52 reasons why I love him...

My boyfriend and I have been together for 12 years and this year I wanted to make him a valentines gift that showed him how much I loved him...52 reasons to be precise!

What You Need:

pack of cards

2 sheets of 12x12 of sturdy paper/thin card (or 4 A4 sheets)

pen or printer

scissors or a cutting machine

ring-binder

hole punch

string/twine

PVA glue

Step 1 - Record your reasons

It took a wee while for me to get started but one I started writing things down it was easy to come up with my reasons of love. I tried to keep a mix of funny and serious (as my boyfriend is all about the jokes), taking inspiration from

• their quirks
• things they bring out in you
• physical attraction
• in jokes
• things they do for others

I used Wunderlist to keep track of my list as you can download the app on your phone and access online so whenever I got a spark of inspiration, I could add it to my list.

Step 2 - Print/write them down

I have a Cricut Explore which is what I used to cut out my cards and write on them but if you don't have one you can always print them out on your computer or just handwrite. 

I cut my pieces of card to 1.5" x 2.5" as this fitted pretty well on the playing cards and it you are using your Cricut, then make sure you attach the text to the rectangle images before cutting so that the text is aligned.

Step 3 - Punch those cards

This is a bit tricky as the hole punch is just smaller than your average pack of cards so you need to be pretty precise to make sure you don't cut over the edge of the card.

Step 4 - Bind your cards

Taking your ring-binder, cut/rip your rings out the middle. I used a pair of needle nose pliers to help push it off the card.

I then cut out a piece of the ring-binder card that was slightly bigger than the pack of cards to use as the background, hole punching it and then tying the rings onto it so they are secure.

Alternatively if you want a ring-binder front and back then you could just leave the rings in the binder and cut it so that the whole binder is just slightly larger than the deck of cards, like a mini hardback book

Step 5 - Glue in your love

Open up the rings and put all your playing cards in so that the backs of the cards are facing up. Then glue each of your reasons on the cards, using one of the jokers as the front page with your title on it. Careful not to glue your cards together though!!!!

I'll be back,

2014 - What a Blast!!!!

New nephew, new tattoo, newly weds, painted tigers, joint birthdays, MOD photography, Hellfesting, TV premiers, baby showers, screaming in the middle of the street once I found out my friends are having twins, musical bingo, new hair, not saying goodbye at leaving parties, road trips, new sisters, bridesmaid for my sister from another mister, pirate parties, Marge Simpson hair, lots of punk gigs, geeking out, celebrating 12 years of love, Lady Gagaing with my maw, meeting baby Ella and toilet roll snowmen 

2014 you have rocked my socks off and there have been too many happy times to name them all but I want to thank all my friends and family for making this year so special.

I also want to thanks all of you guys for supporting me through my new crafty adventures

At the start of last year I made a new years resolution to learn a new craft every month and for once, I managed to stick to a resolution...ok so December is a bit of a cheat but I tried new techniques I hadn't previously used so I am still counting that as a win!

Now I know some months are a little light on tutorials at the moment. I have the photos ready to go and just need to start putting pen to paper, so I promise even though it's a new year there is still some of 2014 to appear on your screens.

I ended the year on a real high when a few of us at work got together to organise a "Make your own Christmas Bauble Lunch" to raise money for a local children's charity. We raised £180 which will also be matched by my day job company (Sky) to bring the total to £360. Not only did I make some new crafty friends in the office, but I'm over the moon that we could use our skills to help buy children, who would normally go without during the festive period, some Christmas gifts.

So what's in store for 2015, I hear you ask? 

Well you may remember my boyfriend and I started a crafty alphabet challenge but unfortunately, because of all of the weddings, baby showers and other party organising, we didn't have much time left over to give this our full attention.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about then here's the haps:
Basically we put each letter of the alphabet into a cup and whimsically pulled out a letter from the cup when we were bored. We would both create something beginning with letter and I would put them up on my site for you to see

So this year we are starting afresh, 26 letters and counting - who knows, it might even get competitive....

Anything else?

Well that would be telling wouldn't it! I have a few things in the pipeline which hopefully you will see more of this year but I'm not giving anything away yet

Thanks again my little beauties. You have kept my year full of joy and I'm hoping this is the start of something amazing!

I'll be back,

Christmas Champagne Glasses

What you will need

• Champagne Flute (or any other glass you want to decorate)
• Metallic coloured Sharpies (I found a pack with gold, silver, red & green in Ryman)
• Christmas snowflake template & Printer
• Masking tape

Instructions

Step 1 - Position your design

Before starting give your glass a wash and dry well - you don't want any greasy fingerprints ruining your design

Cut out the text / image you want to use and stick it in place on the inside of your glass using masking tape. 

