Recycle a leather handbag into cute drop earrings

Don’t throw that leather or faux leather handbag away, upcycle it into cute lightweight drop earrings in geometric shapes.

So my fave handbag finally bit the dust.  The handle was starting to look a bit ragged and then the zipper busted.  The snaps let go.  I really loved that bag.  It wasn’t one of those high priced handbags but the leather was soft and supple.  My husband told me to toss it in the trash, but come on now could I really toss it in the trash? 

I got out my scissors and removed the lining.  Then I started to cut the leather from the sides, front and back.  The leather was a lightweight variety and easy to cut with regular scissors.  So now I had several pieces of leather with which to create.

The predominant color of the bag was a reddish hue.  So of course I thought of hearts.  And jewelry is always my thing.  If you don’t want to make hearts you can cut out all sorts of geometric shapes for your earrings.  These earrings are practically free when you consider you are recycling the leather and you can make quite a few from just a few pieces, so it’s perfect for groups. 

And keep those leather or faux leather pieces because I have more tutorials coming your way using them!

Supplies:

·      Lightweight leather or faux leather from a handbag

·      Two needle nosed pliers

·      Jump rings in - large, med, and small

·      Fish hook ear wires

·      Scissors

·      Small hole paper punch

·      White chalk pencil

·      Lightweight cardboard (for pattern)

Directions:

1.     Cut apart the handbag saving the usable leather pieces.  To make the heart pattern, fold a piece of lightweight cardboard in half and on the fold draw a half heart.  Cut out and open for your pattern.  You can play around with sizes and shapes in the same way.

2.     Using your pattern and a chalk pencil draw two heart shapes on the wrong side of the leather and cut out.

3.     Use the paper punch to make a hole in the top center and bottom point in one heart.  Make a hole in the top center of the other heart.

4.     Open the largest jump ring by twisting instead of pulling with two needle-nosed pliers.  Attach both hearts together point to center and twist to close.  (See photo)

5.     Open the medium sized jump ring twisting to open as before and attach to the top heart center hole.  Twist to close

6.     Open the smallest jump ring attach to the previous medium sized jump ring and add the fish hook ear wire making sure it is facing in the right direction.  Twist the jump ring closed.  Earring made.

7.     Repeat steps 2-6 for the second earring.

Summer supper chicken salad stuffed cucumber boats

They don’t call August dog days for nothing and nothing beats a crisp stuffed cucumber boat for a light lunch or supper.

Now my thumb is usually any color but green but it seems that this year the color green really loves me.  The cucumber seeds I planted are producing cucumbers like gangbusters!  So last week I asked around for any ideas for using these cukes and my niece suggested I stuff them with chicken or tuna salad.  Well I am pretty famous for my cranberry walnut chicken salad recipe, so I figured why not?

Since we had a rotisserie chicken yesterday and had some leftover cooked chicken I whipped up a batch of chicken salad.  Since I used seasoned rotisserie chicken I eliminated the cooking and seasoning step for making this salad, but if you don’t have a rotisserie chicken leftover you can always cook up some chicken tenderloins as the recipe suggests.

These cucumber boats are so tasty and crunchy you may never want to have chicken salad any other way!  Thanks Ashley for this great idea!

Ingredients:

Crystal's cranberry walnut chicken salad recipe (or your favorite chicken salad)

Cucumbers each cucumber will make two boats

Salt

Pepper

Paprika

Directions:

Make some Cranberry Chicken Salad (If you are using leftover rotisserie chicken you can eliminate cooking and seasoning the chicken

Wash and dry the cucumber.  Slice the cucumber in half lengthwise. Use a spoon to hollow out the cut cucumber.  Slice a bit off the bottom so that it stands up straight on a plate.  Use a spoon to remove the seeds and hollow out the center.

Add an ample amount of chicken salad to the cucumber boat and top with salt and pepper to taste.  Add some paprika for color and enjoy.

