Halloween Skeleton Notebook

Firstly I'd like to give credit to the FaceBook page   Confessions Of Crafty Witches for the idea. This is fabulous fun and as easy as they make it out to be ( which can be rare in on-line projects!)

You'll need the following

A notebook
Flat plastic Halloween motifs  - or other things of course.
Cheap and nasty kitchen roll
Glue
Modge Podge
Black and brown  acrylic paint
Gold highlighting wax

 

 So I had a pink hard cover note book that had been lying around for a while. I'd painted it with white gesso for a project I had in mind a while ago but never quite got around to... It isn't necessary though. Had I not have done this it would have made no difference to the finished book.

The pink skeleton came from a pack of 10 for 99p from Wilkinsons. I trimmed off the small hanging loop at the top and stuck it down.in the middle.

 Next I covered it everything with a layer of Modge Podge and stuck a piece of kitchen roll/towel  over it. Mine was a real cheap budget one and as you can see the skeleton still shows through! This is perfect as you want it to cling tightly to the shape so you can still see all the details. I used a wooden coffee stirrer to push it down firmly. The thin kitchen paper will wrinkle and tear as you stick it down - doesn't matter at all. In fact you want it to look rough and uneven. f you are using thicker paper then try and use just one ply.


Once the whole book was covered I dried it off quickly using my craft heat gun. Otherwise leave it to dry overnight.

Once it was try it was time to paint it. The original instructions use black but as I wanted more of an old leather look I went for burnt umber darkened with some black. Work the paint in. The paper is quite absorbent so you'll use more than you think. Once it's dry go back and paint all the bits you missed ( or that might just be me!). Again I used the heat gun to speed this bit up.

Once completely dry it's time to bring the whole thing into 3D life.  I used Treasure Gold wax as I ad some already and just rubbed it into the raised parts of the skeleton motif and around the edges to give the effect of worn gilding.

And the finished item. The photograph doesn't do it justice at all. I will be adding a few further embellishments to it I think but the basic technique is ridiculously easy and I'm now eyeing up a few other things I can  do this with.

 I'll also not be so quick to discard those nasty flat plastic objects that fall out of cheap christmas crackers either!

Dandelion and Rosemary Cookies

 First credit  to the originator of this recipe:  Gather . This is a blog I am now following!

I'm always on the lookout for new and original recipes and as the garden still has plenty of dandelions I thought I'd give this a try.




First to raid the garden... Plenty of dandelions and the rosemary is in need of a good trim so I have the two key ingredients already.









 
 The recipe is simple enough

2  cups brown or white rice flour   ( I used a mix of brown and white rice flour from Dove Farm)
1 cup butter   ( I converted this to 8oz being an unrepentant imperial measure user)
1/2 cup honey  ( I used an organic heather honey)
1/2 cup  sugar ( I used a soft brown sugar)
1/4 cup  grated  cheese ( I used a very mature cheddar as I wanted to be able to taste it)
1/4 cup dandelion petals & greens, finely chopped
2 tablespoons finely-chopped rosemary
black pepper to taste
sea salt to sprinkle on top


Firstly beat the sugar, honey and butter together until light and fluffy. As I was using my food processor blades to do this rather than the mixer I also put in the unchopped rosemary and dandelion leaves at this point. This worked beautifully. Chopping rosemary finely is not one of my favourite tasks.

At this point I transfeered the mix to another bowl and stirred in the dandelion petals and half the flour.

Once mixed I added the cheese and black pepper  ( if not using a food processor you'd add the dandelion leaves and rosemary at this point as well.

I then added the rest of the flour to make a soft dough.









 I then split the dough into 2 and rolled each ball into a cylinder of about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and wrapped them in cling film. They then spent the night in the fridge ( for my convenience there - an hour would be enough).

Once firm slice the dough into rounds, sprinkle with a little sea salt  and bake for 20 mins at 160°C until golden. My fan oven is a little fierce so I cut the temperature to 140°C and they were about done after 15 minutes. They need to be golden brown. Leave them to cool on the baking sheet or they will disintegrate. Once they are cool they are quite robust.

