Scotch Shortbread

Scotch shortbread is a biscuit that is soft and luxurious it simply melts in your mouth when you take a bite. The high in fat content in the butter prevents the biscuit from baking hard and gives you that lovely soft crumbly texture when baked.

Traditionally Scotch shortbread was made into three shapes, one large circle which was usually cut into segments after being baked, round biscuit shapes or finger like shapes like you see above in the Scotch shortbread clip art.

To add a little interest to the top of the shortbread the tines of a fork are used to create a pattern just like in the shortbread clip art. If you want to be a little adventurous you can use what ever shaped cookie cutter. At Christmas or on Valentines Day Scotch shortbread biscuits or shortbread cookies can be cut into the shapes or hearts or even Christmas trees.

This type of  biscuit is so easy to make and positively mouth watering that it can be served anytime of the day or night. Draw a fresh pot of tea or coffee and enjoy!  To make Scotch Shortbread you use the recipe below.

Scotch Shortbread Recipe
A wonderful full flavored biscuit for any occasion
Ingredients
7 oz butter
Vanilla essence
3 oz castor sugar
9 oz plain flour
5 tablespoons of arrowroot/corn flour

Scotch Shortbread Method

1. Cream butter, vanilla and castor sugar.
2. Next fold in plain flour and arrowroot until you form a nice shortbread mix.
3. Press the shortbread mixture into a prepared tray and prick with a fork. Once pricked with the tines of the fork,  cut the shortbread into even like fingers.
4. Bake in a slow oven at 150 degrees for 45-60 minutes.
5. Once they reach a light golden brown take them out of the oven.
6. Let the shortbread cool as it will need to firm a little so it can hold it’s shape.

Lastly packaged the Scotch shortbread as gifts or serve them with a fresh pot of tea or coffee. To download this Scotch shortbread clip art just right click once and again and save the graphic to your computer.

Strawberry Jam

Last week when I was at the Supermarket I bought myself some strawberry jam and designed this cute strawberry clip art jar (jelly for my American readers). I love strawberries and I absolutely love strawberry jam, it’s my favourite. The thing is,  I have this rule about strawberry jam or any jam for that matter. It must be flavorsome, contain loads of fruit and is not overly sweet.

Having a strawberry jam criteria requires a little patience and light reading at the supermarket but it’s worth it in the end. You know the old saying. “You are what you eat” so I took the time to compare the amount of sugar used verses fruit, size of jar, and price. Did you know, that some jams contain more sugar per 100grams of the product than fruit?

I find this quite alarming, consumers think they’re buying strawberry jam and in actual fact they’re eating sugar with a bit of colour and fruit thrown in. If you’re going to buy this kind of jam you may as well save your money and sprinkle some sugar on your toast.

Don’t get me wrong some strawberry preserves have their place in the supermarket, just not on my toast. If I happen to buy a jam that’s too sweet, what I usually do is save it and use the jam as a filler in biscuits, cakes and slices.

Especially when I make jam on toast I like the toast to be so hot that the butter melts and mixes with the strawberry jam when you spread it all over the toast. Who can’t resist the aroma of hot toast and freshly brewed coffee first thing in the morning. Hmmm yummy!

Choosing more fruit over sugar does make me feel good as I am reducing the sugar in my diet and I get more fruit for my money. For brand names sake I am not going to mention the name but I will share the info about the fruit verses sugar content so you can be sure to buy real jam.

The sugar verses fruit content for a 340gram jar of strawberry jam will be something like this;

Sweet Strawberry Jam

45g fruit per 100g of product

60g sugar per 100g of product

Real Strawberry Jam

60g fruit per 100g of product

44g sugar per 100g of product

If you would like to make a difference to your family’s sugar intake, take your time and read the ingredients on the label, because you’ll be surprised how tasty real jam is. To download this strawberry jam clip art jar just right click on the image once then again and choose the “Save As” option from the drop down menu.

