Carnations

On a roll here posting things up.

Here are some carnations that I made from cake decorating class. Haven't coloured them yet, but I think you can guess what some of the colours will be.

Return of liddlebits!

And back!

After what seems like ages, I'm finally able to hit the crafty stuff again.

Feels so nice having so much time available to try all sorts of things again.

Here's one of my latest creations I've managed to take a picture of. It's a card for a friend's wedding next month. Clearly I am still obsessed with green and pink, lucky for me the girl likes pink too!

Macarons for a Birthday

So a friend's birthday recently went by and I promised them that I would make Green Tea Macarons for them.

I'm happier with the outcome - except for the first batch which I overbaked a bit. However, I think I am gettting used to the different oven temperatures and knowing when to rescue a potential overcooking! Oh and I almost forgot to mention that I left the green tea powder at home so the filling is less green tea like than I would have wanted. 

And apologies for not updating my blog, the last thing I made was a card but I forgot to take a photo of it.

I'll be happy when all this planning stuff is over and I actually get some time back to do crafty things again!

Macarons Take Two

Been a while since I have blogged!

My latest baking adventure has been a return to making macarons. I went a bit crazy buying almond meal a few months back and now that they will expire in a few months I thought I'd better get cracking on using it up.

So this time round its Chocolate biscuit and raspberry filling for the macarons.

I modified the vanilla recipe by adding cocoa powder, but did not realise untill later that there was a specific modification to the other quantities. Whoops!

Anyhow, here are the batches:
Batch 1 and 2 = Fail, cos overcooked/burnt/cracked
Batch 3 = Perfect after I worked out how to avoid the cracking
Batch 4 = Cracked but still good

The crappy 1st and 2nd and 4th batches - uneven sizes and cracked, burnt

Ah sweet success - I have finally worked out how to pipe properly! Check out the smooth tops!

Next time round - Raspberry Biscuit and Vanilla filling. I have also said to my friend I'll make Green Tea Macarons for them for their birthday.

Bracelet

Stuck at home with a groggy head.

In order to feel like I have achieved something this weekend, I pulled out my stash of jewellery making bits.

Here's what I produced.

Trickiest bit is tying the ends tight enough so that it doesn't break!

Lessons learned: using elastic for bracelets.

Too Young to Care!

Was my nieces birthday a few weeks back and I was told to come dressed as a pink butterfly.

Well I did do that but I cheated and bought butterfly wings. The part that I did decide to create was a birthday card, something I thought my niece would appreciate....

Making the card was quite a lot of fun, deciding upon the colours was tough!
Here's what it looked like.

Upon giving it to my niece, she glanced at it for 10 seconds and was then consumed by the butterfly wings, gettting me to put them on for her and then heading off to galavant around the house and show off.

Sigh next time I must remember...don't make cards for young kids!

Stool gone Vintage

After procrastination to finish this stool revamp, it has finally been completed!

The most complicated part of this project was the thought behind the construction and the sourcing of the padding used for the chair. Other than that it was actually quite easy to do, although I think some of us would cringe at the amount of hand sewing I did. My initial staple gun idea didnt work so I had to revert to the sturdier sewing.

And now that I have a sander (thanks to a lovely xmas present) I am set to reduce the pain I went through to sand the chair!

Stool Before Image (Note: the stool had been sanded and varnished already as I forgot to take a before photo!)

 Stool After: Fabric chosen to match current vintage obsession of mine

Jacket Revival?

I was cleaning out my wardrobe recently, it's amazing how much you can accumulate over a few years. The thought that you once loved those items so much, but now they are just the same old to you. It's a bit of a waste really, how much consumerism/materialism creates and just discards. There must be some way to minimise the impact on the environment, if only.....

Anyway enough of my ramblings...

As part of the cleanout I almost gave this jacket away, but then I thought hmm..what if I did a few things to revive it...well here you go..see what you think..I must admit the photo doesn't do it justice as it looks better worn in real life.

                                    Before

 

                                    After

Recipe Stand

Why hello!

It's been a while and I have been dabbling at a few things but not really getting far.

Finally managed to complete 95% of this item which I really like cos it fits in with my country/vintage theme. The last thing to do is paint and varnish one more layer at the back of the stand.

I won't be using it anytime soon though as I would love to have more space to utilise it. Nonetheless at least it will be ready when I need it!

Bangle-d

I was a little bored and looking for something to do and remembered watching a tv show that decorated a wooden bangle. I thought might as well give that a shot.

