FUN FRIDAY - CRAFTY COLOURED RICE

Wow I'm so super dooper excited, today we have our first GUEST BLOGGER!!!

When I saw my friend, Cath's Facebook status mentioning she was trying her hand at colouring rice for her young son I just knew I had to grab her for a guest blog post. So here you have it introducing Catherine Chapman & her adorable son Heath showing us all how to make....

Crafty Coloured Rice

I never really considered using rice as a plaything for my son before, but I found the idea on the internet and HAD to try it out. Its great fun for them, as it sifts through there fingers, and they can pour into cups, bowls etc… even can be used to stick to their drawings. The colours add that extra touch, and will be enjoyed by your kids.
Dying Your Rice

I think the best rice to use, would be any rice that is white, so jasmine rice, long grained rice etc… as it picks up the dye better, brown rice won’t work as the colour won’t stick to it as well as white rice.

In a small bowl (metal or plastic bowls work best as they won’t stain)

Then mix 3 tablespoons of water with 4 – 5 drops of food colouring, depending on how strong you want the colour, stir with a metal spoon till the water and food colouring is mixed together

The next step is to add 1 cup of rice to the coloured water, let it sit for 5 minutes, stirring after 2 minutes. Then using a sieve, drain the rice and spread the colored rice out on newspaper (make it several layers thick to absorb any excess liquid) to dry. Let it dry for a few hours, 7 – 10 hours.. Works better if dried overnight. You can repeat as many times as you like with the different colors. (I have used blue, green and yellow in the photos)

Once dried, mix colours together, and then let the kids have a play! The rice is best kept in see through jars.

Kids will mix the colours, so if you want to keep them separate, make sure you only offer one colours at a time. For putting out multiple colors at once, egg cartons for example are best to use, just spoon one color into each cup.

The coloured rice should keep indefinitely. However kids may scatter or hide rice around the house, I have already found some in my sons ride-on car, oopsey!

Ideas for the coloured rice
Layer colours in a jar
You can make pretty decorations by simply layering colored rice in a clear glass jar and setting it on the shelf.

Make pictures

Spread glue on a picture and then sprinkle with coloured rice, great to add a special touch to those drawings.
 
 
 
A very big thanks again to Catherine for doing this guest blog spot for us!!! If you try this out or any other of our crafts & tips I'd love to see your photos. Photos can be emailed to sweetcheekcrafts@gmail.com
 

TASTY THURSDAY!

Seeing how we're in for a pretty cool weekend in most parts of the country I thought I'd share with you a very yummy PEA & HAM SOUP recipe for your slow cooker. Perfect to pop on in the morning then curl up on the couch with the family & have a movie day or go outside to catch a bit of winter sun!

It's funny that I should be showcasing this as my first TASTY THURSDAY recipe as I have never been a fan of this soup, I don't like peas & the sight of green soup is just so unappealing to me. That was until a few weeks ago while staying with my sister. She cooked this up & I thought I would at least give it a taste. I took a taste from a spoon & that was it I love it! So I hope you love it too.

First up is the ingredients lineup

1 onion, finely chopped

2 carrots, finely chopped

2 sticks celery, finely chopped (you'll notice there aren't any of these in my pic, that's because hubby doesn't like it & we're trying it without this time around)

3.5 ltrs chicken stock (this is an approx. amount as it will depend on how much liquid your cooker will take, I have a Kenwood 6ltr but once all the other ingredients are in I can only fit in about 2.7 ltrs)
500g split peas, soaked overnight & rinsed well (I used the no soaking required peas but I still soaked them overnight as I think it helps them break down completely during cooking)

1 bacon hock

bacon bones & cracked pepper (optional)

Now throw all of the above together in your slow cooker & cook on low all day. I put mine on at 8.10 am & we will eat around 6 - 6.30 pm tonight. Check the soup early afternoon, remove the hock, peel off the skin & the meat should just fall off. I then ripped the meat apart & threw it back in the cooker. You can put the skin back in too if you want to get the extra flavour from it, just removed it before serving.

Now serve with some yummy crusty bread & enjoy!

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

Tuesday's Crafty Tip

Have you got children? Have you got broken pieces of crayon laying around at the bottom of pencil cases???? Then this week's Tuesday's Crafty Tip is for you!

Recycling your child's broken crayons!!!!

You'll need;

broken crayons (all paper removed)
flat baking tray
baking paper *

mini cookie cutters

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees.

Line flat baking tray with baking paper. Place broken crayons on prepared tray.

Put them in the oven for about 8 min. You will need to remain close by and check in on them periodically because they will melt quickly.

Once your crayons have melted, take them out of the oven carefully, and then take a toothpick and swirl the wax around.

Allow the mix to harden but not completely.

When you think the mixture has hardened slightly try using a cookie cutter to punch out a shape. It might take you a couple of goes until the mixture is hard enough to take the cookie cutter. If you muck up that's fine just put those bits in a snap lock bag for next time.

