Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Edible spooky eyes for Halloween

Halloween is coming along fast, so the communal library organized a midnight hike (well, actually it was between 7 and 9 pm) for kids. My DH and I are volunteer readers, so we had much fun reading ghost stories in the dark. A spooky hut in the woods was the perfect place for the 14 kids (plus 6 adults)... We thought that brave kids need something yummy to eat. I made skull-shaped cookies and spooky eyes. I put them in a transparent box which looked extra spooky in the beam of our torches...

The eyes are made with round sweets ("Nimm 2 Soft" in Germany - somebody told me they used Laffy Taffy or Starburst, maybe that helps).

You need:

  • Round, soft sweets

  • toothpicks

  • frosting (mix powdered sugar with a little lemon juice)

  • food coloring

  • a piece of styrofoam
Here's a little collage with the description, it should be quite self-explanatory - click to see the full-sized version :)



[Tutorial was first published in 2009]

Hope you like it! If you do, please leave a comment at my original post at my website. Thanks!
Anke

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Handmade Poinsettia Ribbon Flower Tutorial

Do you like it? I really hope that you do as I have a tutorial ready for you. This and many other ribon flower tutorials are also to be found on my Craft Fairy Designs Blog
The ribbons are available on Craft Fairy and the beads are from my stash.
If you want to make one then all that you have to do is get the follwing ready to play with.

a needle
thread
scissors
measuring tape.
Start by cutting 5, 7cm pieces of scarlet ribbon and 5, 5cm pieces.

Fold a 7cm piece in half and pinch. Where the pinches are sew together as shown.


Below you will see the two stages together so I hope that this helps.
Now fold the petal on the right side and you will have a pointed petal. If you want really sharp points then you can iron it flat. Repeat with all five petals and lay out side by side on your work space.

Sew along the edge of all of the petals as seen.

Pull the thread tight and the petals will form a circle.



Now repeat the above with 5cm pieces of ribbon and you will get a smaller flower.

Place one flower on top of the other and sew together.



Sew some gold beads to the centre and sew two pieces of teal ribbon to the back for the completed flower.

Coming next will be a 'How to' use the flowers.