What to do with Dryer Sheets

LOS OSOS, CA – Monday morning – Dryer sheet sachets have to be one of my top ten favorite designs! I actually made these sachets years ago for the Aleene’s Creative Living television show.  (And yes, these were tucked away in storage in  ‘the Shed’). I have made many since these originals, as they make a great gift for just pennies, and you get great comments.

I love the delicate look these have.  By using the dryer sheets and the white paint they kind of have a lacey look.  AND they are recycling (or is this upcycling?) something that normally gets thrown away. (That is if you can find them in dryer – usually stuck to the sheets and towels!)  So, start saving your used dryer sheets or if you want to make some right away… grab some right from the box. Either way you’ll make a great creative project. Creatively yours…. Heidi

DRYER SHEET SACHETS
by Heidi Borchers for www.inspiredathome.com

Materials

Dryer Sheets (You can use new or ‘used’ dryer sheets. If they are wrinkled, iron flat with low to medium heat on iron. Test first as some dryer sheets tend to melt from hear of the iron. If this happens, iron dryer sheet in between two thicknesses of paper towels.)
Acrylic paint  - white
Sewing machine (If you don’t sew, you can glue with Aleene’s® Fast Grab Tacky Glue®)
Craft foam – any color
Foamboard
Aleene’s® FunCraft™ Foam Glue
Tulip 3D Dimensional Paint – Liquid Pearl
Brush – ½” wide flat
Lavender flowers, potpourri or aromatic herbs
Waxed paper (to protect work surface)
Iron
Scissors (and craft knife for foam board)
Paper towels
Wet wipes

Instructions:

Transfer patterns (see below) to craft foam and cut out. Cut foamboard slightly larger than designs. Glue craft foam design to foamboard using Aleene’s® FunCraft™ Foam Glue. Let glue dry.

To stamp designs, place prepared dryer sheet onto waxed paper on a flat surface.  Plan placement of your design so you can make use of the entire dryer sheet, making sure you have enough space around design to stitch on the sewing machine. Carefully and quickly, brush an even coat of acrylic paint onto foam design. Immediately while paint is still wet, press onto dryer sheet and lift. Wipe paint from stamp with wet wipe or damp paper towel.  Let paint dry. On the heart design, I placed dots of Tulip paint along edge of hearts. Let dimensional paint dry.

SEW TOGETHER
When paint is dry, place a piece of dryer sheet (same size as painted one) to back of painted one and stitch three sides. Fill with potpourri, lavender or your choice of herbs. Stitch remaining side closed. Clip off any threads.  If necessary, trim edges with scissors or pinking shears.

-OR- GLUE TOGETHER

If gluing edges together, place a thin line of the Aleene’s® Fast Grab Tacky Glue® onto three sides of a plain sheet of the dryer sheet. Place painted side up in the glue. Let glue dry. Fill with potpourri or lavender. Carefully glue remaining side closed. Let glue dry. Trim edges as above.

Heidi’s Designer Tip:  I always test the stamp design first. Just apply the paint as instructed and then stamp onto clean piece of paper or waxed paper. This will help to give you an idea of just how much paint to use and how much pressure to put on the stamp. Then to ahead and stamp the dryer sheet!

Lemongrass – Culinary and Medicinal

GRASONVILLE, MD – Thursday morning - Lemongrass is a lemony scented flowering grass. It is mostly used as a culinary herb but it also has great medicinal qualities. Lemongrass is easy to grow and is perennial in warm climates. (Here where I am in Maryland it must be brought in the house for the winter.) You can also purchase lemongrass at your local supermarket in most locales. It is best used fresh so plant some in a pot and you can have it all year old. Lemongrass is used to flavor Vietnamese, Cambodian, Indonesian and Thai foods. The tougher outer leaves are used in soups, teas and vinegars. The more tender inner leaves are eaten as a vegetable and added to stir fries, salads, stuffing and sauces.

Medicinally, lemongrass is astringent and antifungal so it is good for treating and preventing colds, flu and fever. As with all culinary herbs, lemongrass is digestive aiding in relieving  cramping, gas and diarrhea.

Externally, lemongrass is good for your skin and as it is antifungal and can be used for ringworm.  Lemongrass is rich in minerals and beta carotene, and vitamin D.

Lemongrass is also available as an essential oil and is cooling, stimulating and refreshing to mind and body. It is astringent, antibacterial and analgesic so it is great to use in a carrier oil for muscle pain, bruises, skin conditions and respiratory infections. It is also a great insect repellent oil.

