Bake it: Homemade Hummus and Bagel Chips

Homemade Hummus and Bagel Chips

Bagel chip ingredients:
3 bagels
1/4 cup olive oil
½ teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon chili powder
2 teaspoons coarse sea salt
Gallon-sized zip-top plastic bag

Steps:

1. Slice each bagel crosswise into 4-6 slices.

2. Pour olive oil, onion, garlic, chili powder, and salt into the plastic bag.

3. Add bagel slices, zip the bag, and massage the bag, coating each bagel slice with oil.

4. Bake at 325 degrees for 10 minutes. Flip. Bake 10 minutes more.

Humus ingredients:
15 ounce can of garbanzo beans, mostly drained
2 Tablespoons tahini or un-salted almond/cashew butter
½ teaspoon salt
Juice from ½ lemon
1 clove garlic, coarsely chopped
1 Tablespoon fresh dill, chopped
1 Tablespoon olive oil


Steps:

1. Put all of the humus ingredients into a blender or food processor. Add some of the liquid from the canned garbanzo beans.

2. Blend together until you have a smooth and creamy dip. Chill in the refrigerator before serving.

Vacation is all I ever wanted........

On Vacation!

I am on Vacation!!!! We are driving down the coast of California....stopping at all the hot spots along the way. Celebrating our 5th year wedding anniversary.

I am facebooking the entire adventure......join me on facebook!

www.facebook.com/cathie.filian

I'll be back to blogging in a few days!

Cathie

Crafty Blogger Roundup

Vickie Howell-Craft.Rock.Love
Learn how to finger knit with Vickie's step-by-step how-to, featured on the CRAFT website!

The Impatient Crafter
Madge shares the clip from her recent appearance on Lifetime TV's The Balancing Act for Beadalon.

The Artful Crafter
Eileen suggests you go shopping for craft supplies in your jewelry box and closet. Make an old accessory into something new and fresh.

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery
Old plastic bead necklaces go under the knife (and in the toaster oven) to make Melted Plastic bead Star Earrings perfect for the patriotic holidays

Naughty Secretary Club
Thinking about starting up your own craft business? Jen has a few suggestions of things you might consider first. Plus learn how you can take a Crafty Business Seminar with Jen from anywhere in the world!

Mixed Media Artist
Cyndi reports on her experiences with using the new CopprClay. This stuff rocks!

Cross Stitch at About.com
Why no knots in Counted Cross Stitch? Find out why and how to secure your floss in alternate ways.

Crafty Princess Diaries
Tammy shows off her cool new sewing cabinet that was surprisingly inexpensive.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
At Craftside there is a bling-tastic video on hand lettering with Lisa Engelbrecht, from the new book The Crafter's Devotional a how to make a leather book cover and flag cuffs made from a book cover, an "actual size" silver heart using PMC, and a fun snack recipe.

Cathie Filian
It is summer and that means beach & pool time! Visit Cathie Filian's blog to learn how to stitch up a terry beach throw.

Aileen's Musings
Ever wonder how to get that cute copyright symbol or better yet, how to put one on your artwork or photographs? Aileen offers a easy tutorial using PSP.

About Family Crafts
If you are looking for a creative way to celebrate every day during the month of July, check out this special events calendar!

long time coming

For "J" - Our Wedding Day.

Tonight, after 23 years, I was able to say, "I love you" to someone who brought hugs, laughs and love into my life while I was growing up. We lost each other due to circumstances. Her name is "J" and we communicated today for the first time after 23 years.


She is my sister and I have missed her.


I am so happy.

make it: Beach Towel Roll UP

Stitch up this handy beach towel that boasts a hidden compartment perfect for stowing your valuables and a cushy pillow. All you really need is couple of beach towels to get started.

Surfs up! With this beach towel roll up.

Supplies:
Two beach towels
Sewing pins
Sewing machine
Thread
Sew-on hook and loop tape
Two 30” lengths of ribbon
Polyester stuffing

Steps:

1. Lay your towels down one on top of the other with the wrong sides facing. Store-bought towels are not always exactly the size that is specified on the label, so your towels may not line up exactly. If this is the case, just line them up as best as you can – they don’t have to be exactly the same size for this project to work. Alternately, you can trim them and re-hem them to get them to be just the right size.

2. Divide your towels into thirds by measuring the length of the towels and dividing by three. Pin the towels together along each third point, pinning all the way across the width of the towels. Sew the towels together along each of these lines using a long straight stitch.

3. Stitch hook and loop tape to the inside edge of the towel layers in the middle third. Sew around all edges of the hook and loop tape to secure it. This third of the towel will form a sealable pocket where keys, jewelry and other valuables can be secretly hidden.

4. Find the center point at each end of the towel and pin the end of a 30” piece of ribbon in between the two towels at each of these points. Starting just below the hook and loop tape, stitch the towels together all along the perimeter, making sure to catch the ends of the ribbon as you stitch. If the binding along the edges of your towels is too thick to feed through your sewing machine, just stitch the towels together a little bit further in from the edge to avoid the thick binding. You want to leave one side of the top section open to stuff the pillow. Also do not stitch over the hook and loop section.

5. Stuff the top portion of the towel with poly stuffing. Pin the opening closed and stitch it shut using the machine or a hand whipstitch.