Mosquito Eliminator

Isn’t it funny when we know there is one mosquito or several mosquitos in the house and you can’t help but turn into the mosquito eliminator. I guess mosquitoes carry a lot of disease and when you hear them buzzing around with their high pitch radar you know they’re going have a piece of you.

No one likes to bitten, especially if you have a bad reaction towards bites. Recently I had a spate of mosquitoes to deal with in the house, I never saw them, or heard them, I just knew they were there from the welts they left behind. I was desperate it was going to call the mosquito eliminator or put my insect pest control skills into play

Sometimes the mosquito would bite when I’m sleeping, or after my shower, but most of the time when I’m outdoors watering my patio garden.
Figuring out where the mosquitoes are coming from is a real dilemma, because they usually live near stagnant water, and there were no signs of water around the house. To the best of my knowledge the taps don’t leak, yet they’re still breeding somewhere very close.

To my horror when I was putting the clothes in the machine I saw one emerge from under the washing machine, and sure enough, the washing machine had a wet patch under it, which is of course is a nice cool dark place for them to breed.

Having found their hide out, I just had to figure out how I was going to rid the machine of mosquitoes without disturbing them. So now I am going to have to make sure I regularly lift (yeah right) the washing machine to clean under it.

Despite my hatred of insecticides I think I will use my mosquito eliminator techniques and grab the mosquito repellent, and spray underneath the washing machine. Although I felt a little fumigated at least I can be in the house without feeling like I am the main course for mosquitos.

Valentine Hearts Clip Art

Making a gift stand out on Valentines day isn’t too difficult if you have Valentine hearts clip art and some contrasting colored wrapping paper to wrap the gift.

For this project you’ll need some nice grey glitter paper or grey textured wrapping paper, scissors, tape, double sided tape and some thick grey ribbon.

Once you’ve bought the gift, make sure you get rid of the price tag or simply get a black felt tip pen and scribble out the price value. Just scribbling out the price always works well in case the gift needs to be exchanged.

Begin by carefully wrapping the gift to make it look super neat like it’s meant to be photographed. Once you’ve wrapped it, tie the gift with the thick grey ribbon, and for give measure tie a sweet bow.

Now pop the gift out of harms way so you can prepare the Valentine hearts clip art decoration. Make sure you have the scissors and tape close at hand. Start by downloading the Valentines clip art to your desktop so you can print it out easily.

This Valentine hearts clip art decoration can be made two ways:The first way is to re-size the valentine heart if need be and print it onto thick white craft card. Carefully cut out the heart and with your double sided tape and scissors cut off three pieces. Stick down each piece of double sided tape so it forms an upside down triangle shape.

Take the Valentines gift and place the Valentine hearts clip art decoration in the top left corner and lightly press it down.

The second way to use this Valentine hearts clip art decoration is to print of these Valentine hearts onto thick card and carefully cut them out. To assemble them use three pieces of double sided tape on the back of the largest heart, then stick it place. Do the same for the white heart with the grey border and the smaller red heart. You can find the pieces in the next post.

The last Valentine clip art piece you need to cut out carefully is the small white heart. Cut on the inside of the heart shape so you are left with a heart with no red border. When you’ve cut it out place a piece of double sided tape on the back the clip art heart and fix it in to place.

Doesn’t your gift look amazing with this Valentine hearts clip art decoration.

To download this Valentine hearts clip art graphic to make this decoration just right click on the graphic once then twice and save it to your computer. Have fun making your loved ones gift look extra special this Valentines day.

Home For Sale Sign

There is nothing more nerve wracking hoping that potential buyers will come to the opening of your home. Usually it’s hard to say how many people will show up for the event or if there will be prospective buyers. To increase the chances of interested parties in your home you can make a stack of flyers using this home for sale sign clip art.

Your flyer doesn’t need to be fancy it just needs the relevant information on it along with this bright red home for sale sign. The flyer can be the size of a standard business envelope and one sided.

To make your flyer look appealing place the home for sale sign in the top right corner as people usually read from left to right. If you like you can include a small photo of the best part of your home, add a brief description of the house, it’s features, phone number, date of opening and your name.

The key is not to give away to much information, because you want prospective buyers to visit your home on the open day.

