RavenWolf's Den

CPSIA Labeling

2009-05-30T20:58:00.000-07:00

In August of 2009 the CPSIA requires all manufacturers of children's items to label each item, not just the packaging, with a permanent label. This label must contain the maker's name, address, item name, lot number, style number, and that it meets all compliant regulations and was tested. If you change lots - meaning you use a different fabric, a different embellishment, a different color then those items are a new lot and they need a set of labels. Even the smallest of accessories must have a label!

I am all for keeping our children safe but the CPSIA's expectations for this labeling are ridiculous!

The labeling is in section 103 of the 62 page CPSIA law, but here are 2 other links that give a good summary
http://cpsc.gov/businfo/frnotices/fr09/trackinglabels.pdf

http://cpsc.gov/library/foia/foia09/brief/emergstaytracklabels.pdf

Please check out and sign the petition at this link.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/rethinkthecpsia

Got Turkey? Leftover Recipe for you!

2008-12-01T19:30:00.000-08:00

Are you tired of those turkey sandwiches after Thanksgiving? Here is a great recipe that will give your leftover turkey some zip! Are your kids texting OMG!!!Turky agn!!! Then check out my recipe! If you like it I have posted it on Bigoven.com so it would be great if you could give my recipe a rating or award there http://www.bigoven.com/168363-King-Ranch-Turkey-recipe.html. This is a great site for those that love to cook! I would love to know what you think and would love to hear about YOUR ideas for using those Thanksgiving leftovers!
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(¸.·´ (¸.·´ * You can include any leftover carrots, broccoli and peas as well. Just make sure they are cut proportionate to your other veggies. You can use up that green bean casserole by omitting the mushroom soup if that was included in your green bean casserole, you will need at least 1 1/2 cups green bean casserole. I used left over cheese cubes (cheddar and pepper jack cheese) from party tray on the topping. *´¨)
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King Ranch Turkey

Ingredients:
4-6 cups cooked turkey cut into cubes or just pull it apart
1 10oz. can Ro-Tel diced tomatoes with green chilies
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup chicken or turkey broth
1 medium onion chopped
1 bell pepper chopped
3-4 cloves garlic smashed then chopped fine
10 medium size flour tortillas
3 tbls butter or margarin
4 cups shredded monterey and colby cheese
2-3 stalks of green onion chopped.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in skillet over medium heat then add onions and bell peppers and saute until soft 4-6 min. then add garlic and saute 1-2 minutes. Melt remaining butter and set aside for later.

Mix together soups and broth and warm in microwave for 2 minutes to help blend them evenly. Add Ro-tel, onion, bell pepper and turkey. Stir till blended evenly.

Tear 7 tortillas into bite size pieces and line bottom of 13 x 9" glass baking dish with half of the pieces. Pour in half of the turkey and soup mixture then layer with half of the shredded cheese. Repeat the layering of tortillas, turkey soup and cheese.

Bake uncovered 45-55 minutes on center rack remove.

Cut remaining 3 tortillas into 8ths and place round edge of tortillas down along edges of dish with points sticking out. A butter knife works well to assist with sliding them into casserole with out disturbing the cheeses. Brush melted butter on the outer portion of tortillas. Sprinkle top of casserole with chopped green onion and place back in oven for 10- 15 minutes. Watch carefully and remove when tortilla tips are brown.

Let your casserole rest at least 10 minutes before serving.

How Will the Consumer Product Safety Act 2008 Affect You, the Crafter?

2008-11-11T18:23:00.000-08:00

On November 12, 2008 the Mandatory third party testing will go into effect. This act created new product safety requirements that apply to ALL manufacturers, retailers,importers and private labelers who currently or intend on doing business in the United States. These regulations apply to you regardless of form of venue. This means even the crafters.

This will require anyone manufacturing items for children to have a third party test for lead and flammability. It must be a certified accredited laboratory.

One must include certification upon sending a product.

We all want our children safe. This act is for your children, my children and if we want to have grandchildren!

At the same time it is going to effect the smaller businesses such as those on Etsy and other people that make and sell handmade items for children and babies. The testing could cost more than some may make in a year on their product! I hate to think of not seeing the beautiful and creative dolls and stuffed animals that people make and sell, not to mention the adorable baby clothes and those nice little diapers that replace the disposables and keep them out of the landfills.

