Banana Caramel Cupcakes

Everything looks better with some Japanese Masking Tape....

I used the Banana Caramel Cupcake recipe from Cupcakes, Cheesecakes, and Cookies, with a lemon cream cheese frosting. They were the perfect afternoon tea treat today:)

I purchased my tape from Pretty Tape.

Postage Stamp Gift Tags

When my children were in primary school, they were both given a stamp album for their birthday when they were around 8 years old. I figured that it was more fun to collect stamps than Pokemon cards. We used to save all our stamps and then each school holidays we would soak them to remove the envelope backing, dry them, and then add them to their albums. It was fun sorting through the stamps from different countries and was a great way to learn about geography. We had a lot of friends collected stamps for us. Of all the stamps we collected, the Christmas ones were always my favourite.

Nowadays we don't get many letters any more, but we still receive Christmas cards and I continue to save the stamps. I came across some the other day when I was tidying up a cupboard, and was inspired to turn some into some little Christmas gift tags.

This would be a fun activity for kids - simply give them a pile of stamps, some blank tags, some bakers twine, and an assortment of embellishments.

Here are a few other Postage Stamp crafts:
Postage Stamp Side Table
Postage Stamp Bowl
Postage Stamp Earrings
Postage Stamp Tin


I love making interesting Christmas Gift Tags from recycled materials -

Paint Chip Gift Tags from 2008

Playing Card Gift Tags from 2009

I wonder what we will come up with next year?

More Masking Tape....

I have been busy sewing this week and hope to show you what I have been working on soon. I have also been playing around with my Japanese Masking Tape - adding tape to packaging and cards. I decorated some plain white matchboxes with tape, paper, and ribbon to make some little containers for after dinner chocolates to grace each place setting at a special dinner.

We now have three workstations in the craft room - my kids are often there working on their projects too. I "labelled" my scissors and supplies with some masking tape.

Here is an envelope I made up for a card - love adding a bit of tape to the envelope to finish it off.

I noticed that there is some Cath Kidson Masking Tape available now - I will be definitely searching for this on our next trip to Japan. Who could resist the polka dots and flowers?

Doris from Mamas Kram has made a wonderful set of Christmas Advent Houses using my current favourite colour combination of Red and Aqua. You can see more lovely photos on her blog. I think I may need to make up another set in this colourway:)

Image Credit: Mamas Kram

Congratulations to Emily from Em's Scrapbag, the winner of our Tied With a Ribbon Giveaway.

Gifts in a Jar

Sarah is not a big lover of commercial cereals (apart from the chocolatey variety!) so she decided to make her own. She adapted a recipe that she found at Whole Living, adding in her favourite nuts (macadamias, almonds), seeds (sesame seeds), spices (cinnamon, ginger), and sweeteners (maple syrup and honey).

It looks and smells delicious!

It got me to thinking that we could package some of it up to give at Christmas time. Who wouldn't love some healthy cereal to start the New Year with after the excesses of the festive season? I think I will look out for some big jars on my next trip to Ikea.

In fact, we love giving gifts in jars as you can see from some of our past posts .....

Rudolph's Noses and Christmas Snowballs

Strawberry Jam

Hot Chocolate Mix and Baileys Chocolate Sauce

I made these for a magazine

Easter Baking Kit

Christmas Biscuit Mix

These were also made for a magazine

Sarah's Candy Cane Syrup

It is fun to look back on old blog posts! I must say my photography and styling has definitely improved:)

Tied With a Ribbon

As you may have guessed Sarah and I love to make things. We also love to inspire others to create, and our favourite type of gift for children is craft kits. Many of the commercially available kits have poor quality materials, so we were most excited to discover Tied with a Ribbon, a local business that puts together the sweetest sewing kits for children and adults using top quality wool felt and materials. We especially fell in love with the Plum Pudding Kit - these would look great hanging on the tree or attached to presents. 

Tied with a Ribbon is the brainchild of Jemima Flendt, a home economics teacher  from Perth who loves to inspire children to develop and explore their own love of fabric, ribbons, buttons and embellishments. Aside from felt kits, Jemima also makes lots of fun products like her colourful hair clip hangers...

And sweet felt needlebooks

 as well as aprons, party bags, and many other lovely products. 

You can find Jemima's products on her online store, and if you live locally she will at the Subiaco Craft and Community Fair (Sunday 31^st October – UWA Oak Lawn) and the Perth Upmarket (28^th November – UWA Winthrop Hall) .

We are giving away a Plum Pudding Kit, so if you would like the opportunity to enter the giveaway, please leave a comment on this post. We will be drawing a winner on Wednesday October 27. The giveaway is open to everyone, just make sure you leave an email address so we can contact you. 

Lazy Sunday

Sarah spoilt us this afternoon with a lovely batch of Marble Cupcakes. She used a recipe from Martha Stewart Cupcakes  - they were delicious!

Thanks to Susan for alerting me to the fact that Spotlight had some polka dotted wrapping paper. I dashed over there this morning and snaffled up the last three rolls. Everything looks better wrapped in polka dots as Sarah and I proved this afternoon when we gave this gift the polka dot treatment! I love the card that Sarah made (using the Paisley Cartridge on the Cricut).

Do you remember the Advent Houses I designed for Quilting Art Gifts? Susan from Studio Adventures has made up an Advent Village for her newly married daughter. Here is her version - don't they look amazing!

Have a great week!

