–any size, you’ll need 27 of them. I used 1 inch, but you could go even smaller…or bigger.

Using wood glue– or regular white glue–start sticking your blocks together. I’ll show you the combinations below.

Be sure to wipe off any glue that squishes out–and work really hard to keep the squares even with each other.

There are seven groups of blocks that make up the puzzle. Are you ready?

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

You are positively welcome to leave your blocks their lovely natural wood color. It makes putting the puzzle together a bit more challenging, but if that’s your goal–then by all means leave them.

Otherwise, paint each set a different color and allow to dry completely.

Cover each set of blocks with a coat of Mod Podge and again, let them dry completely.

Check back tomorrow and I’ll show you how to solve the puzzle…

one of the ways.

 

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Silk Tie Easter Eggs

Well, we’ve found our absolute favorite Easter egg dyes…

of all time.

No tablets, no food colors, no cups, no drips, no stained fingers or clothes, no spilling—

I could go on and on. But seriously, the best part about this method is that everything you need is right in your kitchen and closet…or worst case—the thrift store. Who would have thought that an old ratty, out of date silk tie could be the gorgeous answer to the annual Easter egg dying ordeal?

Your whole family is going to love this.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Eggs

Silk ties–look for a tiny tag at the small end of the tie. It needs to say 100% silk. Seriously, this doesn’t have to cost a mint. We picked all these up at the local thrift store–for just a few bucks.  The thinner the fabric the better the transfer. If you’re raiding the closet, please be sure to get your man’s permission before you start cutting things up.  ;} Oh, and if your tie is from China–don’t eat the egg. They have different standard for their dyes and many are not safe. SO, in that case just enjoy the egg and toss it out after Easter. Got that?

An old, white T-shirt–cut it into squares big enough to wrap around the eggs

String

3 Tablespoons of white vinegar

Pot of water

Vegetable oil

Now then…

Cut open the tie at the back and take out the facing fabric. All you will be working with is the actual colored silk.

Cut the silk into pieces big enough to cover the egg…

Wrap it around your egg. Don’t get to0 nutty about this step, just do the best you can.

Now, roll the egg up with the T-shirt fabric.

The idea is to press the colored silk right up against the egg.

The bald kid and I had a competition to see who could wrap their eggs the purtiest. I totally won.

He’s such a sillyboy.

Anyway…

set the wrapped eggs in a pan of cold water with the vinegar mixed in. Make sure the water completely covers the eggs.

Boil for 20-25 minutes.

Remove the eggs…

and allow them to completely cool.

Now the fun part—unwrapping the eggs to see what you’ve got.

Rub a tiny bit of vegetable on your masterpieces and see how pretty they look.

Even the subtle ones are beautiful.

If you’re like us–you’ll want to make a million more–because it’s so easy and there’s just no mess. You can use the fabric more than once–if you’re so inclined.

Think of the possibilities.

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