Whipperberry

WhipperBerry • Your Home For Creative Inspiration

Creative Team

Ruffled Apple Pencil Holder // Back to School

1 · · 3 Comments

Back to School // Hello fabulous Whipperberry readers! Jenn here from Clean and Scentsible! I am back today with a cute and easy teacher gift idea for you. Yes, unfortunately {or fortunately for some of you!} it is almost back to school time!

 

One of my favorite projects from last year were these ruffled pumpkins.  With just a little change of color and a few different embellishments, this idea was easily able to be adapted into this ruffled apple pencil holder.
 

Materials
  • 4 inch Styrofoam ball
  • straight pins
  • red felt {I used approximately 10  8.5 x11 inch felt sheets}
  • green material or felt scrap {big enough to cut two leaves}
  • hot glue {optional}
  • pencil or pen 
  • 3 inch punch or other circular shape to trace for the felt circles 
  • mini-chalkboard {optional}

To Do 

  • Cut out or use a paper punch to create a circular template that is approximately 3 inches in diameter.  If you are using the 8.5 inch felt sheets like I did, you may want to trim this down just a bit so you can get 3 circles across.
  • Cut out your felt circles.  I'm not sure exactly how many I did but definitely over a 100.  Place 2 or 3 sheets of the felt together when you are cutting so you can cut out multiple circles at one time.  It's a great mindless activity to do while you are watching your favorite television show! 🙂
  • Using a knife, cut a small sliver off the bottom of the Styrofoam ball so that it will sit flat.
 
  • Using a pen or pencil slightly larger than your pencil width, poke a hole through the center of your ball. {this should run the full diameter of the ball}. 
  • Take a felt circle, fold it in half and then fold it in half again.  Place a straight pin through the pointy part  of your felt circle and pin it to your Styrofoam ball.  Start at the top of the ball and work your way down and around the ball overlapping your circles as you go.  
 
  • The last row of pins on the bottom of the apple were a little loose and a couple of them were starting to pop out so I hot glued one more circle over top to cover the pins up and ensure that they stayed in place.  It gives it a much more finished look as well.
  • I have had these mini-chalkboards lying around in my stash forever and I can't remember where I purchased them from.  I just used one for my picnic caddy and had one left over.  I just used a little stain to darken up the wood and added the teacher's name with a chalk pen.  I used another straight pin to attach it to the apple.
  • Cut out a couple of leaf shapes from the green material and pinch at one end.  The "pinch" will let it stand up more.  Pin to your apple near the top.
  • Now just add your pen or pencil and you are all ready to go!  It's a unique and functional gift for your kiddos to give to their favorite new teacher!

 

For those of you that are already looking ahead to fall, here are a few ideas to get you started….
 
 
 
Enjoy the rest of your summer and I hope you all have a smooth Back to School transition! 🙂
 
Photobucket

 

 

 

Plum Berry Basil Ice Cream

1 · · 3 Comments

 
A couple years ago my sister in law introduced me to the flavor combination of strawberries and basil. Sounds odd at first, but they compliment each other beautifully! And I recently found a love for a frozen treat put plum and basil together, so when I was assigned to make one of the flavors of homemade ice cream for a family reunion, I knew what I wanted to do! Considering that one of my husband's uncles was hesitant to try it because of the basil, but then asked for the recipe later, I'd say it was a success.
 
 
Homemade Plum Berry Basil Ice Cream
Yields: 1 quart
 
Ingredients:
1 lbs very ripe plums, pitted and chopped, with skins (I used 4 large plums)
7-8 strawberries, sliced
2/3 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)
1/2 cup agave (or 3/4 cup sugar)
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup fresh basil, chopped and bruised
 
In a medium pot, cook the plums and strawberries over medium heat, stirring often. Continue until the fruit softens and the plums start to break down — about 15 minutes. Pour into a heat proof bowl (I used a 9×13" glass pan to cool it down faster), add blueberries, then cover and refrigerate until the mixture is room temperature — about 30 minutes. 
 
Pour the cream in the pot you just used for the fruit, and add the agave (or sugar) and basil, which has been finely chopped and bruised by pressing it with the flat part of the knife to release the oils. Warm the cream mixture over medium-low heat, stirring often. Cook for about 5 minutes (if you use sugar, make sure it has dissolved), then remove from heat to let steep — about 15-20 minutes.
 
Pour cream mixture through a strainer into the bowl (or 9×13" pan) with the fruit mixture to strain the basil, make sure to press the basil leaves with a wooden spoon to release any extra liquid and as much flavor as possible. And if you really like the basil flavor, like myself, you can put a spoonful of it back in. 🙂 Stir the mixture, then cover and refrigerate, until the ingredients are very cold — 1 to 2 hours, or more.
 
Pour ice cream into an ice cream machine and freeze/churn until desired consistency. You could serve immediately, or place in a freezer container and freeze for another few hours to harden it up. The lovely fuchsia color comes from the plum!
 
** If you don't have an ice cream maker, go here for great directions on how to make/freeze ice cream without a machine. 
 
 
Thank you again for having me Heather! Hope everyone is enjoying an extra sweet summer!
 
xo,
Haley
 
 
 
 
Haley life is sweet
 

$2.00 DIY Beach Bag

0 · · 3 Comments

Hi Whipperberry readers!  It's Jenn from My Fabuless Life back this month to show you a super simple, super affordable little beach bag I threw together for a recent family vacation.  Literally, if you have five minutes and a five dollar bill, you can make this–you don't even need a personal cutter!  And what's extra awesome about this project is that you can use this method to "screen print" just about anything that's fabric!  
 
