Creating with Old Records

 

VaVaVabloom Vase or 

Desk Organizer

Design by Joan Fee

Get organized for the new year or add a colorful touch to your desk with fun record creations!

Supplies

• Oven
• 2 old scratched records
• Scissors
• Cookie sheet
• Glue, waterproof
• Glass or metal object, approximately 3” in diameter
• Pot holders 
• Cotton gloves

 Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Place one record in oven on cookie sheet. Remove pliable record from oven.
2. Immediately, cut record in half.
3. Place one half of record back in oven until pliable.
4. Form around 3” diameter object and hold until set.
5. Place other half of record in oven until pliable.  Cut a 7” x ¼” and a ¼” x 1” wide strips. Make loops in end of long pieces. Wrap short piece around center of loops to form bow.   
6. Cut the center from one record.
7. If necessary, glue record together where they overlap.  Glue center of record to overlapped piece. Glue on bow. 
8. For vase, insert glass, fill with water and add flowers!

Check out more fun old record crafting ideas at www.lulu.com for the ebook Cheryl Ball and I created - it's filled with unique and crazy ideas for old records!

Healthy Meatloaf Recipe

Here's a comment about Krissy Ball's healthy meatloaf recipe on Instructables. If you haven't tried it yet, here's the link - it's made from turkey and it's VERY yummy!!!

From: beadydaniDate: Jun 18, 2009. 5:11 AM

Subject: http://www.instructables.com/id/Healthy_Meatloaf_Recipe/

Thanks for sharing this recipe, I have heard (I am British) of Meatloaf for as long as I can remember. Having seen this recipe, I will definitely (I love trying out new recipes) be making it, I am particularly pleased it can be frozen which will really help with my busy schedule. I am so glad I stumbled on this page.

Thanks beadydani for your comment.

Thai Spring Rolls

This Girl Can Cook!!!

I haven't talked much about Kristin Ball, Cheryl Ball's sister, who is the third person in our Still Crafty After 50 group. Kristin is an amazing chef with vast experience and training including cooking at a golf course country club, Skywalker Ranch and with the number one caterer’s in Santa Rosa and Paso Robles. She designs the menu, prepares the food and even creates tablescapes for the finest wineries in California. She has designed craft projects for over twenty years and many of her designs have appeared in national magazines. She’s always looking for new and fresh ideas for both food and design. Kristin loves making every day things an event with her special touches.

Kristin's YouTube video Easy to Make Thai Spring Rolls was just picked up by chefcommons - congrats Krissy!!! Kristin also revamped the Ball Family Meatloaf Recipe and made it oh so healthy and oh so tasty!

I hosted the video with Kristin and I was amazed at how easy Spring Rolls are to make and not being a big veggie girl, they were outstandingly yummy! And, you can keep the wrappers on your shelf for ages at the ready to make them anytime!

Check out http://www.stillcraftyafter50.com/ for more ideas from Cheryl, Kristin and me transforming those things from our youth that are hanging around into functional and fun projects and Kristin's healthy recipes for us, our parents and the children in our lives.

Make it a creative day!

Joan

Get Those Old Records Off the Shelf!

Cheryl Ball and I got his fabulous idea a while back about using our 'retro' fabrics and craft products we'd collected over the years. We combined them with things from our youth and transformed them into something functional and different – creating a whole new look for old. That's when Still Crafty After 50 came to be.


Well, we got this gig to appear on our local tv station and I came up with the idea to make a fountain from melted records. It was a hit! We have since recorded a how-to video entitled How to Create a Record Fountain and it has over 7,000 hits on YouTube. Check out the video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqS_kM2gBlc

So, we thought, why not make other things from records. And our new ebook was born - Get Those Old Records Off the Shelf. This ebook lets you get those old records off the shelf...out of grandma's attic, out of storage, wherever they are and take a spin on creativity!

Records only take a couple of minutes to melt in an oven and can be shaped easily into fantastic projects.

Get Those Old Records Off the Shelf ebook includes photos and instructions to make a Record Fountain, Record Clock, Record Cake Stand, Record Birdfeeder, Record and Album Cover Placesetting including napkin rings, tablerunner and placemat, Record and Album Cover Jewelry, Bowl, Record Album Cover Trays, Record Mail Sorters, Record Album and Cover Room Divider, Record Vase.
Check it out at http://www.lulu.com/content/e-book/get-those-old-records-off-the-shelf/6694989. Since it's an ebook, it's inexpensive and you can print it off right then and there - no waiting!


Get ready to Rock 'n Roll Craft!!!
Joan

Check out the hummingbird...

My week...a spur of the moment trip up the coast, White Christmas, crafting, delightful food, delightful friends... This was a very interesting week, one with MANY twists and turns, all thoroughly enjoyable.

On Tuesday, I found out a big deadline I was working on got extended a few days, so with that freedom (plus I was super stressed out and knew I needed to chill), I jumped in my car and went north on Highway 1 along the coast. My plan was to head up the coast for about an hour to Ragged Point and have lunch - but something made me whiz on by there and with the many twist and turns of Highway 1 I found myself at my favorite restaurant in Big Sur. Lunch was fantastic, overlooking the Big Sur coastline. The weather was fabulous and the drive up and back was great - hardly any traffic which let me pull into turnout after turnout to observe the mighty ocean below. I turned up the tunes real loud (thanks Miss Frances for Beyonce!!!) and found myself pulling into places I'd been before like Ventana Inn - they now have nice wood chaise lounges overlooking the ocean and I found myself basking in the warm sun not wanting to leave.

