feast from the fridge

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We are in our holiday home for three weeks (hurrah!) with a bonanza of veggies and salad given by friends and neighbours,  so I  have decided to be creative with these lovely gifts;

broad bean and bacon salad with warm bacon vinaigrette (pop the lightly boiled beans from their jackets, fry the bacon in its own fat til crispy and chop then add vinaigrette to the pan, swirl and combine)

courgette cakes (grated courgette  squeezed in a tea towel then combined with grated cheese and a little flour plus garlic or herbs or spices as you choose and fried in pan til golden)

nearly nicoise (runner and/or french beans lightly boiled combined with hard boiled eggs, tom puree, bacon bits or tuna and capers or cornichons only if your vinaigrette isn’t punchy enough)

rhubarb fool-ish (rhubarb stewed with orange juice or elderflower cordial – home made of course – when cool stirred into greek yoghurt or whipped cream or cold custard)

roast beetroot (whole clean roots loosely wrapped in foil and sprinkled with garlic and oil, baked for 30 mins and left to cool before slipping off the skins) gret hot as a veggie and cold when diced with cheese

phew! fridge nearly ready for the next instalment …

Paper flowers in a woolly vase

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Wet day and the window ledge needed cheering up, so a vase of flowers was created without stepping outside

Six pinwheel flowers were cut on the scan n cut with BBQ matches for stalks and buttons for centres. I used blue themed floral  papers to match the ‘vase’ (and my mood as the rain seemed endless)

The vase was a can found from recycling with a ball of wool wrapped round it. Most wraps were made round the middle to give a rounded shape and a few strands of contrast wool wrapped around the top and tied in a bow for decoration

The can was filled with out of date dried pasta shapes (mini alphabets) so I could spread the stalks outside

Maybe a few leaves would finish this off?

Crazy quilt

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A stash buster built on the base of an IKEA throw, using crazy quilt 9 inch blocks

I cut wonky hexagons as the scentre of each block and added strips, working my way round the sides of the hexagon until it was about  9 inches square, then trimmed it against a 9 inch card template to be accurate

blocks were sewn into strips and then directly on to to the throw base until it was covered

where there were gaps or tears- I made a few mistakes!- I added ribbon or ric rac or just did a line of decorative stitching over it

ikea fleece is brilliant and a cream coloured bobbin thread is invisible on the finished item

this truly is crazy as it combines all sorts of materials,  doesn’t have a backing, frame or proper quilt finish I just seamed ribbon along two edges and hemmed with a zig zag elsewhere

never going to be a quilter but loved doing this …. if I forget how long it took I might even do another one!

Mixed media clock

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A first and probably last as it turned out too girly

but then I am using up stash and have a little girl in mind as recipient …

found a stretched canvas in the project drawer and sealed it with mod podge glitter before mounting the clock mechanism on the frame so the hands project beyond the edges – the effect I wanted and the frame bears the weight of the mechanism, but means it has to be wall mounted

I covered the edges of the canvas with ribbon for a frame effect, then went to town with donated feathers, leaves, sequins and die cuts around a quote I have had in mind for ages – which further reduces the peel off letters pile.

although I bought the mechanism – intended for a repair of another clock, but didn’t fit – and must have bought the canvas, this is a use it up or throw it out project

#crafter’s satisfaction

 

 

Cutting fabric on the scan n cut

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I have struggled to get the settings right, but may finally have sorted fabric cutting on  the scan n cut

cut speed four, blade four, pressure four on light cotton that has had heat n bond or bondaweb fused on the back and the paper peeled off i.e. stuck wrong side down directly on the mat

the fabric peeled easily off from the mat and was just ironed on to the suedette drawstring bag: hot iron- no steam and with an ironing cloth for protection

so here I have decorated some glasses bags in a festive style so they can be given another life as gift bags later this year

 

Bookmark bonanza

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Bookmarks galore…

using up my pile of peel offs (well making a dent in it), I laminated some words and cut out tag shapes with the scan n cut, then embossed to give the laminate texture and hide the air bubbles.

I stamped on one with stazon ink but didn’t much like the effect. And then I tore some thin coloured paper in strips and collaged more peel offs on both sides of the paper before laminating.

and I got a chance to try my new crop-a-dile to set some of my eyelets stash too – what a canny crafter I am today!

I also made a corner bookmark which is another great way to use up a patterned paper hoard. That is simply a 13cm square scored diagonally, corner to corner, to make four triangles. One of the triangles is then cut out and the the resulting three triangles folded and glued to make the corner. I matted up extra layers to add stability and sandwiched in some ribbon.

and to those who think bookmarks are a thing of the past, I refer you to Stephen Fry’s quote that bookmarks are as much threatened by the Kindle as stairs are by escalators.

Herb harvest, buttered up

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Packets of herb butters have been stashed in the freezerJars of lavender sugar stacked in the cupboards

 

Herb butters are a bit messy but quite fulfilling. just mash the leaves of chosen herbs (remove stalks and snip down bigger leaves like sage or chives) into softened butter – I added lemon juice or garlic to my combinations. Wrap pats of herby butter in cling film or empty butter packets then greaseproof paper on which the contents are clearly written before freezing

Wow that lavender sugar was easy; spoonfuls of dried lavender heads (if purchased check it is food grade lavender) blitzed a bit with the stick blender then mixed with caster sugar and blitzed a bit more till you are happy with the consistency – too much and the lavender turns to grey dust in the sugar. Now I can make those trendy lavender meringues

Now to make lavender syrup and try to diminish the lavender mountain a bit more and before the herbs go over totally a few bottles of herb vinegar are possible too

Lavender pomanders, a load of balls!

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What to make with a bumper bag of lavender.?

 

Yes, of course sachets, but small polystyrene balls coated in pva glue then rolled in dried lavender are a start on this year’s lavender haul – thank you sister.

method:

push a skewer of wire through the ball then thread some florists wire through the hole and make a small loop at either end so you can hold the ball when it is sticky then thread ribbon through at the end.

Tip your lavender in a saucer and have a wet wipe to hand.Brush a light coat of glue all over the ball and when it is tacky sprinkle lavender all over, press the lavender in to the glue with your fingers so there is a good contact then let it sit in the saucer until dry(about 15 minutes with Anita’s tacky glue))

i dug out some sequins and pinned them in the spots where the glue failed but it didn’t matter that the covering wasn’t consistent once I tied ribbon through the top loop and then hung them from light fittings.

will go and but more balls and experiment with mod podge and other glues now, great little gifts that look lovely wrapped in cellophane but sorry sister, not postable