Upcycled Gift Wrappings

Gift package wrapping made entirely of upcycled items.

This was based on tutorial over at Craftzine by Vanessa at Designs by Vanessa:
http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2009/12/upcycled_gift_wrapping.html

Items used:

• Bubble mailer
• Magazine pages
• Scrap of fabric
  
• Scissors
• Glue stick
  

It is the same concept except I used an old bubble mailer instead of a grocery bag, a scrap piece of fleece instead of a piece of sweater (although I love the sweater look - just haven't chopped up any recently so I don't have any scraps) and instead of the cardboard tag I cut out letter for the name free hand from an old magazine.   The piece of paper with the wording is Singular ad.

This was a page out of a magazine with letters cutout then tied with a scrap of green fleece.

KMOM14's Full Disclosure for the FTC

I got the link to generate the following disclosure policy to comply with FTC regulations for bloggers here
 here and learned about the generator at Tip Junkie.

This is just my personal blog that I post my crafts and creations and one book review so far for Thomas Nelson publishing so far (they have a few books they publish which you can select from and send a book for you to read and keep and request that you write an impartial review).  I also have the Google ads that are an option when you have a blogger account.   I am not even sure how that whole thing works but put it out there, what the heck. 

Here is the CYB (Cover Your Butt) for compliance purposes in case Big Brother is watching my little ole craft blog,

Here is the generated part from the options that I selected.

This policy is valid from 21 December 2009

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. For questions about this blog, please contact  kathrynsprowl@aol.com.

 This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

 The compensation received will never influence the content, topics or posts made in this blog. All advertising is in the form of advertisements generated by a third party ad network. Those advertisements will be identified as paid advertisements.

 The owner(s) of this blog is not compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the blog owners. If we claim or appear to be experts on a certain topic or product or service area, we will only endorse products or services that we believe, based on our expertise, are worthy of such endorsement. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider.

This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest. We blog about people to whom we are related. The most interesting such people are: my son, Kyle.

To get your own policy, go to http://www.disclosurepolicy.org

Fresh Apple Cake

This recipe I found at My Kitchen to Yours had me at cake for breakfast - what could be better than that. 

 Ingredients:

Cake:

• 3 cups apple - diced
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 3 cups flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 4 eggs
• Non-stick coating spray
  

 Glaze:

• 1 can vanilla frosting
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 4 TBSP milk
  

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

The original recipe called for peeling and dicing the apples, I chose not to peel mine.  I used an apple corer then diced into small bite sized pieces.  I ended up using 4 medium apples to get 3 cups.














Add the 2 TBSP of sugar to the diced apples.

Add 2 tsp. of cinnamon

Toss the apples, sugar and cinnamon together until well coated.

 

In a separate large mixing bowl measure out 3 cups of flour.

Add 3 tsp. baking powder to the flour.

Add 1/2 tsp salt to flour and baking powder.

In a separate mixing bowl, add 1 cup sugar.

Add 1/2 cup brown sugar to the white sugar.

 Slowly add the 1 cup of oil (I used canola oil) and mix together until completely blended. 

 

Add the vanilla to the mixture

 Add the eggs, one at a time, blending throughly.

Add the 2 1/2 tsp. of vanilla to the sugar and eggs.

Add the sugar mixture to the flour mixture slowly and mix together until completely blended.

Add the apple mixture to the flour and sugar mixture and mix together until well mixed.

 The original recipe called for using a bundt pan.  I don't have one so I used a flan pan and a baking dish.  Coat the pans with a non-stick cooking spray.

Pour the batter into the pans.

As I used two smaller pans instead of a bundt pan, I only baked the cakes for 25 minutes.  For a bundt pan the recipe indicates 55 minutes.  Bake until the cake springs up in the center when touched, or use a toothpick and it is done when the pick comes out clean.

To make the glaze, mix the frosting, cinnamon and milk in a bowl and drizzle over the top of the cake(s).

Mr. Bill Ornament

Its Mr. Bill.  Oh, Nooooooo!    And he is created with recycled materials for a no out-of-pocket cost. 

If you are under the age of 30 you may never have heard of Mr. Bill.  He was a playdough character from Saturday Night Live that was popular in 1979-80.  His catch phrase was "Oh, Nooooooo!" as he was pummeled and destroyed by his nemesis, Sluggo, in every episode.   It is teen boy humor, and this was made for a person that was a teen and was a fan. 

Items used:

•  2 Plastic lids, one white and one yellow
• Glue Gun
• Craft Glue
• Pop tab
  
• Craft Scissors
• 3 soda bottle caps, 2 blue and one red if available
  
• Plastic ring off of milk jug or soda bottle, red if available
  
• Acrylic paint, red and/or blue (if needed)
• Paint brush (if needed)
  
• Yellow felt or paper
• White felt or paper (if there is wording on the top of the white lid)
  
• Ribbon, 8 inches or ornament hanger
  
• Marker or pen

For the eyes, you will need two blue caps, for the nose 1 red one and for the mouth a plastic ring off of a milk jug or soda bottle.  If you do not have caps/ring in those colors, you can paint them with acrylic paint.  I didn't have the a red ring so I painted it red.  I also used red paint on the center of the red lid to cover up the wording on the top of the cap.

For the hair, a few inches from the top of the yellow lid, draw a line across then cut straight across.  

Place the small cut part on the felt, trace around it twice then cut (one will be for the front of the hair, the other for the back.  Glue one piece of felt to the front of the plastic.   Use the hot glue gun to go around the edges and and affix it to the bottom of the white lid to make the hair.

To make the face, use the glue gun to separately go around the edge of each bottle cap and then affix to the back of the white lid.    If the plastic ring is too large, which mine was, cut it and curl it up into a circle with a dab of hot glue at the end and then on the back and affix to the lid.

As there was wording on the top of my lid, I used an piece of thick white paper and traced around the lid, cut it out then glued it down with craft glue instead of hot glue to give it smooth surface.  Glue the pop tab in the center at the top for the hanger with the hot glue gun.

Glue the other piece of yellow felt over the top.   Thread a ribbon through the top of the tab or use an ornament hanger and it is ready to go the tree.

To learn more about Mr. Bill visit his website:  http://www.mrbill.com/