Minion Hat

Time to complete: around 2 hours

Cost: Hat cost £3, materials approximately £2. 

Hi, 

I am fortunate to live in the town, that is home of the biggest carnival in the world, Bridgwater Carnival. 

Every year, for the last few years, my sister and I have made our own tradition of wearing random hats. This year there are four of us partaking in this tradition. 

I decided that it would be funny if we all went as minions, from Despicable Me. I made my own hat, instructions are as below. 

What:

Yellow Hat:

I found a yellow beanie on ebay, it already had a grey band around the base, which adds to the effect but it is not essential. 

Felt: 

White, Black and Light Brown- I used some of the black as the black strip around the head for the glasses, but in hindsight, thick black elastic would have been better. 

Templates:

To make the eye, I drew around a large tin lid, which coincidentally is the same size as the base of a regular sized mug. 

I also used a large tea light for the inner eye, and a metal eggcup for the pupil. It's trial and error to get the right size, but it didn't take me long to find things in the house that were the right size. 

Grey Socks:

I used the tops of some grey socks as the glasses, the top of the socks are ribbed and worked really well for this purpose. 

Something for Hair: 

The minions have a mixture of hair on the movies, some have a few strands sticking up, you could use pipe cleaners for this, or even some thick rope. I was lucky to find a strange hair band, which worked quite well, as it has black ruffles, that looks like a little crop of black hair. 

Fuel: 

My fuel of choice was chocolate milkshake, and the purple chocolate with popping candy and jelly pieces in. 

How: 

1) I started off by drawing round the circles, to create the eyes. I used a tiny dab of fabric glue to hold them in place to make it easier for sewing later. 

2) I cut strips from the black felt for the strap around the back, you need to be mindful that the hat stretches when worn, so the strap will need to stretch too, my hat needed three sections for the strips. To make sure this fit, the only way to do it is to carefully tack it in places when you are wearing the hat, in front of the mirror... to make sure that it sits right.

3) I placed the eyes onto the hat, with a dab of glue, and also dabbed a little glue either side to hold the black strips in place before sewing. 

4) To make the glasses, I cut the top off the sock, as mentioned before, if you cut again, you can unfold it, which creates a bigger piece of fabric. I had two pieces of this to make the round of the glasses frame. I folded it in half, bringing a piece from the top and the bottom, to sew it along the middle. I then folded it in half again, to create a rope like long length, before sewing the ends together to form a ring. 

5)I then sewed round the eye, securing each element to the hat, and carefully sewed the black band, mostly by adding a stitch or two while it was on my head, trying hard not to sew it to myself. 

6) The final touches are to sew the glasses piece on, and add the hair. 

For Jamie

Our Goddaughter Rebecca has a new little brother, Jamie :)

I made a matching cross stitch, if you track back to January 2011, I posted a photograph of the stitch I made for Becky. 

Minion Phone Case

So, this has been in my head for a few weeks now, but because I was working on a huge stitching project, I didn't allow myself to do anything else until I completed it. 

To make this phone sock, I cut the top off a sock, lined it with some scrap fleece material, and sewed the bottom across as neatly as I can for my dodgy sewing. 

I made sure I had the sock top at the top as it is naturally tighter and would help to keep the phone within the case. 

It was relatively easy to draw a picture with hot-fix gems, having to add the gems one at a time to build the picture up. 

I also got a bit carried away with the sparkly gems and didn't want to stop with the sparklifying. I am delighted at how it turned out :)

Boiled Fruit Cake

What I really love about this is that it is relatively simple to make, it doesn't create much washing up, and the cake itself is so moist, it lasts for nearly a week (unless you scoff it before the week is up). Here is how I do it......

