Glitter State Artwork

Posted on February 5, 2014 by Georgina

Glitter State Artwork

So here is another one of my Christmas presents I made. I have had my eye on this craft for a while. I actually love state artwork, there are so many fun ones I want to try but how many pictures of states can a girl have in her house, I believe the answer is too many. What better way to have fun making them and not look like a hoarder- than making them as gifts! 🙂 This one took a little bit more time simply for the fact that I a) needed daylight (to trace the state outline on my paper) since I don’t have a lightbox I needed daylight and as sad as it is, that is hard to come by in the winter during the hours I’m at home. and b) I wanted the glue and glitter to completely dry and set before framing.

Here is what you’ll need:

a print out of your state of choice. I obviously chose the best state in existance, Wisconin.
Thicker paper, like cardstock, poster board, this really depends on how big of a state or picture you are making
Scissors
Plain ole regular modge podge (mine in honestly still from when I was like 17 years old. still works, but I’m running low and need more soon!
Glitter. I got mine in the card making section at Micheals(you can see the pic below for deets) but really any craft glitter will work.
Paint brush
Containter to coat your cut out in to avoid a glitter catastrophe 🙂
Double stick tape
Frame and if you want, colored paper to line your frame.

Optional:

You can use a sticker of a heart or if you don’t have on I just painted a heart in red/pink paint on a peice of paper and cut it out and stuck in on.

Here is a picture of some of my supplies:

Clockwise: My modge podge and glitter I used- an illustration that you really want to not be shy with the modge podge in order to get a good coating of glitter to stay on the paper, my cutout in a glass container covered in glitter, then once it had dried a little and the exess glitter shaken off.

Here is what I did:

1) Print out an outline of your state. I mean I guess you can freehand it but I would suggest printing 😉

2) I taped my thicker cardstock over the outline and held up to my patio door (this is where that daylight is needed) and just traced the shape. then untape the sheets.

3) Use scissors and carefully cut out your state from your thicker cardstock.

4) place the outline in your container and use a paintbrush or spongebrush thingy, to coat your paper in modge podge. See my picture above about how you should really put a good coat on. Otherwise the glitter won’t stick nicely and it will be alittle thin, but be careful to not overcoat otherwise it will probably never dry. No harm in doing a little test run on a peice of scrap paper like I did above too.

5) When modge podge is still wet, coat generously with glitter, making sure to get a nice even coat and no “bald” spots.

6) Let the glitter and modge podge set for a while, probably like an hour and then pick up carefully(as it’s not all the way dry yet) and shake excess glitter from the cutout. Then I placed the glitter state on a piece of scrap paper and allowed to dry completely. I waited 4 days because I went out of town but I’m sure it doesn’t really take that long, but I’d for sure wait a full day.

7) You can pour your excess glitter back into it’s container and save for another glitter craft 🙂

8) This isn’t a necessary step but once my state was dry I took it outside and sprayed it with a high gloss arcylic sealer. Basically just because I wanted to set the glitter a little more. I didn’t want to have specs of glitter coming “free” and getting all over the glass of the frame because that would be a pain in the ass to deal with. I had purchased it for a different craft and thought, “hey why not try it”. Like I said, it’s not necessary but if you have anything similar lying around it worked great. ( Here is a link to the product that I used)

9) Once dry, if you choose you can place a heart over a particular locatiaon of the state that holds any significance to you. Then I put a couple peices of double stick tape on the back and taped it to a peice of black paper and placed in the frame.

TA DA!

Ignore the reflection in the glass of the frame. It was nearly impossible to not get my hands or face ! 🙂

I was so pleased with this craft! I made it for my best friend who is originally from Wisconsin but moved to Minnesota. I told her this was so she could always see “home” 🙂 I miss you B!That’s pretty much it. I mean this had so many endless possibilities not just in states but any shape you could think of. I think an outline of a stag head and antlers or something like that would be really cool too. Experiment and let me know what awesome things you all create 🙂

Thanks for reading!

xoxo

Cork Letters

Posted on February 2, 2014 by Georgina

Cork Letter Craft

Sooo- I LOVE making homemade gifts for Christmas. Throughout the year I will save ideas for certain people and usually on December 20th I start working on them….. Kidding. Well sort of- my plan is usually to get started wayyyy earlier than I do.

This year one of the gifts I made for a friend was a cork letter of her new last name (she recently got married and decided to take her husbands last name) the idea came from something I saw on Etsy selling for about $100. Um no. And plus I could make that! Soo I did. And you totally can too.

Here is what you’ll need:

hot glue (duh- craft staple)
burlap or some fabric to wrap your letter
knife (be careful 🙂 )
corks , the real wine corks made from you know, cork. Not the plastic ones.

Here is how to do it:
I went to Michaels (but any craft store has these) and bought a wood letter, in this case a ‘C’ . It was really inexpensive, I’m talking like $4, PLUS those places always have coupons.

I basically just wrapped the letter in burlap- my thought with this was that the hot glue and corks would stick better to the burlap than the plain letter and my letter was white instead of a wood color and I was going for more of a natural look- anyway, uses some hot glue and wrap the letter. It doesn’t have to be perfect because you’re covering it.