Now you will have some cute little recycled crayons all ready for your child to draw with.

*I use baking paper instead of oil spray so that the crayon wax doesn't have contact with my tray, this way I can use the tray for baking food as well.

Swap Me, Swap You!

Morning all!!!

So who’s up for a swap? I am!

As you will be aware I just recently received a beautiful gift from my mum, a shiny Janome!!!!! As it seems I’ve taken to sewing quite well & I’m going to test that by running the first ever but definitely not the only SWEET CHEEK CRAFTS SWAP. This one will be all about sewing.

The way I was thinking of doing this swap was having everyone make the same thing but adding their own style to the project. What do you think? I thought I might give you 3 projects & we can vote on which one to do, does this sound like a plan?

Once the project is chosen & all swappers have commented below or emailed in then I’ll do a random draw from two hats to match people up. Each swapper will receive an email from me with their swap buddies info.

Alright so let’s see if any of you are interested in the below projects;

TAKE AWAY SEWING CADDY

TRAVELLING ART SHOW POUCH

TISSUE BOX COVER

Ok so some of you may be thinking that the above projects are easy peesy but remember I’m trying to make this something a lot of us can participate in. The projects will get harder over time I promise & will not always be a sewing project either. This is a crafts blog after all not just a sewing blog.

Count me in I hear you say, alrighty then just email me at sweetcheekcrafts@gmail.com with your tutorial vote, your name & email address. You have until 5 pm tomorrow (Wed. 9th June) to submit your email. After this time I will post again to inform everyone of the favourite project & go over the swap guidelines.

Look what I made!

So after having to deal with this...

I finally got in & sorted out the chaos that was our spare room. My major battle was the fact that all this junk, well it's really not junk at all, has no where to live as our tiny little house is at maximum capacity. \

As soon as the room was tidy & Sahara, my little sweet cheeks, was down for a nap I got in & used my spanking new shiny Janome! I wanted to start small so I decided to create a crayon roll for my 4 year old nephew. Once I had finished it I knew I had the bug, the sewing bug!!!! I just wanted to jump right in & sew, sew, sew. I am so proud of myself, you see it has been some 11 or so years since I was even behind a sewing machine. That was back in high school when I took Home Economics.

I will admit something to you when my hubby bought home this beautiful new toy which my mum had gotten me as a surprise I was extremely anxious. Why you ask??? Well I'm the first to admit I've tried many a new hobby in the past & most have not gone far. I was quite nervous to try attempt my first project in fear I would find it all too hard & give up. But alas I think I succeeded in a BIG way. After I had completed the first crayon roll I just wanted to sew more, so I cut out the pieces last night & as soon as Sahara was down for a nap this morning i got in & whipped up 2 more. The blue/green star roll is the first one I did last night.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank my mum for having faith in me & investing in yet another of my hobbies. I promise you I will cherish her (my Janome) forever & create beautiful pieces on her.

Marco........

Pollo! Phew I finally found myself.

Have you ever had days, weeks, months where you just feel like your coasting through without really accomplishing even the smallest of tasks? If you said yes (I hope there is at least one of you saying “Yes” otherwise I’m just a lazy cow) then you’ll know just how I’ve felt this last few days. First I’ll fill you on my past couple of weeks as a fair bit has been happening here in the big wide Webb world.

As many of you know we headed off down to the Gold Coast the weekend before last to pick up our new car, this is THE GREEN HORNET (TGH)……

She's a brilliant little car & to make things even sweeter we picked up for a steal as well YAY!!!!!!

Our 3 & ½ whirlwind trip was rush, rush, rush with lots of visiting to be done. Hopefully next time we visit we’ll be able to say for longer & take our time to catch up with friends & family.

Isn’t she adorable, I just had to sneak this one in. Taken at my mum’s place during our trip.

On Monday we made the long, exhausting drive home but thankfully TGH didn’t miss a beat & it was an uneventful trip back. Then only after one day back my hubby picks up a tummy bug & decides to share the love so he & I are totally floored for 2 days. I haven’t felt that ill since getting the flu when S was only 7 weeks old. Thank goodness S didn’t seem to get it & she continued to run (well crawl actually) circles around us.

As ill as my hubby felt he still managed to drive around Rocky & pick up this beauty…..

My beautiful & very generous mum had given him some $$ & told him to buy me very first sewing machine!!! How lucky am I????? It did suck having absolutely no energy which meant this little baby sat in its box for days. It’s now set up & ready to go but alas I can’t find my mojo :(

Does anyone else suffer from procrastination when they are surrounded by clutter?????? I hate clutter! I feel as though it totally blocks my creativity. Since being away & getting sick our little beach house is so untidy, clean but untidy. My personal goal this week is to declutter & get all this ideas out of my head & onto the drawing board. Stay tuned as things are a brewing in the SSC world!

Ok ok I’ve rattled on long enough, so I’ll leave you with a beautiful pic of some of my GC friends & I!

Stay Safe & Live Happy!