Owl Masks

This is a fall craft project I did with my students. I used some yellow, brown and orange construction paper and some feathers. I drew mask shapes from the yellow construction paper, a beak shape from the orange construction paper and the top of the owl head using brown paper. I had my students cut these shapes, assisting them to make the holes for the eyes on the mask. Then they glued on some feathers on the mask, and then they glued over the feathers, the top head and the beak. 

An easy fun project for our owl theme day.

Paper Mache Giraffe Bank

A friend’s son’s birthday was coming up and the son is into giraffes. I decided to make an interesting present for her son, thus the idea of making a paper mache giraffe bank was born.

If you ever know of anyone who is into giraffe’s as well, here are the steps to making this giraffe bank.

You will need

Lots of paper  (I used circulars, junk mail, newspaper inserts, and kindergarten writing paper…. I find that the softer the paper, the easier it absorbs the glue and the easier it is to mold it into form)

Lots of crafter’s glue

A kitchen towel roll

2 toilet paper rolls

empty container of Nestea Iced Tea

a small balloon (the ones used for water bombs)

yellow and black acrylic paint

brown fuzzy pipe cleaners

brown sticky felt cloth

brown felt ( a tad shade lighter than the brown sticky felt)

sand paper

scissors, cutter

masking tape

2 spherical pencil toppers

black foam sheet

hot glue gun and glue sticks

Step 1: Make the skeleton for your paper mache project

Take the iced tea container, this will be the giraffe’s body, and make a slit or hole on one side. This is the hole where the money can be dropped in. The top or lid will be the giraffe’s bottom. This can be screwed off to take the money out.

Then, cut the toilet paper rolls in half, these will be used for the giraffe’s legs. .

Blow up the balloon into the desired size. This will be the giraffe’s head.

Tape the legs to the container. Tape the kitchen towel roll on one end of the container. This will be the giraffe’s neck.

Tape the balloon on the other end of the kitchen towel roll. This will be the giraffe’s head.

Step 2: Glue paper like crazy

Cut paper into small pieces. Put glue in a small tub or container. Rub glue on the skeleton of the giraffe project and glue layers of paper. Keep gluing and gluing and gluing paper. Make a lot of layers. Mold the paper while still wet with glue so the edges and joints are smooth. Let dry. Do the same for the lid of the container. Make sure that you put the same number of layers so that it will be consistent to the thickness and size of the body.

As you glue the paper. Mold the tail, and the ears, and the horns.

Step 3: Sanding and Painting

When the glue is completely dry, your project will feel hard. Then it is time to sand off the rough edges. Then paint over with yellow acrylic paint. You may need to put two to three layers of paint to make sure that the print on the paper does not show. Don’t forget to sand and paint the lid. Let it dry.

Paint the spherical pencil toppers with black acrylic paint and let those dry as well.

Step 4: Coat with Glue

When the paint is completely dry, paint over the surface with white glue. This will give the paper mache a nice finish.

Step 5: Embellishing

Cut the sticky felt cloth in circles of varied sizes. Stick over the felt cloth and cut around it leaving a small border. Hot glue in several places on the giraffe’s body.

Paint black acrylic paint on the feet of the giraffe. Make it about a third of an inch. Cut 4 circles from the black foam sheet and glue this on the bottom of the giraffe’s feet. Make sure they are the same size as the feet. Then glue around the base, a strip of black foam sheet with the same thickness as the paint.

Cut strips of brown felt and paste on the neck. This will be the giraffe’s mane. Paste a strip of fuzzy brown pipe cleaners to make the joints for the mane look cleaner.

Cut out a tail, ears, nostrils, and hair from brown felt cloth and glue this on the giraffe as well. Glue the painted pencil toppers on the top of the horns.

Glue googly eyes or paint on some eyes for the giraffe.

Put it a ribbon on the neck and  your present is ready to present.

Turkey Bean Project

For our Turkey Theme day, I had my students do a project using beans. We used black beans, white beans, red beans, and pinto beans.

We glued them on the turkey template that I made.

My students were so involved and quiet when they completed the project and I would have to say they did a swell job!

We Are the Angry Birds

Angry birds are so in right now, so for Halloween, our family decided to become angry birds. Well except for the baby, who we thought of becoming the pig.

For our costumes, we bought plain shirts from Michael’s (black for the husband, red for me, and yellow for my 7 year old son), and the baby to wear a plain green onesie that I bought from Target.

