Cornstarch Glue, and Valentines, Too

Have I spoken to you of my famous kid, spokeschild for the line of bulk cornstarch for sale at Kodo Kids? I traded them usage of the photos from my oobleck tutorial, and they gave me an awesomely big bag of cornstarch, along with a couple of scoops and a chute for it.

We have made SO many things with our cornstarch:

• scented powder
• oobleck
• more oobleck
• pudding
• gravy
• some more oobleck
• and, most recently, cornstarch glue

Cornstarch glue is more like school paste than Elmer's glue, but it's strong and sturdy, and it's WAY cheaper and less wasteful than those darned glue sticks that we go through like crazy.

The recipe is simple:

1. Stir together one part cornstarch to three parts water, with perhaps one drop of essential oil or a couple drops of food coloring, if you wish. I've seen recipes that call for a 1:2 ratio, but I've tried that before, and the result for me was crumbly and nearly unworkable, and the kids refused to use it.

You'll be tempted to use a whisk, but the cornstarch mixture is going to get pretty thick all at once, so really it's best to use a wooden spoon or a fork. Stir continuously--it won't take very long.

2. Heat the mixture over medium heat, but turn it down to medium-low as soon as you feel the mixture start to get thick. It gets thick quickly, and you want to be able to take it off the heat as soon as it looks smooth but translucent, exactly like Vaseline in consistency.

3. Pop the cornstarch glue in an old butter tub, and keep it in the refrigerator when you're not using it.

To apply the glue, you can use a popsicle stick or even a butter knife. It's perfect for kid craft projects, anything from their everyday stuff to Valentines--

 
--which we are quite immersed in these days, as you can well imagine.

P.S. Do you love fun and eco-friendly kid crafts? Then you'll love my Craft Knife Facebook page!

The Littlest Photographer

Guess who found a brand-new camera in her stocking this Christmas?

 
 
 
 
 
 
It's become Sydney's mission in life to document all things "pretty", whether that be a toy dino with snow on its face or a self-portrait plus Gracie in a strangle-hold.

Cameras and kids are the most wonderful combination. I'm loving my introduction to the way that Sydney sees the world.

Snuggly Warm, Snowy Cold Photo Shoot

My house has rotten lighting (I'm house hunting, by the way--know of any good two-story non-ranch houses on around five acres of land, no more than a 20-minute commute from a good graphic design job, for under $200,000?), and so I have to do my product shoot outdoors. It's challenging enough in the summer, when I have to find the perfect spot of indirect lighting, but in the winter, when I have to find that spot on a sunny day...well, the Midwest isn't really famous for that.

I tried to compromise by shooting some indoor shots next to an east-facing window blocked by scrub trees, but combined with a model prone to making goofy faces, I only got a few keepers out of dozens of shots:

 
 
 However, even though it was stinkin' cold so I only got my I Spy quilt done, I did discover that the snow makes an excellent photo backdrop:

 
 It's so hard to put a quilt into one shot, and so I think that this corner-to-corner angle is going to be my new go-to quilt shot:

 And then, of course, there's fringe:

The I Spy quilt is now up in my pumpkinbear etsy shop, to be followed by some more one-of-a-kind listings as soon as we get some more snow!

The Dino Name Game

1. I am a big nerd about etymology.

2. I have a reading knowledge of Greek and Latin.

Hopefully, this has made clear to you why I have made my four- and six-year-old children a game based around Greek and Latin word roots.

It's super-fun, I swear.

Will is always fascinated when I translate dinosaur names for her--the names actually make sense!--so I collected the most common Greek and Latin word roots that are used for dinosaur names (ignoring, of course, the other two ways in which dinosaurs are named, which is after people or places), copied them neatly onto word strips, wrote the translations on the back, and then laminated them and cut them out:

I like the table of Greek and Latin dinosaur descriptors, but the most important thing to me was to include all the word roots for the girls' favorite dinosaurs, and the word roots that are the most descriptive and evocative, so I also did a lot of flipping through our dinosaur encyclopedias to pick up ideas.

Now that we have a nice, big stack of descriptors in a drawstring bag (more on that later), the girls enjoy pulling the cards out and using them to construct funny dinosaurs:

Here Willow, who wanted to face the cards so that I could see them, was trying to make "the longest dinosaur name in the world."

Her plateotripteroderm just may win the prize!

My New Kitchen Aid

My mother-in-law, noticing that I cook with the girls nearly every day (and also, likely, noticing that the recipes that I cook with the girls are inevitably shockingly elaborate, outrageously messy, and have had a seriously detrimental effect on the state of my kitchen and my emotional health), took pity on me and bought me a new toy for Christmas:

I have owned my new Kitchenaid mixer for approximately five days now, and so far the girls and I have used it to make vegan strawberry cake, four loaves of bread dough, and the vanilla cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, complete with the vegan "buttercream" frosting, also made with my new Kitchenaid mixer:

Yum:

Yum!

and YUM!!!!!!!

This afternoon, my Kitchenaid and I are going to mix up some meringue, because baked Alaska doesn't just bake itself, you know.

Tiny Little Memorials

Down on my belly in the cold to photograph this interestingly and lovingly decorated grave near where my grandmother lies:

 
Doesn't every cemetery need one fabulous eyesore?

Acrylic Paint and Fabric Paint Duke it Out!!!

Y'all, don't get locked into that whole "only use fabric paint on fabric" business. It's a conspiracy, I tell you, and frankly quite unnecessary.

These past couple of weeks, I've been sewing up a coupla dozen personal peace flags for a long overdue pumpkinbear etsy shop update (I have to take photos outside for them to look at all decent, and in this weather...brrr!), and if I had to use my uber-expensive Jacquard Neopaque fabric paints on every single PEACE, I would be out of business!

That's not to say that you should never use fabric paint on a non-wearable fabric project, or should always use fabric paint on a wearable fabric project...basically, you have to experiment a little, and figure out what paint to use based on the properties of the individual paints.

For instance, acrylic paint dries stiffer than fabric paint--good quality fabric paint shouldn't dry stiff at all. So for a T-shirt, or baby clothes, you def want to use superior-quality fabric paint. But for your jeans, or a hat, or any other article of clothing for which drape isn't important, knock yourself out with acrylics, if you'd like. But if you're painting even a non-wearable fabric project, but you need it to be flexible and have a lot of drape, you probably want to use fabric paint. With my peace flags, the stiffness of the paint doesn't make a difference, so it doesn't matter if I use fabric paint or acrylic.

Coverage does matter, though, and it pretty much depends on the color of the paint, and a bit on the brand, how well a particular paint will cover a particular fabric color. Even with the Jacquard Neopaque fabric paints, which are supposed to be, well, opaque, the yellow needs two coats before the blue fabric print behind it doesn't show through. Same with the green over the silvery-white fabric that I chose. The white, however, gives perfect coverage in one coat, even over the green fabric that I'm using, as do the rest of the darker colors. With the craft acrylics, every color that I've tried needs two coats before it's opaque over a dark print, so if I have to do two coats anyway, I'd rather use the cheaper acrylic paints than the waaaay more expensive fabric paints.

I like to work with what I already own, too, so for me color matters--I'd rather use the perfect color in a more expensive paint that I already own than go shopping for the perfect color in a less expensive paint. For instance, I like the green of the fabric paint much better on this particular fabric, and I thought the red of the acrylic paint gave the best contrast on the trickier-to-match red fabric, so that's what I used:

Of course, you can always purchase textile medium to give acrylic paint the draping properties of fabric paint, but that's just something else to buy.