Coffee Filter Turkeys

Time to start crafting for Thanksgiving!   This is one of my all-time favorite crafts.  You will need: a coffee filter, a few colors of Folk Art acrylic paint (diluted with water to a thin consistency), paper towels, and construction paper.  You'll also need scissors, glue and a black pen.

Step 1: Flatten the coffee filter, then fold it in half.  Continue folding it in half four more times.

Step 2: Dip just the tip of the folded coffee filter into one color of paint.  Remove it quickly- if the paint is sufficiently diluted, it will travel quickly up the filter.

 

Step 3: Dip the other two tips into two other colors.

 

Step 4: Put the wet coffee filters onto a few layers of paper towels, then set them aside.

 

Step 5: While the coffee filters are drying, use the brown construction paper to cut a turkey body (approximately the size and shape of a pear) and two turkey wings (leaf shapes). Use the yellow construction paper to cut two feet (I like whimsical upside-down t's) and a beak (a small diamond, folded in half). Use the red construction paper to cut a tiny waddle.

 

Step 6: Carefully unfold the coffee filters to reveal the designs. Every one is completely different and they are all beautiful. Set the moist coffee filters back on the paper towels and leave them undisturbed until they are completely dry. Obviously, this depends on temperature, humidity, and how dilute your paint was. Ours were dry in an hour.

 

Step 7: Assemble the finished art by gluing the coffee filter to a piece of construction paper, then layering the feet, body, wings, waddle, and beak on top. Trevor had the idea of tearing a piece of brown patterned paper to make a hill for the turkey to stand on, so we did that.

Step 8: Use a black pen to add eyes.

Trevor's:

 

Mine:

 

Aren't they adorable? I did this craft with my fourth and fifth graders every year. I taught over 400 kids and every single one of their turkeys looked different.

Corn Chowder

For the last 20+ years, I've been tearing interesting recipes out of magazines, filing them by category, and never looking at them again.  A few weeks ago, I went through my huge stash of recipes.  I found plenty that no longer interest me, have ingredients my family can't/won't eat, or were very similar to something I already make.  Into the recycling bin they went.

I also found a bunch that were just as interesting and exciting to me as when I first tore them out.  I've moved these out of the files and close to the grocery list.  I'm systematically cooking my way through them.  As I make each one, it'll go into my 'Favorites' folder or the recycling bin.   

One of the first I tried was a corn chowder.  I've made many corn chowders over the years, but I've never tried one that calls for boiling the corn cobs in water to create the broth.  I was intrigued.  Could corn cobs create a tasty broth?  Answer: Yes!  

Here's the recipe as I made it.  As usual, I used the recipe more as a suggestion than following it exactly.  I don't know the original source.

Corn Chowder

                            4 ears of corn                         4 oz. ham, diced

                            4 T. butter                             2 large potatoes, cut into 1-inch cubes

                            3 stalks celery, sliced             6 scallions, chopped

                            1 garlic clove, minced            1/2 c. heavy cream

                            1 tsp. salt

Slice the corn kernels off the cob and reserve the cobs.  Heat 3 T. butter in a large pot over high heat.  Add the celery, garlic, salt, and all but 1/2 c. of the corn kernels.  Cook 1 minute.  Add the potatoes, corn cobs, and 5 cups water.  Cover and cook until potatoes are tender, approximately 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining 1 T. of butter in a skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the reserved corn kernels and the ham and cook about 5 minutes.  Add the scallions and cook 1 minute.  

Remove the corn cobs from the soup and discard.  Stir in the heavy cream and cook 1 minute.  Ladle soup into bowls and top with the corn-ham mixture. 

Chipboard Photo Templates

Here is the layout of our family celebrating my 39th birthday.  We went roller skating at a rink near my hometown that I frequented as a teenager.  (What a fun blast from the past!  The place hadn't changed a bit.)  I took a ton of pictures, but there might be no worse place on earth to try to get decent photos than at a roller rink.  I ended up printing the eight best photos, but as you can see, I only used four of them.

Sometimes, I print just the right number of photos because I know exactly where I'm going to put each one and what the finished layout will look like.  In this case, I didn't.  So I pulled out these:

Years ago, I cut down some sheets of chipboard to make a set of templates.  Each is cut to a common photo size, then labeled with its dimensions.  There are multiples of each size.  I can't tell you the number of times I've used them.  They are so handy!

When I'm stuck on a layout, I pull out one template for each of my photos (in this case, eight 4x6's- five vertical and three horizontal) and start playing with them.  As I move them around on a piece of white cardstock, I look for a pleasing arrangement.  If I decide I might be cropping one or more photos, I swap out the template for a different size to see how that will look.  This lets me make design decisions before I ever cut a photo. 

Once I like a layout, I grab some random chipboard letters to plan where my title will go.  In this case, I knew my title would be really short ("39"), so I just put a few letters down as a place holder. 

At this point, I knew exactly what my layout would look like.  I was able to grab patterned paper, a punch, a few stickers, and a journaling pen and the whole thing came together very quickly.  Which is always very satisfying.

Family Halloween Costume: Knight, Damsel, and King

As promised, it's time to show you how our Halloween costumes turned out. Recall that Trevor originally wanted us to dress as a knight (himself), a pink-dressed damsel (me), and a blue and green dragon (Steve). You can see his sketches here. 

Here's Trevor's knight, by far the most successful of the costumes:

He was thrilled with how it all turned out. He loved the chainmail and the tunic and thought I did a perfect job. (I love that he thinks his Mommy can do everything. Apparently he doesn't care about crooked seams!) His sword was just like he wanted. He loved the shield with his version of what he thinks our family crest should be (Trouble with a rose in his mouth, representing the deRosier name).  The costume got a lot of compliments. I made the entire thing for less than $8.

I made a damsel hat to accompany my hand-me-down dress. The dress is a very unusual color, so I decided to paint white fabric to match it, rather than searching (possibly in vain) for existing fabric that matched. I took the dress to the hardware store and had the man at the paint department scan it so I could color-match the hat. He said it was the first time someone had scanned a gown and bought house paint that matched! I painted the fabric (using a pouncing motion to create irregularities to disguise the fact that the color match wasn't perfect), added interfacing, and sewed the hat. Then I used Glue Dots to attach tulle!

Total cost of my costume: about $7 for fabric, interfacing, and paint.

It was pretty clear a few weeks ago that I would not be making a dragon costume. We decided that Steve would wear an old Renaissance Faire costume he already owned, plus a crown made by Trevor and me. I present, King Steve:

Total cost of Steve's costume: $0. We had all the crown materials on hand.

I actually made a fourth costume. It was for the smallest member of our family and was also made with materials we had on hand. We frequently refer to Trouble as the Wonder Bunny, so I just had to make this:

If you don't have a young child in your life, you may not be familiar with the Wonder Pets. It's a great show. Three classroom pets rescue baby animals in trouble. The theme song is particularly catchy. "The phone... the phone is ringing!"

Trouble did not like his costume. I would put it on him and race to snap a picture before he tore it off. Repeat, repeat, repeat. These are the two best photos:

  

I think I'll try again sometime. I really want a cute picture of the Wonder Bunny. 

So that's the wrap-up from Halloween 2011! While I didn't quite make the costumes Trevor had originally requested, he was very happy with how everything turned out. And that's all that matters to me.

Need a Gift for a Sports Fan?

My nephew Timothy is a rabid San Francisco Giants fan.  For his birthday, he wanted to transform his bedroom into everything Giants.  I decided a DIY gift was in order.  So I made this:

This project was surprisingly easy once I figured out what I was doing.  I started with a plain black wastebasket.  I found the Giants' logo online, printed it out, then carefully cut around the edges with my Fiskars Fingertip Control Knife (love that thing!).  I used spray adhesive to attach it to the wastebasket.

It looked good, but somewhat flat.  I added a few coats of Folk Art's orange Extreme Glitter paint. 

I LOVE this paint.  It adds amazing shimmer and shine.  Because the glitter is so small, it works really well for masculine projects.  Now the Giants logo has some interest and dimension. 

Happy birthday Timothy!