And don’t forget to soak your black eyed peas tonight, so you can make them for luck in the new year!*

I love Black Eyed Peas… they are healthy, tasty, and generally kid friendly… Growing up my mom made Hoppin’ John for New Years Day — Black Eyed Peas over rice, topped with onion. So I figured I’d share this VERY easy recipe with you for New Years Day. Plan ahead, because it takes an hour to cook. This recipe can be easily halved or doubled, too!

Hoppin’ John

• 1 lb black eyed peas, soaked
• 1 c chopped celery
• 1 c chopped onion
• 2 tsp red pepper flakes
• Ham hocks, or hambone and left over ham from your holiday ham. (Or approx 1-2 cups large ham chunks)
• 1.5 tsp salt (add later and taste first if using smoked hamhocks, as they have a bit of salt in them)
• Optional – a few shakes of Tabasco.

__________________

Serve with hot cooked rice & chopped onion or chopped green onion

Put everything above the line in a large pot, and barely cover with water.
Bring to a boil, then turn low and simmer 1 hour.

(While it’s cooking, go ahead and prepare your rice, and chop up some onions or green onions to sprinkle on top.)

Serve over rice, with onions & Tabasco!

*If you forgot, don’t worry, there’s usually a ‘quick soak’ method on the bag.

So everyone have fun and everyone be safe tonight!

Oh, and tonight when you’re sipping your champagne, be sure to save those champagne corks and wires. (Make a Tiny chair!)

Happy 2010 Everyone!

xxoo
Dot

The week between Christmas and New Years is a good time to get kids to write thank you notes for the gifts they received, but for young kids, it can be a real pain to get them to write something. These downloadable templates are good solution for that. Just print out the template and have your child either fill in the blanks himself or herself, or if they can’t write yet, you can fill it in for them! And on the black and white version, they can add personality by coloring it themselves!

(Yes, more uses for the little spot illustrations used in the Christmas Gift Tags, and the Little Game Box!)

I’ve included 3 versions, which you can download for free at the links at the bottom of the page.

• a color printable that prints 2 to thank you notes to a page, with a cute snowman graphic.
• a black and white printable that prints 1 to a page, but includes a bigger snowman with present graphic for the kids to color themselves!
• a color printable that prints two postcard sized (4″x6″) postcard thank you notes, which would be great printed on cardstock, and can even be mailed as is, just use the back to address and stamp.

Plus, you can just download the snowman with gift graphic for use in your own thank you notes!

Download the files:

• Color Your Own Snowman – Black and White Version (1 per page)
• Color Version – Prints 2 per page
• 4″x6″ Postcard – Color Version – 2 per page
• Download just the Snowman Graphic to use in your own thank you note

Want something even simpler? new for 2011: Super simple Kindergartner (early writer) version

Hope you find these useful!

(excuse the photo – taken by my phone!)

Want to make it yourself?  Here’s the recipe!

Nanny’s Sour Cream Pound Cake

From Estelle Cotten (1992)

• 2 sticks butter, softened
• 3 cups sugar
• 6 eggs
• ½ tsp lemon extract (I was out of lemon, so i increased the vanilla and added a touch of almond extract)
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 3 cups cake flour, sifted
• ¼ tsp. soda (sift in with flour)
• 1 small carton sour cream  (1 cup)

Instructions:

Line bottom of tube pan with parchment paper.  Spray sides and tube with non-stick spray and flour lightly.  Oven temperature 275 – 300.

(I used a bundt pan for this because it was all I could find, so I just greased and floured the whole thing)

Cream butter with sugar.  Add eggs, one at a time.

Add flavorings.  Add flour (with soda) alternately with sour cream (Flour first, then ½ the sour cream, flour, rest of the sour cream, flour) using low speed of mixer.

Pour batter into prepared tube pan.  Bake at 275-300 about 1 ½ hours.  (Use toothpick test–done when toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean)

Let cool, then remove from pan.

To Download as PDF: Gifttags-2009-Dabbledorg
To get from Flickr: Go to Flickr, then choose All Sizes

Like these?

You can download all the images to make your own little Game Box, a cute homemade stocking stuffer!

Happy Holidays everyone!

Tutorial: Make a Bracelet from an old Record

Kelly from Tresijas shows us how to make a fun and easy bracelet! A great present that you can do yourself…

Christmas Tag Downloadable

Fanie from Art vs Craft.net made a cute cat Christmas gift tag for you!

A cute stocking stuffer: The Little Game Box

And my own holiday gift to you, Download everything you need to make this little game… with bunches of cards with illustrations by yours truly!

More Holiday Tutorials and Links!

A few more things for inspiration from around the web…

• Christmas Projects for Kids at One Pretty Thing
• Adorable Advent Calendar cards every day this month at Sketched Out!
• Christmas Cane Cookies at Filth Wizardry
• Appliqued Onesies at Ready Set Craft!
• Recycled Wrapping Paper Ideas at Mega-Crafty
• Check out all the wreath ideas at Dollar Store Crafts (and all the Dollar Store Gifts tutorials)

You can make 2 different games with this set, both a “Treasure Hunt” game like the one The Boy liked so much (explained below), and also a “Memory” game (your standard Concentration type card matching game).

