Cheese Plate Craft (With Bonus Geometry Lesson!)

The top cheese-producing states in the US are Wisconsin, California, and Idaho, in that order. Together, the three states produce more than half of the nation's cheese. Wisconsin, known as America's Dairyland, makes more than 600 varieties of cheese and leads the country in cheddar production. Popular cheeses including Colby and Muenster were invented in Wisconsin. California produces over 250 variety of cheese, including Monterey Jack, a California original. Throughout the 2000's, the cheese industry in Idaho has grown rapidly, although I couldn't find information about how many varieties are currently produced there. 

Most cheese is made in wheels or in blocks. In geometry terms, a wheel is just a very squat cylinder. A block is a rectangular prism. When you cut a block into parts with equal sides, you get a square prism (aka, a cube). When you cut a block on the diagonal, you end up with a triangular prism.  Learn how to draw these shapes and then turn them into a fun cheese board craft. 

Cheese Plate Craft + How to Draw Solid Figures

Materials: 

• cardstock
• colored pencils
• scissors
• craft glue

Steps: 

Use a piece of scratch paper to learn the basic steps to drawing rectangular prisms, triangular prisms, and cylinders. Start by drawing a triangle, oval, and rectangle with a colored pencil. 

Draw an identical (congruent) triangle slightly up and to the right of the first. (If you're using this as a proper geometry lesson, measure and use a straight edge, unlike my quick examples below.) Do the same with the rectangle. Draw a congruent oval directly above the first. How far apart you space the two congruent shapes determines the size of your finished solid figure. Experiment!

Finally, draw straight lines between the points (vertices) of the triangles and of the rectangles. Ovals don't have vertices, so draw straight lines between the outermost parts.

When you are confident drawing solid figures, try them on cardstock! Draw the lines very lightly with brown or grey. Cut out the finished shapes. 

Now get creative! Add holes to a triangular prism to make swiss cheese. Draw a cut wedge (segment, in geometry terms) from the cylinder and then color it to make brie. Put cubes of cheddar into a bowl. Arrange the whole thing on a board or plate cut from construction paper. When you are happy with your design, glue it in place. 

There are so many fun ways to extend this lesson. If I were doing this in the classroom, we would definitely follow it up with a cheese tasting. We'd jump into the history and science of cheese and maybe even make ricotta from scratch. So many possibilities!

Fabric Postcards

One of the members of our quilt group brought in a stack of 20-year old quilt magazines for anyone who was interested in reading them. I'd never read a quilt magazine and I'm eager to learn more about quilting, so I took a few home. In one, there was a casual mention about sending quilted postcards, but no further information. I decided to try making quilted postcards and see if they'd make it through the mail. Technically, I made fabric postcards, not quilted postcards, because they aren't actually quilted. But they did make it through the mail! I sent one to a friend here in town; it arrived two days later. I sent the second postcard to my mom in Idaho. That took three days. Both arrived in perfect condition - hurray! Affiliate links below. 

Fabric Postcards

Materials: 

• fabric scraps
• sewing machine
• iron
• white cardstock (80+ lbs.)
• glue stick

Steps: 

Sew scraps of fabric together, then trim it to make a 4" x 6" block. Press the seams flat. Print, stamp, or draw a postcard design onto the paper. I printed two on one sheet of paper, then trimmed them down to 4" x 6". 

Add an even coat of glue to the back of the postcard, stopping approximately 1/2" from the edges. (You don't want glue where you will be sewing.) Press the fabric onto the postcard, then iron it flat. If the fabric and cardstock aren't perfectly even, give them a quick trim. Use the sewing machine to zig zag around the edges of the postcard. 

Address your card, write a message, and then add a postcard stamp and it's ready to pop in the mailbox! 

Self-Binding Quilted Potholder (Lion Edition)

Do you remember the first quilted potholders I made? I sewed them 7 months ago, just after finishing my first quilt, when I was still brand new to sewing. My first potholders are very lopsided, I didn't quilt them properly (or evenly), and the binding is a mess. I was looking at them the other day and realized how far I've come with my sewing skills since then. I'm still learning and practicing the basics, but I am now a confident beginner. 