Then I honestly just cut up corks in a random fashion in tons of different shapes and glued them on! I tried to get them pretty tight to one another and overlapped a lot. Um seriously that’s it! It turned out perfect. I was soo proud of it. Haha. I am totally going to make more.

I feel like I should share that somehow my family came into a trillion corks. So no I’m not boozing on wine every day to save up- though I do have my own little collection started, if only boxed wine had corks, then I’d have a lot 🙂 hahaha- my dad probably isn’t too thrilled about that comment 😉 anyway I am fortunate enough to be able to have TONS of corks at my disposal. Someone we know had asked a restaurant to save them and then realized they didn’t have anything to do with them so they passed them to us. No complaints here!

Um, yeah thats a 55+ gallon drum filled with corks. loveeeeee

So anyway, this is actually a pretty easy and lower cost project. Hope you have fun and experiment with this! The possibilities are endless.

Thanks for checking out my blog!!

Lemony Brussel Sprouts & Corn

Posted on January 22, 2014 by Georgina

Lemony Brussel Sprouts & Corn

Ingredients:

1 lb brussel sprouts
2 ears of corn, kernels freshly cut off of the cob
3 tbs olive oil, divided
1/2 lemons-worth of juice
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
salt & pepper

Directions:
1. In a large pan heat 1 tbs olive oil over medium-high heat. Cut brussel sprouts in half and add to pan. Sprinkle with lemon juice, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and generous pinches of salt & pepper.

2. Shake and stir to coat, continue to shake every so often, to enable a caramelized sear but not an over-cook on one side.

3. After about 10 minutes (adding more olive oil as needed), when brussel sprouts are browned, soft on the outside, but a bit hard n crunch on the inside, add fresh corn kernels to the pan.

4. Drizzle 1 tbs olive oil over the corn, sprinkle with more salt & pepper and stir & shake to fully mix.

5. Cook altogether for another 5 minutes, until corn is warmed through.

6. Eat it!

Soooo good. I could have eaten just these for dinner that night. This is the first time I made brussle sprouts for Jake and I was a little scared because I mean C’mon brussle spouts have GOT TO BE one of the most hated/feared vegitables on the planet. I love them and have been known the just eat them raw, but word on the street is not toooo many people are huge fans. Hopefully you like them! and if not, maybe give them another shot with this recipe?!?!?

xoxo

Cinnamon Sugared Almonds

Posted on January 19, 2014 by Georgina

Cinnamon Sugared Almonds

Hi all! I was on the look for a quick little something to have sitting out for some friends to come over and came across these- they are deeeelicious! Let me know what you think!

Ingredients:

3 cups whole almonds
1 cup sugar
1/2 tbsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup water

Instructions:

In a large skillet or pot combine the sugar, cinnamon and water over medium-high heat until the sugar has dissolved.

Add the almonds and stir constantly with a spoon or spatula, coating the almonds with the syrupy mixture. It should look something like this:

Keep stirring until the sugar crystallizes (this takes about 8-10 minutes) and it looks sandy. Don’t stop stirring! It might feel like forever but keep going! Then it will look something like this:

Remove the pan from heat and scoop the almonds onto wax or parchment paper.

Let the cinnamon almonds cool for a few minutes before serving.

Don’t they look good?!?! They are really, really delicious too! Fun little snack treat. Thanks for stopping by! Hopefully you enjoy too!

xoxo

Beef Yakisoba

Posted on January 12, 2014 by Georgina

Beef Yakisoba

Ingredients
½ head green cabbage
1 medium yellow onion
2 medium carrots
1 small crown broccoli
2 inches fresh ginger
1 # beef flank steak
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 (3 oz.) packages ramen noodles- season packets discarded
seasoning packets discarded
1 tsp sesame oil (optional)
¼ cup soy sauce
¼ cup worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp ketchup
1-2 Tbsp sriracha hot sauce (depending how hot you like it!)
1 Tbsp sugar

Instructions
Before you begin, prepare the meat and vegetables for stir frying. Peel the ginger with either a vegetable peeler or the side of a spoon and then grate it with a grater or zester. Peel and grate the carrots or just cut them up like matchsticks. Remove the core from the cabbage and cut into thin strips. Slice the onion into thin strips. Cut the broccoli into bite-sized pieces. Slice the flank steak into thin strips.
Begin boiling a medium pot full of water for the noodles. Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the grated ginger, saute for about 30 seconds to one minute (its okay if it sticks to the pan but don’t let it burn). Add the beef strips and cook until they are no longer pink (about five minutes).
Once the beef is cooked through, add all of the vegetables. Stir and cook until wilted (about 5-10 minutes). Meanwhile, once the water boils, add the noodles and cook just until tender (2-3 minutes). Drain, return to the pot (with the heat turned off) and toss with the sesame oil to keep from sticking.
In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, ketchup, sriracha, and sugar.Stir until the ketchup and sugar are dissolved. Pour the sauce into the skillet with the chicken and vegetables with the heat still on medium high. Add the noodles, stir to coat everything in the sauce, and heat through (just a few minutes).

Soooo delicious and mildly healthy, LOTS of veggies. Hope you enjoy!

xoxo