This card went well in the making
But only when I finished a few of these did I spot the error…
Some you win …
Use What You Have
Leftover baking
I needed to make some space in the fridge so wanted to empty some jars. Leftover cookies were created using the remains of a jar of mincemeat and some liqueur chocolates that had been lurking since Christmas. Recipe varied from one on BBC good food site
150g dark brown soft or caster sugar,125g butter, ½ heaped tsp salt, 1 medium egg, 4 tbsp mincemeat and a handful of liqueur chocolates, 220g plain flour,½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
Mix ingredients, spoon into balls and make for 12 minutes in oven at 160C. I put half in silicone Yorkshire mould to make giant cookies. All were squidgy when first out of the oven but firmed up as they cooled. Yum.
Valentine bakes
Doggy cookies made for a little Valentine treat to brighten up a lockdown Sunday.
Recipe found as a Christmas offering but easily translates with the right cutter.
Mix: 100g plain flour, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 egg, 2 tablespoons olive oil. form a dough then roll out and stamp shapes – about 12. Bake on silicone sheet in 180C oven for about 20 minutes.
Box made pizza box style with decorations from standard shapes on the scan and cut.
Quick chair recovering
After my first reupholstering 9 years ago, these charity shops chairs needed refreshing.
Quick and simple upholstering involves removing the staples from underneath, using the old fabric as a pattern to cut new and then restapling.
I find the staple gun a bit fierce but if the fabric is pulled tightly and you work from opposite sides to avoid wrinkles this is an easy project.
Crackers aren’t just for Christmas…
Cover cardboard tubes with fabric instead of paper to make reusable crackers.
I used up some Christmas fabric found while tidying but this would work for any seasonal table gift.
Use cardboard tubes of different diameters so that one slides tightly inside the other. I used loo roll and kitchen towel inner. Cut the larger tube to half the length of the other. My loo roll inner was 10 cm tall so I cut 5 cm from the larger kitchen roll.
Make snug fitting fabric coverings by sewing long rectangles (width being circumference of cardboard plus 1cm, length being height of tube plus 10cm) of fabric into tubes then folding in half and sliding the fabric inside.
I finished my raw edges with pinking shears and zig zag stitch. I then stuck bling tape around the edge of the larger roll so when assembled the bling tape masked the join.
No bang when pulled -although you could put snaps inside – but a bit of fun to make.
Die cutting felt
Time to use some felt scraps. decided to make some badges to brighten winter coats to stuck the layered flowers on felt circles and then stuck on badge pins sandwiched with felt rectangles for stability.
This is a very frugal activity using up old badges and taking miniscule scraps of felt. So while I have supplies out I am going to make embellishments for lavender bags etc. And happily nearly all dies designed for paper seem to work on felt – including the bee and butterfly – although the stamens die does create very flimsy results.
While I used hot glue for these, a more refined approach would be embroidery to fix flowers to the backing. I have used a few French knots here but really enjoy how quickly these come together.
Now to go through my dies to see what other little felt shapes I can cut…
Port wine sauce
- 1 oz. butter
- 3 spring onions, chopped
- ¾ cup Port
- teaspoon onion powder
- Teaspoon cornflour
- Zest of a small orange
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 sprig thyme
After meat is cooked and while it is resting deglaze the pan with the butter and soften the onions then add other ingredients and reduce. Whole process should take about 4 minutes
We had ours over pigeon. But would work with venison, sausages or pork. The orange gives it a lovely lift.
Rainbow cards
I used my scan n cut to make a few cards that weren’t too quick but neither too fussy.
Pleased with the drop shadow on the ‘happy’, pleased I used scraps and bulk cut the letters, and love the embossing . Maybe I went overboard with the mica misting but everything is sparkly.
New skills
Thanks to my zoom sewing buddy we have made it to stage 26 of 41 on this ‘simple’ pattern. Simultaneous sewing from the same pattern is great fun and we don’t get in each other’s way.
I resolve to… make every day
This year’s resolution is to make something / be creative every day. A daily project or stage of something larger should exercise the creative muscles. No further restrictions. Just daily making to make every day count.
The log will be on a new page of this site’2021 daily makes’, open to inspection to keep me on my toes!