The instructions said to slice into 1" thick rounds and place at least 2" apart on the baking tray. Assuming they would not rise but would spread I followed the instructions. In practice they didn't spread at all and they'd have been fine much closer together. I'd have also preferred them a little less thick so I'll cut more like 1/2" discs next time.

This is a recipe I'll definitely be doing again ( nice to have some gluten free ones in the repertoire!). It's an interesting and unusual mix of flavours.

I found them a little sweet for my taste so although I was mean with the amount of sugar I used I'll probably leave it out completely next time and just let the honey do the sweetening.

I'm going to be taking them round to a get together at a friend's house this evening. I hope they will like them!

Iron Age Cookery

Being tasked with producing nettle oatcakes for a  Dumnonika booking at the weekend I went in search of the necessary. Anything not available in SW England in the correct period  (50BCE to 50CE) can't be used:

Nettles - yes plenty in the garden
Oatmeal  -  no but have some organic rolled oats
Butter - yes 
Eggs - yes
Salt  - yes
Rubber gloves (!) - yes





Nettles are like spinach; you need to pick at least twice as many as you think you'll need and then a few more for luck. I ended up using two carrier bags full of fresh young nettle tops. It's at times like these I'm glad I have a wild garden.

No quern available so I put the rolled oats through the food processor to make a coarse oatmeal

The oatcakes are easy enough.

Pick over and wash the nettle tops discarding any thicker pieces of stem that may have sneaked in and then cook like spinach in just the water clinging to the leaves and a pat of butter.

When wilted and tender drain thoroughly and roughly chop.

This is the amount of cooked chopped spinach produced by the two carrier bag fulls.

Add to bowl and beat in an egg and add some salt. Stir in enough of the oatmeal to make a soft dough and then leave to stand in a cool place for an hour or so. It firms up significantly and is then easy to shape.

Roll into small cakes and fry  in butter until golden on both sides. I used my iron bakestone for this.

I just hope I've made enough.....

First steps in soap making - here be Dragons Blood....

I know - another post so  soon! You can tell I'm feeling better!

I've been looking for some dragons blood soap but it's really hard to find and I've drawn a blank. So - how hard can it be to make some?

I've always been put off by the thought of having to mess around with lye but having discovered there is such a thing as "melt and pour" soap where the first stage is done for you I really had no excuse. Especially when I found an organic base that was SLS ( Sodium Laural Sulphate) free.

Next stage was to watch several youtube videos on soap making and pick up some tips - including "superfatting" and the use of surgical spirit to pop the bubbles and also how to use resins in soap making. No excuses left now so I ordered the base and set to work.

First was to  prepare the dragons blood resin. This was crushed to a fine powder and infused overnight in coconut oil using a water bath in the mini slow cooker. I'm liking coconut oil now more and more for this sort of thing. I used about a tablespoon of solid coconut oil to a generous teaspoon of dragons blood resin.

As there will be no unused lye in the base, the coconut oil was intended to "superfat" the soap, making it nice and softening for the skin. Avoiding the harshness of SLS is an additional bonus.

The next day whilst still liquid I strained it through butter muslin to get rid of the resin powder. Once set it looked like this - colour of dried blood I guess!

Next was to melt the soap base over a water bath. It can be done in a microwave but I wanted to keep it as cool as possible. I also melted the dragons blood mixture with it at the same time and stirred well.

I'd chosen a clear glycerine base as I like the idea of being able to add flower petals and jewel like colours to other batches .







 Once it was all melted it was simply a case of pouring the mixture into the silicone ice cube moulds. I did pre-grease them just in case but I'm not sure that was strictly necessary. After a spritz over the top with some surgical spirit it was just a case of leaving them to set.

Now wrapped in cling film they're ready to be inflicted on my unsuspecting guinea pigs! 