I used alot of scrapbooking technique to get the result. Must admit I am finding more and more of my scrapbooking skills handy in decorating alot of things.

Here is the result, the colours are probably more kiddy than I expected. However, if I ever wanted an 'adult' version' I'd just have to find the right colours!

 Before

After

On a side note, I find that more and more now I am trying things just to see if I can do them. This experimentation is quite a lot of fun!

Kitty Card

For my friend's birthday, I thought I'd make a card for her. She adores cats and kittens, so of course kitties had to be the theme of the card.

Here's the outcome, the kitties are so adorable.

Booties! Testing Testing...

Bought a book recently and it had these booties in there which looked somewhat simple to make.

I was a little bit wrong. Sure enough pattern was easy to cut out but I must admit good instructions always help. Partway through sewing the boot together, I was given the instruction to sew the sole to the rest of the shoe. What made it interesting was the fact that it did not tell me how...so after some pinning and guesswork I managed to sew the thing on.

The pattern called for all felt but I thought it would be nicer with a mix of material and felt. Changing the materials meant that I had to change some of the techniques for construction. This is where I found another aspect that annoyed me while sewing. My sewing machine kept playing up while doing the zigzag stitch. For some reason in the midst of sewing it would just cut the thread. I'm not sure whether it was tension being too tight but it did it multiple times. It was frustrating because it made some unsightly finishing on my sewing as some areas showed that it clearly had been re-sewn a few times.

The finished product is reasonable, however it does show one more mistake which occurred when I was punching holes for the laces. I accidentally had the top of the booties underneath the spot I was punching and thus I ended up taking a chunk out of that bit too!

However, all in all a bit of fun and more difficult than I first thought! I reckon I could still practice some more sewing going around bends so that they are not so uneven.

Lessons Learned: joining

Notebook

Found a plain yellow notebook at home and thought might as well revamp it and make it look less scruffy.

Had fun deciding upon colours and embellishments and now am more inclined to use it, possibly for my next holiday!

It's Dessert Time Again

This is the first time I have experimented with using gelatin. I'd previously used a similar setting agent called agar agar for an asian dessert but heard that the final texture was different.

It was surprisingly simple to make, much less effort than I had anticipated. I do however need to work on getting the thing out of the mould nicely!

Here is the result...a caramelized pear panna cotta. Twas yum.
















Lessons Learned: gelatin, unravelling from moulds

Wedding Present - Memories Album

Finally I am getting this post up as I should.
This is a scrapbooking album I made from photos my friend gave me.

As she was getting married, I thought it timely to make a gift for her and meant I could also improve some of my scrapbooking skills.

I must say last minute rush always kicks in. I had 2 months to do this but I had to leave it until the last 2 weeks to complete it. By the end of it, I had had enough and never wanted to see anything to do with scrapbooking for a long while.

However, upon reflection I am glad I gave it a go, it was lots of fun to make (albeit some minor flaws that I know for next time) and great to see the outcome.

Lessons Learned: Scrapbooking

Beanie For Snow!

After noticing how old and tattered R's balaclava was, it was time to get him a replacement.
Instead of making a purchase, and tired of the current scarf I was making, I decided to use the opportunity to try my hand at a beanie.

Altering a pattern and learning crochet (intriguing but finally managed to click), I am reasonably satisfied with the result. Next time I know to make it a little longer.

 The Finished Product

 R's Wonderful Pose Wearing It

Lessons learned: crochet, sizing

Birthday Card

My one and only scrapbooking item to present for winter...
As an accompaniment to my friend's present, I made this card for their big 3 0. It makes use of the quilling techniques that I was eager to try out. Nothing fancy but I had a lot of fun with different textured papers.

Lessons Learned: Quilling

Another Torte!

So its Winter...2 words describe what's happened...

I'm lazy...

This is one of the cakes I churned out.

50 cent Tray Transformation

So I picked up this mini tray when it was a normal wood colour (doh forgot to take the before photo! derrr).

With a touch of paint and some scrapbooking here's the alternative look. Creative fix satiated!

!

Yay now I can use it for something which I haven't worked out what....

Lemon and Yoghurt Cupcakes

Mmmm these were nice and fluffy. Found this recipe in a random magazine and looked pretty easy to make. I'd been craving something like this for a while and it was time to bake again.

I must say my tastes have changed and the more you get of something good, the more your tastebuds think anything else is average. That's what happened with the icing for these cupcakes, they were the standard butter and icing mixture....but these days I love cream cheese icing, and the next time I make these it will be cream cheese!