summer Archives - Teach Love Craft

For the 4^th of July and Flag Day (Grace would be sad if I didn’t mention it), everyone needs to show some good old American pride. This easy American Flag Yarn Wreath is the perfect way to do just that. This craft is from the early years of craft night—we had seen similar ones on Etsy and knew we could do this ourselves.

Pardon the lack of photos for this craft—we didn’t used to take pictures mid-craft back in the day. Luckily this craft doesn’t have much to it anyway!

What you need:

Foam Wreath

Red, White, and Blue Yarn

“Stars” of your choosing- buttons, pom-poms, white fabric, etc.

Step 1:

Gather your supplies. You want to roughly plan out how big your red, white, and blue sections of yarn are going to be. You can lightly mark these ‘borders’ on your foam wreath.

Step 2:

Start with your choice of yarn color. You don’t need a glue gun to secure the starting end of the yarn in place—simply wrap your yarn over it. We all did this for the entire wreath and none of ours have even come close to unraveling.

The wrapping can get a bit tedious, so we were fortunate to have each other to keep us occupied/from going a bit crazy. The girls can attest that I got a bit OCD with my wrapping—trying to keep it as straight as possible. This made me the slowpoke of the group, causing me to have to finish my wreath at home

Step 3:

For your final section of yarn (for us it was the blue), make sure you thread your ending piece through the blue wrapped section. Again, this will keep it from unraveling.

Glue your ‘stars’ onto the blue section of your wreath, and you are good to go!

Here are our three wreaths:

Grace keeps it rustic by hanging it in front of a chalkboard.

Rona made a cute braid to hang hers—love the pom-poms!

I picked up some asymmetrical wooden star buttons and painted them with white acyclic craft paint that I had at home.

What door décor do you have for the 4^th? We’d love to see it.

Now that summer is on its way, the cravings for fresh, light desserts are also on the rise. We all go to many a BBQ during the summer, and it’s always great to have a few easy, quick (and delicious) dessert recipes on hand.

I recently found a tasty recipe for a Strawberry and Cream trifle, courtesy of Wendy Paul (you should totally check out her website– I spent lots of time looking at all the fantastic recipes). Wendy’s book, 101 Gourmet No-Bake Desserts in a Jar—is packed full of yummy creations just perfect for the summer season. I am happy to share with you her Strawberry and Cream Trifle recipe, which I made for a Memorial Day cook-out.

Ingredients:

4 cups strawberries, rinsed (about 2 cartons)

1 quart heavy whipping cream

1 Angel Food cake

1 Tablespoon sugar (I only used ¾ T because my berries were so sweet)

2 cups confectioner’s sugar (again I only used 1 ½ c due to the sweetness of the berries)

Step 1:

Mash 1 cup of strawberries in a bowl. Sprinkle 1 Tablespoon of sugar on top, mix and refrigerate.

Step 2:

Whip the cream in a mixer until stiff peaks form. Fold in 2 cups of confectioner’s sugar.

Step 3:

Scoop half of the cream mixture into a separate bowl. Add the mashed strawberries and mix until incorporated.

It was a challenge not to eat this whole thing by itself.

Step 4:

Slice up 3 cups of strawberries and add to a bowl. If you would like, sprinkle with a little sugar/toss.

Step 5:

Cut up the angel food cake into 1 inch cubes. I used ¾ of an angel food cake I found at the food store [yes, we New Yorkers call it food store, not grocery store :) ].

Step 6:

Begin to layer the trifle as follows:

Layer 1: angel food cake,

Layer 2: strawberry cream,

Layer 3: sliced strawberries,

Layer 4: plain whipped cream,

I repeated the layers a second time. Top the final whipped cream layer with a strawberry design of your liking.

Refrigerate until you are ready to serve. I had ¼ of the angel food cake leftover, in addition to some strawberries, and a small tupperware of the plain whipped cream. A nice little snack for the next night!

People commented on how pretty the dessert was, and there was just a meager scoop left over at the end of the night!