It's a Creative World

Decorated birdhouse

Hi, it's Jo here and can I start by saying "Mum, if you're reading this - LOOK AWAY NOW!"

While trawling around a garden centre recently I came across some really cute birdboxes and bought one to decorate:

I started by painting the box with white acrylic paint and when this was dry I then added splodges of Milled Lavender crackle paint.

When the paint had dried I added various stickers and then covered these with Ranger's crackle glaze before sticking on some buttons and then using glue dots to fix lace around the bottom. I also added a few Prima flowers of varying sizes with pearls, beads or rhinestone centres.

I then finished off by threading a lilac ribbon through the chain and adding a few more different small lilac ribbon bows at the top.

This is going to be given to my Mum when filled with a lilac/purple pot pourri so it co-ordinates with her bedlinen. I hope she likes it!!

Thanks for visiting IACW!

Jo xx

No Nonsense Carrot Cake

A few months ago the local pre-school decided to make a recipe book to raise funds for equipment.  They asked all the local Mums if they would like to contribute and I gave them my No Nonsense Carrot Cake recipe.  I call it No Nonsense because it's a great recipe that can be made just out of store cupboard ingredients and has no nuts, so it's great for nut allergy sufferers.

It was published in the book and since then lots of the Mum's have told me they tried it and loved it, so I thought I'd share it with the world through IACW!

 

Ingredients

150ml vegetable oil

200g caster sugar

2 medium eggs

200g plain flour

250g carrots, peeled and grated

1 tsp baking powder

Half tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

zest and juice of 1 orange

 

Preheat the oven to 170C, 324F gas mark 3.

Grease and line a 1kg loaf tin or 20cm round cake tim.

Mix the oil, sugar and eggs together in a large bowl until well combined.

Mix together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and bicarbonate of soda in a separate bowl, and sieve onto the egg mixture

Stir in the orange zest and juice and grated carrots.

Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 45 minutes.  Reduce the temperature to 150C, 300F, gas mark 2 and bake for a further 25 minutes.  Cover with a piece of greaseproof paper if the top is becoming too brown.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin.

You can decorate it with your favourite cream cheese topping if you wish.  Personally I leave it plain as I think it keeps longer that way.  Kept in an airtight tin it will keep for about a week.  It's absolutely lovely with a cup of tea and perfect for the kid's lunchboxes too.  A great way to get some veg inside them!  Even my little boy will eat it and he is the fussiest of fussy eaters.

Hope you enjoy this.  TFL! Joanne x

Apron cuteness

Hi, Kel here with fabric that I bought about a year ago. I bought it with an apron in mind, but got all bogged down in trying to design the perfect apron that I pictured. Does that happen to you? A project grows in your mind until you feel completely inadequate for the task. Or you won't start until you have the perfect plan. I hate when it happens to me, but I'm learning that the only remedy is to begin.

I bought a half metre in 3 different fabrics that worked together for me. I didn't have a pattern to work from, but I did have a pretty good idea of what I wanted. As it turned out, I barely had enough fabric to do what I wanted, and some design choices were made based on how much fabric I had available.

Note: seam allowances are 1/2" throughout and I am probably not doing the right thing grainwise, but for something like this, I don't mind that.

I trimmed off the selvedges, and straightened the cut edges. I made sure the front (blue) and back (yellow) fabric rectangles were exactly the same size. I cut a 3 inch strip (whole width of fabric) from the blue and the yellow to use as pocket trim. Then I cut up the accent (pink) fabric into three 4" strips (again, whole width of fabric), which left me with a 8" band which I folded selvedge to selvedge and cut along the fold to make two pockets.

I folded the accent strips in half length-wise and stitched each one to the top of a pocket block, then pressed it in place before folding and pressing a half inch seam allowance on the three raw sides. I carefully centred the pocket in the same place on the front and back apron sides and topstitched them in place separately. The next step was a little odd, as I sewed one of the 4" pink bands to the bottom of the front apron piece, and then stitched the back side of the apron to the other side of that pink band. Make sure that they are joined bottom to bottom or one of your pockets will be upside down!

