Glittery Jeans Flower

Upcycle scraps of jeans into a pretty pin, hair clip or other embellishment!

This was inspired by a tutorial over at Tea Rose Home for a Jeans Corsage:  http://tearosehome.blogspot.com/2010/01/tutorial-jean-corsage-got-old-jeans.html

Items used:

• Jeans material scraps
• Scissors
• Pin or Marker
  
• Fabric Paint
• Button (or beads)
  
• Thread
  
• Needle
  
• Felt scrap
• Milk cap
  
• Pin or barrette back
  

Here is the pair of jeans that I started with.  I used pieces from one of the legs.

Cut jean scraps into 5 squares:  
2 squares -  3 1/2 in. sq.
1 square - 3 in. sq.
1 square - 2 3/4 in. sq.
1 square - 2 1/2 in. sq.

On the wrong side of the fabric, draw flower shapes and cut them out.

On the original tutorial she sewed around the edges to prevent fraying and make them more stable; I painted around the edges with glitter paint instead because I love glittery stuff.

Once the glitter paint is dry, stack the flowers with the largest on the bottom and the smallest on the top and try to prevent any of the petals from overlapping.

On my project I chose to use a button instead of beads.  I painted around the edge of the button with the glitter fabric paint and allowed it to dry.

I hand stitched the button to the center of the flower then painted the center, yep, you guessed, more glitter paint!

To cover up the back, I used a milk cap (actually it is off of Raspberry Tea, but it is the 1 1/2 inch that is called for in the tutorial) and set it in the felt scrap and cut around the cap with the scissors (you could draw on the wrong side of the felt if instead).

Hand stitch pin back or barrette to back of circle.  Stitch felt to back of flower.

Scrunch up flower to make the petals stand up.

Spritzer Mocktail

What is purple but tastes like watermelon?   This drink does.

I made this non-alcoholic drink for our New Year's Eve celebration, but would probably be more appropriate for April Fool's Day due to its deceptive taste - my family was sure it had watermelon in it.

Items used:

• 1 can frozen Grape Juice
• 2 liter bottle of Canada Dry Green Tea Ginger Ale 

In a pitcher, mix the can of Grape Juice and fill the can it came in 3 times with the ginger ale and mix it together, chill and serve.   If they don't have the Canada Dry Green Tea Ginger Ale in your area, you might try mixing ginger ale and green tea together with the grape juice if you would like to try it.

Corn Dog Muffins

Would be good for breakfast, lunch or supper and great for kids as it is "portable". .

I found this recipe over at http://potsandplots.wordpress.com/2009/11/21/corn-dog-muffins/ and adapted it for our New Years Dinner.  The original recipe calls for 2 boxes of Jiffy cornbread mix, but my son is not a big fan of cornbread, so I used 1 box of cornbread and 1 box of baking mix.  Also I used Smoked Links instead of hot dogs. 














Makes 18 muffins
Ingredients:

• 2 boxes Jiffy mix cornbread (or 1 box cornbread & 1 box baking mix)
  
• 1 can creamed corn
• 2 eggs (or 1/2 cup egg substitute)
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 package of hot dogs or smoked links
• Paper baking cups or non-stick spray coating
  

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Mix the Jiffy mix, creamed corn, eggs, and milk until well combined.  Put the mixture into the baking cups or muffin tins sprayed with non-stick coating until it is half way full.

Cut up the hotdog or smoked links into bite sized pieces and put several pieces into each muffin cup. 













Put in the oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes.  Remove from oven and allow to cool a few minutes before serving.  Store any unused muffins in the refrigerator.

2010 Goofy Pipecleaner Glasses

Goofy glasses make for great fun!
 
This is a very simple project that only takes a few minutes and creates memorable times and photos.  This is based on a tutorial over at Make and Takes for the kids sized version:

http://www.makeandtakes.com/celebrate-2010-with-some-goofy-glasses
As my son is 16, I had to upsize the project:

• 7 pipecleaners
• Craft Scissors

Shape 4 pipe cleaners, 1 for each number, into "2010".  Fold 2 pipe cleaners in half and and shape each into an earpiece. 

 

Cut the remaining pipe cleaner to connect the number together - as it was too uncomfortable with having the "1" over the nose, I cut a longer piece (about the length of my thumb) to shape into a piece to go over the nose.