DIY Marbling

I have seen this really quick and easy marbling DIY on Pinterest and decided to give it a go, it really is quick and easy and gives a really good effect. Great to use for cards and stationary. This is also a great craft to do with kids, as it's simple, quick and safe. 

You will need:

Shaving foam

Food colouring 

Baking tray 

Spatular

Paper

Scissors 

Metal ruler 

1. In a baking tray spray the shaving foam into it. 

2. Add some food colouring and fold the dye in. Don't mix it too much just so that it swirls.

3. Add another colour if you wish and a third. You can use a cocktail stick to swirl the dye in a not mix to much.

4. Lay your paper onto the foam and press down gently so the foam gets all over the paper. Don't leave in the foam too long as it will make the paper soggy. 

5. Lift the paper out and using a metal ruler in one swift motion scrape the foam off and dab off any excess foam with some paper towel.

6. Leave to dry then stand back admire your beautiful marbled paper. 

Chocolate Avocado Pudding

This is a super chocolate-y and yummy dessert and great for when your trying to be a little healthier but you still get the craving for something naughty. It's smooth, rich and totally deliocious.

1 ripe avocado 
1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
1/4 cup maple syrup or agave 
1/2 unsweetened cocoa powder
few drops of vanilla extract

Blend all the ingredients together, you might need to scape down the sides half way through then blend some more. You can either eat it straight away or put it in the fridge to set a little. It is super rich so its best to eat with fruit. I especially like to dip apples or berries in it. 

Wall Flowers

After re decorating the cafe the walls were a little bare but I didn't know what pictures / art I wanted up, then a saw this great idea for taping flowers to the wall in 'Decorate with Flowers' book by Holly Becker and Leslie Shewring, if you don't already own this book, you should! It's full of great interior ideas as well as flower ideas.

Supplies:
Flowers (real or artificial)
Wire clippers (if using artificial)
Washi tape or map pins

Unfortunately taping real flowers to the wall was a little unrealistic for long term, so I picked out a bunch of artificial ones and used wire clippers to separated them from the bunches.

Initially I wanted to use washi tape to adhere the flowers to the wall but due to the smooth surface of the wallpaper the tape just wouldn't stick. Maybe try tape first because it looks super cool but if that doesn't work I found map pins to be the perfect solution. They are cheap, discreet and worked a treat!

I didn't think too much about the lay out of the flowers I just kept pinning them up until I was happy with the result.

I'm so pleased with the outcome, the flowers break up the expanse of the brick wallpaper, add pops of colour, are really easy to put up and remove (great for renting) and bring a bit of a fresh spring feel inside in the winter months.

Card Printing

My fellow blogger friend over at www.thimbleandrose.com did this great post on this cheap and easy printing technique. So I decided to give it a go and make a couple of cards and I think they turned out great! 

You will need:

A pencil
Soft thin sheets of foam
Poster paint or block printing ink
Lino rollers or a lint roller
A tile or something flat to roll ink on to
Paper or cards to print onto
Scissors

1. Find a image you like, I designed these using Illustrator or just free draw.

2. Hold the image up to the light, a window works well and use a pencil to trace the image. Then go over the image with a thick pencil, pressing quite hard to make a good indent in the foam. Then cut around the image.

3. Put some ink on the tile and use the roller to get a even ink coverage.
4. Roll the ink onto the image.

5. Press the image onto your paper/card/fabric, and press the image down without moving it. (If you have a spare clean roller use this to get a nice flat result)

6. Carefully lift off the image leaving your super ace print underneath! 

7. Happy Printing!!

Dream Catcher Part 2

Last September we made dream catchers (click the link) in our craft club and my intention had always been to make lots of dream catchers and hang them all off a big branch, inspired by this pin.

As with many crafty intentions, it got put in a bag for 'finishing later' and got completely abandoned. I stumbled across the bag of half finished dream catchers the other day and after a hard word with myself about half finished projects, I finished it! I think this many dream catchers is going to lead to lots of happy dreaming. 

 (It also looks pretty boho hanging above my hippy blanket on my bed!) 

Gluten Free Blueberry Almond Cake

This is a massive hit in the cafe, it's like a frangipani cake, what's not to like?! It's also really easy to make gluten free.

150g butter
150g sugar
3 eggs
Almond extract
100g ground almonds
80g self raising flour (or gluten free self raising flour, I used Doves)
200g blueberries (or any berries that are in season, fresh or frozen)
Large handful flaked almonds
Handful Demerara sugar

Grease and line a 10inch loose bottomed cake tin.
Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Next beat in the eggs and almond extract.
fold in the ground almond and flour.
Pour into the cake tin and sprinkle the blueberries on top, then cover with the flaked almonds and Demerara sugar.
Bake for 30 mins at 170 C until a skewer comes out clean.