Next I folded it right sides together, as neatly as possible before stitching up both sides - but not the top. The next step was to turn it the right-side out, and poke out the corners before pressing it flat again. I pinned the pockets so that they stayed centred over each other and stitched through all layers where I wanted my pockets divided (I have a 4"wide pocket, 2 six"wide pockets and another 4"wide). Now if you want pleats or gathering you can do it at this stage. Finally, I attached the waist band, by joining the last two pink 4" bands and sewing 1 edge to the yellow side. I folded down the seam allowance on the unsewn edge of the pink band and top-stitched on the front side.

That's just the way I did it, more or less making it up as I went along, but it was pretty smooth going. There are more than 50 free apron patterns here and another 50 here. That should sort you out if you fancy a different style, and they probably have clearer tutorials. These are a growing trend amongst crafty types, and some are even making it out of the house! Do show us pics of aprons you've made, inherited or collected. And, for the record, this one is not going to do ANY housework...

Tricky Treats...

Last year at Christmas,the very talented Joanne Friend sent me a little crimbo pressie of a plastic test tube filled with sweeties and all decorated up.

I love Halloween and like to give all the children in my son's class a little spooky treat,and Joanne's little gift stuck with me this year.

Plastic test tubes with resealable stoppers are readily available on Ebay and other auction sites and also from Pub suppliers, i bought 50 for under £10.00-i also use them to store my German Glass Glitter that comes in plastic baggies.

all you really need is.

test tubes.

rubber stamps

inks

scraps of patterned papers

glue

scraps of ribbons or fibers.

Brown paper or thin paper for the top.

sweeties.

i used the lovely Halloweeny coloured TicTacs and some 'Millions' to fill my tubes-but any small sweet will be fine,or if you are really health conscious then you can use dried fruits like sultanas or cranberries.

the paper bag is a white Stampin Up bag that has been stamped and then sprayed with three colours of glimmer mist.

the tops are quite easy to cover with thin or brown paper,

 

cut out a rough circle about 3 inches in size.

turn it over to the reverse side and place glue in the center.

place the top in the middle of the glue,the upper side of the top should be in the glue

                                                                             

you can then scrunch the paper onto the top using your fingers,then tie some ribbon or string around the top.

to decorate,simply glue strips of paper around the middle of the tubes and decorate with stamped images or stickers.

Stamps used are by Papertrey Inks.

 

of course,these can also be used for Christmas,Birthdays,Easter and other celebrations,or as Party favours .

 

Ali x

Make your own stamps.

Debbie here, hoping to inspire you to make your own stamps.

I was recently having a sort out and found a huge pile of funky foam, when I looked at some of the foam stamps I already had I wondered whether it was possible to make my own stamps.

It is surprisingly easy and I was really pleased with the effect I achieved on this birthday card.

I roughly drew a cup cake and case onto the funky foam and cut them out. I added extra detail by cutting out rectangles from the cup cake case, and punching holes in the top with a cropodile.

I attached my stamps to an acrylic block using repositionable adhesive.

 

 

Stamp the cup case and top and then add a tiny circle stamp where the holes are. I have made mine slightly bigger to give two slightly different colours where they overlap.

Add a button and your message.

I hope I have inspired you to make your own funky foam stamps.

Debbie x

Halloween Door Wreath

A spooky Hello from me, Deanne :)

Today I thought I'd share with you a spooky recipe to make your own Halloween door wreath.

Ingredients are:
Styrofoam ring
Halloween embellishments (I purchased mine from poundland)
Black wool

Method

1) Wrap the wool around the styrofoam ring (beware this does take a while, and you do get arm ache! so lots of tea and biscuit breaks are required)

2) Break up the embellishments (I bought a halloween necklace and broke this up to use single parts)

3) I used bits of wool to tie them to the ring

4) Hang from your door for a halloween fright :)

Enjoy x

 

More Sketch Blogs!

