Here is the Church, Here is the Steeple

Here is an interesting way to make a photo album with all of those wedding pictures. If you are going to a wedding, bring your camera and give this to the bride and groom when they come back from their honeymoon. They will love you!

Materials:

2 pieces of mat board (or chip board)

8 1/2" x 11" piece of card stock

large photo of church

20 long, thin photos printed on heavy-weight paper (mine were 1 1/4" x 3 1/2")

glue stick

Tools:

paper cutter, scissors or Exacto knife

Glue photo of church to the back of the mat board so that the nice color side of the mat board shows when you open the book. Trim. Cut the second piece of mat board to match the first. My example worked out to be 9" x 7". Accordion pleat a piece of card stock lengthwise. Each pleat is about 3/4" in my example. Cut the pleated card stock the height of the mat boards.

Do not glue photos to the front and back pleats. These will be glued onto the covers.

Place 1/2" of glue on the back left hand side of one of the thin photos. Place it about 1/2" below the top of the first pleat on the FRONT of the pleat. Fold the pleat over and place 1/2" of glue on the back right hand side of another picture. Glue it to the BACK of the pleat. Leave a small space between the two photos. You should now be able to see the front of first photo and the back of the other. Continue all the way down and on the other pleats.
Glue the front and back flaps of the pleats to the inside of the front and back covers.
It should look like the above photo. When you open and pull both covers, the photos will lie flat and look like the photo below. This reminds me of the ditty I learned as a child...."Here is the church, here is the steeple. Open the doors and see all the people"
This gift will last longer than those skinny stemmed wine glasses they asked for in their registry.

Frozen Strawberry Sorbet

It's strawberry season and this never fails to please. It keeps forever in the freezer and is a gorgeous color. You can use fresh strawberries, but I like those just as is or in shortcake. As long as you are going to freeze them, you might as well use frozen ones. Plus they are washed, hulled and ready to go.

Ingredients:

16 0z. package frozen strawberries

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup orange juice

Tools:

blender or food processor

hand blender (optional)

Place the strawberries, sugar and orange juice in a blender or processor and puree. It helps if the strawberries are a little thawed. Pour into a freezer proof bowl and freeze until crystals form around the edge. If you forget and the whole mixture freezes completely, no problem, just continue with the next step.

Remove from the freezer and mix with the hand blender (or dump it back in the processor and puree again). This breaks up the ice crystals which makes for a smoother sorbet. Freeze again until solid. Serve in cones or dishes or for a really impressive dessert do the following:

Ingredients:

4 lemons

2 egg whites

4 T sugar

Tools:

knife

grapefruit knife

beater

butane torch

Cut a very small slice off the bottom of the lemon so it will stand up. Cut off the top at the widest point so you have a bowl then carve out the lemon pulp with the grapefruit knife. Remove all of the pulp. You should just have the skin and white of the lemon. Fill with frozen strawberry sorbet. Place back in the freezer while you make the meringue.
Make a meringue by beating egg whites until fluffy and very slowly add 2 Tablespoons of sugar per egg white and beat until the meringue forms stiff peaks. Completely cover the sorbet with the meringue. You can serve now or freeze the meringue covered lemons.

Apply heat with the torch until the meringue is light brown. I melted some seedless raspberry jam in the microwave and dribbled it around the plate for garnish. A mint leaf would be nice too.

Tunnel Vision

I know you are invited to at least one wedding this summer. Bring your camera. This is a neat way to present a special wedding picture. It's an old paper trick call a tunnel card. I like to frame it in a shadow box and give it to the married couple. You might even get away with not having to buy one of those expensive items on their gift registry. Materials:

4 copies of a photo that has a fore, middle and background.

shadowbox frame

mat

2 pieces of cardstock

glue stick

Tools:

scissors

In this sample, the frame and mat are 8" x 10". The photos are 5" x 7" with a 1/2" border all around. Accordion pleat the cardstock lengthwise. My pleats were about 1" wide. Cut them so that they are the same height as the mat.

Leave one photo as is. Cut out the bottom of the photo along natural lines to form the front of the tunnel. Make sure that you leave the right and left sides on all of the photos. Find at least one (2 is better) natural division for the middle ground of the photo. Cut along the division(s).

Glue the pleated card stock to the back of the mat. Glue the whole photo to the back of the card stock pleats, making sure that it lines up with the mat opening. Now comes the relatively fussy part. Glue the other photos onto the fronts of the respective pleats, lining them up with the whole photo. It is best if you do this back to front.
You should have a photo that looks like this one. Frame it and present it to the lucky couple.

Ode to Mom

What are the perfect Mother's Day gifts? Flowers, breakfast in bed and a poem. You're on your own with the flowers and breakfast but I can help with the sentiment. This is called a "diamante" and is based on grammar not rhyme. It even looks kind of cool - like a diamond and you know what they say...?

Choose 2 words - mine were Mother and Day, but you might choose Grandmother/Grandchild or Flowers/Breakfast (what ever). Next, a kind of MadLibs happens.

1st line: One Noun (Mother)

2nd line: Two adjectives (relating to first noun - Mother)

3rd line: Three participles ("ing" words)

4th line: Four nouns (first 2 relating to the first noun and second 2 relating to the final noun)

5th line: Same as the 3rd line but relating to the final noun

6th line: Two adjectives (for final noun)

7th line: final noun (Day)

Let the children help. I'm sure you can come up with better words than mine. Write it on a card with her flowers and place them on the breakfast tray.

Framed for Mama

Mama can always use another framed picture of her adorable baby. Home depot has great tumbled marble tiles that look like something out of ancient Rome. They come in a package of two and are made for 2' tile inserts, but we can never use something for which it is designed, can we?

Materials:

4" x 4" tumbled marble tiles (2 for under $6 - HD)

vertical badge ID holders (Staples)

photos

liquid nails, goop or E-6000 glue

Tools:

scissors

iron

Type child's name or a sentiment on your computer and reverse it. (Important!) I used Photoshop with "Capitals" as the type font. Print it out on the computer and then print it on a copy machine. (Important!) Place the inked side on the smoothest part of the frame and iron with a very hot iron. Hold the paper in place (you might even want to tape it) and iron. Hold one side and carefully lift the other side to see if the type has transferred. If not, place back down and continue to iron. (Don't be alarmed if the paper scorches). It may not completely transfer but that adds to the antique look.
Place the photo inside a badge holder, trimming to fit if necessary. Adjust the holder until the photo shows through the tile opening. Cut the excess plastic off of the top of the holder. Glue the holder to the back of the tile. Surprise Mama.
Tips:

It is important to print the names backwards and on a copy machine. Computer prints will not transfer.

Practice transferring a name on the back of one of the frames if you wish.

These tiles are too heavy to glue a hanger on the back so my suggestion is to lean them on a shelf or mantle.

It might be fun to print pictures in sepia for an even older look.