Again - long time no blog posts.... this time it was because our home tech decided to go kaput big time. Firstly my much loved 9 year old olympus camera gave up, swiftly followed by the just as ancient (in tech terms) home pc. So we have spent our spare time (and my craft time) rescuing and reloading all our programmes and files on to a new family pc.
I did have to make time late on Easter saturday to make my two daughters an Easter present each, as we had forgotten to ask the Easter bunny to bring some appropriate gifts. So after drawing up a simple template and raiding my felt box, I sewed and glued two little bunny egg cosys - cute and sort of practical.
Glue used - PinFlair silicone glue
Flowers cut using Sizzix original flower die
For Easter Sunday sponge cupcakes were decorated by my daughter and nephew with chocolate butter icing nests and Cadbury mini eggs.
I also made little Cranberry Simnel cupcakes based on an old recipe from Mrs Beeton’s Everyday Cookery book, with a nugget of marzipan baked inside - these were then topped off with marizpan flowers.
4oz Stork margarine
4oz light brown sugar
1 1/2 oz golden syrup
2 large eggs
6oz plain flour
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon mixed spice
11oz mixed currants, sultanas, cranberries
2oz marmalade
2-3tbsp milk
This was mixed together like an all in one, starting off with the eggs, sugar, flour, salt, spice and margarine in a bowl. All the other ingredients were placed in a food processor until the bulk of the fruit had been chopped up small (but not pureed). This mixture was then added to the bowl and beaten (with electric whisk) until all ingredients had been incorporated (but not over worked). The mixture was then spooned into 12 muffin cases, and a large hazel nut sized nugget of marizpan was poked into the centre of each cake.
The cakes were then baked for about 25 minutes in a preheated fan oven at 170 oC.
After being left to cool on a wire rack the tops were brushed with warm apricot jam and a marzipan flower and fluffy chick were added.
So all in all not too much crafting to write about - may be I’ll get more time next month....
Scrappage put together using Serif Craft Artist and my own Easter Digikit...
Not much blog activity from me in March, but I was busy preparing for my daughters 4th birthday party, and finding the floor in "Mummy’s craft room".
The "planning" started in January after her sister celebrated her first birthday, and we started thinking about what we could do. We decided on a Fairytale theme – mainly because Princess parties were very popular, but we would be inviting boys too and I had seen a wonderful dragon cake on the internet.
I had already got a number of fairy drawings that I had done a few years back, so these got revamped and coloured in using Serif DrawPlus x4. But then we need a dragon – so I had to design one – which would be flying, or sitting down, or holding a sign – so three dragons were designed. Then of course you would need a Prince, and a castle, and a Knight, and a frog…… plus all the little decorations.
Once all the characters had been designed. I needed to design the Party Stationery, goodies, and decorations. Serif CraftArtist was key to all of this. I created a digikit (after coming up with some background papers and an alphabet). The digikit was used to create the invite, thank you cards, a party bag booklet (of puzzles and games), and labels. I created my own templates for shield shaped bunting and packets (for the Snapdragon seeds).
With the help of my Silhouette, I also created some "colour me" finger puppets to add to the party bags.
I was very pleased with all items, and had some lovely comments from the Mums.
The cake was good fun to do too. The dragon was made 2 days before, using shop bought Maderia cake (as it lasts longer than homemade Victoria sponges). The two slabs of cake were carved into the basic dragon shape (all held together with chocolate butter icing). The dragon was then covered with a thin layer of ready made icing that I had coloured lilac. Using improvised tools, I created scales that were highlighted with Dusty Lilac Edible Lustre Dust. Some more icing was coloured green and the detail of the wings, claws and spikes were added.
The next day I baked a Victoria sponge – simply coated it in a thin layer of chocolate butter icing and carefully slid the dragon into place. Gold coins and some dragon eggs made by my little helper were added for the finishing touch.
I was very pleased with the final looking cake.
The scrap page was put together on CraftArtist – using my Fairytale digit kit.
