AIM DIY: Patio Friendly Pile-Up Cushions filled with Styrofoam Peanuts

May 3, 2016October 28, 2020 | Alison - Adventures-in-Making

From 2014-2016 I chronicled my crafty endeavors on the site Adventures-in-Making. I’ve selected a few of those DIY’s, Recipes, and other posts to share on the site.

The weather was nice for a few days in April, uncharacteristically, and began the countdown to the Pacific Northwest Summer. Ahhh; the handful of blissful weeks that makes you fall in love with the trees again, and wipes the memory of the last 8 gray months.

Safety Husband and I have been trying to be more mindful, and that extends to the way we interact with our home. We are who we are [not catalog people] and we want everything at our house to be conducive to the way we live. We have several outdoor areas that would make great external living spaces, but we haven’t done a great job of outfitting them for the task.

All this to explain why I decided I needed to make a giant pile of outdoor cushions that I could lay upon like the Princess and the Pea. I wanted them to be cheap, washable, refurbishable, and also work with our inside decor. Fabric and wood don’t do well outside over the Seattle winter, and I can’t store things in out non-existent storage space. So I put together a handful of pillow forms from scrap material, filled with recycled styrofoam peanuts; then covered them with painted canvas covers. In one afternoon I had 7 assorted cushions, and dreams of the perfect summer.

SUPPLIES

Fabric scissors and optional pinking shears
Sewing machine and thread
Pillow Form Fabric: approximately 24″ (2/3 yard) of 45″-wide lightweight scrap fabric per pillow
Pillow Cover: approximately 24″ (2/3 yard) of 52″ to 60″-wide canvas-type material per pillow
Styrofoam Peanuts: about a grocery sack full per pillow. Make sure that you are using styrofoam peanuts instead of the cornstarch ones that melt under water. Imagine the mess!

DECORATING SUPPLIES

Tulip Color Shot Fabric Color: I used Teal, Blue, and Green.
Scissors
Tape: masking, packing, cello, washi. Whatever you want!
Con-Tact Paper: A great option for cutting out larger masks or covering more material.
Decorative punches and scissors
Compass, or fun shapes to trace

Step 1: Making the Pillow Forms

Take your scrap pillow-form material and fold it so that the selvedged edges touch. Cut the other two sides with pinking shears so that you have an approximately 23″ square (45″x23″ unfolded.) Sew a 1/2″ seam along the two pinked edges, then do the same for about half of the remaining side.

Fill the form about halfway full with peanuts, then sew the opening closed to seal your pillow form.

Hire a professional to test the security of your stitching.

Repeat until you have run out of material. (I made 7 pillows so that I could make a GIANT PILE.)

Step 2: Making the Pillow Covers

There is dirt outside, so you want to make sure that your pillow cover can be easily removed and laundered; this also means you want to pre-wash your fabrics so there is no future shrinkage.

Cut your fabric to about 23″ wide. With the back side showing, fold the width of the fabric into a tube about 22″ wide. The overlapped pieces will make the flap for inserting and removing your pillow form.

Stitch up the two open ends of your tube approximately 1/4″ in.

Then turn the cover inside out using the open flaps. Make sure to press the corner all the way out with your finger or a pencil.

Stitch around the outside edges of your pillow cover, about 3/8″ in- then you’re done!

Step 3: Decorating the Cushions to Match your Life.

Decorating the pillows was definitely the biggest fun in this project (other than sitting in the sun on the cushions later.) If you’re a selfless person, you could share that fun with your family and friends, and let each person design a mask for their own pillow. Masking the pillow is as easy as using tape and scissors. Build shapes out of strips of tape, or cut shapes out of contact paper. (ABOVE: I used a compass to draw circles, then cut and arranged them on the front of my cover.) You could have the initials of everyone in your family, silhouettes of your pets and favorite animals… anything really.

Once you’ve settled on a masked design, take it outside and spray it down with your fabric spray paint. (I used Tulip Color Shot Fabric Color which is washable and flexible.) Remember that spray paint doesn’t ever go on consistently, so embrace the irregularity and leave some patches lighter than others.

After you’ve got a nice coat of paint on, let your cover dry for an hour or so before pulling off the mask.

