This past Christmas, my (kinda)mother- in-law gave me and the mr these really cool honey bee pins in our stockings. Nothing fancy, just a little pin, but I think it was one of the best gifts that I had gotten all year. The pin lives on my winter jacket.
And now I am into pins.
So a couple of the little's came over yesterday after school for crafts and dinner and I figured a bit of pin making would be a perfect little project for us to do. And being that it's the big V day coming up, making these pins heart shaped was more then overly appropriate. (What's Valentines day without cute little hearts?) Well pin making we did, or I did, not so much for them. They made a few, but in the end, they were more excited to beat the crap out of the mr and to eat carrot shavings with peanut butter and nutella.. Totally ok with me because really, I was the one that wanted a little craft time and the mr did need to get his butt kicked.
Sure I made these pins pretty much for myself, but imagine the possibilities. Make a bunch to give out to your friends, family, neighbors, or even the mail man!? Or if you have yourself a little, how great would these pins be make and to give to all their little classmates. I know that if received one of these pins in my homemade shoe box mail box meant to collect all of my candy studded, drugstore bought valentines. I would have been elated and rocked that pin all year long on my super cool backpack.(grade schooler, they have all the fun) Right after I finished painting and gluing all my pins, Miley then decided that they were freaking awesome and wanted to make a bunch more.... Well little little, to late, time to go home. But I did give her a bunch to bring back with her. She will just have to bug her mom to make some more.
And sure, I mention valentines day when talking about these pins, but really, hearts are for everyday, and are still really great long after V day is over.
Handmade heart pins = love!
Stuff you need for some awesome pins.
- Polymer clay (I used white but any color will do)
- red and white paint (preferably enamel or a high gloss paint) and a paint brush
- bar pin backs (I bought these at Michael 's craft store. 64 for like 3 bucks!)
- industrial strength glue (E600 is great and is used and recommended by many a crafters)
- rolling pin or wooden dowel
- small heart shaped cutter
- sharpie pen to write on pins (optional)
- Glitter( also optional)
A couple notes. You could use red clay but I have found that when I buy the red dyed clay, its always harder to work with and plus, it stainsyour hands. Also, I like to seal the clay and enamel paint does the trick. If you don't want to paint it, just pain on a coat of clear sealer.
Start buy kneading a chunk of clay a little bit to get it to a workable state, then roll into a ball and roll out flat. I rolled mine out about 1/3 of an inch, but I also knew I wanted to squish it out a little flatter once I cut the shapes out.
Cut out your hearts, or if you want, free form them. What I did was used my tiny heart cookie cutter to cut the initial shape, but then used my thumb and squished them all out a bit bigger.
Note here.. Hears are awesome and amazing, but other shapes....Go for it. You probably have a shit tone of those pin backs.
And just before you bake them, make sure that the pins you are using will fit behind the hearts. (if you notice any visible pin, just smoosh the heart out a little more).
Into the oven,, out of the oven. Read the package to make sure, but the stuff I used only needed to be baked for 15 minutes at 275
Once out of the oven, let completely cool and harden.
Once the hearts are cooled, go ahead and paint them. Use straight up one color, or mix and make a few different shades. (red, white and pink are nice together)
You can add some glitter to the wet paint to add a little bling....
Or add designs or what have you. Do whatever feels right.
Now stick a pin thingy on the back of each heart with a blob of glue. (If you use the E600, make sure to use it near a window or somewhere ventilated.. it really stinks for a few minutes)
Let the glue dry (this glue was completely dry within an hour, but follow glue package instructions)
And if you want, grab the sharpie, make sure the paint is really dry (at least an hour) and write a little something on the hearts.
And now the hard part.. which one goes to who and which one (or 4) do you keep for yourself. (you can always make more!)
Have fun!
-C
It's Mother's Day weekend which means that you and I and everyone out there should feel the slightest bit obligated to at least do a little something nice for your mom for the mere fact that you were borned. And really what better way to celebrate mom than with food… It really is the least that you can do. (I think mom's also like flowers and cards and handmade pasta necklaces)
The stuff. Flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. A bit of sugar, vanilla, buttermilk, and butter (use vegan butter and nut milk if you want to make them vegan) And of course we need the blueberries which can be fresh or frozen. I usually use fresh, but the store I stopped at only had really big containers of fresh that were like $1000 dollars a piece and the organic frozen happen to be on super sale. So you know, the cheap in me won that battle. 
So into the bowl goes all the dry stuff; flour, baking powder and soda, salt, and the sugar. Give it a good whisk. 
Now dump the blueberries into the flour mixture. Toss them around to give them a coat of flour. Add in the buttermilk and vanilla and give a little mix until liquid is absorbed. We are trying to handle the dough as little as possible.
Turn mixture onto counter. It's very loose, but thats what it should look like. 
Very gently and with as little handling as possible, gather dough up, knead a few times till everything just comes together. Press dough into a disk that is roughly an inch thick…. and it doesn't need to be perfect. 
Cut the disk into even sized pieces. Do 6 big, 8 normal, maybe even 10 smaller. Whatever size you like. (I did 8) Place the scones onto a baking sheet, using a spatula to transfer, and sprinkle the tops with a little bit of sugar. Into a preheated oven for about 20 minutes.
And when the scones look all nice and browned and a tester comes out clean. remove and either serve right away warm, preferably with huge cup of coffee or tea, or stick on a rack to cool before storing in air tight container.
