Purple Peek Book

Bonjour.

As the week of temporary childless-ness draws to a close, (the boy returns from France tomorrow with a large bag of muddy washing no doubt) I am having a look back at a piece of work I did a wee while ago.  Did try to find pictures of my wedding stationary but without any luck.  Couldn't find the samples I kept either which is no wonder when when you see the state of my craft room.

Anyhow, the piece I want to tell you about is called Purple Peek.  It is purple and there are bits to peek at.  I know, making up names for projects is a skill which I seem to have.

It is based on a rubber stamp I have of a nautilus or maybe a fossil, who knows. I also had a lot of badly printed images of shells and the like which came out purple due to a printer malfunction.  Being the hoarder that I am I had kept these printed pages. There are never any mistakes in art, just pieces waiting for their moment to be born.

I wanted to keep the colours simple and so opted for black and white to go with the purple.  The design was not deliberate more of a discovery because while I was punching some circles out of the purple paper I put the piece of paper with the hole back down on my desk and noticed that it had left what looked like a little port-hole showing the image underneath to peek through.  That is how the whole idea developed.  Some areas are actually holes showing the page underneath, and some are 'fake' holes. 

I also wanted some movement to the piece so I made little cards to pull out from little pockets.  More peeking.  I bound the pages together and used some shrink plastic stamped images of the shell as decoration on the binding thread.  Together with the beads they also form a neat end to the thread to stop it fraying.

And there it is - Purple Peek.  Another blast from the past which kept me amused for a few hours making and has encouraged me to do something similar again.

See you soon, well, after doing all the dirty-boy laundry that is.

Kim xx

En France

My goodness, time does fly.  My son has been looking forward to his educational trip to France for a year.  Staying in a chateau speaking ONLY French and doing lots of exciting activities.  I have also been looking forward to this but for purely selfish reasons.  And the week has now arrived. Yippee.

I can craft all day long.  No school run, no homework to help with, no getting up early, meals when I like.  Of course I miss him , no I really do, but this week is all mine.

So, I am currently making a batch of the little inspirational books.  I have a little production line going and have made nearly 50.  I love the process as much as the finished result.  

I have also been wanting to tackle wedding stationary. Trouble is I am not the cleanest of crafters and so I would probably have to set up a work space in a completely sterile area so as not to get anything grubby.  I know wedding stationary doesn't have to be white/cream/ivory, but let's face it that is what most people expect.  

Could have silver or gold leaf and a different colour gem.

I did a complete suite of wedding stationary for a friend several years ago which included a Save the Date card, invitations to the ceremony, invitations to the reception, Thank You cards and place names.  They were great fun to make, again mainly because of the production line style.  The base colour of the card was cream with burgundy being the main colour thread.  I shall have to upload a photo............be back soon.

What Bad Weather?

For those that don't know, it has been a pretty snowy few days here in Blighty.  Actually couldn't get out at all and so was FORCED to potter in my Craft Room.  There was a bit of the usual 'What should I do?', some post-Christmas tidying, a few cups of coffee and then...........................these little beauties were 'born'.

For those like me who cannot actually throw away ANY bit of pretty paper, these are ideal little makes to use up some of that stash.

Each one contains a simple phrase, printed on hand stamped paper and bound in a co-ordinating hard cover, tied with ribbon.

They are great to make and because they are hand made, each one is unique.

I spent a while looking for inspirational quotes and it seems to have rubbed off on me; I am totally inspired and now want to make more.

I have no idea how many I will end up making, but I have a lot of little pieces of paper too good to throw away and there are thousands of inspirational quotes so don't be surprised if I am away for a few days.

Thanks you to all who read this, remember I would love to read your comments.

Kim x

Stollen - A Christmas Classic.

Today I have made Stollen.  I have made it in the past without much success but today I spent some time researching recipes and came up with this!

I made some changes to the fruit content, used a butter enriched yeast dough I trusted and tweaked little things along the way.

I don't like glace cherries so left them out without any guilt.  Not sure they are classic to Stollen anyway.  I also soaked the fruits I did use in some Brandy.  I used a colourful selection of sultanas and dried apricots.   I didn't have any mixed peel either but I don't think it will be missed.  There are almonds in it and I also added pistachio nuts as I had a handful of them left.  All in all it has turned out very tasty.  It is probably not going to last long once the family get their hands on it.  Maybe there will be time to make another one?

I know this entry is short and sweet but I am getting my house ready for Christmas.

I would like to wish you all a Happy Festive Season, may it be everything you wish it to be.

Love to you all.

Kim

Expect Hyperactivity!

Hello Readers.

Today I have been busy making cakes for my sons birthday. He is really far too old to still be given a birthday cake but when browsing the web recently I saw some cup cakes which simply had to be made for him.  Even at his age he is still a fan of Cookie Monster.

