Homemade Marshmallow Peeps!

Easter is fast approaching and I was struck by inspiration for a craft:

I thought this would be 1.) brilliant and 2.) very difficult/messy. I was pleased to be half-wrong: the marshmallows were easy to make and everything came together pretty quickly!

First, I made the outside coating for the peeps. Colored sugar is OH so difficult.

1. Start with white sugar.

2. Add food coloring.

3. Mix.

4. Mix some more.

Once your colored sugar is ready, you'll need a little bed of it for each peep. I sprayed some cooking spray on a piece of foil and put down my colored sugar:

Then it was time to make the marshmallows using a recipe courtesy of Google. Seriously, this took maybe 30 minutes:

After giving the marshmallows a couple minutes to start to set, I sprayed a spatula and the inside of a Ziploc baggie with cooking spray. I used the spatula to fill the baggie with the soft marshmallows and then piped the peeps onto their waiting beds:

The bunny is just two lines with a small circle at the base for the head (though I think trying to get the ears on top of the head is a good goal), and a larger circle below that for the body. The chick is almost a Z shape: pipe a thick line for the body, then lift up and back over the body, then forward to end in the beak. I was afraid the peeps would devolve into shapeless blobs, but they held up really well!

Sprinkle with more colored sugar (you could also shake them in a bag full of colored sugar for better coverage, but sprinkle them first: too much exposed marshmallow will stick to the inside of . . . well, anything!):

Add some chocolate sprinkle eyes:

And have a happy Easter!

I used this marshmallow recipe, but I'll tell you all about it another time!

Oh, and the best Peeps site ever: Peep Research. (What happens when they're subjected to a "fear chamber," AKA the microwave?)

This recipe was prepared at high altitude.

Linking up with:

• Tip Junkie's Tip Me Tuesday
• Beauty & Bedlam's Tasty Tuesday
• 33 Shades of Green's Tasty Tuesday

The winner is...

The winner of the 10 vintage fabric charm squares is .....

Preacher's Wife!

Congratulations! Send your mailing address to waywardgirlscrafts at gmail. com (trying to avoid spamming, but use the standard email format) so we can mail your prize.

Thanks for everyone who entered throughout the week. We appreciate your support. Keep checking the blog for crafting ideas and more giveaways.

Old Squares, New Quilts

Last week when I got out my old fabrics to cut the charm squares for the giveaway, I remembered the other items I inherited from my grandma along with the fabric scraps. My grandma Ruth died in the early summer of 2000. Later that summer, my mother, her two sisters and some of my cousins and I gathered at the house that has been in our family
for over 100 years to parcel out mementos and memories of several lifetimes. In dark, scary closets in deteriorating boxes and bags, we found not only scraps of fabrics, but also quilt squares. Lots and lots of quilt squares. As the only quilter in the family, I got all of them.

These squares sat as they were for 6 more years (and why not-- they had been waiting for 40+ years already!) until spring of 2006 when I decided the time had come!

I remember that spring well! Not only had I decided to create a series of small wall hangings for family members with the squares, but I was also getting my certification for teaching gifted students, and assisting with girls' camp for our church. As busy as I was, it was a great joy to work with squares that either my grandma or great-grandma had made, in hopes of creating a quilt one day.

Some of the fabric was from flour sacks. Others were faded. Some just didn't seem to go together.

I sorted all of the squares, and resorted them. Most of them were a nine patch shoofly pattern. Others were Indian Hatchet. (I had to scour quilting books to find this out!)

After I grouped similar color schemes in workable numbers to create a quilt, I then decided on what border color to use. I had to remake a few of the squares in order to make my new pattern work. >

In one instance, I had to purchase some new fabric to complete a block. I had to use tea dye to make the fabric appear aged.

Finally I made about 16 small wall hangings. I had to machine quilt most of them so that I could get finished in time for our family reunion.

I was very excited to share them with my family, but I didn't really think that it would mean as much to them.

After all, I am a quilter-- I love fabric and patterns and stitching. But when I laid them all out on the tables, the family just loved them. It made me feel so happy to be able to share this legacy.

So maybe you have inherited some block you don't know how to use. Consider making small groups and sharing them with your family!

