The Modern Mixtape

Recently it was my boyfriend's birthday - his 21st.
For this, his parents decided to get him an iPod (the awesome 160GB one).

To compliment this I decided to make him an ultimate music collection, 250 different artists, approx. 3500 songs. I thought an external hard drive would be a pretty good storage unit. It has 500GB of memory and is a pretty useful thing to have in general (as a backup of all your photos, music, work etc.)

Here's how the finish product looked:

Happy birthday!

xxx

My Life In Fancy Dress

I've just got back from the beautiful Les Arcs. A week of amazing snow and nauseating alcohol consumption... therefore it was a brilliant week for fancy dress.

As per usual, the needle and thread were out. However, instead of showing you just one week's creations, I thought I'd treat you my favourite fancy dress outfits (so far)!

The Perfect Christmas Present ;)

Happy St. Patrick's Day

The Fobster

Make Love Not War

The L Word

Mr. Men (& Little Misses)

Woof Woof (I'm a Poodle...but I know you'd rather I bbbbaaaaaa)

It's Just A Jump To The Left...

A Very Snap Happy Smurf

Never Forget The Power Of Primark

An Un-Unforgetable Night

The Boy Who Swang Over The Swing!

Where Else Could I Be?

I hope you've enjoyed outfits (I certainly have enjoyed making them!)

xxx

How To Make Your Mug Rather Snug

For my girlies I made very special Christmas presents...
The Cuppa in a Jumper...(with a Gingerbread man)

What you need to make this:
Some paper
Outside Material
Inside Material (for the jacket lining)
Wadding
A button
A Mug

And this is how..
Firstly, use paper to make a template like this: (make sure the mug handle can fit in the hole & that there is about 4cm extra length after wrapping around the mug)

Then pin & cut this shape out in the Inside Material (the tartan in my pictures), the wadding & the opposite way round with the Outside Material (the white material). Important: Make sure you don't cut the handle hole out of the Inside & Outside Material, just cut an X.

Next, place the wadding on top of the Outside Material & pin into place. Then pin the excess material from the Inside Material that is around the handle whole over the wadding.

Separately, pin the excess material of the Outside material to itself.

Then place the Outside material onto the Inside Material & Wadding, sew around handle hole.

Next fold & pin in all the edges of the materials.

Check it fits nicely around the mug. Make alterations accordingly.

Sew together.

Fold over edges & pin.

Sew on the edges a pretty quilted pattern (i.e. stripes)

Pin around mug & sew on a button.

As an option, you can use Porcelain Pens (as previously blogged about) to add lips & a beauty spot/some individual personality to the mug...

You can also add a Gingerbread man if you like... (recipe has also been previously blogged about).

But most importantly, use a variety of fabrics & styles to make each cosy mug as unique & quirky as your soon to be very happy friends...

xxx

Paint Your Own Porcelain Presents with Pens!

For my cousins' Christmas presents I made some fun and unique porcelain sets!
It's quick & easy to do, all you need is some porcelain & these pens.
They are great because you draw straight onto the porcelain and the paint sets without baking. Plus, you get about 30 seconds before the paint drys where you can easily wipe off any mistakes.

The first set I made was a Breakfast Set (Plate, Bowl & Mug):
For this I drew snowflakes inside all the pieces & a fun cartoon alpine scene on the outside.

The second set was a Tea Set (Tea Pot, Sugar Pot & Milk Jug).

For this I drew green & silver stripes. I also drew a quilted pattern on the tea pot to make it look like it had a Teapot Cosy on. 

They appear to have liked them, and I certainly loved making them!

Have a go :)

xxx

Merry Christmas!

I hope you have all had a lovely day! Tomorrow I will start to shed some light on this years Christmas crafts!

Merry Christmas
xxx

Gingerbread Decorations

As you may have guessed, most of my recent crafting endeavors have been for people's Christmas presents. Therefore, I won't be blogging about them quite yet!
However, today we put up out Christmas Tree (quite late, I know!).. so I made some yummy & pretty Gingerbread Tree Decorations:

How to make them:
Ingredients:
350g plain flour
175g soft brown sugar
1 1/2 tsps ground ginger
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
4 tbsps golden syrup
175g butter (leave out of the fridge to soften)
1 egg
Writing Icing
Sweets to decorate
Ridiculous amounts of  flour to stop the dough sticking!!!
String

Recipe:
1. Breadcrumb the butter, ginger, flour & bicarbonate of soda until crumbly.
2. Mix in the egg, golden syrup & sugar until a firm dough.
3. Refrigeration for 20 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven at 180 degrees & pour flour oven baking trays.
5. Using a rolling pin (covered in flour on a flour covered surface!), roll out the dough until about 3cm thick.
6. Cut gingerbread men shapes, pierce a hole at the top (for the string), put on oven trays & cook for 10 minutes (until golden brown)
7. Place gingerbread on cooling rack & wait until cooled.
8. Decorate the gingerbread with writing icing & sweets (use the icing to stick to sweets on).
9. Tied string through the hole of the gingerbread.
10. Place on tree & feel proud.

:) Christmas is getting near... xxx

Pudding for our Christmas Feast

Tomorrow night my boyfriend & his flat mates are hosting an end-of-term Christmas Feast. With my invitation, I have agreed to make some yummy puddings!
Here is what I've made:

Mince Pies, Apple & Cinnamon Puff Pastries & a Berry Crumble!!

All very easy to make! 

The Mince Pies:

My mum made the mince meat for these, so I won't be taking credit for them (I'll just eat them!)

The Apple & Cinnamon Puff Pastries:

Ingredients:
6 Apples
1/2 cup of Sultanas 

50g Flaked Almonds

1 tsp Allspice

2 tsp Ground Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Ground Ginger

1/2 cup of Brown Sugar

2 Ready-Roll Puff Pastry

Butter to glaze

Recipe:
Preheat the oven at 180 degrees.

Flour flour over a muffin tray (this is to stop the pastry sticking).

Peel & grate the apples. Mix all the first 7 ingredients into a large bowl.

Using the rim of a mug, cut out 12 large circles & place them in the baking tray.

Fill the pastry cases with the apple & cinnamon mixture.

Using the rim of a glass, cut out 12 small circles & place these lids over the pastries.

Using a knife, push the edges of the pastry cases together (to seal the pastry).

Spread a thin layer of butter of the top as a glaze (Optional)

Cook in the oven until golden (15-20 minutes)

The Berry Crumble: 

Ingredients:
For the fruit base:
1 box of Strawberries

2 boxes of Black Berries

1 box of raspberries

5 tsp of caster sugar

For the topping:

75g Butter
175g Plain Flour

100g Oats

50g Caster Sugar

Recipe:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees

Mix all the fruits & tsps of sugar into an oven dish.

In a mixing bowl, bread crumb the butter and the flour until there are no large lumps.

Add the sugar and oats to the bread crumbs and mix.

Spread the topping mix over the fruit in the oven dish.

Bake for 40 - 45 minutes until the topping is golden brown. 

Merry Christmas 

xxx