Colorful Heart

Today I want to share with you this simple colorful paper heart. It makes me happy just to look at it.

I came across the idea on a wonderful blog called Mondocherry:
http://mondocherry.blogspot.com.au/

You can find this design here:
http://mondocherry.blogspot.com.au/search/label/blossoms

They have so many creative ideas and they use this a variety of colors that give a wonderful effect.

I hope you like it like I did.

Enjoy!

Apple Pie Tartlets

Yesterday, OliveOil spent some time on the kitchen and we were waiting impatiently to taste her dish. When she came out, it was with this sweet apple pie tartlets.

If you are ready to try this recipe, here are the ingredients.

You will need:

3/4 cup of butter
2 1/2 cup of flour
4 eggs
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoon of baking powder

For the filling, you will need:
-apple
-cinnamon
-sugar
-jam

Peel, core, and chop the apples. Toss the apples with 1 cup of sugar and lemon juice and bring to a boil until the apple becomes soft. Do not forget to add the cinnamon, as it is the soul mate of apple tart.

In a ball, mix the flour, baking powder and butter, then add the eggs and vanilla extract. Mix all until a crumby dough forms.

Divide the dough into two unequal parts. Shape the dough into small tartlets in the cupcake pan or muffin baking molds after greasing it. Let the dough rest for a while in the fridge.

Take it out and fill each tartlet with a mix of apple compote, jam, and nuts. Cover the tartlets up with the dough you kept aside. You can be creative with the shapes.

Bake until its color is golden brown. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a side bowl of apple compote.

Bon Appetit!

Food and Drink Stencils

This is a simple idea for decorating plates, cakes, drinks... you name it.

It all started when my cousin wanted a variety of shapes to use in her cappuccino cups. Of course OliveOil wanted to help. The shapes and designs were the easy part, the question was which material to use. She tried plastic card holders and finally decided to use plastic container lids.

You will need some plastic food container lids, some templates and a cutter. All you have to do is put the desired shape under the plastic lid and carve it. Then simply sprinkle any edible powder you have to draw the shape. Here OliveOil used sweetened cocoa powder on a twinkies cake and on the plate.

Here she used powdered sugar and cocoa powder to draw this double musical note.

You can also use it as cappuccino stencils and the great thing is you can draw your own designs or write your friends' names or engage your children in decorating a cake. It is easy and fun!

Enjoy!

Embroidered Denim Skirt

Here is another project done by my sister OliveOil. It is an embroidered skirt.

She wanted to add a border to her long denim skirt. So she looked for a simple design and she found great designs in this creative blog:

http://mytransfers.blogspot.com/p/popular.html
She picked this design and after changing some small details, here is the modified one:

Then she chose two shades of pink and pistachio dmc yarn to embroider the main line.

Finally she scattered some small flowers taken from the same design all over the skirt with different soft colors. Here is a closer look on the border.

Enjoy!

Newspaper Coasters

What do you think of this lovely coaster? Isn't it vibrant with colors! This is my sister OliveOil's latest projects.

Start by cutting a newspaper page to two equal halves. Then divide each half into four strips of paper. You can also use magazine pages or anything similar you have. Now get busy coiling them. Of course you will need to use the glue.

Now you have your coils ready.

Start shaping each coil into the desired shape. You can make circles, triangles, squares, or whatever fits your design. Use the glue to fix each piece.

Here is how she made the circles.

After the glue is dry, start coloring your pieces with acrylic colors.

Now you can assemble the pieces and glue them together according to the design you have in mind.

One last and important step is to seal the coaster with a sealant.

Now you can start using them!

Enjoy!

Picture Frames with Shells

It has been a while since our last craft. In fact we were at the beach enjoying the sun, the Mediterranean, and the delicious seafood :) I came back with lots of shells too. I wanted to use them in decorating a big picture frame but then I had a better idea! Why not make more than one smaller frames!

I started with a milk paper carton. It is silver and smooth from the inside. Do not forget to wash  the milk cartoon and dry it well before using it.

Then I cut three squares from the milk cartoon (front) and another three squares (back) from normal cartoon to back it with. The square is larger than a 4X6 picture.

In two of the three squares, I glued the front and back together and used a silver tape to hide the edges and make a nice frame.

In the third square I opened a window to insert the picture, before gluing the back square. This is my sister OliveOil when she was 5 years old :)

Then I decorated the frame with some stars and shells at the corners. I attached them with the glue gun because the milk cartoon silver surface is so soft.

In another project I used some colorful paper for the front and back instead of the silver paper. In this case, I cut rectangular shapes.

Then I started making up designs with shells to decorate my frames.

At last, I joined the frames together with some chains and put a longer chain at the top for hanging the final piece.

A friend's birthday was the following week, so I used her picture in one frame and decorated the other two colorful frames with shells and wrote her "Happy Birthday!" with a silver pen.

Enjoy!

Postcard Box

This is a nice box made of postcards that we used to construct all the time as kids. I remember my aunt kept her knitting set inside a similar one. It is easy to construct and you can make your own additions and changes as you go.

You will need:
- Some colorful postcards
- A paper punch or a pricking tool
- Scissors
- Thread

Start by deciding which cards will be put where and which colors will be next to which ones. Do not forget that you will have to cut the two sides of the box shorter than the rest of all cards.

Now punch all cards on even distances to be able to join them later. Take care not to punch all edges, for some will not be joined to anything.

Now using the thread, join the cards together to form the main shape of the box. I did not have to use a needle because the holes were big enough, but if you wish, a needle will help.

At this point you can use another single card to make the top cover. But I  wanted this box to look like a triangle roof house.

So I cut two triangles for the sides and joined them with two top cards.

Now you have a postcard box that opens and closes. As an addition, you can use a button to fasten the cover.

Some ideas and tips:

- I placed the bottom card face up to be seen when the box is used.

- You can double up the cards you are using. This way you will have pictures from the inside and outside and the box will be even stronger.

- You may even line up your box with a fabric of your choice.

- You can think of any simple technique to close the cover, using a button or a ribbon.

- You can if you wish add a ribbon at the top to be able to carry the box, just fix it firmly.

- When sawing the cards together, you can use different stitches to give various effects.

Enjoy!

Fondant Covered Biscuits

Today tastes delicious. We are going to learn together how to prepare these colorful biscuits. They are fun for kids too and you can spend a nice time and end up with these yummy biscuits. They require no baking as well. My sister Olive Oil is a specialist in this recipe :)

You will need biscuits of course, whipping cream,&nbspany tasty jam (we prefer strawberry), marshmallow fondant icing, food colors, and some cutters. You can either prepare the fondant icing yourself or buy it ready made.

Start by adding different colors to different pieces of the fondant and mixing them together.

They will look like this. You can use any colors according to the design you have in mind. Tip: You can also get the marble effect by mixing any two balls.

Now, use the rolling pin to spread the icing and cut it into the shapes you have in mind. In this case, we used circle cutters the same size as the biscuits to make the base. Then we cut some other small pieces for decoration.

You are ready to work. Bring the biscuit, cover it with jam and whipping cream or add whatever ingredient you like. Then seal it off with the fondant circle. Then decorate it as you wish.

It will look like this.

Bon Appetit!