Collage a la Claire

As many of you already know, the school year is coming to a close, which means this blog will probably be slowing down.... a lot. I want to try to keep posting whenever I try new recipes and crafts, but I'm not making any promises!

Ninth grade has been full of some pretty great memories. A few weeks ago, Clara, Julia, Cali, Dani, Evie, and I had this little "photo shoot" thing at Cali's house. We ended up taking around four hundred pictures that were all either super cute or really funny, which pretty much sums up our friendship. I've loved looking back at these pictures and it hasn't even been that long since we took them. I can only imagine how awesome it will be to have them to look at in a few years!

On another note (kind of.... there's as reason I'm telling you this), I just got a new bed and decided that I wanted to redo my room. There isn't really much in there right now, though. It's pretty much just my bed and my nightstand and the walls are orange. My room seems to always be last on the list of "to-do's" as far as decorating the house goes. Seriously, we've lived in this house for almost three years now. You'd think we would have gotten everything together by now. The good thing about having an empty room is that there's not that much to change! My bed spread doesn't match my new bed very well and I'm tired of the orange, so it's time for a room makeover.

Because I'm redoing my room, I wanted to make something that would spice up the blank walls a little bit after I paint them. My bed is a really dark gray color and a bunch of the pictures we took at Cali's were in black and white, so it will match perfectly! That's how I decided to make this little collage of pictures to hang on my wall somewhere to remind me of how much fun my friends and I had that day.


Below is how I made it.

Materials:
wooden board
pictures
Mod Podge
foam brush
scissors
buttons
hot glue gun

First, I took a wooden board that I already had from when I made the magazine wall art. I painted it with a few coats of white paint in order to make it match better and let it dry while I printed pictures.

When I printed the pictures, I used photo paper for a more clean look. However, while I was printing, our stupid printer spazzed out and just stopped. Man, I hate that thing. I tried it again the next day and it still didn't work. We ended up emailing the pictures to Staples, where they printed them for us. Phew!

After the paint on the board was dry (mine definitely was because it sat for like two whole days), I traced a piece of fabric that I had left over from my pocket sweatshirt so it would fit and I slathered some Mod Podge on the board so it would stay on. At first I didn't like it because you couldn't see the pattern, but once it dried, it looked a lot better.

Then, I cut my pictures out, arranged them, cut them again because they didn't fit, arranged them again, cut them again, arranged them, and so on. I think you get the point. When you have a smaller board and a lot of pictures, it takes some time to get everything to fit.

Once I found an arrangement I liked, I put a little bit of Mod Podge on the back of each picture and then put a coat over the entire collage to hold everything down in place.

While waiting for that to dry, I fired up the hot glue gun and played around with some buttons. Without the buttons, it was pretty plain and I thought they added a cute touch! So, after the Mod Podge dried, I glued some buttons on.

I still had an extra picture that I didn't use on the front because it looked funny with the others, so I decided to glue it on the back and write our names. It gave it a more personal touch and will help me remember the girls' names if I look back at it in twenty years or something. I have a feeling I will lose it or forget it by then, but I'll be prepared if I ever do. :)

To finish things off, I added a final coat of Mod Podge on both the front and the back!

Thank you all for a great year of blogging! I've had a blast trying new recipes and crafts to share on here. I hoped you stay tuned just in case I happen to keep posting!

XOXO,

Claire

Stunning Salad Spinner Art

Do you remember those Spin Art things that everyone used to have when they were little? Hopefully you do because they were so much fun! Seriously, all you had to do was drop paint from little bottles onto a spinning piece of paper and WA LA, you have a cool piece of art!

You actually don't even need to buy the kit to make these. You can use things that you may have around the house already (I did!). Cool huh? Of course, I found this idea on Brit+Co. It seems like a TON of my posts are inspired by this blog.

These past few days have gone by SO SLOW. I've gone to soccer everyday except Tuesday (surprise!), helped coach a volleyball camp, ran for a Sophomore Rep for a club for next year, prepared a speech for Leadership, taken the SAGE test in English, gathered all of my community service hours..... the list just keeps going. UGH! I feel like I'm going to explode! How much stuff can you pile on a fifteen-year-old? After such a pooey week, I really needed a simple, fast, fun craft to do. This was perfect! Plus, it brought back some memories. How can you beat that?

Salad Spinner Art

You will need:

a salad spinner

acrylic paint in various colors

paper

something to keep your workspace clean

(I thought a paintbrush might be useful, but I didn't need it.)

First, cover your workspace and prepare a spot to put your finished pieces while they dry.

Next, take your paper and place it in the salad spinner. I would recommend using thicker paper, like poster board or card stock, to prevent them from wrinkling when they're dry. I used extra envelopes we had from old Christmas cards. It can be whatever shape  or color you want!

Squirt or paint different colors of paint onto the paper. Make sure it is pretty thick, or it won't really work. I found that squirting it in circles made the paint cover better, which looked cooler.

Put the lid of the salad spinner on and spin. I probably waited ten seconds or so before stopping it (by pressing the button) and opening the lid. 

