J is for Jam - Crafting through the Alphabet

J is for... Jam

My mom has long told me that jam is super easy to make. After reading a whole slew of Pinterest articles suggesting otherwise, however, I'll admit that I was a little dubious. My mom insisted that all jam requires is fruit, sugar, and pectin. Funnily enough, my mom makes jam without pectin. 

My mom is one of those amazing people who makes things without recipes. It's amazing but difficult to learn from. You ask them how to make such and such thing and they say "oh, you know, a little bit of this and some of that, enough of that." With jam, my mom said "you know, some sugar and some fruit."

I am not one of these amazing people so I looked up a recipe on Pinterest and found this recipe that uses fruit, sugar, and lemon juice. It has no pectin in it but I feel that the consistency is just fine without it. Here is the recipe: 

http://m.scatteredthoughtsofacraftymom.com/ufmcewm/articles/91254/Quick-and-Easy-Strawberry-Jam-Recipe-without-pectin-

Now, the recipe says to have 16 oz. of strawberries. I had a carton of overripe strawberries, some of which looked pretty rough so I tossed them out. End result? I had no idea how many ounces of strawberries I was using. Thus, I lessened the sugar amount to 1/2 cup just in case. 

So, having never made jam before, I was a little nervous. But, I have to say, it's kind of magical. The strawberries pretty much melt into gooey goodness and your whole kitchen smells like dessert. 

Conclusion: I'm never buying jam again. The homemade version takes about twenty minutes to cook, plus some cooling down time. It's fresh, it's much more flavorful, and you know exactly what went into it.  #thatsmyjam 

I is for Ice Cream - Crafting through the Alphabet

I is for... Ice Cream

Ice cream! (And peppermint hot fudge sauce)

The recipes were taken from the Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book!

Ok, at this point, you've probably figured that I went pretty broad with the term "crafting." I sewed, I cooked, I baked. At this point, my idea had been to learn as much as possible and to learn things that I was genuinely interested in. After starting my Sewing through the Alphabet project, it has occurred to me that I could keep up with this whole theme and do a Baking through the Alphabet and Cooking through the Alphabet. Will I actually do these projects? Maybe. Maybe not. If I do, I'll cross the bridge of repeating already done projects when I get there. In the meantime, I've really enjoyed learning as much as I can. And I'm going to keep doing that!

Attachments are

H is for Hair Clips - Crafting through the Alphabet

H is for... Hair Clips

I found a cool project on Pinterest: http://www.prettylifegirls.com/2013/07/pla-diy-patterned-hair-clips.html?m=1

I got a set of clips at the grocery store. 

And then I went to Michael's and found out that scrap booking paper was on sale. So, naturally, I bought way more than I needed. 

And then I followed the directions.

 

 

G is for Glasses - Crafting through the Alphabet

G is for... Glasses

I had planned to do a gown, but it was kind of beyond my ability level. And then I planned to make an herb garden for my kitchen window. But the more I thought about getting the starter for an herb garden, the more stressed I got about how much it would cost. 

Then I found this awesome project on Pinterest: http://palmspringsstyle.com/art-entertainment/diy-project-mid-century-modern-cocktail-glasses/

But when I actually looked into the project, I realized it required all sorts of things that I didn't have. None of these things were expensive on their own, but buying everything at once would have cost me a good $30. That isn't too expensive for a custom set of glassware but I was still unsure. 

So, then I browsed through Michael's and saw a gold paint pen. It's non toxic and water resistant. Considering the project above requires liquid gold leaf and you have to paint everything lower, I decided to go with the pen. I figured I would make my own stencil but that didn't work so I decided to take a risk and free hand the stars. 

Here's the result:

Ok so they're not quite as nice as the Pinterest project. I won't be making a set anytime soon. If I do, I'll do it right and follow the directions. In the meantime, my glasses aren't too shabby!

F is for Fudge - Crafting through the Alphabet

F is for... Fudge

So, I tried several f projects before turning to fudge. I tried flower pins after falling in love with the nail polish flowers on Pinterest. But mine turned out like this: 

Not exactly Pinterest-worthy. 

So then, I moved on to what I was sure would be a sure fire craft: making flower hair pins out of fabric flowers. The truth is, I love the flower department in any craft store, so it didn't take much to get me to browse through it. I was so sure of myself, I took a before shot of all the materials so I could send them to Kat to post!

Sadly, it didn't go quite as planned. The flowers looked lovely when I stuck the pins in my hair... But as soon as I pulled the pins out, they fell off. And I was left with bobby pins covered in dried, nobby-looking hot glue. So that was a wash. 

