DIY Beaded Wrap Bracelet

Hey Guys!

I've been meaning to get this post up since the weekend but have found myself slightly distracted by the abnormal 'summer in March' weather we've been having here at the moment!

I was intending to do a full photo tutorial on how to make a beaded bracelet but, once I started, I was finding it really tricky to be able to photograph each step in detail so you could actually work out clearly what I was doing. After taking about a million photos, I had to look at it and think, would I be able to follow this? The answer was no. I keep intending to try making some video tutorials, maybe this is the kick up the bum I need to do it!?

Anyway, I headed over to youtube and ended up finding a great video by DanniAndChels which explains and shows the process perfectly especially if you've never made one of these bracelets before. I've just subscribed to their channel as they have so many amazing DIY and beauty videos! I can't wait to work my way through them all! They also have a blog http://danniandchels.blogspot.co.uk/ too!

How to make a beaded wrap bracelet by DanniAndChels

Here's a few photos of me making my one...

I got all my supplies in Hobbycraft, other than the silver buttons which I got in a huge bag from Etsy ages ago (I couldn't pick which one to use initially). I would say that the beads in HC are quite expensive so I would definitely look on eBay or Etsy for some, especially if you want to make the bracelet wrap around your wrist more than once.

If anyone knows of any good places to get beads, do drop me a comment! I am fully hooked on bracelet making now!

Lisa X

Sunday Retail Therapy

Me and mum went out for a couple of hours today so I thought I would share my Sunday shopping purchases. In TK Maxx (my favorite shop EVER) I picked up Eric Lanlards book as I also intend on watching all 2 series of Baking Mad on 4oD, some icing bags, headphones to keep in my bag and the cutest Hello Kitty for Liberty pen.

They also had a couple of Emma Bridgewater mugs in there so mum treated me to this Happy Easter one! I know I should technically wait until Easter to have this but i'm already drinking tea out of it!

I picked up this silk stripped top from TK Maxx and the shirt from Primark. I resisted the urge to buy a load of jewellery like I usually do as i've been wearing my real silver and gold pieces and I have to admit, I don't miss the green gingers at all!

Finally I repurchased Stila Kitten eyeshadow because it's my favorite and nothing else quite compares. £12 for a single eyeshadow is a bit expensive though!

I'm going to sit down and plan out some blog posts for next week now! I hope you've all had a lovely weekend!

Lisa X

PS. If you watch TOWIE then you'll appreciate how hilarious seeing this in Poundland was!

DIY Glitter Easter Eggs

It's friday... so I played with glitter! I have a good excuse as I am intending to make some sort of Easter tree after being inspired by the images below. (A google search brings up some great ones!) 

Super cute tree by Aunt Peaches 

I love the fresh flowers used by Crafting Chicks

Stage one was just putting some glitter on the plastic eggs I picked up from Hobby Craft for £1.99. Easy but messy, I keep seeing flecks of glitter all over me!

I'm not entirely sure what the end tree result will be but you could basically hang these anywhere! They also look great without the hook, piled into a vase with some flowers! Choices, choices...

Lisa X

PS. My lovely mum gave me a present yesterday of this book! It's absolutely amazing and i'll do a review of it shortly.

DIY Wire Rings by Secret Life of a Fashion Nerd

If you've been enjoying the latest trend of wearing rings above the knuckle, this DIY from Secret Life of a Fashion Nerd is for you! She has lots of great tutorials so make sure you check out here Youtube HERE.

The Cookie Chronicles

The baking continues.... 

I popped into my local sugarcraft shop and TK Maxx to pick up a few more supplies! I have to say, our Tk Maxx is so good for cooking/bakeware and I picked up a couple of rolling pins, a baking tray, icing tips (PME sizes 1, 2 & 3) and the most amazing sifter! The sugarcraft shop was a bit of a rip off to be honest, lesson learnt, eBay is MUCH cheaper! I also totally cheated this time around and bought a bag of ready made royal icing mix as they didn't sell meringue powder.

I got myself a new apron too, naturally it's got cakes on it!

First, I baked my cookies using SugarBelles recipe. Once they had cooled down I put them in a Tupperware box until the following day. I ate a few... had to be done. 

I've never iced cookies like this before and, let me tell you, it's a bit of a mission! Getting the icing consistency right is quite tricky and I ended up making a complete mess of the kitchen adding the colouring and trying to get it into the icing bottles! You can see the purple cookies I iced first don't look as good as the red ones which I did after. Piping a nice even circle is hard! 

I had to leave these to dry over night so the icing was fully set before I could try decorating them. I also had to resist the temptation to keep checking them by pushing my finger on the icing! 

And finally... I decorated the suckers! For a first attempt i'm pleased with how they turned out but I already know how to improve them the next time I make them. The key is to practice, practice and practice some more! Why am I bothering to do this this you may ask? Well... I've decided to go back to school! I've applied for a year course in general patisserie and confectionary as it's something I am absolutely in love with and I want to hopefully make a career out of! Fingers crossed, come September i'll be heading off to baker school but in the mean time, I'm trying to give myself a little head start and lets be honest, icing pretty cookies isn't such a bad way to spend an afternoon!

I would also like to point out, I have an actual blister on my finger from piping so much icing! I feel quite proud of myself! 

