BARKLY SQUARE: KIDS' CROWN SCHOOL HOLIDAY CRAFT ACTIVITY

If you are looking for school holiday craft activities for the kids, head over to the Barkly Square blog where you will find a fun tutorial for making these double sided crowns. The threading, shape cutting and gluing activities are great for developing fine motor skills. Better still, these crowns are made using easy to find household items such as folder dividers and yarn.

MID CENTURY GINGERBREAD HOUSE AND HOW TO MAKE ICICLES

When I was about 15 I started making gingerbread house every Christmas. I became more and more ambitious every year culminating in a Martha Stewart Victorian house facade with candy windows and internal lighting from this book (similar instructions here). It was a particularly hot and humid Australian summer that year and those poor old windows slowly dissolved into puddles of liquid sugar and wiring - a great excuse to eat it early and a lesson for me in candy making.

This year I made a mid-century house and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I was inspired by this house by Melbourne-based Craft Schmaft and this house by Nick Milkovich Architects.

It was a little bit easier than a traditional house as there was less focus on intricate white icing. I made a template first from cardboard. I used this dough recipe which has been the best to work with, tasted the best and looked the best. I will be reusing it every year. See below for my icing recipe.

1. The icing has to be just the right consistency. I always use the Women's Weekly recipe:


Beat 1 egg white just until it can hold a peak. Gradually add 2 cups sifted icing sugar whist mixing on low speed. 

I also add half a teaspoon of lemon juice. I find this gives me a good consistency that holds the pieces together but also makes great icicles at the very end of the process.

2. Build. Wait. And then decorate. If you can let the walls and roof mortar dry completely before decorating you will avoid the common problem of the roof sliding off the house because the icing is not dry. Lots of lollies on the roof can contribute to this.

3. Practice piping icing patterns on a piece of cardboard. I almost always use a zip-lock bag with the corner cut off to pipe the icing. The more I cut off the corner the larger the line of icing. I spoon the mixture into a corner of the bag and seal it carefully. If you need to stop you can just put that bag into another icing bag and to stop if drying whilst you tend to something else.

If you are not confident with swirls and hearts, practice dots and lines. They can go a long way. It is much easier to do patterns after the zip-lock piping bag has warmed in your hands.

4. Lollies. The key is to use simple classic lollies. The other secret is never to use the same lolly twice on the same house. So if you use jelly beans on the roof, don't use them anywhere else on the house. I can't do without mint leaves and candy canes.

5. Don't worry about the myriad of imperfections you create along the way. Hide them by making snow dribbles and icicles. In a previous year, the chimney I made was really bad so I made a big dribble of icing around the top that hid the gaping cracks.

6. Icicles! These are the key to getting that special look. They are so much fun to make and add miniature scale magic to your house. You do them at the very end when the icing in the zip lock bag is warm from your hand. Check out my mini-movie below to see how to drop icicles off your gingerbread house.

Finally, if you still need something extra, a sifting of icing sugar is the vaseline on the lens and looks like snow over your little domestic creation.

BARKLY SQUARE: MINT, LIME, COCONUT AND SUGAR BODY SCRUB

If you are stuck for gifts for your friends you cannot go past this quick and easy body scrub tutorial I created recently for Barkly Square. 

It smells so lush, just like a mojito. It is so natural, you could eat it! 

Check out the tutorial and pics over on the Barkly Square blog.

CHRISTMAS GIFT WRAPPING: GIANT GINGERBREAD POCKET BAGS

You've probably noticed I have a thing for miniaturising and upsizing things!

The overall effect of these giant gingerbread cookies is really fun. They are great for gifting a collection of little presents that you can put inside and tie up all together. 

You don't need much in the way of supplies to make these. Though I do recommend finding heavy duty kraft paper at a packaging store or similar rather than using the stationery grade brown paper. It will be much more durable.

Supplies:
- Heavy duty brown kraft paper
- A crayon
- Scissors
- Sewing machine and white thread
- White paint and paint brush
- Hole punch
- White ribbon
- Foil wrapped chocolates or lollies (I mainly used Quality Street chocolates because I love their bright shiny wrappers)
- Sticky tape

1. Create templates of the shapes you want to make. I made a gingerbread man and woman, tree and star. The easiest way to do this is to find clip art that you like and bring it up on a large screen TV. Put one sheet of paper over the screen and trace gently with a crayon. Fold in half and cut to get a symmetrical template.
2. Take your heavy duty kraft paper, fold a piece in half then trace around your shape.
3. Loosely cut around the shape, leaving one side folded. This will keep it from sliding when you sew the two layers.
4. Using a zig zag stitch on your sewing machine, sew 2cm in from your traced line, leaving about 20cm or more opening on one side of the shape. Set your zig zag stitch so it is wide and and the stitches are close together. This will make the zig zag stitch more obvious, like a line of cookie icing.
5. Now cut the shape out properly along your crayon line.
6. Stick your chocolates or lollies on. I used small pieces of sticky tape looped back onto themselves - poor woman's double-sided tape!
7. Paint the rest of your icing designs onto the shapes.
8. Use the hole punch to make holes are regular intervals along the opening and thread with ribbon to secure closed with your gifts inside.

