Cookie Cutter 101

 
I learned how to make cookie cutters, just in time to make myself a cute shamrock cookie cutter for St. Patrick’s Day! 

Seriously this copper cookie cutter is so beautiful!

I showed you, in my last post, many things I used this for and gave you a list of many more things you can use cookie cutters for, other than the usual cookies!
Now I’ll show you how to make your own cookie cutters:

Supplies needed are:
Roll of copper*, pliers, shears, printed design, eyelets, crop-a-dile II, measuring tape, tape

Use a tape measure to figure the length of copper needed (the circumference of your design), by measuring around your printed design.

When you are using this copper roll you should pull the copper from the inside of the roll so that it does not unravel.

Cut the desired length using metal shears.

You want to start and stop your design on the longest straight section of your design.  This is because where you join the copper together it will be where you stop and start and you want it to be the easiest to fit the crop-a-dile into.
 
Use your needlenose pliers or pliers to start bending your copper strip.  It bends pretty easily, especially for how strong the finished cookie cutter is and how well it holds it’s shape.

Please do not tease me for my manly hands.  I swear the camera adds not just 10 pounds, but also masculinety to a person! ;)  Actually that was my handy helper being a hand model for me.  Some tutorials are too hard to take pictures of by myself!

If you use needlenose pliers take into account that the nose part of these pliers is a diagonal edge and not a straight (perpendicular) one, so hold your needlenose pliers at an angle to make sure the bend you are making is straight (perpendicular to your long edge of copper).  Otherwise your cookie cutter will not be flat when you set it down.

As you make your bends line them up with your pattern to make sure you are staying accurate.
  
Continue bending all the way around your design.  I used objects that had curves the same size that I needed, to wrap the copper around for ensuring a smooth curve when necessary.
(How was that for a run on sentence?)

Once you have made your shape with your copper, secure it with a piece of tape.  This will hold adequately.
I like to finish things off the whole way so I used my crop-a-dile to attach eyelets to secure the ends of the copper together. 
 
I went through one layer of the copper at a time when punching the holes out.  Then, I attached my two eyelets.  Though in this case I am told they should be called rivets because this is metal we are working with and because of how we are using them.   If you finish your cookie cutter off this way you are going old school like good ol’ “rosie the riveter”.  This would be the skills you would need to build an airplane (the riveting part).

 
Now, tell me how cute this shamrock cookie cutter is!  I have so many more ideas for more cookie cutter shapes now! 
Rebecca

*I know I will be asked where to get the roll of copper from.  I ordered it online from Basic Copper.  This copper is made for making cookie cutters.  Basic Copper's website says, "Both sides of the copper strip have been lightly treated so that the edge will be smooth against your hand when pressing the cookie cutter into the dough, but still sharp enough to cut the dough easily. Having both sides treated allows you to use the cutter in either direction to make the most out of your dough."  So don't just use any kind of copper for this.  Basic Copper is offering my viewers a 10% discount on your order of cookie cutter copper with them!  How nice is that?  Just use the code, 10offrw!  


I am joining in the fun at the following parties; Somewhat Simple, Treasures For Tots, Keeping It Simple, The DIY Show Off, Between Naps On The Porch, A Soft Place To Land, Today's Creative Blog, My Frugal Family, A Silly Little Sparrow, 

St Patrick’s Day Foods and Fun

I love St Patrick’s Day.  Any reason to celebrate is a great thing, in my book.  My Mom always instilled this in us.  For St Patrick’s Day she always makes our whole meal green.  My Dad would get disgusted by green mashed potatoes (I think some of the new spouses may also be wigged out by this tradition of green foods in our family).  However, I love it so much that I now do this with my own family. We do get quite elaborate (we’re having a delicious green layered jello, lots of green veggies, green chocolate covered pretzel shamrocks, and many other green foods), but you can go quick and easy and still have that wow factor.
So, I thought I would share a few quick and easy ways to make some fun St Patrick’s Day Foods, using just one tool! 
I am going to show you how a shamrock shaped cookie cutter is all you need to make every day lunch, dinner, and dessert into St. Patrick’s Day Foods. 
I’m not showing breakfast because we always have Lucky Charms for breakfast on St. Patrick’s Day!  Oh it’s so yummy.  It was my favorite cereal growing up.  I only buy it once a year and this is it!   (Oh but don’t forget to also use the Lucky Charms for an activity).

First up is my Son’s favorite lunch, Cheese Quesadillas.
 
