Make your own Homemade apple butter recipe

Here at Make it easy crafts we know how hectic life can be. Everyone needs a quick but easy recipe for those busy weeknights.  And who doesn’t want a special recipe or two up your sleeve for weekend fun and entertaining?  So we are starting a flash mob of recipes every week brought to you from around the web. 

Our first recipe is healthy and pretty darn easy.  If you have a crockpot you can make apple butter.  Yes I did say apple butter.  Growing up in the south I remember going to fairs and events in the fall and usually there was a huge copper kettle outside under a fire filled with the ingredients for apple butter.  People took turns stirring with a large wooden paddle.  The aroma was intoxicating and of you just had to come home with a jar or two.  Yum it was good, but boy was it time consuming! 

Trista Porter from Mom's morning coffee came up with a way to make it in an ordinary crockpot.  It still takes time but it’s time well spent with no paddle necessary! As an added benefit it is low in sugar.

Visit Candy at Mom's morning coffee and get Trista's wonderful recipe for Home made apple butter today. And Come back soon for more quick and easy recipes from all the best food bloggers around!

Snow day kid’s craft | Build an inside snowman felt toy

When I was a kid one of my favorite toys was Colorforms play sets.  You could sit for hours and change things around and just be creative.  With all the snow some areas have had of late I figured why not a snow day kid’s craft similar to Colorforms-- but not really?

Colorforms came with a main picture board and lots of plastic pieces that a kid could change around, remove and take off over and over again.  Most people don’t realize that felt kind of sticks to itself in the same way that the plastic did.  This little snowman is easy to make.  You can make as many accessories as you want and the kids can dress up and re-dress up this little guy (or gal) over and over again. And you can use up all your felt scraps too!

Snowman pattern pieces

Materials:

·      Corrugated cardboard

·      Felt – white, black, red, orange, yellow, green, blue (basically any scrap colors) Full sheet of Light blue felt for background base

·      Download the pattern pieces

·      Scissors

·      Thick tacky glue

·      Folder with pocket (For storage)

·      Small pointed scissors for cutting out the dress up pieces

Instructions:

1.     Most felt that you purchase in the craft stores are 9” x 12”.  Cut a piece of  light blue felt  to 8 ½” x 11”.  Cut the cardboard piece to 8 ½” x 11” the same size as the felt. Spread some tacky glue on the cardboard and attach the entire piece of blue felt to the cardboard for the background.

2.     Cut out the snowman shape from white felt and glue onto the background (See photo)

3.     Use the downloaded printable pattern pieces to cut the dress up pieces out of the felt scraps with the small pointed scissors

4.     Cut another piece of cardboard 4” x 8 ½”.  Cut a piece of felt the same size and attach to the cardboard with tacky glue.  This will be the piece where you will store the dress up pieces.

5.     Place the dress up pieces on the storage board when not in use and use the pocket of one side of the folder for the dress up pieces and the other side for the snowman board.

6.     Let the kids have fun dressing their snowman.  The felt sticks to itself for fun and creative imaginative play.

Valentine's Day Stamped brown paper gift wrap

Do you want to wrap your Valentine’s Day gift with unique yet thrifty gift-wrap?  Stamp brown paper to make your own.  It’s easy to stamp some brown paper using a simple heart stamp you make from a Styrofoam ball cut in half.  The Styrofoam stamp gives the wrapping a nice textured look.  Use red acrylic paint or substitute red sparkle paint for a flashier look.  Brown paper is an inexpensive alternative to pricy giftwrap and you can even use a recycled brown paper bag you get from the grocery store absolutely free!  What can be more frugal than that?  Top it all off like icing on a cake with a pretty Bowdabra bow.  Your gift will be almost too pretty to open…almost.

Materials:

·      Brown paper or recycled grocery bag cut open. 

·      Styrofoam ball cut in half

·      X-Acto or craft knife

·      Serrated steak knife

·      Paper plate

·      Acrylic paint in choice of color

·      Sharpie marker

·      Scissors

·      Ruler

To make the Bow:

·      Bowdabra Mini Bow Maker

·      Bowdabra Bow wire

·      1 ¼” wide wired red ribbon (I found a really pretty red ribbon with white dots on the edges)

·      Pencil or end of paintbrush

·      Tape or hot glue gun and glue sticks

1.     Cut the Styrofoam ball in half with the serrated steak knife.  Use the sharpie marker to draw a heart shape on the bottom.  Using the outline of the heart, cut all around with the craft knife inserting it about ¼” deep.  Next, insert the craft knife  around the sides about the same depth. Carefully remove small pieces of the Styrofoam from the sides to reveal the raised heart.  (See photo)  Work slowly around since Styrofoam cuts very easily.

2.     Prepare your brown paper by cutting a piece for your needs.  If you are using a recycled brown bag, cut it open, smooth it out and work on the inside. 

3.     Add some acrylic paint to a paper plate.  Dip the Styrofoam stamp in the paint and stamp in another area of the paint to remove any excess paint.  Stamp your paper with as many or as little hearts as you want.  Let dry.  Wrap your present.

Make the bow:

1.     Cut a 24-inch piece of bow wire.  Fold it in half and place in the Mini Bowdabra.  You will have a loop on one side and two pieces of wire on the other.

2.     Cut about 33 inches of 1 ¼” wired ribbon an insert into the Bowmaker.

3.     Make a loop about 2 ½.”  Make a matching loop on the other side.

4.     Continue to make another loop on each side for a total of four loops.

5.     Bring the rest of ribbon across with a small loop in the center and insert into the Bowdabra

6.     Scrunch down with the Bowdabra wand.

7.     Thread the two loose ends through the loop and pull tight.

8.     Remove from the Bowdabra and tie a knot in the back.  Fluff up the bow and adjust the center loop.  Use a pencil or end of a paintbrush to curl around the leftover bow wire and pull to the front.  Attach to the front of your wrapped gift with tape or hot glue. 

Note:  Although cutting these stamps are not for kids, the finished stamps are great for little hands.  Just have mom or dad cut the stamp and let the kids enjoy some stamping fun!