If you like the result, you're done. However, if you don't like it, there is a way to change it. You can always put more paint on, or put white and almost start over again. I wouldn't keep trying after two or three times, though, because there will be a lot of paint, which will take long to dry and it might wrinkle more.

I was really happy with this craft! It was super fun and only took me about twenty minutes, tops. I would say my favorites are the purple one and the blue, orange and pink one. My least favorites are the pink and black one and the pink and green one. My mom told me to do pink and green, so it's her fault that it turned out ugly. :)

I hope you have fun with it too!

Here are some pictures of the ones I made: 

This one was pretty good for my first one.

I added a lot of white on this one, but i like it!

Water stuff came out of one of these bottles.
That's why the middle was so weird.

I really like this one!

This one is my favorite out of all of them!

Good camerawork Claire... 

Eh...

This is my other favorite!

Blurry and ugly... oh well.

It left a pretty colorful mess inside the spinner!

"Watercolor"

Hey y'all! I am in such an great mood right now. This warm weather is amazing! Today is such a nice day. The sun is out, it's nice and warm and spring is in the air. Really, the best word to describe it is just "awwwwwwwww...."

However, one word to describe earlier today would be "STRESSFUL." Yes, in all caps. A Biology test and math test to start off the day wasn't the greatest, especially because they were harder than usual. I'm glad it's over with, though. Whew! I do have a Geography test tomorrow too, but that should be a piece of cake. Let's hope.

The good news about having tests is no homework! This means that I had time to do a fun craft for this blog! As soon as I got home, I went right out to my deck and just sat there. It felt SO good! That was when I decided to do this craft outside. It needs very little supplies and a flat workspace, so why not?

I found this craft on Brit+Co, just like everything these days, it seems like. This is because I found so many things when I was browsing the blog one day. While I was browsing, this project looked easy and very fun, so I thought I would try it! I decided to make a pillow case because it was similar to what they did, but I'm sure you could try whatever you want. It's supposed to look like you decorated with watercolors, but it's really just Sharpies and rubbing alcohol. Neat huh?


Here is how to make it:

"Watercolor" Pillow Case

You will need:

something to decorate (i.e. pillowcase, throw pillow, shirt, etc.)

Sharpies

rubbing alcohol

cotton swabs

The first step is to prewash your item of choice. My pillowcase was just an extra that we rarely use, so I didn't have to wash it because it already had been before. You probably don't need to wash a pillow if you are drawing directly on that, but if you are using something like a shirt or a NEW pillowcase, wash it so the dye will sink it better. 

Next, plan out your design and draw it on the pillowcase with the Sharpies in the color(s) of your choice. I went with rainbow dots on the edge of the pillowcase. I like to keep things simple because if I really want to, I can always go back and add more, but can't take anything away. 

Once you are completely done drawing, take a cotton swab soaked in rubbing alcohol and dab, then rub, it on the Sharpie designs. This will blend the colors together and give it sort of a glow or aura. It doesn't completely blend everything, so keep that in mind when drawing. By the way, the bigger your design is, the more rubbing alcohol you will need to use and that will probably smell bad. Too much rubbing alcohol can make me feel sick. Bleh!

After you have blended everything, pop your creation in the dryer for a little while. This will let the dye sink in more, and of course, dry it! Mine took the awful smell out too, but that could have just been because I didn't use a lot of alcohol. 

And you're done! Easy right?

I really like how it turned out!

When I was looking at Brit+Co's tutorial, I clicked on the link to another blog, which showed how to make an ombre pillow using this technique. I really wanted to try this, until I read what happened. All she did was scribble a color in different intensities on a piece of fabric and put it in a bathtub with rubbing alcohol. First, that had to give her a headache. Second, she said it dyed her entire bathtub purple! I don't know why she needed to use a bathtub, though. I bet you could just dip it in a bucket and it would work. If you decide to try this, let me know how it goes!

Now go be creative!

Do You Know the Muffin Pan? - Cakes

I promised there would be a dessert muffin pan recipe, so here it is! This was on the same Brit+Co post as the tacos.

I think I was looking forward to making (and EATING) this more than the tacos. Don't get me wrong, they were both delicious, but let's get real, who doesn't love a warm, chocolate cake? This recipe pretty much had my name written all over it.

It's time to wash those jumbo muffin pans after making your tacos, because trust me, you'll want to use them again! Here is the recipe for the muffin pan molten chocolate cakes.

Molten Chocolate Cakes

(Muffin Pan Edition)

You will need:

1 cup chocolate chips (maybe a little bit more) ;)

1 cup butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups powdered sugar

4 eggs

3/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon paprika

We only had one stick of butter, so I had to cut the recipe in half. It still made four cakes, though, which was plenty.

First, melt the butter and chocolate chips together. I did this by using a homemade double broiler. I showed how to do this in one of my previous posts. However, the chocolate melted much faster than the butter. I ended up melting the butter in the microwave, then mixing it with the chocolate while it was still on the broiler. It was sort of lumpy at first, but after adding more chocolate and stirring, the mixture turned out smooth like it was supposed to. 

