Winter Wedding Wonders Part 2

I decided that I wanted to make a card and gift to match my brother's wedding colour scheme, I had the card and loads of leftover snowflakes after all!

The snowflakes and hearts are cut using my Sizzix. 

The matt in the frame is to fit a 5x7 photo so the super shiny-ness of the gold card will be toned down majorly once the photo is covering it.

I'm looking forward to going round and seeing this with a photo of the gorgeous bride and groom to complete it!

Winter Wedding Wonders Part 1

My Big Brother got married on Thursday 1st December, I can't quite believe that after 4 years of being engaged he actually said, 'I do', and it was just wonderful; I may have had a little weep.

The wedding was all gold, ivory and snowflakes, I helped made the invitations back in August, and cut out so many snowflakes I thought that winter had come already, in fact when it started to try to snow yesterday I got flashbacks!

The invitations are little petal-fold wallets with 3 cards inside.

Apparently the guests all loved them and couldn't believe that they were home-made which I always think is a good thing to hear! 

Melting Music

I've been wanting to make record bowls for ages and with Christmas looming I decided that they'd make fun presents so actually got my hands on some old records and went for it!

The beauty of these is that they don't have to be perfect, and each bowl is different. They're also embarrassingly easy to make, just pop the oven on a low heat, get a glass bowl, place the record on top with the label in the centre and leave to melt, it only takes about 10 minutes, and it can be moulded slightly when you take it out if you want to make it more 'wibbly'. If you don't like how it sets, stick it back in the oven and have another play.



I love how these turned out, and I also love that they're another no-spend Christmas present to give out! Of course, I proudly showed The Husband and the first thing he said was, 'There's a hole in the bottom'... 'Well they're for trinkets not cereal!' Tch.

Cosy Kindles!

Whoah... I can't believe how long it's been since my last post! Ooops! I blame my broken camera, where's the fun in showing off what I've been making if I can't post photos?! Luckily I seem to have acquired my Mum's camera for a short period so I've been snap happy!

One of my goals for this year was to make at least half of my Christmas presents and I'm pleased to say that I'm well on my way to achieving that, although it may not work out as quite half, it's still plenty!

So my first present is a cosy Kindle pouch for my Mum... and another for me! I haven't actually got a Kindle yet but I've asked for one for Christmas so I thought I'd be prepared!

They have been made out of an old cashmere jumper that's been lying around for a couple of years waiting to be used for something since The Husband stuck it on a hot wash so it shrunk and went a bit felty, which has been great for cutting and sewing!

I'm absolutely not a seamstress and I'm generally pretty scared of sewing machines so I had help from my Mother-in-Law who helped me make little envelope style pouches with some white sheeting as a lining to give it some structure, I did actually do all of the sewing myself which is very obvious when they're inspected as it's all a little wobbly, I just like to think that it shows they've been made with love if not technique!

I got the idea of making little flowers from watching this video, she does waffle on a bit but I got the gist after a couple of minutes so made it up as I went! 

This one is made using the neck of the jumper so it's really thick and gone quite wiggly, which I really like, I like how the ribbing on the flower matches the ribbing on the pouch (which is from the bottom of the jumper!)

This one is just a scrap of leftover fabric which had been cut with pinking shears which has given it a 'ruffled' edge and a little sparkly jewel I had lying around has been sewn in the middle to hide the mess I made when I tried to sew it all nice and tightly together!



 

And to top it off I've even sewn on little snaps to keep them securely closed!

I'm quite impressed with my little Kindle covers, now all I need is a Kindle to go in mine! Hope my Mum likes hers!



Wedding Scrapbook

I've finally pulled my finger out and started work on my wedding scrapbook, my poor printer doesn't know what's hit it!

This isn't what I'd call a 'real' scrapbook; there's no journalling and few titles, I'm just letting the photos tell the story... I like to say that it's a photo album with embellishments.

This is an ongoing project, I've still got about two thirds of the day left to do but here are a few of my finished pages so far.

I should explain that we got married in the Dominican Republic so I've gone quite OTT with the bright colours in the album!

The Boys before the ceremony:

My parents and me in the hotel room just before we left, the only 2 photos from the room where I'm actually squeezing out a bit of a smile! I was a bit stressed and overwhelmed at this point and the photographer was the last person I wanted to see! I'm not photogenic at the best of times!

 

Here we are saying our vows, the registrar read The Art of Marriage in Spanish and the wedding co-ordinator translated. The page has the Spanish version and the English is on the little pull-out bit. I started to blub the minute I saw my Rich and luckily the best man was prepared with tissues. I did manage to break the scary blubbling bride moment by saying 'Si!' in answer to the 'Do you...' questions!

And here we are signing the register, I managed to pull myself together by this point!

And that's it for now, more to follow!



Getting Organised!

Well I don't quite know what's happened but after months of being somewhat crafty-lazy this week I've exploded into a papercraft machine! It never rains but it pours, eh?! More evidence of this to follow but first thing's first....

I can't remember where I first got the idea for this, but I saw on some clever lady's blog that she'd used a photo frame as a 'white board' style meal planner... so I shamelessly went with the idea and created a weekly planner with a 'Don't Forget' list... which is much needed when you've got a 3 second memory like mine!

This was such an easy peasy project. An A4 frame from a cheapy shop, some messing around in Word and a white board marker... et voila, a personalised planner just for us!



Brownies with a twist... or a swirl!

Wow I've been terrible at updating! Not had much to update though, I've been fairly uncrafty recently sadly. My darling Husband bought me a printer for my birthday in May so now I have no excuse to not print out photos and journalling so I can crack on with my wedding scrapbook, I have bought a load of papers and embellishments, I have an album to put everything in yet... nothing! Ah well, inspiration will hit soon I'm sure!

So whilst I procrastinate on the scrap front I've been focussing on baking, tastes good but may explain my expanding waistline!

A lovely lady (CinnyLoves :-) ) pointed me in the direction of the Carnation website yesterday and my eye immediately picked out the words 'Caramel Swirl Chocolate Brownies' and I proclaimed that 'I am making those tonight!' And I did. And they were gooooood!

I was very proud of the step I took when deciding to make these as the last time I made brownies a few years ago it went terribly wrong and I've been wary ever since. How was I to that the big unmarked tub of white granules was salt rather than sugar?! My word they tasted gross, I couldn't even look at a brownie for a long time after that!

Ingredients:



150g (5½oz) butter
200g (7oz) dark chocolate
2 eggs, beaten
175g (6oz) soft light brown sugar
55g (2oz) plain flour
1tsp baking powder
55g (2oz) walnut pieces (I didn't put these in as Hubby is a bit anti-nuts, the weirdo!)
4-6tbsp Carnation Caramel (Just stick the whole tin in!)

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Grease and line a 20cm (8in) square baking tin.
2. Melt the butter with 55g (2oz) of the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of hot water.
3. Beat the eggs with the sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy, then sift in the flour, and baking powder. Stir in the melted chocolate mixture, and beat together until well blended.
4. Chop the remaining chocolate into rough chunks and stir into the brownie mixture, with the walnuts. Spoon into the tin and spread evenly.
5. Beat the caramel in a small bowl and swirl into the mix. Bake for about 30 minutes, the cake should begin to shrink slightly from the sides of the tin.
6. When cool cut the brownie cake into squares.

These are all kinds of awesome, chewy and gooey and soft and fattening... all you need in a brownie!

Oh, and by the way, I've never encountered the joy of Carnation caramel in a tin before! I could have happily sat and just eaten the whole tin rather than use it as a boring ingredient... but I didn't! Must be growing up...