Once you’ve designed your flyer with the home for sale sign on it,  print off enough to get your friends and family involved to do a letter box drop in the vicinity of their local real estate agents, surrounding suburb and suburbs that are more affluent.

Covering a greater are will maximize the diversity of people entering your home which might lead to the sale of your home.

To make your home for sale sign using Pixabella free clip art just right click once then again to download the clip art graphic.

* Pixabella Real Estate Signs. Please do not redistribute. © 2010 Pixabella.

For Sale by Owner Signs

There are several ways that a homeowner can sell their home and one way is to forgo the real estate agent and sell your property using your own marketing through for sale by owner signs, pamphlet drops and website advertising.

When it comes time to sell your property privately there are many ways you can advertise your property. A lot of  homeowners or investors sell their properties privately to cut out the middle man, the real estate agent.

By not organizing your own open house the real estate agent looses out and can save you thousands of dollars or even hundreds of thousands. The amount you’ll  save will depend on the sale of the property and the legal/bank charges and other fees that you encounter.

With the large amount of money you’ll be saving you can afford to go to a printing company and have two for sale by owner signs printed. A professionally made sign lets your potential buyers know your homes for sale by a professional.

Anyway, lets not get off the subject here! These for sale by owner signs can be pinned to notice boards, left at work on the lunch table, or given to your friends and families to redistribute through their local sports centers, play groups etc.

I am sure these real estate signs will attract a lot of attention as they are bright red in color and the for sale by owner text is in bold white letters. Below the text you’ll see a white rectangle to fill in your address, phone number, time and date of your open house.

On the day of the open house I wish you luck and hope these for sale by owner signs will send potential buyers your way.

* Pixabella Real Estate Signs. Please do not redistribute. © 2010 Pixabella.

Insect Pest Control

I know it’s not a good idea to kill insects but some insects can be annoying, for instance flies they buzz around you until they become such a pest they leave you with no option but to use any measure of insect pest control to rid them from your vicinity.

I guess they don’t call them household pest for nothing, seriously why do flies have to be so stupid? This morning I was in a great mood, I was minding my own business, and I certainly wasn’t in the way of insects going about their business.

So why did this fly want to be my best friend, it wouldn’t leave me alone.Yuck, the fly kept landing on my legs and tickling me, and every time I shooed it away it would simply land on my computer, or my coffee cup, and then back on me again. It even buzzed my face. This was it, it was time to put my insect pest control system into play.

Now any normal person would’ve got the fly spray out and sprayed it, but I thought I’d be kind and open the window to let it out. That didn’t work, the sudden gust of breeze couldn’t have been enough of a hint for the fly don’t you think!

So next I tried shoeing it towards the window using my arms, I am sure the fly was laughing at me, as I flapped my arms around the room like a maniac. Humph, still the fly was buzzing around me.

I really needed to shake this fly and I had one or two insect pest control techniques left before I would zap it with the fly spray. Patiently I waited on the sofa and eventually it settled on the inside of the glass so I cupped my hand around it and encourage it to move towards the opening. Unfortunately the fly had other ideas and I kind of squished underneath my palm. Hmm sad but true, but at least it’s not going to bother me.

If have a funny fly story and want to journal about it in your Scrapbooking album, go ahead and use this insect pest control clip art to give the story character.

Silver Love Heart

This Easter is the perfect time to make up Easter baskets for your friends and family and attach a silver love heart gift tag. Easter baskets aren’t that expensive to put together if you buy your supplies at your local discount shop and the Easter eggs at your local store.

First you’ll need to pop down to your local discount shop and buy your small baskets made from cane, colored paper, cellophane and some ribbon. While you’re out swing by the local store and pick up an assortment of Easter eggs.

Setup a table with your craft supplies and put them to one side to  lay out your Easter baskets. Choose colored paper that is going to match the ribbon that you bought. Start cutting out long thin strips of colored paper to fill up the baskets.

