Adventures in Shrink Plastic.....at long last

So the exciting news is at long last I finally have a Etsy shop!!!!!!

Yes I know its taken such a long time but I'm proud to say I've finally managed it.
So lets talk about what's in it. Well those who know me will probably already know that I am obsessed, just take a look at my Pinterest board, with the 1950s and rockabilly in particular. The whole thing, the clothes they wore, the cars, the clothes, the tattoos, the clothes and the hair! Don't even get me started with Bettie bangs!

So I decided that it would be nice to start with a small collection inspired by that, I'm calling it 'Rockabilly Radness'.
I was also aware that valentines Day is just around the corner and no valentines would be complete without some hearts and no rockabilly valentine would be complete without a traditional heart and scroll.

Another classic rockabilly staple is a swallow. This one is done in pastel pink and blue flying across a fluffy cloud. There are lots of meanings behind swallow tattoos but my favourite is that sailors used to get swallow tattoos as they believed that if they drowned the swallow would come down and lift his soul to the heavens. I also thinks its beautiful that swallows choose only one mate for life!

I don't know why but I always associate cherries with rockabilly, and I'm a sucker for anything in cherry print. So I knew I had to have some cherries in this. On their own they looked kinda weird so I put them on a striped star and now I'm really happy with how they look. In fact I wore this necklace out and received so many compliments!

Aaah my Birthday Girl brooch, when I first designed this back in September I did it with a tattoo/rockabilly style in mind. I wore it all day on my birthday and loved it. I have put this in the shop with an option to have it customised, so you can change the colours or have a name or something else written on it.

And last but not least glitter hearts. Now I know that this doesn't really fit into the rockabilly category but it does fit into the GLITTER category and who doesn't love a bit of that? and like I said I knew that valentines day was fast approaching.

So to celebrate the opening of my shop, the month of romance, and all things glittery I'm giving away one of these heart necklaces to one of you lucky people!!

 
TO ENTER
Go to my facebook page, like the page, like and share the post

The winner will be drawn at random on Saturday 15th February

P.S I just want to say a massive thank you to my husband for his ace photography XX

The Home made year....Christmas 2013

Happy New year!! Did you all have a wonderful Christmas?? Are you full to the brim with turkey and mince pies?

How quickly it has flown by, so much preparation and its all over in a flash. But in all honesty I wouldn't change a single thing. I love this time of the year, its hard to choose between this and Halloween, and I enjoy the preparation as much as the day itself.

So needless to say I've made lots of things and rather than waffle on for ages I've put them into a visual collagey feast. So take a break from putting away the decs, grab that last mince pie and cast your eyes over this lot.............




 

Clockwise from left : countdown door hanger for Jacks room, which says Santa's been on the reverse, cupcakes with cinnamon butter cream.

 Flying reindeer applique blanket. Those that follow my facebook page will have seen this in the making.

 

 

 

 

Tulip decoupage card made with a kit by Papermania.

 

 

Cards made with digital stamps from Pink petticoat, and handmade sentiments.

 

 

Handmade Polar Express picture. I love the Polar Express and watch it on Christmas Eve every year, and yes the bell does still ring!

 My special Santa and reindeer that came home with me from Lapland last year.

 

 

Homemade gifts.

 Finnish piparkakut, gingerbread to you and me. We had this in Lapland last year and it was so lovely I knew I had to find a recipe for it, its different to our gingerbread as they use different ingredients and its much more spicy.

 Sweet chilli jam normally I make red pepper relish at Christmas but I'm told its not hot enough so I made this for a change.

 

 

 

Homemade mince pies and homemade apple and cinnamon ice cream. Those who follow me on Instagram will have seen this in its early stages, and I have to say its tastes amazing. Recipe courtesy of the icreamists.

 

 

Felt Christmas trees,

 yarn wreath,

 felt reindeer's, with button noses from nans button jar.

 

 

Jingle bell wreath with ribbon flower.

Close up of card made with digital stamps from pink petticoat.

 

So all that's left to say is have a fantastic new year I hope it brings you all you dream of, and don't forget in between blogposts you can always catch up with me on facebook, twitter, instagram and pinterest by clicking on the links at the top of the page. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The homemade year......I'ts my party

 

Yup it's my birthday...

 

and you know when you think of something and think that's a great idea then when you start to do it, it turns out it's not that great after all?? Well I definitely did that this week.

 

I always make cakes for my birthday so this year I thought I'll make a gingerbread house seeing as I never find the time at Christmas. BIG mistake, take it from me if you ever decide to make one put aside a lot of time and definitely practice first. I made 2 lots of gingerbread and both ended up in the bin. So what did I do to rectify the situation?

 

Made cupcakes of course.

 

Play to your strengths that's what I say..lol.

 

 

So hear they are. Yeah I know they don't LOOK that special but they ARE. These are margarita cupcakes with tequila icing!! oh yes!

