Ceramic Mandala

 Another craft ticked off my "crafts to try" bucket list.   A little mosaic mandala coaster, although I opted for the alternative of a hanging plaque.  (Hope you can see the navy ribbon hanger).   I will back the mdf with some paper or paint one of my roses on it.

Macramé Pot Hanger

 

The start

I bought a macramé kit a few weeks ago, and finally got around to starting it.   You start of with over 5 metres of cord!  (which I didn't actually need as I cut 24" off the bottom when finished)

The instructions were easy to follow, but I was a tad disappointed with the quality of the "cord" it was more like twisted cotton, and it unravelled very easily - I would that thought it would be more robust considering the lengths we were working with!

Anyway I managed it, and the "tatty" cord was in the section I cut off.  As you can see it was very long - the only place I could find to take a photo was the hanging basket hook!

One achievement was the fact that I mastered whipping - something I always failed at when I was a Girl Guide!

Painted card

I love one stroke painting, and thought I ought to do it more often, so I painted this card for a friend's birthday,   The main imaged was done with acrylic paints, and then a added some mica magic for the background.

 

Granddaughter's Jubilee cakes

My 10 year old granddaughter wanted to make cakes.   She made these from start to finish.  Gluten and dairy free cupcakes made with her favourite salted caramel icing sugar.

She then made the frosting (dairy free buttercream) under my guidance, learning how to make sure it was light and smooth.   She then divided it into three, and colored one tub red, one blue and one white using Sugar and Crumbs Colour pop colours. 

I showed her how to feel an icing bag, and gave a quick demonstration on how to use the nozzles we chose.   I left her to it.    Didn't she do well?     My favourite was the cake below - which I think looked like a crown!

 

a quick trifle for Jubilee weekend

The mood took me to make a trifle over Jubilee weekend.    I haven't made a trifle in years.  It was just a simple one - swiss roll to line the dish (family heirloom of course!), the middle was then filled with raspberries and a raspberry jelly poured over it.  When set I poured over cooled custard, and when that had set I topped it with some vegan elmlea that I had left over from making vegan icecream.  A few strawberries and choc drops to finish.  
Unfortunately because the custard wasn't dairy free I couldn't share it with the family - so had to eat it all myself!  (over a few days)!

 

Birthday card using masks

 

This was another birthday card using layered masks.  I love the faded look they give.
 

75th Birthday Card

 

Cards for men can be difficult at times, as this was for a milestone, I kept it simple and made theage the feature.  Created in Craft Artist.

Sympathy Card

 

I seem to be having a run of these lately ..... A sign that my friends and I are are getting old.    This one is for the families of a very dear icing pal.

16th Birthday cake.

Those of you that have followed my blog for a numbers of years, will know that I can produce a beteer cake than this!    In my defence it was a dark and gloomy day when I tried to ice this, and could hardly see what I was doing, and secondly buttercream is not my favourite to work with;  albeit I did succeed in getting the icing fairly  smooth!  It was a completely "Mad" cake created using the new Colour Pop colours from Sugar and Crumbs.  Purple cake, sandwiched together with red buttercream, and then blue on the outside!  Everything gluten and dairy free and the flavour of the cake and icing was salted caramel.

The games controllers were created in chocolate - whit, milk and dark, dusted with edible frosts and then painted with coco butter for the details.

Here is a view of the inside!

It may look mad, but apparently it tasted delicisou!