Make Your Own Mold

I have spent a small fortune on fimo molds on Etsy over the last 6 months. Then I saw this product and decided to try to make my own. You can bake the fimo in this stuff too! No need to remove it from the mold first!
There are two putties inside. You need to take equal amounts of both. I rolled each into a rope and that made it easy to compare the two.
You only have one minute so you have to move fast. Mix the two together until the color in consistent.
Roll into smooth ball and carefully insert prototype into the putty. I used a flower I had gotten from Pick Your Plum.
Let putty sit with flower embedded for about 20 minutes. The mold will firm up and then you can remove the flower. The putty is flexible so it is easy!
Now you can fill it with chocolate, fimo or anything you want! If you are using fimo, you can bake it at 260 for about 20 minutes.
Remove from oven and let cool. Now you can remove the flower! Be sure and wash the mold after each use. Now I am hunting around the house for anything I can turn into a mold. Think of the possibilities! Diana

Wrist Wallet

My kids love these! Little guy always loses his money. Since we will spend most of July on vacation in various places I knew that I needed to find something to help him keep it together. I found a great tutorial for a lunch money cuff at this website

http://alemonsqueezyhome.blogspot.com/2010/09/lunch-money-cuff-tutorial.html

Her tutorial is FANTASTIC! It is easy to follow and literally only takes about 10 or 15 minutes to make. The best part is that all you need is fabric scraps.

I made them for our cousins that we will see on vacation, too! These would be great for birthday or back to school gifts with a little something extra tucked inside.

The only changes I made was using interfacing to back the entire exposed front panel. It adds a little more stability. I also made two button closures on each one rather than the Velcro-it's what I had on hand. I couldn't find any zippers shorter than 12", so I just measured how much I needed and stitched back and forth at that point to create the right length. Then, just trimmed off the excess.

Little guy hasn't taken his off in three days. Success!

Birthday Banner

Family traditions are so very important! I am sending this banner to my three littlest grandsons and it is sure to become their newest birthday tradition! I made this with my embroidery machine. It took a bit of time but that is a whole lot of letters! It is made with felt and pretty fat quarters. Button holes make stringing on a ribbon very easy and so tidy.

I used my pinking shears to finish the edges. By the way, that table the banner is stung from is my newest garage sale find. $25.00 for a gate leg table! Love it.

Pastel Pennsylvania Dutch Card

I needed a card to go with the wedding gift I made for our Amish friends and knew it needed to be "plain". Here is what I came up with. The cuts are from Wrap it Up. I did a lot of inking to help give the colors depth. I think it is a simple card but it needed to be! Diana

Please tell me this doesn't look like a purse

I promised my eight year old that it doesn't look like a purse, but I am not completely convinced (shhh). He needed a carrying case for his robot covered scriptures he received as a gift for his baptism in May. I found this great fabric at Hobby Lobby and came up with this case. I stitched up two envelopes of fabric and then sewed a 45 degree angle at each bottom corner to create a 3-d envelope. Then after sewing both envelopes together with right sides facing I flipped them right side out through a small opening. A little top stitching and striped handle and he has his own non-purse like carrying case (or so I keep telling him).

Boston Cream Pie Twinkies

Do you ever see something on a blog and just have to make it? I saw these adorable twinkies on Confession of a cookbook queen. Check out her blog for more delicious recipes and her hilarious sense of humor.
First you need a twinkie pan. And I mean NEED a twinkie pan. Doesn't everyone?

I made my cake from scratch but a cake mix would work fine. I also overfilled the cups so I had to trim off the bottoms so they could stand straight.

Instead of pudding, I used premade custard from our local amish bulk food store. It is really good!

I then melted a combination of dark chocolate candy melts and fondue chocolate. Holding the cakes firmly, I dipped them into the chocolate and lthen sat them on wax paper.

And, cuz I love sprinkles, each pie got a pinch of white goodness on the still wet chocolate. Aren't they pretty! I am storing them in tupperware to keep fresh until my husband gets home and can eat them up. Yum. Diana

Easy Microwave Suckers

Candy making is fun but keeping track of the temperate until it is just right can be a pain. Here is a no fail recipe for suckers that required no thermometer!

Here is the recipe!