Come back next week to Make it easy crafts and Bowdabra blog  for more "Dinner easy" recipes and craft tutorials. 

Ribbon storage box tutorial

Are ribbon rolls scattered everywhere in your craft space? You can easily upcycle an old shoebox into a ribbon storage box! The box holds 8-10 ribbon rolls or more if they are not very wide. The Stencil blank you use for the side opening works as a dispenser to feed the ribbon ends through for easy access. Make more than one since these ribbon boxes stack very nicely. Quick, easy and very green!

Visit Bowdabra blog for the full ribbon storage box tutorial!

Easy Eggplant Parmesan recipe

My husband’s favorite dish is Eggplant Parmesan.  Usually I make it for his birthday dinner but this year I’ve been having pretty good luck in my little garden and I’ve grown some eggplants!  Now I don’t have a lot of free time with working, blogging and more but I do like to fix a good dinner especially with fresh produce.

If you are short on time (like me) grab a good quality jarred spaghetti sauce and you can enjoy this recipe any day of the week

The trick to making good Eggplant Parmesan is making sure the eggplant is not bitter.  I have a trick I use that I am going to share here.  I don’t know why it works but I have never had bitter eggplant.

Eggplant Parmesan

Ingredients:

·      One or two small eggplants

·      Seasoned breadcrumbs

·      Lt. olive oil for cooking

·      Beaten egg with a dash of milk

·      Shredded mozzarella

·      Grated fresh Parmesan

·      Jar of good quality spaghetti sauce

Directions:

Cut the ends off and peel the eggplant with a potato peeler.  Slice the eggplant in ¼ -½ thick slices.  Sprinkle both sides of each eggplant slice with salt and set aside for a few minutes.  (The salting is what keeps the eggplant from being bitter)

Dip each eggplant slice in the beaten egg mixture and then coat with seasoned breadcrumbs.  Set aside till you have all your eggplant slices lightly breaded.  Meanwhile heat up some light olive oil for cooking in a large non-stick skillet.  Cook each eggplant slice on medium heat till browned.  Turn over and brown the other side. Stick a fork in the cooked eggplant to check for doneness. 

Spread about ½ jar of sauce on the bottom of a large baking pan.  Lay the cooked slices side by side on top of the sauce.  Sprinkle about 1 cup-shredded mozzarella on to of the eggplant.  Spread the remaining sauce on top.  Finish with a cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. 

Bake in a 350-degree oven for 30 minutes.  Serve with hot cooked pasta prepared per package directions.

Minion applique

You can quickly create this little minion applique to use almost anywhere for your little minion.  It’s easy to create with just the supplies you probably already have on hand.  You can glue or sew him onto various items like bags, lunch boxes, notebooks, clothing and more. I attached mine to a felt phone case that I found for 50% off at a craft store.  The skies the limit on how you can use these little guys.  It’s a recycled project too since you use some old lightweight jean fabric for his coveralls!

Supplies:

·      Scraps of yellow, black and gray felt

·      Wiggle eyes

·      Tacky craft glue or fabric glue (You can substitute a needle and thread if you choose to sew)

·      Scrap of lightweight jean fabric

·      Disappearing marker

·      Two black seed beads

·      Scissors

·      Minion pattern

Instructions:

1.     Download and print the minion pattern pieces.  Gather your supplies. Use a disappearing marker to trace the body onto yellow felt and cut out.  Trace the coverall pattern onto the scrap denim and cut out.  Trace the goggle pattern onto the gray felt.  If you want your minion to have two eyes cut two, otherwise cut one. 

2.     Cut thin strips from the black felt and use the glue to attach across the face. Attach a wiggle eye to the center of the gray felt and add on top of the black felt strip with some more glue,

3.     Attach your minion applique body onto where you would like either with needle and thread or glue.  Add the overall Jeans onto the minion with whatever attachment method you are using,  (Sewing or gluing) Attach two seed beads in the same way.  (See photo)