Potted Herbs as Gifts

Earlier this week I talked about my herbs which I have growing indoors and they are doing Great!   I planted them back in November so give or take 3 months and you have a good crop to harvest for spicing up your meals!   Then I got to thinking about the upcoming holidays and since I am big on homemade gifts…I thought potted herbs are the perfect gift for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day or any Birthday!   I have recently acquired the Cricut cartridge “Freshly Picked” and haven’t had time to delve into what it can do.

What I really like about this cartridge is it’s all about Gardening…one of my favorite things in the world.   So today I took some time and made a few seed packets and little paper signs.   This is only a start … I can do so many creative things with this!

I had the herbs growing in the standard black plastic pots so I transplanted them into nicer terra-cotta pots.   You can decorate the pots any way you desire, any color and even personalize them with names, dates, etc.

Add a packet of those saved seeds you kept from your garden last year and you have a spectacular homemade gift!   You can even include some garden themed chocolates…..Yum!         Perfect!!

Valentine’s Day Cookie Craft

This is an easy and economical idea for creating a wonderful gift for someone special on Valentine’s Day or for everyone you want to share some sweets with!   You can make the cookies, decorate them and package them up all at different times.   This way the crafting won’t seem like an endless project that goes on for hours and hours.  

To start you will have to bake up the cookies and the recipe can be found here –> Recipe for cookies.   If you don’t have cookie cutters, you can cut a template from cardboard of a heart and use that or simply cut the heart designs (or any designs…a person’s initial or even name) free-hand and bake following the directions.

Once you have your cookies baked, you can continue on with decorating or store them and do this at a later time.   I decorated with several different candy wafer chocolates by melting  and dropping the cookie face down into the melted chocolate and then plucking out and placing on a cookie sheet to dry.

Now with the decorating complete, I have to decide how I want to package the candy cookies up.   I kept my decorating simple and the cookies bite-size.   I will be using my Cricut machine and creating from the Valentine’s Day cartridge Love Struck, but for those without the Cricut, here is an excellent link to a blog that lists out many other blogs and tutorials on creating gift bags!!  Mel Stampz: 50+ Gift bag Templates….very helpful, indeed!

Cricuit Machine

Whether it’s packaged in a box, bag or an envelope, I am betting it will be loved and appreciated by those receiving it !

                                        Happy Crafting !   Enjoy and have Fun!

Crafts, Crafts, Crafts

Crafts!!  What an exciting topic and such fun!   I love creating with my sewing machine or my Cricut machine (paper crafts) or just gathering flowers and twigs from the yard and putting together a masterpiece.   Nature has so much to offer the creative personality from painting to photography to simply gathering flowers from the garden and arranging in a wreath or displaying in a gourd vase grown and harvested right next to those flowers!   Over the years I have crafted soaps, candles, candies, pillows and quilts, woodburned designs and accumulated many books for ideas and inspiration.

Some people are blessed with the ability to turn basic materials into works of art in the matter of seconds.   I am not that gifted – at times it will take hours or days to create that look I am seeking.   Always in search ….. I spend plenty of time thinking of crafts!

You could say I become obsessed when I find a crafty interest that appeals to me.  This past year with the discovery of the Cricuit machine, a paper cutting device, I have amassed quite a collection of tools and products and spend hours designing.   I now have 2 Cricuit machines along with a Gypsy, stamps, papers and embossing powders to artfully craft for days!

Embossing, decorating a surface with a raised design, is a technique that amazes me and adds a professional touch to all your decorations.    You can dry emboss or use powders for a glossy raised effect on your image.   Dry embossing can be achieved by hand with a stencil and stylus or you can use a machine designed for this purpose – I have a Sizzix Texture Boutique.   You can enhance your cardmaking or scrapbooking designs with embossed backgrounds or design your die cut images with this technique.   Embossing with powders is a bit more involved and the procedure calls for stamping an image with a medium and then sprinkling embossing powder over this and heating with a heat gun to achieve a raised glossy outcome.

Once you start discovering the products available in the scrapbooking market, you are sure to find yourself wandering for hours pondering all the stickers, embellishments, punches, glues, papers and so much more!   There are magazines and clubs devoted exclusively to this craft and Expos are held all over the country offering classes and demonstrations of new products and techniques.  You can definitely save yourself money by creating your own cards and party decorations and they will be more personalized.   Even if you don’t have or want to invest in all the fancy machines and pricey embellishments, you can start with a pair of scissors, markers or paint along with your imagination and I bet you can create some outstanding works of art!

 

FIVE Winners!

I had so much fun making these labels and really like how they look so I decided to have five winners instead of  just one!   Thank you to everyone that left a comment – I sincerely appreciate your time and kind words.   The winners are -

Cheryl Delaney - Barbra – Jenn Tidwell - Kathleen and Rebecca!

All you have to do is send your mailing address to mailbox@therunninggarlic.com and I will send your packette along to you!

Thanks again to everyone!

Zucchini Basil Muffins and Gourds

First I have to share this recipe I made today with zucchini and basil since soon our gardens will be overflowing with both!   I also experimented last night when baking chicken breast (bone in, skin on) and I am impressed with the results.   I baked the chicken in the oven at 350 degrees for a little over an hour – the chicken breasts were rather large.   I took fresh basil leaves and covered the top and also put some under the skin next to the meat – the finished flavor was fresh and I will definitely cook this way again!   Now on to the Muffin recipe – Zucchini Basil Muffins -

Grate 3 cups of fresh zucchini and combine with 2/3 cup melted butter along with a 1 cup of chopped basil.   Combine 1 1/3 cup sugar, 2 eggs (I used 1 egg and substituted 1 TB flaxseed with 3 TB water for the other egg) and 2 teaspns. vanilla.   Add all together.   Mix 2 teaspns. baking soda with 3 cups flour, 2 teaspns. cinnamon and 1/2 teaspn. nutmeg.   Stir into the zucchini mixture and add 1 cup chopped walnuts.   Bake 20-25 minutes – Yum!

