Recycle Valentine's Day Ideas

Well it's the time of year to think of hearts and candy. So to show your love here are some ideas on how to have and earth friendly valentine's day. Yea Mother Earth.

Recycled Valentine's card. When buying Vday cards look for ones that are made out of recycled materials. Hearts are so easy to cut out of anything so use some old magazines and construction paper and voila - instant eco-friendly card.

Wine bottle re-use. You know you want to have a lovely bottle of wine with that romantic dinner so to celebrate there are many crafts out there that use recycled bottle. One of the simple one is to just cut the top off, fill with wax and a wick, and create a candle. You can leave the label on for extra decoration of remove it and etch the glass.




Give a plant instead of cut flowers. If you have some plants you can make cutting from give a gift from your own yard this year. Cut flowers are nice but they only last so long while a plant for the house or garden can create a lasting reminder of your love.

There are many web sites out there with great ideas like The Blue Chair which has a listing of 50 really cool recycled valentine gifts you can make.

So have a happy and loving Valentine's Day and don't forget Mother Earth when celebrating.

Taurus Feltie

Once upon a time back in the dark ages when we were children we made gifts for the parents. Then we got older and bought gifts. As time marched on we realized our parents have everything already so are back to the making of gifts. So this year I made a Taurus feltie for my Dad. I used the pattern from Zodiac Felties.




I scanned the pattern page and then enlarge to get a decent size. This pattern was very simple so it didn't take me long to cut out the felt and lay out the pieces for sewing. A simple overhand stitch I can do. The pattern has ribbons on the horns but I went with the simple fabric paint. You could have lots of fun with pattern on the horns. I use gromments and some copper wire to make the nose with rings. Safety Eyes were inserted for some quick and easy eyes that did not involve me embroidering detail. Not my favorite thing. So after waiting on the fabric paint to dry all was put together and I had a loverly little feltie to give to my Dad. Makes ya feel young again.

• Free Felt Patterns - This site has many patterns from different sources.
• Wee Folk Art - little sprites, gnomes, and fairies
• American Felt and Craft - lots of food items
• Geek Crafts - they have links to wonderful geekiness including felts.
• Living Crafts Blog - felt hearts, get ready now.

So wander the web for wonderful felt crafts ideas and have fun.

Geek fest ornaments

While surfing the interwebs I have encountered some really nifty cool homemade geek ornaments out there.  So here are my favorites:



 
1.  Amigurumi Pi ornaments.  I admit to loving amigurumi, I wish I could do it and there are so many cute designs out there.  Any little amigurmi can be an ornament.  These were made by alicia954.

2.  When in doubt go with Dr. Who.  Polymer clay is a great media and you can make your own Tardis, or my favorite, the Dalek.  I have seen many weeping angel tutorials on how to turn Barbie into something terrifying (well at least more terrifying than she already is) to put on top of your tree.  This Dalek was made by headofheather and she has many cute geek ornaments for sale at her Etsy store.

3.  For the science nerd we have these cute periodic table ornaments.  A flat blank ornament, paper mache or wood.  Some white paint, stick on letters, a little santa hat, and you are ready to create your very own ornaments.  These can be found over on Artfire if you wish to purchase instead of making your own.

4.  Pokeman is very popular and I found this round ornament made from sequins for sale on Etsy.  If you are a very patient person you can take any round idea like Angry Birds, the Death Star, or even logos from your favorite game like Zelda or WOW (Alliance or Horde) and create your own.

5. And last but not least using those old circuit boards.  Cut them in cute themed shapes, punch a hole and you are done.  Recycling at its best.  You can the same with the old CD's to decorate or just cut in great shapes. 

 

So have a very happy holiday and let your tree truly show who you are.

Salt Dough Ornaments

Tis the season, fa la la.  Time for the funs and joys of holiday crafts.  If you would like a fun family craft or are a new household making salt dough ornaments is and easy way to craft decorations for the tree that are personal and best of all inexpensive.  All you need are some salt, flour, and cookie cutters, and of course and oven.  Salt dough ornaments can be as simple or complicated as you would like.  To make the dough first:

•             1 cup salt

•             4 cups of flour
•             1 1/2 cup of water (add gradually)

Combine the salt and flour then pour in the water gradually, stopping when it has become dough-like and not too sticky. There should be no residue left on your fingers when you touch it. Knead it on a floured surface for a few minutes to make it soft, workable and stretchy, like you would with any dough. This step is wonderful for strengthening those small hand muscles essential for writing and cutting!

