Crafty Fun -- Elmer's Products

As a member of BzzAgent, I recently was giving several products to try from Elmer's CraftBond and X-Acto.



Items I received for Elmer's CraftBond include:

• All-Purpose Glue Stick
• Permanent Tape Runner
• Clear Glue Pen
• Sticky spots

These items range in price from $2 to $9.  They are acid-free and archival safe.  Check out elmers.com/crafters for more information.

Items I received for X-Acto Designer Series include:

• Zig Zag Decorative Edge Scissors
• Scalloped Decorative Edge Scissors
• Corner Rounder Punch

These items range in price from $2 to $20.  There are many other cutting tools available and more information can be found xacto.com.

Now onto the project I worked on.  Now that I'm teaching pre-Kindergarten, I have lots of use for these tools.  I created a class book showing our students making banana muffins.  I used the tape runner and realized pretty quick you can't use it on construction paper.  However it worked great on laminated pieces and photos.  It saved so much time.  I normally use double sided tape, but the tape runner was a much more efficient use of time. I also liked using the corner rounder.  It made the project look really professional.  I wish I could show the actual pictures but with privacy of children's photos I just can't.

The format of the book was very simple.  I used repetitive text on each page.  Sam added flour, Josie added sugar, Anna stirred the batter, etc.  Then about each sentence I showed the child doing the action.  For a class of 15 I only have five pages (back to back).  I simply slide each page into a plastic in a binder.  When I read the "story" to the class each child beamed as their name was read.  Really fun to do!

I plan to use all these tools on future projects with the class and will be adding those zig zag scissors to our art center for the children to practice with.

Flour Recommendation -Gold Medal Better for Bread

I don't have a recipe to post this week, but I did want to share a new product that I tried.

I've been struggling with bread and roll recipes lately.  They seem to be too dense.  I concluded that it was the flour I was using.  So, I tried Gold Medal Better for Bread Flour and the results were outstanding.  They flour has more gluten making the bread and rolls better.  It's a little more expensive than regular flour, but not much.  And you can use it exclusively for bread and rolls while using your regular flour for all other uses.

Highly recommend!


**The views here are my opinion and I did not receive any compensation for them.  I just wanted to share my opinion**