Then let your covers air out for a few more hours.

When everything is dry (not sticky or smelly) you can put your pillow forms into your covers. Slip the form into the open flap, then push it down under the inner over-lapping flap. Press the corners of the form into the corners of the cover and shake and stomp it until everything looks nice.

Then build the tower of pillow on which you will reign.

Or, you know. Share with your friends.

Wheeee! Pillows.

AIM RECIPE: Scrap Veggie Broth to Perfect Any Recipe

August 26, 2015October 28, 2020 | Alison - Adventures-in-Making

From 2014-2016 I chronicled my crafty endeavors on the site Adventures-in-Making. I’ve selected a few of those DIY’s, Recipes, and other posts to share on the site.

Maybe everyone knows to make their own veggie broth. I didn’t until a couple of years ago when I had a pile of veggie scraps and an aha moment. After a couple of quick searches, I decided to toss everything in the slow cooker and see what happened.

AMAZING happened. I ended up with a complex unique broth that I was eager to cook with.

Since then I’ve saved almost all my veggie and fruit scraps in a bag in the freezer, and when it gets full it gets turned into what I lovingly call “trash soup”.

RECIPE: Scrap Veggie Broth in a slowcooker

Author: Alison (Adventures-in-Making)

Cook time: 12 hours

Total time: 12 hours

This simple veggie broth will use up all your fruit and vegetable scraps, and make your next meal that much better.

Ingredients

1 Tsp. Salt (to Taste)
A Variety of Raw Vegetable Scraps*
You can use skins, scraps, and leftover: Zucchini, Greens, Spinach, Okra, Apples, Tomatoes, Asparagus, Artichoke, Peas, Green Beans, Onions, Cabbage, Broccoli, Leeks, Garlic, Peppers, Carrot, Mushroom Stems, Herbs…. almost anything.

Instructions

*Make sure to only use ingredients that you COULD eat fresh. Nothing dirty, slimy, moldy, etc. A little soft is fine. The key to the best broth is variety. Try not to use too much of anything with a strong flavor- but remember that this is a low pressure process. If it doesn’t turn out, no big deal!
Put all your scraps in a slow cooker and cover with water.
Sprinkle salt over the mixture and mix it slightly with a spoon.
Put crock pot on “low” and leave overnight– 10-20 hours– checking occasionally for taste and to stir gently.
Ladle broth over a strainer to separate out vegetable scraps and broth.
OPTIONAL: Simmer the broth on Med/High to condense the soup for freezing. Allow to cool completely before placing in a container or ziplock bag, and freeze until you’re ready. (Make sure to label your container with tasting notes and a date.)

IMG_0576_veggiebroth — For my broth today, I had a wide variety of veggies. From highest to lowest volume I used: zucchini, brussel sprout greens, tomatoes, onion, okra, mushroom stems, lemon rind, apple, bell pepper, and basil stems.

Make sure your scraps are clean and in relatively small pieces, then dump them into a medium crock pot,

and cover them with water.

Add about a teaspoon of salt (to taste) to the water.

Cover the crock pot, set it on “low” and let it do its thing through the evening and overnight. (It’s good to taste the broth, and stir occasionally to make sure everything is going well. If it starts to get bitter you can either stop the process, or give it some more time to possible cook itself out.)

After about 10-20 hours your concoction will look more like this:

and will smell up your whole home in a delicious way. Use a ladle to spoon out the broth over a strainer…

to separate out the broth and veggie chunks. Throw those depleted veggie scraps in the compost and look at what you’ve made!

Beautiful, complex, broth– a perfect way to start almost any recipe.

Optional: If you want to save the broth for another day, you might find it useful to condense and freeze it. To do this, put your broth in a small pot and simmer on medium-high under a fan.

Excess water will be released as steam, and after a while you’ll have a thicker, darker condensed broth. (This process can take some time, so I usually plan to do dishes, cleaning, or other kitchen activities while I wait.) Take the pan off the heat. As your broth is cooling, do a final tasting and label your container (or ziplock bag) with tasting notes and a date.

Then simply pour the cool broth into your container and freeze it for the perfect recipe. The more broths you make, the more you’ll notice differences in their flavor- making store bought broth seem ludicrous!

