Keep cool this summer by stocking your freezer with make ahead ice cubes

Here is a recipe roundup for make-ahead ice cubes to keep your summer chill. Save time and refrigerator space by making flavored ice cubes to add to recipes, drinks and more.

Kerekes Bake Deco has Silicon Ice Cream Molds that are on sale for 20% off, which would make these DIY flavored ice cubes a fun project.

Green blocks of goodness

Make "Meatless Monday" even easier with Amanda Cohen’s Secret-Weapon Stir-Fry Sauce. This sauce is made with cilantro, parsley, Thai basil, garlic and ginger - or what ever is in your veggie drawer!

Kitchn's freezer friendly tips for making stock

Get cooking lessons from Kitchn - who shows you how to make basic chicken stock and vegetable stock; which you can keep in your freezer to use later.

Infused ice cube ideas

Martha Stewart infuses ice cubes with fruits, vegetables, herbs, flowers to enhance your water and help keep you hydrated throughout the summer.  Here are recipes for Cucumber-Basil Puree, Orange-Lime Mix and Lemonade-Raspberry Cubes.

The Right Cup is a company that is selling flavored cups, really! This goal is to help people drink more water and stay hydrated. The Right Cup™ was founded in May 2015 by a small group of people who came together with one common goal: to create and distribute an innovative product that could truly make a difference in people’s lives throughout the world.  Interesting, check them out.

From freezer to table

Fine Cooking shows you how to make pesto ice cubes and offers ideas on how to use them from tossing with hot pasta to using as a topping for grilled meats.

Here is another tip from Martha

Most recipes use only a small portion of tomato paste and the rest goes to waste. Martha shows you how to freeze and then slice up the paste into smaller portions, brilliant!

Instant cocktail cubes (just add booze)

Supercall keeps making drinks easy! Here are great recipes to for make ahead flavored ice cubes to add to White Russians, Sazerac or Negroni for (almost) instant deconstructed cocktails.

Have fun this summer and stay cool.  Send me your ideas on how to make flavored ice cubes to save time and money.

Here is a fun site to check out:
Make something that means something at Craftsy.com

Thinking Of You - Greeting card tips and tricks shared with you

My mother’s love for music inspired me to make a piano themed card.

My mom has finally moved off Facebook!
What a relief!  No more gushing over her daughter online! No more excessive “Likes” and reveling embarrassing moments of my childhood.
Whew!
...wait, by not talking to my mom via Facebook, I now have the desire to make greeting cards, so I can send them to her and stay connected with my family and friends.
To make this music-themed card, I cut up pieces of black and white paper to look like piano keys. I chose brown colors to represent the wood typically seen in performance halls.  To dress up the card, I added a black bow to make it a black-tie affair.  The music sheet paper was included to tie the theme together.  This took a lot of glueing, but overall - this card was simple to make.
To inspire you to make cards, I am sharing 3 greeting card sources, with great tips and tricks to you get started.

1. Melissa, from “A Vegas Girl at Heart” shows what you can do with just a simple circle punch.  She even provided a simple sketch to help you figure out where and how to place the circles to make it look good.  Thank you, Melissa for sharing this!
2. Just in time for Easter - learn tips and tricks from Marisa from “Omiyageblogs” who shows you how to use parchment paper and stencils to make perfect Washi Tape cutouts and make Washi Paper Easter eggs cards.  
3. Watch Kristina’s tips on how to fold paper into standard card sizes, she also has other great tips to get your started to make your own greeting cards.
4. Here are easy cards to make using Washi Tape - see my examples below from ideas I found on the Internet.  You can buy Washi Tape from a Bump of Knowledge.

Enjoy, and thank you for visiting my blog.

Visit Scrapbookpal.com for supplies.