Curley's Crafts and Creations

So all growing up my mom made jam. I have tried store bought, and just don't think it is as good. Now that I am "grown up" I figured I should be making it myself. So we went and bought strawberries and ate some then made jam with the rest. (We went to Costco and got their 4lb case for 5.99) I got about 9 out of that. Not bad.

Then I have made St Patrick's and Easter decor. I am slow posting but here is what I made with Easter first:
These blocks are ones I have posted about in the past, but I add some letters and have TONS more words I can do. I will have to re-post about this later :)

And here are some wood eggs I painted then mod podged some fun spring paper on the front. I then inked the edges, and am trying to decide if this is okay or if they need a little more.

Here is wood that spells eggs. I painted them, I put painters tape on so I could do the different colors and not have transfer from the other colors where I did not want it. Then I just add a little bling for fun.

Here is the St. Patrick's stuff. I have 1 3x6, 1 5x6 and 3 4x6 blocks that I painted the edges that would be showing and mod podged fun green paper on the front. Then I cut out vinyl with my cricut and put that on. I still want some bling and just need to do it.

This is a fun hat, but it actually goes with another thing I have, but since I live with mom and dad and don't have it totally done I just displayed the hat.

These fun shamrocks are from wood too. I painted them then mod podged the paper on them. I distressed the edges with ink and thought that was good.

Here are the letter blocks spelling pinch me. I love them and am so glad I decided to make them and add more letters.

So that is what I have been doing. I have a few other things I am still working on, and I think after I am done I will find more I want to do. That is the great thing about crafting, it is never ending, of course that can be bad too :)

So I made peach jam for the first time. Well come to think of it, this is the first time I have made jam all by myself :)
It is actually really easy. Lucky for me my mom has an Uncle that has a peach tree. So she went and got a box FULL. So I made 2 batches of freezer jam. I am planning on making some cooked jam later today.

I just used the instructions in the pecton box. We used MCP pecton.


You need 3 1/4 cups of cut up/mashed peaches. I went ahead and used a potato masher to mash mine, but still had chuncks of peaches. You add 1/4 cup lemon and stir together. Then add the pecton. Mix it until the pecton is disolved. Then let it sit for 30 minutes, stirring every about 5 minutes. After the 30 minutes add 1 cup light karo syrup and once that is stirred in add 4 1/2 cups of sugar. Slowly add the sugar while stirring. Now this is where we do it a little different, we put the mixture on low heat. This helps dissolve the sugar a little faster. But you don't have to do it this way. You just have to keep stirring until the sugar is totally dissolved . Then put it in the jars. I got about 4 per batch, ( I made 2 batches) with a little extra to make the partial jar. Let sit 24 hours on a counter until set and put in freezer.
Now is that not easy or what? of course it is a little time consuming but SO worth it. We also put the peaches in a warm water bath for about 5 minutes to help peel them. (It is SO much faster and easier). Now I am just going to make some cooked peach jam either tonight or tomorrow.