Wood Burned Snowflake Craft

January 2, 2020 By Ann Leave a Comment

Wooden snowflake ornament etched with dashes, branches, and the words Let It Snow. There is a twine hanger at the end. This sits on top of a rustic blue surface.

Looking for some great winter decor? These easy to make wood burned snowflakes will look great hanging in your window, from a lamp or chandelier, or decorating your cupboards.

Wood Burned Snowflake Craft

Wood burned ornaments, signs, spoons, and artwork is all the rage and very easy to make. You really only need a wood-burning tool and some wood to make beautiful rustic art in minutes!

“Let It Snow” decorations are perfect for the winter months. I now decorate my foyer in “Snow” themed decorations starting the first of December, and leave them up until March. It is nice and easy, fits the season, and I do not have to continually remove decorations. It also helps to look seasonally current as we go away for much of the winter. A Christmas wreath in February looks lazy and can signal “hey, these people are on vacation!” A snowflake wreath says, “‘Tis the season!”

Since I have a large foyer I also have baskets of winter stems, signs, some tea lights and art.

I have snowflakes attached to the storm doors with double-sided tape. I know a lot of people prefer to hang them, but the double-sided tape means they are not moving, and I like that. I have different sizes and different shapes to make it look like a “real” snowfall.

Tips for Making Wood Burned Snowflakes

• The materials necessary to make this easy Wood Burned Snowflake can be purchased at at JoAnn, Michaels, or Hobby Lobby

• The tip of the tool gets very hot and even touching it for a second can burn your skin or melt something. Always practice safety when handling your wood burning tool, and read the directions included with your burning tool completely before operating.

• Make certain you are burning in a well-ventilated area. Use a fan pointed toward an open window or door to help with ventilation.

• When you are using the tool, sometimes the slower you use it, the clearer the lines will be.

• The longer you hold the tool to the wood, the darker it will be.

Wood Burned Snowflake Craft. Looking for some great winter decor? These easy to make wood burned snowflakes will look great hanging in your window, from a lamp or chandelier, or decorating your cupboards.

Wood Burned Snowflake Craft Materials:

• Wooden Snowflake
• Ribbon or Twine (for hanging)
• Double Sided Tape (if attaching)

Wood Burned Snowflake Craft Tools:

• Wood Burning Tool

Wood Burned Snowflake Craft Instructions:

1. Cover your work surface against possible burns.
2. Look at your wooden snowflake and make a decision about the best side of the wooden snowflake. Use the side you like best. If you are burning both sides of the snowflake (for a window), this step is not necessary.
3. Put the longest pointed tip in the wood burning tool and plug it in.

4. Once heated up, make short dashes all the way around the perimeter of the wooden snowflake.
5. Once you are done making the short dashes you can lightly start to draw the “Let it Snow” wording in the center with this tip. (You can also draw lightly with a pencil before burning.)
6. Next, unplug the tool and allow it to cool completely.

7. Take out the pointed tip and change to the calligraphy tip.

8. Turn the wood burning tool back on and once heated, begin to trace the “Let it Snow” wording.
9. The way you hold the wood burning tool will determine the thinness or thickness of the line.
10. Go around the words until you are satisfied with the look. This may be once, twice, or three times. It is up to you the look you want to achieve.

11. Add some snowflake-type points and embellishments to the edges.
12. Once finished, unplug the tool and allow it to cool completely before storing.

13. If you are hanging your snowflake, insert a piece of ribbon or twine and hang as desired. If you are decorating windows, attach a piece of double-sided tape to the snowflake, pull off the backing, and attach to a clean window (or mirror) surface.

Yield: 1

Wood Burned Snowflake Craft

Wood Burned Snowflake Craft. Looking for some great winter decor? These easy to make wood burned snowflakes will look great hanging in your window, from a lamp or chandelier, or decorating your cupboards.

Prep Time 5 minutes

Active Time 15 minutes

Additional Time 5 minutes

Total Time 25 minutes

Difficulty easy

Estimated Cost 1.00

Materials

Wooden Snowflake
Ribbon or Twine (for hanging)
Double-Sided Tape (if attaching)

Tools

Wood Burning Tool

Instructions

1. Cover your work surface against burns.
2. Look at your wooden snowflake and make a decision about the best side of the wooden snowflake. Use the side you like best. If you are burning both sides of the snowflake (for a window), this step is not necessary.
3. Put the longest pointed tip in the wood-burning tool and plug it in.
4. Once heated up, make short dashes all the way around the perimeter of the wooden snowflake.
5. Once you are done making the short dashes you can lightly start to draw the "Let it Snow" wording in the center with this tip. (You can also draw lightly with a pencil before burning.)
6. Next, unplug the tool and allow it to cool completely.
7. Take out the pointed tip and change to the calligraphy tip.
8. Turn the wood-burning tool back on and once heated, begin to trace the "Let it Snow" wording.
9. The way you hold the wood-burning tool will determine the thinness or thickness of the line.
10. Go around the words until you are satisfied with the look. This may be once, twice, or three times. It is up to you the look you want to achieve.
11. Add some snowflake-type points and embellishments to the edges.
12. Once finished, unplug the tool and allow it to cool completely before storing it.
13. If you are hanging your snowflake, insert a piece of ribbon or twine and hang as desired. If you are decorating windows, attach a piece of double-sided tape to the snowflake, pull off the backing, and attach to a clean window (or mirror) surface.

