Women’s Day rounded up some fun Easter crafts for all ages and levels to get in the spirit for the celebration of Easter. Click on the title of the project below to be taken to a full tutorial and directions.

1. Easter Coloring Pages

2. Pink Easter Rabbit

3. Lace-Edged Napkins

4. Paper Butterflies

5. Pom-Pom Chicks

6. Stacked Easter Bunny

7. Painted Easter Sign

8. Flocked Easter Eggs

9. Decoupaged Easter Eggs

10. Punched Paper Easter Egg Craft

11. Easter Tree

12. Ribbon-Wrapped Easter Egg Craft

13. Easter Bonnets

14. Decorated Easter Eggs

15. Pink Bunny Knitting Project

Today I stumbled upon the site 5 Minutes for Mom who is hosting the 2009 Ultimate Blog Party! This “party” is an online connectivity of building new online friendships between other blogs online. The majority of blogs participating are the craft/ Mommy’s blogs that I often refer to in a lot of my posts. The blog party enables visitors to connect with others though Mr.Linky  the site linkster at the end of their post about the party. You can post your website, your Twitter account, and Facebook blog network so others can visit and see your site! I have already had a ton of new visitors today thanks to this blog party. It’s fun to look at other blogs and get the networking going between us crafters. This is completely FREE and is something fun to jump on the bandwagon and submit your site to connect with other onliners. The cool part is they are giving away prizes (including $50 Target cards <—– my first pick) at the end of the week to bloggers who connect to them and comment on at least 20 other sites.Click on the banner below to visit the Blog Party and join in on the fun!

With prices of produce and other purchased goods from the store I thought it was time to start finding cheaper substitutions to things I like to eat. That being said, yogurt is one of my favorite things to eat in the morning on my way out the door. It’s portable, just the right amount and always creamy. Blue Yonder has a yummy home made yogurt recipe that she thought up for her kiddos. She wanted something that was quick, but a healthy alternative to high fructose corn syrup. The great thing is not only is homemade yogurt cheaper, but it is made by YOU meaning you have the control of what goes into your product and will feel better about feeding it to families.

Ingredients:

• 2 to 4 tablespoon store-bought, plain yogurt with active yogurt cultures
• 1-2/3 cups instant nonfat dry milk
• 3-3/4 cup warm tap water

Directions:

In a large saucepan combine the tap water and dry milk powder. Stir it very well, and let it sit a few minutes. Then stir it again. All of the dry milk should be dissolved. Heat the milk over medium low heat until it reaches 180°. This kills off any competeing bacteria so that the yogurt will respond better to the acidophilus cultures. Remove from the stove and allow to cool to 115°. If the milk is any hotter than this then it will kill off the yogurt cultures. Add the store-bought plain yogurt to the warm milk. Stir well. Allow it sit for a few minutes and stir a final time. This should dissolve the store-bought yogurt completely.

Turn your oven off.

Carefully pour the mixture into a very clean canning jars and put screw on the tops. Put all the jars in a shallow pan, and place in the oven over night (or 6-8 hours). The next morning, pop them in the fridge until chilled, and then you can doctor them as you wish. We add a couple of teaspoons of sugar and a half teaspoon of vanilla to each jar.

Ours was a little soupy – the texture of “real” whole yogurt. In other words, not as thick as Yoplait or Dannon or store brands, more along the lines of Stonyfield Farm yogurt.

Ideas for storage:

Mason jars, Ice cube trays, Tupperware, Leftover plastic containers ( such as cottage cheese, butter, etc.)

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scrapbooking ideas

Jeff and I just returned from our weekend trip to the Oregon Coast! We started our trip in Lincoln City, Oregon famous for their art galleries, shopping outlets and beautiful ocean shores! We were really lucky because  the weather was clear and blue patches of blue skies not a drip of rain! On our drive home today there were some showers so instead of spending the rest of our last day at the coast on the beach we decided to stop off at Tillamook Cheese Factory in Tillamook, Oregon! Growing up we both had visited Tillamook factory many times and it’s always fun to visit now as adults and experience the fun memories we had as children. Tillamook Cheese Factory offers a self guided tour though their factory and cheese making process. My favorite part is peering though the  factory glass windows and seeing the employees culturing and mixing the cheese. At the end of the tour they welcome their guests in sampling some of their specialty cheeses and offer many other Tillamook products for sale in their store. The aroma of freshly made waffle cones tempt visitors filled with creamy Tillamook ice cream on your way out. Jeff and I stuffed ourselves with lots of cheese samples, an ice cream cone to split and a few treats for the road.