Wednesday was the newcomer's luncheon at a country club about 1/2 an hour away - it was absolutely spectacular - the view out the huge windows was of the surrounding hills with beautiful vineyards. We were all chattering about wearing our holiday finest - sweaters, jackets, etc. and it being 72 degrees outside - ahhh, the life of living at the coast (I had been emailing with friends back in Fresno and they were socked in with fog and freezing). I got introduced as being on the new board - some people were amazed that I was a new member (4 months) and already volunteering for a position - it's who I am, I wouldn't have it any other way. The food was wonderful and we had a presentation by a local high school choir of holiday songs.

Wednesday night and Thursday morning were spent doing freelance work. I literally had pieces and parts of projects everywhere in my tiny place. I got a phone call from a high school classmate saying he'd be in town in ten minutes and inviting me to dinner. I did the 8 minute scurry clean-up. Thing is, I have been to his house for meetings and he is one meticulous person, but, oh well. As we walked out of the restaurant, the sun was absolutely gorgeous right in front of us setting over the ocean!!! We stood there watching the sunset and I couldn't help but say outloud - "This is MY life."

Friday night was so delightful - Cheryl Ball, her sister Krissy and I got dressed up in our holiday attire, went to a steakhouse for dinner - I don't have steak that often, so it was a wonderful treat (was yummy for breakfast this morning too!) and then we were off to watch a production of White Christmas - it was absolutely amazing!!! We even got snowed on in the audience.

I woke up to rain this morning but as the morning progresses, the sun is shining and the ocean is beautiful. I need to play catch-up today after all my fun actives this week, so it's a working weekend for me. I'm not boo-hooing, cuz I had a delightful week.

Take care,

Joan

Thanksgiving on the Farm - The Barn, Family, Ribs, Tractors, Cranberry Sauce...
The cooks!!!

You can move a farm girl to the ocean, but you can't take the farm out of the girl...Thanksgiving was delightful! My mom got into the whole Barn Thanksgiving and brought out Thanksgiving related quilts, candles and milo from our fields to decorate. My bro, David, was a wonderful help bringing it all together. He got out the generator, so we would have music, moved the tractor out of the barn, put up tables and chairs, etc., etc. He was a great help and he wasn't even there for the festivities - he and has family went to his mother-in-laws for the day.
The ribs were seared for 1/2 hour at 500 degrees and then slowly cooked and basted in bbq sauce for 2-1/2 hours - yummy!!!

My nephew, Chris, loves Cranberry sauce - he makes sure everyone has their fill and then he takes the rest and smears it on rolls - quite a few rolls, I might add.

Toward evening, we went back out to the barn to put everything away and since David was still gone, that meant we had to wrangle all the heavy stuff and take care of them. Having spent many hours on the tractor as a kid disking the fields (don't even get my dad started on the summer I used a Honda 50 motorcycle to check the water in the fields every 1/2 hour), I got on the tractor and even though I hadn't driven it in years, I was able to get it started and take loads to a storage building. Fun, fun, fun!!!

We all went our separate ways on Friday - me to visit a friend in Fresno and my family to shop and go to our favorite / mandatory hangout - Superior Dairy - with to die-for ice creams treats.

Friday evening I headed back to my home, unloaded my car and vegged the rest of the evening.

Cheryl Ball and I are doing dinner tonight and I want to go to my storage place and dust off my Christmas decorations that have been in storage for 3+ years and decorate for the season. I came home last night to a blaze of lights from my next door neighbor's house - I knew I'd come home to something, but didn't expect so many lights. Something tells me he isn't done, yet.

I just got off the phone with my best friend from high school. We chatted for over an hour about life (she's going to be a grandma for the third time!!!), about our classmates - she still lives in our home town, so she was bringing me up-to-speed on the happenings or lack there of.

Seems like I haven't gotten my engines going today and it's already 1:00 p.m. with lots to do today.

Tomorrow is a do whatever day - wrapping presents, maybe getting a live Christmas tree, straightening up...whatever.

Joan

Still Crafty After 50
Cheryl Ball and I were on one of our local TV stations today with 9 recycling segments. There was plenty of prep work before our arrival at 5 a.m. this morning. Throughout the five hour show we teased, chatted, crafted and even got on camera doing stretches. I am soooooo tired!!!

We've been back at work for not even an hour and we've already gotten word that they want us back - GULP! next week for 9 new segments...

My favorite was making a fountain out of old records - it only takes 3-5 minutes for a record to melt in your oven at 200 degrees. Here's the link - it's the recycle material video
http://kmph.com/Global/category.asp?C=108757&nav=menu612_5

Or here's the same project on youtube
http://youtube.com/watch?v=AqS_kM2gBlc

Another favorite project was silhouettes on plates - the instructions will be up soon!

Check out our Get Those Old Records Off the Shelf ebook for tons of ideas to use old records!
www.lulu.com/spotlight/craftproductsatyahoodotcom 
Joan