I melted the cheese in the microwave, then cut them using my oversized shamrock cookie cutter. 
Then, I finished cooking these on my skillet because we like them crunchy and if I tried to cut them after this step, they would fall apart. (At least I think they would)
Another easy lunch would be a shamrock sandwich.  Meat or cheese platter would be cute in shamrock shapes.  Of course if you had a mini cookie cutter you could cut out most of your fruits in shamrocks too.
 
For dinner, how about Pizza?  Yum-O.  I cheated on this and made it with premade pizza dough.

Dessert…my favorite!
How about actually using your cookie cutter for cookies?
I’ve actually baked these cookies up already and will be leaving the frosting for my children to do.  I have the frosting already tinted green and the sprinkles are ready to go!
  
There is another fun part to my cookie cutter menu.  I made that cookie cutter myself.  No kidding.  Come back Thursday and I will show you how easy this is to do.  Now I can make any shaped foods that I want! 
Other uses for cookie cutters;
Pancakes, Eggs, stencil for cakes or other desserts, shapes to trace for coloring and other craft projects, hang as decorations, playdough, melted crayons, stamps, soap, polymer clay and so much more.
What projects/Foods have you used cookie cutters on? 

Rebecca

PS Don’t forget to set your traps tonight!  At our house we always find green glitter trails left by the Leprechauns.  Our traps get quite elaborate and my kids each make their own now.  However, we have yet to catch a Leprechaun, though last year the Leprechaun’s hat got caught in the trap and my daughter still has it.  We heard from my Nephews that leaving potatoes helps to lure the Leprechauns in.  We’ve tried that and we can attest that Leprechaun’s do love potatoes, as we had tiny nibbles in ours, the next morning.
And don’t forget to watch out for those Leprechauns’ as they can be quite naughty and leave some destruction throughout your house. ;)

We're joining the fun at the following parties; A Soft Place To Land, , My Frugal Family, Sumo's Sweet Stuff,

Make Two Different Kinds of Leprechauns

Make this adorable Leprechaun out of material!  Anjeanette shows you the details of this cute guy!  I love that his legs dangle right off of the wall hanging!

The same pattern was used for this Leprechaun (scroll down in the linked post to find this guy) that Anjeanette made out of Paper.  She laminated him and added details like eyelet arms and yarn legs for movement!

On the back is a sweet poem!
   

Rebecca

We are linking to the following linky parties; The Girl Creative, Persimmon Perch,

LOOK! Last minute St.Patrick's Day Ideas!

Shamrock glasses! Cute, hu? Draw up your own template or grab one off the web. Here's one that I had for years.
Cut it all out and assemble for cute pictures of your kids with fun glasses on!
We love sorting in my house, and for my preschool! I love this math worksheet that goes along with sorting those yum-me marshmallows from Lucky Charms cereal.
Don't forget to have Lucky Charms for breakfast! I rarely let my kids eat sugar cereals. They have seen this box in the pantry closet for a week now and have been counting down the days! I think the anticipation has been quite fun and will make the actual day of eating these even "sweeter"! These are a treat for me, as well! It was always my favorite cereal growing up. I know people eat these in different ways. I prefer to save all the marshmallows for the end. Then, when you get to them it's just pure, delightful, sugar shocking heaven!
Do you notice the green peeking out from under green rimmed cereal bowls? Well those are shamrocks. On holiday mornings my kids always find a tablescape. This always includes a placemat of some sort. Tomorrow they will have shamrocks under the bowls. There will not be designated seating, so they will sit wherever they want. The first surprise (though I do this every year so I'm not sure how surprised they will be) is that the milk will turn to green when poured in (easy to do with a few drops of green food coloring on the bottom of their bowl). After they are done eating I will have them all clear their bowls off the table (which is a norm here). One of them will have a 4 leaf clover and the rest are 3 leaf clovers. That person got the "lucky" shamrock and will receive an extra treat. Then, we will all go around the table and tell why we are also lucky! I love doing things like this with the kids!
These are 2 of the shamrocks I'm using. I've got 5 different ones that I'll be using, though only one will be a 4 leaf clover!
For our morning snack we will have shamrock pretzels. These are 3 large twisted pretzels, covered in yellow chocolate and stuck together to form a shamrock. Then, I also added a chocolate covered broken pretzel for the stems. Make sure to use plenty of chocolate where the pretzels attach to each other! And of course they had to be covered in green sprinkles!
I love going with green and gold to decorate for St Patrick's Day!
Here is an adorable leprechaun that first made it's appearance at our house last year or the year before. Anjeanette and her boys left this cute guy for us on our doorstop! He's moveable and so much fun. My kids have been running around with him this whole month. He's even been sliding down the slide in the backyard! Thankfully Anjeanette laminated him so he's very durable! You could easily make one of these with any leprechaun template you have. Just laminate him and add brads, eyelets, or yarn for moveable parts!
Don't forget the cute saying on the back:
I'm a little leprechaun
dressed in green
the tiniest man you've ever seen
if you ever catch me
so it's told
I'll give to you
my pot of gold!

