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 ♫

St. Patrick's Day Mint Chocolate Cupcakes ♧ ♧ ♧ ♧ ♧ ♧ ♧ ♧ ♧ ♧ ♧ ♧ ♧ ♧ ♧ ♧ ♧

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

Ireland, and Dublin in particular is one of my favourite places in the world.  My Grandparents lived there since my Dad was at university and so I have spent all of my childhood visiting, and now whenever I go back to England to visit I make sure I ALWAYS get to Dublin to go back, to see my Granny, to wander around the city and enjoy it!  I've even been lucky enough to spend time there during St. Patrick's weekend, the parade there was incredible :-)

Since moving to Canada, I have discovered that North America LOVES St. Patrick's Day - perhaps more than England does?!  You all go nuts for it!  I have no problem with that, I love it too.  What a fun celebration for the patron saint of Ireland.

Last week I got crafty and made my Lucky Pocket Sneakers and Shamrock bunting, see that post here but this weekend I have been baking!

I'm been on a cupcake roll recently... I have some I still need to post up from last week but for this weekend I went on an Irish/ St. Patrick's Day theme and made some chocolate mini cupcakes with a mint buttercream frosting.  I decorated them with some green decorations, and my favourite part - the fondant shamrocks :-)

Michael's served me well with a new set of mini cupcake cases, the green spotty ones were perfect for this project!

I used a basic cupcake recipe (see below) and substituted some cocoa powder for some flour for the chocolatey taste!  For my mini cupcake tray (makes 24) I used my small cookie scoop, not quite filled, as I didn't want them to be too overflowing when they had risen. 

I was trying to think of adaptations of a mint chocolate chip idea and thought that a chocolate cupcake, with buttercream frosting made to be a mint flavour would do the trick :-)

I used 3 different tips to decorate, a small round one (Wilton # 12) to make a base for the fondant shamrocks, an large inverted star (Wilton # 2D) to create swirls that the green sugar would be sprinkled onto, and a star tip (Wilton # 21) to create a swirl that looked good enough (well on some it looked okay enough!) to leave blank.

My general idea was to create variations on a theme and I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out.

That is to say, I was not too happy at the start of my piping, but once the toppings and decorations were on I was pleased with how they looked!

I am MOST happy with the shamrocks.  Originally I was thinking I would have to cut out the shamrocks free hand out of the green fondant, then sometime this week I had a brain wave.  Earlier this month I picked up a lot of cheap Wilton baking accessories: a star hand punch, various stamps for decorating cakes, a crimper for fondant and also a heart hand punch!  This would be PERFECT!  All I needed was the green fondant rolled out, then I could punch out my little hearts and use three to make the shamrock!  I crimped the rest of the fondant to and ripped apart the strips it made, cut them short and used those for sturdy stems!  And there I had the perfect size shamrocks for these mini cupcakes.

I hope everyone has had a wonderful March Break if you were off school, and a fun filled St. Patrick's Day!  I know the crafts and baking I have seen on blogs and link parties this week have been SO great - can't wait to see more of your creations next week :-)

Chocolate Mini Cupcakes Recipe (makes 48 mini cupcakes plus 3 regular sized cupcakes, just for tasting!)

230g unsalted butter, softened

230g caster sugar (I used superfine granulated)

4 eggs

230g self-raising flour BUT sub out 4 tablespoons floor, and add 4 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1.  Preheat oven to 375°F/190°C

2.  Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy

2.  Add eggs one at a time and vanilla extract

3.  Sift in flour and cocoa powder.  Fold in until just combined.

4.  Scoop into cupcake cases (I did this in two batches as I only have 1 mini cupcake pan) and   bake for 12 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean/the sponge springs back to your touch.

5.  Leave to cool before decorating.

Mint Buttercream Frosting Recipe (makes enough to cover all of the cupcakes with the style of piping I used)

300g butter

450g icing sugar

2 tbsp milk

Peppermint extract, to taste.  I think in the end I used around 3/4 teaspoons, but do check as you go!

1.  Soften butter in mixer

2.  Add icing sugar

3.  Add milk and peppermint extract to taste.

Pipe, decorate, and then of course ENJOY!  ♧