craftyguider – Page 14

Gluten Free Baking – Cake Angels

Over the next week or so I will have to bake a lot for the WI and school stalls at the local May Day celebrations, as well as when I host some Rainbow mums chopping fudge for the Rainbow stall (as bribery!). This is in addition to preparing for the Guide stall when I will be selling my Craftyguider goods (no cake involved!).

As a warm up, youngest Craftyguidelet and I made some raspberry and white chocolate muffins.

As daddy is gluten intolerant, we try and make gluten free cakes. An excellent purchase recently was the Cake Angels book by Julia Thomas. In the past I’ve used (and loved) Phil Vickery’s Seriously Good! books, but the recipes require blends of different flours, some of which need to be bought online from shops that charge large p&p rates. The Cake Angels book uses standard gluten free flours available from most supermarkets.

The recipe is for both dairy and gluten intolerants, but as dairy isn’t a problem in our house, I just substituted standard yogurt, chocolate and butter.

The batter looked a bit strange when it went into the cake cases, but the finished result was lovely. Little Craftyguidelet was very proud serving them to the family.

Julia Thomas started her dairy free baking following cancer when she was expecting her first child. She then moved on to gluten free baking when a friend asked for gluten and wheat free cakes for her son. She developed a bespoke baking service and couriered cakes to customers, before putting some of her best recipes in her Cake Angels book.

So far I’ve tried the Chocolate banana loaf, Lemon loaf, Sticky toffee traybake, Chocolate brownies, Lemon butterfly cakes, and Almond and cherry cupcakes, and all have turned out well. You really don’t miss the gluten.

If you want to bake a cake without dairy or gluten, most cakes have a version contained in the book. There are even frosting recipes at the back. It’s a really good starter book for baking for intolerances, and as long as you can get hold of some xanthan gum which adds texture to the gluten free flour, you should end up with a great result to satisfy both intolerants and gluten eaters alike.

I bought this book myself and all opinions expressed are my own. The only benefit I have had is the delicious cakes baked using the recipes!

Fabric Covered Mirrors

With craft fairs coming up, my next at the Standon May Day, East Herts on the 6th May, I need to get a move on and make sure my stall is ready.

I think 7 handbag mirrors won’t last me very long so I opened up my freshly stuffed scrap bag and started cutting and assembling. With so many fabrics that I love in there, I ended up with quite a few choices.

My Russian doll fabric has been very popular and I’ve made 2 bags and a few mirrors in the past from the small piece I had. I’ve managed to get three mirrors out of the rest and I think that’s my lot now.

And these are a few of my other favourites.

Everyone loves a nice polka dot!

I love this design. It was a piece left over from some Christmas bunting but it’s gorgeous on it’s own.

This reminds me of a summery picnic.

The full selection of designs are on my website, and as always, all profits go directly to my Guide unit.

Which one is your favourite?

Graceful Kelly Bag

I can’t remember which came first – the handbag frame or the pattern. But whatever it was, I came to be the owner of a Graceful Kelly purse frame and free downloadable pattern from the U-handbag website.

I have made a few of Lisa Lam’s designs before and I am challenging myself to make one of each of the bags in her ‘A bag for all reasons’ book. This is going quite slowly as regular followers know I get distracted very easily! I have completed three out of the twelve, plus frame purses and sugar loaf pouches.

In my quest to mop up some of my WIPs, the bag frame surfaced. I have many fabrics bought because I loved them but didn’t know what to make with them but had to have them anyway.

This gorgeous sewing themed fabric was bought from last year’s Knitting and Stitching show (if anyone knows who stocks it, please let me know as I need more!). It had to be used for something I was going to keep rather than a Craftyguider item so it became a bag!

The only type of ironing I enjoy!

The antique finish frame goes really well with the vintage sewing theme.

There is acres of room inside as the bag is gusseted, and there is a handy elasticated pocket in the lining which I chose to divide into three for phone storage.

The pattern was easy to follow as I’ve made a few frame purses and bags before. I’m definitely in the mood to make some more when I’ve got a few things out of the way.

What do you think?

Linking to Handmade Harbour’s Handmade Monday

Crafty Magazine

Yes, yet another craft magazine has launched, and another £4.99 of husband’s hard earned cash has been spent.

The free gift on the cover of Crafty Magazine is a 30x45cm piece of natural calico and inside there are 3 suggestions for using it: embroidering it, embroidering it and making covered buttons and stamping it to make a flower brooch.

There are plenty of mentions of crafty blogs, websites, and books, and Sarah Corbett of the Craftivist Collective and Mr X Stitch will have regular columns. Crafty projects include making a collection of bugs from fabric, customising pairs of Converse, making a geometric botanical sculpture (blocks of oasis stuck together and covered in dried flowers), re-upholstering chairs, a simple tote bag to sew, crocheted owls and a scary looking David Bowie paper doll.

