Sewing into Spring ~ Pocket Sneaker Chicks

Spring is here!!  ... And so is what seems like ALL the craziness happening at once.  Busy busy busy busy busy!  But I'm sure I want to still write a post per week, but forgive me - I didn't actually make these this week - but actually a few weeks ago for Easter.  BUT I didn't post them for Easter, so here they are!  Spring chicks :-)
 

 

Some of you reading might have seen what surprise they were used for over Easter, but well - it's not Easter anymore so I'll leave them as just my Spring Chicks!

 

 

I'm totally in love with the newest in my pocket sneaker series - these little chicks, and whilst they weren't used as my hearts and lucky charm pocket sneakers were for my husband - they were hand delivered at Easter and were very similar in the way I made them, and in their size, so I think I can go with the same pocket sneaker series!

 

 

Even making these on a time crunch I actually remembered to take a few photos as I went along so I can share with you how I made them!  They were nice and easy, and if you don't have a machine could be all hand sewn, although the machine did speed things up - and I like that.

 

 

 

When shopping for the felt I would use in this project I couldn't decide which yellow/orange/other chick colour would look best once they were all made... so ... well ... I got a variety and made them all!  In the end my particular favourite was the cream coloured chick, but after making them all and distributing them to family we shared the colours, and I think I liked them all, and especially liked that there were different colours to choose for different people so I'm glad I couldn't decide in Michael's that day!

 

 

Using a picmonkey egg I had seen on my travels through creating cover photos for my blog, I made the image in various sizes and printed it from a word document.  I had an idea of what size I wanted to make the chicks, but did trial and error on the actual egg size I printed to find the perfect one.  Oh yes, and I chose an egg shape for a chick?!  Coincidence it was all Easter themed but in my head the perfect "cute" chick shape would be an egg!



 

 



I cut out the egg in the size of my choice, and then backed it onto some sturdier card so I would be able to keep the template and use it again.

 

This little egg ready and waiting to be cut out to be the start of the chick making adventure!

 

 

I divided the felt sheet into 6 first of all and then traced the outline of the egg shape into each box.  Error here on my part was using a regular pencil and not a better pencil/pen that would fade away, but luckily most of my stitches covered the pencil markings in the end.

 

I then cut out each square of felt (but not the egg shape - this would be my sewing guide later on) in each of the three chick colours, eventually having 12 squares for each colour, 36 in total... which would make 18 chicks as each chick needed a front and back.

 

Whilst our youth group played a soccer tournament all day, I entertained myself by sewing the details on each front piece of the chick!
 

 

I'm most pleased with my chick eyes!! I advanced from my usual back stitching and actually tried a real embroidery knot!  Admittedly some eyes were bigger than others, but by the end of 18 chicks the eyes were nice and small, and tight - just what I wanted! 

 

I used a black embroidery thread for all of the eyes, and either a bright orange or pale orange for the beak and wing details, whichever matched the felt colour best.

Back home with all of the embroidery done it was time to stuff them and sew!  I pinned the fronts to the backs to secure each part together and then with the machine went around most of the egg shape with a coordinating thread (NOT the red that is in the picture for some reason... perhaps that was what was on the machine before I started with the yellows!). 

Leaving a small centimetre gap somewhere along the egg shape would allow me to pause on the sewing, and stuff the chicks before going back to the machine and finishing it off. 

The stuffing part is my favourite element of the 'pocket sneakers' I've made over the past year or so.  Giving them a chubby look and a soft padded feel, it was just what I envisioned for these little chicks.

 

So with all 18 chicks sewn around the edge of the egg shape, I cut out around the edge of the egg shape with pinking shears to give the pocket sneaker look of the jagged edge that I wanted!

 

And voila - here they all are, my little chicks in a basket!  I love how they turned out, and was a little sad to be giving these cute little guys away - although all for a good reason!  ... And I did get to keep a few for next Easter - I'll use them as decorations somewhere.

 

 

The chicks are super cute, and if you're happy doing some sewing are nice and easy to make!  If you try them out, do send me a picture :-)



Easter Bunny Lemon Cake ✿

 

Happy Easter long weekend everybody! 

I hope you all had a wonderful time celebrating with family and friends :-)

 

We had a great time at my in-laws with 19 of us celebrating together, enjoying a delicious dinner, WAY too much food and lots of dessert.