Add fresh lemongrass to your cooking and enjoy its medicinal properties and the wonderful uses of lemongrass essential oil for body and mind and spirit.

Lemongrass Tea
(treats colic, digestive cramps and gas in children)

Pour one cup of boiling water over 1 teaspoon of freshly chopped lemongrass leaves. Cover and steep 5 – 7 minutes. Strain and drink. You can also drink this tea iced in warm weather.

New Giveaway this Sunday!

GRASONVILLE, MD – Wednesday night – This week’s Inspired at Home Radio giveaway is a special keepsake box created by Tiffany Windsor.  With a passion for stamping, Tiffany creates each one-of-a-kind Treasure Box with dozens of rubber stamped images. This robin’s egg blue and oyster white wood box features a dragonfly design on both the outside and inside. Fill this keepsake box with dreams, hopes, gratitude and other treasures!

To enter the Inspired at Home Radio weekly giveaway, you must first sign up on our home page for the Inspired at Home newsletter and then email your entry to giveaway@inspiredathome.com (please include your name, city & state).  Winners are selected each Friday night and announced on the Sunday night show!

So, sign up today and enter weekly to win on Inspired at Home Radio!

Tune in Sunday nights 7 pm (ET) (6 pm Central, 5pm Mountain, 4 pm Pacific)

Great radio show last night!

Susan Bell

GRASONVILLE, MD – Monday night – On last night’s Inspired at Home Radio show, we had a great visit with Susan Bell, owner of the Bell Gallery in Denver, Colorado. Susan is the creator of Dung Bunnies – yes that’s dung as in manure! Susan has always been into recycling so she thought that she should utilize her own continuous supply of manure from her horses. Knowing that composed horse manure is an excellent fertilizer, especially for roses, she went to work experimenting with ways to turn the raw material into sculpture. The first prototype was a rabbit – thus the name Dung Bunnies! Listen to Susan’s podcast interview! Get Creative! Get Inspired! >>Tiffany

Back to School – Pretty Bookmarks!

LOS OSOS, CA – Monday afternoon – One of my all-time favorite techniques is the look of embossing with glue and I LOVE my Aleene’s Super Thick Tacky Glue for this project. It’s thick which is perfect for the dimension you need, but can easily be squeezed into a small line to create adorable projects like these bookmarks.  I thought since it was back-to-school time, a bookmark theme would be perfect for today, but of course this project can be made and enjoyed any time of the year. A perfect gift for your book club friends! Get Creative! Get Inspired!  >>Heidi

Embossing with Glue Bookmarks
by Heidi Borchers

Materials:
Cardstock or lightweight cardboard – cut into 1½” x 7” strips
Hole punch
Pencil
Aleene’s® Super Thick Tacky Glue
Scotch tape – ¾” to 1” wide
Spray paint – flat white (I use Rustoleum Flat white)
Decorator craft chalk – assorted colors
Brush – hard bristle (stencil type brush works great)
Paper towels
Spray fixative
Cording or tassel on cording

Instructions

Using photo as guide, lightly trace your designs onto the bookmarks. Punch hole in corner.

Place a tape nozzle onto the bottle of glue. (see techniques)

(It is suggested that you practice this next step on waxed paper first.) Draw with glue along the pencil lines. Let dry completely.

Spray paint the bookmarks. Let paint dry.

To apply the chalk to the prepared (sprayed) surface, rub the hard bristle brush over the chalk. Then immediately brush chalk onto an embossed area. To change colors, carefully tap off excess chalk and wipe brush on dry paper towel before changing colors. Refill brush with next color and repeat until entire design is colored with the chalk.

Spray bookmark with fixative to protect/preserve the chalk coloring.

Heidi’s Designer Tip: Instead of flat white spray paint, acrylic paints can be used for a similar look. Just brush on two even coats of paint letting dry completely between coats and dry completely before applying chalk colors.

Get Creative! Get Inspired! Bottle Lid Art

GRASONVILLE, MD – Friday night – We LOVE to see what all our “creativity sisters” at Inspired at Home create!

Inspired by Heidi’s Bottle Lid Art project, Candace Jedrowicz shared her adaptation with us. Candace writes: ” I used the colors I had available, so it’s not as bright as I would prefer, but it was a blast! I’d love to do another one with squares, because I like that better.”

