Valentines Day No.3

In our house we all tend to celebrate Valentines Day, even the girls.  Any excuse for them to find their way into my craft box and use some of the special bits and pieces that they usually don't get to use!

We have never really been big on buying chocolates and flowers and all of the usual things that you would associate with Valentines day. Instead we tend to come up with original ideas for special little gifts for everyone, even Mia and Amy.   Mr P. (who is the baker in the family) might make a special cake for all of us and the girls usually draw a picture.  Once we all created a canvas stamped with our hands on it in different colours of acrylic paint.  The result was lovely.  At that time Amy was very little and her hand is tiny next to her Daddy's.  It now hangs in our hallway and we will treasure it always.

Last year we created little hearts filled with various herbs.  We drew some heart templates from paper and then cut around these from scraps of fabric. 

This is the heart that I made for Mr P.  I filled this with Cinnamon sticks and Cloves that I had crushed first.  It smells wonderfully spicy and perfect for him as it is not too flowery.  You can still smell the spices a year later!

Amy created this simple version of the heart.  She stitched the heart on the outside.  We filled the heart with a little toy stuffing and dried lavender.  The stuffing ensured that we did not loose the lavender through the edges as the stitching was a simple running stitch.

We have all kept these little hearts long after the chocolates and flowers would be gone! 

Mind you I should probably admit that Mr P.  has just bought me a new handbag for Valentines Day this year - and he doesn't even know it yet!! 

Peanut Butter Oaty Bars ...

'Have you brought a snack Mummy?' ... These are the first words that come out of my little girl's mouths (after saying hello and giving me a kiss of course) when I collect them from school each day.  I always feel so lucky that my working day is finished by 3pm and I can go home with them after school.  We all sit around the kitchen table and they start their homework whilst I prepare them a snack and a drink. 

One snack that they can't get enough of is these peanut butter oaty bars which are the quickest and easiest cakey type biscuit to make. The girls love it when we cook these as firstly they can help to mix in the oats and secondly they get to lick the spoon and the bowl and even dip their little mits into the raw mixture whilst we are trying to flatten it in the baking tin! 

You really don't have to measure anything out, just use your eye until the mixture looks right.  As a guide you will need approx:

250g of butter or margarine (this will make approx 20 bars)

2-3 tablespoons of peanut butter

2-3 desert spoons of Honey or Golden Syrup - honey works really well with the peanut butter.

Enough oats to bring the mixture to a stiff paste (see below)

Method:

Melt the butter, honey and peanut butter in a saucepan over a low heat.  Add enough oats to bring the mixture to a paste stiff enough to hold itself together (the more oats you add the more biscuit like your finished bar will be).

Grease a deep baking tray and press the mixture into the tray with your hand.  Then cook at approx 160-170 degrees for approx 20 minutes.  Cut into bars in the tin and then leave to cool.  Once cool take out with a fish slice and put into an air tight tin. In theory they will keep for about a week but ours never ever last that long!


WHY NOT TRY ADDING ...

Chopped Banana with the peanut butter;
Jam with the peanut butter - this is my husbands favourite as he loves Raspberry jam and peanut butter sandwiches!

and if you are not keen on peanut butter, try ...

Chunks of dark Green and Blacks Chocolate;
Chopped Apricots and honey;
Maple Syrup.

Great for lunch boxes and quick healthy snacks.  We have even been known to have one for breakfast if we are in a rush and they really do keep you going for quite a while.

Thank you for stopping by.
Happy Crafting
Teresa

Running before I can Walk! ...

Until recently I have never really been bothered about yarns and threads even though all of the other ladies in my family are passionate about making things this way.  My passion has always been paper and watercolour painting ... that was until now ...

Over the past few weeks we have been taking delivery of our new yarns into the shop and of course I can't stay away from all of the lovely colours and textures.  I have huge expectations as to what I might be able to create one day and am already looking at patterns thinking I could change this and change that to put my own mark on a project.  The words 'running before I can walk' come to mind!