We love adding the broths to everything we cook. It will kick up anything from soup, to sauces, to quinoa, and make you smile. (Promise.)

What I’ve Learned

•I’ve said it before, but variety is really key here. I usually leave a small collection of scraps in my freezer bag for the next broth, rather than using too much of one flavor.
•You may be an onion and garlic maniac, but don’t make a broth out of just those. Other veggies are necessary to cut the bitterness of over-extracted onions. Trust me.
•Good advice from a friend- “If the broth doesn’t taste good, throw it away. Don’t let it ruin a meal.” If your broth turns out weird or bitter, it’s not the end of the world. Try again next time!
•Try out a parmesan rind sometime, but otherwise avoid oils.
•Mellow fruits (like apples) make for a carmelly broth that would be lovely in a lot of dishes. Bolder fruits (cherries, berries, citrus) are best used in very small quantities.
•Some vegetables are stronger than others- broccoli, brussel sprouts, and cabbage can take over a broth completely. I don’t mind, but maybe you do?
•Yum.

AIM DIY: Convertible Harvest Apron / Produce Bag

July 22, 2015October 28, 2020 | Alison - Adventures-in-Making

From 2014-2016 I chronicled my crafty endeavors on the site Adventures-in-Making. I’ve selected a few of those DIY’s, Recipes, and other posts to share on the site.

There’re still a million and a half things to do around here, but the garden has been calling. (Literally. The robins are LOUD.)

More often than not I find myself walking around with a hose and eating vegetables right off the plants like an animal; but the harvests are getting to be too big for me to eat immediately, too unwieldy to juggle in my hands, and while my first instinct is to bundle them up in my skirt I’m not too excited about flashing the neighbors.

All of this to explain why I decided to turn a half a yard of cotton material and some bias tape into a harvest apron- not just an apron, but an apron that converts to a drawstring produce bag.

For those of you who like to reverse engineer projects (and improve them!) the concept is simple. It’s a rectangular drawstring bag with one string that’s large enough to tie around your waist. For the rest of you who want to see what I did, follow along!

Supplies

• 1/2 yard of printed cotton fabric. (18 inches x 45 inches wide, typically.)
• At least 3 yards of a durable, sewable trim to use as a drawstring and tie. I used Double Wide Bias Tape from Wrights.
• Sewing machine (or a needle and thread if you’re handy)
• Complementary thread and bobbin
• Ruler
• Straight pens
• Fabric Scissors
• Pinking Shears (optional).

Tips

• Remember to take it slow, and maybe start with a piece of material that you’re not in love with. The second one will go faster/easier.
• This project will hide a bunch of mistakes, so don’t fret!
• I used pinking shears to keep my edges from fraying. If you prefer, you can ignore all the steps that use the pinking shears and instead do a zig zag stitch down the fraying edge of the material. (This post on Craftsy is quite helpful.)
• Whenever you get to the end of a line of stitches, always go backwards and forwards on the spot with a few stitches to tie off the ends.
• A seam ripper is always useful if you’re as prone to mistakes as I am.
• An iron is also useful, if you have one handy. I use it to iron fabric flat, to fold seams over, and sometime I just push the steam button to listen to the hiss.

Step 1 – Making the Pocket

To begin, you will cut or tear the 18″x45″ piece of material down the fold so that you have two pieces of 18″x22.5″. You will be stitching the edges to form something almost like a pillow case, leaving one of the 22.5″ sides open (this will be the top of your pocket.) To remind myself which way went up, I used the pinking shears to trim one of the 22.5″ sides of each piece of material.

Lay the two pieces together, with the right sides in. From your pinked “top” measure down 3 inches and put a bright pin or mark to show that your stitches will end here. (Don’t stitch above the markers.)

Now sew a straight stitch 1/2 inch starting at your marker and going down to the bottom of the bag, across the bottom, and back up the other side (stopping 3″ below the top of the bag.)

Voila! Pocket made!

Now trim the other sides with your pinking shears to stop fraying.

Step 2 – Drawstring Casing

This first step is a little finicky– the goal is to fold under the raw edge of the fabric so it’s out of the way of the drawstring casing. First, fold back your unstitched raw edge (the 3″ from the top on each side we skipped before) and pin flat.