The act mentioned also bans pthalates. I have no idea what it is exactly but that it is in paints and shampoo and soap products. I have no idea if this will or will not effect the many handmade soap makers.

I wondered, if someone purchases fabric from a company that is certified and they send certification to you and you make a product from this are you then required to obtain additional certification or is the manufacturer of the fabrics good enough.

There are a lot of things to be considered here and I would like to know your opinions about it.

If you handmake any of these products how do you plan to meet this standard? How will it affect your current business and will you be able to continue your business?

For more info on the Consumer Protection Act 2008
http://www.cpsc.gov/businfo/cfr111008.pdf
http://cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/testing.html

Just having fun!

2008-11-08T19:54:00.001-08:00

I love working with wood! I guess this started when I was young and watching my Dad in his wood shop carving things with his lathe. The smell of the freshly sawed wood always brought me into his shop to see what he was making. I was never allowed to work with the lathe as I was just too young.

Now I have my husbands dremel held hostage in my hands!!!! Oh, I love taking the bark off a fallen branch to see what beautiful wood lies beneath!

Today I found a branch, I have no clue what kind of wood it is. I know it has a thin bark and beautiful white soft wood beneath.

I visualize a little gnome home! So, tonight I started stripping the sides and the roof line. I hope I can get a chimmney out of it...not sure what the heck I am doing! I am just gonna go with the flow. Looks like a duck to me! Tonight I have a piece of wood I squared up the base, got the outline for the roof. We'll see where the gnome home goes from here!

Stay tuned to see what happens with it! Hopefully I will be able to make some lil gnome a home when all is said and done!

Talk about Going Green!!!!

2008-11-01T20:26:00.000-07:00

Every year I get greeting cards for my birthday, mother's day, Yule etc. I have a collection of them cause I feel guilty about throwing something away that someone has spent hard earned money on. So, I have a huge pile of cards from many years past.

I found a fantastic site today!!!! Gracegraphics.etsy.com has plantable paper and cards!!!! These are made with a paper that is implanted with various wildflower seeds or tree seeds that the person receiving the card can then plant the card and have beautiful wildflowers pop up next spring! What a wonderful way to keep giving and keep us card pack rats from hoarding the cards cause we feel guilty about disposing of them!

I was blown away with the idea that I can send a card this year and it produces lovely live flowers or trees next year to help mother earth, not to mention make my yard look colorful!

I asked Kala of Gracegraphics.etsy.com about planting the cards.

Kala: My papers are wildflower seeded. I suggest waiting until the spring to plant. They can be started in a pot but do much better if planted directly in the garden. It is IMPORTANT that they are well tended until they grow their first set of true leaves (as with all seeds you grow). They need to be kept evenly moist, allowing them to dry out when they are trying to sprout is the best way to kill them off. Other than that . . you tend to them like any other garden plant. The wildflowers are mostly self sowing annuals, as is with most wildflowers, they are not perennials but reseed themselves generously for years.

Seeds included are: Annual Gaillardia, Baby Blue Eyes, Baby’s Breath, Corn Flower, Catchfly, Chinese Houses, White Yarrow, Blue Eyed Grass and Evening Primrose. Our die cut cards contain plains coreopsis, Bird's Eye, Clarkia, Poppy, & Snap Dragon

My paper starts off as 13 x 19 sheets, I keep most of it cut down to 9 x 6 for my cards.

I do have some larger sheets on the shelf.

The full size sheets are $7.00 each, the 9 x 6 are $1.85 each. It runs well through an ink jet print but not through lasers or phasers (they are too hot and will kill the seeds). They also run well through printing presses, I have not tried them with gocco or letterpress systems (but am dying to try).

I want to purchase paper from GraceGraphics.etsy.com just to plant it and see what pops up! For those of you that make cards for resale you definitely need to check it out! Finally a card that keeps on giving!!!

Etsy Makeover!

2008-09-19T16:22:00.000-07:00

When I first joined Etsy, I didn't have a clue how to make a banner for my store. Today, I still don't know how. My sweet husband came to my rescue and made my first Etsy banner which has served my Etsy store very well.

Each day I learn more and more about how to promote my Etsy store. Since I have added more things to my store that have little if anything to do with pyrography, I thought it may be time for a new banner that doesn't just reflect on my woodburnings. It was really just a passing thought cause I didn't want to take the time to learn how to make a banner. After all, I have lots of other things I could be doing! I really wanted a new banner though.

