Crafts

Call me silly, but when I heard the term brooch in the past it conjured up visions of my Grandmother and her mink stole.  Not exactly the look I am going for.  When I found The Brooch Boutique on Etsy I fell in love, and my visions of Grammy were quickly erased.  

This shop is run by a cute young Mom named Mette, who lives in Denmark with her husband and cute son.  She has a degree in Italian language/literature and ancient Greek studies.  Don’t you wish you could be her?  Educated, creative, can’t you just picture her sitting around reading classic Italian literature crafting beautiful flower brooches and sipping peppermint tea?  Ah, the life.

Needless to say, I fell in love and had to have one.

This is my tasty little morsel.  Isn’t it divine?  It has the power to raise any outfit to Grace Kelly level just by adding it to the ensemble.  Drool, drool.  You too can have a beautiful brooch from Mette.  Visit her shop, The Brooch Boutique, you too will fall in love!

Oh, and don’t think I forgot!  Congrats to Emily N. you are the winner of this week’s Divine Twine giveaway!  Congrats!!

Heather

I love to papercraft. So that means I love paper. There are many different types of paper out there, and I love them all! Different types of projects call for different types of paper, and believe me, it makes a difference.

But then one day I heard about Ellie Pooh Paper. Yes, Ellie Pooh. What is this paper made from? You guessed it… elephant poop! And no, I’m not kidding. Believe me, the name alone was sufficient to have me wrinkling my nose and turning my head. But the idea intrigued me enough to cause me to peek back over my shoulder for a second look. I’m so glad I did!

The story behind this paper is heart warming. Sri Lankan elephants are in danger. They are ruining the farmers’ crops, so the farmers are killing them by the thousands! The great people of project Maximus wanted to step in, but they needed money and didn’t have a lot of resources. What they did have was a lot of waste–elephant waste that is! Why not turn it into a sustainable resource, like beautiful paper? What a great idea!

Since elephants are vegetarian, their leavings are basically raw cellulose. When thoroughly cleaned and processed, the cellulose is transformed into Ellie Pooh Paper, a uniquely beautiful product that has been dyed into many beautiful colors, and dried in the Sri Lankan sun. And buying this paper helps to save the elephants of Sri Lanka! How ‘bout that?

So now that you know there’s nothing to turn your nose up at (and no it doesn’t stink!), take a look at this gorgeous paper. It is soft and malleable, thick and cushiony, and has a linen/papyrus-like texture. It is processed naturally so it is 100% acid free. Countless creative possibilities are waiting to be explored. It’s easy to tear, dry emboss, ink, and shape.

 

I made a couple of cards, and excluding the buttons, string, and raffia, they are made completely from Ellie Pooh paper. Soon I will post a tutorial on how to make the festive paper flower!

You can read more about the story behind this paper at Mr. Ellie Pooh’s website.

I would love to hear from you, so leave me a comment and tell me what you think of my paper find!

Don’t forget, today is the final day to enter this week’s Giveaway!

Emily

I made these airplane sugar cookies for a friend’s baby shower last weekend.  They take a little time, but they turned out cute!  I’ve experimented with a few different sugar cookie recipes, and this one is definitely the best at keeping it’s shape. 

Sugar Cookies (via cakecentral.com)
6 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
2 cups unsalted butter
2 cups sugar (white granulated)
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract or desired flavoring (I like almond myself)
1 tsp. salt

Instructions

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Mix dry ingredients and add a little at a time to butter mixture. Mix until flour is completely incorporated and the dough comes together.  Chill for 1 to 2 hours.

Cut cookies and place on greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes.
Once your cookies are completely cooled, you can frost them.  I like to ice a border of royal icing around the edge of my cookies so that I don’t have run-off.  It gives the cookie a crisp, professional look.

Royal Icing
3 large egg whites
1 lb. confectioner’s sugar
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until they reach the soft peak stage.  Add confectioner’s sugar, a little at a time, until stiff peaks form.

 
To ice your cookies, fill a zippered sandwich bag with icing and cut a little off the corner.  Frost your border and allow a few minutes for the icing to harden.  Finally,  you’ll want to fill in your cookie with regular icing.  I put about 2 cups of confectioner’s sugar in a bowl and add a little milk until I get my desired consistency (not runny, but not stiff).  Fill another sandwich bag with this icing, snip the corner of the bag, and fill the cookie.  To get an even consistency, use a toothpick or your (clean) pinky finger to spread the icing. 
Once this has set up, you can add any extra details with royal icing.  All of these icings can be tinted by adding food coloring. 

I really love a beautiful cookie!  Here’s some more from around the web.

 

Credits:

• Baby shower cookies are from Glory of Glorious Treats
• Star cookies are from Eleni’s New York

Don’t forget to enter our Giveaway this week!

Whitney

 

 

 

I designed this amazing confectionary dream for my daughter’s 10th birthday party. Thank heavens I own a wedding facility with all of the trays, jars, centerpieces, and a personal pastry chef! To be perfectly honest, I don’t bake worth a darn so my sister, the pastry chef, made the AMAZING cake, and my husband made the mini brownies and cupcakes. I bought all of the candy at the dollar store. I would honestly hire out Tables by WhipperBerry to do this for your next event instead of “do-it-yourself”. It’s not as easy as it looks. The investment in the hardware alone would be astronomical!

   

My daughter and her friends were extremely impressed, well as much as 10 year olds can be. But then came the sugar high and the sugar crash… did I mention it was a sleepover for nine little girls?! What was I thinking? This was truly a sacrifice of love. Maybe next year I’ll just buy her an i-Pad and call it a day…

Erin

I had been madly working on getting things together for the packaging for WhipperBerry Photography, when I stumbled upon this tasty little morsel:

 

 My creative mind went into overdrive.  Oh, the things I could do with this fun new idea (well, at least new to me.)  I placed my order right then and there.  I had to have MY Divine Twine A.S.A.P. 

I placed my order on Monday and (surprise!) received my precious twine on Wednesday.  I was floored!  Who has service like that these days?! Immediately I started crafting a very heartfelt thank you letter to the wonderful people at Whisker Graphics (the makers of Divine Twine.)  It wasn’t too much later when I received a response from Whitney at Whisker Graphics who then offered to host WhipperBerry’s first Giveaway!!

Check out what you can do with this stuff…

Isn’t that just scrumptious!

Whitney has offered one roll (240 yards) of Divine Twine to one very lucky WhipperBerry reader.  Here are the four ways that you may enter to win…

1. Go to Whisker Graphics, and try to decide which one of these delicious colors is your favorite.  Then return to WhipperBerry and leave a comment telling us your color selection.
2. Become a follower of WhipperBerry and the Whisker Graphics Blog.  Return to WhipperBerry and leave a comment letting us know you are now a “Follower.”  If you are already a follower, leave a comment letting us know.
3. Become a Fan of WhipperBerry on Facebook.  Again, return to WhipperBerry and leave a comment letting us know that you are a fan.  If you are already a fan, leave a comment and let us know.
4. Tell a friend about WhipperBerry and then leave a comment with the first name of the friend or friends who you Whipperfied!

You may enter four times per person.  Entries must be received by 11:00 pm (PST) on Thursday, August 5, 2010.  Open to US & Canadian residents only.             

Friday, August 6th we will announce the winner who will be selected by random.org. 

Good Luck everyone!

Heather