Regards
Stompy x
I saw the pattern for these lovely characters back in the summer and thought that the set would make a lovely gift for my daughters 1st birthday. I had planned to knit all 4 – but only managed 2 (and a half) in time for her birthday.
The pattern is Patons Book 3806 and they are knitted in Patons Smoothie DK.
I wasn’t sure about the yarn when I bought it as it looks like a cotton yarn but is 100% Acrylic – in the end it was very nice to knit with and as long as you didn’t accidentally split the threads – it knitted up beautifully.
I did, however, make a number of changes to the pattern.
When I started on the first leg, I noticed that the increase stitches showed up making the stripes look quite bity. So I changed it from a stripe starting on a knit row to a stripe starting on a purl row – this meant the increase happened within the stripe and the resulting stripe was far neater.
Another change I made was to the knitting of the body and head – in the pattern the body and head are two separate pieces that need stitching together – I made it all in one piece for a smoother finish.
And the final change was to the wings – the pattern wings were quite large and I didn’t like them. I tried to crochet some lacy wings, but realised that it probably wasn’t wise as little fingers would get caught up in them. So I ended up crocheting a pair that looked a little like butterfly wings and trimmed with a blanket stitch using Anchor Artiste Silver Metallic yarn.
I do hope to finish the third one – Forget-Me-Not, to join Daisy and Rose, and if I get time I would love to knit/crochet a little garden for the fairies to play in….
The scrap page was put together on CraftArtist – using Bambino Thoughts digit kit and some of my own images.
Regards
Stompy x
As I had been warned, my second daughters first birthday came round very quickly – too quickly after Christmas…. We had invited some of Emily’s friends over to play, so as usual the day before a birthday was not spent making lovely decorations and adding a few final touches - it was spent blitzing the house to get it clean and tidy – oh and don’t forget getting a cake made.
So using my trusted recipe from Mary Berry (thank you Great British Bake Off) a Victoria sponge cake was made. Once assembled with homemade strawberry jam and vanilla buttercream a wedge was cut off the front – turned up-side-down and adhered (using jam and buttercream) to the back of the cake. A slab of ready made icing was rolled very thin on some cling film and then carefully placed over the cake and plate. Some of the large creases were cut out and the icing rejoined, but as the cake was a ice cliff, the icing didn’t have to be smooth. Excess icing was trimmed from the plate. The base of the cake was then coloured with a small amount of Glacier Blue Edible Lustre
Dust. The penguins off the Christmas Cake were joined with extra penguins to decorate the cake, and a couple of trees were added to the edge (with the help of dried spaghetti).
The cake was enjoyed at a family birthday tea later in the afternoon – but we couldn’t eat all of it – so it was taken into work by Dad:
"Very nice thank you, the cook should be congratulated as for the penguins - a masterpiece"
"Thank you for the cake, it looked and tasted fantastic. I bet the penguins are still there at the end of the day though, they're too cute to eat!"Where it was polished off – Penguins and all!
Left over icing was used to quickly decorate some cupcakes with little penguin faces.
The scrap page was put together on CraftArtist – using Portfolio digit kit and some of my own images.
Regards
Stompy x
After a mad rush up to Christmas (we had builders in insulating an old loft conversion) there was unfortunately little time to spend baking and making. I had started knitting some Alan Dart mice back in November, so these got finished to hang on the Christmas tree – one for each daughter.
I also decided that I would take cake pops to my sister-in-laws for our Christmas Eve family meal – the reindeer heads with orange Matchstick antlers went down a treat with the kids.
Having a 3 year old daughter – Hello Kitty is very apparent in our house and the day before putting the decorations up, she asked for a Hello Kitty door wreath and decorations for the Christmas tree. The wreath was a step to far - we ended up with a hand made willow, ivy and red berries, but unfortunately the hook kept falling off the door. For the tree we came up with the idea of making little Hello Kitty angels – we printed off some images, drew up the wings. Emily then cut out the heads (I helped around the whiskers), wings and the semi circle dress - the lot was stuck together with plenty of cellotape. A loop of silver thread was attached and a hoop of tinsel added for a sparkly touch. They looked great on the tree, and will be stored away for next year.
