Amy Peters' Studio Buzz

How to Tuesday: Fun Fingernail Polish

So for Christmas I gave Kyra lots of fun nail polishes and we spent some time Sunday playing around with a couple of techniques.  She wasn't happy with the way the first techinque turned out...I think it was the nailpolish we used it was pretty old, so I'll buy some more white or light color and try again.  It was really easy. 

1) First collect your supplies.

    a) Light colored nailpolish

    b) Newspaper cut into strips large enough to fit over nails

    c) Rubbing alcohol.

2) Paint nails with light color nailpolish. Let dry completely (I think this is what we did wrong!)

3) Dip fingers into rubbing alcohol

4) Press newspaper onto nail.

5) Cover with topcoat.

The print worked somewhat, but not as well as the website where we found the technique.  The website is in French...but my high school French came in handy!

Take 2. 

This one was fun.

1) Collect your supplies.

    a) Several colors of the same brand of nailpolish. (enamels work best)

    b) A disposable bowl or cup.  (We decided to use one and reuse it only for     this nailpolish technique. 

    c) tap water.

2) Pour water into bowl

3) drop nail polish drops into bowl.  It should float on water. 

4) Pull around floating polish with a toothpick to create a design.

5) Mask off finger around nail with scotch tape.

6) Dip fingernail into floating nailpolish where you like hte pattern.

7) Peel off tape.

8) Clean up any missed spots on fingers with nail polish remover. 

9) Cover with clear coat.

10) ENJOY!

 

How To Tuesday: Card File Calendar

I made this fun end table out of a vintage library card file and have been trying to think of how to use it. 

 

This weekend I saw a fun idea on Pinterest that was orginally from Design Sponge, so I switched it up a bit and created my very own card file calendar. So happy I found it at the start of the year!

Ever since taking the sketching class last year, I've been trying to add more color to my life.  

I have been wanting to scrapbook and journal again, so this will be fun option.  It is going to be easy peasy to keep up with it.  The small 3 x 5 cards are to fill up.

I reused an old set of card file dividers and stamped the months on them and the year on the front one.

I'm going to play it by ear, but I'd love to do a card a day if I can fit it into the schedule. 

Shadow even gave me her smile of approval on the new project!

How to Tuesday: Strawberry Shortcake

Believe it or not this is not a stock photo. We live in strawberry country.  There are field and fields of them just about 10 miles from our house.  So from April until around August we get the best strawberries I've ever tasted!  And I love strawberries.  But more importantly I love strawberry shortcake. 

Bad blogger that I've been the last few weeks, I forgot to take pictures of the process.  But I found what I think is THE best shortcake recipe I've ever tried.  I found it on allrecipes.com.

It is called Scrumptious Strawberry Shortcake. Rather than repeat the recipe here.  HEAD OVER to All Recipes to find it.  While I love handmade whipped cream, the kids love the stuff from a can. I took a huge flat of strawberries up to my parents and made two batches for my mom a few weeks ago. I guess I come by my love for it honestly!

 

How to Tuesday: Roasted Brussel Sprouts

A few months back someone I follow on twitter @inspiredRD suggested we should give a vegetable a try we hate.  The idea made my stomach turn. 

I have hated brussel sprouts since I was a kid.  The funny thing is my kids LOVE them.  Years ago I was in a grocery store and Kyra was begging me to get them.  The thought of steaming them and smelling the brussel sprout smell.  UGH. 

I was telling her she wouldn't like them and that yuck...mom hates them.  A little old lady walked up to me and patted me on the shoulder and said.  "Buy her the brussel sprouts sweetie".  So I did.  I steamed them and the kids loved them.  But I still wasn't eating them...EVER.

But a challenge is a challenge and I decided to try and see if I could like them. 

So...I bought a bag. 

1) Drizzle them with olive oil.

2) Sprinkle on some kosher salt. 

3) Baked them at 450 degrees until they were brown.  In our oven about 20 minutes. Then a miracle happened. 