I'm actually really pleased the way these turned out. After handling the soap to wrap it my fingers are soft and smooth from the coconut oil. Although they are not completely translucent this could be acheived by using a different oil base for the resin extraction.

I think I've got the bug - might do some rose ones next!

Bramble "smudge" Sticks

Having picked up this idea from Sarah Lawless and having no shortage of the raw material in the garden I thought I'd have a go.

It may be only early February but there are plenty of semi dry brambles in the hedge so we won't miss a few. Heavy gloves and some secateurs needed. Still managed to impale myself on a few thorns though.





 I left them to dry for a few days before de-thorning.  It was suggested I use a florists tool.  OK on roses but Somerset brambles are made of tougher stuff! I tried the secateurs but the blades were too thick.

What worked best in the end was my craft knife and a self healing mat.

I tried cutting the brambles to length before de-thorning but found it easier in the end to work with the longer stems. It wasn't a particularly pleasant process though and I was glad to be done with it

Once done I cut then into approximately 6" lengths and left them to soak over night to soften.

Next day I dried them on some absorbent paper and then it was a matter of tying them into bundles with some black wool  and wrapping one end to make a sort of handle.

I sealed the points were the wool crossed over itself with some melted beeswax to stop them coming undone as the stick smoulders..


Simple!

DON'T BLINK - DIY Weeping Angel

Having seen the official Dr Who Weeping Angel tree topper too late  - it's sold out and apparently discontinued I really wanted one for the top of my seasonal tree.

So - how hard could it be to make one?. The answer is not hard at all!

I acquired an angel who had seen better days from a friend who was having a clear out.

She had sculpted hair and articulated arms which was great. She was however a bit too fancy in her dress and the plastic wings had developed a forward curve over the years...

 She looks better already

A couple of minutes with a sharp scissors took care of the lacy over skirt and all the trimmings. Ideally I'd have taken the puffed sleeves off too but she only had arms from the elbows!

I straightened the curved in the wings with a wooden coffee stirrer taped to the back of them.

A couple of coats of stone effect paint later and here she is.

I super-glued the hands over the eyes after the first coat  whilst it was still tacky.

The paint takes a long time to dry - at least 24 hours so you do need to allow for this - she is still drying at the moment which is why she is on the table and not on the tree!

Gingerbread Cottage

Well I've called it that - I may of course change my mind....

This was a gift from a very good friend and with the bad weather today it  seemed an excellent time to start it..

I'm sure these go together somehow?

Some time later! Now it has to dry and I want to start decorating it before attaching all the pretty little trimmings.

I'm going to have to make a decision soon!

Crafting Challenge Update

Well not a lot achieved. I took this away with me for a week's holiday in the hope I'd get a flying start. I did get quite a lot done but I'd have liked to have got substantially further to be honest. This is a lot of "confetti" stitching though but from early indications it is going to be very worth it.

The new project started 2 weeks ago looking like this:

It now looks like this - well I've put a few more hours in since this was taken but it doesn't look that much different yet.

I think this may be a long project!

Skulls and ??

Well it's done.

Very pleased with the way it's turned out. The fabric is actually a lot pinker than this but I used the camera phone. Now it'll join the others in a drawer until Jamie does enough suitable designs for me to make my planned throw! ( No pressure Jamie!)

Now onto the next  - choice of fabric was difficult but I think I've settled on Parchment from Sparklies

The design will be Circle of Life, again from White Willow Stitching

I'm not sure if I'm going to put the background in yet. We'll see. I have plenty of fabric.

2014 Craft Challenge

Blowing the dust and cobwebs away... Gosh it's quiet in here!

I've joined a challenge with some friends to do something "creative" every day in 2014. Whether I'll manage this remains to be seen but it's got me picking up my needle again after a long hiatus.

Even the dolls house has been dusted off and the other half persuaded into doing some wiring for me (which is why it was stalled). I've no excuse now though not to get on with it.

Firstly though, what I've been doing since Jan 1st

Here's a stitch project that has been lying idle for a couple of months. Time to get on and finish it I think. There are a number of other designs that are in the same style and I want to create a themed throw/quilt out of them.