6. To roll-up the towel: Fold the towel in half with the ribbons together. Fold or roll up the lower portion of the towel, leaving the ribbon exposed at the top. Wrap the ribbons around the towel roll and tie together.

link o rama

About Family Crafts
What are your cleaning tips for crafting with kids? Please take a moment to share your tips and then browse through tips shared by others.

Aileen's Musings
Hard as it was, Aileen has narrowed down the playing field and needs your help again to choose from her favorite sayings that have been posted for her blog giveway! Stop by and pick your favorite.

Cathie Filian
If you are wondering what to eat, craft and play on the 4th of July then head over to Cathie's blog for ideas.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
This week at Craftside you can watch the latest Look, Learn & Create video that includes tips on drawing, two techniques and projects for cutting photos up, a bit of fabric eye candy, and a free paper stencil and project from the new book The Art of Decorative Paper Stencils 2 and if you leave answers to the day's questions you are entered to win free books!

Crafty Princess Diaries
Tammy uses her jewelry making skills to create some beautiful and functional stitch markers.

CraftyPod
Sister Diane reviews an intriguing new book: Micro Macrame, by Annika DeGroot

Cross Stitch at About.com
Work at Your Own Pace - An encounter with a critter in the yard has Connie thinking about Cross Stitch (imagine that!) and speed.

Mixed Media Artist
Have you been wondering what happened to "Layers Upon Layers"? Cyndi's still hard at work, but has moved to "Mixed Media Artist". This week she's got a a round-up of fabric painting ideas for you!

Naughty Secretary Club
Arty Masterpieces are overrated, it's all about the Glittery Crafterpieces! Take a peek at the handmade art around my house and try your hand at making a fun glittery deer picture!

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery
See how to make a card and card album themed for a rock and roll mom to be that uses cute die cuts in a cool way.

The Artful Crafter
Panadieres for Zambia is a neat story and one small example of crafters helping crafters all around the world. As Eileen likes to say, Crafters are just the nicest people.

The Crochet Dude
Read Drew's first installment supporting the 3/50 grassroots project!

The Impatient Crafter
Madge shares a technique in this post about embossing on slick surfaces!

Vickie Howell-Craft.Rock.Love
Keep your kids busy this summer by setting up a Crafty Challenge for them!

make it: 4th of July Party Banner

4th of July Party Banner

This banner is perfect to string across your front porch, patio or picnic table. The soft sparkles from the extreme glitter are sure to please and shine in the summer sun.

Materials:

Folkart paint – 436 Fire Engine Red
Extreme Glitter – Red
Folkart paint – 643 Azure Blue
Extreme Glitter - Turquoise
Extreme Glitter – Silver
9 large wood circles
Foam paintbrush
Felt Stars – red,white and blue
Hot glue
Chipboard letters – BOOM BANG
Wood Star
Tulle – red, white and blue 1/3 yard each
Scissors
Red, white and blue ribbon – 6 yards
9 small wood disks
Scrap ribbons

Steps:

1. Paint 8 of the wood circles with the red paint and 1 of the circles with the blue paint. Allow to dry. Paint each circle with 2 or 3 coats of Extreme Glitter. Use the red over the red circles and the turquoise over the blue circle. Allow for dry time in between coats. Paint the wood star with the same technique using either red or turquoise.

2. Topcoat the chipboard letters with silver Extreme Glitter.

3. Hot glue a felt star to the center of each wood circle. Next, hot glue a chipboard letter to the center of the star. (For this project I spelled Boom and Bang, but you could spell anything related to the 4th of July.)For the blue circle, hot glue the wood star in the center.

4. Cut the tulle into 5 X 5 squares and layer the tulle by color. Got glue a stack of 6 layers of tulle behind each wood circle. Trim the tulle to a semi round shape and slice around the circle to create a fringed effect.

5. Line up the tulled wood circles across the red, white and blue ribbon. Place the “star” circle in the center to separate the words “BOOM” and “BANG”. Hot glue the circles to the ribbon (it is best to glue towards the top of the circle). Hot glue a small wood disk over the glued section for extra security.

Make it: 4th of July Crafts and Recipes

July 4th recipes!

Mango Salmon, Grilled Corn & Spiked Lemonade
Smores on a Stick & Cherry Cheesecake Pie

Star Painted and Stitched Napkins
&
Cookie Cutter Napkin Rings

These are so easy to make. The cookie cutters were Mod Podged with fabric scrap strips to give them a little extra pop. I picked the napkins up from Target and jazzed them up with a little Folkart fabric paint and embroidery floss. Click for complete instructions.

Recycled Denim Table Runner
visit this blog post for step-by step pictures

This is the perfect project for recycling an old pair of jean and for using up scrap fabrics. Click for complete instructions.

Quilted Star - Made with fabric and Mod Podge!

I picked up the star from a shop call Big Lots, a discount store that always has seasonal merchandise. The star was painted with a "not so hot" stars and stripes design - so I painted over it and Mod Podged some quilting fabrics to the points. Click for complete instructions.

My First 4th Baby Bib and T-shirt Set!

New babies will want to join in the celebration! Jazz up some $dollar store items with a little fabric paint. Click for complete instructions.

Firecracker Bean Bag Toss

Build your own backyard carnival game with old coffee cans and a piece of plywood. Kids will love playing this classic game of toss.

make it: Flower Cake!