4) I ate them, and REALLY REALLY liked them. 

Funny...just looking at the picture I want to buy some for this week's menu. 

Is there a vegetable you loathe?  Have you tried cooking it a different way?  Maybe what you hated as a kid, you could learn to love!

 

 

How to Tuesday: Repurposed purse

Today I'm going to share a fun bracelet my friend Bobbie from Clumsy Crafter shared on her blog last month! I just loved it so much I had to share it here...

Hey all I'm Bobbie From Clumsy Crafter. Visit me there sometime.

I'm still in my craft funk. Most likely it's from the pure fear that the second I get the glitter out and the kids send it flying to all corners of the house, which is a law of relativity.. I promise, that I'll get a phone call wanting to show our house. Yesterday I pulled out a pattern and some fabric to sew but once I realized I wouldn't have time to finish the project before I had to put it all away, I just put it up. Right now my creativity is flowing in the form of cleaning and hiding objects in the case of a sudden showing. Did you know that toilet tanks are a good place to hide things? Just kidding! I would never hide my husband's toothbrush in there!! NEVER! (hehe) (haha) Don't worry, he doesn't read this, he just looks at the pictures and then asks when I'm going to make the graphic for his blog header. But a few weeks ago a package arrived in the mail from my lovely friend, Amy Peters. She just sent it because she is wonderful and giving, no strings attached.. just because. Don't you love it when people do that? I do, it makes my day. It also makes my day when my husband brings me flowers but if he does happen to read this post, that might never happen again. These are all charms from her new Faith and Virtues Collection. Beautiful. I love them all. I knew I wanted to do something that day and I wanted to do something quickly. So I decided to use an old purse that I had been saving. This is not a leather purse. It at one time was a cute vinyl knock off from Ross with a turquoise detailed clasp. Unfortunately cuteness fades over time and is replaced by wrinkles and gray hairs. Oh wait, that's just me. I cut off the handle and then cut the handle into three strips, attaching it to a pillow with a safety pin so I could weave it into a bracelet. The important thing to remember when working with leather or vinyl is not to braid in traditional fashion. You need to weave it to keep it from making weird bumps to tearing. Start on the right side and feed the straps over and under. Continue until you reach the end. After I had weaved the whole thing I just picked out a charm I liked and slid it onto the bracelet. After adding a clasp I was finished. Cute huh? It was simple and fast. Now I just need to figure out what to do with the other charms from Amy Peter's Studio. Any suggestions.

Thanks so much Bobbie for sharing it here and I'm sure eveyone will have suggestions on how to use the rest of the charms!

How to Tuesday: Shrinky Dinks Necklace

Last weekend when I was at my parent's house I found a really old package of Shrinky Dinks. 

Just look at the packaging...Amazing NEW plastic craft material, shrinks when heated. I used to love shrinky dinks.  

It got me thinking.

Shrinky Dinks have grown up a bit since I was a kid.  They now have ink jet versions of this amazing craft.  How cool is that!

First I arranged the images of me and my sister in photoshop on a page, so I could print them out.

Print them out.

Cut them apart

Punch holes in both top corners.

Line your pan with a brown paper bag, so they don't stick to the pan.  Arrange the images with a bit of space, so they can shrink without sticking to each other.

Bake at 275 to 300 degrees for 3-5 minutes.  We have a small oven I love to use for crafts.

 

Magically they shrink...no really if you haven't used these in awhile...They are so cool. 

I used some of our charms from the Pewter Hearts Collection, our stainless steel chain and jump rings. 

Attach each of the charms with jump rings, making sure to adjust the charms so they hang correctly. 

Finish attaching the charms until you are finished.

Wear proudly!

This would be a fun project for family reunions, anniversary party, wedding rehearsal, birthdays...and the list goes on.  

What would you make one for?

Linking up...Love these blogs...please visit them!!!

