More craft recipes

I remember letting my little one when I was painting use her baby cereal as paint. No color added just a piece of paper and her cereal and she "painted" just like Mommy. Then we used juices to color the cereal. So naturally as she got older I looked for recipes for safer craft products.

Finger Paint

1/4 cup cornstarch
3/4 cup water
Food coloring

Stir a small amount of water together with cornstarch, making a paste. Just like making gravy! Add the paste to the rest of the water in a pot. Over low heat stir while simmering until clear thick. Cool completely. Divide Add food coloring.

Natural Dyes
Lavender
Small Quantity of Purple Grape Juice
Violet Blossoms plus 2 tsp Lemon Juice
Red Zinger Tea

Violet Blue
Violet Blossoms
Small Quantity of Red Onions Skins (boiled)
Hibiscus Tea
Red Wine

Blue
Canned Blueberries
Red Cabbage Leaves (boiled)
Purple Grape Juice

Green
Spinach Leaves (boiled)

Greenish Yellow
Yellow Delicious Apple Peels (boiled)

Yellow
Orange or Lemon Peels (boiled)
Carrot Tops (boiled)
Celery Seed (boiled)
Ground Cumin (boiled)
Ground Turmeric (boiled)
Chamomile Tea
Green Tea

Golden Brown
Dill Seeds
Brown
Strong Coffee
Instant Coffee
Black Walnut Shells (boiled)
Black Tea

Orange
Yellow Onion Skins (boiled)
Cooked Carrots
Chili Powder
Paprika

Pink
Beets
Cranberries or Juice
Raspberries
Red Grape Juice
Juice from Pickled Beets

Red
Canned Cherries with Juice
Pomegranate Juice
Raspberries

Save the water from cooking the vegetables and use in the recipe.......

Not the greatest recipe for paint but it safer. Specially for little ones that fingers are finding their mouths.

I liked this one but it does have detergent in it so it is for older kids

1/2 flour
1/2 water
1 Tablespoon liquid detergent
Food coloring

Combine flour, water and detergent together. Stir until it become a smooth paste/ Divide and add food coloring

Paste

1/2 cup flour

Cold water

Add cold water to flour until a thick cream forms. Simmer on stove for 5 minutes. Add food coloring or flavoring if desired.

Cornstarch paste
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 cup water

Mix sugar and cornstarch together ina pot with a small amount of water. Stir until it makes a paste. Slowly add the rest of the water. Simmer until it looks like pudding. Cool and store in the refrigerator.

homemade craft supplies

Slime

Make a 50% water 50% white glue solution. Take 1/4 cup of each and mix thoroughly

Add 1 tsp. Borax to 1/2 cup of warm water. Stir until completely dissolved.

add the borax and water to the glue solution.

Add a couple drops of food coloring.
knead mixture together

If slime is too sticky, add a little more borax. If slime is too slippery, add a little more white glue solution. (50% glue/50% water)

Basic Play Dough:

Ingredients:

* 1 cup flour
* 1/4 cup salt
* 1 cup warm water
* 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
* 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
* Add drops of food coloring
* For natural color, use beet, spinach, grape, blueberry or carrot juice

Directions:

Mix flour, salt and oil, and slowly add the water.
Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently until dough becomes stiff.
Let cool for five minutes. Place dough onto wax paper until cool.
Knead until the dough is the proper consistency.
Divide and add drops of coloring to each ball, and knead until the color is distributed.
Add vanilla, peppermint, lemon or almond extract to the dough for a better smell.
Vitamin E oil to help protect against bacteria forming.

Can bake your little one masterpieces i the oven at 350 for 20 or until hardened. Let cool completely.

My favorite for keeping a masterpiece is:

Salt dough

4 Parts Flour & 1 Part Salt
Water (enough to make dough stiff )
Mix items together. Shape or roll and cut dough into shapes. When rolling out, do not roll thinner than ¼ inch – any thinner will break when dried. Paint can be added to dough and with glitter. Poke a hole at the top for a ribbon or string for hanging. Bake in a 225 degree oven for several hours and leave the ornaments in the oven to dry overnight. Can be painted/glittered after dry also

And for holiday ornaments I like:

Cinnamon Ornaments

1 Cup of Regular Applesauce (not the chunky variety)
1 Cups of Ground Cinnamon
1/4 cup of ground allspice
1/4 cup of ground nutmeg
1/3 Cup of White Glue

Mix all items together. Chill for 30 minutes or more to stiffen dough. Shape or roll and cut dough into shapes. When rolling out, don't roll thinner than ¼ inch, because it may crumble and break. Use more cinnamon instead of flour to keep from sticking. Poke a hole at the top for a ribbon or string for hanging. Place the shapes on a cooling rack and dry for about two days. The color is a deep brown when the dough is wet, will lighten when dry. .

