Thursday, 30 September 2010
Mr Northman
Friday, 24 September 2010
Mr. Melvin Bone
Thursday, 23 September 2010
candy corn stamp and jam jar tealights
This morning's crafting was making tea-light holders from various jars and scraps of vintage book paper and music sheets. I made some DIY Mod Podge glue (which is white craft glue mixed with a few spoons of warm water).
Saturday, 18 September 2010
Craft Challenge: Rubber Stamp Carving?
yeah I know what can I say we are coffee geeks
Vintage Violet and I were talking yesterday about printing after she took a one day printing class that wasn't her cup of tea/coffee/cider/buttons... I have done a bit of lino cutting before in High School and a few months back, and thought she should give that a go. But then I remembered that lino is tough to cut and I had heard that rubber stamps/eraser stamps are easier to cut. Cue me saying we should have a craft challenge and try to do a small stamp by the end of next week.
Is anyone else up for challenging themselves to carve their own rubber stamp?
Here are some tutorial links I have scavanged from the depths of a 5 minute google search ... and begged off of everyone I know... and I will probably annoy any stamp makers I have vaguely chatted to on flickr, etsy, or twitter.
Tutorial Links
Craft Pudding - has a fab post about tutorials and books.. I may have to order one...or two *hopes Matt isn't listening..or reading this for that matter*
Carve Your Own Rubber Stamp Tutorial by Alma Stoller - looks very nice
Two Cheese Please
Mushroommeadows (lessons 1 and 2 but I cant see a third one.. still very cute and simple)
Carina's Craftblog (5 step tutorial posts with lots of pictures)
Milliande (lots of videos to watch of carving techniques)
Looks like fun doesn't it?
Is anyone else up for challenging themselves to carve their own rubber stamp?
I think I will go look at some more stamp carving books now.
Thursday, 16 September 2010
the post where I am a super steathy ninja...
so I drank coffee...
and I drank some more coffee... and I pondered and then I glared at my desk...and the buttons and fabric heaped upon it... I look at my stamps and then I got down the vintage jar I had that contained some mixed haberdashery items from Vintage Violet. I dug through until I found a small rusty key and a few mother of pearl buttons. So I dragged out my jewellery making kit and went to work, it didn't take long to create this little key and button pendant but I have happily worn it around the house. I was wondering about getting a bit of black velvet ribbon to hang it on instead of the silver chain (I may have a look in the little knitting shop in town tomorrow.
fantastical things from Rowan
Where was I? Oh yes he bought me a lovely parcel of goodies from Rowan who I sent some thrifted manga and a book page illustration (which sounds more posh than doodle) and a little typed note card. Well Rowan sent me the sweetest little manga pendant, brooches, a refresher sweet that the boy later stole, and a cute little ring.
I wore the blue and orange cameo brooch on my walk to school to fetch the Boy. I talked to my friend's mum (picking up the grand kids) and one other mum (who is lovely).
...I displayed my mad ninja skills of not being seen by the rest of the parents there. I do know a few mums that are quite nice and friendly but I'm too shy to be chatty with the others, so I wait quietly for Harrison to be let out and tell me about his day...
...telling me about his day consists of him saying they had mashed potatoes at lunch and not remembering anything else that happened all day. Ninja skills discarded as we negotiated what sort of treat he should get for the epic task of walking home. So I sighed and took hold of the seventy billion things he was bringing home and off we went to practice super stealthy ninja skills another day.
Tuesday, 14 September 2010
The Owl Girl
In day she hides behind the fragile mask of humanity, thick glasses perched on a small nose, dark hair in wild disarray. Eyes on the ground, a quick step and an arm full of books to keep others away.
When the moon rises round and fat, the night creatures sing and Athene sheds the pale mask of humanity and slips from her human skin. Shining feathers burst from pale flesh. She flies screeching into the night, free to hunt and wishing the dawn will never come.
The world turns and night spills across the sky, strings of glittering jewels, necklaces of suns and worlds scattered across unending black.
The sun crests the horizon, golden rays falling on golden eyes and black and white feathers. Athene fights again the change, the slip back into human form. Feathers fly on the wind as her wing shifts to a human arm, bones twisting, breaking.
Fat tears roll down feathery cheeks, but the pain is too much to fight for one small masked owl and she lets her night shape slip away. Bones and feathers and cries of pain and a small dark haired girl is all that remains.
She crawls to the hallow she hid her clothes, dressing quickly in the cool dawn light. Wiping tears from her cold cheeks she slips her glasses on.
Wednesday, 8 September 2010
lillalotta fabric tapes
I have just ordered some of the 'old book' tape and the 'little red' tape and have ordered the book tape and some Alice in Wonderland 'Drink Me' tape that I have used to make some of my little monster dolls.
Tuesday, 7 September 2010
Cheddar and Ham Muffin Recipe
Cheddar and Ham Muffins
Ingredients:
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese
• ¼ cup finely grated parmesan cheese
• 2 cups plain flour
• ½ cup melted butter
• 1 cup crème fraiche *
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• Black Pepper to taste
• 3/4 cup ham, chopped fine
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
Directions:
Mix dry ingredients together.
Add crème fraiche, butter, eggs and mix.
Add the grated cheese and chopped ham.
Mix well and spoon into muffin pans 1/2 full.
Bake in preheated 400F (180C) oven 15-20 minutes until golden brown.
*Alternatively use plain yogurt or sour cream or ¾ cup milk.
Cook’s note: there are a number of different recipes for ham and cheese muffins out there, I read quite a few then winged it to create this recipe, they turned out great but I will probably tinker with the recipe a bit more the next time I make them, perhaps adding bacon instead of ham, or including some sautéed onion for a richer flavour. My taste testers Matt and Harrison loved it, oh and so did Frizbe too! I used the crème fraiche because that’s what I had on hand that needed using up, I also used thinly sliced sandwich style ham for the same reason though a thicker cut would probably work better.