I finished up 2 different gourd vases for my sister this past week and they were very easy.   Basically I just added a light coat of stain to darken them up a bit and a coat of polyacrylic (varnish) to seal them.   The smaller vase I did woodburn a few flowers as a design but I have to say the gourd’s own design is enough.  

Closeup of the gourd

Smaller gourd vase with woodburned flowers

The taller gourd vase with homegrown flowers added (broomcorn and lavender)

These gourds were from my harvest last year and were ready to craft with a while back but I just now finished them up.   I have more gourds to design and also have Apple, Bottle and what I call Champagne Bottle (the tall gourd shown) planted in the garden this year and already vining out all over!

I am in my glory today since I received my new Provocraft Gypsy!!!

 …. I am so excited!   I charged the battery and added a recent update, the Photo application.    I now have to link my cartridges and start learning!   I did create another blog, RunningGarlicDesigns, and I will be using that to show my different craft creations.   What Fun!!!

Garlic Scapes

This year I decided to harvest the garlic scapes from the hard garlic growing in the garden.   Some folks do this and others don’t – last year I didn’t and all the garlic harvested seemed quite large to me.   This year by cutting the scapes (the curly stalks that hard garlic grow) I am giving the bulb in the ground an even better chance of growing larger – the growing energy is directed towards the bulb and not the stalk or scape.   So now I have all these Garlic Scapes

and browsing through the blogs participating in the GROW project I spotted this perfectly timed post by Colleen at In the Garden online  and spent the day yesterday making Garlic Scape Pesto and canning up 6 pints of pickled scapes.   The pickled scapes will make a great addition to my Father’s Day gift since my Dad loves garlic and the garlic bulbs are not ready yet to harvest.

I cut the scapes to fit the pint size jars (I made 6 pints) and added the hot brine along with some red pepper flakes and dried oregano.   To make the liquid brine you heat up 3 cups of vinegar, 5 cups of water and 1/4 cup of kosher salt.   Then you use the hot water canning method and cook 45 minutes.   They need to set for 2 weeks before eating to allow the flavors to blend.

I also made the Garlic Scape Pesto and it is totally addicting – I am thinking even better than a Basil Pesto ……. really good!   I modified the recipe a bit.   I cut up 1 cup of scapes and added them along with 1/3 cup of walnuts to the blender.   Blended a while and added 1/2 cup olive oil and lastly about 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese.

 So very delicious!!!   Thank you Colleen for your timely post – I am enjoying my Garlic Scapes to the max!

I recently returned once again from the trip down south and my mailbox was full of wonderful treasures …. 2 new magazines I have subscribed to;  Runner’s World and PaperCrafts.   I have decided I now have to purchase the Provocraft Gypsy to go along with my Cricut simply because of all this back and forth traveling.   The Gypsy will allow me to travel and create without lugging the Cricut machine each trip….how exciting is that!

Renee’s Garden once again floored me with their promptness and generosity.   I received the media kit with my Nasturtium seeds and decided to send for the 18 free packages of seeds they offered.   I received them all within a few days and am overjoyed with all these wonderful new possibilities to add to the gardens down south.

Happy Gardening!!!

Seed Paper Flowers and The Big Card!

I have seen this idea posted on the internet in the past and I thought I would give it a try since I have been accumulating little scraps of paper as I work with my Cricut.   This is quite easy and I was unsure if it would work, but it Did!   First, I took the scraps of paper and put them in the blender ..

Added water and blended  ..

You can see the paper and water turned to mush and it’s even colored which is neat.   I added marigold seeds to the paper mush and added all this to a colander to squeeze out the excess water.   I had a flower mold which I then added the mush or pulp to – you can spread this out on a cookie sheet and cut out shapes if you don’t have a mold.

 Plastic flower mold

I am letting these air dry.   I did read you can dry them in the oven on low heat but since I haven’t tried that I can’t say how it works.   If you are in a hurry it might work out.   These flowers or any shape you create can be added to a card for Easter or Mother’s Day.   The idea is to plant the whole flower – paper and seeds and let it grow!   Cool idea – now we will have to test it and see if the flowers grow.

Speaking of cards, I have been working on a BIG card for my son.   He is turning 21 in May and the idea hit me this week to create a card and bring it along to the holiday parties this weekend (he is away at college, so he won’t see it) and have all the family members sign it.

 This is designed on a full sheet of poster board and the images cut on the Cricut.  I will bring along the tags for everyone to write something on and then glue them in and add more designs to finish it off.   I left plenty of space since I don’t know how many signed tags I will end up with.

 Inside of card

I have realized that working and creating cards and designs takes quite a bit of creative imagination.   You may see something you want to create but sitting there with all the supplies in front of you seems to just draw a blank.   So I have been doodling or just playing around with different items like stamps and cut out shapes and words and this is working for ideas.   For instance – I saw this concept of stamping the background of paper (heavy and light) and using it as a design ……

So I just started doodling with the stamps and shapes and I like this idea.   I will make up some cute Easter cards to give out this weekend … doodle thoughts work great!!!