I decided to see just how far I've come by making another potholder. It's not perfect, but it is soooo much better than the others! 

To make my potholder, I layered an 8" square of lion fabric onto an 8" square of batting. I'm much more proficient at cutting fabric accurately now, so that definitely helped with the finished product. I pinned the layers in the center and added clips all the way around the outside. Overkill? Perhaps, but I was determined not to have the layers shift while I quilted them like they did last time. 

It worked! I didn't have to square up the block, as it remained perfectly square after quilting. And check out those even quilting lines! I used my ruler to measure where they go, then marked them by dragging my fingernail against the ruler. That gave me creases that were easy to follow when sewing. I should have ironed out that random crease ahead of time, but it didn't interfere with my quilting. 

I put the quilted layers right side up on an upside down 10" square of yellow fabric, then folded up the edges and pressed them. I had a heck of a time getting the corners to lay nicely; that's definitely a skill I need to work on. I sewed around the inside edge to lock the binding in place, then around the outside edge.

Here's the finished potholder on my cutting mat. The corners bow out a little bit, but compared to the others.... what a difference! 

Here's an original potholder, for comparison: 

Like I said... what a difference! I am looking forward to continuing to improve my skills. I'm having so much fun learning to quilt and am so glad to have this fun and rewarding hobby. 

Crafts for Kids Using Candy Eyeballs

I love crafting with candy eyeballs. They add so much personality and whimsy to cakes, pancakes, cupcakes, milkshakes, marshmallows, lollipops, and so much more! Below are some of my favorite edible crafts decorated with candy eyeballs. 

Edible Crafting with Candy Eyeballs

Heart Tropical Fish Cookie - Three heart cookies come together to make a cute tropical fish. Make just one or a whole ocean's worth of brightly colored fish. 

Candy Melt Witches - I had a blast making these witches. The sprinkle eyebrows and mouth add so much expression. Can you guess what I used to make the noses?

Nut Butter Bear - This cute bear is made with two types of rice cakes and two types of nut butter. It's easy to make and really tasty. I've included ideas in the tutorial for substitutions if nut allergies are a concern. 

Ho Ho Bat - I love bats. These delicious treats are made with Ho Hos, Oreos, almonds, and a few other items... including candy eyeballs, of course!

Twinkie Birds - From Ho Hos to Twinkies! Dress up these snack cakes to look like a family of birds. Each is on a stick to make it extra fun to eat. 

Dracula Smores - Ordinary smores are fun, but Dracula smores are even better. These are so fun to make for Halloween or other vampire-themed occasion. 

Nutter Butter People - It turns out that Nutter Butters are great for turning into different characters. Gather up candy eyeballs and other treats and get creative! I ended up making 7 people and it was so much fun. 

Decorated Donuts - Candy eyeballs and donuts are a match made in heaven. There are so many creative possibilities, but I'm particularly fond of this grouchy cinnamon roll. 

Graham Cracker Owls - Make one graham cracker owl or a whole family. They're quick and easy to make and are such a fun option for snack time. 

Be sure to check out all of the edible crafts I've made featuring candy eyeballs. And if you have an idea for something you'd like me to try, let me know in the comments! I'm happy to give it a go. 

North Dakota 2023

Our 2023 visit to North Dakota was memorable for so many reasons. It was our fiftieth state. We visited a bunch of interesting and unique places. And we experienced plague levels of grasshoppers. 

North Dakota (affiliate link)

I'd originally planned to put the "hello!" die cut on the grasshopper photo, but I ended up moving it to highlight Trevor. He's popped up in the prairie dog enclosure. What a fun way to let guests get a closer view! It's a great photo op too. 

Did you notice my title? I wanted to use those letters because they matched the striped paper perfectly, but I didn't have any O's left. I trimmed down a 6 to make the O in north; the circle sticker with a heart inside worked well as the O in dakota. Scrapbookers are nothing if not resourceful!