You can make these in any size. They would be great stuffed with peppermint bark and with guests names on them as part of table place settings. My kids love the giant sizes we made, they found the whole process really fascinating.

BARKLY SQUARE: AUSTRALIANA TABLE WREATH TUTORIAL

Tired of those pesky tissue paper bon-bon crowns? Head over to the Barkly Square blog to see my tutorial for making individual table setting wreaths that can double as crowns for your guests this Christmas!

NEW RED FELT MINI EMBROIDERY HOOPS

 

Introducing an innovative new embroidery hoop that allows you to stitch your fabric into the hoop.

Made from super-soft 100% wool felt. In red just in time for Christmas!

I've used them to make a poinsettia-inspired necklace.

Shop them here.

MAKING INVITATIONS

Gold glitter number cake toppers are available in my shop.

Making your own professional-looking invitations doesn't have to be complicated or time consuming. If you keep the copy simple you only need one main visual element.

For my dad's birthday invitations, I recently used a beautiful vintage wallpaper that I bought but had no idea what to do with. I scanned in a large piece of it and used it to print envelope liners. Then on the back of the very simple invitations, I printed the same pattern. You could even use your favourite fabric or wrapping paper pattern in the same way.

His favourite colour is green and it is a summer party at a vineyard so I think it came together nicely.

I made the invitations in MS Word and printed on card stock 4 invitations to an A4 page. Then I sliced them with a guillotine.

Remember if you are scanning for printing to follow these non-negotiables:

1. Set your scanner to scan at 300dpi.
2. Scan as a JPG file. It is the most flexible image file type to work with.
3. Make sure the material you are scanning is completely flat but putting a book on top of it before closing the scanner lid.

TUTORIAL: RE-PURPOSED SILK TIE BRACELETS

Neck ties are in the food splatter firing line every day and they are never quite the same after dry cleaning. These repurposed silk tie bracelets are right on trend and look gorgeous layered with other jewellery. Finally a use for all those beautiful de-commissioned silk ties!

Supplies:

2 ties

Needle and thread or sewing machine

Fabric scissors

Pearl head pins

10cm of 5mm wide black elastic

1. This project makes use of the thin end of the tie that usually stays hidden. Take two ties and, from the thin end, bend them ¼ of the way up, making two loops.
2.  Intertwine the loops. You will need to snake the end of one tie inside, outside and under the other, then outside and inside again so it is back where it started. You are creating what the rope-tying world calls a square knot.
3. Pull the two ties away from each other and the knot will tighten. Do not over tighten.
4. Measure it around your wrist and pin where it meets. Cut both ties at that spot.
5. You will find that when you lie it flat the top lengths stick out on each side. This is because the top lengths have further to travel around your wrist, being on the outside.
6. Now you need to French seam the ends closed. Line the two matching pieces of tie up and sew along the edge. Then turn that seam inside out and stitch a running stitch along to encase and hide the first seam. Repeat on the other side for the other tie ends. You can do this with a sewing machine or a needle and thread. It helps to trim back the old interfacing inside the tie by about 3cms. Then it will be less bulky to sew.
7. Take your piece of elastic and cut it to a length that is twice the width of the tie fabric. Thread it through both ends of the bracelet and stitch the two ends of the elastic together. This makes the bracelet a cinch to put on and very comfortable.
8. Make another one, they look great layered.

NEW GOLD GLITTER MINIATURE EMBROIDERY HOOPS

If you've loved my miniature embroidery hoops, then you'll likely go gaga over the new gold glitter perspex versions.

They are so gorgeous and sparkly. Perfect for jewellery-making! Shop them here.

TUTORIAL PART 2: REMOVING YOUR WEAVING FROM THE MINI LOOM

If you enjoy doing things like knitting beanies for Barbie dolls, like me, then this project is right up your alley.

You've likely read Part 1 of this tutorial and you are ready to free your weaving from its tiny confines. I have to let you know that when I designed this mini loom I never intended for it to be a producing loom, rather an ornamental pendant you could wear around your neck. But it can be done with patience, time and a couple of tricks.

The key is to thread a double warp. This leaves you more thread to tie it off with at once it is off the loom.

Oh, also... The mini weaving loom now comes in gold glitter! Yes. So sparkly. Shop for it here.

^^^ 1. Thread your warp as you usually would.

^^^ 2. Then go back over it, so you have a double warp, one on top of the other.

^^^ 3. You'll end up back where you started the warp so tie the two ends together in the middle.

^^^ 4. Make your mini weaving. Thread the loose ends into the back and cut them close. Be careful not to cut the warp at all.

^^^ 5. Now you can cut the warp. Slice it right down the middle so there is equal warp left either side. Gently remove the weaving from the loom.

^^^ 6. Now you have a choice of how to tie off your warp and secure the weft. You can self-knot the two strands of warp. It helps to use a tooth pick to pull the strands through. Then knot as close to the weft as possible.

^^^ You can also use a tiny tooth pick as a dowel and tie each set of warp threads around it. I did this at the top and the self-knots at the bottom.

^^^ Use the internal cutting surface of pliers to trim the pointy ends off the toothpick.