 

I made a cake to share on the dessert table, and with Spring in the air I chose a lemon cake, with raspberry jam and lemon buttercream filling and decoration.  I had a plan for the decorations in mind after I picked up a new cookie cutter that came with a flower shaped cutter for the tail!!  Actually we were shopping and my husband actually thought it would be a great addition to my already overflowing cookie cutter collection, so now he can't complain I have too many :-P

 

 

 

I chose to add some sugar sprinkles to the fondant rabbit cut outs to give it a different texture so it would stand out from the bunny shape itself.  I made the fondant rabbits the day before baking day so that they would dry out a little to make it harder and able to stand up against the cake, and not let the buttercream add moisture and go soft and floppy.  I didn't want these Easter bunnies to be floppy bunnies around the cake!!

 

 



So that was my first vision... I knew I wanted the Easter bunnies to stand facing in around the cake, but what to go on the top?  And what colour should the buttercream be?!

 

Initially I thought I would go with a bright colour for Spring, and perhaps add some coloured mini eggs over the top... but well, on making the buttercream, I went with a little blue, but didn't like it... and then thought, maybe some red added would make a good purple.

 

And after realising that this wasn't the original plan and that I was okay with that, I actually really liked the muted purple contrasting with the white fondant rabbits.  So I thought I would add some more white to the cake and cut out some mini flowers for the top! 

 

 

And that's everything you can see on the outside...Now for the actual cake part!  The recipe I used for the Easter cake is the same recipe my Mum used for one layer of our wedding cake nearly 3 years ago, yey! ♥  I then just made a basic lemon buttercream to fill the middle and frost the outside of the cake.  Keep reading for the recipe! 

Ingredients:

14oz unsalted butter
15 3/4oz sugar
14oz self-raising flour
14oz eggs (one egg can be between 1-2oz) so I ended up using 8 large eggs for this recipe
3 1/2 tbsp milk
Zest of 2 lemons

For the syrup:
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp. hot water
2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice

 

Method:

 

1.  Pre-heat oven to 180°C/ 355°F and grease and line two 9" sandwich tins.

2.  Place all sponge cake ingredients in a mixing bowl.  Mix on a slow speed until there are no lumps of fat.  Scrape down at all stages.

3.  Mix on a medium speed for 2 minutes and then full speed for a further 1 minute.

4.  Spoon the mixture into the line cake tins.

5.  Bake until cooked - 35 - 45 minutes - until the top is golden brown, and a cake tester comes out clean.

6.  Leave to cool on a cooling rack.  Once the cake is taken out of the tin brush the surfaces with lemon stock syrup.

 

*** Make the syrup while the cake is in the oven ***

 

1.  Dissolve the caster sugar in hot water

2.  Then add the fresh lemon juice

3.  Mix together and spread generously over the cake with a pastry brush and let it soak in.

 

 

For the buttercream - beat together 16oz unsalted butter with 24oz icing sugar.  Add 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice and 1 1/2 tbsp milk and mix until combined.  Add food colouring as desired. 

 

This made enough buttercream to fill the middle of the cake, to frost the outside, and with enough leftover that it wasn't tight to be able to cover the cake comfortably.  Phew!

 

 

Have a great long weekend day today if you didn't have to go back to work/school!  Thanks for reading :-)

Eggs in a Nest Cupcakes

Good morning everyone and hello from a SUNNY Toronto!  That's right, today we are set to hit double digits of 10°!!!!!  An end to the longest Winter I've ever experienced living here, Spring is going to be very welcome around here that's for sure :-) 

 

This past weekend I had the chance to do a lot of baking... the best kind of weekend! 

 

We had our final choir concert of the 2013-2014 season (Check out our Cantabile Chamber Singers website) on Saturday evening and I made two loaf cakes to donate to the silent auction we ran at the interval.  I was really happy with how they turned out, and I hope whoever won them enjoys eating them!  You might have seen the sneak peek on Facebook or Instagram of the baking I did this weekend... I had to choose which to blog about this week, and the Eggs in a Nest Cupcakes won! 

 

 

With Spring in the air, and April arriving tomorrow I thought it was about time I got ready for Easter!  We already picked up an enormous pack of mini eggs from Target, and I was treated to new cupcake wrappers from a fellow choir member who was so sweet to think of me when she saw lots of new designs on her recent vacation so I was all set, Easter cupcakes were just begging to be made :-)

 

As I was making two loaf cakes for the choir on Saturday, and we had plans with friends on Sunday evening, I thought it would be perfect to make a 1 1/2 batch of each loaf recipe I made so that I would have extra batter for a few cupcakes in each flavour!

 

I'm so glad I did that, it was an easy way to make a batch of 8 cupcakes and the bonus this time was that it was in two flavours so we could pick our favourites to eat!!

 

 

 

Saturday baking done, and a 7am wake up on Sunday morning to get the buttercream piped!  A bit different to my usually dark nighttime baking, this time the light was super bright in the morning!

 

4 lemon cupcakes and 4 almond cupcakes ready to be decorated.  I was excited to see how it would turn out :-)

 

 

Usually I'll have made a dozen cupcakes, but this time it was only 8, and as I was colouring it brown I didn't really need any leftover of this.  So I scaled down the recipe, and beat together 6oz unsalted butter with 9oz icing sugar and a tablespoon of milk.  I actually didn't add any vanilla flavouring (or any flavour in fact) as I wanted the plain flavour to work with both the lemon and the almond cupcakes.

 

 

Armed with a piping bag, and the #233 Wilton decorating tip, which I usually use for creating a grass or hair effect in decorating.  This time I thought it would work perfectly for the nest.  I just kept the piping bag moving so that it created long strands rather than short blades of grass!

 

 

Then to finish off, it was an easy decoration with 3 mini eggs sitting in each nest.  I made sure to use a yellow egg on each of the lemon cupcakes, and a blue egg on each of the almond cupcakes so each flavour could be identified!  I knew I definitely wanted a lemon one, and wanted to not have to have a lucky guess :-D

 

 

 

By the time I finished piping the butter was quite warm and soft... So I left them outside for a while to harden up!

 

 

 

So now you've seen, the eggs in a nest cupcake title really is clear!  There are eggs in a nest!!  Check out my Chicks in a Nest Easter Cake from 2012 (technically before I started this blog!)... it's still one of my favourites and I'd love for you to see :-)

 

 

I'm so happy with how these look.  And really they were nice and simple to make!!  The grass tip works wonders for the piping here, and makes it super fun and easy to create the nest on top of the cupcake ... Or perhaps I shouldn't admit to how easy they are!  But do make them!

 

 

So with the temperature on the up, and Spring perhaps finally showing it's face I am getting excited for April and Easter!  Are you!?

 

 

 

For the full Lemon and Almond cake recipes please check back next week.  I'll be posting the loaf cakes in full detail then!  Lots of pictures and both of the recipes then :-)

 

 



This time last year it was Easter already!  Check out my Hand Stitched Easter Cards I made last year!  I loved making them, and my family all loved them too ♥

 



Hand Stitched Easter Cards

HAPPY EASTER!!!

I hope you are all having a wonderful Easter weekend :-)  I've had a fantastic time making, baking, enjoying time off and generally being busy with lots of fun activities in preparation for this weekend.

I can't decide what I am most pleased with this week, the Simnel Cakes I baked, or these cards... I am SO pleased with how these turned out, and even more pleased that the ones I sent to England (and worried wouldn't make it) actually got there many days early, in plenty of time for Easter!

I had been thinking of doing some kind of sewing on cards for a while now... after sewing my felt Christmas star and dog ornaments for the name places at our Christmas dinner I love the simple back stitch and the effect it creates.  So there must be a way to create an equally effective stitch but on cards!

Cards have been my long time crafting love (I have a LOT of archived photos that one day will be blogged!)  Sewing is fairly new... baking still a long time but cards probably has been around the longest for me so I am very pleased to have thought of this new way of creating cute cards that really could be changed for any occasion.

Here's a mini how-to...

I had picked up a stack of pastel cardstock from Michael's a few weeks ago and I knew I wanted to use it for my Easter cards this week.  A quick chop, a score along the middle and the cards were cut and ready to go.

I used a lace-like tape for the bottom border and then got to work on the Easter shapes.

Starting with the easiest one, the egg!  I used a cookie cutter for this.  I lightly traced the outline onto the card,  made pinpricks all around this template and then erased the pencil.

Next it was time to sew!  I used some complementary coloured threads, all Easter/Spring appropriate!  But of course if you want to go brighter, or bolder you can change this up however you like!  I backstitched along, and kept the two knots small and tight so that the back of the card didn't look messy.

For the bunny I didn't have a cookie cutter in this shape (only a larger whole rabbit that I used for my Easter sugar cookie treats last year) so I just freestyled this a little.  I drew it on paper and when I was happy with the shape and size cut it out as a template to use each time.  No risk of them being different then!

Bunny, meet Bunny - a cute gift from Mum after she visited
Canada Blooms in Toronto on their visit in March  last year!

The final shape I did was a chick, I partly used a cookie cutter for this one, but it had no legs!!  So of course I had to add these.  This one took the longest to sew for sure but in front of the tv, time didn't really matter.

All written and ready to go.  I love how versatile this design of card can be.  I have already made a white bunny on pink card for my boss who just adopted a little girl :-)  They will definitely be made for baby showers, births, and birthdays in the future... watch this space for more designs soon!!

All the cards and all the props hehe! 

I'm totally enjoying all of the new Spring like projects I've been seeing on lots of blogs this week... Feel free to leave a comment and a link to your newest Spring creation :-)  Have a great Easter!!  Thanks for reading ♫