I tried two designs (both are on the template supplied):

• All I want for Christmas is bubbles
• You're my snowflake

or you could try your own idea. I quite like the thought of using them as place setting on your Christmas table and come up with a personalised glass for everyone.

Step 2 - Draw your design

Holding your glass, draw over the top of the template with a Sharpie pen on the outside of your glass. You can also add on any extras you want to draw freehand, like these cute little bubble. I did this one line at a time, keeping the dots close at the bottom and further apart as I worked my way up.

Step 3 - Finishing Touches

I fancied a snowflake design on the base of my glass to add a little bit of extra glitz. This part was really simple as I just places the snowflake image under the glass and then draw the design over the top, adding some extra shapes round the edge.

Step 4 - Go get a drink

After all that crafting it would be rude not to test them out! Just make sure you hand wash them and dry carefully but the Sharpie should stay on pretty well

I'll be back,

Paper Cut Christmas Gift Tags

I try to find a new way to wrap my Christmas presents every year and this year I has a new toy to play with - my Cricut Explore

Since it's the season of giving gifts I thought I would share my SVG file with you and instructions on how to add the lettering - hope you guys enjoy using it

Step 1 - Download the SVG file

Click on the image below and down load my christmas.svg file

Step 2 - Upload SVG to Cricut Design Space

Upload the christmas.svg file buy selecting the vector upload option and then choose the image to import

Step 3 - Add your text

Add text to your image

Turn it black and then move it so that the centre is touching to one of the lines on the line.

Once it is touching the line, ungroup the text

When the text is ungrouped you can move the letters individually. This means you can slightly turn the text so that it an all be moved to touch the line on the image.

Once you've finished moving all the text on one line, select each of the letters and click on "group" so they are linked back together.

Then select both the sentence and the image, before clicking the Weld button to link the test to the image. Repeat until you have added text to all the lines.

Step 4 - Link your star

There will be a gap between your text on the top line and one of the falling stars so link it up by adding a square and move it until it fits between the bottom of the letter and the star. Remember to weld the square to the image so that it stays in place when cutting.

Step 5 - cut out the image

Cutting out these tags with my Explore, I then glued them to the front of  my gifts, finishing it of by writing the recipients name on the tree with a gold pen.

I'll be back,

Paint Swatch Christmas Cards

This is a great one to do with the kids, especially when they are school age and need to take loads in for their friends / teachers!!

What you need

• Paint swatches (I picked mine up from Homebase but most DIY/paint stores have them)
• Blank cards or sheets of card folded
• Christmas Text 
• Buttons
• Sequins
• PVA glue

Instructions

Step 1 - Select your swatches

I walked into Homebase and had so much choice that my Christmas trees were almost purple but in the end I stuck with green and brown. However, if you want to be more adventurous and give everyone a different coloured tree, then go for it!

If you can't get your hands on any then coloured card will do the same job.

Step 2 - Cut out your tree

Cut a triangle from your swatch. I ended up having to cut this tree in half as it was too long for my card but you can adjust this to whatever works for you. I like a range of different sizes so they don't all look the same.

Step 3 - Plant your tree

With a few dabs of glue on the back of your tree, stick it to the front of your card. I used a ready made pack of blank cards I already had in the house but you can just buy sheets of card and fold/cut them to the size of your choice.

I also cut a small piece of the brown paint swatch to use as the base of the tree, also gluing it onto the card.

Step 4 - Add sparkle

For some reason I also had a tub of sequins in the flat that had snowflakes and stars (as well as some dinosaurs and cats mixed in - don't ask) so I was able to glue a few of these around the tree to add a bit of sparkle. Circle sequins or sticky gold stars will have the same effect though.

Step 5 - Add your Christmas Message

Print out your Christmas message. I've attached a sheet full of Merry Christmas labels for you to use but feel free to come up with your own.

Glue this onto the bottom of your card and then a button on either side or use more sequins / stars to finish it off.

I'll be back,

Gluten Free Dragon Rolls Sushi

I loooooove sushi and one of my favourites is dragon rolls but the tempura bater and soy sauce both have wheat in them which sucks for those intolerant to gluten so I tried out a new recipe last night and the results were pretty tasty!

