Aloe Vera Plants

Planting and growing Aloe Vera plants can be very interesting and fun. To start you will need the right tools and materials. To get started you will need the plant itself, which you can get from someone who has a plant who is reproducing, or you can buy a plant from your local gardening store. Next you will need a pot to plant the Aloe Vera in, remember that Aloe Vera plants grow fast, so if you plant it in a small pot it won't be long before you will have to transplant it into another bigger pot. Next you will need a good quality soil, to ensure that your plant will grow properly. First fill your pot with the good quality potting soil. (If you get a baby aloe plant from a friend, make sure that it has a good amount of roots on the bottom, because if it does not then the plant may not grow properly or not grow at all.) Now you need to form a hole in the center of the soil filled pot. The hole should be only deep enough so that the roots will be covered and the base, but all aloe leaves should be uncovered. The aloe vera plant should sit up straight, and be perfectly in the center of the pot. You will probably want to water the plant as soon as you plant it. Watering aloe vera plants can be trickey for some, but don't worry with my help you will be able to master this skill. When you have just first planted your plant, water it at the base, there are no need to wet down the leaves. Poor a fair amount of water at the base of the plant, and then dappen the rest of the soil in the pot. Depending upon where you live wattering times will be different. Usually when the soil begins to look dry, it is time to water your aloe. This usually occurs once to twice a week. Aloe plants should be kept out of extreme weather conditions, they usually like more mild conditions. If you keep then outside, then find a nice shade for them, only allowing then to be in the full sun for an hour or so. If you keep then inside your house, then you will want to have then near a window where they can get light, because aloe plants love light. Once your aloe is growing, you will start to notice little baby aloes popping up all over the pot, these can be uprooted and planted in another pot. But most importantly have fun planting and caring for your Aloe plant. Remember that Aloe Vera gel that is found inside the leaves has many medicinal purposes for things such as burns etc... If you have any questions, comments, or stories, that you would like to share, please leave me a comment, I will respond to you !!!! THANKS FOR READING !!!!

Gardening

Today we planted some great plants. If you like making things, like crafts, then you will love to plant flowers, or vegtables, and watch them grow. Today we planted: Silvia, Begonias (yesterday), and verious other flowers. We did some of them in hanging baskets. and others in pots, and some on the ground. We planted well over 100 flowers. I forgot to take pictures. Perhaps I will post them later.

If you don't like to get outside and do things, then you can still enjoy great plants inside. Below are listed some tips for Indoor plants. I have collected these from research that I collected a long time ago:

1. Read care labels that should be indcluded when plants are purchased.
2. Keep in mind that most all indoor plants still need adequete ammounts of sunlight.
3. A good tmepreature for most indoor plants is about 65 degreese to 75 degreese.
4. Never put your indoor plants near heating or cooling vents.
5. The #1 thing that kills most inddor plants is over wattering.
6. On most store bought plants included is a water amount needed tag.
7. If your plant is in a container then make sure that it has propper dranage.

Glittered Bunny Card

Things You will need:

1. A choice of glitters.
   
2. Glue
   
3. Screw Punch
   
4. Bunny template (http://vectorclipartsales.com/image.php?src=163) enlarge to the size that you need.


5. Plastic spoons.


6. Cardstock

Use your Screw Punch to punch holes less than one half of an inch away from each other all around the bunny. The bigger tip works best.
This image shows what the entire emage should look like when punched all of the way around the bunny.
Be sure that you have your glitter handy. It works best if you have it in a little containers like shown above. You can access it easier, and it looks better.Take out your cardstock that you will be using to make your card. Fold it in half using your bone folder. Depending on the size that you make your bunny in the beginning, will now determine which way your card will be. My card will be side to side because my bunny is to long to fit the other way.Place your bunny on top of the card. Make sure that all of the holes are covered by the color of the cardstock that you chose for your card.

Put some glue out onto a square of cardstock like this. You can use the back of a spoon, or a paint bursh to spred the glue. Spred the glue. Make sure that during the process of spreding the glue you dont move the bunny from the place it was when you started. You will not want to get glue all over your work surface as well as ruin the outcome of your card. Remove the white punched bunnyy from the card. You should get a perfect impression of the bunny. If you have gaps, you can use a glue pen to fill in.

Glitter your entire glued surface on the frount of the card.

Have a white piece of regular printer paper ready to dump out all of the excess glitter onto.