Side Notes:

The biggest bonus in all of my haul was 2 nearly finished quilts. One, Grandmother's Fan has the directions, the templates, the pencil she used!, needle (very rusty), and 54 finished hand-sewn blocks ready to be made into a quilt.

The other is a box of 132 half rings for a Double Wedding Ring Quilt with this note. I will use them!

Some of the quilts. As you may notice, MawMaw's favorite color was red.

Winner of Cupcakes!

The winner of the Cookies and Creme Cupcake package (cupcake recipe, dry ingredients and whipped cream frosting recipe) is Waymom!

Congratulations! Waymom, send your mailing address to waywardgirlscrafts at gmail dot com so I can send you your prize!

There's still time to win the rest of our launch week giveaways:

• A set of 10 charm squares from vintage fabric,

Remember, each entry should be in a separate comment.So if you're following us (thank you!), you still need to leave a comment on the entry so we can enter you in the drawing!

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Cookies and Creme Cupcake Recipe
1 box chocolate cake mix
1 cup sour cream
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
18-24 whole chocolate sandwich cookies
12 crunched chocolate sandwich cookies

Mix together cake mix, sour cream, eggs and vanilla. Place a spoonful of batter on the bottom of each paper liner. Place a whole cookie on the bottom lying flat. Cover with remaining batter until 3/4 full.
Bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes. Allow cupcakes to cool on a rack completely.
Add crumbled cookies to frosting.

Recipe from 101 Gourmet Cupcakes in 10 Minutes by Wendy Paul

Faux Shadowbox Scrapbooking Tutorial and Kit Winner!

The winner (determined by random.org) of the Faux Shadowbox Scrapbooking Kit is:

Kim!!!

Congratulations! Kim, send your mailing address to waywardgirlscrafts at gmail dot com so I can send you your prize!

There's still time to win the last two of our launch week giveaways:

• A cookies 'n' creme cupcakes kit, or
• A set of 10 charm squares from vintage fabric,

Remember, each entry should be in a separate comment. So if you're following us (thank you!), you still need to leave a comment on the entry so we can enter you in the drawing!

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This is a two page layout (LO) for it you will need:

• 2 pages of the same patterned paper (PP) and 1 in a contrasting color
• 1 accent color of card stock
• Exacto knife
• Pencil
• Ruler
• Embellishments ( I used 6 eyelets, stickers, and words I cut out)
• 6 foam squares
• Pictures (duh!)

 Step 1: Trace around the pictures on one of the sheets of PP that are going to be the background for your two pages. With the ruler and pencil draw a line on the inside of each edge you will be cutting on to the pictures can be mounted from the back of the pages. Cut out the sections.

 

Step 2: Cut the contrasting PP a quarter or half inch larger on all sides than the picture ( 4.5-5 X 6.5-7 inches). Use the cut out from the background paper to trace on the contrasting PP. Cut on the lines.

Step 3: Mount the contrasting PP on the background around the holes. I put eyelets on the edges of the frames at this point. Turn the background paper over and put foam squares around the edges of the picture and place the pictures carefully on the holes.

Step 4: Add embellishments!

Here's my finished product:

Here's a few things I learned while doing this:

*If you stack the background PP and the contrasting PP you only have to cut once.

*Make sure the edge that the picture will be sitting on is wide enough for your foam squares or you will see them from the front.

Have a great Wednesday!

How to Naturally Dye Eggs and a winner!

TIME FOR OUR WINNER!

Chosen at random, the winner of the sculpey buttons is:

Martica

Congratulations! Martica, send your mailing address to waywardgirlscrafts at gmail dot com so I can send you your prize!

Don't forget that you can still win:

A scrapbook layout kit OR

A cookies 'n' creme cupcakes kit, OR

A set of 10 charm squares from vintage fabric.

