Enjoy the tid-bits of our everyday life: dairy goats, sheep, poultry, beekeeping, gardening, cheese making, spinning and knitting, quilting, and soap making. We're not experts, but we are willing to give almost anything a try! We're learning something new everyday--drop by once in a while and see what we've learned today!
I had a few minutes the other day and made a 'hippy' snowflake with Sharpie Markers and alcohol. I think it turned out cute! Two friends stopped by yesterday and I showed it to them. They thought it looked like so much fun they are going to try it with their grandkids.
Here is my first post using a milk filter to make a snowflake.
My Hippy Snowflake!
I put the milk filter on a paper plate so that the Sharpie Marker wouldn't get on the counter. If I was going to do this with children, I would use a paper plate lined with a paper towel. The pellon milk filter is made to let liquids pass through, not absorb them, so the rubbing alcohol needs someplace to go. I decorated the milk filter before I cut it out. I suppose you could color it and use the rubbing alcohol on it after you cut it out, but I think the colors blend better when it is done before cutting.
One of the other things I tried was cutting the milk filter with a craft knife as well as scissors. The milk filters are so much nicer to cut than paper that I could cut shapes anywhere I wanted! I didn't have to cut only on an edge, I could lay the snowflake down on my cutting mat and cut shapes out of the middle of the flakes.
You can see in this photo that I not only cut from the edges, I cut shapes out of the center of the side using a craft knife.
I've got friend who is probably in her late 50's who was never taught how to cut snowflakes. Next week I plan on bringing some milk filters and all the other supplies I need over to her home and we'll make a few snowflakes together. I've already told her I'm coming, and she is very excited! Me, too!
I was looking up how to cut snowflakes because I couldn't remember quite how to fold them. I have a friend who was never taught how to make them and I thought that it would be fun to show up at her door one day with paper and scissors and just sit and cut!
It occurred to me that I have milk filters, and those might work well for making snowflakes.
I have no idea how I put those milk filters and snowflakes together, but I did. Cross-wired brain, I guess!
I tried washing my milk filters a few months ago. I put them in the dishwasher with plastic clothes clips on them to hold them upright on the cup pegs on the top rack. I set the dishwasher for the sanitize cycle. I don't usually re-use them, but I was down to my last two and I wasn't sure when I was going to get to the farm supply store, so I thought I would give washing them a try. They came out clean and re-usable, and probably more sanitized than when they came out of the box!
Last night I decided to wash a few more, and see if they would work for snowflakes.
Yup! They do!
Milk filter snowflake.
They were easier to cut than paper, which surprised me a little. I'm sure that they will do much better on the windows, too. Our windows tend to collect moisture, and the paper snowflakes get all gloopy. I am almost tempted to try dying them before I cut them with some blue sharpie markers and alcohol, just to see how pretty that might be!
Here's my opened box of milk filters.
I'll be washing milk filters all week to save enough for snowflakes! Then I'll stop by my friends with some scissors and re-cycled milk filters to teach her how to cut snowflakes.
Here's a video that shows how to use Sharpie markers and rubbing alcohol to dye.
I think small hobby farmers are always on the lookout for a way to re-use things that are normally disposable. I don't think we live especially 'green', but I am surprised at how many things we re-use compared to others we know.