After allowing the glue to dry for about 1 min. then you can dump all of the excess glitter onto the white paper.
Do not throw away any of the excess gilitter. It is still good to be used again.

Use a folded piece of white paper or cardstock to cover the inside of your card. You can choose to stick it down with glue or with double sided tape.

When you are done you should have a perfect impression of a bunny. Happy Easter.

This idea can be used to make not only cards for easter. You can make your own template of any thing, then punch and glitter.

Have a good day.

Pencil Stamp Scrapbook Craft

What you will need:

1. Multi Colored Ink Stamp Pad
2. 3 Pencils
3. Cardstock or Scrap Book Page
4. Craft Knife

You can make three basic differnet designs with these pencil stamps.

To start choose a matching set of three pencils

Leave one pencil the way it is to make the blue design.

Use your craft knife to take off parts of each eraser one small and one medium size like displayed below:

This one is used to make the blue design.

This one is used to make the orange design.

This one the smallest one is used to make the green design.

You can cut down pencil erasers to make many more decorative stamps other than just these. These are just basic ideas. You can use the ones that are snow here to embellish scrapbooks and assorted things.

Marbelized Easter Bunny Greeting Card

To complete this project you will need: #1: a craft knife #2: marbelized paper #3: double sided tape #4: home made bunny template.

1. Make your own bunny template by enlarging the bunny that you get when clicking on this link: http://vectorclipartsales.com/image.php?src=163


2. Pick a color of card stock for the card.


3. Fold it in half with a Martha Stewart Bone Folder.


4. Open it up so that you will only be cutting on the frount part of the card.


5. Place the enlarged bunny on the front.


6. Cut all the way around the bunny.


7. Using the double sided tape stick a square of marbelized paper to the inside to cover the bunny.


8. Then take a big sheet of marbelized paper (that is the same size as the card), and fold with a Martha Stewart Bone Folder.


9. Use double stick tape to attach it to the inside of the card.


10. Make an envelope with white paper.


11. Line the envelope with the same marbelized paper that you used to make the card.

I reccomend to use a lesser dark tone of marbelized paper on the inside of the card, because that is where you will be writing your message.

Calligraphy Hole Punched Greeting Cards

Why buy greeting cards when you can make them your self, and the results can be great. Even though it is more expensive to make your own cards (if you use good quality products), it is worth the money and trouble (I think). Hope you enjoy ! ! ! !

Things you will need:Good assortment of colorful cardstock $9.99 (Michales Craft Stores)

Martha Stewart Screw Puch $24.99 (Michales Craft Stores)

Martha Stewart Glue Pen $3.99 (Michales Craft Stores)

Martha Stewart Bone Folder $5.99 (Michales Craft Stores)

Scissors (not displayed)

Total: $44.96 without tax. (Of course if you already have these things then GREAT!!!!)

Tip: A great thing to use in place of the glue, is double stick tape. I even think that It would work better, and be less of a mess than glue.

I think that all crafters that work with paper, and folding of paper, really need to get a bone folder. It is inexpensive and it puts the perfect folded edge on any paper. You can also use it to score before folding. I think that it is the best craft tool ever invented. I use mine often.

Step #1

Open a word document on your computer. Insert a box. Pick a fancy letter or letters to place in the center. Leaving room on the sides of the letter for holding down. Print it out. Then cut along the lines of the box.

Step #2

Pick one color of cardstock, that you want your card to be.

I choose a gray toned cardstock.

Fold that piece of paper in half. Use your bone folder to get a perfectly creased edge.

Step #3

Place the letter onto the frount of the card.

Choose one of the three tip sizes provided with your Martha Stewart Screw Puch.

Punch away ! ! ! ! Punch holes all along the lines of the letter, through the cardstock on the back. Be sure that you do not do this on your dining room table. Use a cutting surface.

Step #4

Pick a color that you want to be shown through your letter.

Cut a square of the color that you just picked.

Glue down the square of paper to the inside of the card, so it will show through the frount side.

Step #5

Fold a piece of white card stock down the middle with your bone folder.

Glue it down inside the card to cover the square of paper, and creating a place to write your greeting.

Step #6

This is the frount of the card when finished. Write your greeting. But before you send it or give it to someone, you will need an envelope. I think that all home made stationary should be sent with a lined envelope. Now in the case of this card, I think that the same blue used for the "R" should be used to line the envelope. If you want to get really crafty, you can do as I do and make your own envelopes out of white or colored card stock.

Please comment if you have any questions or comments.

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