 

Our family recently went on vacation to the beautiful Oregon Coast and this trip meant two things for us: LOTS of time in the car (we drove from Utah to Oregon) and LOTS of time at the beach.  I always pack my 3 year old daughter a road trip bag and a brand new bag to hold all of the goodies is part of the fun.  For this trip, my $2.00 bag pulled double-duty by holding all of her stuff during the car ride and then all of our treasures and toys once we got there and were ready to spend our days on the beach.

To make your own bag you'll need:
Freezer paper
Craft paint + Fabric Medium
A cloth bag (I got mine for $1.99 at Hobby Lobby without the 40% coupon)
Iron

Find the image you want to use: for this one, I just Googled "Whale Silhouette" and found one that I liked.  Click on the image so it shows up on your screen like this (in Google, you can also click "view original image"):
 

 

 
 

Zoom in or out on the image until it's the size you want and then just lay your freezer paper right over the computer screen and trace GENTLY!  Let's not go ruining any computer screens here, since that would sort of negate this whole $2.00 project thing.  You should be tracing on the freezer paper shiny side down (pencil marks will be on the dull side).

Next, just cut out the image with an Exacto knife.  Make sure to leave plenty of room around your shape to "slop" your paint so it stays on the paper and doesn't smudge all over your fabric.  Make sense?  If not, you'll see what I mean below.
 

 
I wanted this to be sort of "kid chic" so I left the cute little face off of the whale–not to mention, it makes it that much easier to cut and paint.  Next, iron your freezer paper onto your fabric shiny side down.  Make sure to iron it down good and tight so your paint doesn't bleed underneath (I do it with my iron on the highest setting).  Also be sure to iron your bag or shirt or whatever you're using prior to painting it.  Painting on wrinkled fabric will not give you pretty results.

Next comes paint: mix the paint and medium according to the instructions on the bottle of fabric medium (which can be found with the craft paints).  I used gold paint (like I said, I was going "kid chic" here and it glitters in the sun–BONUS!) and my fabric medium ratio was 2 parts paint to 1 part medium.  This gives you a softer finish on the fabric once the paint dries.  You can do this without the medium, but your paint will be stiff and won't soften as much in the wash.  YES–you CAN wash it!!

Apply your paint (you can use a brush or a dobber), let the paint dry a little and then pull the freezer paper off and let the paint dry overnight.  DONE & DONE!!
 

This is such a fun easy way to personalize gifts.  Onesies for baby showers, book bags for kids, team t-shirts for little ones…the possibilities are really endless.  Later this week over at MFL, I'll be showing you what I filled this bag with for my little one and my favorite tips for LONG road trips with kids so make sure to stop by!

My Fabuless Life

diy screen printed team shirts // summer printable // memories in a jar 

jenn from my fabuless life

Beeswax Candle and a Wood Burned Bowl

8 · · 10 Comments

 
Hi Whipperberrians!I am so excited to be back for month #2 on the Creative Team here at Whipperberry.  What an amazing bunch of girls they are!!  You can find me and my sis-in-law Jen posting over at Eat.Sleep.Make.  
 
Today I'm sharing with you how to make a scented beeswax candle and as the container, I'm using a wooden salad bowl that I bought at an estate sale for 25 cents.  
 
What you will need:
A wooden bowl
Wood burner
Block of beeswax (got mine at Hobby Lobby)
Wooden wick (Hobby Lobby)
Pasta Pot
Pyrex 4 cup measuring cup (or something similar)
 
 
Start by customizing your bowl by burning a design into it.  If you don't have a wood burner, you could always paint a design.

 

 

 

Next is the hardest part.  You need to guesstimate how much wax you will need to fill your bowl.  You want this to be in smaller chunks so it will melt properly. I just stabbed the block with a knife and plied chunks off of it.  
 
You need to use a double boiler to get the wax to melt without burning.  I kept my stove set on medium.  I found that if I turned it up higher than that the boiling water would jump into the wax (which, like I discovered, causes issues in the drying process).  
 
Use a cooking thermometer to monitor the heat of the wax.  It should get up to about 160-165 degrees and never go over 185 degrees.  

 

 

 

Once the wax was completely melted, I used some perfume oil I had from The Body Shop to scent the wax.  Essential oils can be used as well.  (If you want a candle that will relax you, use Eucalyptus Essential Oil and burn it while you are taking a bath.. so relaxing!)

 

 

 

Now, pour the wax in your container!  You can place the wick in first or after it is poured. It doesn't really matter.  I had some wax leftover, so I used a vintage baking tin for the rest.
 
The drying part can be quite tricky.  If it dries too fast, you will have cracking (like you can see in the photos of mine below).  Upon doing some research, it is best to place the containers on a cookie cooling stand so that the wax can dry from the bottom up.  This will also help prevent cracking.
 
Once my wax was completely cooled and hardened, I saw some separation from the side of the bowl and discovered all the water that had jumped into the melting wax had caused the wax to pull away from the container.  The water all dumped out, but it's definitely good to try and avoid this.
 
Fortunately, after burning for a little while, the crack will fill itself in, so no worries!

 

 

 

 

 I'm definitely over-the-moon pleased with how this turned out!  This was my first run at making candles and I think I'm hooked.  Would this not be an awesome house-warming gift, too?  
 
I'll see you all next month!
In the meantime, come visit me here:  Facebook / Pinterest / Blog

 

 

Check out some of our favorite projects!