 

Mmm margarita and cake two of my favourite things mixed together.

 

 

and these are for those too young to enjoy a good margarita. White chocolate chip with vanilla icing, and those things that I always call jazzies, but have no idea if that's the real name!

 

 

 

and no birthday is complete without a badge, here's mine. Made by me for me. Am I gonna wear it all day??

Hell yeah!

 

So you might ask why I've called this post the homemade year. well I was thinking about all the things we celebrate throughout the year, and it gave me an idea for a new feature/content/section, whatever you call it and what better way to kick it off than with my birthday. So I'll take us through the year and show you all the stuff that doesn't really fit into any other category.

 

 

 

So I'm off to open presents and eat cake but before I do I found this birthday questionnaire on good old pinterest and I thought it would be fun to answer it so here goes....

 

1. How old are you.

Mmm, mentally or physically? Mentally anywhere between 15 and 21, physically, old enough to know better!

 

2. who is your favourite person in the world?

Has to be my little man no question.

 

3. what is your favourite colour.

Predictably, pink.

 

4. what is your favourite TV programme?

Not really got one and it changes all the time. at the moment I'm loving The returned, and me and my little man love regular show. Mordecai and rigby are the coolest.

 

5.Favourite sport?

None, I avoid doing any sport at all costs!

 

6. what song do you love?

Oh there are way too many. I listen to loads of different music but I particularly love Drive by Incubus, pretty much anything by the wonder stuff, or frank Sinatra

 

7. Who is your best friend?

my husband, nobody makes me laugh the way he does.

 

8. what do you want to be when you grow up??

So many answers to this, what's a grown up?, I don't intend to do that anytime soon, see question 1.

 

9.Favourite book?

To kill a mockingbird by Harper lee. Read it too many times to mention.

 

10. Favourite ice cream flavour.

Banana but only the one sold in Rhodes old town, Greece.

 

11. what really annoys you?

Narrow mindedness, really grates!!

 

12.what do you hope to do before your next birthday?

Mmm lets think, win the lottery and jack my job in lol

 

 

 

So I'll be back soon hopefully with something exciting to share X

 

 

sew sunday...

Just a quickie today to show you these fun little hair clips. I'm busy busy busy at the moment trying to sort out stuff for the little fellas birthday and Easter.

 

OK so there isn't an awful lot of sewing to these, but they're easy peasy to make and would look so cute in a Little girls hair. And there really cheap too, I bought a pack of 30 hair clips for £1, the felt I already had but that's not too expensive either.

 

 I really like the bright pink one, Its such a pretty flower. it looks complicated to make but its really easy when you know how. maybe if I get around to it I will do a quick tutorial.

 So now I'm off to bake Star wars cakes in preparation for my little mans tea party and I'm off to the craft show on Thursday to spend some of my hard earned cash lol.

Thanks for stopping by
Love Vicky Xxx

 

 

 

My birthday

Last week was my birthday, and I'm just a little bit excited because I got not one but TWO new Lalaloopsy dolls!!!

My boys got me Cherry crisp crust and my mom got me Bun bun sticky icing. They're both so cute, I think they could be sisters.

 We had planned to go out for food but unfortunately Jack was feeling poorly, so we opted to go for a Mexican on the Saturday instead. Mexican is my absolute favourite type of food and amazingly Jack loves it too. We had Nachos, burritos, fajitas and I had just a few frozen margaritas! Yum.

 

Afterwards we went home to enjoy some of the lovely chocolate fudge cake Gary got me. Jack enjoyed his so much he instructed me to buy it to have as dessert on Christmas day. Thank you to my lovely boys for all my presents and my beautiful flowers and thanks to my mom for the pink champagne truffles, they were really boozy. Xxx

Vicky Sponge cupcakes.......

I didn't want to call these Victoria Sponge cupcakes because my name isn't Victoria! Really it isn't, I know no one believes me but it isn't just ask my mom! So I called them Vicky sponge cupcakes because they have all the same ingredients, and its my birthday so I can call them whatever I like.

 

Now I know what your thinking they don't look much like a Victoria sponge, but here's the fun bit.......

 

 

Mmmmm there filled with my Moms yummy Jam!!!

 

Now I don't like jam in anything other than a cake or jam tarts, and i hate jam with bits in, I know I'm a bit odd, but my Mom made this jelly jam especially for me with no bits!!

 

These look really difficult to make but are actually really easy, and Marina Anchors and I had lots of fun making them.

 

 

Xxx

 

 

A 5th Birthday Moshi mash up

I'm excited to share these pictures of my Sons 5th Birthday moshi monsters party. He had a bowling party with his friends but insisted on having a tea party with his Grandma and Grandad. I was so excited when he said the theme had to be Moshi monsters as I knew I could really go to town with the decorations. For anyone who doesn't know, Moshi monsters is an online educational game where children adopt a monster and continue to care for it by earning rox to buy it food and playing games to keep it happy. The main food shop is called the Gross-ery store and sells such delectable things as eyescream sundaes, sludge fudge, and scummi bears! This is where I thought we could have some real fun by making all the food moshi food.