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Filed Under: Christmas, Crafts, Winter

Happy New Year!

January 1, 2020 By Ann Leave a Comment

Good Morning and welcome to 2020!!!

For the last 10+ years (I’ve been blogging since 2007!) I have written a New Year’s Day post. And every year I have the same New Year’s resolution – remember to write the current year’s date on all correspondence and checks. I aim high!

A new decade is upon us and once again I think… WTH did the time go? It seems like just yesterday I was programming for the (non-existent) Y2K meltdown. My how time flies.

I want to start off with a short recap of what happened in 2019 to the Ann’s Entitled Life household, and what we have going on in 2020. After all, no matter how “commercial” blogging appears to be today – and make no mistake about it, it is extremely commercial these days, I still consider this blog to be my personal diary. I write it so that in five years I can remember “Oh yeah, we took THAT trip” or “Hubby made THAT recipe” – notice I wrote, “hubby made”? For those unfamiliar with this blog my husband does most of the cooking. He’s an excellent cook. I bake and make cocktails, he cooks!

Soooo with that in mind:

Last year was a better year than 2018 (which was pretty grim).

I have wanted to travel for a number of years now. Due to Mr. Max’s health issues, traveling wasn’t possible for nearly five years without taking him along. 2019 was the start of fulfilling the travel-bug:

In January we went on a Panama Canal cruise. I took over 600 photos on that cruise, as I was going to do a big write-up about the locks. I was out on the “secret deck” at 6 am with a bird-eye view. Annnnnd then I could not find the photos. I blamed hubby for not uploading them correctly to his computer and resigned myself to not doing the post. Wellllllllll guess what I found mislabeled in my photo albums yesterday? (Honestly, YESTERDAY!)

I had always wanted to see the Panama Canal. My mother told me before we left that it was like the Welland Canal. And darn it, it was. This was also the first cruise we ever took Dramamine on. It was rough sailing. We missed one of our ports due to weather conditions (the captain felt it was unsafe to dock). On an excursion we overhead a lady saying that this was her 28th cruise and the worth sea conditions she ever encountered. I guess it was bound to happen! (It was our eighth cruise.)

We drove down to Ft. Lauderdale for the cruise as we decided to spend some time exploring Florida afterward. We had never done the west coast of Florida, so off we went through Alligator Alley (which was cool although I’d never want to break down there), on to Naples ($$), up to Ft Meyer (er, Sanibel Island is pretty), up to St Petersburg (we LOVED it!), and over to our old stomping grounds in St. Augustine.

On the drive home, we stopped in Savannah. All those years we had a condo in St. Augustine and never once did we stop in Savannah! This was another place I had always wanted to visit. And now, I have.

After that, Hubby and I spent some time around the house with typical household duties, and he planned a 6-week trip to Italy.

We have now been home since mid-October and the holidays whizzed by!

We are soon off to Australia and New Zealand. This is a trip Hubby and I have chatted about for many years. We always knew we would do New Zealand via a cruise… they drive on the wrong side of the road and the stops are fairly close, so, we decided to use the cruise ship as a floating hotel room. Hubby has several days of Hobbits planned, he wanted to do a Zena excursion (insert eye roll) but found out there was nothing commercial to be had. I think he’s pretty disappointed.

Our Australia time is mostly in Sydney, and then a cruise to the Great Barrier Reef. This should be interesting with all the smoke and fires.

After we return home from Australia, we turn around in a week and head out to Spain. We have also have a side trip tentatively planned to Morroco when Sonny-boy and his SO join us.

Also planned for this year is a Noric Fjord cruise (and some time somewhere beforehand… not quite nailed it down yet although the cruise is booked), as well as a Canadian Leaf-Pepping tour in the fall.

And after that, hubby and I will have a fight about getting more dogs. I am still not over Max – although I might be as the second year without him comes to a close – and truly do not want a puppy at my age. I also have a few more trips I’d like to take that are not short (including Antarctica and Eygpt), and leaving a dog for a month is not a great idea, in my opinion.

Busy, busy, busy is the name of the 2020 game for us!

As far as the blog goes? I finally broke up with Facebook. It was a long time coming, but when everything is ‘spend this, spend that,’ to get seen on Facebook and since I am mostly sharing crafts and recipes that do not pay for themselves (I recently called this blog my money pit, and it is a pretty apt description), Facebook is not worth the effort.

Oh, occasionally I drop a link to Facebook, however, the content is simply not scheduled out like it used to be (none of the blogs you follow have an organic Facebook page… it is all planned and scheduled).

I gave up on Instagram too. It is owned by Facebook, and I can see where that is headed. ‘Nuff said.

I started up on Twitter again. I just cannot quit Twitter, the sewer that it is. My Twitter account is all hearts and roses and unicorns, however. Pro tip: stay out of Political-Twitter. It ain’t for the weak of heart.

