We have several talented guest posters contributing this week, so don’t miss the guest posts! Chica and Jo’s yummy marshmallow pops would be a fun project to do with the kids home this week… and stay tuned… Hint: the next two are felt related tutorials, but very different!

If you missed any holiday posts, you can check out the Dabbled holiday roundup here.
And see all holiday 08 posts here.

And don’t throw away that turkey carcass! Remember to Make your own stock and freeze it!!!

The votes are in, and although I loved all our entrants, here are our top two vote getters in the Dabbled Upcycled Holiday Challenge.
1 – From She’s Crafty (shop here)
This cozy sweater bag… it even has pockets! What a great gift!
2 – From Chica & Jo: Make your Own Snowglobes! Such a fun little project with tons of possibilities! And a tutorial to make them yourself!
Since you can only win with one entry, third goes to Laurienrick‘s adorable Corduroy Trees.

Congrats to the winners… !

Check out all the entries – some really great stuff!
1. Mini Snow Globes (more, and tutorial, here),
2. Christmas Trees for a Mantle,
3. Purse from Sweaters,
4. Snowmen: Tink and Estelle (and The Colonel),
5. Retro Plaid Crossover Bag,
6. Wine Bucket Cozy, Coasters, and Table Topper,
7. Tree Skirt from Bridesmaid Dress (tutorial here),
8. Recycled Tree Stump Snowmen Ornaments (tutorial here),
9. Santa wooden centerpiece,
10. Forest Wool Hip Bag

The top 2 winners receive the following little nifty prize, a set of 4 art postcards. Please email me at Dot[at] dabbled (dot)org with your snail mail. All winners get an award button, below.

PS – I’m just trying out Artfire (linked above) – I like it thus far, no listing fees like Etsy (though the free monthly option is limited). If you’re thinking about getting your feet wet with a shop, but not wanting commitment, I think it’s a good option. If you sign up, you can go through this link and I’ll get credit for sending you! Register on ArtFire.com (Buy these as real big prints here)

Related:
Holiday Roundup – all the cool Dabbled stuff for the season in one place!

Watch this space… over the next few days we’ll have some great project how-to’s from some terrific guest bloggers!

*not pictured*
13. Go Green for the Holidays – Tutorial Links
14. I Heart Amazon.. Some Gift suggestions
15. How to Throw A White Elephant Party!

Don’t forget to check out the cool craft from some Dabbled readers!

Don’t miss a thing… Subscribe to Dabbled via feedreader or email!

The Holiday Contest entries are closed, and we have 10 lovely entries, consolidated here. Check ’em out! I’ll pick a winner, and we’ll also have a people’s choice award, so vote for your favorites below.. (Grab a nifty robot santa contest button below, too!)

You can see more views of the entries in the Dabbled Flickr Pool, and be sure to click through the links below for more information about the item creation, and for tutorials on some.

1. Mini Snow Globes (more, and tutorial, here),
2. Christmas Trees for a Mantle,
3. Purse from Sweaters,
4. Snowmen: Tink and Estelle (and The Colonel),
5. Retro Plaid Crossover Bag,
6. Wine Bucket Cozy, Coasters, and Table Topper,
7. Tree Skirt from Bridesmaid Dress (tutorial here),
8. Recycled Tree Stump Snowmen Ornaments (tutorial here),
9. Santa wooden centerpiece,
10. Forest Wool Hip Bag

Vote for your favorite 2 items in the poll, below!

VOTING OVER: WINNERS HERE!

1 Building a snowman from Brian H
2 Animated e-card from art by andy
3 3D Sleigh from cheeky magpie
4 Santa on a scooter from christine grove
5 Hip for the Holidays from Peter Breese
6 Keep Me Warm in the Snow from Carolineickle
7 Santa and the Yeti from Bella Sinclair
8 Snowman Family from Diana Evans
9 I Don’t Do Jingles from Mocando
10 Red Balloons and Green from Bill Nagel
11 Goose and Girl from Mamaliga
12 Santa and Dogs from Amy Cartwright

Here are the entries thus far in the Holiday Card Art Challenge… You have until 9:00 AM (Eastern US Time) tomorrow to get your entry in HERE.

EDIT: Entries closed — VOTE HERE!

VOTING BEGINS: 12:00 noon Wednesday 12/10/2008 (Tomorrow)
VOTING ENDS: 12/14/2008

Get out the vote for yours or your favorites! Link back to here or use the button below.

Hurry! Get Your Entry In

1 Building a snowman from Brian H
2 Animated e-card from art by andy
3 3D Sleigh from cheeky magpie
4 Santa on a scooter from christine grove
5 Hip for the Holidays from Peter Breese
6 Keep Me Warm in the Snow from Carolineickle
7 Santa and the Yeti from Bella Sinclair
8 Snowman Family from Diana Evans
9 I Don’t Do Jingles from Mocando
10 Red Balloons and Green from Bill Nagel
11 Goose and Girl from Mamaliga
12 Santa and Dogs from Amy Cartwright

Here is a tutorial/”how-to” on how I do it!

In a large pot, place your chicken carcass. You don’t *have* to add anything else, but adding celery, onions, carrots and/or herbs (like rosemary, thyme, bay leaves) will make your broth even more flavorful. Cover everything in your pot with water (the amount of water determines the amount of stock you make), and turn on high heat, until it starts to simmer. Turn the heat down to low and let simmer uncovered for at least 2-3 hours, or longer. Add more water if necessary to keep chicken bones submerged. (The strength will depend on how long you cook it, the amount of water. If you cook longer with less water, you’ll reduce the stock and make it stronger)

Turn off heat and strain so you just have liquid. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight. The liquid will solidify into a soft jello-like consistency. The fat will solidify on top, scrape that off with a spoon and discard.

