Photoshop Fun

Thomas was off to a Harry Potter party o the weekend so we made a card for the birthday girl. These are the "before" and "after" shots:

A poster for the P&C Mothers' Day cake stall

As I used up all the school's blue ink with the last poster, I decided to keep this one a bit simpler.

Trying to come up with designs that are eye-catching and perhaps generate interest or draw the attention of school parents but that can also be displayed in front of children from the age of 4 can be trying. Thomas (9) simply thinks this is one is silly. That will do me!

Another poster for the P&C

And to think that the P&C believes they can't have an art show unless they employ an artist-in-residence! I'm tempted to say "you don't need to employ an artist - I'll do it!" But then why should I do for free what what everyone else gets paid for?

Before and After

One of the few creative outlets I have (meaning I can spend time on it and not feel that I'm not doing something useful) is creating flyers for my sons' primary school's events.  Just to get a measure of how much I enjoy this, here's the poster used for last year's bush dance (and, I'm reliably informed, many years before that):

That was before I appointed myself to the self-created position of "director of communications". This is what the poster looks like after my appointment:

(It's a bit cheeky posting it here, as the poster hasn't even received the Principal's nod yet, but I'm not anticipating any difficulties! And maybe someone who has actually studied some creative stuff beyond high school could have done better, but I think it's not bad for a full time Mum. And I had fun!)

More inspired card making

After seeing this, at Next to Nicx's inspiring blog:

I knew I had the perfect idea for my Dad's birthday card. And here's how it turned out:

I didn't use Next to Nicx's template as it didn't print correctly for me. Instead I just printed text onto paper (making sure it was the right size for the card I had), put the printing over the card, and made holes through the paper and the card with a needle. I was lucky I had a carpet sample stuck on cardboard as the ideal surface to work on. (Although if you think the lines of text aren't quite level, that's either a trick of the eye, or the fact that I was doing it on my lap, sitting on a bed with two active children. Because when you are living in a one bedroom house with two children, things are bound to slip.) I then started embroidering. I didn't have embroidery thread (like 99% of my possessions, it's in storage), so I used sewing machine cotton, doubled over. And yes, it did take hours. But my Dad liked it!

I make stuff all the time - but not all of it ends up here!

Sometimes there's just not time. Sometimes it's hard to get a good photo - like this time!

These are Flourless Zucchini Brownies courtesy of Delighted Momma's link.

Anyway, they are surprising cakey for something make pretty much of nut butter and grated vegetable.

Just a thought - if you were a vegan who was allergic to nuts life would be pretty difficult, I'd imagine!

Fruit leather - is it worth it?

Inspired by recipes all over the internet (aren't we all!), plus a glut of strawberries at the supermarket (A$1.50 a 250gm punnet), I had a go at fruit leather.

I cooked a punnet of strawberries with 2 red apples (peeled, cored, chopped), then pureed it.

I then spread it out in some silicone baking dishes (see below) to dry. And waited. And waited.

What I learnt:

1. I have the perfect dishes for making fruit leather. You don't need to line or grease the tins. It just peels off when dry. Eventually.


2. The most important thing is to get a thin, even layer, to speed drying.

3. You probably could dry it in your car, as some sites suggest. Pictures below of the trays on my hatchback's rear shelf, soon to sit in the sun. But the car will smell of fruit and you've got to keep the kids out!

4. The oven is in the end the best dryer you have. But using all that energy to make fruit leather sort of takes away from the wholesome, no preservative, environmentally consciousness of it all.

5. It tastes as good as anything you could buy, but I'm experiencing some resistance to eating in, on the basis that it took SO LONG to make!

Two apples and a punnet of strawberries....

Chocolate covered strawberries for Austin (turning 5) to take to Kindergarten for morning tea

Perfect for the gluten intolerant! Nut free too. And it's fruit. Everyone's happy.

The book of marbled papers comes in handy again

Silhouettes printed from internet images, cut, stuck to the rear of the patterned paper, cut again and stuck to card.

Step by step marble cake

My very own cake wreck

The spelling mistake was in fact deliberate. The Kindergarten (pre-school) teaching aide was leaving, so we  had a farewell cake. The cake reflected the fact that when the children met her, they found it almost impossible to pronounce her name - Miss Loth. The best variation was "Miss Fluff". I fear that if she keeps teaching 4 years old, she will never hear her name pronounced correctly! Luckily she is very good humoured about it.

All I needed was a little inspiration

Yes, been a while since I've been here. But inspired by How About Orange's origami dress card (right), and a book on marbling paper being discarded by the local library (and full of full colour plates of marbled effects), I whipped these up:


(I think I could learn something from How About Orange's photo styling.....)

A dolphin cake for Thomas

White chocolate tinted with black food colouring makes grey! Perfect for piping dolphin shapes.

Life goes on

A new year, a new school and new school clothing to label. No reason it can't be done creatively! Inspired by a Craft Gossip post featuring a project by RadMegan of In Words and Pictures, Austin's hat will stand out from the crowd.

Template cut from paper (printed from PC)

Chalk used to outline letters

Hand embroidered

Finished!

A Missoni Maxi!

Yes, got my hands on even more missoni fabric - this time from the fabulous Gorgeous Fabrics, who called it the "Super Fabulous Milan Novelty Knit - Multi." Maxis being the in thing right now, I calculated that a generously cut yard would go around me, and be long (wide) enough to fit from shoulder to floor. Fortunately Gorgeous Fabrics do cut generously, and this is the result.

80% of the dress was completed in one night - the divine Sarah, who actually went to fashion school, pinned the fabric onto me, we sewed, cut, sewed some more, bound the neckline, cut the binding off the neckline, re-cut and re-sewed the neckline, drank wine and shifted furniture, all in about 3 and a half hours. The binding on the arms was completed in another hour, another day. Sarah tried to get me to use a pattern, but when you are built like a stick and have a tank top you can copy, who needs a pattern? As I kept saying, "let's wing it!" And we did!



Cardmaking with Vintage Papercuts

See Vintage Papercuts for details of how to purchase.

A patriotic patch

Before

During

After

(And I'm not even Bristish). Inspired by Make it and Love it (via Craft Gossip), I mended a hole in Austin's jeans with some striped fabric:

Austin's Gruffalo birthday party - the play

We held a Gruffalo birthday party for Austin for his 4th birthday. We acted out the story ("The Gruffalo" by Julia Donaldson). The family played all the parts - Austin (4 that day) was the Mouse, Thomas, (7) was the Fox, the Owl and the Snake and Jonathon (old enough to know better) was the Gruffalo. Bronwyn narrated. Click here to see the video.

Some stills:

Austin's Gruffalo birthday party - the costumes

The Mouse - felt ears and a furry tail

Ears sewn onto an elastic headband

The Fox - an orange jumper, cat mask
painted in fox colours, and two pieces
of fur to make a bushy tail

The Owl - wings inspired by Prudent Baby
and round glasses

The Gruffalo - more fur than you ever want to see, cut into pieces and sewn onto a t-shirt.
Purple spikes, horns and tusks made of felt. Orange sunglasses from eBay

 

Baby Gruffalos - felt horns and fur ears

sewn onto elastic headbands for all guests