Lisa X

DIY: Decoden Sweet Jar Tutorial

So i've finally go around to doing this tutorial and I think it's honestly one of my favorite so far! If you've never heard of decoden before, it originated in Japan and is short for decoration denwa, "denwa" meaning phone. 

Decoden can basically be applied to anything (old jars, tins, boxes) but I decided to decorate the top of a glass jar that i'm going to fill with mini eggs for easter. 

It's so easy to make these things look good and you only need a couple of pretty inexpensive things! You can even use the silicon from this project to fill the macarons from THIS diy post! 

You'll need: 

A jar (I picked this one up in Ikea for about £1.50 but you can use an old jam jar!

Multi purpose silicon in a squeezy tube. I got mine HERE but I have since seen it in Tesco!

A selection of cabochons, I got mine from Snap Crafty

A piping nozzle

1) Cut the end off of your tube of silicon and then tape on your icing tip. If you don't have an icing tip, it really doesn't matter too much. You're making a fake whipped cream so you really can just squeeze it all over the top of your jar.

2) Start by piping around the edge of your jar until you have gone all the way around.

3) Fill in the middle with more 'icing' and pipe on some random swirls.

4) Start placing your cabochons into the 'icing'. If you want some to sit higher than others, pipe on some extra silicon on the spot for extra height before placing your cabochon.

5) Once you are happy with the look of your topped jar, leave to dry! I've made mine this morning and will leave it all day and night to dry. 

6) Fill with whatever you fancy and keep for yourself or give as a cute gift! 

I'm off to do some real icing on my sugar cookies now! I'll post my baking haul and icing later! Hope you are all having a lovely weekend.

Lisa X

Today I Love...

Be still my beating heart! O' how I need these measuring spoons by Beehive kitchenware in my life like... NOW! Swoon swoon. (If you're reading this mum.... Easter... *wink wink*) Buy them from Etsy HERE! I'm sure they would improve my baking ten fold!

Also I would LOVE it if you could check out the besties cover of 'Miss You' by Beyonce & Frank Ocean. You'll be hearing a lot about him this year and he really does deserve all the success that's coming his way! He's an amazing singer but an even more amazing friend! Ahhhh! (Don't worry, i'll abuse him later to compensate for that burst of niceness! Mwwahaha!)

Subscribe, comment, like and also tweet him on Twitter @zachlondon (and tell him to post a photo of his new hair!)

AND getting parcels! Yes... I have had a slight lapse in my 'no paypal for lent' promise :-s

I can see myself becoming a cookie cutter hoarder in no time! The Hello Kitty cutter alone needs a photo all by itself!

Lisa X

Follower Contest: And The Winner Is...

Commenter number 29, Life in the wendy house! I'll be emailing you for your contact details so I can send out your prize! Thank you to everyone who entered and keep your eyes posted for a new contest soon! :-) 

Lisa X 

Goldilocks & The Three Cookies?!?!

This afternoon I have been testing out oven settings for baking my sugar cookies using the recipe from the amazing Sugar Belle. Her website gives all the instructions I followed for mixing and baking your cookie dough so I highly recommend you check it out.

Usually I would never be this anal about baking, but recent developments (which i'll share with you in due course!) have made me want to properly learn to bake and thus, I have created my own personal challenge of the perfect sugar cookie! 

I made my dough in the electric mixer and then divided it into 3. I'll admit, I was a bit cocky and thought that the first batch (which was the largest quantity of cookies) would come out perfect because, it's only a cookie after all, how hard could it be? Errr... hard!

Batch one consisted of some scalloped edged circles, easter eggs and squares. On Sugar Belle, she recommends that the cookies are 1/4" thick but I didn't bother to check. Error numero uno.

I baked batch 1 in a pre heated fan oven at 200°C for 7 minutes, the equivalent of the settings she uses for her cookies. Everyones oven is slightly different, that's why the results of my cookies were awful and her's are perfect. Sugar cookies should not be brown. Mine are. They have also spread into each other and lost their shape and detail making them also too thin. FAIL. 

For batch 2, I went with just the easter egg shape and baked these at 180°C for 7 minutes.

Colour wise these came out pretty good but again, they spread a little too much and were a bit too thin.

You can see the colour difference between the cookie on the left from batch one, and the cookie on the right from batch 2. Big difference in 10 degrees.

Finally, I made batch 3 thicker. The pastry was a little dry by this time so the dough wasn't as smooth but this was about colour and not finish at this stage so I wasn't really bothered. Once they are iced you wouldn't see this anyway. These were baked at 170°C for 9 minutes.

The cookies held their shape much better so it is clearly important to keep them 1/4" thick! I think I will reduced the baking time by 1-2 minutes next time and then they will be perfect. These, out of the  3, we're just right!

Once they cooled down they were a nice even colour, soft with a bit of a snap.

You can clearly see the difference between the 3 batches and the third cookie on the right is almost the exact same size as the cookie cutter was.

I've bought some icing supplies but I want to make another batch of cookies first to make sure they come out perfect! They then need to be left in a Tupperware container for a day before icing. As these won't be iced, me and mum have been dipping them in mugs of tea! Mmm!

I feel like Goldilocks and the three cookies!

Lisa X

PS. Just under 3 hours left to enter my follower giveaway! I've picked up a couple of extras to go in the box too! Enter HERE.