How to Make a Pop-up Valentine Card

Looking for a way to make a personalized valentine, I came across this video; the two cuts that are the beginning of any pop-up card are the key for a three dimensional look.



Using recycled Christmas cards (many are red in color), "thinking of you" sentiments on all occasion cards, and a pair of scrap booking scissors with a decorative edge, you can make many different kinds of cards for your valentine.

Here is one re-made from a get-well card with the Bible verse included: I am overcome with joy because of Your unfailing love, for You have seen my troubles." Psalm 37:7 -- That verse is on the inside of this little recycled note card.


A bit of confetti or excelsior used in packaging adds a decorative touch. Knock yourself out, and give others a lift with a hand made card for any occasion.

Making Suet Cakes for Birds

Even birds like food treats, especially in the winter. From Feeding Birds, here is an easy homemade suet cake that your birds might enjoy now:

Making homemade suet cakes is simply a matter of melting fat down to a pour-easy consistency, adding a few ingredients of your choosing, then pouring the mixture into a mold. The shape of the mold is determined by the type of suet feeder you'll use.

If you are using lard or shortening for homemade suet cakes, adding equal parts of peanut butter flour will help maintain correct consistency of regular suet cakes.

To this warm and pour-able mixture you could add rolled oats, bird seed, cornmeal, raisins, unsalted nuts and anything else you think the birds would enjoy. Then, pour your warm suet 'soup' into the mold (a bread pan where you could slice off bits for your store bought suet feeder, cupcake tins that you could pierce with wire and hang from a tree, etc).

This little guy was photographed Saturday by Jack Heniford in South Carolina:

Cardinals (redbirds) are attracted to sunflower seeds and safflower seeds, according to Plant Answers.

Let me know if you have success with feeding birds, and what type feeder you have.

Possum Fur and Wool Fiber Blend for Knitting

Who knew that knitting with possum fur was a rage? In Dunedin, New Zealand, I picked up five skeins of wool that was manufactured there and is indigenous to the region because it consists of 40% possum fur, 50% Merino wool and 10% silk. It is soft, warm, and light weight.

When I got home, I looked up properties of this type blended wool and found a website Handknitting Possum Wool Yarn that stated the following:

Hand knitting Possum-Wool Yarn... Possum fur blended with merino wool makes a variety of yarns that are very special. Possum-wool yarn has all the properties that a 21st Century garment demands:

Feels like cashmere...
Is hard wearing...
Is light weight...
Is warmer than wool in winter and cooler in summer...
Breathes...
Has an angora 'glow' or halo to it...

NZ Nature says:

Possum Wool is luxuriously soft, incredibly lightweight, exceptionally warm and easy to wear. It won’t pill, it won’t wrinkle, it’s anti-static and is a market solution to an environmental challenge facing New Zealand. Once you’ve tried it nothing else will feel as warm and soft.

This yarn will be made into a shawl from a pattern I have used previously, written about in this prior posting found here, with the pattern from Knit Picks that can be found here. It may take a while to work up this possum fur, since I am making a wider shawl.

Not only can we knit with doghair, but we can also knit with possum, thanks to our furry friends.

I can't wait to start on the possum project!

Join me over at Kellis House for Show and Tell Friday. There is a lot of eye candy to behold there.