 

How to Tuesday: Spring {birdies}

Today I have a friend stepping in to give us a fun how to Tuesday. This project is especially perfect for this first week of Spring.  I've introduced you to April a few times before. Along with her wonderful husband Steve she owns two Catching Fireflies stores, an online Catching Fireflies store, Yellow Door Art Market and a wholesale business Ai Paper.  So yep...they are amazing! 

If you are located in Michigan....A whole flock of these birdies made their way into their shops.  April couldn't resist taking a few of them home and in her ultra creative way found a way to display them.

If you don't have a flock of birdies around you, April suggests another great ornament option for this type of tree is decorated blown-out Easter eggs.

 

Thank you my sweet friend for sharing your beautiful spring birds on our blog today!  If you loved April's idea, head over to her blog.  It really is a favorite blog of mine, she has fun and interesting tidbits all of the time.  And her store goodies usually fill my kid's stocking each year.  Remember the smencils?  Yep, I got them from CatchingFlies.com.

How To Tuesday: Play

So yesterday I had a choice, rush home from work and finish my how to Tuesday post I was working on for today OR go to the beach and play with the kids.  Guess what won.

When we were between houses we rented a  little place a few blocks from the beach.  So whenever I mention going our beach, Avila Beach. Immediately both kids scream HULA HUT ICE CREAM.  They really do scream for ice cream everytime! While we don't always say yes, yesterday I did. 

What is it about sand in the toes.  It immediately calms and centers me.

Hunting for shells and of course...heart rocks. 

And....we found XOXO rocks too!

I love these little detours in life.  They really do make life interesting and infinately more fun! 

How to Tuesday: Rubber Stamps

I love rubber stamps and I love creating art, so this project is the best of both worlds. Hand carved rubber stamps.

First gather your supplies.  One of the reasons I love this project is you get to use leftovers for it.   I teach art at my kids school, so I bought a 25 lb box of Safety-Kut® scraps (here).  We often have left over wood bits, so I cut them up into smaller blocks for mounting the stamps on when they are finished.

And I have lots of cutting tools from (here).

First I trim the Safety-Kut® material to size. 

Draw your image on with pencil.

Another reason I love this project is because older (4th grade and up) kids can join in the fun.  Here is Kyra working on her smiley face stamp.

The most important thing when cutting is to always cut away from your hand.  The tools are very sharp.

I like to cut straight down to edge designs first so I can eliminate cutting something I don't want to cut.  

  
As I'm working the stamp I'll often test it to see where I might need to cut more.

After I'm happy with the stamp, I stamp it on the wood block.

Then I glue it down on the wood block.  Ta da...

 

How to Tuesday: Grandma's Biscuits

I love to bake and one of my favorite times to do it is Saturday morning breakfast. 

My grandmother's buttermilk biscuit recipe holds a special place on our cook book shelf.  Nikolas made me this fun recipe holder for it, when he was just 3.

Buttermilk Biscuits

•2 Cups Flour

•3 teaspoons of Baking Powder

•1/2 teaspoon of Salt

•1/4 teaspoon of baking soda

•5 Tablespoons of vegetable shortening

•1 cup of buttermilk.

Put all dry ingredients into bowl.  Cut shortening into dry ingredients.  Mix in buttermilk until dough follows fork around the bowl. Pat onto board.  Cut out with cookie cutter.  Cook at 450 degrees for 10-15 minutes until golden brown.

This is an easy recipe and is so much better than store bought biscuits, it is my go to recipe for relaxed weekend breakfasts.

Mix in all dry ingredients.

Cut in shortening into dry ingredients.

Mix in buttermilk with a fork.

"The less you fuss with them, the more tender they will be" June Peters

I pat the dough onto our cutting board and cut with cookie cutters.  I like to use different shapes depending on the time of year.  Last weekend we celebrated Valentine's Day!

 

I love to serve with fresh berries or fruit, usually in season.

We like our biscuits a little lighter in color, but you could cook more to brown them up a bit more.

My family loves bacon, so we usually have a side of it.

Do you have a favorite recipe tradition?  Does it bring back great memories of your childhood? Who taught you how to cook it?