Progress up to 1st January

And as  at this afternoon. If I crack on who knows I might even finish it this evening.

The design is Tribal Skull by Jamie Larson at White Willow Stitching.

The fabric is called Fuchsia Fizz and is a 28ct evenweave but I've had it so long that I can't remember who the dyer is. To be honest I never thought I'd find a project to stitch on it!

Summertime and the living is easy

Time for a summer project and maybe even some colour....

The base of this was one of the very cheap stretched canvases from the Works ( 4 for £4.99). I wouldn't want to use them for fine art but for this sort of thing they are fine.

The shapes are cut from Tim Holtz's grunge board. These were pre-cut  but they would be easily cut with a die cutter.

Having decided roughly what  I was going to use and where it was time to colour the background.

The canvas was coloured with the Ranger "Bubblegum" inks. Sprayed with water they were allowed to flow into each other  and the canvas left to dry.

The background was further decorated by stamping, both directly on to the canvas and also onto  thin white tissue paper which was then stuck to the canvas with gel medium.

The individual letters and motifs were decorated with a range of distress inks, decoupage and paint.

All that remained was to stick everything down and let it dry.

Amazing how much mess this all made!

Configuration Time

I've been wanting to make up one of Tim Holtz's configuration boxes for a while - it''s been sitting around for a couple of months but too many projects and not enough time.

But tax season is over in the UK and time to celebrate ( and the skilled assistance of a friend who has done these before!)

I was planning on a woodland/nature theme so the papers and materials I planned to use were collected with this in mind.

So basically it's a box filled with lots of little boxes that you can move around and take out. I wanted to have a big space so I didn't use all of the little ones. Much moving around and head scratching later, this was  the configuration initially decided upon.

Then comes the time consuming task of lining each of the little boxes with paper.

No that big green space isn't working for me either and yes they are in a different order from the originally intended configuration. Oh well.

The back, sides and lid were also covered with paper.





So what is going in that big green space? At this point I'd better post a warning of graphic photos of dismemberment that might be distressing to any wooden manikins reading this.

This was a £1.99 wooden artist's  model from a discount shop. The question was what to do with it.

No idea where the idea for a tarot inspired hanged man came from but that took root. The main problem is that the model is attached with reasonably strong springs and the initial idea of gluing his hands to his hips to get the correct arm position didn't work. Attempts to nail them didn't work either.





In the end a pair of wire cutters were used to cut the arm springs and they were reconstructed using sellotape to mold and attach them to the body in the right place. The same method was used for the legs.

This now looked pretty awful as you might imagine but once bandaged together with tissue tape and coloured it was really working well.

The problem was that he really didn't work in the green box so he was put aside for another project. I'll think of something one day.











I was also starting to really hate that green  so a quick make over ensued. It would have been a lot easier to do it earlier but the results were definitely worth it.

 And here it is - a witches kitchen! Not quite what I'd set out to make but never mind.

It isn't quite finished, the feet are temporary awaiting inspiration and some of the boxes need to be filled - again I'm awaiting inspiration.

The hanging cauldron ( actually a small jam jar hung with a piece of chain from an old necklace) needs filling with something and I need a tall vertical object to go alongside it.

The pile of skulls is made from beads I had hanging around which have been glued together.

The little bottle is full of wood dust from my incense making supplies/

The  nest of eggs were from a £1 shop and I have 5 more of them to use up and the pottery Amanita Muscaria came from a garden centre many months ago.

I'm not sure what I'm going to put in the remaining three boxes - maybe another bottle with some herbs in next to the one already there but for  the last ones my mind is blank. Suggestions please!

Return to the DollsHouse

Time to get back to the long neglected dolls house.

I don't know why it's taken me so long but there it is. I had laid about 6 floor tiles and then it got put aside for one reason or another. I've been feeling guilty for a while so as it's a bank holiday and I'm home I thought I'd get it out again.

