DIY Puppy Training Treats

I love trying all sorts of great things I find on Pinterest, and this is one that definitely was easy and worthwhile!  Since we got our new dachshund puppy, I've been searching for all kinds of great dog treat recipes.  I found this page:  http://www.curbly.com/users/capreek/posts/13538-how-to-make-your-own-diy-dog-treats, and the simple 2-item ingredient list made these treats a no-brainer to try!

I don't have the adorable dog bone cookie cutter they used (although that will probably be remedied sooner rather than later), but our 8 week old itty bitty puppy couldn't eat a big old dog bone treat like that anyway, and I wanted something small to start teaching her commands.  I bought 2 jars of chicken and rice dinner baby food, and I made sure to check the ingredients for no onions like the other blog mentioned.  I had no idea onions were toxic to dogs!

I decided to halve the recipe; itty bitty puppy can't eat that many treats you know!  So I just used one jar of the baby food and one cup of whole wheat flour.  I tossed them in my food processor with a couple tablespoons of water.  I put the water in the baby food jar first and swished it around to get out the extra little bits.  Turned on the food processor for a few seconds and voila, instant dough!  One a side note, now I need to start pinning some projects for used baby food jars!

It rolled out easily, and I used a knife to cut it into tiny squares (and since I didn't cut all that straightly, some trapezoids and triangles too).  I'm glad I decided to only go with a half batch, because those tiny little squares filled up my big flat cookie sheet (as you can see in the photo), and I ended up putting several on an extra sheet.  I baked them at the recommended 350 degrees for the lowest recommended time of 20 minutes.  The bottom sheet got a little over done so I probably should have checked them sooner, but I got distracted with the kiddos sorting out some new perler beads forgetting to check on them until I heard the timer go off!  Oh well, they weren't burnt, and I'm sure the dog will still eat them!

They were flat little pieces going in the oven but puffed up a bit while baking and turned into adorable little training treats.  I think our puppy will have some new tricks up her sleeve before too long!  Maybe by the time she's actually big enough to get back up on the porch on her own!  She seems to like these more than the store bought treats we have for her, and (don't judge!) the kids liked them too!  They wanted to pretend to be dogs when they saw I was giving out treats for sitting still!   And since it's just baby food and flour, the treats are okay for them to have too!

Pinterest Preschool Projects

First off let me say sorry for not blogging recently.  I really don't know where the time is going most days, and there's always more to do than there are hours in the day to do it!  This blog has just been pushed to the back burner along with so many other things!

I also took a break from Pinterest for a while, but I've found myself addicted again.  And that means we've been doing more crafts and activities around here.  I just wanted to share a few of them with you that we really enjoyed.

Celery Stamping (or Painting - which is what we did)

Found here on Pinterest:  http://pinterest.com/pin/119978777542413166/

This idea seemed to be pinned a lot around Valentines day as people were suggesting making cards and Valentine's with the very pretty shape of the celery heart.  I didn't have a big stamp pad on hand so I decided to use paint instead.  The kids each picked their color of construction paper and two colors of paint (it's always more fun with options!).  

The paint was thick so it made it a little harder to see the actual design of the celery stalk, but they still had fun with it.  My son even informed me that he would "let me sell his painting in my shop!".  He's so cute!  He covered his page with the paint on his celery stamp so the design it was making became pretty moot!

I helped my daughter by turning a few of the spots where she had already stamped into a flower shape and that got her even more excited.  She was using a tiny inside piece of the celery heart which was just the right size for her to hold onto at 22 months.  

Handprint Goldfish

Found here on Pinterest:  http://pinterest.com/pin/98305204335901407/

I'm thoroughly in love with all of the hand-print craft projects, and this is one I've had pinned for a while just waiting for us to get around to it!  I just looked at the original pin and did our best to replicate it.  We used a sheet of orange construction paper.  I cut out the shape of the fish bowl on blue construction paper for my son to glue on to the page.  He thought it felt funny painting the orange paint onto his hand, but he was still happy to get messy!  

After gluing on some googly eyes and a handful of dried beans, he used the tip of the paintbrush dipped in white paint to make the bubbles.  And no activity is complete now without learning how to write/spell something so I had him write 'fish' out across the top of the page.

He now has his fish proudly displayed on the front of our fridge.  On a side note, if you ask him "What sound does a fish make?", my son always responds with "bubble, bubble, bubble".  Which always gets a laugh from me!  Did I mention he's so cute?!

  

Frog Craft with Retractable Tongue!

Found here on Pinterest:  http://pinterest.com/pin/98305204335976722/

Looking over my Preschool board on Pinterest today I decided we'd make this little froggy.  I knew we had the book "Frog's Lunch" and it was perfect to read after we finished making the frog.

I cut out the shape of the body (a circle folded in half), the legs, and eyes from green construction paper, and my son glued them all on to make the frog.  Cardstock would be preferred, but we keep the construction paper on hand.  The eyes could be made with construction paper as well, but we just used a black Sharpie to draw them in.

The instructions said to paint a popsicle stick red, but I bought a package of colored popsickle sticks to save this kind of step in countless other craft projects so all we had to do was go pick out the red one!  It simply gets poked through the crease at the back of the "mouth" and then can be moved back and forth to simulate a frog's tongue.  

My son used his new little frog to act out the frog catching the fly in the book, over and over!  I started talking to him more about frogs and tadpoles, so we picked up a few books at the library today on the subject for him to learn more.  It's so neat to see him get excited about learning new things!

I also picked up a book on lobsters today while we were at the library so this hand-print craft is next up on our to-do list:

Hope to have more for you soon!!

What Happens When You Mix Paint and Alcohol

Mixing paint and alcohol turned out even more fun than I expected!  No, I don't mean drinking alcohol while you paint, and this alcohol was not of the drinking variety.  My sister called and got me interested in a new technique she'd seen on the Internet about combining acrylic paint and rubbing alcohol.  It sounded really fun so I told her to come on over, and we tried it out together!

I didn't take pictures as we went, and I wish now that I would have.  I had no idea how it was really going to turn out until it was done.  I can only show you the finished product, but I think they turned out great!  The process was farely simple but time consuming because of the drying time in between each layer of the painting.  We both started with solid base coats of acrylic paint.  I chose a dark gray, and she chose black.  

After that layer has completely dried, you apply a wash created from a mix of acrylic paint and water.  I'd say this might be the most critical step for several reasons.   It appears if the wash is too watery it won't work right, and if the wash is too thick it won't work right.  We both agreed it probably depends on the quality of acrylic paint you use and getting the water right.  Side note, the online tutorial recommended distilled water.  Working quickly so this new layer does not dry, you want to apply 91% rubbing alcohol to the painting.  We tried using a spray bottle but it didn't give the desired affect.  Splashing it on was also risky.  Turns out an eye dropper/syringe worked best.

You can stop there or let that layer completely dry, and repeat with multiple layers and color combinations.  I can't wait to do it again in more variations!  Here's a look at the finished product after a clear gloss top coat was added:

For a little extra effect, I titled this one up to get a drip going.  Drip paintings seem to be pretty popular these days, and I can now see why!

You can see the full paintings in my Etsy shop along with a few more pictures of each at http://www.etsy.com/shop/HandmadebyCJ.