Cute Cupcake Card

Found this picture on my phone so thought I would share it!

A very old card that I made for a friend's birthday, simple but cute.

In the background you can see a fairly tidy desk... Well for me anyway!!


More posts are on their way, April has been such a busy month!

Pineapple Cake

This is a cake I made a while ago, recipe taken from Jenn at Eat Cake For Dinner. It is a fat free (as in no butter or oil went into the recipe) and you would never be able to tell! It is really moist, sticky (the colouring of it is basically caramelised pineapple) and really delicious!

Isn't it a beast?! I used the ring tin just because I had got it from Lakeland (Mmm quality quantum 4 Teflon....) and couldn't wait to use it :) It took a lot more time in the oven than the recipe said because of this, Jenn made hers in a sheet cake tray I think. I made some dream topping to serve it with but a better option would be custard, it is a very puddingy cake.
So for a guilt free pudding I really recommend this one, it used a whole tin of pineapple so you could probably reason that you can get one of your five a day ha ha ha!

Upcycled Jeans -> Pouffe - No Spend Project!

Hope everyone is enjoying their bank holiday weekend!
Here is a little project that was 90% completed on new years eve (Yep...I'm that cool ha ha ha!) and finished about a month ago. It is a pouffe made from old jeans, it is completely eco/ purse friendly though because it is filled with spare bedding - duvets and pillows. I was actually going to buy some of those vac pack bags to store the duvets in as they were getting on my nerves being thrown from one cupboard to the next taking up so much space. We hardly use them and if we need them then they can be whipped out of the pouffe ready for action!
As you can see from the pictures, I made up a large circle out of wedge shapes cut from the old jeans and disguised the hole with a circle making an attractive sun pattern. I basically sewed the pieces together with a straight stitch then used a zig zag stitch and top stitched for strength. It is, after all, going to have arses a plenty on it.

The side panels were made up of alternate rectangles and two piece rectangles, there is only so much fabric on a pair of jeans so I had to fit bits in where I could! I seamed it together as before then zig zagged the hell outta it as these joins will be under more strain.

For the bottom I used larger wedge pieces, this was where the 90% complete stage was, I wanted to use it new years eve and therefore safety pinned the bottom up... and left it!
Eventually I got around to finishing it and sewed on Velcro to fasten the flaps down, it is pretty strong, it doesn't fall open when it is picked up.

Well, I would recommend everyone make one, it is a bit time consuming but it is satisfying to know it cost nothing and is a handy storage facility! You could try making a smaller one as a footstool, perhaps fill it with a few pillows if you don't have spare duvets kicking around.

Hope this has given some inspiration on upcycling jeans :)

Happy Easter!

Steampunk Inspired Card

Hey guys!
I don't often take photos of cards I make, I just forget to! Sometimes I do remember and this is one of those times. I made this a while ago for a friend's birthday, I had seen the card toppers in a local craft shop and had to get them, there were four in the pack and I had two people in mind for using them (which I did) but I forgot to take a picture of the other one!

As you can see, I layered the topper on to a blank card covered in brown paper. I gave the card some glitter, added stars on foam pads, glued a little heart and a feather to the hat, added some letter stickers and a stopwatch then used a transfer to complete the happy birthday message.

Here is a closer view of the glitter and stars, you can really see the quality of the topper design in this picture.

And to finish off, a blurry picture showing the Happy Birthday message.

If you see these toppers in your local craft shop I highly recommend them!

Octodogs = AWESOME!!!!

Despite being in my twenties, I sometimes make these for my lunch! Octodogs are the way forwards!
My amazing friends got me a bento box from Japan which is super kawaii and I proceeded to make ridiculous lunch...it's just how I roll ;)
I also make fake sushi with sandwich fillers and tortilla wraps, I'm not a fan of the genuine variety!

T-shirt Decoration

Hey guys! I don't know about you but when it comes to vest tops and t-shirts, I tend to stick with black and plain. I'm boring and frightened of colour ha ha ha!
In an endeavour to jazz things up a little but still have a "plain" daytime look, I decided to embellish a couple of tops in my wardrobe (and with the price of a t-shirt nowadays if you create something hideous then you can chuck it in the scrap pile and start again!).

