DIY Quick & Easy Felt Board

I'm obsessed with everything felt at the moment! My 2.5 year old is just at that age where felt matching games and such are a blast. Felt boards can be pricey. For just a few bucks you can make your own. I spent about $12 to make this one. When making your own, you can choose your own size and felt color. My little one is loving all the super cool things I've starting make him to use on his felt board.

You will need:

• 22x28 inch Canvas {or desired size}
• white felt {about 4 inches larger than your canvas}
• Scissors
• Glue Gun

Instructions

I purchased 1 yard of white felt from my local fabric store {or you can use this Amazon link}. Purchasing felt by the yard is much cheaper and you don't get the fold marks in the felt. This will give you way enough felt to cover the board and have tons left over for felt crafts. Cut a piece that is about 2 inches larger than your canvas on all sides. Simply lay your canvas face down onto the felt and cut around. No need for exact measurements. Since your canvas will be covered, you can purchase the cheapest canvas you can find.

After you cut the felt, simply glue the edges down to the back of your canvas. Now you have a lightweight felt board for all your felt projects. Check out the "felt" label to more felt projects on my blog.

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Homemade Fruit Leather Snacks

I'm always looking for new and healthy snacks for my whole family. In recent months, I've been working on replicating unhealthy (but often fun) snacks and make them into homemade healthy treats. I would never eat or give my family packaged fruit roll-ups/ fruit by the foot. If you read the ingredients, fruit is hardly even in them! Trying not to reinvent the wheel, I searched the internet and came upon this recipe. I made some modifications since the first batch was way to thin. It made some cool fruit crackers, but that wasn't going to fly ;). Here is what I came up with that worked out perfectly!

You will need:

• 4 cups mixed berries (I used 2 cups strawberries & 1 cup each of blueberries & blackberries)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened apple juice or water (I used water)
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon lemon zest {optional}
• 1 tablespoon honey (or more depending on your taste)

Instructions

Chop up the strawberries. You can leave the other berries whole. In a medium saucepan, combine all ingredients. Simmer for 20 minutes on medium-high heat.

Transfer mixture to a blender and blend into smooth. The mixture will be hot, so be careful!

Spread mixture onto a cookie sheet lined with a Silicone Baking Mat {make your life easier} or parchment paper.

Spread evenly, but don't worry about it reaching all the sides of the pan or being even.

Bake in the oven for about 6-8 hours on 150 degrees. At some point, about 2/3 of my fruit leather was done. I simply tore off that part and let the rest bake for about an hour longer. The mixture is fairly thick when spread out, so it is hard to spread it out perfectly even.

If using the Silicone Baking Mat, peel the fruit leather off the mat and transfer to a piece of parchment paper if you'd like. Then cut the fruit into strips and roll up. I didn't bother with the parchment paper and simple tore into strips, rolled up and placed into a container. I haven't had any problems with them that way.

Feel free to experiment with different combos and maybe some different seasonings added in as well. Should last for about a month stored.

Using the affiliate links in this blog to make purchases helps support my site. Thank you in advance!

Dark Chocolate Bark with Pistachios and Dried Cherries

Nothing is better than dark chocolate, except maybe dark chocolate with nuts and fruit. Chocolate bark is one of the easiest no-bake treats to make. Except for the cooling time in the refrigerator, these only take about 10-15 minutes to whip up. Enjoy!

You will need:

• 1 12-Ounce Bag Dark Chocolate Baking Chips
• 3/4 cup shelled Pistachios {Roasted & Salted}
• 3/4 cup Dried Cherries

Instructions

Place chocolate chips into a Silicone Mixing Bowlor any microwavable bowl. Words of wisdom: invest in kitchen tools that will make your life easier!!!! I prefer my Pampered Chef silicone mixing bowl {because I'm a Pampered Chef snob - there I said it!}, but any Silicone Mixing Bowl like this Silicone Mixing Bowl will do. Silicone mixing bowls are microwaveable, easy to handle and you can touch them while hot without using gloves. Microwave your chocolate on high for one minute.

Stir the chocolate with your silicone spoon. Again, keep it simple and easy! I like my Pampered Chef mix and scrape, but this Silicone Spoon would do just as well. Put back into the microwave for 10-20 seconds then stir again. Do this until the chocolate is all the way melted.

At some point when my chocolate starts to stick to the spoon, I just keep it in the bowl and microwave it just like that. Just make sure you are using a silicone spoon that is microwave safe! Not all are since the handles are sometimes made of plastic or something else.

To chop up the pistachio nuts, I place mine on a cutting board and give them 3-5 "chops" with a Hand Chopper .

When the chocolate is completely melted, stir in about 2/3 of your pistachios and 2/3 of your dried cherries.

Spread mixture onto a cookie sheet lined with a Silicone Baking Mat {again, make your life easier} or parchment paper. Don't worry about making it even around the edges since you are going to break it up anyway.

Spread the rest of your pistachios and dried cherries on top. Carefully push down into the chocolate.

Place in the refrigerator for about 45 minutes to cool.

Here comes the fun part. Break the bark into desired size pieces. It can't get any easier than that!

This easy no bake treat can be made with a million different combinations of chocolates (I prefer dark, my husband prefers white) and toppings. Feel free to add any kind of spices to the melted chocolate mix as well for a unique taste.

Using the affiliate links in this blog to make purchases helps support my site. Thank you in advance!

Homemade DIY Laundry Detergent - Borax Free

In the quest to free my home of unwanted chemicals and toxins, I now make my own laundry detergent. Not only is this borax free laundry detergent cheaper to make than the Tide Free I used to use, it works just as well or better! In just a few easy steps you can make your own non-toxic laundry detergent as well.

You will need:

• 1 bar Dr. Bronner’s Pure-Castile soap - Unscented/ Baby Mild - You can used scented if preferred.
• 1 cup Washing Soda
• 1/2 cup Baking Soda
• 1/2 cup Citric Acid
• 1/4 cup Coarse Sea Salt
• Essential oil {optional}

Instructions

First you'll need to finely grate your bar of soap. I put my bar of soap through the grate plate on the top of my food processor which shreds it.

The I use the food processor to get it to a fine powder. You can you a cheese grater or whatever you'd like, just make sure to grate it finely.

Mix the finely grated soap, washing soda, baking soda, citric acid and salt together. Stir well.

*VERY IMPORTANT* You’ll also want to add a desiccant to your mix to keep the soap from clumping up. They are super easy to make. Just put a teaspoon or two of silica gel in a clean fabric bag or baby sock, and tie up the opening as tight as possible so no gel escapes. The desiccant will absorb moisture in the laundry detergent from the soap bar. The silica is reusable, see instructions on the box for details.

Put your laundry detergent and desiccant in a large bowl where you can have room to stir it around. For the first few days, stir your mix several times a day. After that, the mixture will be nice and dry and there will be no need to continue to stir. You don't have to wait until it dries to use the detergent though.

If you would like to scent your laundry detergent, you can add the desired amount of essential oils to the whole mix, or each individual scoop. Contact me if you'd like to purchase or more information on Young Living essential oils.

Add 1 tablespoon of your homemade detergent per load. For really large or heavy soiled loads, I use just a tad more, but not much.

Order your custom personalized waterproof stickers (or personalized digital downloads for you to print) from Davet Designs to personalize your laundry detergent container.