The free download set includes 3 sheets of cards (60 cards in all — yup, 60 original Dot drawings! I think I’m insane.), instruction sheets, and labels perfectly sized for sticking on the top of an Altoids tin.

Little Game Box Download Set

Wanna see what you get? Click on a pic below to view larger or as a slideshow.

To play the Treasure Hunt game:
Lay squares out in a 5×5 or 6×6 grid–or whatever size you want. One player hides a dime or other small marker under one of the squares. Remaining players try to guess which square by asking questions, and all squares not matching the answer are removed from the grid. (Example: “Does it fly?” If the answer is No, then all flying things are removed from the grid. If Yes, then all things that DON’T fly are removed.) Players take turns until the marker is found. Winner gets to hide the marker for the next round.

*I have no idea of the name, but it was more complex than this… this is a simplified version suitable for small ones.

Enjoy!

PS… I did spend WAY too much time doing this, so if you like it, I’d love a blog link, a tweet, a stumbled or a facebook or whatever to this post, to share the love :)

Today we have another lovely guest poster here on Dabbled,  Kelly from Tresijas!  I discovered Kelly through some of the really cool creations she had posted in the Dabbled Flickr group–especially her vinyl record creations–, and I asked her if she’d honor us with a tutorial.  And she agreed, so here it is…  Enjoy!

How to: Make A Bracelet from Vinyl Record

List of materials:

Toaster oven with tray
An old pair of scissors
stretchy gloves (to protect from heat)
record album
low grit sand paper
bracelet mandrel or other cylindrical object (a soda can or skinny glass bottle will work too)

Most of these items can be found at a second hand store. I usually work with 45’s because they are often times the most abused/non-playing. I try not to harm a record that cans till be enjoyed for its original purpose.

Instructions:

[Note, see photos following instructions for a visual perspective]

1. Heat toaster oven to about 150-200 degrees.
2. Since all ovens are different, take some time to get to know yours. Place the record in the oven for a minute or two, if the record doesn’t “relax” (see photo) turn the heat up slightly every few minutes until it does. If the record starts to melt or have a strong odor, the temp is too high.
3. Once the record relaxes, put your gloves on, have your scissors ready, then remove it from the oven. Quickly cut about a 5 1/2 inch strip from the record. The album will cool fairly quickly, but never fear because the beauty of vinyl is that it can be reheated. If you want to trim a little from your strip simply place it back in the oven and repeat steps 1-3.
4. Once you have cut the strip to your satisfaction, use the sand paper to take off any sharp edges. It helps to wet the sandpaper first.
5. Place the strip back in the toaster and wait for it to relax. Have your mandrel ready.
6. Once the strip is ready, with gloves on, remove it and quickly wrap it around your mandrel. Hold it there until it cools (about 15 seconds)

Voila! You have a new bracelet! Remember, if it doesn’t fit the way that you like, just reheat and form it again. Have fun and experiment, the possibilities are virtually limitless with this material.

Photos

[Click any photo to view larger/as a slide show]

About Kelly:

I’m a 35 year old, stay at home mom of 3 girls. My husband is from Argentina so we spend a lot of time in South America. The handmade culture is booming there and has had a tremendous influence on my own work. I started beading about 10 years ago, but quickly realized that although I enjoyed working with beads, I was beginning to look for another hobby that was less time consuming and that my young children would be less likely to throw all over the floor.

One day I was watching Reading Rainbow with one of my girls and saw a segment about a man that made unique record bowls on a vacuum form. I thought that it was a very creative idea. A few weeks later I found some red and yellow record albums at the thrift store and felt compelled to buy them to experiment with. My first creations were rough to say the least, but slowly but surely I became very comfortable working with vinyl. The rest, as they say, is history.

Even though I love my record creations I never stop looking for new materials to work with. Last year I started using wood salvaged from burn piles and this year I began experimenting with paper mache. Any project using recycled and readily available materials makes me smile! My kids also have their own Etsy shop where they sell their artwork. It’s very important for me to include them in the creative process and they inspire me every day.

Visit her Etsy shop to see more of her cool creations!

Hi there, fellow crafty bloggers!
No, this isn’t Dot writing, it’s Fanie from Art vs Craft.net!

While she’s away, I managed to sneak into her blog and give you a freebie! ;-)
Since we’re all busy shopping around, I guessed some of us could use some extra tags for presents. So I made a cute cat Christmas gift tag for you!

I made this easy, all you have to do is to click on the image or click here to start the download.
It’s a A4 letter size, in PDF format, with 6 Christmas tags on them.

Happy Holidays! :-)
If you liked this freebie, feel free to let me know via the comments on my blog.

(If you can’t download it, you may want to go to the Adobe Reader website to get the free software download.)

Free Shipping Ends Tonight

A reminder: Free Shipping on Prints ends tonight!  If you have been wanting one of Nancy’s art prints for a Christmas gift, grab it now…. Details on the free shipping offer here.

More Truly Shameless Promotion..

If you’re thinking you’d love to add to the Dabbled holiday fund, feel free to support Dabbled when you shop at Amazon! A tiny little bit of cash gets back to us when you buy stuff through one of our Amazon links!

Here are a few you might want to go check out again!

Links:

Picture Frame Ornament Tutorial
Recipe Related Gift Ideas
How to Make Homemade Eggnog – Both Cooked and Uncooked versions