Spring Pinwheel Earrings

     Spring is here, although if you live in Maine like I do, you wouldn't be able to tell.  Welcome the change of season with some fun paper pinwheel earrings.

Materials:
*Patterned paper
*2 mini buttons
*2 jump ring
*Ear wire
*Head pin
*All purpose adhesive
*Scissors
*Round nosed pliers
*Flat nosed pliers
*Small beads

Directions:
*It's somewhat difficult to verbally describe the steps needed to make these earrings, so I've included a picture below showing the necessary folding steps in addition to written directions.
*Cut out a small square from patterned paper (approximately 1.5" x 1.5").
*Fold the paper in half diagonally with the pattern side facing in.  Crease and unfold, then repeat the procedure with the other diagonal.  You should end up with something like the top right picture below.
*Cut along one of the diagonal folds 1/4 of the way in and then fold over as shown in the bottom left picture.
*Repeat with the remaining sides to get the bottom right picture.

*Repeat the entire procedure for a second square of paper to form a second pinwheel.
*Glue a small button in the center of each pinwheel.
*Poke a small hole in each of the pinwheels using a needle or similar implement.
*Pry open the jump rings with the pliers and slip each one through the hole in its respective pinwheel, then close the jump rings.
*Cut the "head" off two head pins, then curl the ends and clamp to the jump ring.
*Slide small beads onto the head pins, then create a loop at the top of each head pin and attach each one to its respective ear wire.

Adorable Owl Heat Pack

Materials:
*Fabric with predominant color brown (make sure it's not highly flammable)
*Brown felt
*White felt
*Orange felt
*Black felt
*Felt in four bright colors (e.g. green, blue, purple, and pink)
*Chalk
*White rice
*Needle and white thread
*Sewing machine

Directions:
*Resize my template, included below, to the desired size, and print.  You may also want to print a copy of what the owl should look like assembled, which is also included below.

*Cut out all of the pieces of the template and then start tracing onto the corresponding fabric or felt using chalk.  You will need 2 copies of the owl's body from the fabric, 4 wings in brown felt, two large circles cut from the white felt for eyes, two small black circles for pupils, one orange triangle for a beak, and four hearts of each of the four bright colors for feathers.
*Stitch together two pairs of wings and repeat for the other two copies.  By sewing together 2 instead of using just one, this gives the wings some stability.
*Sew the eyes, beak, and feathers to one copy  of the owl's body.  When sewing the feathers, start with the bottom row of feathers and work your way upward.
*Place the copy of the owl's body with the face facing up.
*Place the wings on top with the side with the nice stitches facing down.  Position them such that they are at the height that you want the wings to be at and such that a tiny bit of the flat edge of the wing is sticking out over the owl's body on either side.
*Place the other copy of the owl's body pattern side down on top and begin sewing together, leaving an opening to pour in the rice.
*Add rice until your owl reaches its desired fullness.
*Sew closed and your heat pack is ready to use.  Just pop it into the microwave for a few seconds.

Easy Earrings

     This week's craft takes virtually no time to create and can save you a fair amount of money when compared to buying earrings from the store.

Materials:
*Earring posts
*Small, flat backed objects to turn into earrings
*E9000 glue or a strong all purpose adhesive

Directions:
*Glue small objects to the earring posts and then set aside to dry for 24 hours.  Once they're dry, they are ready to wear :)

Sharpie Mugs + Brownie in a Mug Recipe

     Here is a craft and a recipe in one blog post.  I don't usually post recipes because my cooking skills extend only as far as making spaghetti, but sometimes Brian will come up with something awesome that I can't help but share.  One day Brian came across a brownie recipe that you cook by microwaving in a mug.  We tried out the recipe and it was okay, but not amazing, so Brian used his baking prowess to concoct his own version, which came out wonderfully.  I wanted some way to showcase Brian's delicious recipe on my blog and so I searched the internet for mug decorating ideas, which is how I found out about Sharpie mugs.
     Since Brian and I are both math grad students, I decided to decorate our mugs with math jokes.  If you're not interested in advanced math, feel free to skip ahead to the next section, but I figured I would share the jokes so that any mathematicians in my audience could perhaps get a chuckle.  One reads, "You may be a mathematician if, when being interrogated as a suspect by the police and asked to prove your innocence, you begin by saying, 'Assume, to the contrary, that I'm guilty . . .' (at which point you are arrested)."  The other says, "You may be a mathematician if you know the Greek alphabet, but not a word of Greek" and includes some Greek letters that I find myself using often at the bottom.

Sharpie Mugs

     I found this craft here and have included my own, slightly modified version of the directions below.

Materials:
*Plain mugs
*Oil based paint markers (such as the ones by Sharpie)
*Baking sheet
*Pen
*Pencil
*Printer paper
*Scissors
*Painter's tape

Directions:
*Pick up a solid colored mug.  Thrift stores and dollar stores are great places to find plain mugs for low prices.  I ended up getting mine from Goodwill for a dollar each.
*Rinse off your mug to remove any dirt or other grime that could prevent the paint from sticking to the mug.  Isopropyl alcohol is recommended as a cleaning agent, although I did not try this.
*Cut a sheet of white printer paper down to the size you would like your design to be and sketch out your design in pen or pencil.
*Once you have your design ready, shade in the back side of the piece of paper with pencil, such as pictured below:

*Tape your design to your mug using painter's tape, making sure not to cover up any part of your design with tape:

*Carefully trace over your design with a pen or pencil.  Once you've finished, peel off the paper and tape and beneath your design should show up lightly in pencil, such as in the picture below:

*Trace the pencil lines with your oil based paint marker.
*Let your mug dry for 24 hours.
*Place the mug on a cookie sheet and pop it into the oven and turn the oven to 425 degrees.  By placing the mug in the oven while it is heating, you reduce the likelihood that the mug will break due to a temperature differential.
*Once the oven finishes preheating, bake the mug for 30 minutes.  When 30 minutes is up, turn off the oven.  Leave the mug inside the oven while it cools.  This again makes it less likely to break.
*As soon as the mug is cool, it's ready to use.  To increase the longevity of your mug, I recommend hand washing it when you're done rather than using a dishwasher.

Brownie in a Mug

Ingredients:
* 3 tbsp hot cocoa powder
*2 tbsp flower
*1/4 tsp vanilla
*1 tbsp oil
*2 tbsp water
*Optional: vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, sprinkles, or other toppings

Directions:
*Combine flour and hot cocoa mix in a mug.
*Add vanilla, oil, and water.  Mix until smooth.
*Cook in the microwave for about 1 minute and 40 seconds.  It should look something like this when it's finished:

*Let cool for a couple of minutes, as the brownie can be very hot.
*Top with ice cream, whipped cream, sprinkles, or other favorite brownie toppings and enjoy :)