Sticking the flagstones down was a long job and although I did get the special grout, the PVC glue had dried long before I was ready to use it. I'll need to pick up some regular grout to use instead.

 This is going to be the "best" room.

This will be the kitchen.  The fireplace isn't quite done yet but I want to get the range in before finishing off the aperture.






I've also installed the ceiling beams ( carved from balsa wood and glued in place) in both the downstairs rooms. 

Spot the mistake - fortunately the front panels are not yet attached!  Oops.








Next job is to wire in the lights for the lower two rooms and add the electrics for the range and the fire in the two downstairs rooms. The question is of course is now where on earth did I put them?

Olive Oil lamp

I get through far too many candles and especially tea lights - I do recycle the wax as far as possible but it's an expensive addiction and not terribly green. Most candles are made from petrochemicals but there are also ethical issues regarding soy wax and beeswax. These last two are also pretty pricey.

Someone mentioned on a forum I frequent that she used an olive oil lamp so, the seed having been planted, I went in search of some inspiration. I mentioned my plans on another forum and a member kindly posted her partner's method so thank you Connor.

This is simply a small glass jar with a metal lid. This one held harissa paste originally and it was the only small one I had to hand with a suitable lid - I hadn't realised how many small glass jars now have plastic ones!

I raided my candle making supplies for some wick and the kitchen for some olive oil. Then it was just a matter of making a hole in the lid, pulling some wick through and filling the jar with the oil.

I didn't colour the oil  although I will as "someone" seems to have borrowed all my food colouring . She knows who she is!

I will also add some essential oils to it  now I know it works   (and keep an eye open for a fancier bottle).

It's not the brightest light, the candles far outshine it but it works for what I want it to do.

Welsh Cakes

8 oz plain flour
1/2 level teaspoon Baking powder
3 oz butter
3 oz sugar
2 oz dried fruit ( currants traditionally but sultanas are fine - not the white sort though)
1/2 level teaspoon dried mixed spice
1 beaten egg
milk

Rub the butter into the flour, spice and baking powder ( I do it the modern way and use the blender/food processor for this bit - much quicker)

Remove from blender and add the fruit, sugar and egg

Stir well and mix to a dough with a little milk. Don't let it get too soft or you'll have a sticky mess when you try and roll it out. Use as little milk as possible just so it doesn't crumble.

Roll out to about 1/8 th inch thick - you will need plenty of flour to stop it sticking if you were over generous with the milk. Generally the recipes say thicker than this but it is then much harder to cook them through without them burning. Burnt welsh cakes are not nice

Heat bakestone or heavy frying pan. Traditionally this would have been greased with lard but sunflower oil works as well.

Cook gently on both sides until done. Don't have the heat too high or they'll catch before cooking through. The sides should just look set and dry when they are ready.
Remove from heat, sprinkle with more sugar if you want to and eat! Some people have been known to add butter and jam too.

  

Nicest still warm from the bakestone but they will keep a few days in a tin. At least in theory. These didn't last long....

 

Enchanted Realms

I can't take any credit for this one but having come across it on eBay from a search on tea light holders I couldn't resist it!

The seller - Enchanted Other Worldly  designs 

This is so not normally my sort of thing that I'm struggling to find somewhere to put it! I think it was the Amanita Muscaria  that sold it to me!

 
I couldn't resist a bit of personalisation though and added a raven and a nest to where the tea light is supposed to sit - perfect fit!

Now I just need to find a tea light holder......-

Kept in the dark and covered with ....?

Something a bit different. I was given a pearl oyster mushroom kit and decided to make a photojournal of what happened.

For the first 7 days nothing happened at all. The following pictures were all taken 24 hours apart over the following 6 days.

 At last - something stirs

Same day but a close up shot - from nothing to this in 24 hours

Getting bigger

and bigger

Growing apace now

Almost ready for harvesting. The gills are well developed and the caps are flattening out.

Ready to cut. This is the last picture as 10 minutes later they were chopped up and in the pan ready to become part of a mushroom risotto.

And very nice it was too!