During advent, we had a Hello Kitty calendar, the sort where you got a little toy behind each window. By Christmas Day we had furniture for a bedroom, kitchen and lounge plus two little characters. On the back was a room scene to cut out but it wasn’t big enough for all the toys, so after Christmas we made a 3 storey house out of an old cereal packet. Unfortunately Emily decided they had to have stairs too – so an extension was added for the two flights of cardboard stairs. Each room was then decorated using the scrap wrapping paper from Christmas. So now Hello Kitty and Mimmy have a house to play in.
The scrap page was hurriedly put together on CraftArtist – using a number of Christmas themed digit kits
All the best for 2012
Regards
Stompy x
It’s is always fun at Christmas to invite friends over for a little bit of crafting fun – in this case food craft.
Gingerbread houses to be precise – maybe a little ambitious when you have very little time – but I was surprised how easy they were to make. The only issue I had was that I only had one large baking sheet, so baking took some time with all the bits for two houses.
I found a recipe off the internet, most of them had black treacle, not my favourite ingredient so next year I will swap ½ the black treacle for golden syrup.
So the sides were made and a huge batch of royal icing was made up (using Dr Oetker egg whites), and out came my old icing bag and nozzles. The houses were fun to stick together – until my husband told me I got the roofs on the wrong way – so the pieces were prised off, cleaned and stuck back on. I was really surprised just how quickly it stuck together, and how strong they were when finished. The houses were then left overnight to really harden – ready to be decorated by Emily and her friend Lucy.
Making the houses was a great way of getting rid of the sweeties that we had collected over the past year. Emily and Lucy "directed" where they wanted the icing, and then covered the roofs with sweeties. Paths of icing were created so that the gummy bears could "conga" up to the front door of the house (although I don’t think many of Lucy’s bears made it to the party!). A reindeer cookie was added to each front garden, with cake decorations added for eyes and a nose.
Both girls were very good and didn’t eat too many sweets – the same can not be said about Claire and me.
Emily and Lucy (and mummies) were really pleased with their finished results, and proudly shown off to their Daddies later.
So Merry Christmas, Claire and Lucy – we hope you enjoy munching through the house as much as we all enjoyed decorating them.
The scrap page was put together using Serif CraftArtist – using Lifestyle digikit and my own little gingerbread man image.
Not only is making cake pops and icing models good fun it kept my 3 ½ year old quiet for ages – double bonus!
After picking up some reduced fondant icing from my local supermarket and some Dr Oetker coloured icing – Emily and I spent an afternoon making icing models for the Christmas cake. I had recently seen a demonstration on TV by Ann Pickard and took inspiration from what I had seen (and could remember). So we made some snowmen, penguins and trees. A few days later, Emily thought it would be nice to have an angel too for the cake – so out came the icing again and I made a little angel. The angel was nearly finished but she was missing something ….what could she hold? "A penguin" was suggested , and duly made. Whilst messing around with the icing, we spotted the Playdough dog that Santa had bought last Christmas, so 3 puppies and a teddy were made from the mould. I think I will dig out my fimo moulds and have more fun soon.
We also had a play with pop cakes – they seem to be everywhere – so I thought they would be good to make for the schools Christmas cake stall. Looking at the options on internet of how to make them – I went for a pop cake maker that makes little spherical cakes, instead of mixing cake and butter icing together. The plain cakes are a good size for little children, instead of the large muffins or cupcakes with lots of icing/frosting. I bought a Sweet Treats Pop Cake Maker from Lakeland, and so far we have been really pleased with the results. The cakes are moist and tasty. So I had a practice for the sale next week, I kept the decoration simple with dark or white chocolate and lots of sprinkles. Fortunately we didn’t have to munch through 25+ pop cakes as my niece had an 18th birthday party to go to so she took the spare practice pop cakes. The process was simple enough for my daughter to have a go – and she had great fun sprinkling sprinkles everywhere and getting some onto the cakes too.
The scrap page was put together using Serif CraftArtist – using Lifestyle digikit.
