Watermelon Jelly recipe and labels

Lately, the weather here has just been rubbish.  Two weeks ago we had sunshine and it started warming up.  The flowers bloomed, and I got to can some fabulous Dandelion Jelly.  This week we've had to put back on the winter coats.  But, this has not deterred me from continuing my spring canning!  This week I made some incredible watermelon jelly that was to die for and designed some super cute labels for my jelly that you can download and use as well.

Watermelon is one of those unsung jelly heroes.  It's sweet and fresh and wonderful on toast, biscuits, and sandwiches.  It's also the perfect way to preserve an over-abundant watermelon crop that might otherwise go uneaten.

I've been perfecting my watermelon jelly over the last two years and have finally come up with a recipe that is by far my favorite.  Some recipes for watermelon jelly describe it as tasting like jolly rancher candies.  Personally, I don't want my jelly to taste like fake over-sugared watermelon.  To me, watermelon jelly should taste fresh and sweet.  It's one of those jellies that has to be balanced just right so the flavor of the fruit is not overpowered by the sugar.

Ingredients:

6 Cups of watermelon juice

5 cups of sugar

1/4 cup bottled or fresh lemon juice

3 Tablespoons of "Apple Cider Vinegar" 

2 bags liquid pectin (you can use powdered, but be careful it tends to clump in this jelly if you just dump it in)

• First, find a nice, ripe, wonderful watermelon.  
• Cut your watermelon into cubes and mash the cubes up into a juicy pulp.  You can use a food processor, a blender, a hand blender, or a potato masher to accomplish this.  
• Then you need to strain your juice to get rid of all the seeds and pulp.  I personally use a mesh jelly bag, but you could use cheese cloth, or a strainer.  If you cant get all the pulp out, don't stress.  There is actually not that much pulp in a watermelon, but do try to remove as many seeds as you can so people don't have to pick them out of the jelly later.  

• Put a stack of saucers in your freezer before you begin cooking so that you can test the set of your jelly later.
• Add your watermelon juice, sugar, lemon juice, and apple cider vinegar to your pot and bring it to a full rolling boil that you can't stir down (about 10 minutes).  *Note:  I use apple cider vinegar to enhance the wonderful fresh flavor of the watermelon in this recipe and to add some acidity for preservation.  You could use only lemon juice or use other vinegar, but it's just not going to give you that balanced taste that I've been gushing about.  I personally use Bragg's apple cider vinegar because it is my favorite brand. 
• Add your pectin and continue cooking for 1 minute (this may vary based on the type of pectin you are using.  Check the recommended cooking times on you pectin box for best results)
• Check the set of your jelly on a cold saucer to make sure it's set the way you want.
• If it's too runny, continue cooking it for a few more minutes and check the set again.
• If it's still too runny you may need to add some more pectin.
• Ladle your hot jelly into prepared jars leaving a 1/4 inch head space and process in a water bath for 10 minutes (more or less according to your altitude).

See how beautiful and bright this jelly is!  I'd love to try it with a yellow watermelon too if I can find one this summer just to see how the color turns out.  The only thing missing is a pretty and informative label.

Luckily, I designed a really cute label that you can download and print out for your jars as well.  I used a full sheet of printable label paper and cut out each watermelon individually.  I'm sure you could also use regular paper and glue or paste them on as well.  Don't forget to write the date on your label using the blank space on the left :)

If you decide to make this jelly or use my labels, I'd love to hear from you and know how it turned out.  Happy canning!

Easter wreath and mini bunting

Can you believe that Easter is almost here already.  I can't!  Have you been having some Easter fun?  We've been dying eggs and visiting some fun Easter markets.  That poor little bread bunny didn't last long.

I don't feel that I've gotten a whole lot done this week, but holidays are always like that :)  I have managed to tweak my Spring Wreath for an Easter theme by adding a small nest and a cute chalk board inspired mini bunting.

If you remember, my plan is to use this same wreath all spring by adjusting it slightly each month instead of making a whole new wreath. I made up a little mini chalkboard Easter bunting for the wreath that says rejoice.

