Organising Craft Supplies - Pens and Pencil Box

One of the biggest issues I suffer with is anxiety and mess triggers off these feelings. So much so I try to avoid and ignore the piling hoard of craft items I have collected over the years, then this deters me from wanting to do anything. Which means technically I'm a hoarder too. 

So for this years new years resolution, I have decided to confront these feelings and get organised. No matter how much the tightness in my chest cause me to not want to progress, the reluctance to want to throw any of it away; I am determined that I will get it organised into a tidy, workable space. 

My compulsion extends to that of what is inside of boxes. Yes, boxes have their purpose to hide a mess but the lack of organisation within them causes me, again, to want to ignore the contents; pretend that they will sort themselves out. I know this won't happen so the only way for me to feel comfortable in approaching these boxes and to put their contents to use is to spend time organising them.

But here is where my lack of not wanting to throw things away and turn them into something else comes in handy. Toilet roll and kitchen roll cardboard inner tubes.

Rather then throwing them away, I know that they can be used for other things. 

Here's a few samples:

Seeding plants. 

If you set them out in a suitable size tray that stops water spilling by filling up the cardboard rolls with compost you can use them as a bio-degradable plug. Once the seedling is old enough to be planted outside, nature will do the rest for you and rot down the cardboard roll. 

Compost.

Simply rip up the cardboard roll and add it to your compost bin. Helps create rich compost.

Animal Tubes.

If you have hamsters or mice or even a snake, these tubes are great and cheap passage ways for them. The small rodents will even gnaw at these (good for their teeth) to add to their bedding. For larger pets like rabbits or guinea pigs you can stuff them with alpha alpha hay and bits of dried food to create a boredom buster treat, as they will tear them to shreds. 

You can also use them for dogs. We fill these with treats then stuff the ends with newspaper. The dogs love them, helps with dogs puzzle abilities and keeps them occupied when they are left alone. Results are a bit messy but what's that compared to two happy dogs.

Cable Wraps

Cheap and effective way to keep all those messy cables together. All you need to do is cut length ways down the tube. Place the cables inside the tube wrap around tightly then fix with a little duct tape to seal them in.

My task I set for myself was to organise my pen and pencil box, see below the photos of the box before I began. Finding a colour to use was such a pain, I did little to no colouring, drawing or writing.

What you need:

One plastic storage box with lid

Cardboard toilet roll inner tubes

Scissors (for the kitchen roll size tubes)

The box I used was approx 1ft x 1/2ft x 1/2ft. Firstly I placed the rolls in to see how many I would need and noticed the amount of wasted space between the tubes, so I decided to fold them into rough squares.

I realised I was 2 tubes short so I simply cut a kitchen roll inner tube in half.

Now I had enough rolls I placed them into the box side by side to fill the box as tightly as possible. 36 rolls were needed in total for this size box. Now the box is ready to be organised.

Standing the pens and pencils up in the tubes, I sorted them into colours and the drawing pencils into gradients of shade.

The result: a rainbow of organised colour and room for some scissors too.

Simple and Effective.

Tasty Tuesdays - Pancake Day

Ideal for a yummy, quick and easy breakfast. 

Today for pancake day we treated ourselves to some Oat and Banana Pancakes. Wheat free too. Not that I don't eat wheat. Love my Bread.

Ingredients:

2 Bananas

2 eggs
1/2 cup of oats
Splash of milk
Splash of vanilla essence (but this is for my personal taste)
Butter for cooking

Method:

Turn you hob on to get it heated up whilst you make the batter.

Break up the banana and crack open the eggs then add all of the ingredients into a jug or blender. Mix them all together to make the pancake batter. I used a stick blender to achieve the smooth consistency. 

Place your pan of the hob then add a small knob of butter to grease up your frying pan. Allow your pan a few minutes to get piping hot.

Using a tablespoon, scoop out 2 spoonfuls of the mix into your frying pan and using circular motions with the back of the spoon. Smooth out a small cup size pancake, I can fit three into a large frying pan.

Leave to cook for 20 seconds (the first batch will need 5 seconds longer as the pan is still heating up) and start to gently lift up the pancake from the frying pan ready to turn over. Do the same for the others and leave each for another 20seconds to cook. If they aren't cooked fully, just simply turn them over and allow to cook for a further 5-10 seconds to finish.

Et voila, you have small circular-ish pancakes.

We served ours with maple syrup but you can serve them with anything for fruit to chocolate to ice cream. Enjoy.

All ingredients in a jug

Blended to a smooth batter using a stick blender.

Circular motions with the back of a tablespoon to create the shapes of the pancakes.

Turning over time, using the spatula gently to prevent tearing.

The first side will be browner then the second side.

What the second side looks like in comparison.

Note: If you stack the pancakes ready on the plate as you make them, it will keep them hotter for longer.

Pancakes a go to get in my belly, served with maple syrup. Oh yummy times.

Tasty Tuesdays - Pizza on Toast

Pizza on Toast

Quick and easy simple dinner/snack.

Ingredients:

Bread
Tomato puree
Mixed Herbs (I used herbs de provence)
Cheese
Salami
Pepperoni

Method:

We bought a soft tiger bread uncut loaf from Aldi, which gives you the option to put it in the oven to crisp of the top or eat it soft and squidgey.

First I cut the tiger bread into slices to create a lovely thick base.

I squeezed a dollop of tomato puree (or you could use a sauce such as tomato or BBQ) onto one bread slice and sprinkle some herbs on top. Use as much or as little to taste. Then use a knife spread it on like butter.