Use a zig-zag or straight stitch to permanently pin down that edge on each edge of the flap (leaving the flaps open. One side shown open below.)

Now for the drawstring casing, itself. Fold each open flap backwards to make a 1.5″ hem. Pin each side separately so that the pocket remains open.

Run a straight stitch around the bottom of each flap, about 0.5″ from the pinked edge.

Then run a second straight stitch approximately 0.5″ from the top of each side. The space between those stitches is where the drawstring will run.

Step 3 – Drawstrings and Ties

Cut your drawstring material into the following 3 pieces:
• Apron Tie: Wrap the string around your waist, add 12-18″ to your measurement and cut.
• Short Drawstring: Measure one piece that is 24″ to act as your other drawstring.
• Wrist Loop: The final piece will be a loop that you can use around your wrist to hold open your apron. I used about 12″ for my loop, but you may want to make yours longer or shorter (or omit this step, if you want!)

For your wrist loop, cross the ends, and stitch to the middle of one of the open sides. (Make sure to stick above or below the drawstring casing area.

The side with your loop will now be the front of your apron. Use a large safety pin to feed the 24″ piece through the casing on this side. Repeat with the long piece, through the casing on the other side.

Fold over and stitch each of the four ends to form a 1.5″ loop. If you have a trim that will fray at the ends, it’s a good idea to do a tight zig-zag here to limit the fray over time.

To keep your short drawstring from disappearing into the casing, feed the long piece through the loops on each side.

Trim all your little threads, and you’re ready to harvest!

Tie the long tie at your natural waist, and get into the garden!

Use the wrist loop when you need to hold open the apron, but keep your hands free. (Especially handy when you’re picking tricky berries.)

When you’re ready to go in, untie the apron and pull the drawstrings for an instant produce bag.

When the bag gets just too dirty, throw it into the wash on hot. (Turn the bag inside out to get rid of those stubborn bits of dirt.)

Things to Try

• Add a pocket for a garden knife or shears.
• Add vintage cotton trim to make it even more vintage-girly.
• Add a bib and neck strap – more pockets?

Any suggestions? Do you have a favorite garden project you’re rocking this summer?

AIM DIY: Simple Handmade Paper Heart Cards with Flower Seeds Inside

April 29, 2015October 28, 2020 | Alison - Adventures-in-Making

From 2014-2016 I chronicled my crafty endeavors on the site Adventures-in-Making. I’ve selected a few of those DIY’s, Recipes, and other posts to share on the site.

The sun has made a couple of appearances, and when the sun comes out all I want to do is make paper. Why fight it? I’m always in a crafty mood so it makes sense to craft! Making paper and cards is one of my absolute favorite past times so I would never want to miss an opportunity to do so. I came across some of these gift ideas for card makers the other day and I couldn’t get the idea out of my head so I told myself that as soon as it was sunny, I would make some paper for my cards, and that’s exactly what I’m doing.

I decided to take the opportunity to make a bunch of plantable heart cards, using flower seeds and a simple pour-over paper making method (instead of my usual dip method featured here and here.) The pour-over method uses paper scraps and things that you probably have around the house; making this an awesome, kid-friendly, activity for a sunny afternoon.

Pour-over Paper Making Supplies

• Shredded scrap paper Mix your favorite color and white paper for the best results. You can use a shredder, scissors, or your hands to tear the paper into manageable bits.
• Smallish flower seeds I felt several packets of seeds before settling on a combination of chamomile, viola, and alyssum seeds. You can also give it a cooking theme by using tiny herb seeds.
• A “Deckle”- This will be the template for your sheet of paper. I used an inexpensive, wood, heart-shaped picture frame that I picked up at the craft store.
• 2 screens, slightly larger than your deckle- I used small pieces of window screen material from the hardware store. I have also had some luck with sheer curtain material and other porous fabrics.
• A blender
• A large bowl (or two)
• A wire cooling rack for support
• A rectangular cake pan to catch the runoff.
• A sponge or absorbent rag
• A couple of flat absorbent rags larger than your intended paper size.

Step 1: Making Paper Pulp

To make the pulp for your paper, first soak the shredded paper in water for a little bit. Typically I will dunk them all in water while I’m getting all my supplies together. Once they are saturated put a handful into your blender, with about twice that amount of water.

Then pulse your blender to pulverize the paper pulp. (If you feel like your blender is having trouble, add more water to your mix. The paper pulp quickly becomes thick sludge that’s harder to cut through. It’s better to err on the side of too much water.) When your mix is starting to look like a disgusting smoothie, open it up and take a look at the mix. I like to stop when the mix is a little bit chunky, but mostly liquified.

Step 2: Preparing your Mould

Stack the cooling rack, screen, and deckle on top of your cake pan. This is where you’ll be pouring your pulp in a minute.

Step 3: Mixing in the wildflower seeds.

Transfer your pulp from the blender to a pouring bowl. You will be using several batches of pulp, so pour just a little bit of your flower seed into the bowl and stir gently with your fingers.

Step 4: Pouring the Pulp

Slowly pour your pulp mixture into the deckle. The water from the pulp will run through the screen and leave you with saturated paper fibers in the shape of your deckle.

Fill the space completely by pouring, and (if needed) gently pushing the pulp into the corners of the frame with your finger.

Very gently, lift the deckle directly up towards the ceiling. (A note: One of the best parts about paper-making is that almost any mess up can be fixed by dumping the sheet back into the pulpy water, breaking it up with your hand, and starting over again. So if your shape doesn’t look right, or your get a tear or a bubble, just dump it back in and try again!) You will have a nice pile of wet paper mess.

Step 5: Drying the Paper

The final bits are all about drying the paper. Although much of the water falls through while you’re pouring, the fibers hold on to a lot of moisture. First, place your second piece of screen on top of the pulp and absorb as much of the water as you can by pressing gently with a sponge. This will flatten the pulp into something that looks more like a sheet of paper. (You can wring the sponge out into your pulp bowl, and dump the excess water in there that runs into your cake pan.)

The sheet is still delicate at this point.

Transfer it to a flat absorbent rag by flipping the whole screen onto the rag, and gently peeling back just the screen.

Next, place another rag on top, and press the paper gently with your fingers or a rolling-pin. You should start to see water in the shape of your card.

Use the same flipping method to transfer your sheet onto a surface that it can remain on to air dry. (I like to cover my dining table with bath towels.) Once you’re done making paper, you can dump the remaining pulp and water outside.

plantable_handmade_paper_hearts_IMG_7854 — See! Paper!

plantable_handmade_paper_hearts_IMG_7881 — An army of plantable paper hearts!

Usually the paper will dry overnight, but may take a little more time in a damp or cold room. Once they are completely dry, you can decorate them however you please.

Since Mother’s Day is coming up, I decided to use one of my sheets as a card. I used the seed packets as inspiration and wrote a little message on the back, including directions for planting the card.

When you’re ready to toss out this card, plant it instead! It has a mix of viola, alyssum, and chamomile seeds– just cover with a little soil, water, and you might find yourself with a few new blooms.

Since every card needs an envelope, I decided to make a simple one from a paper grocery bag.

Simple Envelope Supplies

• A paper bag
• Your handmade paper deckle
• A Pencil
• A Ruler
• Scissors or craft knife
• Glue

Step 1

Open up the paper bag by cutting until you have a flat sheet. Place the deckle in the center and trace the inside with your pencil.

Step 2

To make your envelope guide, draw a box around your deckle shape, leaving about a quarter of an inch of space on each side. Extend the lines out from the box (as shown above).

Step 3

Cut the corner portions out of the form you drew, leaving a plus sign shape with your heart-shape in the center. Fold along each of the straight lines, and trim the flaps so that they overlap about a half an inch.

Step 4

Fold in one of the side flaps, then apply glue to the other side flap, fold it over, and do the same with the bottom flap.

You should have the perfect envelope for your card! Just slip it in, seal the last flap and send it to somebody special. (Remember that oddly shaped envelopes require more postage. Check with your post office for more details.)

I’m really happy with the way my card turned out, and glad that I was able to come up with another way to recycle materials I had already.

Now I have a nice stack of paper hearts packed full of flower seeds- what should I do with the rest of them?