Before diving into this task, I decided to look around the forums on Etsy. I couldn't believe it! Right there on my screen a new forum just posted "Free etsy Banner". The post said that the first person to send her a convo would win a free banner. I couldn't believe nobody had posted to this yet. I felt like a cat pouncing on a mouse! Gotta get it! Gotta get it! and I got it!!!

Goodmojo was the etsy store offering the free banner. Vickie, from Goodmojo.esty.com made me not one, but two wonderful banners for my etsy store as well as a new avatar. Vickie made the process absolutely painless for me.

So, if you are looking to makeover your etsy shop you should definitely check out Goodmojo.etsy.com for some great banners with fall colors and even some for halloween. If you don't see what you are looking for just pop her a convo and I'm sure Vickie will fix you right up!

Be sure and stop by my shop Ravenwolfart.com and let me know what you think about my Etsy shop makeover.

The Turtle Whisperer

2008-09-14T00:53:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine rescues turtles she finds as strays along the roads. Feeling like they have lost their way, she picks them up and brings them home to her ranch to give them a new home with green pastures and a pond with lots of vegetation. Her most recent turtle discovery was a box turtle that was with eggs!!!

I saw her with this turtle and it was amazing!!! This turtle wasn't afraid and responded to my friends strokes of it's shell and such like they were best friends! My friend, after realizing that this turtle was with eggs, put her in the pasture next to her pond. I know how fondly she felt about this turtle so I wanted to give her a lasting memory of this turtle so I woodburned her a picture of a Box Turtle in the pasture
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The MondayMorningMemo© of Roy H. Williams, the Wizard of Ads®

2008-09-11T22:16:00.000-07:00

Put lipstick on a pig??? Yep, still a pig! This one is at least cute!
The MondayMorningMemo© of Roy H. Williams, the Wizard of Ads®

A Flag of Our Own!

2008-09-06T14:34:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited! I was selected by the city council of Gun Barrel City, Tx to be on the flag committee because of my artistic abilities!!! I get the pleasure of coming up with designs for the flag based on the ideas agreed discussed in the meeting yesterday. I will post some pics of them here when they are done for anyone who wants to chime in their thoughts and opinions about them.

And yes, There really is a place named Gun Barrel City! In fact we are the only city in the USA with that name! Gun Barrel City is a neat place situated on Cedar Creek Lake. There are a lot of friendly people here.

Wonder how we got the name Gun Barrel City? You'll have to check back when I post the pics of the perspective flag to find out!

Some of my Stuff!

2008-08-28T18:52:00.000-07:00

I'm learning to use this blog thing. Below (I hope) are some of the items I put up in my shop today. The shop's at RavenWolfArt .
I'm very pleased, what do you think?

Pyrography, It's not just a pretty picture!

2008-08-27T11:54:00.000-07:00

I love pyrography! For those who aren't familiar with pyrography it is a very old art form once called poker art. People would sit around the hearth or campfire and place a poker in the fire and then draw on wood with it. These days most pyrographers use electric tools to create their art and some even use the sun and a magnifying glass. I use a Walnut Hollow burner I purchased at wally world.

I work very hard on each piece I create to achieve very detailed realism. I select each piece of wood based on the grain and direction of the grain and how it works with my idea for that particular burn. I cut the wood myself and hand sand it till it is buttery smooth.

Once I start burning a picture I find it hard to stop and finish it in one night. Other times it may take days or even weeks to finish depending on how big and the amount of detail involved.

I love it when someone looks at my work and compliments how much it looks like the photo. I realized the other day while in a chatroom on Etsy that alot of people think my work is a painting! I was very disappointed about that. I was like "Damn, can't you people see each stroke I burned to make that fur look real?" "Are you people blind or what?" "Don't you know how many times I burned my fingers to make that?" I didn't really say that but it was sure going through my mind! Then while in the chatroom one guy went to my Etsy shop at RavenWolfArt.com He said he had to do a double take cause he thought he read "Custom Pornography" instead of Custom Pyrography! All I could do was laugh! "So when you go to my Etsy shop at Ravenwolfart.com and see my work, keep in mind that it's not JUST a pretty picture"!