There is a strong emphasis on designers and artists, with Laura Clempson (Cupcakes for Clara), Iona Thomas (Graffiti Life), Mel Elliott (I Love Mel) and Perri Lewis amongst others.

It is a very ‘arty’ magazine in my opinion, and doesn’t really fulfil my requirements for a crafty publication. Perhaps I am too old for an edgy mag like this. I prefer a bit more craft and home style, but I will enjoy reading this copy and will keep an eye out for future content. It won’t be added to my (many) current subscriptions though.

I bought this magazine myself and haven’t been paid for providing this review. These are entirely my own opinions.

Pin Badges

One of my many sidelines on the craftyguider website is making pin badges on my badge machine. I have three dies – 25mm, 38mm and 58mm – and I love upcycling pictures, maps and making my own designs.

These badges were made for my Rainbow unit as the leader had come up with the idea of having little groups for activities based on the Rainbow Magic fairies. Rather than just have the colours, I copied some pictures from my daughter’s book and came up with these.

Recently I’ve been asked to produce some hen night badges for two different hens.

Hen party one was themed on the Miranda TV series. The hen is a regular customer of mine from twitter for various badges and sewn items, so it was wonderful to play a part in her celebrations.

Each person on the hen do would be given 4 badges as a gift. An evening in front of the TV pinging designs back and forth on twitter produced these designs. One dodgy shoulder and 84 badges later, our hen had a bag of badges to dish out.

Hen party two found me on a craft stall at a local fete. She had been a Guide at the unit I now run, and her friend was getting married. As all the profits from my sales go to the Guide unit, she was happy to place an order with me. She had even dreamed up the artwork which was fabulous. It was a Guiding theme with all the participants in the hen’s patrol, and the hen had some interest badges to earn for her badge sash.

All I had to do was convert the artwork and produce the badges. I wish I’d had this idea when I got married!

My badge machine gets a lot of use with name badges for my WI, a badge making activity at school craft club, business logo badges for people to use at craft fairs and trade shows, and badges for all 300 participants at school sports day, as well as making badges and fabric covered mirrors for sale at craft fairs.

What would you have on your personalised badge?

School Craft Club – Easter Garlands

On the last craft club of term, we had requests to make an Easter craft. As the children make so many Easter themed crafts at school anyway, it was tricky thinking of something that they could make in 30 minutes, didn’t require drying time, and suited boys and girls.

We decided on an Easter garland.

I made mine using pretty papers and some embellishments from my stash so the children had an example to look at, but the children used coloured papers provided by the school.

I made the templates using some card and my Sizzix Eclips cutting machine. It uses cartridges so you can cut a variety of shapes and letters, and it is fully adjustable so you can set the size, material you are cutting and version of the image. I made them all about 4″ tall and cut the shadow versions of the shapes to make them more substantial for the young children in the club.

All I had to do then was make a hole using the small setting on my crop-a-dile, and then thread some ribbon through. The children used wool to string their ones up as it’s a lot cheaper for 40 children to use that rather than ribbon. They decorated their shapes with coloured pens and pencils. Due to some of the older ones breaking into songs (with actions meaning they couldn’t use scissors!), some of them went away to be finished at home.

Later that day I did the same activity with the Guides. They are older and we had more time so the garlands went away completed and with a bit more detail.

What Easter crafts have you done with your kids?

Puckeridge WI on the radio

Last year I wanted to join the new CamCity WI as many of my twitter friends went and it sounded like just the thing I needed – something for me rather than another volunteer activity where I looked after children for other people. I was quite willing to commute there from where I live in Hertfordshire as my local WI’s are on the ‘traditional’ side. However, my attempt was thwarted as they meet on a Wednesday which is one of the nights when I volunteer to look after other people’s children.

This led to a call to the Hertfordshire Federation WI to ask if there were any ‘next generation’ WI’s in the county I could join. I said I would commute for the right one, but I couldn’t run it. I was then told that there weren’t any (I think I was being sold a dud there!) but I could get some friends together to start my own. Appeals on twitter, interviews in the local paper and a meeting down the pub later and Puckeridge WI was born. Despite the assumption by others that I would become President, I was relieved when someone else stepped up, although I am now Vice President and Assistant Treasurer and a founder member of Puckeridge WI.

We are a small village WI with a membership of almost 30 aged in their 20’s through to their 70’s and are a mix of full and part time workers, mums and grans, and everything else in between. We have a great programme of activities, add on clubs are starting up, and we are getting involved in our community.

We had a request from county to be interviewed on BBC 3 Counties Radio which covers Beds, Herts and Bucks. They were doing a feature on the growth of WI membership and wanted to interview someone from a new WI to go with their pre-recorded feature on Royston WI. A lot of messages later, I agreed to do it if I could. So on a cold Monday at 8.25am in the car park of my doctor’s surgery, I called the switchboard.