AIM DIY: Herb and Spice Gift Wrap

November 5, 2014October 28, 2020 | Alison - Adventures-in-Making

From 2014-2016 I chronicled my crafty endeavors on the site Adventures-in-Making. I’ve selected a few of those DIY’s, Recipes, and other posts to share on the site.

I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about my lettering, and a few poor souls have even asked if I teach a class (HA!). I tell everyone the same thing– my lettering has improved over the past year because I’ve been practicing. I know, that sounds like a cop-out, but it’s true! I’ve been making signs and chalkboards for the store, lettering in my prints, and wearing through Prismacolors like nobody’s business.

The key, for me, if to cut myself some slack while I’m practicing. Doodling letters is swell, and I take any opportunity to write words in weird ways.

This wrapping paper is a perfect example. I wanted to come up with a simple way to wrap a couple of small gifts, and went to the (very soggy) garden for inspiration. The remaining herbs were so pungent and gorgeous that I decided to use them as accents on a basic brown paper wrapping.

The whole thing’s pretty simple, and I’m sure you could come up with something even more special. The point is, I was able to mess around with letters and words without feeling too self-conscious. It’s just wrapping paper, and the herbs take center stage.

For the second gift, I made a tall bag with a few materials, and I thought I’d share my process.

Supplies I Used

• Plain brown kraft paper – you could also repurpose a grocery bag.
• Fresh herbs from the garden
• White Prismacolor Pencil
• Flour & water to form a paste. You can also use glue, of course!
• Scissors
• Pencil
• A can of spray paint as a base form

First I traced the base of the can to form the bottom of my bag…

and cut out the circle, about 1/4 inch inside my line.

I then measured the can and cut out a piece of paper for the main part of the bag, leaving myself about 2 inches of extra height to wrap along the bottom and enough width to cover the whole can with a little overlap.

I made a fold at that 2 inch mark, and cut a little fringe into that end (the bottom.) You’ll see why in a second.

I used my trusty white pencil to doodle words all over the paper.

I’ve started using a flour paste for a lot of paper projects, lately. Here I used about equal parts water and flour, mixed well, and applied with a cheap paintbrush.

I wrapped the paper around my spray paint can and painted both edges with my paste…

then began folding the fringe pieces down. Once those were down I painted them, and the round bottom piece with paste…

applied like so, and left to dry.

After it was completely dry (a few hours later) I trimmed the top of the bag, and filled it with my gift, and a little tissue paper.

Simple directions for a unique bag- and a great way to work on those lettering skills.

Are you inspired by herbs, like I am? Don’t forget to share you spice & herb work with us for our November DIY Challenge! We’d love to see what you think up.

(You know, keep life spicy.)

AIM RECIPE: Vegan Zucchini and Berry Crumble + Giveaway Winner!

September 30, 2014October 28, 2020 | Alison - Adventures-in-Making

From 2014-2016 I chronicled my crafty endeavors on the site Adventures-in-Making. I’ve selected a few of those DIY’s, Recipes, and other posts to share on the site.

You probably won’t believe me when I say that a zucchini can taste just like an apple. It’s true!

We’ve had another bumper crop of squash this year, and we’ve had to get clever with recipes. When this happened last year I had the mad idea of cooking a zucchini like an apple, and sure enough, I’m not the first one to do so. I added it to my “Revenge Blackberry Crumble” recipe and I haven’t gone back. (I’ve included some handy tricks at the bottom of the recipe.)

Vegan Zucchini & Berry Crumble

Recipe Type: Dessert

Author: Alison Lang – adventures-in-making.com

Prep time: 30 mins

Cook time: 50 mins

Total time: 1 hour 20 mins

This delicious crumble is a quick, easy and sweet way to use those extra zucchini and berries. Plus it’s vegan!