It’s back to work for me tomorrow but it was a nice quick trip to spend much needed time together and enjoy Oregon’s beauties! For information on Lincoln City, Oregon or Tillamook Cheese Factory visit the links below.

http://www.oregoncoast.org/

http://www.tillamookcheese.com/

More and more people each day are becoming more aware of their resources and how to become more Eco-friendly and “green”. For St.Patrick’s Day Make and Takes rounded up a few green/Eco-friendly projects that you can create at home including a Moss Topiary, Green Metal Star, and a faux four leaf clover from other craft sites.

Click HERE to visit Make and Take’s post

If you are interested in paper crafting these delicate Easter eggs are just the right project for you! These paper crafted eggs are made from a Styrofoam egg base so you can enjoy them many years to come. Beautiful spring flowers are precisely placed on the eggs with vines and many colors to overall brighten up this mini pieces of art.

By: Fave Crafts

Supplies:

• STYROFOAM™ Brand Foam:
  • Egg, 5″
• Acrylic paint, color of choice
• Scrapbooking paper, assorted solid colors
• Modeling paste
• Pencil
• Ruler
• Wooden skewer
• Flat paintbrush, Medium
• Disposable mixing cup
• Table knife or craft stick
• Fine-grit sandpaper
• Water basin
• Paper towels

• Scissors
• Craft punches: 5/8″, 1″, and 2″ daisy; 1 1/4″ flower; 1/8″, 1/4″, and 5/8″ circle
• Glue sticks and low temperature glue gun
• White, thick craft glue

Directions:

1. Place small amount modeling paste into disposable cup and mix well with craft stick until smooth; add tiny bit of water if needed.
2. Insert skewer into bottom of foam egg to use as handle. Brush thin coat of paste mixture onto egg using soft, wide brush. Dip brush into water occasionally as you work and use long, light strokes. Place skewer in heavy glass or jar while egg dries.
3. Sand egg lightly to smooth surface even more. Apply second coat of paste, if desired; let dry and sand again. Wipe egg with damp cloth to remove dust and paint desired color; let dry.
4. Punch flowers from papers; refer to photo as guide. Create two 2″ and five 1 1/4″ flowers in main color scheme, then four to six 1″ flowers in contrasting accent colors. Punch up to 15 of the smallest flower from accent colors, as well. Use circle punches to create contrasting flower centers; glue to flowers.
5. Cut five 1/8″ x 3″ strips from green paper. Curl strips by rolling tightly around skewer, then gently pulling to create curl. Hand-cut leaves of various shape and size from remaining green paper.
6. Refer to photo to glue flowers, leaves, and vines to egg; pin in place until glue dries.

When I saw this fountain I fell in love with it! I saw it at my local Hallmark in the mall and had to have it. Only to find out the last one they had on stock was the display which was chipped so I set out to a few other stores to see if I could find it. Surprisingly other Hallmarks were not carrying the item so I knew I had to look online to find my fortune. The Green Head.com has many other unique items for sale which is where I found mine which is the exact one I saw at Hallmark!

I love unique pieces for the home and though I just had to have this. I ordered mine so it’s on the way, but wanted to share with you because this truly is a piece of art for the home. Fountains add a sense of peace and relaxation to any space, tucked away in the corner the sounds of drizzling water gently runs down the outer tiers. Not only is this a water fountain, but a flower vase as well! By keeping flowers in the vase they will last longer and stay fresher because they are submerged in the water itself. Real flowers are not necessary, if you dont want to worry about the keep-up of replacing flowers, fake silk flowers found at any craft store will do. The price is a little spendy I though, but looking around at other cermaic table water fountains this was a pretty realson price when I saw other going for 60+.

I don’t know if it’s the “woman” in me or what but I am a firm believer in planning. I like to plan meals, activities, investment programs like investools, what to wear, what kind of shampoo to buy next, you name it I love to plan out things and feel comfortable being in control of what comes next. Of course God gives me friendly reminders every now and then to back off and let loose a little, but HEY its just me. So that being said, I found a FREE printable daily planner from Tangarang. Its really cute so I can feel happy jotting down my thoughts and being styles about it as well. They offer the FREE downloadable tempate in two fun colors such as the celery green butterly, and a waspy purple. Enjoy and plan away…

Click HERE to get yours

This is a yummy festive Easter treat that kids help with too! I am planning on making these for our Easter party. Fairly in expensive to make, most of the ingredients can be found in the pantry and kids will get a kick out of the jelly bean “eggs”.

By: Hostess with the Mostess

Ingredients: