Ideas For Gifts
I will be writing a weekly piece at the Phoenix New Times Chow Bella here is the tag line:Â Every week, artist, writer and cook Cyndi Coon will bring you an idea for making the most of what you’ve already got in the pantry or the fridge. Ladies and gentlemen, we introduce the Thrifty Cook.
This week the Thrifty Cook (that’s me) offers a blueberry crisp recipe to use up the five pound box of blueberries I bought on a whim at Costco. Head over to the Phoenix New Times Chow Bella Site to read all about it: click here. Â
I have had a roll of window screening laying around, left over from another project and got to thinking how could I make some jewelry out of that? I grabbed my Cuttlebug and my Skull and Crossbones die called Beware and went for it. For one of the pieces I used pink embroidery thread around the outer edges and then coated it with a stiffener. The next piece was made from a plastic sheet I picked up at a hobby shop. I ran this one through the cutting die and then the matching embossing folder, I used pink flocking for the eyes. For the final piece I covered it in pink craft paint which will fill in some of the holes and then top coated it with stiffener. The black and white fabric came from a scarf that I found at a dollar store and ripped up to make little shredded pieces to tie on. Finally, I put everything onto a hot pink plumbers chain I picked up at a local bead store. You could create a necklace like this using any Cuttlebug dies and embossing folder combos. For my Tutorial Click Here:Â Skull and Crossbones Necklace How To Happy crafting xoxo LL
This Strawberry Coconut Cake made many people happy, including the one year old tasting cake for the first time in her life. Since the birthday girl can not yet talk, her older sister made the decision that the cake be strawberry. I got the cake recipe over at the Southern Plate. The frosting was my butter cream with coconut pressed into it. I tinted the coconut a hot pink for a fun effect. The red and white mushrooms were created out of fondant with my Cricut Cake using the Freshly Picked cartridge. The little white bunny was made by hand out of white fondant. I made the bunting out of vintage pillow case fabric and backed each one with felt triangles. I sewed it onto pink and white twist Bakers Twine and then tied the bunting onto wooden skewers. Not only was it super cute – it tasted yummy too!
Since I had some left over mascarpone in the fridge from another recipe so I thought I should use it up. I made some delicious lemon cupcakes and frosted them with the mascarpone and topped with slivered almonds and drizzled with honey. Yum! My baking studio is getting a lot of use these days. I am sweating anyway so I might as well bake! Click here for the Lemon Cupcake Recipe
My daughter was having a play date and wanted me to make her pink tiaras. One problem – her play date was a boy! So I suggested a pink tiara for her and a yellow wild thing crown for her playmate. For the Tiara I used my Gypsy to weld a design from the Tie The Knot Cartridge and a heart from the Create-A-Critter Cartridge and for the wild thing crown I used the Gypsy to weld the same crown from the Once Upon a Princess Cartridge over and over in a repeat pattern. I used my irock and some hot rocks on both crowns too! Both pre-schoolers played happily all afternoon. For a tutorial click here: How To make a Crown and TiaraHappy Crafting xoxo Lovely Lula
