Santa Sack Addition

A Christmas tree and a Christmas bauble:

Truffles

My creative space..


I made variations to a Family Circle cookbook recipe:
Macadamia and cranberry Truffles
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60g macadamia nuts, finely chopped
2 tablespoons chopped cranberries (craisins)
2 teaspoons orange juice
2 tablespoons cream
90g white chocolate
30g white chocolate, grated (for rolling)

1. Heat cream in microwave bowl until boiling. Add chocolate and stir until melted. Add macadamias, cranberries and orange juice. Refrigerate until firm enough to handle (roughly an hour).
2. Roll teaspoons of the mixture into balls. Roll in grated chocolate. Refrigerate until set.

Dolly cake

My niece is obsessed with Barbie (& my daughter coming a close second with that obsession) and so it was almost natural that she would ask for a Barbie doll cake.





We had a very full-on weekend with a wedding, Christmas party and then my niece's 4th birthday party.. so I was feeling a bit stressed about this cake (when aren't I??). I was about to pull out of doing the cake when I opted to "phone a friend" and she encouraged me to try doing the cake with ready-made icing. She made it sound really easy so off I went to the cake decorating shop, hired the Dolly Varden tin, bought some ready-made icing and colouring paste. My friend had warned me to use thick kitchen gloves to knead the colour in with - good advice!! The basic premise was to roll the icing out into a large circle, then drop it over the cake.. it made its own skirt ruffles.. I then used extra icing to make a bodice to cover up where the doll went into the cake. I warn you now that Barbie does NOT fit into the cake skirt, so I needed to break off Barbie's legs.. yes, queue crying.. They do not look like they go back on.. so we have had to convince the kids that she is a special "cake Barbie" and will be used on all future cakes and funnily enough, I have an order already from her older sister for next year! Hee!

This is actually the easiest cake I have ever made! The ready roll icing is so no-fuss. I love the idea of being able to mold this stuff into various shapes, just like play-doh, and having a LOT of fun with a bit of sculpture on future cakes - yippee!

3rd Birthday

Cupcakes!


Little fingers!


Big smiles!

Heart joy

New lined bags:


A heart using the Sew Pretty book - I adore this book and think I might make up every idea in it!


Boo loves her new heart ornament (on bed post behind her):

Fabric Flower Brainstorm

This is my attempt at a fabric flower. I have been checking out heaps of tutorials and blogs of late and not quite found quite the right thing for me. This is closer to the type of thing that I want. I need to play around with different types of fabric and see how they fall/gather.


Fabric Flower Tutorials and Ideas:

Felt brooch flower (Cat Morley - catmorley.com/blog)
Felt Heart Pins (Gorgeous)
Button brooch (Artsy Crafty Babe)
Fabric Scraps button (BelleandBurger)
Lace Carnation Brooch
Ribbon Brooches
Ribbon Brooch 2
Ribbon Carnation Brooch
Glass Brooch
Flower Pin - wires
Double sided yoyo flower

Jersey Knit fabric flowers
Kanzashi Flowers
Melting Organza to make flowers
Using fake flowers and covered buttons
Rosette Tshirt
Paper Flower

Sew Pretty

I bought the Sew Pretty Homestyle book recently. There are so many gorgeous little projects in this book. Cute bags, makeup bags and fabric roses..







Here is my attempt at a makeup bag. I haven't put in as much effort as the beautiful embroidered bags in the book.. maybe one day when I have more TIME.

Zippered Cases

The most useful thing in the **universe** has to be zippered cases! I whipped one up for my daughter so that she could put her polly pocket pieces in one spot. I then used thicker denim, heavier weight fabrics (interface if needed) and chunky zips to make the ones pictured. This second lot were lined as well - the spotty lining material went well with all the fabric combinations - whoopie!



I am really enjoying doing some embroidery at the moment. Its really portable as well - something you pick up and put down which is what I need at the moment.

Embroidered House

Today I have been working on a little embroidered house. Its lovely working on some itty bitty things. The tutorial is from Pimp Stitch - "Little House Ornaments".

Felt to choose..


Embroidery House..