Then I bought some foam visors and foam sheets from Michael’s. With a little cutting and hot gluing, the foam sheets turned into angry bird visors for the whole family to wear.

For all of these, I only spent about $30.00. Which means, each of our Halloween costumes only cost us about $7.50. With great savings, it sure is not a bad idea for a good costume for the entire family!

Easy Breezy Baklava

Baklava is a Mediterranean rich sweet pastry dessert made with layers of filo pastry filled with chopped nuts and sweetened further with a drizzle of syrup or honey. It looks complicated to make, and recipes online seem to not be amateur friendly, but I found a way to make this dessert the easy breezy way.   

You will need…

3 cups finely chopped nuts (walnuts, pistachios, and/or almonds)

1 tablespoon Cinnamon sugar

1 cup Karo syrup (I used Light Karo syrup so that I feel less guilty when I’m eating)

Filo dough (sometimes phyllo)

A stick of melted butter sometimes more(I told you, you’ll need the light syrup)

A brownie pan ( 9 x 12 or 8 x 8)

Pasrty brush

Pre heat your oven to 350 degrees

In a bowl, mix in the nuts, half of the syrup, and the cinnamon sugar.

Lay the filo dough sheets flat on the table. Cut them according to the dimensions of your pan. It does not have to be perfectly fitting, a little extra on the edges are okay.

Brush the bottom of your pan with melted butter. Lay two sheets of filo dough at a time. Brushing the dough with butter in between two layer sheets. Do this until you have laid about 10 layers. If the filo dough crumples in the middle, do not worry. This will add more texture to your dessert.

When you are done with the filo dough base, it is time to make the nutty layers of the dessert. Put in about a cup of the nut mixture over the base layer and spread flat with a spoon or spatula. Top with a layer of 4 filo sheets, remembering to brush butter in between 2 sheet layers. Repeat the nut layer 2 more times.

Top your pan with about six sheets of filo dough layers (again, brushing butter in between two sheet layers)… or use all the dough you have left over, if there isn’t enough left anyways.

Tuck in the sides of the top filo dough layer to the sides of the pan. Use the blunt end of a butter knife or a spoon handle.

Then with a good knife, cut your baklava into squares or triangles.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until nice, brown and crisp.

While the baklava is still hot, pour in the remaining syrup mixture in between the sliced areas. You will hear a sizzling sound as you do this. (A signal of Yummy!)

Let it cool, serve, then enjoy. 

Turkey Croquettes

So what do you do with left over turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes? Turn them into croquettes!

Put about 2 cups of shredded turkey in a bowl. Any part of the turkey meat is good to use, just make sure that you get rid of the grizzles, especially if you are using the leg part of the turkey. Add in about 2 cups of the mashed potatoes, and 2 cups of the stuffing. Add one egg. Mix altogether and don’t be afraid to use your hands. It makes preparing the croquettes more fun!

Pre heat your oven to 350 degrees, or not, if you prefer them deep fried, but I’m thinking with all the gobbling you just did from the holidays, do you think you really need those extra calories? I’m just sayin’

Okay, enough of that…

Take about a spoonful and shape them into round balls. I shaped mine a little more like an oval shape.

Roll over breadcrumbs, and set on a tray lined with waxed paper or parchment paper, or greased. Which ever you prefer.

Then bake for about 30 minutes.

Serve warm with your left over gravy and cranberry sauce with a side dish of steamed vegetables.

A great way to finally clear out your fridge from all of what’s left over from your Thanksgiving dinner!  

Turkey Potato and Apple Salad

You will need

1 cup of mayonnaise

1 cup shredded turkey (I prefer the shredded breast part)

2 fuji apples (I like fuji apples because they are sweeter and crunchier)

2 stalks of celery or a small cucumber (I used celery)

lemon juice

half a cup of walnuts (halved or chopped are okay)

3 medium Red Potatoes

Boil the potatoes until tender. But be careful not to make it too tender that they reach mashed potato consistency. Drain, let cool, and peel. Then cut into quarters.

Wash the apples. Cut, take the seeds out, and cut into the same size as the potatoes. Put in a separate bowl and toss in some lemon juice to avoid discoloration.

Wash the celery or the cucumber and then chop. Obviously, if you are using cucumbers, you will need to peel them. English cucumbers are best, as they are seedless.

Mix all ingredients together in a bigger bowl, then chill in the fridge until you are ready to serve it.