Ingredients

4 cups of zucchini, deseeded, skinned & sliced into small pieces (Instructions included)
1/2 cup of lemon juice
4 cups of blackberries (or berry of choice)
1 cup of granulated raw cane sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons of orange zest
1/3 cup orange juice
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cup granola
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon
pinch of salt
3/4 cup cold margerine, cut onto small pieces

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350º.
Peel zucchini, cut open long-wise and scoop out seeds. Slice zucchini in small, apple slice sized pieces.
Place zucchini slices in a large mixing bowl and cover with lemon juice.
Add the berries, granulated sugar, cornstarch, zest, and juice to the zucchini mixture, and mix well with a large spoon.
Pour into a lightly greased 13×9 inch baking dish.
In another mixing bowl, combine next 6 ingredients with hands until crumbly.
Place granola mixture on top of fruit, making a thin layer across the whole pan.
Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until the mixture begins to bubble up around the crust.
Allow to cool slightly before serving. Great with any version of ice cream.

Prep Tips

The slight bitterness of a zucchini seems to come from the seeds and peel. You can use a vegetable peeler or sharp knife to take care of the outside, and use a spoon to scoop out the seeds in the center. Then you have a blank slate to cook with.

I am a sucker for orange zest. I found that I often had every ingredient I needed EXCEPT an orange for zesting. Now I zest any orange that comes through the door, fold the zest lightly in foil or plastic wrap and freeze until I have a recipe that needs it.

Similarly, you can freeze blackberries when you have too many. Lay them out on a cookie sheet in the freezer. When they are completely frozen (after a day or so) dump them into a ziplock or container and freeze until you’re ready to use them.

It’s often just as easy to make something vegan, and why not when you will be sharing it with others? You can substitute butter if you’d prefer.

Hope you enjoy this as much as we do!

THE GIVEAWAY WINNER!

Thank you to everyone who participated in the September giveaway. We loved hearing about your recent adventures

Now without further ado, the winner is…. ALAINE!! Congrats Alaine!

AIM DIY: Seed Sling-Shot + Free Template

July 9, 2014October 28, 2020 | Alison - Adventures-in-Making

From 2014-2016 I chronicled my crafty endeavors on the site Adventures-in-Making. I’ve selected a few of those DIY’s, Recipes, and other posts to share on the site.

Now, a typical person might throw away the scrappy evidence of a long week of paper making… but no one said I’m typical. My most recent batch of paper contains wildflower seeds, so I decided the scraps would make lovely confetti (and grow, too!)

Using this video tutorial, I made an origami pop-up box perfect for storing a small stash of confetti or flower seeds.

I used paper that already had colored pattern on one side, and as an added “bonus”, I printed a corny poem and a thank you message in the box. So all the people who get one will know to “pull the flaps, fling, and make it bloomy.” I closed each box with a piece of ribbon.

I’m sure you can come up with something less silly- so I’m giving you a pdf template* you can add your own wording to. Click the image below, and go to town!

The template is 8.5×11 inches, and you can resize if you need to. Make sure to use light-weight paper, and fold the printing into the box while you’re working.

*After you save the file to your desktop, you should be able to open and edit the file in Adobe Reader. If you don’t have Reader, it’s available for free here.

So, There.

So There Letterpress and Stationery Studio in Issaquah

garden

AIM DIY: Patio Friendly Pile-Up Cushions filled with Styrofoam Peanuts

SUPPLIES

DECORATING SUPPLIES

Step 1: Making the Pillow Forms

Step 2: Making the Pillow Covers

Step 3: Decorating the Cushions to Match your Life.

AIM RECIPE: Scrap Veggie Broth to Perfect Any Recipe

What I’ve Learned

AIM DIY: Convertible Harvest Apron / Produce Bag

Supplies

Tips

Step 1 – Making the Pocket

Step 2 – Drawstring Casing

Step 3 – Drawstrings and Ties

Things to Try

AIM DIY: Simple Handmade Paper Heart Cards with Flower Seeds Inside

Pour-over Paper Making Supplies

Step 1: Making Paper Pulp

Step 2: Preparing your Mould

Step 3: Mixing in the wildflower seeds.

Step 4: Pouring the Pulp

Step 5: Drying the Paper

Simple Envelope Supplies

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

AIM DIY: Herb and Spice Gift Wrap

Supplies I Used

AIM RECIPE: Vegan Zucchini and Berry Crumble + Giveaway Winner!

Prep Tips

THE GIVEAWAY WINNER!

AIM DIY: Seed Sling-Shot + Free Template