I love using mini buntings in different projects.  They are just so cute.  I've used them over cakes and cupcakes, on baskets, and on wreaths.  The whole mini bunting I designed says Rejoice He is Risen.  It would be nice on many different projects and I have it available to download in chalkboard black and green.  Feel free to download either and use them in your Easter Projects.

If you do use the bunting, take a picture and share your project with us :-)  Have a happy Easter.

Puppy Birthday Party

This last week I have been super busy getting ready for my baby girl's 3rd birthday.  It's hard for me to believe that she's already three years old!  The time has flown by.  This year, my little lady wanted a puppy party.  She loves (and I mean LOVES!) all puppies.  Many of our neighbors have dogs, and she gets so excited when she gets to love on them.  So, we went puppy crazy this week at my house, and I'm going to share some of the craft patterns and ideas that we used for the party with all of you here.  Make sure to read to the end so that you can get all the printables for your very own puppy party.

This is the invitation that I drew for my daughter's party.  I think that most of the puppies are more interested in that cake than they are the little girl blowing out the candles :)  My daughter got super excited when she noticed that I included our neighbor's west highland terrier in the picture.  There's also an old english sheepdog, a pointer, a bulldog, and a red retriever in there.

I'm going to count this invitation as my month of March sketch.  Two birds; one stone! Buya!

The Puppy Party Decor!

This is the sign that my boys made for our front door to welcome the guests.  Sorry my cat loving friends; dogs only.  NO CATS ALLOWED :)

We did some great and practical decor for the party.  I skirted the buffet with some tissue paper and bought some cheap dog bowls to use for the buffet table.

A nice red and pink tulle swag with balloons hung across the entrance to the dining room!

We also made another sign to cover some art I had on the wall over the buffet.  I think my 8 year old did a great job with the water colors.  It's an easy way to keep the theme going without pulling down any of your decor.  It also got me thinking how much my life revolves around art. I think I spent as much time designing the art that we were making for the party as I did on the guest list, games, and food combined.  

We also made a cute and colorful "Happy Birthday" bunting to hang across the windows.  I wanted to do something simple.  I checked out a few printables available for free online and just didn't find what I wanted.  After a bit of computer work, I came up with a design that was simple, fun, and easy.

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I printed out the letter circles and water colored them to get a fun whimsical look, then I glued them onto flags cut from 12x12 cardstock.

If you would like to make your own birthday bunting like mine, You can download my simple scribbles bunting circles and flag template here.  I've included the happy birthday sign and all the other letters too, plus the flag template.  These can easily be customized to any style that you want by simply changing the flag paper or printing the letters onto colored paper.  I love options, so the choice is yours.

If you do use my templates, I'd love to see what you make!

I"m also thinking about scanning the final buntings and making them available as finished printables.  I don't know if people would rather have just the water colored circles so they can adhere them onto flag papers of their choice of if they'd prefer the whole flag?  I was just thinking that printing 14 colored flags would use a lot of printer ink!  Any opinions?

Puppy Party Fun!

Here is our Adopt a Puppy station.  Each child got to adopt a small stuffed puppy to take home with them.  They each chose a puppy, named it, and gave it a collar (I found these cheap little collar bracelets as our version of the dollar store).

You can download the bone sign for the adopt a puppy station here.  It comes in the blue and pink and also a green and blue.

They then got to fill out and color an adoption certificate.  Again, I look around the net for a puppy adoption certificate that the children could color in, but didn't find exactly what I wanted so I ended up making my own version.  You can also download the adoption coloring page to use at your party here. This was great fun.

Here's the birthday girl hard at work on her coloring page :) Notice she and her friend are wearing puppy ears.  The kids got to choose from a variety of puppy ears made from felt and glued onto a headband for their puppy makeovers. We also played games and had cake :) All the toddlers walked away sugared up and exhausted.  I know that I needed a nap when it was all over.

I know that this post was long and I'm glad that you stuck it out until the end :) I hope that you guys can use the printables that I've posted here.  Please remember that the images are for your personal use only and not to be redistributed or sold.

Let me know if you like them or if you have any problems accessing and downloading them.  Enjoy!