Mason Jar Spill Proof Cups

So I know it has been a bit longer than I would like between posts but I have a good reason. We found out we are moving to Italy in a few months. This is one of the moments where I am thrilled with the Air Forces decision to move us because it is the one place I have wanted to be stationed. With that said, I have not had time to do many of the pins I want to tackle.  But I did finally get a chance to make my very own Ball Jar Spill Proof Glass. I loved this idea from http://www.littlebitfunky.com/2012/05/how-to-turn-mason-jar-into-spillproof.html. Her site is great and you can find the instructions on how to do this project if you follow the link.

So this project was pretty easy to do. It really just took a bit of muscle drilling the hole through the jar lid. A quick hint when you are drilling the hole, Don't Let Go! it will spin and try and take your finger off with it. Trust me, I was interrupted by one of my boys and turned around, letting go of the lid and nearly cut myself with the spinning disk. Lesson learned. Plus if it's spinning it's not going to be drilling through. Also beware of the sharp edge when you are done drilling. I used a pair of pliers to pull off the edge, it came off easy, and then inserted the rubber grommet. In a future post I will be tinting this jar a pretty color to make it even more festive.  

Overall this is a super easy and great project to do that will reap the rewards of cute glasses that don't spill and the added benefit of keeping the bugs out if you are outside having a nice glass of sweet tea or lemonade. I would rate this project a 10 for easy and useful.

Now it's your turn.

"Mashed Potato" Clay

This week has been a busy week at my house. It's the first week of summer vacation for both of my boys and they are already stir crazy.  And my husband, who is in the military, is leaving for 6 weeks. So to keep my boys occupied and not sitting in front of the television all day I decided to try out the Baking Soda Clay from http://www.busybeekidscrafts.com/Easy-Craft-Clay.html

• 1 box baking soda (about 2 cups)
• 1 cup cornstarch
• 11/2 cups water
• Sauce pan
• Bowl
• Spoon
• Plastic wrap
Here's how you make it...

1. Mix all the ingredients in a saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring consistently, until it is too thick to stir with a spoon.
2. Cool for 15 minutes, or until the dough is cool enough to touch. Knead it for about 5 minutes, or until smooth. Keep dough wrapped in plastic. Once you have molded it, it will take 1-2 days for the clay to dry. The length of time depends on how thick your craft is: If it is a flat ornament, it may only take 1 day, if it is thick it will take much longer. This clay can be painted with either Tempera or acrylic craft paints.

The thing that I loved about this clay is that the ingredients are so simple and I had them in the house already, so when the kids were screaming for a craft to do later the light bulb flashed over my head as  I told them I would make some clay for them to play with later in the day. My youngest one was most excited and he offered to help make it. He was quite disappointed when he realized it had to be cooked and he couldn't play with it right away.

Once I was able to get him to focus on the fun we could have later that afternoon and how we could paint their clay projects once they were dry in a few days, he was ok with the wait time.  It didn't take long to whip up and once it was ready to rest for 15 minutes it looked like a pot of mashed potatoes, which the kids though was funny. They now call the clay, Mashed Potato Clay.

 

After the clay cooled for 15 minutes it was time to kneed it and make it smooth. Let me tell you that 15 minutes is not enough to let this cool. I would have let it go a little longer but I wanted to stay true to the recipe. I dumped it out onto a cutting board and started to kneed it. It was really hot still so I would fold it over fast and kept doing that over and over. The other problem was that it was really pretty sticky and kept sticking to my hands. I don't know if I didn't cook it quite long enough or if it was just that it was still to warm. I fixed this by grabbing the container of cornstarch and sprinkling a little mound on the board and dusting my hands with it and adding a little more to the clay. After about 5 minutes it was shaping up nice and I didn't have a big mess on my hands.

 

  Now it's off to a plastic bag to finish cooling until we can make our Mashed Potato Clay creations. 

 

Gavin  adds feathers to his creation

Squishy

 

 

Conner called this his "Clay Burrito"

Overall I would say that this clay is pretty good and I would make it again. I think I would add more cornstarch than it called for and cook it longer than I did because it was really soft and you couldn't make vessels that were very tall or they would smush in, and it still was a bit sticky at times.  I would rate this project a 7 out of 10  because it was easy to make and the kids had a blast.

Welcome To My World

Hi Everyone and Welcome to Prilly Does Pinterest, where I, Prilly, will be actually doing the things that I pin on some of my boards on Pinterest. Each week I will try and pick a recipe and a craft or fun thing to do with the kids, from my board and share my experiences with all of you. So lets get pinning.