Prepare molds by lightly spraying with nonstick spray. In a 4 cup glass measuring cup combine 1 cup sugar with 1/2 cup corn syrup. Cover with plastic wrap and microwave at full power for 3 minutes and 10 seconds. Remove from microwave and stir. Be very careful when removing plastic because the steam WILL burn you! Use a new piece of plastic wrap to cover and return to microwave for another 3 minutes and 10 seconds. Stir in food coloring until you get the desired hue and then add a few drops of flavoring. I used cinnamon. I wanted it spicy so I used about 6 drops! Immediately pour into molds and insert sticks. Let set up until hard and release from molds. So yummy! One note: do not half this recipe! The times will not be correct and YOU WILL BURN the syrup. I know this from first hand experience!

I made these little tags with punches. The star is cut from a printed paper and then mounted with foam tape.

This round sucker is formed in a 3D mold.

It is difficult to see but this tag is a red heart (inked). The circle is mounted with foam tape on top of the heart. Sorry about the pics. We have been having thunder storms so it is overcast making picture taking difficult.

Now I have some sweet treats to give out to special little ones! And big ones too! I love cinnamon! Diana

I Like Lemonade

It is summer time and these hot muggy day are a lot more enjoyable with a cool glass of lemonade. Or at least a card with the pitcher and glass on it! The die cuts are from cricut's Savory mini cartridge (on sale at my Walmart for 29.00). The pitcher is cut at 2 1/4 and the glass is 1 1/2.

The only cut that is a bit iffy is the I LOVE LEMONADE that appears in the pitcher. At this size it was difficult to get the detail. Larger would be better! But anyway, I think this image is tooooo cute! Diana

That's My Pie!

What do you get an Amish couple for their wedding? Money is always welcome but it seems so impersonal. So, along with a bit of cash, I etched their name onto a glass pie dish and plan on putting it and some other baking tools into a basket. I used my cricut to cut out vinyl (a reverse image so that it will look correct when seen through the glass). I like to use vinyl better than contact paper because it prevents bleeding under better. The vinyl goes on the back of the pie plate and I pressed the edges of the words down really well. Next I applied a generous coating of etching cream onto the letters and allowed it to sit for 15 minutes. After the time was up, I scraped the cream back into the jar (you can keep reusing it) and rinsed off the residue. I then removed the vinyl and rinsed again, making sure no cream or glass dust was left on the plate. After it dried the letters showed up very well. Now our friends will always get their dish back after Amish get togethers. And yes I realize there are tons of Yoders, but how many of them will have their name on their dish!!!! Diana

I'm In Love

with these beautiful canning crates that my husband made me. I have been canning for a few years and have found that the jars were beginning to take over my cellar and pantry. In frustration I mentioned that I needed some storage for them and this is what he made me-15 stacking crates. I love them! It's funny cuz I thought I had TONS of jars, but now that they are all stacked and organized I think I need more.

Father's Day In A Bottle

This is what I am doing for my dad this year. I filled a large water bottle with a ton of candy and attached a gift card with twine. It was easier than it looks. Remove the label from the bottle and cut the bottle in half all the way around in an area the new label will cover. Fill with candy and fit the two ends of the bottle back together and seal with mailing tape. Now all that's left is to decorate the bottle. My dad has a real sweet tooth so he should enjoy this and the gift certificate will be a extra treat. Diana

M&M Bowtie

We will be making these funny bow ties in Primary (children's Sunday school) this Sunday for Father's Day. Just cut a piece of 1/4 inch wide ribbon about 30 inches long. Pinch in the center of the package of M&M's and tie the ribbon around it in a knot, so that it leaves two ties dangling down. Now you can tie it around the dad's neck. I can't wait to see all the fathers walking around after church with candy bow ties! Diana

I have been seeing these braided ribbon head bands at local festivals and in cute little boutiques. I knew I could make them myself so this is my first effort. It is cloudy outside so it is difficult to see that it is made from red and white ribbon. It cost about 2 dollars to make and the supplies and instructional videos are available at

It's A Big World

I am totally in love with the chalkboard globe craze in blog land so I HAD to make one too!

I got a vintage globe on ebay for way cheap, took it apart and painted the base brushed silver. The globe was given three coats of chalkboard paint and then returned to it's orbit. The black and silver looks sooooo good together! And now I have another surface to write on!!!! Diana

2011 Father's Day Candy Bars

Do you need a fast and inexpensive gift for all the dads you want to honor on Sunday? Make up a batch of these sweet treats and you can!