Lay them on some greaseproof or baking paper and on a baking tray. Cook them on a VERY low heat (around 225 F) for 3-4 hours. Keep an eye on them and watch for scorching.  If the shapes are over 1cm thick then they will probably need to be turned over during cooking.

 Tips for decorating

•             Cut hole for string before cooking – use a straw, toothpick, or dowel.  Depending on how big you want the hole.

•             Since it is dough you can make small embellishments to decorate.
•             Use stamps to add a personal touch, rub ink in the stamped part to bring out the color.
•             Use stamps to add a personal touch
•             Use scrap booking skill for extras, nifty ribbons and charms

Now the fun part of these ornaments as they are good for any holiday or religion.  I made some Hanukkah ornaments for a friend using Hanukkah cookie cutters.  This is a nice weekend project and you can create some beautiful personal gifts for friends and family.  So have fun.

Magic City Half Marathon Review

Well I ran my 3rd half marathon the other weekend, had worst time yet at 2:13, bleah.  I did not train long distance enough and around mile 10 my legs started being unhappy.  By the finish line I was shufflin.  Ah well, time to run longer.  So to post my comments about the race.
The Swag Bag - swag, we have no swag.  Nice dry-fit shirt, standard for many races now.  And that was it.  Not even a little packet of Bio-freeze.
The Weather - BEAUTIFUL.  November is tricky and it turned out to be a cloudless day.  Right nippy in the morning but warmed up a bit.  I get hot when I run so the jacket was off by mile 1.  Breeze was blowing so every now and then as I chugged along I got a nice cooling breeze.
The Course - mostly flat, some hills at the end.  I would have preferred the hills at the front and flat at the end.  Went by historic/interesting locations of Bham - Legion Field, Rickwood Field, RailRoad Park.  Pretty standard city running.  They had a 5K at the same time which merged with us for about a mile.  It was disconcerting to be jogging along and all of a sudden you run into a pack of 5k walkers.
The volunteers - They were GREAT.  At every drink stop they cheered, and smiled while handing out the Gatorade/water/gel packs.
The Police - at every intersection (and there were a lot). They put the runners 1st and traffic second.  Waving some cars through the breaks in the runners, and yelling at the idiots on phones while driving. Thanks very much to them.
The Spectators - what, was there a race that weekend?  Not so much, mostly at the finish line.
The Food - standard after race fare of bananas, cookies, etc.  Did not see any other water/Gatorade stations other than the water I was handed at the finish line.  Cold pizza was also served, not horrible.  There was a mini beer garden which had some samples, no beer was served on the course.
Entertainment - hubby was my chauffeur, big thanks, and he just milled around for a couple of hours.
The Medal - Design was OK, did not see an engraving station (I'm to cheap to do that anyway).

Overall it just seemed a long jumped up 5K style run.  It was only the 2nd year and they have to compete with the Mercedes Marathon for sponsors so I guess they are still feeling their way around.  It was a good test run for Disney to let me know I need to run more, but I don't plan on attending next year.

Half Marathon Fun

As we count down to the Disney Princess Half Marathon 2013 I decided to do a half marathon this year. So tomorrow I will be running in the Magic City Half Marathon.  Pray for me.  I admit to not running as much as I should so may be walking most of this half.  We shall see.  I did create some cute half and full marathon items on Cafe Press - Gryphonwycks.  The bad part about designing for CafePress and Zazzle is the design size.  It would be nice to make one design that fit on all their merchandise but they have different dimensions and different bleed areas.  Highly annoying. So time to surf the interwebs to see how others have dealt with this issue.  Now off to do a bit of a run before the torture tomorrow.  Good luck to all the runners out there.

Owl Wedding Cake Toppers

While surfing the web for Cute Hoots to pin on Pinterest I came across some owl wedding cake toppers.  They appeared to be salt/pepper shakers that had been decorated.  I followed a link to a web site DIY cake toppers and the photos are amazing.  You take a simple unpainted bisque salt/pepper shaker:

Any unpainted salt/pepper would work and make a nice themed idea for a wedding.  Once you have your shakers you can then decorate as you like.  The photos below are from the website linked above, these people have some mad skill.  I also think this would make a cute idea for christmas presents to a couple.