First up is a simple button and sparkly hot fix crystal affair (Seriously, if you have not investigated the Kandi Kane yet then I urge you, in the name of sparkles, to check it out!). I dug out some similar sized buttons all in purple shades from my button box, well I say dug out but my button box is totally organised into colours so it was less digging, more selecting ;) I was uber anally retentive and made sure my buttons were in the order of 2 hole, 4 hole, 2 hole etc and spread them out equally. I then sewed them on with embroidery thread. Finally I positioned the crystals between the buttons and heat fixed them to the top. I would recommend putting a book or something in between the layers of the top to stop them sticking together when the glue is all melty.

Here is a close up.

On a different top I had a go at a simple freehand embroidery, meant to be cherries btw....
Anyway, I got the idea for button fruits from the mistress of divine knowledge Martha Stewart, I just was a bit kinda gung ho about it so it looks a bit crap! In my defence it looks weird because the picture is the wrong way around but I am far too lazy to turn it around at this point!

Last but not least, floral decoration in black, naturally. There are flower tutorials all over the internets, I used THIS ONE from the uber adorable Disney at Ruffles and Stuff. It says no sew flowers but I sewed them in absence of a hot glue gun.
*On an unrelated note, don't you just hate people who have no courtesy when parking?! My neighbours drive me up the bloody wall with their selfish parking, joke will be on them when they have blocked me in and I have to go somewhere and bash my way out! Sorry, I have just watched one of my neighbours reverse right up to my front bumper with 2 inches to spare and I shan't be surprised if the same thing happens behind me before the night is over - GRRRR!!!*
Right, err, yeah.... So I sewed the flowers onto the top in an aesthetically pleasing multi sized trio.
Takes longer than the first two but is cuter :) The flowers can be made to go on anything so a useful tutorial to memorise.

So go forth and decorate!

Zombie Pin Up

Thought I would show everyone an idea in progress.
I was at work and listening to the radio, a song by the band The Feeling came on and as I was working away I heard the line "People in love their hearts get eaten" which is probably just misheard but it got my brain going!

I suddenly had this idea about a sexy zombie killing off her lover by going for heart instead of brains! I know this probably is not very funny to most people but my sense of humour is a bit odd and I thought it was fricking hilarious! So I thought of things I could do with this and decided that I wanted to do an embroidery as I wanted to do one and have no qualms about skipping the usual flowers and twee (I do like flowers and twee-ness, I just also like zombies :) ) for something a bit more ambitious.
So I drew a picture to get started with, I just need to wait to borrow (steal hahaha!) an embroidery hoop off my step Mum as I am on a not buying stuff for lent thing as consumerism seemed like a better thing to give up than chocolate. I am trying to use up things I already have as I have loads of craft and sewing stuff that should be used up a bit before I buy more anyway. I like to be thrifty and resourceful any way so it hasn't been too difficult, although there are a few things I would like to buy, I think that after lent I will cut down on purchases and use them as a reward for something I am doing, or rather not doing :)

Any how, I got the urge to pull out the pencil crayons and colour in my picture so I though I would post it up as an idea in progress, as soon as I get that hoop I'm gonna be on it!!

 

Don't steal my picture potential asses - I own all rights to my drawing!

I think I am going to turn my embroidery into a sewing machine cover or maybe a cushion, will have to wait and see!

After I had sat and coloured this in, I suddenly had the idea (whilst walking downstairs, ideas really do just come out of nowhere!) that I could draw zombie mermaids too! I got so excited about this totally awesome and hilarious idea that seeing as how my colouring in stuff was upstairs still (Upstairs is the ground floor where the living area is, downstairs is underground where bedrooms and craft rooms hide, it is cold and windowless in my craft room - boo!) I could jump straight in and make imagination reality!

Again, I own all rights to my picture sneaky thieving bumholes!

So umm yeah, I had a lot of fun :)

Watch out for an update once I have the hoop!