Since I am awake at midnight, I thought I’d pick the winner of the fabric canvas. It’s #103, Laura! I’ll contact you to send you the canvas this week. Thanks for playing, everyone. And thanks for all the nice things you had to say.
Bat Leaf Prints
Here’s a quick and easy Halloween craft. We picked up some nice leaves at the park the other day and realized they looked a lot like bats. I think these are from a large maple tree.
It’s best to get a leaf that isn’t too dried out or it will crack. I cut off the stem and the girls painted them with watercolor paints on the textured side. The leaf resists a bit, but if you keep applying the paint it will adhere. Then we just turned them over and printed on paper. I traced around the outside with a black pencil to give it some definition and my three-year-old drew the bat head. She has just started making representational drawings and is so proud of herself.
Etsy Finds Friday
voice of experience, mixed media brooch, $46 from Cathy Cullis.
Nature’s Colours Cowl, $32 from Leafgreen Handmade.
Wooden Star House Cat Folk, $22 from Star House.
Fall Baby Shoes, $23 from Diddle Dumpling.
Robot Love Machine pin, $10 from send me mail.
Linen Pillow Cover, $23 from Meringue Designs.
couple with sun, fabric and appliqué on canvas, $48 from k studio.
Lydia Bag, $40 from Christy Studio.
Printable Stationery, downloadable .pdf file, $4 from little brown pen.
Pumpkin Cheesecake
This is not healthy, but it’s good for a special occasion. I love pumpkin cheesecake and can’t remember the recipe I have used in the past, so this is a combination of several recipes with some of my own ideas and preferences added. I am not afraid to fiddle with a recipe, which can lead to mixed results. But this one turned out pretty well, so here it is.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Make Crust:
- 1 package of graham crackers (approximately 9 full crackers)
- 1/2 stick of butter
Combine in a food processor and press by hand into a greased 9″ springform pan. Set aside.
Make Filling:
- 3 packages cream cheese (8 oz. each), softened
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 4 eggs
- 1 can pumpkin (15 oz.)
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
In a large bowl, combine first four ingredients with an electric mixer. Add remaining ingredients and mix on high speed until smooth and fluffy. Pour mixture into springform pan and tap to get out bubbles. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour and fifteen minutes (possibly longer) until set in the center. When it is set, turn off your oven and crack the oven door to let it cool slowly. I read somewhere that this helps prevent cracking, but mine cracked a bit anyway. The topping will hide any cracks!
Topping:
- 3 tablespoons melted butter
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
Mix together first three ingredients. Then add walnuts and pour over cooled cheesecake. Refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight. Serve with fresh cinnamon whipped cream. Now go for a jog. I usually omit that last part.
Melted Vinyl Bowls
It’s becoming more difficult for me to actually buy gifts, but it’s not easy to come up with crafty ideas for men. So I made these bowls for my husband. It might be kind of a lame dorm room project, but he appreciates frugality. And the kids enjoyed watching me melt plastic. I’m going to try to feature more recycled craft ideas since we’re all tightening the purse strings.
For these record bowls, I used the edges down directions found at wiki-how. I totally love this site by the way, and think that everyone should learn how to make balloon animals.
Note: records were bought at the thrift store and not taken from my husband’s collection! To make a deeper bowl shape for some of them, I added another bowl on top after a couple of minutes in the oven. I played around with shapes and ended up with one that could be used as a mail holder, some wider ones, and some more narrow. You only have about ten seconds to do any additional shaping after you get them out of the oven. I found that putting your hand in a 200-degree oven to shape it is not actually that bad. I think 45s or 10 inch records would be even better with this project. And colored records would be the best.