Have a great green day!
Rebecca

We are linking this to Somewhat Simple, Created By Diane,

Using a pattern for something else Leprechaun style.

Ooh, how I love making things. I like to see what I can come up with. I have this adorable Leprechaun pattern. It is something I collected over the years to do with my kids. I love school supplies, teacher supply stores, teacher clip art etc. This guy was from a Carson-Delosa 2004 book I think. Something about Carson-Delosa reminds me of my 1st grade teacher Miss Hill in Taylorsville Utah. She was awesome! She used clip art back in the day when you had to make a copy of it and then do things with it. This was a hundred years ago. So maybe she had to chisel it in stone and then ink the stone. I don't know.


I didn't take pictures along the way because I did this on several days, here and there. Ok so I took my little pattern, and printed it on paper.

I came up with this little wall hanging.


I love his dangling feet! The paper pattern is supposed to have dangling feet too.


When my 6 year old was about two, I went crazy for a couple of years. For every holiday and every season change and every little thing, I printed out things to decorate the walls with. I cut his hand out in a holiday scene for each holiday. I laminated most everything too. My intention was that I would have the hand prints from everything and all the decorations for the rest of his years here. But when they get packed away and sit in the Arizona heat for a year until it is time to use them, they get warped and messed up. So I thought this would be something to try for keeps. I'll tell you next year how it went;) I think I made this same Leprechaun for Rebecca with a little St. Pat's Day poem on the back. I even laminated it I'm pretty sure.


So much fun! And the clovers on my little wall scape are our thankfuls or luckys from my lucky post. I even stitched up a clover with our last name on it.



We are linking this to Somewhat Simple,

St. Patrick's Day Fun

Did you know that Leprechauns play tricks on people on St Patrick's Day? Here are some of the things that these naughty Leprechauns have done to us in the past.

Green water coming out of the faucets on St. Patrick's Day. Here's how at Steve Spangler Science. I love the story that Steve Spangler tells about St. Patrick's day at his house.

Trail of gold dust left behind when the Leprechaun escaped your trap (glitter)
Foot prints in the gold dust (you can do this by dipping your fingers into the glitter trail you make.)
Little Leprechaun clothing (a hat, a shoe or a piece of ripped green fabric caught on the trap) left behind

Things our Leprechauns have left behind:
Gold coins
Foreign coins
Gold Chocolate coins
Candy in gold foil (Rolos)
Flecks of real gold in a tiny water filled jar
Piece of fools gold
A note from the Leprechaun regarding the trap
Shamrock confetti all over the table

Tricks/pranks our Leprechauns have pulled on us:
Things being turned green (food in the fridge)
Chairs up turned
Items moved

Anjeanette and Rebecca already mentioned the drop of green food coloring in the bottom of the glass so it looks like the milk or water is magically turned green when poured in.

Another great place to put green food coloring is the bottom of their cereal bowl. Put a drop or two in the bottom, pour in the cereal and then while your child is at the table pour the milk in over the cereal in front of them.

Fun St.Patricks Day Food:
Die all your eggs green.

Make shamrock shaped marshmallows. We will make them white. On St. Patrick's Day they will have green sugar all over them.

I read the statement "Show off your lucky charm" and it was about putting your child's picture in a St. Patrick's Day frame. My twist on that is a Shamrock with my boys pictures on either side. I took fimo clay and cut it into the shape of a shamrock. Then I will place pictures of my boys on each side and seal it up with a clear coat. Then add your shamrock to a necklace with green beads, or if it is for a man, make a key chain.

Here are the pins and a necklace my boys and I made today. I made the shamrocks out of fimo clay and baked them according to the package. I then put out an assortment of green, clear and silver beads. The boys had the option of making a necklace or a pin. They both chose to make pins.