Remember, each entry should be in a separate comment. So if you're following us (thank you!), you still need to leave a comment on the entry so we can enter you in the drawing!
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As Jordan stated yesterday, we were lucky enough to spend the weekend together. On Thursday we were silly at the thrift store:


On Saturday we decided to be crafty. After toying around with a few crafty ideas we decided to dye eggs using natural ingredients. We consulted this website for different ideas on ingredients. We had most everything on hand but did run to the grocery store for a few items and more eggs. We decided to experiment with stuff we had around the house as well as recommended items. Here's what we used:

1. Yellow onion skins

2. Strawberry jam

3. Red grapes

4. Sweet potato skins

5. Orange peels

6. Parsley and cooked spinach (bought frozen)

7. Carrots

8. Blueberries

9. Red onion skins

Boiling up the goodness

We boiled each of these items with a few tablespoons of vinegar and a pinch or two of salt. We eye balled everything and laughed a lot as we cooked. After letting these items boil for about 20 minutes each, we strained them into glass jars and let them cool.

Click to enlarge

As Jordan said, she blew the eggs first. I only successfully emptied one egg, but she got 8 done in an hour! Because our eggs were floating, we had to put baby food jars on top of them to get them fully submersed. This is what the yellow onion looked like after about 30 minutes:

Then we left the eggs to soak all night long. Here are our results:

Becca chose her favorite egg, the speckled "dinosaur egg" (blueberries). We're not positive why we got that result, but maybe it's from the amount of salt we put in.

We loved experimenting with different ingredients and seeing the results. Some of our experiments left us underwhelmed, but we enjoyed the process so much it didn't really matter. There's probably a reason why those ingredients weren't recommended ;) What can you find around your house to make your own natural dye?

The best way to make hollow eggs

Drum roll!

As determined by Random.org, the winner of the felted flower bowl is . . .

Lani!

Congratulations! Lani, send your mailing address to waywardgirlscrafts at gmail dot com so I can send you your prize! I'm seriously sad to see this little bowl go—I'm definitely making another.

There's still time to win the rest of our launch week giveaways:

• Sculpey buttons,
• A scrapbook layout kit,
• A cookies 'n' creme cupcakes kit, or
• A set of 10 charm squares from vintage fabric,

Remember, each entry should be in a separate comment. So if you're following us (thank you!), you still need to leave a comment on the entry so we can enter you in the drawing!

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This weekend, we Wayward Girls got to spend some time together! Saturday night, Jaime and I experimented with an Easter-themed project. We've tried this before, but this time, I got to be the resident egg-blowing expert.

(I know, I know. You wish you could have a wayward & crafty weekend.)

What you'll need

• Eggs!
• Egg carton or other secure egg holder.
• Straight pin.
• Candle lighter or matches.
• Skewers, preferably metal (the bamboo ones we used tended to shred).
• Bowl or container for catching egg contents.

How to do it

1. Rinse the egg and place it securely in one of the wells of the egg carton. Sterilize the pin with the candle lighter. Using the pin, poke a hole in one end of the egg.
2. Turn the egg over and seat in the well again. Poke a hole in the other end. With the pin or the skewer, enlarge the hole until it's between 1/8 and 1/4 inch wide.
3. Poke the pin around inside the egg to break the yolk.
4. Hold the egg, big hole down, over the catching bowl. You can use a straw, but we just used our lips to blow through the top pinhole. Really, really hard.
5. Once the egg is empty, rinse and dry.

Wayward & Crafty Tips

(AKA what we learned)

You must break the yolk! (Break it good!) Poke the pin around in there until you see yolk on it when you pull it out. Then cover both holes with your fingers and give the egg a good shake.

Use corsage pins (see picture at right). They're bigger and longer than dressmaker pins, which makes them easier to hold.

Carefully chip away at the hole to make it larger. A big hole = easier to clear out the egg. Of course, you'll have to balance appearance with easiness.

Be careful! At least one egg got blown up.

You can save your egg contents to use again later. Large eggs hold about 1/4 cup of liquid. However, you will get very small bits of ground shell (and possibly larger pieces) in the eggs, so use at your own risk.

Good: flowing like liquid. Bad: flowing like . . . egg yolk. The unmixed part of the yolk is a lot harder to get out.

And the #1! Take! Home! Lesson! was: DON'T BLOW OUT EGGS BEFORE YOU DYE THEM!! We thought they'd fill with the dye and submerge—but that just wasn't the case.

Have you ever blown eggs? What did you find worked best?