Add the vanilla, eggs and powdered sugar and stir until everything is combined. Don't let it sit for too long or it will get hard. Just a heads up! Mix in the flour and paprika and stir well again. 

Fill the muffin pan with the batter. Each cup should be about 3/4 full. The cakes will rise while they are in the oven.

Evelyn, Georgia, and I had some fun licking the extra batter from the bowl. 

Georgia

Evelyn

Georgia doing the "turkey" to Evelyn and I.
Sorry about my weird, mouse-looking face.
Pictures aren't really my thing unless I try to look weird.

Bake the cakes at 425ºF for ten to thirteen minutes. The sides will be firm, but the center will be all melty and "jiggly," according to Brit+Co. When I think of "jiggly," I think of Jell-O, not chocolate. But hey, whatever floats your boat. 

It's better if you serve these right out of the oven, but make sure you let the cakes sit for about two minutes before removing them from the pan. I skipped this step without realizing and got a melty, chocolatey mess. It still tasted AMAZING, but it wasn't very attractive. We let some of the other ones sit and they turned out better. I didn't get a picture of it, though, because we took it out, but decided we should wait for my sister to get home from soccer. Bad idea. It sort of collapsed. Oh well. It still tasted good and that's all that matters to me!

Enjoy your mini, Mexican-inspired, muffin pan, molten chocolate cakes! (What a mouthful!) I know I did!

Do You Know the Muffin Pan? - Tacos

In my last post I mentioned that I found some new recipes on Brit+Co. This was one of the recipes that I found interesting and definitely wanted to try! The post was on five new ways to use a muffin pan. Cool, huh? By the way, the title they had was too cute and I just had to steal it! Full credit goes to them for the title idea.

On another note, I got a concussion last Saturday in my soccer game. In case you were wondering (probably because you play soccer), it was in the last ten minutes and I was marking a girl from behind because that's just what defenders do. I'm not totally sure how it all went down, but other people said she hit me with her elbow. No matter what, it was a total foul and two of the three refs were within fifteen feet, meaning they should have called it, but they didn't. Even if they wouldn't call a foul, they should have at least stopped the play. After all, head injuries are not to mess with. The other team's coach helped me more than the refs. Not cool. I went to the doctor and sure enough, I had a concussion. I have only been able to go to school  for half of my classes each day.

Anyway, I told this story to get the point across that I have a lot of time on my hands. If I'm not sleeping or doing homework, I need things that don't involve screens to give my eyes and brain a break., so I thought I would make a recipe that took a little bit more time and effort to make. As it turns out, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be or take as much time. It was a win-win!

Because of my head 'issues', my mom decided that she would help me out. My sister even helped out a little bit, too. It was a nice mother-daughter bonding time that had an AWESOME reward.

Our friends from Oregon are in town, too. The adults went out to dinner with some friends, so we were watching seven-year-old Georgia and nine-year-old Evelyn for the night and we thought this would be the perfect dinner to make for them!

Here's how to make these out-of-the-ordinary, yet scrumptious, tacos!

Chipotle Chicken Tacos

(Muffin Pan Edition)

You will need:

a whole roasted chicken

corn tortillas

1-3 canned chipotle peppers in abodo sauce

1/4 cup tomatillo salsa
1/4 cup lime juice

avocado, sour cream, cilantro, tomato, etc. for garnish

jumbo muffin pan

The first step is super simple. Turn your muffin pan(s) upside-down. The original recipe said to do this with a regular-sized muffin pan, but I found that the jumbo ones worked better for this step, so ignore the regular-sized muffin pan in the picture. Brush olive oil on your tortillas and drape them over the cups of the muffin pan. Bake them in the oven at 400ºF for around five minutes. remove them from the oven and pinch them so they fit inside the jumbo muffin cups and set them all aside.

Separate your roasted chicken. My mom did this for me. She does it all the time and offered to do it, so I thought "why not?" I'm actually really glad she did. While she was working with the chicken, I got the other ingredients together. 

Chop up how ever many chipotle peppers you want to use. They are pretty spicy, so be cautious. We used one and a half so it wouldn't be too spicy for the little girls (and me!). It's kind of hard to even mix the peppers in, so some tacos ended up being spicier than the others. Keep this in mind when choosing how many to use. Mix the peppers, along with the tomatillo salsa and lime juice, into the chicken.

Once everything looks evenly spread throughout, take a large spoonful of chicken and put it in each taco cup. We had a little bit extra after filling twelve tacos. Put those back in the oven for two to three minutes to warm it up. 

As soon as you take the tacos out of the oven, if you want, sprinkle some cheese on each taco. The cheese will melt on top. Yum! I would recommend serving the tacos while they're hot. Warm tacos are yummier! Add anything else you want to add before eating your tacos. I added chopped lettuce, sour cream, avocado cubes, and mini tomatoes. 

There were a hit with my parents, my sister, and the girls! Oh, and I loved them too!

If you didn't already notice, this is the first non-dessert recipe I have posted on this blog. However, if you are feeling sweet deprived, stay tuned for another muffin pan recipe!