cardboard 'patchwork' top hat

i've been planning (and then postponing) a mad hatter's tea party. such an event obviously merits a hat, here's what i came up with:

it's a very childish attempt - just a cardboard box that's been measured, cut, stapled, gaffa-taped, and then covered in cut-up bits of cutesy papers and pva. it could do with a ribbon and/or a corsage, maybe some feathers as well. it's pretty cool though : ) now all i need is the rest of my outfit.

alice in wonderland mini flamingo croquet set

i'm having a mad hatter's style tea party in a couple of weeks. it's not going to be a huge affair so i don't want to go to over the top...but there will be some little alice in wonderland elements here and there, among them will be this little set:

i have seen some quite impressive adaptations of the queen's croquet set online, and did ponder how to go about making one that could be construed to be both effective and cute, as well as non-committal and incidental for my little gathering. i think i've managed to achieve my goal, just.

to make you'll need:

chunky wooden lollipop sticks
a pencil
white and red paint
a black pen
wool roving in brown and two other colours
felting needle
playing cards
scissors

to make:

first, draw flamingos in various poses on your lollipop sticks with your pencil, paint these pink and once dry outline with your black pen.

next needle felt two smallish balls (slightly larger than the width of the sticks) in brown, to these needle felt two heart shapes in different colours, then add small felted eyes and noses to make your 'hedgehog' balls.

then, take a spare playing card onto which you can sketch a template of an arch which has a slit through each foot (these are to be bent each way so that they can stand up) and cut out once you're happy that the hedgehogs will roll through it. then take six playing cards of your choice (consecutive numbers work well as you'll need to know what order to play in) draw around your template, cut out accordingly and fold the feet so that they all stand up.

finally, arrange your card arches on a table, grab some friends and play croquet : )

subtle gryffindor embroidered loafers

i've had a craving for red shoes lately, funds being low i was rather happy when i saw that primark have done plain loafers in red AND  there were in the sale (primark sale - it's like they're giving stuff away!). so i got out some gold embroidery thread and this is the result:

i was just going to copy the gryffindor crest straight onto each toe, but thought that that would be a bit obvious...i am 23 after all, and as such need to give off some air of grown-up-ness...

anyway, embroidering cheap loafers is really easy, can look effective and is a great way to get a totally unique pair of shoes. as these are fake suede i was able to draw my designs on to them with a standard pencil and go over it with running stitch. simple. well, the closer you get the the end of the toe area, the harder it is to get at the needle from inside the shoe, but apart from that it's all pretty simple : )

vegan chocolate and raspberry cake

i found a vegan chocolate cake recipe that actually is quick, easy, and tastes good (here)! i altered it slightly by adding coffee tequila, raspberry jam and chopped raspberries to the mix at the end. also i spread raspberry jam on the top and then stuck raspberries to it (rather neatly), here's how it looked:

it looked quiet professional compared with most of my other attempts at baking, plus it was really nice and moist (i'm thinking that that has something to do with the extra booze, jam and fruit in the cake mix, their flavours didn't come through that strong but it tasted a bit grown up, which is kind of what i was aiming for). anyway, it went down well and i think it's one i'll do again as it really was an easy recipe : )

woodland creature wine glass charms

i mentioned in a previous post that the accessorize sale is something of a haven for jewellery crafters...well, among my haul of goodies i picked up a hideous charm necklace with very cute charms on. so i made a set of wine charms from it and gave them to a wonderful friend as part of her 22nd birthday present:

i got the wires off ebay (a few quid for a pack of 20), onto which i threaded 22 glass seed beads on each, then i just hung the charms. i hope she liked them, i think they're a rather sweet set myself : )

super cute needle felted hedgehog!

oh i must have too much time on my hands if i have time to make something like this:

i bought 3 different shades of natural wool roving (though 1 was just for the nose, which could totally have been a gold bead or something), totalling about £3.

to make:

i stabbed at the beige with my felting needle until it was a sort of pointy egg shape, rolled up 4 smallish bits of beige for the legs and stabbed at those until they resembled stubby sausages (about the width of a pencil), attached the legs by prodding them into the body with the needle, covered it's back with dark brown, stabbed a tiny spot of medium brown on the nose, sewed two black beads for eyes and did large irregular running stitches for his spikes.

i was so proud of this fellow that i carried him around in my pocket yesterday while at work - definitely managed to convince one customer that needle felting is very cool.

homemade salt scrub : )

it was mine and my friends birthday recently, so as a treat to ourselves we went to a spa (they tend to have cheap january deals) and at the spa they gave us full body scrubs - it's a lot like being sandpapered down so that your skin feels all nice. anyways, afterwards we decided that these treats should be repeated but as spa trips usually cost a bomb i thought it would be prudent to have a go at making mine own salt scrub (and one for my friend's birthday too):

i used lots of coarse sea salt, non-perfumed baby oil, purple glitter, eucalyptus oil, patchouli oil and rosemary oil. it's very girly, smells very relaxing and leaves your skin feeling ace: win!