The colored paper will cushion the Easter eggs and will make the basket look really beautiful. Arrange the Easter eggs so they look eye catching in their baskets. Cut out enough cellophane to wrap the baskets and wrap each basket individually.

Cut off enough ribbon for each basket and tie a pretty bow. Make sure you leave enough ribbon tails so you can attach the silver love heart gift tag. To make the silver love heart tag you’ll never some thick white craft card that is US letter in size. If you can’t find thick craft card in this size buy a larger piece and trim it down to size.

Download the silver love heart gift tag to your computer. Copy and paste the PNG as many times as you need to make a sheet of silver love heart gift tags. To make the silver love heart gift tags look visually appealing when you cut around the edges unevenly.

For every basket take one silver love heart and write your friends or families name on the back of the love heart. With a hole punch make a hole in the silver love heart so the ribbon can pass through and be tied to the Easter basket. Finish writing each silver love heart gift tag and attach them to the Easter baskets.

If you like this silver love heart gift tag so much you can use the same idea to make Valentines day gift baskets.

Valentines Day Gift Card

Using this heart template below you can make a Valentines day gift card for your sweetheart. This Valentine project is easy to make and before you know it you’ll have a Valentines day gift card to pop alongside your Valentines day gift.

To make your Valentines day gift card you’ll need to save and print out this heart template onto thick crafting card. Before printing out the heart template you might want to choose crafting card that’s a passionate red, luscious pink or an off white.

To make more than one Valentine’s day heart card just reprint the worksheet twice or maybe you would like to try using one of our Love heart stencils from another Valentines day project.

Start your Valentines day gift card by printing out the heart template directly onto colored craft card. With your scissors follow around the black border, on the outside of both hearts. Kids make sure you have an adult with you when you’re using a pair of scissors.

Match the top of the Valentines day hearts together, good sides facing forward and use a hole punch to punch a hole. At this point the Valentine day gift card should like the preview on the heart template print out.Before joining the heart template together to make your Valentines day gift card, you could always decorate the hearts with a few trimmings and a handwritten message of love. Make sure your message of  love doesn’t spill outside the edges of the small heart. After all we want the Valentines day message to be a surprise!

When you’ve finished decorating the template join the hearts together with a piece of fancy ribbon that co-ordinates with the craft card. Tie a sweet little bow and there you have it! You’ve made a Valentines day gift card from a simple heart template.

Kids this heart template can also be used as a coloring page and you can find more hearts just like this in our Valentine coloring page category.

* This heart template is photocopiable for classroom use only. Please do not redistribute. © 2010 Pixabella.  For more information please read the Terms of Use of Images at www.pixabella.com

Valentine Clipart

If you’re a romantic at heart and would love to give your sweetheart a Valentine gift this Valentines day, why not make a sweetheart card using my Valentine clipart heart.

To get started making your Valentine clipart card choose some sturdy craft card that will pass through your home printer. If your planning to add glue, glitter or other bits and pieces later, sturdy craft card is less likely to warp from the glue.

If you love glitter you’ll also notice our pink clip art heart has a glitter like effect. If you want more of a glitter effect once you’ve resized and printed the Valentine clipart heart you can add real glitter to the mix.

There are generally three ways that you can add glitter to your Valentine clipart card:

1. By some spray glitter but make sure you use it in a well ventilated area and kids should be accompanied by an adult.

2. Glitter pens seem to be the cleanest and easiest to use for lids. The glitter is mixed in with the glue and they come in all sorts or colors. For this project try a pink or silver glitter pen and color the Valentine clipart.

3. Our last alternative is to use clear drying craft glue and paint it onto to the Valentine heart then sprinkle the glitter and wait for it to dry.

Make sure the glue goes on thin and try not to use to much glitter. Too much glitter might spoil the overall shape and color of the Valentine clipart heart.

When the glue is dry handle the card with care and write your sweetheart a message of love and maybe a poem. I am sure your sweetheart will feel touched that you made them a Valentine clipart card.

Who can resist giving a sweetheart card to their Valentine on Valentine’s Day. To download this cute Valentine clipart heart just right click the heart once and then a second time to save the graphic.