 

12 Oz Mixed Fruit

4 Oz Butter/ Baking Block

1 1/2 Tsp Bicarb

1 Mug Caster Sugar

1 Mug Water

1 Mug Self Raising Flour (Sieved)

1 Mug Plain Flour (Sieved)

2 Beaten Eggs

 

1. Place the fruit in a large saucepan, along with the water, butter, sugar and bicarb, yes it looks gross for the first few minutes, but it soon starts to smell really lovely and the fruit plumps up a bit as it takes on some of the liquid.

2. Bring this to the boil, and then simmer gently for 2 minutes.

3. Allow to cool for a couple of minutes.

4. Add the flour and beaten eggs.
5. Mix thoroughly and pour into a greased/ grease proof papered tin.
6. Bake at a temperature of 150 for an hour to an hour and a half. I use the stab it with a knife method to see whether it is done, if the knife comes out clean it is done.
 

The yummy fruit taking on the liquid. 

Serving Suggestion..

Polar Bear

 

Hi, me again, talking to myself, but nevermind eh.

 

So Friday, woke at 4am, like an excited child and looked out of the window, as it was forecast to dump a load of snow overnight, there was nothing :(.

 

Got up around 7am as usual to get ready to work, we had about 4 inches of snow, I was annoyed at first because im temping, so wouldn't get paid, even if I couldnt get into work through no fault of my own, but as I am at a facility attached to a school, which was closed, I had to stay home.

 

On watching the TV (eventually, after Sky came back on), I was reminded of the coca-cola polar bears, and was suddenly inspired to go out and play in the snow, so to my cat's dismay, I wrapped up warm, put my husbands coat on (didnt want to get mine wet you see...), and got to work on my polar bear.

 

I am pleased at how it turned out, it was a bit of a risky challenge, as the aforementioned cat above, has left various calling cards in the garden, but I managed to dodge them and end up with white snow.

 

It was made in the afternoon, when a lot of the snow had already melted away, but three days later it is still there, solid. Only he dropped the bottle on saturday night ;)

 

I posted this picture on the coca-cola facebook page, not had much response though, oh well, at least I am proud, and it made me happy to make it :)

 

 

 

Stay safe and warm out there.

 

Mrs P x

 

Fudge, a pup in Bear's clothing

Hi,

 

So I have been playing again, it was a bit of a snowy one this weekend, and I was inspired by the cold to actually get on and make the idea in my head for Fudge, a onesie.

 

I had settled on the idea of making him into a black bear, so I bought a cheapo black fleece scarf for £1, and used that, minimum cost, however, I did sew it all by hand, so it did take about 4 hours to complete, but it was fun, and I am delighted by end result :) I am thinking about adding a pocket to put a mini teddy bear in :), Im sure I have one somewhere from a cracker or something.

 

 

Fudge does indeed look happy with his outfit, I esepcially Like his little paw pads :)

 

Much love

 

Mrs P x

 

 

Candles

Hi,

I have dabbled with candle making before, but it is a bit hit and miss to start with, I do think that I have cracked it :)

These were made with recycled wax, from candles that wouldn't burn, the striped star was made with a mould from a kit, I achieved the stripes by building it up layer by layer.

The different colours are made with dye from a candle kit, I also discovered that using wax crayons also has the same effect.

The little stars and dolphin are made with ice cube trays, pierced a hole through for the wick to sit, and sealed the hole with blue tack. The larger star was a proper wax mould.

The final candle, is a baby food jar, and while the wax was cooling, i dropped in some wax chunks, they look like marshmallows :)

I was pleased with how they turned out ;) They even smell pretty, thanks to the undead candles that I smashed up to melt down ;)

Much love

Mrs P xx

A year in the life.....

This is a mini scrapbook I made for my sister for christmas, I like how it turned out, we have bluetooth printers, which you use to print photos from your phone, I included a pack of photo paper to get her started :)

Mrs P xx

Yule

I made our yule log from scratch this year, much much easier than I thought it would be, and it turned out absolutely perfectly :)

Mrs P x

Gingerbread house

Hi,

This project was really hard, considering I had no instructions, maybe that is half the fun, the hardest bit was getting the walls to stick together, the trick is using really thick icing as the cement. It was very yummy :)

Festivities!!!

