AMANDA'S BASKETS: INCHIE CHALLENGE 31

Saturday, August 31, 2013

INCHIE CHALLENGE 31

I hope all of you have a great Labor Day Vacation. Spend time enjoying nature, enjoying family, enjoying friends and, most importantly, enjoying yourself.

Today is the last day of the Inchie Challenge. Here's the inchie which I call 'Peace'...

This one is made from 'Paperclay' which is fun to work with. I rolled out a piece of clay a bit thicker than 1/4 inch and cut out a square that was a bit bigger than one inch (because the Paperclay does shrink a bit). The dove stamp used to create the image is from a collection of tiny stamps.

After air drying for a day, I lightly sanded to smooth out any imperfections. Using a black permanent marker, I covered the sides and back.

On the front, I first covered the entire area outside of the stamp with a gold glitter gel pen. Then using tacky glue I glittered the front. When that was dry I applied four coats of Mod Podge to the entire inchie, letting it dry between coats. Finally I added a grommet so that this can be used as jewelry. Fun and easy.

I plan on putting all the inchies on Pinterest this weekend. I'll publish a link on Tuesday. I hope all of you have seen how easy it is to make inchies. And, if they interest you, I hope you give them a try. Interested in swapping, check out Roses On My Table, the Inch by Inch section.

My next post will be Tuesday and I'll let you know how I did with the August goals and share with you my September goals.

Thanks for visiting and spending some of your time here at Amanda's Baskets...
Have a great holiday weekend...
See you next Tuesday...

CRAFTING IDEAS

I am always looking for a small piece of paper to write down something which will later be disposed of. I decided to use some of the scrap paper of which I have a ton. I mostly use the paper for glueing projects. I decided to cut the paper into a small size. (Six pieces from a piece of copy paper.). But just having them sitting on my desk would get messy without a container. So, using a cardboard box, I cut it down to size and using a hot glue gun I glued the ends together. Using a picture from a magazine cut into pieces and stick craft glue, I glued the pieces to the box inside and out. I also used some decorative tape for the outside edges. And to finish the top corners which were not covered, I used straight pins with colorful tops. Looks nice and works well.

MAGAZINE IDEAS

(New) One article in the Farmer's Almanac 2024 is a list of trends. One I knew about is the trend to downsize in just about every area. Another trend that I was surprised about was called ''The Human Library' which offers people on loan to talk about specific subjects. Finally, more folks are adding pets to their family and as a result, stores are adding more pet food, toys and medication to their offerings. There's also a nice garden article which suggests mixing vegetables and flowers together for success.

RECIPE IDEAS

Have you every made Cherry Dump Cake. It calls for 2 cans of Cherry Pie Filling (21 ounces), a white cake mix, 1/4 -1/2 cup butter, melted & 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans. In a 9 by 13 pan, spread both cans of cherry pie filling. Add the melted butter to the cake mix and break apart the resulting mixture and crumble it evenly over the pie filling. Sprinkle the pecans evenly over the mixture. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35 - 45 minutes until the topping is golden brown. Serve with vanilla ice cream. Fast, easy and very delicious.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

What if you want to establish better habits, then decide what habit you want to work on. Again, try an easier one first for that good feeling of success. Let's consider more exercise. Start small. Don't try to run a marathon right away. Set the amount of time, the type of exercise and when to do it to begin making sure that it is within your reach. If it works for you each week add a bit more. Walking is one of the best ways to get good overall movement but there are many exercise videos on YouTube of varying lengths and difficulty to check out. Change your exercise routines to eliminate getting bored. For hardcore exercise with weights, give yourself a day in-between to recover. Even on days you would rather not exercise, do it and see if you feel better. It takes an average of 66 days to establish a habit. Just think 66 days to establish a good habit for a lifetime. Sounds like a good thing to me...how about you?