Magnetic Art Display

Several years ago, I created these as a way for Joey to easily display (and rotate) all of her artwork.



This weekend, I did up a new one for her favorite photos and thought I'd give a quick tutorial.



Supplies
-1 strip of flat metal with holes in it (make sure you test it with a magnet before you bring it home. And, yes, to find this, I basically walked around the home improvement store sticking a magnet to pieces of interesting looking metal) If you can't find one with at least a couple of holes in it for attaching to the wall, you'll have to drill your own and most likely have to buy a special drill bit for metal.
-First coat of paint- Metal Primer (The important thing to look for on the back of the label is a section called Priming that recommends it for use on bare metal.) If you can find a color you like in this, go ahead and use it as both primer and final color.
-Second coat of paint- Final Color (whatever kind you have or can find- I used left-over semi-gloss)
-Last coat of paint- Clear, Protective Enamel (this isn't completely necessary, but does cut down on the tiny bit of flaking paint that I experienced the first time I tried it.)
-Screws
-Washers (I needed these because the size of the holes were bigger than the heads on the screws)
-Magnets

How To
-Basically, I washed everything but the screws with soapy water and a piece of steel wool, rinsed well and let it air dry.
-Then I coated the metal strip and washers with the paints in the order listed in the supplies, letting everything dry thoroughly between coats. (The vast majority of time for this project is really just waiting for the previous coat of paint to dry; it's really only about half an hour of actual work.)
-Then I hung it up (marked the studs, used a level to mark the hole placement, drilled pilot holes and attached to the wall with screws).



Tips
-Originally, I had bought some of that magnetic paint and covered a piece of molding with it. I did several coats and the magnets just didn't stick all that well. Paper tended to go flying if we had the ceiling fan on or windows open. Trust me, the metal works much better.
-You may need to do more than one coat of any one of the paints.
-Read the paint labels for the wait times between coats.
-I suggest using a sponge brush, because it tends to leave fewer marks than the regular bristle brushes.
-I put the metal strip up on saw horses for painting.
-I used small pieces of polymer clay to hold the washers up off the paper towel when painting.


If you want to skip the painting part, it'll just have a more industrial look. The project will also be much more environmentally friendly and a lot easier.

The End of a Very Long Day

(Photos by Jenny, again.)

Henna

(Photos courtesy of Aurora Mae.)

By the River

At the Park

This week, I'm going to let the pictures speak for themselves.







(Photos courtesy of Jenny.)

Fireworks Cake Toppers

A couple of years ago, we made a bunch of cooked sugar fireworks to top our 4th of July cupcakes, which were originally inspired by a volcano that we made for Randa's birthday. Once you get the hang of it, cooked sugar is so fun to work with.

This year, we did a cake.

We used this Lollipop recipe from the Science of Cooking Website to create the sugar mixture.

The entire process if fairly simple.
-Cook the sugar solution on the stove (sugar, water, corn syrup and cream of tartar) to the Hard-Crack stage. This takes less than 10 minutes.
-Then mix it with gel food coloring.
-Drizzle onto Silpat or parchment paper lined cookie sheets, reheating as necessary to keep it thin.

Homeschooling Notes
-I let Joey (9 years old) do some of the drizzling, but you should definitely be super careful with this stuff. It is molten. And will stick to you. Which hurts. A lot. So, use your best judgment.
-During this project, we learned about mono and disaccharides, crystallization and interfering agents.
-We also learned that all the different stages of cooked sugar (at least from the Soft-Ball to the Hard-Crack) are just variations on the amount of water still left in the solution.

Which brings me to my most recent Don't Do What Donnie Don't Does- Don't rely on temperature alone to determine whether the sugar solution has cooked long enough. My first batch was way droopy because I adjusted for high altitude (like instructed) and only cooked it to 290 degrees. And the second batch still wasn't quite done at 300.

Use the Cold Water Test when you think you've made it to the right stage. If the strands of sugar are brittle and not at all pliable, you're there, otherwise, keep cooking.

Jenny took some fun pictures of the drizzling process.







Some Tips
-Have all the cookie sheets covered with parchment paper or a Silpat BEFORE you start to cook the sugar solution, because once it's ready, you've got to move quickly.
-I suggest mixing up the colored batches in heat resistant, microwave safe bowls, with handles, if possible. It's best to have these ready, as well, before you start cooking the sugar.
-A thermometer really comes in handy for this project. Though, it doesn't need to be a candy thermometer. Just one that goes up to 300 degrees.
-If you're using a thermometer that doesn't stay attached to the side of the pan, make sure to clean and dry it completely before returning it to the pan each time. Dried sugar on it will act as a seed and make the whole thing harden up into crystals.
-I would suggest turning down the stove as you approach the correct temperature. It'll take longer, but it will also give you enough time to do the Cold Water Test without too much worry that you'll over cook it.
-I like the Silpats because they're reusable, but unless you already have one, parchment paper works perfectly well.
-Don't bother letting the sugar solution cool to 275 like the recipe says. Just immediately mix with the coloring and drizzle, and it will be a nice thin consistency.
-The unpoured sugar will start to thicken as it cools, though. Put it in the microwave for a few seconds at a time and stir it thoroughly to soften it back up to a drizzleable consistency.
-If you're going to stand them up on the cake like I did, make sure to drizzle a good, thick base.
-You could also just make them without the base and lay them flat against the cake (either on top or on the sides) after they've cooled.



Happy Almost 4th of July!

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Sigh.