A few bits

Some cakes I made when my new little niece, Roberta was born. (The idea for these also came from the 'Planet Cake' book mentioned in the post below.)

When we went to the library last week, I took my camera with me to get a photo of this picture which Harry (age 5) did, and which was put up as part of a display of children's book covers. I love it!

Harry was also in his school play last week - Babushka - and I thought it would be nice to make a little felty Babushka for his teacher. (This is from a design by Paper and String - link to the right hand side.)

Recent Baking

The cake I made for the school fair 'Guess the Sweets on the Cake' competition. (178, if you were wondering...)

Cupcakes for Harry and his friend's joint Pirate Birthday Party. The pirate faces were made from ready-to-roll icing (coloured with food pastes), and laid on top of a layer of ganache. I copied this design from the 'Planet Cake' book, by Paris Cutler.

And I love these mini chocolate bar moulds I found on ebay!

Finally finished my Happy Houses quilt!

I finally got on and finished the quilting on what I call my Happy Houses quilt (started over a year ago). I did stitch-in-the-ditch quilting, and ended up with quite a padded look. It's not a true quilt, as there is no middle layer - just a top sewn onto a thick fleece blanket. We love it though - it is so soft!

Christmas things

I still love my good old Sizzix Gingerbread Man cutter!

Sparkly Pink Cupcakes

And finally in my little craft-catch-up, here are some cupcakes I made for the Macmillan Charity Coffee Morning, last week.

Sock Monkies!

I recently got the urge to make a sock monkey! My daughter, Lucy and I had bought a load of cheap socks a while ago, for that purpose, and then my brother showed me one he had made, and it spurred me on!

There are a few variations on how to make them - all fairly similar, using a pair of any kind of socks. There are tonnes of tutorials on YouTube.

 I think she is rather hip!

Then last week, Harry was off school recovering from a sick bug, and he wanted to make one too...
Meet Malcolm the (slightly lumpily stuffed) Monkey:

(Harry loves him.)

Quilt Show

A couple of weekends ago, I went to a local quilt show I had found out about from a friend's mother-in-law. I took my 5 year old with me, so I thought it would just be a flying visit, but on the door they asked Harry and I to pick our favourite quilt, and enter it in a secret ballot box. Harry then took great delight in going round each and every quilt to choose his favourite (He had about 13 favourites...)

This mini quilt most appealed to me.

The show was held in an old church.

Here's the quilt which Harry finally chose as his most favourite!

Oven Gloves

Earlier in the year I went to a Cath Kidston outlet shop, and bought some fabric which matches my kitchen nicely - I started making these oven gloves ages ago, and got round to finishing them off last month. I found doing the bias binding a bit tricky, but it's OK if no-one looks at them too closely!

Time to catch up! End of School Gifts

I have dismally neglected my blog - I know, but to be honest, I've been rather pre-occupied this year, and haven't actually done much crafting. (Not that that's stopped me acquiring craft books, mind you...) I'll catch up with what I have done anyway.

At the end of the school year in July, we decided to make all the teachers and teaching assistants some pencil cookies, which idea I got from one of my new books:They turned out quite cute, but I was there on the second to last day of term wondering why on earth I hadn't picked something simpler, instead of having to ice 80-odd pencils!

Kids' Cupcakes

The boys and I had fun after school yesterday decorating cupcakes...

Some more of my cupcakes

I was doing a class with some of the 12 and 13 year old girls from my church, and we did cupcake decorating. These were my example ones.

My picnic blanket quilt

I wanted a little picnic blanket to use this summer, without too much white in it... disguise the dirt, chocolate cake, and orange juice etc...
I saw {this tutorial on YouTube} which shows how to make blocks of diagonal stripes, cut from a tube. It is so easy and quick, and there are loads of possibilities for the final design. This is my version this time round.

A new hobby!

I've had a bit of a craft clear-out, and sold some stuff on ebay, but now seem to be consumed with a mad urge to get into decorating cupcakes. I bought a few bits and bobs, and spent yesterday having a good play around... what fun!! (If the pink pattern looks familiar to any cardmakers out there, it's probably because I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder to roll my icing over!)A card I made for a friend this week, based on a lovely one I saw on Lucy's Cards blog (Link is over on the right-hand side)A very quick card made this morning for my son's friend, using the wonderful Boys Will Be Boys Cricut Cartridge. I bought it not long ago, and am impressed with the simplicity of the designs, which are very easy to cut and layer up. It also came with this font, which I wasn't expecting.
One of the kids snapped this picture, this week... Harry junk modelling at one end of the table, and the starts of my new quilt. I'll post some pictures of it next week - I'm really chuffed with how you make the blocks - it is a very fast one!And finally... something which makes me smile every time I see it... I'd sent my old university friend a knitting book for her birthday, and this thank you note came in the post, with her first creation from the book attached to the front - my new little 'comb-over-man keyring'!! I love it!