This is the pin my 7 year old made. He liked the idea so much he is still wearing the pin. I used a shamrock sticker for the template. Then cut it out using a craft knife. I used the tip of a ball point pen to make the hole. You can find jump rings of various sizes at a craft store in the bead section.

Here is the pin my 4 year old made. He also wanted to wear his right away. These are safety pins that don't have a loop on the end. You just straighten them out a bit and slide the beads all the way on. We had them left over from a craft I purchased from Oriental Trading Co.

Here is the necklace I made. I am going to have to search for pictures that I want to add to this shamrock. My boys don't always want to get their picture taken so I am going to have to go back and find pictures that will work for this, or wait till they are camera ready. I had other ideas for beading the entire necklace but I like this simple version on thin ribbon. I put a knot between each bead as spacers and to keep the beads in place.

Katrina

I am Lucky!

Something fun we like to do for St. Patrick's Day is kind of like the Thanksgiving Thankfuls. I print out clovers on green paper that say "I am lucky because:" Then we each get a few to fill out. It is such a simple thing to do. I'm always trying to reinforce with my kids how fortunate we are and that we have a lot to be thankful for. This was one from my husband last year. Love! He signed it "Daddy". He is very proud to be a Daddy.

To make it a little more fun, I print one big clover out that says our last name with O' before it. So if your last name is Miller, it would be O'Miller. So the big one would say something like "The O'Millers are LUCKY!"

It is so simple. But a great way to be thankful and a quick activity with the kids. Now print this out on green paper, have your family fill it out and upload a picture to our little flickr group

You will be glad you did it, and it can become something to do each year. Keep the clovers in a scrapbook and look back at past years to see why your family thought they were "Lucky" in years past.

~~

Looking through my pictures from last year I also made Rice Krispy Treats but I used Lucky Charms instead of Rice Krispies. And of course, I added green food coloring.

This year we have to do non-food celebrations because our three year old is now being tube fed. So I'm not making this this year. But it was such a simple and fun thing, I thought I'd throw it out there.

~~

I'm getting excited about making Corned Beef and Cabbage for St. Pat's Day meal. I have always wanted to try to make

Irish Soda Bread. It isn't like our kids enjoyed it last year anyway. I know one whole recipe of Corned Beef and Cabbage is more than enough for my husband and me. So I'll probably invite my parents over. Then I'll make something for the kids. If you don't like Corned Beef and Cabbage, maybe think about making your regular food green.

The first year I was dating my husband, my Mom made a whole Turkey dinner for St. Pat's Day. But, she turned everything but the turkey GREEN! I swear! I'm not kidding at all. This was probably the first holiday meal my then boyfriend had eaten with our family. It was so much fun and is something I'm sure he will always remember. Kind of an initiation into the family;)

My point is that I hope you do something different to make the day a little special. You don't have to go all out. But something as simple as putting green food coloring in the bottom of a cup and then pouring milk into it for the kids. Watching their eyes as their milk turns green. Or the night before, make everything in the fridge green, and say it was the Leprechaun's that did it.

Make it a tradition to do something. Give the kids something to look forward to. Make memories with your family for them to cherish forever.

Anjeanette

Wearing O' the Green

You know you are supposed to wear green on St. Patrick's Day, right? If you are like me, the only green you have is on your underwear. I'm not going out with my undies showing, no thank you! So I whipped up this little shamrock pin. It was very quick and easy. I hope you try it.

Growing up we always had some crocheted shamrock pins that Mom made us. We always wore them on St. Patrick's Day. I have no idea where that pin is. So I made my own. But I used felt and a sewing machine.

Gather your supplies.
I like to have two different shades of the same color with felt. I think it looks nice. And I printed up some shamrocks the size I wanted. These are about a couple of inches.



You can use these shamrocks if you want:


This is nothing new if you have seen any of my felt tutorials. But if you haven't...do a rough cut of the shamrock on paper. Do a rough cut of each green just bigger than the paper. Stack them how you want them to go. I always like the darker color on the back.

Sew right over the all the layers, on the lines of the shamrock. Remember to use a very short stitch length.


Peel off the paper. It should just pop right off. Trim the top layer as close to the stitching line as you can. Then trim the back layer with some pinking shears. Leave about 1/4 inch of the back color showing.

Take a flat backed pin and hand stitch it in place. Make sure you are only going through the back layer.

You are ready for the Wearing 'O the Green! Or is it the Wearing O' the Green? Either way, you are ready.


And if you make this, let me know by adding your version to our little flickr group!

O' Anjeanette