This month I have been investigating more sketch blogs and have another two for you to check out,The fist one I think many of you will already know about My Sketch World  but I think it is worth a mention as Lucy does some fantastic sketches. This is the September 15th sketch so you still have time to do it and link it to the blog and I am sure Lucy does give a RAK for the winner each month.

The other sire I found just by blog hopping as you do and it's Pink Sketches and sketch #44 just suited what I wanted to do with some photos I had of the grandchildren  starting the new school year.

Well I hope I have inspired you to have ago at the sketches and just maybe found you somewhre new to go for inspiration.

Well that's it for this month hope you have all been enjoying the lovely sunshine we have been getting lately and lets hope it will continue.

Happy scrapping

Love Julia x

It's finished!

My crochet granny square scarf is finished! I've updated the 19th September post with photos!

Caz
xx

Getting in the mood for HALLOWEEN!!

I know I'm a month early but I really look forward to Halloween! I love skulls and things with a Gothic feel!

This is a tag I made for Efemera's Tag challenge with some step by step instructions!

You will need:-

Manilla Tag

Distress Ink - Antique Linen

Black Ink Pad (Memento or Versafine)

Stickles Black Glitter

Lost Coast Winged Skull stamp

Embellishments.

First of all I laid a mask over the tag and rubbed Antique Linen Distress Ink all over.

Next stamp the Winged Skull image TWICE onto white cardstock.

Cut the WHOLE image out and age by rubbing some Distress Ink onto it. 

Put this to one side.

NEXT  the second stamped image but this time cut out JUST the skull.

Rub on some Distress Ink (Antique Linen) to age it and set it to one side.

Now to construct the tag.

I used a page from a old book.

I matted it onto some dark cardstock and added it to the middle of the tag.

Then I added the Winged Skull image to the tag.

I then used some silicon glue (or foam pads) to add the stamped Skull to the tag so it was raised up:

I added some Gothic looking borders and cut a Gothic style letter 'G' using my Slice:

I then added the 'G' to the tag and glittered it with black Stickles glue:

and this is the finished Tag:

Happy Crafting Everyone!

GlitteryKatie xXx

Autumn Days are coming.

Hello, Joy here again. 

With the leaves starting to fall from the trees it looks like Autumn is upon us. Although the last ten days have seen me enjoying more sunshine than I did all summer!

My favourite place to visit, in Autumn, is Westonbirt Arboretum. They have a fabulous collection of Japanese Maples. Last year I took hundreds of pictures.

With the mornings getting colder my thoughts are turning to knitting scarves. Anyone who knows me will tell you I am not a good knitter.  I did start a pair of socks......... but I have still only got one!

However a friend shared with me a great scarf pattern. The end result looks like you are a very skilled knitter but you only need to be able to knit a straight line.  I get stopped in the playground all the time by Mums asking how I knitted it. So I am ready to share the secret with you........

The Twirly Scarf

Using 200g of double knitting wool and 7mm needles. Cast on 15 stitches.

Row 1 - knit 1, turn, knit 1 back

Row 2 - knit 2, turn, knit 2 back

Row 3 - knit 3, turn, knit 3 back

Row 4 - knit 4, turn, knit 4 back

Row 5 - knit 5, turn, knit 5 back

Row 6 - knit 6, turn, knit 6 back

Row 7 - knit 15

This will look a bit strange!

Repeat steps 1-7

Keep repeating steps 1-7 until your scarf is the desired length.

The scarf will twist on its own.

My lovely daughter modelling one I made earlier!

I have experimented with different thicknesses of needles and different types of wool.

Happy knitting and enjoy the compliments!

Also a little quickie for Halloween. I made these last year for the guests at our Halloween party.

Mummy Tins.

It is a baked bean tin, which I have washed out, and wrapped with a bandage. Added googly eyes and filled with sweets. The kids loved them.

Take care

Joy xxx