But it was ok! Because then I turned to fudge. And all was well with the world!

I used this recipe: http://flavorthemoments.com/salted-dark-chocolate-toffee-fudge/

The only difference that I found in practice was that she specified to take the mixture off the heat when adding the chocolate. It made a lot of sense until I tried it and nothing melted. So then I just stuck it back on low heat and it worked just fine. Next time is possibly add a touch less salt. But overall, it was a delightful recipe that I will definitely make again!

E is for Embroidery - Crafting through the Alphabet

E is for...Embroidery

Supplies:
Muslin
Tailor's Marker/Pencil
Embroidery Thread
Embroidery Needle
Scissors
Hoop
Inspiration Image
Clothes pin






I bought plain white muslin (it's usually about $2/yard); three different colors of embroidery floss, one for each character and one for the words; a blue water soluble marker; an embroidery hoop; and eventually I invested in a nice pair of embroidery scissors.

I used a clothes pin to pin the fabric to my computer and traced the image onto the fabric with the marker. Being a cautious person, I tested this process on the screen corner but it didn't bleed through the fabric. 

Because the marker comes off easily, I didn't stress about mistakes and so I ended up with multiple lines at certain points. When I was actually stitching, I chose the line that looked best! Doing the words forced me to break out my cursive skills. Those haven't been put to the test in years!

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D is for Diffuser - Crafting through the Alphabet

D is for... Diffuser 

I was going to make a dress. But that didn't pan out. So then I made a diffuser! I have yet to discover how well it works. It was my first time trying it. Here are the directions I followed:

http://sugarandcloth.com/2011/12/5-minute-diy-reed-diffuser/

Differences in her project and mine are mostly the fact that I went to several stores and was unable to locate essential oils. Likely reason: I went to the wrong stores. No matter. I did find some diffuser oil, which smacked of cheating, but I used it anyway. I went ahead and used her idea to mix it with baby oil, so we'll see how well it carries the scent. If it doesn't, I'll add more diffuser oil. I'm all about experimenting!

Side note: it took me a good 5-10 minutes to decide on a bundle of fabric tape. It's all so pretty!!

C is for Cookie Butter - Crafting through the Alphabet

C is for... Cookie Butter

This one took me a while. I had wanted to make a collar. In fact, I did make a collar. But the collar turned out to be too small. So, after several months of it hanging over my head, I finally used Girl Scout cookies to make some scrumptious cookie butter!

I followed this recipe on Pinterest.

B is for Belt - Crafting through the Alphabet

B is for... Belt 

Here's the pattern I followed!
Here's a close up:

A is for Apron - Crafting Through the Alphabet

This project very nearly brought me to an emotional breakdown. I was trying to get it done in the prescribed week but I chose a slightly more complicated apron than was strictly necessary.

(Oh, introduction to me: I do that A LOT)

So, what was supposed to be a 1 week project turned into a 2-3 week project. In the end, I made a super cute apron so, in the end, it really didn't matter how long it took.

I'm going to simply paste my posts from Kat's page where applicable.

A is for... Apron

Supplies:
Fabric
Ribbon
Eyelet Lace Trim
Pattern

I pretty much followed the instructions of the pattern except in two instances: 

• because the edging was pre-gathered, I didn't gather it (if you buy edging for the ruffle, a yard will do; whereas if you buy ungathered edging or use fabric for the edging, you'll need about two yards) 

• (This my moms idea) Instead of attaching the straps to the waist band, we sewed the straps with loops at the end and then we pulled the tie ends through the loop. We did that to make the straps adjustable and, potentially, tighter. 

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Crafting Through the Alphabet

These two projects will be posted simultaneously/intermittently. I'm over halfway done on the Crafting project but I'm too eager to work on the Sewing project to wait. My game = my rules so I'm going to do both at once! But, I am going to try and avoid overlapping projects if I can.

Now, my friend Kat already has a website devoted to the Crafting Through the Alphabet project so I'll be taking my posts from there and posting them here as well. You can see Kat's page by going here. You can see Kat and her mom's crafts as well! The best laid plans often go awry, so what was supposed to be a 26 week project has stretched to almost a year - and neither of us have completed it. But, in my opinion, the joy of this project was to learn and expand and try new things. Who cares how long it takes? So, I'm still working on it, albeit slowly. I'm hoping to finish the Crafting project by the end of the year, but goodness knows if that will actually happen. We'll see!