Teen Art

Sarah played around with the cricut yesterday to make up a couple of pictures to put on her desk - in her new aqua/red colour scheme.

First up I spray painted a couple of old picture frames a glossy white.

Then Sarah cut out some polka dotted converse.....

and a cupcake.

Unfortunately when I took them outside to photograph, the wind blew them over and chipped the frames. I now have a bit of touching up to do!

Book Review: Embroidery Companion by Alicia Paulson

I was fortunate to pick up a copy of Embroidery Companion - Classic Designs for Modern Living by Alicia Paulson at the library yesterday. I have spent some time this afternoon admiring all the wonderful and creative projects within its pages. The hardest decision is going to be which project to start on first!

I have been a reader of Alicia's blog, Posie Gets Cozy for a couple of years and have been awaiting an opportunity to read her latest book. It contains 30 projects that include techniques such as decorative embroidery, counted cross stitch, and crewelwork.

The projects have a fresh appeal, whilst still utilising some more traditional designs.

Here is a peak at some of my favourite projects -

Folk Sampler

Storybook Pillowcase

Strawberry Tablecloth

Tree of Life

Embroidery Companion will be going on my Christmas list for sure!

Are there any new craft/sewing books that you would recommend?

Bliss

It was a happy mail day today when my order of Bliss arrived from the Ladybug Quilt Shop. This is destined to be a new quilt for Sarah. We will be giving her room a make-over during the summer holidays - with an aqua and red theme.

I can't wait to get started on it!

Here is the finished bunting for Sarah's bulletin board. I just taped the divine twine to the back of the little flags instead of punching holes in them. Sarah was thrilled with it.

I have a thing for mini bunting at the moment - I love the mini bunting that Anna made to decorate her colleagues computer, and the Ikea lantern that was given a bunting makeover by You Had Me at Bonjour . When I was at Kikki K today I spotted some sweet goodie bags with a bunting design (I was very tempted but resisted buying them).


Have you seen the new muffin tins and liners at Ikea? I spotted them last week and was unable to resist. I like the shape of the muffin - a bit smaller than my regular muffin tin. Of course the taller shape impacts on the crunchy muffin top to muffin ratio but this is made up for with the elegance of the slim shape.

I made up a batch of Spiced Pumpkin Muffins for afternoon tea. You can find the recipe on this post.

I picked up a copy of the Country Christmas Issue of Handmade Magazine while I was out today. It features a couple of my projects. It was a challenge to make something in the country style as I seem to gravitate towards brighter colours these days. It was fun to use some of the Christmas prints from my stash - I bought these fabrics when I was living in Houston about 10 years ago.

Here is my Cosy Christmas Set

and a festive tea towel.

Nearly time to pick up the kids from school - hope you all have a great weekend!

Bunting etc ...

I love mini bunting and decided that some would add a bit of fun to Sarah's bulletin board. Last night I cut some paper scraps in shades of red, aqua, and pink. I just need to string them together with some twine and it will be ready.

I bought my Divine Twine from Thimbelanna.


I have also been working on some birthday cards/packaging...

And a gift.....

I have been enjoying a spot of sewing this week, hope to show you what I have been working on soon ...

Cinnamon Brioche Scrolls

Sarah and I picked up the latest issue of Donna Hay Magazine while we were having a girls shopping day yesterday. After reading it from cover to cover, Sarah was inspired by the "How to Cook Brioche" feature and made some delicious Brioche Scrolls this afternoon. They were so flaky, buttery, and delicious..... Sarah is always spoiling us with her cooking skills.

Christmas Lantern

Christmas is my favourite time of year - and with only 11 weeks to go, I felt inspired to make a quick project this afternoon.

Materials:

• IKEA Rotera 8" lantern
• red cardstock
• narrow red ribbon
• Cricut  + Very Merry Tags Cartridge (optional)
• adhesive foam squares

I used my cricut to cut out the 6 reindeers to place on the outside of each window of the lantern. If you don't have a die cutting machine, you can hand cut out a simple shape such as some stars, snowflakes, or Christmas trees (refer to photo below).

We are going with a red and white theme again this Christmas - I love the simplicity of red and white.

Did you spot the Dala horse on my mantlepiece? I discovered it at Kikki K this week and it had to come home with me:)

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Give-away Winner

Just a quick post to let you know that we used the random number generator to select a winner for our Ladybug Quilt Shop Giveaway.

Congratulations Terri! We have sent you an email. If you check out Terri's blog, Terri's Notebook, she has recently posted a tutorial on making a sweet little makeup bag.

I am enjoying my last few days of school holidays. Hope to be back soon with some projects to share.

Spring Break

My recreation leave from work started today - I now have a week off  -  time to hang out with my teens (and drive them around!) and catch up with friends. I have a loooong list of things I hope to get done over the next week, including some sewing projects. I always find the spring break a busy time - lots of gardening and spring cleaning to be done. In our extended family there are a lot of birthdays over the next couple of months, plus Christmas to prepare for. Hopefully I get a few things checked off my list.

Today I worked on a quick wine bottle tag.

I was inspired by these two cute projects I spotted during my blog reading this morning....
 Toast Greeting Card (Free Download) from Oh My Handmade
 Elegant Recycled Wine Tag from A Little Hut (these would look great in festive Christmas Colours).

Sarah found a bit of time this week to work on her first quilt. She hopes to complete the quilt top over the holidays.

There is still time to enter our giveaway to be in the running to win a gift voucher from Ladybug Quilt Shop. You can enter by commenting on this post.