Month: September 2016

chinese style plum sauce

~ guernseyjane ~ Leave a comment

imageIngredients

  • 10 medium plums
  • 2 cloves garlic chopped
  • 1/2 onion finely chopped
  • 1 dessert spoon ginger, powdered or fresh
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce, I used white vinegar and soy dipping sauce instead
  • 1 tablespoon sweet chili sauce, mine was a hot version

Cooking Directions

  1. remove stones from plums.
  2. Mix plums in a saucepan with  the other ingredients
  3. Heat on medium for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  4. Blend well with an stick blender and add water to thin if desired.
  5. Store in jar in the fridge                                                                                                                    version inspired by ‘eat richly even when you’re broke’, food.com, epicurious and others

Sparkly shoes

~ guernseyjane ~ 2 Comments

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A commission! Well a favour actually. And it has renewed my enthusiasm in blinging up everything. A bit nerve wracking to wave the hot fix tool so closely over new shoes but nothing burnt this time.. Plus I had to double triple check the L and R were on the correct shoes!

Peg bag

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imageAn old tablecloth remnant has become useful again

wooden coat hanger (we didn’t have any children’s hangers so Edward cut an old padded hanger down by about an inch each end

Materials- water resistant outer fabricwide as the hanger plus seam and about twice as long, lining same size

method; draw around the hanger on to reverse of fabric to create a pattern for the back and extend the sides down to make a square ish shape , cut a half inch outside the line for a seam allowance

lay the remaining outer fabric on top and cut a top front panel and bottom front panel to match. I used the tablecloth binding as the mouth of  the bag but otherwise would have added a half inch to the bottom of the top panel and top of the bottom panel for a seam allowance

cut lining fabric to match each of the three pieces

blanket stitch about one inch in the centre of the back and top pieces where the hanger will go through

place front panel lining and outers right sides together and seam where the mouth of the bag will be ie top of the bottom and bottom of the top, flip out and press lightly

place back panel lining face down, back panel outer on it face up, front panels face down  with partially fixed lining on top- clip in place and seam from edge of blanket stitched top all the way round back to the other side of the top

turn, wriggle the hanger in place and decorate with ribbon to finish

First steps to Christmas

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Smart and simple card thanks to scan n cut

three of the library baubles cut from a paper set :(docrafts)  stuck on a mat – same paper set- with foam squares and the strings of gold thread tied on then stuck behind with tape runner as the mat was taped to the card blank

no sentiment, no insert but classy card blank

6 down, 94 to go

Tea bag holder

~ guernseyjane ~ 2 Comments

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the jumble of teas was a mess so a set of boxes to tidy them up was needed

i ordered some fill your own tea bags to sort the loose leaf teas and made and labelled the tags with paper scraps.

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For the holder

1 sheet  craft card plus 11cm square craft card

2 sheets 8×8 inch scrapbook paper, I used Bohemian dreams from craftwork cards

scalpel, glue and roll of red liner tape

lay the sheet landscape in front of you and score at 7, 14, 21 and 28 cm down then 4 cm across. Cut out the tiddly corner and cut up the bottoms as shown to create the base flaps. Place the tape roll on one of the panels at the bottom crease and scalpel inside it to create the opening

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on the square card score around at 2 cm and cut one side of each of the corners as shown. I find it tidier to cut a tiny wedge out of these snips to make folding neater.

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tape the boxes with red liner to keep them secure, tape the half moon flap to the base for extra stability and cover the outside panels with paper that is just a bit smaller  to create a mat effect

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bathroom bandana

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I briught back two pretty ikea fleeces from Anna and VIlle’s wedding with the promise of transforming them

so far, tissue holder from previous pattern

and new

bathroom bandana- keeps your fringe off your face for a face pack

Elastic that is one or two inches wide cut  one inch longer than the snug circumference of your head

strip of fleece six inches wide and double the length of the elsstic

For the bow, strip of fleece four inches wide eight inches long And a strip of fleece two inches wide four inches long

sew each fleece strip into long tube using straight stitch and narrow seam, turn each tube to hide the seam

thread elastic through the long tube and , keeping the fleece edges away from the needle, zig zag the one inch overlap to form a circlet, slide one end of the fleece tube inside the other then zig zag the overlap closed, try to centre the elastic in the tube and go slowly as it is bulky

fold the edges of the next size tube in half to create a bow shape with the raw edges facing the overlap raw edge of the circlet, tack in place, wrap the little tube tightly over this and straight stitch the back to fasten it all and finish the bow

Up cycled phone cover

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image imageI loved my fabric phone cover but it did look tatty so I gave in and bought another (only a cheapo one though as I am going to craft that too) while I played with my old favourite.

so simple:

fabric larger than the cover when unfolded

mod podge , classic not even fabric one

sharp scissors and a biro

Unfold the cover and lay it as flat as possible over the wrong side of he fabric then trace around the edge and mark through the holes (3 on the iphone)

remove the leather trim or embellishment from the old cover so there is a flat surface

cut out the fabric leaving a generous border for now and trim out the lens hole etc fairly neatly but under rather than over cut

coat the old cover with a layer of mod podge then smooth the new fabric in place. Start by positioning the lens holes and the rest can be stroked in place. Add a couple more coats of mod podge -letting it dry between coats. When the fabric feels papery trim the edges more precisely and neaten up the lens holes by rubbing the point of a crochet hook or similar inside them

fold and unfold the cover a couple of times to check the fabric gives and maybe let the glue cure a day or so before you use it

i will let you know how durable this is, but have plenty of scraps to do a refit next time