Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Rubber stamping, Recycling, Scrapbooking, Recipes and Quotes!

Hello!
Thank you for being patient with me as I learn the ins and outs of blogging.
So far....some mistakes.....a lot of fun!  :0)

"Home - that blessed word,
which opens to the human heart
the most perfect glimpse of Heaven,
and helps to carry it thither,
as on angel's wings."
    -Lydia M. Child

I have promised you a super easy-to-make salad recipe:

Pea and Caulifower No Fail Salad
Bag of frozen peas
Bag of frozen cauliflower OR head of fresh cauliflower, cut into small pieces
3/4 cup Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Original
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup cashews - I like the salted ones

Set frozen peas and cauliflower out to thaw a bit. Rinse in colander to get rid of any ice crystals.
If you are using a fresh head of cauliflower wash it and snip it apart into bite size pieces. NO green stuff though, just the white stuff!

Put peas and cauliflower in mixing bowl.

NOTE: adjust amount of dressing to the size bags of vegetables you are using. This recipe will work fine with small to medium bags
.
Add Ranch dressing and sour cream. Toss well to coat and mix. If it looks a little "dry" and the ranch dressing is not coating the vegetables well, add a bit more Hidden Valley Ranch dressing, 1 Tablespoon at a time. The salad should have a slightly creamy look.

JUST BEFORE SERVING: Reserve 1/4 cup cashews to sprinkle on top. Add the remaining cashews to the salad and mix well.

When I give this as a house warming gift, or a potluck, I put the cashews into a baggie and tape to the lid of the serving container, with a note of instructions to add cashews before serving, sprinkling some on top.

Even for those non-loving vegetables types, this salad has won rave reviews.

For yummy leftovers, simply add a few fresh cashews to your serving bowl and it is ready to go.

KIRIGAMI FUN

Some history for you:
Folding paper into intricate designs (origami) has been around for centuries in the asian cultures. Pretty much as soon as we figured out how to make paper, we've been fiddling with it ever since!
Traditional origami did not distinguish between folded and cuts. We now call folded only ORIGAMI and folded with cuts KIRIGAMI.

 So, you fold your paper, but then you get to use scissors!

TIP: Don't try this running...

Today we will start with a very basic design that uses only 3 folds. Yes! you can do this - really!

Start with a square piece of paper, equal on all sides.

TIP: you can find pre-cut squares of origami paper at most craft stores.

If you can't find any, or if you just have lots of extra paper around, here is how to make a happy square out of a rectangle sized piece of paper:

Place paper face up (any pattern will be looking at you, not the table).

Take the top right corner and bring the tip down diagonally to the left side, making a big triangle. Be sure to match the edges of the paper. You should be looking at the back side of the paper now.

Crease well with a fingernail or bone folder.

At the bottom of the big triangle there should be a rectangle left over. Cut this off.

Open your triangle and you have a happy square!

Now let's do the first basic fold. These basic instructions are from



kirigamiDiagram

Instructions
  1. Fold a piece of paper in half.
  2. Fold in half again but only make a small crease to show the midpoint. Fold the bottom right corner upwards to make a 60° angle at the midpoint (begin to fold into thirds).
  3. Fold the bottom left corner upwards to meet with the folded right-edge of the paper.
  4. Trim the excess paper to form a cone shape.
  5. Make several cuts out of the cone shape and then unfold to discover your paper snowflake. Be careful not to cut too much - that will cause the entire snowflake to fall apart.
    Note that cutting half-a-heart will open to reveal a heart cutout. Similarly, cutting a semicircle will reveal a circle; and cutting a triangle will produced a diamond shape.







I am sorry about the ads above, but I can't figure out how to copy the visuals without it!

Go to their website - they have many good tutorials on origami and kirigami.
I like to use scratch paper when first making a design. That way if I make a wrong cut, or don't like the result, I haven't used any of my "good" paper.

TIP: BUT don't be afraid to use that good paper. It isn't doing any good sitting in a drawer and getting old.

Here are some samples to play with. These designs are visually set up so you start with your kirigami folded triangle, with the long tip at the bottom. The top of the designs are the uneven paper at the top of the triangle.

kirigami snowflakes

Now try some traditional "snowflake" type cuts. There are just so many fun things you can do with this base.

TIP: When you make a cut at the very tip of the base form, you get a lovely little flower shape. Save these to add later as the centers to paper flowers or stamped cards.

Here are some photos of kirigami that I have made:


front and back of greeting card


Tomorrow we will discuss all the fun ways to use kirigami, and how to add kirigami to compliment rubber stamping, cooking, and scrapbooking!

Laugh today! It will improve your blood pressure, stress, and feelings of depression!
Here are a couple of photos to get you started. This is Tanner our current Great Dane.
He is asleep...


I am having so much fun sharing recipes, quotes, photos and creative thoughts.
I hope you are too!

Feel free to tell a friend, pass along a tip or two or forward my blog address:

I have a wide variety of pop art, jewelry and more in my etsy shop:

You can also e-mail me at:


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