First came the cup cakes, standard sponge recipe nothing fancy.

Then I hit the blue food colouring BIG TIME.  Luckily Cookie Monster is a regular blue gel colour found in the food colouring section of the cake decorating shop.  I wonder how many tons of cream cheese frosting I would have made if the colour had needed to be mixed to match?  It doesn't bear thinking about.

I coloured some desiccated coconut with the same blue gel by adding some of the colouring to a zip-lock bag with the coconut.  Lots of rubbing and smooshing got the colour blended.

I sourced some mini chocolate chip cookies, bought some white chocolate drops and melted some dark chocolate for the eyes.  And voila - Cookie Monster cup cakes.

Hope he likes them - hope you like them?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SON - NOM NOM NOM

Book with no Purpose

Yet again I have been a while getting back to you all.  I seem to be busier than ever these days.

I am looking back at a project that I did several years ago and wondering if I could create something similar again?  I started making this book purely by chance when I was looking though some of my scraps of paper.    I had an idea to store the scraps by colour rather than just in a box all randomly.  I am really a neat-freak at heart and I love sorting things, putting things in order, labeling things, listing things.  Anyway, I soon built up a section with the colours you see in this book and suddenly it all made sense.

Inside showing the stamping down the spine.

I took a simple board book and stripped it of its glossy paper to reveal the grey board underneath.  I pick up these books from junk shops and find them equally as good as the more expensive blank books you get from craft suppliers.  I find that I am less worried about the final result if I re-use cheap purchases rather than brand new alterable items, and anyway, recycling is always better. In this case I cut the book away from the spine to give me individual boards but sometimes you can leave the book intact.

So once the book had been stripped, I set about recovering the pages with a background paper. I used a CD of printable images which happened to have a matching rubber stamp, purchased from the company run by Glenda Waterworth. I selected a colour and theme that tied all the scraps together.  While this was drying I spent a little while on my computer writing phrases in a suitable font and printed them off onto pieces of the same paper I had covered the pages in.

When the covered boards were dry I put them together so that it functioned like a book, turning each board to reveal the left and right sides to make sure the opposing pages were reasonably well matched.  I then used the stamp and stamped images on the boards using black ink.  I stamped on the edges and down what would be the spine going over from one page to the other so that the pages formed a pair.

Next I took all the images and phrases and mounted them up on some black card to give them a border.  This means that they stand out from the background of the page.  Once I had enough (and trust me you  can never have enough) I started arranging the images and phrases onto the pages.

Front Piece showing the binding.

Once I was 100% happy with the layout I glued the pieces in place.  I used a pile of books to weigh down the boards to keep them flat and to make sure the scraps stuck flat and firmly. When they were fully dry, I punched holes in them so that I could bind them together to make the book again.  I used a leather thong and a coffee stirrer  to bind the book.

It was then just a case of going through the book page by page and adding the odd extra feature such as images of bees and butterflies.  I also felt that the images and phrases needed 'attaching' to the pages so I drew little dots in the corners to simulate brads.  That is one thing that I will say about these type of books, you need to keep your embellishments  fairly flat.  Bulky items like brads make the pages uneven and lumpy.

The book serves no particular purpose - my husband is always wondering what my creations are 'for'.  I don't think he gets art other than paintings which quite clearly are meant to be hung on walls to break up the blandness of the wall and sculpture which is placed in a park or garden and is designed for people to walk around. Bless him.  

So, I expect I shall be going into my room later today to sort something out and maybe, who knows, I might get inspired to create another 'book with no purpose'.

Happy days my friends. x x x

Kim

Cucumber Relish

So, it has been a while.  Life has a way of taking off at times.  It is all good and there is much happiness around at the moment. It is all to do with a new baby in the family.  Welcome my precious. x

So, the year is 3/4 of the way through and the season has turned to autumn.  The time of harvest.  Sadly my apple tree was not very productive this year.  A combination of a wet spring and a lack of bees.  The blossom was beautiful as it always is, but a fierce rain storm lasting several days battered the flowers off the tree before the few insects that were about had a chance to do their bit.  So no apple pies for the freezer this year.  

The Last of the Cucumbers.

Lucky for me the cucumbers did well, partly due to the vast amount of rain.  Nice as they are in salads, the weather now does not really suggest cold food and so I have used the last of my cucumbers to make some pickle.  A surprising result I have to say.  Sweet, sharp, and fresh and I am sure it will go down well with some baked ham, or even on a nice grilled chop.  It has a hint of dill, which is THE herb to put with cucumbers.  (I wonder if this pickle would go with mackerel?)  Some chopped red and green bell peppers, onions, home grown celery and mustard seeds add a little extra colour and flavour.

Bottled up.

It is the season to be in doors now, so hopefully I will be able to get some serious creating done.

Cheers for now friends.

Kim