So, that leaves me with Pinterest and my newsletter. And, I am fine with that. I like the newsletter the best because it is chatty, and people send me email responses! Pinterest? My account is a top 10,000 Pinterest account, so I am tied at the hip to it. We never sold our Pinterest stock either, so I have a vested interest (literally!) in seeing it succeed.

That’s about it for now. I want to thank you all for reading Ann’s Entitled Life. I wouldn’t mind if you all commented more. I love interacting with people who read Ann’s Entitled Life. I’d like to get to know you all too. So please feel free to comment on the blog!!

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And I can always be reached through the contact me page or by emailing me directly!

Do you have any New Year plans? Resolutions? Goals? Ideas?

I wish you all a very happy, healthy, fabulous New Year. May 2020 bring much success, happiness, and fulfillment for you and yours!

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Filed Under: Ann's Life

25 Leftover Ham Recipes

December 26, 2019 By Ann 4 Comments

25 new and delicious ways to use up your leftover Easter or Christmas ham with these fabulous ham casseroles, soups, sandwiches and breakfast recipe ideas. If you have leftover ham, you will want to keep this list handy. These ham recipes are some totally tasty recipes the entire family will enjoy!

25 Leftover Ham Recipes

If you purchased a ham for the holidays – or anytime – you probably have leftovers. A plain ham sandwich is great, but there are only so many plain ham sandwiches a person wants to eat. I love leftovers myself, but confess that sometimes I am stumped as to what to do with a lot of the same leftover… and that is often the case with ham. Yummy the first two days, but after that, I want usually want something different. And that is where these recipes comes in.

From easy and freezable for later use, to today’s lunch and dinner meals, these 25 Leftover Ham Recipes are sure to make using up that leftover ham a breeze!

Ham Casserole Recipe. Got leftover ham? This is a delicious, easy to make leftover ham casserole recipe! This homemade ham casserole freezes very well too. If you have leftover ham, try this simple to make ham casserole for dinner tonight!

• Apple, Ham, and Cheese Instant Pot Breakfast Casserole Recipe – This yummy instant pot breakfast recipe is perfect for cooler days. If you have leftover ham, an apple, and some cheese, you are going to want to make this outstanding Apple, Ham, and Cheese Instant Pot Breakfast Casserole Recipe for breakfast today. Yum!

• Broccoli and Ham Quiche Recipe – Use up your ham leftovers to make this easy quiche recipe! Broccoli, ham, cheese, and mushrooms combine for an easy to make this flavorful, delicious and satisfying Broccoli and Ham Quiche. Breakfast, lunch or dinner, this versatile quiche dish is sure to please your entire family.

• Broccoli, Ham, and Mozzarella Baked with Eggs Recipe | Kalyn’s Kitchen

• Cheesy Ham and Egg Sandwiches Recipe | Thrifty Jinxy

• Cuban Ham Sandwich Recipe – An easy, quick and simple variation of the traditional Cuban Ham Sandwich Recipe. This is a great use of leftover ham.

• Dutch Split Pea Soup Recipe | “Cents”able Momma

• Fresh Pineapple and Shaved Ham Pizza Recipe | Farm Fresh Feasts

• Ham and Cabbage Soup Recipe | My Life Cookbook

• Ham & Cheese Breakfast Casserole with Spinach | The Kitchen Is My Playground

• Ham and Potato Chowder Recipe | Mission to Save

Ham and Cheese Stromboli Recipe. This delicious, easy to make, ham and cheese Stromboli is a great lunch, dinner, or party food. This can be cut into sandwich size portions for a few people, or cut into inch slices as a party food to help feed a crowd.

• Ham and Swiss Bread Pudding | The Wicked Noodle

• Ham and Swiss Lasagna Rolls Recipe | My Suburban Kitchen

• Ham and Vegetable Fried Quinoa Recipe | My Suburban Kitchen

• Ham and Potato Casserole Recipe – This Ham and Potato Casserole Recipe is a great freezer meal! Easy to make, you will want to double the recipe making one for dinner tonight, and one to freeze for later. This leftover ham recipe is an easy, delicious dinner your entire family will enjoy.

• Ham and Cheese Stromboli Recipe – This delicious, easy to make, ham and cheese Stromboli is a great lunch, dinner, or party food. This can be cut into sandwich size portions for a few people, or cut into inch slices as a party food to help feed a crowd.

• Ham Casserole Recipe – Got leftover ham? This is a delicious, easy to make leftover ham casserole recipe! This homemade ham casserole freezes very well too. If you have leftover ham, try this simple to make ham casserole for dinner tonight!

• Ham Salad Recipe – Leftover Ham? This easy to make ham salad recipe is perfect for sandwiches, on a bed of lettuce or on crackers. As an hors-d’oeuvres or meal, this ham salad is sure to please.

• Ham, Asparagus & Swiss Biscuit Cups | Simply Stacie

• Ham + Broccoli Quiche Recipe | Just 2 Sisters

• Ham-ocado Egg Bites | Mashup Mom