Use within several days, or freeze. When freezing, I like to scoop into individual portions for ease of use later. For this, I used silicone muffin cups*** with about 1/4 cup in each. Put the muffin cups in the freezer for several hours until frozen, then remove stock from cups and store in a freezer bag. (Be sure to label the bag with the date, and the amount of each portion) That way you can easily pull out what you need later. It should be good for 6 months or so in the freezer.

I’m not an expert chef or anything, and I’m sure there are other methods, but this is easy and works for me :)

*I’m not really sure of the difference, I think stock is made with the bones and thickens up in the fridge, and broth just with meat, but I’m using the two terms interchangeably here.
**You can, of course, do this with any meat, not just poultry, but I find chicken stock to be the most useful.
***If you don’t have that, try ice cube trays, or anything you can easily remove frozen liquid from.

Just a few more days to enter the Dabbled Holiday Craft Contest!

Holiday Art Card contest ends Tommorow! 

All Holiday 08 Posts

See All Holiday Food Posts here.

Vote for my Christmas Tree Cookie Instructable Here!

Buy Handmade! Shop from these Dabbled readers etsy stores!

laurienrick enters several cool items! You can also find her etsy shop on the Shopping Links page!
Rows 1&2:
-a retro plaid crossover bag: “It began as a vintage wool dress that was all sewn together except for the hems around the skirt and sleeves – very Mary Tyler Moore. I appliqued some little flowers cut from a wool skirt over a few little moth bites, and it’s lined with a lovely brown bed sheet. “
–forest wool hip bag: “This little hip bag is made from a repurposed forest green wool sweater, a discontinued upholstery remnant, and an olive green woven belt. It has an interior pocket made from olive green corduroy.”
Last Row:
–Tink & Estelle: Their bodies were a tablecloth, the hats were a sweaters, and the scarves are a remnants of a red sweater and a piece of vintage fabric.
-The Colonel: The Colonel’s body was a tablecloth, his hat was a sweater, and the scarf was a remnant of flannel fabric… decorated with some cute little vintage buttons.
–Cute Cordoroy Christmas Trees: “They are made from a green corduroy shirt I found at Goodwill, and I strung some sparkly beads on them to dress them up a bit. “

Row 3 (Pic 1) and Row 5, from She’s Crafty (shop here)
Love this cozy sweater bag… it even has pockets!
Wine Bucket Etc: “Using 2 sweaters that were left over from from other projects, I created a wine bucket cozy along with a table topper and matching coasters.“

Rows 3&4, from Chica & Jo
Tree Skirt from a Bridesmaids Dress – So Clever! Check out the tutorial..
Make your Own Snowglobes! Such a fun little project with tons of possibilities! Check out the tutorial..

Links to all the pics above:

1. plaid crossover bag , 2. forest wool hip bag, 3. forest wool hip bag, 4. plaid crossover bag closer, 5. forest wool hip bag strap detail, 6. plaid crossover bag detail, 7. purse from sweaters, 8. Dabbled Holiday Contest – Tree Skirt from Bridesmaid Dress – 1, 9. Dabbled Holiday Contest – Tree Skirt from Bridesmaid Dress – 3, 10. Dabbled Holiday Contest – Tree Skirt from Bridesmaid Dress – 2, 11. Dabbled Holiday Contest – Mini Snow Globes – 2, 12. Dabbled Holiday Contest – Mini Snow Globes – 1, 13. Dabbled Holiday Contest – Mini Snow Globes – 3, 14. After: Upcycling Wine Bucket, 15. Detail: Upcycling Wine Bucket, 16. Tink and Estelle, 17. Colonel closeup, 18. Trees for Erin

Instructions and Recipe below the pics:

Ingredients:
2 Sticks butter, softened.
1 c sugar
1 c brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
2 c all-purpose flour (fluffed with fork or sifted)
1 teas baking soda
1 teas salt
3 cups oatmeal
1 1/2 c raisins (or instead, 1 1/2 c chocolate chips & 2 cups chopped pecans)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375.
Cream butter, sugars, and vanilla until light and fluffy
Add eggs and beat well.
Combine flour, baking soda, and salt (I like to sift them together)
Add to creamed mixture
Add oatmeal and raisins (We did this in the much loved Kitchen Aid mixer, but if the mixture is too think, stir in by hand.)
Drop onto a slightly greased cookie sheet. (a disher makes this really neat and easy)
Bake at 375 degrees F for 8-10 minutes, until light brown.
Remove from oven, and transfer to cooling racks.
Lick beaters!
Eat warm cookies!

(And if you’re concerned about small children and the joy of licking the beaters vs the tiny risk of salmonella, use pasteurized eggs.)

Related:
All Holiday 08 Posts
Make a Blueberry Pie
Make Fancy Stacked Christmas Tree Cookies

Tomorrow:
More entrants in the Dabbled Holiday Contest. Get yours in now!
… and Don’t forget to Enter your Christmas Card Designs in our mini Art Contest.

Stumble It!

So, taking a quick moment today to you guys how thankful I am for all of you, the Dabblers out there… I wouldn’t write this stuff if I didn’t have you to read it!
THANKS!

… Tired of just hanging out with family? A little bored? Turkey coma? Go Try Something New and enter it in the Dabbled Holiday Contest!

I’ll be featuring the entries here on Dabbled as they are entered. Remember, any handmade holiday project — from gifts to decorations, or whatever — , which has some element of recycling/upcycling to it, is eligible. To enter, just tag your photos ‘dabbledholiday’ on flickr! Full details here.