Recycled Cans Crafts – Part #4 – Tin Can Luminary

I was finishing up with the gaudy organizer when Dillon came in the kitchen with a can of pears.  He ate the whole thing lol. I was getting ready to put the can in the recycling but stopped myself. 

I already had Chris’ drill and bits right there,  so it only made sense to drill some holes in the pears can lol!

Sandie 
I started out by drawing a Maple leaf on the can with a Sharpie. 

And then I tried to follow the lines and drilled holes all the way around the Sharpie outline. And then I drilled a hole at the top on either side to make a handle. 

Once the drilling was done I painted the whole can bright red and then splattered it with white.  Any excuse to use splattering! 

I gave it a few coats of sealer and then threaded twine with some red wooden beads through the holes I drilled for a handle. 

I put a candle in it to see how it looked.  It lit up fine but I couldn’t make out what the shape actually was when it wasn’t lit up. 

I decided to take the white paint marker I have and play dot to dot around the leaf. Once I did that I thought why not add the “150” in the Centre?  

And this is how it looked lit and unlit when I was done. 

I will hang this in one of my gardens as well! 

Garlic Bread Sticks

With dinner last night I made garlic bread sticks using Pillsbury Pizza dough.  It smelled and tasted so good and was very quick and easy to make!

Sandie

The Butter Tart – Part # 2 – Making the Filling

Now is the fun part… making the ooey, gooey filling for the butter tarts.  Just a little story…. every single time I make butter tarts I think of our Uncle Chris!  Uncle Chris and my Chris used to work together.  Uncle Chris like to rummage through my Chris’ lunch can to see what treats he had.  One day it was butter tarts.  Chris came home and told me that Uncle Chris said they were a bit too sweet for him.  I thought I would get revenge lol.  I made a couple of empty tart shells and sent them to work with Chris with a note for Uncle Chris asking if those ones were too sweet!!!

Sandie

The Butter Tart – Part #1 Making the Pastry

Other than maybe maple syrup, moose, beavers and such, could be more Canadian than Butter Tarts?  Today I am going to show you step by step how to make butter tarts.

I don’t know about you, but pastry used to be my nemesis!  I could not make it to save my life.  I tried the usual “lard” suspects but no matter what I used it would not turn out.  I gave up for a while and bought the “f” word in pie crusts.. frozen ones!

Then I found Tenderflake and gone were the frozen pie shells, I could make my own pastry from scratch and it turned out every single time! This is what I am going to start with for my Butter Tart post because you can’t have a good Butter Tart without good pastry.

Sandie

Recycled Cans Crafts – Part #3

This time I decided to make an organizer for the craft room.  I am actually thinking about putting Styrofoam in the bottom of the big can and using that to hold all my paint brushes.  Now it is a little gaudy but it will definitely serve it’s purpose and it’s definitely got bling lol!

Sandie

Quick and Easy Coleslaw

I had a real hankering for coleslaw this week for whatever reason, so I brought home a bag of that pre-shredded cabbage, carrots, etc. from the grocery store on Friday only to find out I had no coleslaw dressing at all!  I knew I had all the ingredients and I had already taken the lazy route buying the pre-shredded salad itself, so I made a batch of coleslaw dressing and it will be enough to use for the whole bag!

Sandie

Recycled Can Crafts #2 Canada Day Wind Chime

Today’s tin can craft is going to be a Canada Day themed wind chime.  Although it didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped, it still falls in with our Canada Day BBQ decorating theme, so I guess it’s a win lol! As soon as I put it outside, the “chime” strings started to tangle 😦

That said, it is another very easy craft to do, it requires mainly patience, waiting for paint to dry!

Sandie

Canada 150 Celebration Preparation

We are planning on having a little Canada 150 BBQ on Saturday.  Just a family thing but a celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday nonetheless.

 

I now have my gardens company ready lol, so it was time to start thinking about what we will do for decorations! I have to admit, I had a helluva time finding anything this week to use to decorate the gardens and yard for our BBQ until tonight.

Chris took me out for dinner and I asked him if we could drop into the “Big” Dollar store to see if they had any more decorations than the other dollar store.  And they did!  I was able to find the little Canada flags I wanted to put in the gardens, a few bigger ones, a Canadian flag bunting, some Canada temporary tattoos, some inflatable fan sticks, some reusable ice cubes shaped like little red maple leaves and more!  I was so excited… it was like finding the mother lode lol!

Here are the cute little ice cubes lol.

We aren’t going crazy for the BBQ, it will be mainly hamburgers, hot dogs and some salads. I am going to make potato salad, macaroni salad and cucumber salad.  I am not sure yet what Kim is making.  And we are going to do a cool cake.  It is going to be a cake on a white board, with two rectangular slab cakes on each side and then some mini cupcakes in the middle in the shape of a maple leaf!  Can’t wait to actually do that part! We will of course post pictures of the cake and all the other food, as well as our decorating!

I am thinking about using the “recycled tin can” week to incorporate a few Canada Day crafts.  I am thinking about doing a Canada Day wind chime and maybe a Canada Day wind sock hanging decorations that I will post next week.  Tomorrow I think will be a base painting day for me in preparation for next week’s crafts!

Totally unrelated to Canada Day, but I also found some really glittery, glitter glue that I am going to try to use as a glitter coat for some repurposed coffee cans that we are going to use for storing craft items in the craft room!  I hope that idea works out!

Stay tuned.

Recycled Cans Crafts – Part #1

I think this is going to be a crazy week!  There are so many things I need and want to get done before Friday!  I have 2 Dr’s appointments scheduled for Friday too… what was I thinking?  A house full of company on Saturday and I will be gone all day Friday! Help lol!

This week I have finally managed to accumulate enough tin cans from my recycling to do a few crafts!  I can’t believe how long it took to get enough.  Today I started base painting them all.  Have I ever mentioned how much I hate waiting for paint to dry?

Sandie

Cute Dill Pickle “Kit” Review

I know, weird title, but I saw the cutest thing tonight!  Chris took me out for dinner and we stopped at Loblaw’s for a couple of things. I saw this “Dill it Yourself” kit, for lack of a better word, in the produce section and I just had to buy it and try it lol!

 

Sandie