T-shirts! Scissors

Wonder where I been? Think I got lost? Well I kinda did.
With the shrug post i went and found a couple more videos that got me going crazy on t-shirts...

SO I don't really watch her tattoo show but this video explains so well. She has a great voice and works well with the camera.

Then I found this video and well in this video she does well; but some of her other videos she forgot to spit out her gum. It's the mom in me that wants to tell her to close her mouth when she chews her gum, or don't speak with food in your mouth...





But great place to really get lost at is ThreadBangers

So little young momma came over with my foster grandbaby and my batteries died!! I have to wait til she emails me the pictures she took... AND she had one on, she told me she got it from the mail, wet seal I think. I asked if it was cut like that and she yea, cause her sister got it for her.. because she had done a t-shirt for her like that years ago.....
Think for free you could make a shirt that would cost something like $30 at the mall!

Happy Cutting.... wait that doesn't sound right..... Happy designing.

A shrug

Oh sweet! My daughter has this nice dinner to go to and a nice sundress she wants to wear. But her cover-ups are not matching.... So when I saw this shrug
You take a t-shirt. Cut the center of the front down the middle and then sew a casing for a drawstring. Then thread the string or ribbon threw the casing and tie. Whoa-la! A shrug!!

Oh yea might post pictures but first we have to find a t-shirt that matches. This might be a while...... Daughters even grown sometimes just don't see thing the same as their moms.

Organic food? Way to much for my budget

Really it is hard to budget a household with trying to go organic, with the price of everything going up. So I keep seeing this table of the "dirty dozen". The fruits and vegetables that score the highest in pesticides. I know a great place to keep it where I can find it. ;) Right here on my blog...... Go to theEnvironmental Working Group. And see the whole list.........


The following list is based on information and studies by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Consumer Reports, and the Environmental Working Group.
The dirty dozen:
1.Nectarines – 97.3%
2.Celery – 94.5%
3.Pears – 94.4%
4.Peaches – 93.7% .
5.Apples – 91%
6.Cherries – 91% .
7.Strawberries – 90% o
8.Imported Grapes – 86% of imported grapes (ex. Chile)
9.Spinach – 83.4%
10.Potatoes – 79.3% .
11. Bell Peppers – 68%
12..Red Raspberries – 59%


tested lowest in pesticide residue. Most have thick, inedible skins. Think armor!
Avocados
Bananas
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Corn
Kiwi
Mangoes
Onions
Papaya
Pineapples
Sweet Peas

So really good to know....
This is for you DJ. Good luck with the Raw Food lifestyle

Summer cook outs

It been awhile since I was a girl scout leader but I miss the camp outs...

We made solar cookers out of pizza boxes.
Cut the top one inch border around three sides (the part by the box leave attached
Keep the top and cover the opening you just cut with a cooking bag on the inside.
We used packaging tape
Line the inside bottom with black construction paper
Cover that with heavy duty foil
Cover the lid (that faces the open box-the part you cut) with heavy duty foil.

Close lid when baking, have the flap that is cover with foil propped up with a stick

We did English muffin pizzas, corn chips with cheese and chili, s'more's

I always wanted to make a bigger solar oven but they didn't like waiting for their food!!
I found a wedsite Solar Cooking Archive Reflective Box Solar oven . I just might make that one of these days when I get bored.

Speaking of Back to School

Center for Health, Environment & Justice released the PVC-Free Back-to-School Guide. There is a smart pocket sized guilde to print out to take to the store with you..
.

They tell you that bad news happens in 3's so don't buy PVC.
I thought when I was reading this leaves of 3; leave it be!!
Humm it is summer I guess you know where my mind is.

Any packages with 3's on them use for craft supplies or to hold odd and ends if you have any. Or recycle them.

With all being said about the plastic containers that would leach phthalates or BPA . Just a reminder that phthalates or BPA causes damage to humans. It is been linked to birth defects, hormonal imbalances and cancer. So many green sites are on side of removing all plastics. I however found at the Good Housekeeping site where they tested the plastic containers for levels phthalates or BPA and out most of the plastic containers didn't leach. They have the recycling number 5 in the arrows. They used spaghetti sauce to test them. We know how spaghetti sauce reacts to plastic... Truth is I wouldn't reheat food in them cause I fear melting the plastic but will take food to work in them, now I just feel better about my choice.

Seems like many of those old notebooks from the last year school year didn't get many pages removed. When my daughter was younger we would make them new again by getting stickers. Even the stickers I pay more than I would just to have a sticker was still cheaper than a new notebook. Or markers and stickers. Saying like "Too cool for school" was written on her notebooks became her favorite ones. When she hit middle school she would reuse them without the stickers knowing we would have more money for clothes, which to a pre-teen was more important.