New felt creations

Well I promised a bit more of a decent post on here!! So here it is

This week is my final one as an unemployed person! So I decided to use the time well and continue working on some felt creations! I love working with felt as it's so easy to cut out and sew and the colours you can get are fantastic!!!

Anyway with seasons two and three of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to keep my company I managed to finish a commission my friend had asked me to make

The heart lavender bags! I love making these as I adore buttons as well plus they're really relaxing to make probably something to do with the lavender!

Anyway I decided it was time to start making some seasonal things! And the next big holiday to come up is Halloween! I love Halloween unfortunately we won't be able to celebrate it much this year as we will be moving the weekend before so I'm just going to have to enjoy making decorations for other people!!

 

Anyway here they are

 

    Ghosty hanging decoration!

                      Blood sucking bat

 




                         Spooky pumpkin

And now for my favourite hanging decoration

 

 

Jack the Pumpkin King

 

Well as the very least I hope we will have unpacked the DVDs so Toby and I can do our annual Halloween tradition of watching Nightmare Before Christmas! Hopefully we will be able to make a few spooky cakes and biscuits!

 

Anyway hopefully I shall be able to make more of these decorations and I was thinking £4 each or 3 for £10 fingers crossed they will be a seller

 

But now I'm off to make some templates for Christmas decorations and I need to have a go at Xmas Bunting! Yay! Tis the season to get crafty!

Scottish Cake

Only a quick post will put a decent one up later!

But I made a Scottish themed birthday cake for my Grandad's 80th last weekend and thought I'd share it!

 

I decided to go with a crumbling Scottish castle (didn't have much choice after transporting the blooming thing up to Fleetwood!) on a hill next to a Loch with the obligatory Loch Ness Monster!

 

                Nessie!

My Highland Cow Loved doing him!!

 

My Grandfather loved it! I think I need to switch to a Madeira Cake when doing stacks of cakes as my Late Grandmother's sponge recipe tastes divine but just doesn't have the strength to hold up the weight of more cake and icing!!

 



Far too quiet recently!

Sorry for the lack of posts I have been so busy packing and clearing things out ready for our big move just 38 days to go (not that I'm counting!)

 

But I have managed to get a few things done and even managed to bake a few things!

 

I had my monthly delivery of My Cake Decorating magazine which is fantastic at £2.99 an issue it's a bargain because you get free cake decorating tools with each issue which are usually alot more expensive in the shops! Plus you also get some lovely recipes as well as tips on how to decorate cakes which for a self taught cake decorator like myself are invaluable! Anyway in one of the issues from this month there was a recipe for Tart au Citron quite possibly my favourite desert when I go to France I pretty much live on the things! Anyway the first run turned out well so my friend Sarah told me that if I wanted to stay at her's at the weekend I was to bring one along so Toby and I made one together!

My Little chef in his gorgeous Gruffalo apron (thank you Uncle Nick!) squeezing the lemons which is apparently alot more fun than rolling out the pastry!

 Picture of the filling ready to go into the pastry case








But of course me being the absent minded person that I am forgot to take a picture of the finished and decorated Tart! But anyway it came out beautifully and was decorated with twisted slices of lemon and icing sugar! And as a Tart au Citron connoisseur it tasted lush especially with a large dollop of Creme Fraiche on the side!

 

We took it to my friend Sarah's house and were allowed to stay the night and the next morning we went to Stroud to do some shopping! The farmer's market and shambles market are both amazing some really amazing finds but in a little retro shop we managed to find these

 

 

My grandmother used to have a set just like this, Matt and I have been searching for a tea set for a while and more importantly a tea set that we could both agree on (very difficult when he likes classic designs and I like bright colourful retro designs!) but we finally found it and it brings back amazing memories of my wonderful grandmother!

 

On Sunday we went to Hempsted meadows for a car boot and actually managed to sell a lot of Toby's old toys and clothes and actually made quite a profit on them, I also managed to sell a few of my scarves and two of my recycled materials pillows which was pretty good going! Anything we had leftover we dumped into the charity bins so all in all a pretty successful day we cleared the house of old things and made some money and gave to charity!

 

Yesterday was spent cleaning the house top to bottom in an attempt to restore some order and I baked an apple tart (my new flan dish is getting quite a workout at the moment!) I cheated a bit on the pastry as I could not be bothered with the flaff of making my own but the rest of it is quite obviously handmade! It was a good way of using up some apples that were on the turn!

 

Again it was very tasty with a massive dollop of creme fraiche and the rest of it is in the fridge waiting for me to eat it cold!!

 

While doing all this my evenings have been spent in front of the TV slowly but surely knitting up a snood for myself to wear on my commute to my new job and I have also restarted my crochet project.

 

I got the idea from a magazine called Mollie's Makes again another lovely craft magazine with some beautiful ideas in it! The original pattern was to make a pillow case out of granny squares I decided to go a bit bigger and make a blanket/throw out of granny squares, I've been using tapestry wool and a plain ball of white DK wool

 Here's one in progress

And here's the 30 squares I've finished so far it's quite a nice little project and will be very good to do when I go for a 3 hour car trip up to see my grandparents at the weekend!