I sliced the cheese, put it on to cover the slice of bread then added a slice of salami and pepperoni for the topping.

Repeat for all slices.

These I then put on a baking tray and cooked them for about 20mins on 180c, which meant I could put the oven chips in at the same time.

And in no time at all a tasty and simple dinner.

You can add any other toppings like ham, pineapple, chicken, beef, vegetables etc. The same as you would a pizza and the cooking method is like having a varying version of cheese on toast.

This dish was so quick and easy, it took literally no time at all and created very little washing up. Great for a lazy evening.

It's a dish that could definitely be made by kids and that they could do as a food making activity.

The results are so yummy, similar to an actual pizza in taste but lighter in density.

Thumbs up to this quick dish. 

Makers Monday - Spring is on it's way...

After being asked to do my first 'How to make...' piece in our local magazine, I couldn't help but play around with the theme of Spring. To finalize what item I would use to create this piece, I needed to play around with ideas.

I have now finished the article piece but won't be able to put it up until after the mag is published. 

One idea I did consider (see above) was a word based Spring Wall hanging on either wood or canvas using the mod podge transfer technique. Finding various free fonts, PNG images (these are best, so you can overlay them and not block out any background as they are transparent) and a few other images. I started to put them together. Normally I would draw and create my own image but the drawing program on my computer is not working at present so I borrowed an image I found during an image search (see Below).

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/CollectiveCreation

Bird on Wire Image found via Collective Creation. Beautiful images on here. Click link to have a look at more of their images.

These PNG flowers I found via clip art during an image internet searching stating 'Flowers PNG'

I did not carry out this project at this time due to the fact I need to practice the mod podge technique and that it didn't quite fill my criteria needed for the mag. I needed things to do for parent and child. But I will certainly play around more with these ideas and create some more designs.

Makers Monday - Simple T-Shirt Amendment

This video always gets me so I just had to buy the t-shirt.

Only problem with it was though, that it had a crew neck and personally I'm not to keen on these. So amended the t-shirt to suit by cutting on the crew neck. See diagram

.

If you cut about 2inches away from the sleeve stitch line, carefully with a sharp pair of scissors across the top of the t-shirt near to the neck line. You should end up with something like this.

And on it should look like this. Off both shoulders like in the image or you could wear if off just the one shoulder.

Please Note:

Do try this out on an old t-shirt first as you really don't want to ruin the lovely new top you've just bought. 

Remember practice makes perfect.

Product Review - Make your own Knitted Chick

On a day out to Malvern we stopped at the retail park to get a bite to eat. Seeing that Poundland was one of the many shops there, I quickly ran in before we went home to pick up some wooden kebab sticks to use as the holder for my make shift weaving loom. Unfortunately, it's not BBQ season yet so they had none in stock.

I had a wonder around regardless to see if they had any other bits and bobs, as crafters do and I found in their easter section this 'Make You Own Knitted Chick', so I bought it to try it out, can't go wrong for a £1.

It reminded me a little of the toys my grandmother used to make and sell at local village hall sales. 

So once we got home, I decided to test it out.

What you get:

1 x large round knitting loom
1 x small round knitting loom
1 x hook
1 x large sewing needle
2 x googley eyes
Yellow wool
Orange Wool
Stuffing
Instructions


First off, the instructions for this are so detailed with images and words. Very easy to follow and on the back they are in Spanish. Excellent start.

Both the knitting looms were so easy to use. Producing quite fast results. Only issue: don't use the hook to harshly as it is liable to snap, try to keep the wool tension to light.

First Steps - Creating the wings and body of the chick

I made the wings first then the body.

I found if you wove the excess wool around the outside of the loom and held it with you thumb underneath, as you moved the loom around your hand, the wool was less likely to unwrap itself from around the loom pegs.

The body here is not the full 15cm recommended in the instruction (more like 10cm) as there wasn't enough wool to do the whole body. Lucky I did the wings first or else it would have been a wingless chick.

Second Steps - Stuffing body and wings then sewing it all together

I stuffed the body then sewed the ends together. I did thread the wool from one end to the other with the needle to round of the bottom edges a little more then in the instructions.

Even though there wasn't enough wool to complete the body, I prefer the look of this body as it is short and chubby like that of a chick anyway. 

Final Step - Feet, Beak and Eyes

Next I made the feet and sewed them on as instructed.

To finish off though, I couldn't bring myself to sew the chicks beak on as the instructions told you too. I shorten the recommended length by 1cm to 3cm. Stuffed the beak and sewed around the edges of the tube to create a beak that stuck out. Much better in my opinion.

The eyes just stuck on but for a more permanent solution I would recommend using PVA or a glue gun to fix them, as the adhesive is not strong enough to last.

The overall product gets an 8/10 and a must do. So simple and easy to use. Project can take between 2-4 hours, possibly longer depending on who's doing it. The only thing I feel that let it down, was not the fact there wasn't enough wool supplied, as this created a pleasing error due to the chubbier body but it was the actual overall design of the finished product which didn't do this product justice. I know it's cheap and cheerful but the beak was just so wrong. 

But it was amended gracefully and I actually ended up with quite a cute looking teddy, which my foster sister now wants to steals. ;)

Once the project has ended, the tools can be used to make other toys. So overall bargain buy, resulting in many other simple and cute teddies. Here's a photo collage of the rabbit I made after finishing this project. A BIG Thumbs up and please don't be put off by the Easter Chicks design.