I just can't help it! I think that this is why I have never knitted large projects before.  I cannot follow a pattern, I have to do my own thing or I loose interest.  The paints and paper allow me to let my creativity flow but if I want to be able to knit as well as Mum I will have to learn to follow someone else's instructions and designs (for a while at least!).  I will keep you posted as to how the 'running' is going in future posts. I am quite sure that I will have 'tripped up' more than once. 

Here is a lovely cardigan that Mum knit for Mia.  The feel of the final project is so soft and perfect for a warm snuggly sweater or a pair of socks.  Of course I did have to add my own little bit of input and ask if we could add some mis-matched buttons to give the cardigan a more modern and crafty feel!

I gave Mum the yarn at the weekend and within a couple of days she had phoned me to tell me that it was finished.  I cannot believe the speed that she can knit.  By the time she had finished this I had just about cast on my stitches and knit a couple of inches up the back of my attempt at a cardigan!    I will keep practicing and in the meantime look forward to all of the new yarns arriving every week to inspire me and our lovely visitors.

Sirdar pattern 2292

Thanks for taking a look!
Happy Crafting
Teresa

Wire Butterflies ...

Good morning,  I Hope your day is going well!  I am busy here creating new workshops but I just have time to have a cup of coffee and share this project that I made using some wired pearls to create a butterfly ...

The scalloped edge of the card was created by punching some circles and positioning under a white strip of card.  This was stuck into place on the left hand side of the card and another strip of green paper (slightly thinner than the white card) was positioned over the border so that you can see the stitched effect.

I punched a large scallop circle into the right hand side of the card and held the card closed so that I could add a running stitch effect with my black pen around the outside and the inside of the aperture.  This creates a border for the butterfly image that will go on the inside of the card and which will be seen through the aperture.

I created the wire butterfly using the instructions below.  It is fairly simple once you know how.  You wind the wire around 2 or 3 fingers so that you have 2 loops on each side. Then remove the loops from your fingers and then twist in the middle to create the body of the butterfly.  If you like this effect you can create dragonflies by winding the excess wire into a longer body and you can create simple 5 petal flowers by winding the wire so that you have 3 loops on one side and 2 on the other.

The green spotty wings are created from a fabric flower from petaloo.  I trimmed out a couple of the petals to make it look more wing shaped.  These two bits were then held over a trimmed piece of butterfly Lace cardstock from KI Memories and held together with a brad.

Butterfly instructions:

Wired Pearls: Oasis (you can usually find this in wedding stationary shops or here at Fidgeons Crafts)

Lace Cardstock: KI Memories

Patterned Paper: Making Memories

Fabric Flower: Petaloo

Brads: Stemma

Thanks for taking a peek!

Teresa

Cupcakes & Ice cream - the perfect birthday party! ...

A couple of girlie birthday cards for you today ... 

I drew a template for the cupcake and the ice cream (below).  I have asked my lovely hubby to explain to me how I load a pdf into these posts so that I can provide you with a template sheet where needed.  I will keep nagging at him until I know how to do it.  In the meantime if you would like a copy of the templates then e-mail me and I will be happy to e-mail you the pdf sheet instead.



I cut the base of the cupcake from a thick watercolour paper and roughly painted in the base with watercolour paint.  When this had dried I stuck on the top of the cupcake and the cherry which were cut from patterned paper.  I backed the whole cake onto some white card and cut around leaving a little white edge. 

I used some pale blue paper to cover the square card (my card was 145mm x 145mm) and then some patterned paper to create the border on the left hand side.  I stuck the cake and number 8 into place (which was also cut from a template). I added some detail to the cake and the number 8 with my black pen. Finally I added some more doodling around the card, added the black sticker letters and hand wrote 'today' along the edge of the number 8.



The ice cream was created in exactly the same way except that I cut the top of the cone from watercolour paper as well and added a little bit of pink watercolour paint around one side.

Spotty paper: Fancy Pants

Blue background paper, Cosmo Cricket
The rest of the paper is Sassafras ( I think!) -  not sure as they were bits and pieces in my craft box and don't have the name of the manufacturer on any more. 

stickers: Kaiser Kraft