Sugar Skull

I needed a new tote bag so I bought a plain canvas one for £3.00 from a craft shop.
Then I had the hard task of deciding what to put on it. I initially wanted to do a cross stitch Banksy so I put on soluble canvas and started stitching, but it was too fiddly and frustrating as I had to stitch from inside the bag. And also there was a leak in the conservatory and it rained on my soluble canvas, making it dissolve!
So I decided to use my 'fabric pastels' which I got from Japan. I always like sugar skulls/day of the dead so I decided to alter a photo of one on the internet and draw it onto my bag. I'm quite pleased with the result!

Christmas Shortbread

Another recipe from Great British Bake-Off (series 1)

Cute little vanilla shortbread biscuits, which were fun to ice!

I made half of this recipe:

• 200g softened unsalted butter
• 200g white caster sugar
• 1 large free range egg
• 400g plain flour
• 2 vanilla pods

1. Cream butter, sugar & vanilla seeds until creamy then beat in the egg.
2. Add flour and mix on low speed until dough forms.
3. Roll into two balls, wrap in cling film and chill for at least one hour.
4. Roll out and cut into chosen shapes. 

 

1. Chill again and preheat oven to 180 degrees.
2. Line baking tray with baking parchment.
3. Bake for approx 10 mins – until golden brown at the edges.
4. Cool on a wire rack.  

 

• icing sugar
• lemon juice

1. Make up icing to the right consistency then transfer to a piping bag.
2. Ice!

Felting

My new hobby is felting! It involves pricking mohair wool with a barbed needle until it mattes, then you can shape it and prick it more. The photos below are of a dog made by my mum not me, but hopefully I'll be this good soon. It sold on eBay for £4.99.

These is a Pomeranian dog made by me, currently on sale at Etsy! (/people/r0sycakes)

Pizza

Home-made pizza is really fun to make and not a huge amount of effort.

Mum's Birthday

For my mum's birthday we got her a mobile phone and I made this phone case using a design from Cath Kidston's "Stitch" book. It took a couple of days to make but she seemed to like it a lot!

The fabric is from a fat quarter of Cath Kidston fabrics and it was lined with a strawberry print fabric.
I also got her this card from Scribbler: