Live it . Love it . Make it.: quick and easy

Showing posts with label quick and easy. Show all posts

Make it: Easy Coasters

A simple DIY today, something I have been meaning to make for ages. It's that time of year when I am embarking on making gifts for my family and friends in time for Christmas. I need to get my butt in gear so some quick and easy makes are the answer. These modern decoupage coasters are a great gift for new homeowners any time of the year but the touch of gold makes them a lovely festive treat, you might even get asked to stay for tea to break them in,

If you want to impress someone this year with a super easy, yet really impressive, gift this year make them a quilt blanket. Everyone loves snuggling up under a cosy blanket, they make great gifts and you can make them really personal by picking fabrics that you know the recipient will just love. I have to be honest, I am not the worlds greatest quilter, I think it stems from not wanting to cut up beautiful fabrics into little pieces just to sew them back together again. However this easy quilt requires very little cutting and you still get that lovely cosy blanket at the end of it.

I chose once again to use my some of my current favourite fabrics from Dashwood Studio to create this 'quilt' These are from the Retro Orchid collection.

You will need: 6 x 30cm strips of your choice of cotton fabrics (at least 110cm) wide, 150cm x 100cm of fleece fabric, Fabric Scissors, thread and your Sewing Machine.

Start by pinning and then sewing together two of your cotton strips. Pin them right sides together making sure you are sewing a nice and straight seam. You can use your machine foot to help guide your stitching. Then un-fold and pin and sew your next strip in place.

Continue until you have sewn all your strips together. Fold your quilt front in half length ways and mark the centre line with a row of pins. Then be brave and cut up the middle line you have marked, removing the pins as you go. You then want to take your two halves and flip one so it is facing the opposite way around. Line the two pieces up and sew them back together to create the chequered front piece.

If you have been neat, all your squares should line up nicely, if not don't worry too much, mine didn't, I think it adds a bit of quirkiness to the finished piece. It made it look more handmade! So next, is to add the fleece backing, I have not added any wadding to mine as I like my blankets to be a little more floppy and snuggly. Stitch all the way around the edge of your cotton and fleece. Make sure you leave a gap around 15-20 cm open at the end. Use this opening to pull the whole of your quilt right side out.

Folding in the raw edges, start at the opening and sew a line of top stitching all the way around the edge of your quilt about 1-1.5 cm in from the edge. And you are all done, see I promised it would be easy!

If you can bear to part with your new cosy blanket it would make a great gift for anyone this Christmas, It would be so cute for a new arrival in baby colours and equally in fun boy fabrics for any Kiddos you need gifts for, a great alternative to more plastic toys. I am gifting mine to my Mother-in-Law who loves handmade presents and always admires the quilts in our home.

Who would you make one for this year?

Sammy xxx

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Make it: Felt Cards with Blooming Felt

You may have seen some of our posts with Blooming Felt and now we have another one for you. Making cards can be a fun and simple thing to do for birthdays and celebrations. Especially as you can be more personal to the recipient.

Today is Valentines Day, just in case you had forgotten and if you are like me you will have. It is a God-send that my Steve's birthday is the same day as mine, otherwise he wouldn't stand a chance of being remembered, I am truly awful at remembering dates. If you are like me and have forgotten to sort something for your loved one tonight I have a suggestion that will get you lots of brownie points! A carpet picnic. The supplies only take a quick trip to the supermarket and a little careful preparation, perfect for those of us with busy lives and a memory like a sieve. This would also be great if you are having a girls/guys anti Valentines get together.

I popped to the supermarket and picked up a few of Steve's favourite snacks and a couple of Valentines themed goodies.

We both love strawberries and chocolate covered ones are perfect for a picnic, and very quick to prepare. Simply melt your favourite chocolate, dip your strawberries in and set them down on some baking paper in the fridge to set. They look impressive, even if they aren't perfect and taste great.

I picked up some of Steve's favourite picnic foods in miniature and arranged them restaurant style on a serving dish. Paying attention to presentation shows that you have spent time and make the little things more special.

I chose some fancy drink and fished out some red straws to make it more Valentines-y. I displayed all our food on our coffee table in our lounge with a couple of small table cloths in lieu of a rug on the ground.

Our main dish was a sharing sub. I filled a small farmhouse loaf with our favourite fillings, each half with different flavours and cut it in to chunks. I kept it together with these cute heart cocktail sticks and displayed it on a cutting board to make it look more fancy.

I popped the strawberries out of the fridge and put them and some Valentines chocolates on another serving dish for desert.

This little feast was so easy and quick to prepare. A total Valentines save for anyone who has forgotten to do something special in advance. Your special someone will be impressed with the time you have taken to get everything ready and the thought that went into it, they don't need to know it was a last minute thing. If you want something altogether sweeter check out the sweetie platter I made last year.

We had our picnic last week, just in-case you were wondering, as we are at Steve's parents house for dinner tonight. What do you guys have planned for Valentines??

Happy Valentines day to you all

Sammy xxx

Make it: Quick and Easy Valentines Crafts

My Husband and I have never really been fussed about Valentines day. For us it falls smack between Christmas and our Birthday (we have the same birthday) and the thought of going out to a restaurant surrounded by lots other couples is not our idea of a good time. However I do always try and make a special effort to cook a nice meal and make Steve a little something. I thought I would share a couple of ideas for little last minute gifts that are super easy to make for your boy/girl or to decorate your dinner table with a few supplies from home or your local store. If, like me you haven't really thought about Valentines until today!

I made Steve this little Valentines dessert platter. As well as making some treats I bought some Valentines sweets from M&S and put them in little heart shaped cupcake cases. Presentation can make a little look like a lot. What I made him includes.....Valentines chocolate bark

recipe found here

Peppermint Creams & Peanut Butter Hearts

Peppermint creams from my mums recipe, there are lots out there, some use egg, I use double cream, icing sugar, peppermint essence and food colouring, and peanut butter hearts recipe found here

Basically any of your partners favourite treats or biscuits cut into heart shapes are always a winner.

Eton Mess Milkshake, my hubby loves Milkshakes and they look cute too! I made these with fresh strawberries, milk, double cream, meringue, strawberry syrup, squirt cream and fresh strawberry to decorate. I am a bit obsessed with serving drinks in jars lately.

Quick easy cards, I made the heart one by using my hole punch to punch a heart shape and then threading ribbon through the holes and tying it in a bow to finish. The pink one was super easy, I just used my computer to lay out the word love in different typefaces, made the background pink and the words white and printed onto white paper, cut it out and stuck it to a card blank. Easy peasy!

Then at the top of the stairs I hung this magazine heart garland. I went through my Heat and Look mags and tore out any pages that had reds and pinks on and cut out heart shapes. Punched a hole in the top of each one and tied them on to pieces of red cord. I blue-tac'ed them to the wall underneath a picture {ironically hanging down under Steve's Darth Vader print that is hung on the landing} I adapted the original idea found here