What you will need:

Ingredients

• Sushi grade rice (I get mine from Tesco)
• Shrimp or king prawns
• Cucumber
• Avocado
• Nori seaweed sheets
• Gluten Free soy sauce
• Chilli paste (optional)
• Garlic paste (optional)
• Salad of your choosing (I used spinach, radish and cucumber)
• Vegetable oil
• Batter (100g gluten free plain flour & soda water or tonic if you want more of a lemony taste)

Tools

• Sushezi or sushi rolling mat
• Sharp knife

Step 1 - Prep your fish

I used king prawns as they are easier to find in the supermarket, cutting them into smaller pieces to that they are easier to lie in a straight line within the sushi

Step 2 - Make your batter

Add 100g of gluten free plain flour to to a bowl and then slowly mix in your soda/tonic until it's a thin paste. If you dip your finger in it then it should slightly cover your finger but not look too thick.

Remember to clean your hands first!!

Step 3 - Cook Fish

Fill a small pan about a 1/4 full with oil, whilst putting your fish in the batter whist your oil heats up. Once the oil is hot enough (you can tell this by dropping in a small amount of batter to see if it sizzles and rises to the surface) then slowly add your fish and leave to cook for a few minutes until golden brown. Then very carefully remove the fish from the pan and place on a piece of kitchen roll to dry out.

Then leave the fish to cool.

Step 4 - Make your Sushi

Take half a Nori sheet and place your fish and some strips of cucumber in a straight line on the sheet. Then roll the sheet up, wetting one end so it sticks.

I have a Sushezi so then I just put my sushi in the tube, place the Nori sheet in the middle, close the tube up and compress, before pushing the sushi out. Alternatively, you can use a sushi rolling mat.

Step 5 - Add the scales

De-shell half an avocado and thinly slice it, as well as slicing your sushi (it works better if you clean your knife between sushi cuts).

Then take a few slices and layer them on top of the sushi like dragon scales

 

Step 6 - Make your sauce

Now you can just have soy sauce on it's own but I like putting it in a small tub with some chilli and garlic paste before shaking to mix up.

Step 7 - Garnish your plate

Garnish with a salad of your choice or just load up on the sushi goodness!!!

I'll be back,

Gluten Free Gingerbread House for your Mug

I've got lots of friends who have a difficult relationship with gluten (including myself) and the holiday period is particularly hard with all the meals out and goodies being brought into the office so this year I'm going to try my hand at a range of gluten free recipes so that all of these gorgeous girls can enjoy Christmas as much as everyone else!

The Recipe

Ingredients

Gingerbread

• 300g of Gluten free plain flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum
• 2 heaped teaspoons of powdered ginger (or less if you only like a hint of ginger)
• 1 heaped teaspoon of powdered cinnamon 
• 250g of honey
• 125g of shortening (brands such as Trex, Flora White or Cookeen in the UK)
• 1 tablespoon of treacle

Icing

• 1 sachet of powered egg white
• 250g of royal icing sugar
• 1 cap-full of vanilla extract
• water (I used 5 table spoons)
• sprinkling of desiccated coconut for the roofs

The Method

Step 1 - Make the Gingerbread

• Heat the shortening, honey and treacle in a pan until it starts to boil and then turn if off and leave until it is room temperature
• Put all the dry ingredients in a bowl and then mix in the liquid ones once they have cooled. You'll have to get your hands dirty of this one and don't worry about it being quite a soft/oily consistency)
• Wrap the dough in cling film and put it in the freezer for 1 hour (or in the fridge overnight if you are not in a rush). This stops the dough expanding when you put it in the oven
• After removing from the freezer, put whatever you are not using just now in the fridge to keep it cool

My dough looks dark in this picture because I put too much treacle in my first batch. Yours should look lighter than this.

Step 2 - Roll your dough

I put my dough in between 2 sheets of grease proof paper on a chopping board and rolled until it was about 1/2 a cm thick

Step 3 - Cut out your house

Print out my Gingerbread house template onto some card and cut out the shapes. before placing the template on the dough, sprinkle a little flour over the top so that the card doesn't stick to the dough.

Cut out two of each to make 1 house

 Step 4 - Bake

Put them in the oven for 8/10 minutes at 180 degrees celsius. but keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't burn. it will still be a little soft when you take it out the oven but will harden up as it cools.

Make sure none of the pieces are touching otherwise they will join together when baking

Step 5 - Leave to cool

Leave your pieces out to cool as they need to be cold to touch before you can put on the icing

Step 6 - Make the icing

• First beat the egg whites with 2 tablespoons of water until they are light and fluffy
• Add half the icing sugar and 1/2 more table spoons of water as needed
• Repeat with the rest of the icing sugar

Step 7 - Build your house

Pipe the icing on the house pieces to join them together. The small squares are for the sides of the house and the larger rectangles are for the roof.

Step 8 - Let it snow

Ice the roofs and then press some coconut of the top to make it look like snow. Then all that's left to do is serve them to your friends on mugs of your favourite hot drink, I recommend a chai latte!

I'll be back,