Candace, we say this is FABULOUS! And thanks so much for sharing!

Get creative and get inspired and share with us. Just send your project photos to tiffany@inspiredathome.com and we’ll post them on the blog. Sending you sprinkles of creativity! >>Tiffany

Listen to Inspired at Home Radio!

Cayenne – Culinary and medicinal

GRASONVILLE, MD – Thursday morning -  Most of us probably have a bottle of cayenne in our kitchen spice rack. You probably bought it because you had a recipe that called for this spice. But, what do you really know about cayenne?

Cayenne comes from the chili pepper family — I’m sure you would have guessed that from its flavor. Cayenne is a potent stimulant for your whole body. It is especially good for digestion (as are all culinary spices and herbs), normalizes circulation, and tones your nervous system. All those good things happen when you use cayenne in your recipes.

Externally, cayenne is great for stimulating circulation in the skin and to soothe sciatica and rheumatism. It contains a lot of Vitamin C and beta carotene which is converted into Vitamin A in your body. Did you know that if you have a splinter you can mix up a paste of cayenne powder and olive oil and place over a splinter and cover with a band aid and the cayenne will bring the splinter up to the surface of your skin to be removed? I use this all the time and it really works. It is especially good when you have a small piece of a splinter that you can’t see to remove — but this works well in all splinter situations.

Cayenne Plaster – you can also make a plaster of 1 teaspoon of cayenne powder, 1 teaspoon of olive oil and 3 teaspoons of white flour. Make a paste by adding a little water to the above ingredients and layer a piece of cloth, the plaster mixture and another piece of cloth over the skin. Leave the plaster on until the skin reddens and feels nice and warm. This is great for easing arthritic joints.

Spice up your life in a healthy way! >>Candace

Read more of Candace’s Herban Living tips at the Inspired at Home website! GO>>

More Design Treasures

LOS OSOS, CA – Monday morning – Last week, I promised I would share some more design treasures I recently found from inside my storage building  ‘The Shed’. Not long ago we would say ‘The Shed’ with an eerriee frightening voice… “it’s in the SHED!!!! Errrr! Help me! Don’t make me go in there” … a black hole where lots of our stuff is being stored.

Even some of my long-lost designs from the Aleene’s Creative Living Television show were in this space…… until a recent intervention of organizing. It was a huge undertaking ….. but so worth it!!

You’re probably wondering what a photo of a glove has to do with anything! Well, here are a couple of cute designs I made for TV (air date unknown but it was a long time ago!) using work gloves or garden type gloves.

I actually remember designing these ‘play’ gloves with the family in mind.  My thought process at the time was “wouldn’t it be cool to make a glove with a family…Mom.. Dad… Kids… Pets.” (Of course if you have a bigger family you will need to use more gloves!)

Why not start a Family Craft Night where everyone can join in, craft together and just have fun? If Dad has a mustache and glasses, go for it….. the cat is striped… use the marking pen.

I didn’t make any patterns for these…they are just to spark your family’s imagination! Don’t forget to use what you have around the house…. just scraps of fabric, floss, felt…glued into place with my favorite – Aleene’s Super Thick Tacky Glue … a little paint for the faces and a fine line marking pen for the detail. It’s fun for all ages. Even the teens will enjoy creating their own look.

Keep in mind you don’t even need to stick with making just family gloves. Get creative! How about making your own family story book. The important thing is getting the kids away from the computer, the tv….and in to bonding in a fun creative way… Enjoy creating with your family! Love, Heidi

P.S.  Don’t forget to share your project photos with us from crafting with the family. We’ll post them right here on our blog!

Inspired at Home Marketplace

GRASONVILLE, MD – Saturday morning – Eco-artist Heidi Borchers has the cutest collection of SodaPoppy jewelry available for purchase at the Inspired at Home Marketplace.

This adorable top-selling angel pin will get a lot of notice as admirers take a closer peek at the design which they will readily be able to identify as one of their favorite soda cans.

Each one is hand-made one-of-a-kind so patterns and design will vary. Custom colors include Arizona Tea, Pepsi, Cherry Coke, 7 Up, Tab, Welch’s Strawberry, grape soda, orange soda, Squirt, Monster Energy Drink, Coke Zero or whatever your favorite! Each pin is hand-made one-of-a-kind. Measures approximately 3-1/4″ x 2″.

They are cute as can be! Check them out – GO>>