my heart bEEts for you!
/I loathe beets. You may know this.
I used to like them until one unfortunate night—which we won’t get into here—and now I just cannot eat them.
BUT.
That doesn’t mean I can’t find other uses for this tastes-like-the-earth vegetable!
I know what you’re going to say. You need to roast the beets!! They taste like candy!!
I am afraid my taste buds disagree.
However, I have found a few other uses for them.
First, I was thinking about Valentine’s Day cards and how I’m always drawn to the $7.99 Papyrus cards with loads of glitter, adorable 3D heart cut-outs, and sweet little notes on the inside. But then I remember they go into the garbage about a week later. We do save some cards but for the most part we don’t keep them around too long.
For the past year or two I’ve tried to make my own cards which saves money + lets me have a little creative fun. Sometimes it happens and sometimes I still buy overpriced cards.
The first trial I made is in the photo on the left. Carving the entire beet-half into a heart did not work as well as the method on the right.
Then I started thinking about creating a recipe or two using pureed beets as a natural red dye, ie: red velvet doughnuts, pancakes, etc.
And then I thought…
Beets stain my fingers and everything else they touch.
Maybe they can stain paper?
Maybe I can cut the beet into the shape of a heart?
And then the beet stamp was born.
The blank cards are from Michaels, 10 for $.99 with envelopes!
With a few personal touches these cards were done in no time at all.
How to Make a Beet Stamp
- 1 dark red beet
- pairing knife
- blank cards
- Trim the top + bottom of the beet off.
- Wash and dry the beet.
- Slice the beet in half from the stem end to the bottom.
- With a pairing knife, carefully draw a heart into the cut side of the beet.
- Carefully carve away around the drawn heart so the heart stands out about 1/8 – 1/4 inch.
- Lightly wet the heart with a damp paper towel and press onto your card.
- Re-wet lightly as needed and let your card fully dry.
Tips:
- I found it worked best to place the bottom tip of the heart on the paper first and then continue to press the rest down. This worked better than simply pressing it down flat.
- If you’re not getting the full shape of the heart to show up, try scraping the surface of the heart carefully with a pairing knife to help smooth it out. If it’s still not working, you may want to try again on the other half of the beet.
- Cutting the heart out this way worked much better than cutting the beet-half into the shape of a heart as shown in the 3rd photo of this post.
Just a little something special for the ones you love.
This year is going to be hard to beet…
10 years of dating!
5 years of marriage!
We both turn the big 3-0!
Chris takes his professional engineer licensing exam!
I have a book coming out!
Bring it, 2013! We are ready.
Ashley