Baby boys to tickle..
(5 1/2 months)

My Creative Space today

* scissors
* cutting mat
* felt
* embroidery thread
* coffee
* glasses!!

Felt Hair Tie

This weekend I've followed Vlitjig's Felt Hair Tie Tutorial


It took me a while to catch on to blanket stitch but now I love it. I loved making this, its awesome.

Work In Progress

I have a pile of fabric waiting to be turned into fabric baskets. Can't get enough of making these, they are so cute.


I had a play with making an appliqued tshirt with the following results.

Inspiration

I happened upon the most inspiring blog on the weekend at Vlijtig It has given me so many ideas on things that I can do myself and Vlijtig has created some fantastic tutorials and linked to many other great tutorials on the web. I have done Vlijtig's tutorial for fabric baskets and I am very impressed with the outcome. I think I have used the perfect heavyweight interfacing and it sits really well following these instructions.

Fabric Basket:


I have also made another drawstring bag - another children's present for carrying around those many little things that children do.

Drawstring Bag:

Fabric Flowers III

I followed the frayed flower tutorial but folded my fabric in half to get a nicer edge.. so, not frayed at all.


I bought the Burda EASY 9885 pattern which was used in the Get Creative article to make the following fabulous dress:

The dress on the pattern has used a unflattering see-through fabric and buttons which really don't do it justice.. I'm so amazed by the Get Creative article and how if you select the right fabric and make slight alterations, you can turn a dowdy dress pattern into something amazing. I can't wait to have a go at this myself.

The cutest little fabric box

Today's project was making a fabric box. I followed the tutorial from All Buttoned Up.



I put it to good use storing sewing notions as suggested by ABU:

Fabric Flowers Mark II

Today I am making rounded flower petals from the fantastic Pink Paper Peppermints tutorial.

This is my flower. I'm un-decided on the final colourway - thoughts are welcome.








For many more flowery ideas, check out the whole 31 days of flowers thread

Fabric

My fabric from Pink Chalk Fabrics arrived on Friday! I got the fabric during a great sale they were having - I wish I could have got more, its so gorgeous. I also got an Ottobre magazine - I love the thought of having all those patterns at my fingertips and its got some great photos of the outfits inside.

Fabric Flower

Simple and very sweet Frayed Flower tutorial.

The flower lasted all afternoon before it was pulled apart by its wearer. We started hearing "ow.. ow.. ow.. ow.." from the backseat of the car.. I turned around to find that DD had pulled opened the safety pin and was learning about sharp points..

I brought a new blade for my rotary cutter.. I knew it needed changing but what a difference it is to have a fresh blade!! Its so much easier to cut fabric - it just glides on through and I only need to cut once! Bliss!

Repurposing metal tins

Inspiration from here and here I used a baby formula tin and I'm hoping to make a few more of these.

Tissue Tuesday

More Tissue Cases:

I'm going to make a pile of fabrics pre cut for these cases as I love to start off sewing something simple which gives me more confidence and then I can move onto more complicated sewing.. not that I'm up to too much of late.. I have plenty of ideas though.. ;)

I grabbed some lovely magazines on the weekend which I thought would help with some inspiration. It always helps to see what other people are doing and it always inspires me with fabric coordination.


There is a fabulous girl's dress in the Get Creative magazine which I am absolutely in love with:

Fabric selection

I just completed the drawstring bag tutorial on the sewbunnybum website. The funnest thing in the universe, to me, is fabric selection - picking matching fabrics and selecting contrast colours as well.. its a challenge and there's so many different paths you can take - love it! What process do you go through? I used some pink Michael Miller (Dandy Damask?) and pink gingham with a light blue ric-rac splash of colour.



The bag is intended to keep a set of figurines in.

Sneezes and Mushrooms

I had some sewing time today and I made a tissue case (Look in list for tissue project). A simple little project and a really good one to get me going again. It is good fun to pick the fabrics to coordinate together!





I also embellished a fabric shopping bag. My daughter started using this bag a few days ago and it had a boring supermarket logo on the side.. so I've made it more kid friendly and hidden the logo away.