I’d had lots of thoughts about what I would say (don’t mention bungee jumping, don’t mention bungee jumping), and while I was on hold, I could hear the show clearly down the phone. Iain Lee, the normal presenter, had car trouble that morning, so a replacement presenter had taken his place. Ruth Bond was being interviewed on the phone and I was told that the first thing I would be asked was about having men at WI’s, was it a terrible thing and do we sit and gossip about men all night?!!! Hardly sticking to the theme of the new, younger WI’s! In fact the whole interview seemed to try and reinforce the traditional ‘Jam and Jerusalem’ stereotype. I stood my ground and tried to keep to the general theme of cake, friends, opportunities and fun.

Listening back, I caught an interview with two women from Luton who have started a new WI, and they were again battling against the interviewer’s stereotyping of the organisation. The most disappointing bit was the pre-recorded segment at Royston WI which seemed to concentrate on one member’s 90th birthday, the opinion of a member that younger women should join so they can ‘learn how to behave’, and the repeated singing of Jerusalem.

Overall, I think it was a pretty poorly put together piece, although if people listened to the ladies from Luton and Ruth Bond, rather than the bias of the interviewer, they would’ve got the message of what the WI can actually offer nowadays. I’m still pleased to have done it, and I hope my enthusiasm for the WI has come across.

School Craft Club

A little while ago, the Head at my little ones’ school asked if mums would like to start any lunchtime clubs, such as a craft club. I already help out once a week as a Parent Helper in a KS1 class and love it, so an extra 30 minutes at lunch time once a week crafting with kids would be a bonus. Another crafty mum also volunteered, so eventually we got together, made a few plans, and waited to see who would turn up.

Week one, we had 40 children from year one to four! That was a bit of a shock to the system, especially as we were making pin badges. The children all decorated a paper circle which I put through a badge machine. This serves as a name badge so we can identify the kids, and also as they leave it behind after craft club, we can use it as a register to see who turns up. With 40 children crammed into a spare classroom, we’ve had to close the club to new members, but if some don’t come back for a few weeks, we can open up new places to kids who have wanted to join since. If you don’t have a badge, you ain’t coming in!

Somehow, while I was punching badges, the other mum managed to get ideas from the children about what activities they wanted to do in future. I think some expect a host of sewing machines to appear so they can make cushion covers, or multiple tools for jewellery making, but some were doable.

Week two was a bit easier due to a school trip taking half the children away. One of the ideas was to make a diary of all the things they’d made, so a simple piece of coloured paper, decorated as they wanted, and folded with a couple of pieces of A4 made a notebook.

Week three was back to a full strength class of around 30 children. We collected together some magazines and the children made collages. Some were random pictures, others were fashion collections, bedroom designs or composite pictures. The mess at the end was amazing, but they had great fun with scissors and glue.

Hopefully as I get more organised, I’ll take some pictures and blog about the activities in a bit more detail.

Does anyone else craft with lots of kids or run a school club?

Cable Knit Cushion

My WIP busting continues with the completion of my cable knit cushion today.

Having progressed my knitting skills by knitting a lacy snood and scarf last year, my next target was the conquest of cable. A visit to my local knitting shop came up with some chunky wool, large needles and a pattern downloaded from Ravelry.

My first attempt was a disaster. The pattern was badly written for beginners so I just twisted round and round without reversing the stitches. Back to the shop for some advice and I was off and produced my first cable twist. I was so pleased with it!

Being chunky knit, it grew quickly which is always good in my book.

It was a lot larger than I thought it would be (I had to buy a 55cm cushion pad), but I was enjoying how well it came together so much I didn’t mind. I did decide that I wasn’t going to knit the reverse though (I have the patience of a very impatient thing) so I found some lovely fabric in John Lewis (purchase allowed under my challenge rules as it helped me complete a project) and made an envelope back.

And here it is on my bed. It goes well with the new decor, although I still need to change the bedclothes when I get a bit more inspiration.

So what do you think?

Knitting Needle Rolls

On one of my recent crafting exploits into new things, I attempted cable knitting. I got a bit stuck and the lovely @knittingvillage came to my aid and explained the pattern. I’ve finished knitting the cushion front now and just need to sew the back on. Another WIP on the list!

A few days ago, I had a tweet asking if I made knitting needle rolls as one of the customers in the shop had asked for them. I didn’t have any in stock, but I had plans to make some for my website and craft fairs this year so I bit the bullet, cut some fabric (shock, horror!) and made three similar to this one I made for a swap some months ago.

This was the first one made with some fabric I bought for one of my ‘just in case’ projects. I’m definitely making some things for me with the rest.

I also made one in pink

and this gorgeous blue combination

and all three were finished off and taken to Knitting Village in Buntingford to see if she could sell them. I’ll also be starting crochet hook rolls and other accessories to sell (and perhaps a couple of bits for me!)

If anyone is interested, I’m selling them for £15, and as usual, all profits go to local Guiding.