 

But I'm not the only one who's been crafting my partner Matt has completed his first knitted toy, the little blue bear I think he's done a fantastic job and Toby has already stolen the bear and called it his own so I'm sure it will be a hit he's currently working on a project for a friend of his little girl whose birthday is soon so that will be an exciting little gift! 

 

 

But anyway must get on cause I have hundreds more squares to do and snood to complete!

Lavender pillows!

My mother's lavender bush in her back garden had grown to epic heights you couldn't actually get past it to get to the back of the garden! I decided it was time to trim it and pinch the lavender for myself so I managed to grab a bag full of the stuff took it home and dried it out!

I then made these :-

 The hearts are made of two hearts cut out of felt with buttons sewn on one side and a ribbon loop to hang them they are then stuffed with lavender. They smell lush!
And of course I couldn't just make one I had to make them in all the colours I could think of!

                                       Orange

                                        Pale Blue

                             Red

                          Turquoise

                               Purple

                                     Pink

                                    Green

                                and Navy

       I then made my friend this one she's just about to move into a new house and she's always dreamed of having roses around her front door so I embroidered them on for her, took me back to the years when I used to cross stitch haven't done a stitch like this for years!!!

 

I went back to my mother's yesterday to pick my son up and grabbed another massive bag full of lavender so once that's dried I'll be making more of these!

I was thinking of selling them for £2 each or three for £5 hopefully they will sell!

I have a massive load of felt I need to get through so I will be trying to find new things to make out of felt!

Near where I live there is a scrap store and it is amazing for £3 you can fill up a reusable shopping bag full of stuff and they have fabrics, stuffing for cushions, wool, thread and loads of paper and card, I even managed to pick up bubble wrap to help with packing everything for our big move at the end of October.

I really must start packing instead of making things!!!!

Tom and Jerry Cake

A friend of my sister's little boy was turning 3 and I asked her if she wanted me to make his cake for her!

She said yes so I asked what type of things he liked

Tom and Jerry was the reply

Oh was mine but as ever I thought I'd give it a go!

So anyway here's the finished result!

I found the idea for it on this website http://www.lovelytutorials.com/forum/showthread.php?p=3430#post3430 and the guide for how to model Tom and Jerry was a lifesaver as I've never really been able to model people and animals out of icing before!

 

I added the bomb, mousetrap, door, doormat and home sweet home frame to fill the space a bit as it seemed a bit sparse without it!!

 

Leo loved it his chin dropped when he saw it bless him which is the best feedback I have ever got!

 

Next the cakes!

Ok here are some of the cakes I have made over the years!!!

 The cake that started it all the infamous Yoda cake the dyed my worktop green (not so great when it's supposed to be a surprise party!)

One of the many cakes I have made my niece over the years!

My son Toby's first birthday cake it had to be done it went a bit wonky but for a first character cake it seemed to go OK!!

 The point where I started getting the hang of colouring icing properly

 My first attempt at sugar flowers

 One of my friends asked me to make her a cake for her daughter's birthday party but she did not want the hassle of cutting the cake into portions so I made her some cupcakes so she could simply pop them into the party bag

 My son's third birthday cake he was far too into Micky Mouse's Clubhouse



 

 Another one of my friend's kids birthday cakes, I loved doing this cake it went so smoothly and I was so chuffed with how the dragon turned out!

 

Again the cupcakes were popped into the party bags (or more exactly eaten before the kids had even got out of the hall!)

  My best friend has the same problem as I our own birthday's are three days after our kid's birthday so we always lose out on both the party front (normally cause we're too broke to afford anything!) and having our own cake!! So I decided this year to surprise her with her own birthday cake with her favourite things on it! namely patchwork and coffee, the icing in the cup is actually coffee flavoured!

 My nieces most recent birthday cake she wanted a Bollywood cake but better! She seemed pleased with it but it's difficult to tell with 11 year olds!

 My son's fourth birthday cake Pirates was the theme this year god knows what it will be next year!

My first attempt at a rainbow cake! Here's the batter about to go in the oven!

The layers all stacked up ready to go! Mmmmmmmm butter cream

 The cake finished my niece thought it looked like a hat!

























The rainbow cake complete and cut into! The contrast looked great!


 

One of my friend's little girl's christening cake butterflies and flowers were requested and I decided to have my firs try with making cubed cakes didn't turn out perfect but got somewhere near to a cube shape!

 I simply loved doing this cake I love Alice in Wonderland and one of my old service users adored it as well so I took the theme and ran with it!!!

The playing cards and Alice falling down the rabbit hole must try and learn how to sculpt people!

Close up of the teapot and cup and yes the icing was tea flavoured!

A giant thank you cupcake I made for my colleagues when I left my old workplace

 Jubilee cupcakes in teacups of cause darling!!! Love this silicone cupcake cases they were from the pound shop and there was two in each box! bargain!

My son and I baking a cake together I love my Kenwood mixer it's perfect for making cakes and also the dough hook on it makes colouring icing a breeze!!!

and finally my niece had a cupcake themed party for her birthday and her very talented mother set up a table full of icing and goodies for her and her friends to decorate cupcakes with which they enjoyed immensely

But apparently it was alot more fun to decorate my wonderful partner with butter cream and sprinkles bless him for sitting there and taking it! We were finding sprinkles for weeks afterwards!

More cakey goodness will follow soon no doubt seems I never stop baking!

Please comment and follow me there will be more soon!