My girlfriend Rhoda and I are giving these out to all the men in our church! We used Beyond Birthdays to make the DAD and the star is from Plantin Schoolbook. We used foam tape to pop both die cuts up off the background. A little satin ribbon adds a bit more red to balance out all the blue. Really easy to put together and sure to make the guys happy. We love our Dads! Diana

Donut Cookies

If it is possible to make a sugar cookie with even more calories, this might be it. Little Abby wanted to make sugar cookies and requested they be donuts. I didn't have the right size cookie cutters so I had to improvise with a biscuit cutter and a carefully washed glue stick lid.

Flag Box

Would you believe this gorgeous vintage chest started out as a C.H.E.A.P. little pine jewelry box from my local craft store costing less than $5.00? (If your answer isn't "I can't believe it" proceeded by a gasp of astonishment.... be nice and keep it to yourself)How did I do it? Well, I painted the box black, including the latch and hinges. Next I modge podged the image on the top and let dry. Then I distressed the whole thing with sand paper, exposing some of the brass on the hardware and wood. Using brown ink, I sponged the exposed areas to add age and finally I sprayed it with matte craft spray. Yippee, It looks so expensive and is perfect for the 4th.

The image is from The Graphics Fairy and is free! Thank you Karen! Seriously, if you aren't checking out her site DAILY you are missing out big time. Diana

Pretty Bracelet

Got to love chunky jewelry! This bracelet went together in a flash! And it was inexpensive too! My kind of project for sure. For less than $15 and 5 minutes time I have a lovely piece that really makes a statement.

I have had these key charms forever and added them to the beads to make it my own. It was all threaded on a magnetic clasp wire bracelet. Seriously, this is so easy! Diana

Jungle Pops

A sweet young woman in our church is having a baby shower this Saturday and I got to make the take-home favor. Her theme is jungle animals and I was provided the molds and chocolate to make cute little suckers. I was more than a little nervous about all the detail but I thinks they turned out OK, if you don't look too close!

These lions are so funny! And they were the easiest to make too! 50 suckers took some time but our little mommy deserves any effort to make her day special. Diana

Is There Anything Modge Podge Can't Do?

Let me start off by saying that I am DEFINITELY not a thrifty person. I have been known to buy nonessential items on a whim. But I HATE to spend money on anything I think I can make myself. Like the license plate maps that I was seeing everywhere! Hobby Lobby had a mounted print for $140. Later it went on sale for $70. And even though I have physical pain if I pass by a sale, I still thought I could beat that price. So I bought a print for less than $25 on the net and a canvas for less than $10 and I was ready to make a copy that will eventually hang in our family cabin.

Three challenges. First, the print was 36x26, and the canvas was 36x24. Some trimming and it fit pretty well. Across the bottom of the print was a stripe with the print's info. Once it was cut off, the print was a little smaller than the frame but I painted the edges black so you don't even notice.

Second problem, large sheets of paper are difficult to modge podge. The paper stretches and bubbles keep forming under the paper. Real headache. I worked and worked it, trying to get the air bubbles out from under the print but finally gave up. I figured I had ruined a perfectly good print but much to my surprise, after drying overnight, the paper had shrunk back and the bubbles were magically gone! Perfect! Now you may be wondering why I didn't just spray mount the print to the canvas and avoid all the drama. Well, the print had a VERY shinny surface and I wanted to use the modge podge to create a textured surface, which it did and solved the third problem. Ugly shinny finish. Now the surface looks more expenxive. And I love how it turned out. So for about half of the sale price I got a huge wall hanging that looks great! Diana

Cookie Push Ups

Cookies in a push up container, what genius! Unfortunately I am not that clever! I saw these on one of the hundred or so blogs I follow (stalk) and can't remember who I need to give credit to. Sorry..... I did copy them really well though. I will be giving these out tomorrow at church for visitors in Primary (children's Sunday school).

I made enough for 6 cookies per push up. I iced them in blue...

and orange. I covered the icing with sprinkles.

I had to use a paper towel tube as a cookie cutter cuz, out of the hundreds of cutters I have, none of the circles were just the right size to fit in the tube. Bummer. Sounds like I NEED more cookie cutters.

The tubes needed more embellishment so I decorated them with scalloped and plain circles from different size punches! Using the same color papers as the icing made everything look cute! Now I can't wait to see the children's faces when they get one of these! Diana