Hi World/ Fan.

                 

I have no chance of photographing everything I made at Christmas, I would be here all day! but I did make a lot of things to save the pennies, also certain people appreciate a hand made gift, and are fans of my work :)

These two cards are made from stamps, coloured in by using promarkers, and finished off with stickles glitter, goes on wet, but dries hard and sparkly, really really nice finish, these once made, should not be shown to anyone, I found that out to my cost/ gain, having sold around 100 to friends and family. Not so sure whether I will be making cards for 2013, tiring.com.

I have no idea why my pictures are showing up a little blurred. I am unfortunately without laptop at the moment so having to rely upon my i pad, or mobile phone to upload to my blog.

This one is actually a cross stitch I made last year, with sparkly thread, which although is a pain to work with, it did give a really festive effect, I framed it with gold stickles glue, and mounted it on gold card. I loved it so much I didnt want to send it out in 2011, so kept hold of it for a year ;)

                                                     

I was helping a friend for inspiration on her cross stitch cards, and came up with this very silly idea, but it turned out to be quite funny ;) Shame I had to send it to my sister though, Maybe I will make myself one and frame it for Christmas 2013.

I vow to do more craft things this year, whether for myself, or to sell, doesnt really matter, it is all about having something to show for my time, and more importantly, having a THING, something that I can do that others struggle with, ok so I might not do it that well, or as perfectly as professionals but my stuff, makes me proud ;)

Oh well, lunchtime is over, have only managed to sort out one post, until later then for the rest.

Much love

Mrs P xx

Joe's Wreath 2012

This is Joe's Christmas Wreath,

We couldnt really afford to have one made at the florist this year, plus they always seem to be so big, and I dont like to put huge wreaths on such a small grave, it doesnt leave room for other little ornaments that people have bought him over the years, so I purchased a small bamboo star and added Christmassy bits, it had the pinecones on already, I added the rest, some lovely red tinsel with stars running through it, for some reason, red doesnt show too well on photos.

I was delighted with the result.

 

Happy Christmas, Mummy's little hero xx

More Socks Talk

Hi,

In November, I made a vast array of sock animals, some to sell at a trade fayre, and some as Christmas gifts, the leopard material one is actually a kitten made from a glove, that was different, and funny to make ;), shame I can't find the other glove though :s

 

My Harvest

Mew



I do not have a bunny noise :/, this one was actually a make for our Godson's Baptism gift.

A snocksake as one little one called him ;)

Christmas jumper

So,

I actually think, that I may indeed be a real womble. I really wanted a christmas jumper, went to the usual places, sold out, Primarni only had ones with santa claus with a pipe in his mouth, which I thought was wholly innappropriate. I dont actually knit so thought, hmm, I bet there is something that I could make from something I have got already!

I found a green knitted jumper in my wardrobe, I had forgotten that I bought it, therefore it was free...

I drew a reindeer on card, and drew round the cut out parts from spare bits of material, the brown for his face was from a freebie pashmina that I have never worn, so it is not missed, the eyes are buttons, the rest are scraps, his nose is padded.

I am delighted with the result, and in my mind, was way better than any shop bought ones, I have washed it a couple of times and it came out absolutely fine :), he is now safely nestled away in my wardrobe for this christmas :)

 

Merry Christmas

 

Mrs P xx

Baptism Cards

Hi,

 

So, as per usual, it has been a while since I have posted anything on here, I am not the best at blogging, I freely admit that,

 

These were cards produced for our new godson, Nicholas, and his brother Marcus, both baptised on the same day in December.

 

I have been making good use of the glitter glue, I love that it sets solid and sparkly, and it had a really good effect outlining the crusifixes on these cards :), I also used the hotfix gun to stick the gems securely, I do love that tool :)

I am always nervous about making cards for card making professionals, such as their mummy...... ;)