I set to work researching the moshi site looking at the colours used and the food in the shops. This took a little longer than anticipated mainly due to the moshling boshling game which is addictive to say the least. One of the things I like so much about Moshi monsters is the sense of humour, it's very British, and the bright colours they use . I did realise though that I had to make the food edible, hey nobody wants to eat slop!! so we had to come up with a few moshi names of our own such as Sneeze instead of cheese, but in most cases the moshis had already done the work for us.

Jack loved helping me make Lady Goo Goos p-p-pizza faces and Roarberry cheesecake, and wanted to know what bugs were in the bug juice!! I even changed the beer to snail ale so that the adults didn't feel too left out.

The baddie in moshi monsters is called Dr Strangeglove, and Jack thinks he's hilarious so I knew I had to incorporate this somewhere. So I drew a design for the cake with Strangeglove on the top. Jack actually fell over when he saw it so I guess it had the desired effect!

Jack really enjoyed his party and couldn't stop munching on the pop rox! Which were actually Rainbow drops..remember them? I used to buy these with my pocket money.

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All the printables were made with craft artist and the moshi images were press assests direct from the moshi site.

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Homemade Halloween - Cakes and Cookies

Cakes and cookies, my favourite. Its clear to see I will never be thin! First up dual iced cupcakes. These are generally smaller than I would normally make, seeing as they were for the kids. However it didnt stop the adults tucking in to a few either, lol. Purple and Orange dual iced butter cream and edible glitter. What more could you ask for?? 'Cookies'  I hear you cry? Oh ok then...hand painted spider web cookies with more edible glitter. These were for the kids party bags so the grown didn't get any of these, unless they stole it from their child when they got home. lol  :)

Next time...tags for bags Xxx

Joes 1st Birthday

Hi all, well its been another busy week, and what is going on with this weather. One minute its sunny the next torrential rain!
So during the sunny bits I've been getting out in the garden and in the rainy bits I've been working on this cake for my friends little boy. Joseph will be one on Saturday, and will be enjoying his first birthday party!!  It doesn't seem 5 minutes since I was doing the same with Jack painting jungle leaves, making banners and fondant animals. He's none too pleased that this cake isn't for him! maybe I'll make him a mini version. I hope Joe enjoys his first slice of birthday party and a delicious slice of cake :)
Love Vicky Xx

this week I will be linking to inspiring creations, sassy sites

Happy New Year

Happy New year to all, was Santa kind to you??? I must have been a very good girl last year as got lots of crafty lovelies under my tree, but more of that later. I thought I'd show you the pics of my Christmas cake and some cookies I made. the idea of the cake was to have the snowflakes o wires to give the effect of the snow falling. Unfortunately my crappy photography doesn't show this at its best as you can't see that the snowflakes actually sparkle like frost, the cookies were just a quickie to have a go with the new cutter I've been waiting an absolute age for, It came all the way from Hong Kong you know!!, so I'll probably be a bit more adventurous with this next Christmas. I did make cards too which I'll show you in the next post.

So what did Santa bring...well I had some new cookie cutters, a gorjuss girls cross stitch kit (which I'm not allowed to start until I finish my other one) some air drying clay and some delicious felt in some really funky patterns. I think he also gave me a new waft of inspiration as I have so many ideas I don't know where to start.

And Inspired by the red pepper relish I made as gifts for people, which went down a storm, I've decided to set myself a challenge. For Christmas this year I will not buy any one anything, I'll make everyone something, apart from Jack of course, I don't think he would appreciate Jam, chutney, or pickled onions in his stocking!! Xxx

Shaunis 18th Birthday Cake

Well after much stressing and sitting on the kitchen floor, her is the cake I did for my cousin Shauni's 18Th birthday. She had originally asked for a lingerie cake but after doing a bit of research I couldn't find one I really liked or inspired me. They were all boobs and basques which wasn't what I wanted, as I was looking for something Classy and sophisticated. So after some discussion and lots of pics we opted for this kind of theme. I was so stressed over this cake, there was no way I was gonna mess it up, too important!!!! But what a long time it took to get here, first I iced the board then took it off as I didn't like the colour, next I started to make the bow then wasn't happy so left it alone for a while, then I iced the top layer but thought it not smooth enough so that came off too, then I decided I hadn't got enough sugar paste for the bow so had to make an emergency run to hobby craft for more!....after all that I'm pretty happy with the final result. :) And I'm told there wasn't a scrap left after the party, so I'm glad it went down well and that Shauni had a great time. Happy 18Th!! Xxx

Flowers and butterflies

Well here it is...this is the cake I made for my Nans 75Th birthday. We had a surprise BBQ for her and she didn't suspect a thing !! My little boy Jack came up with the theme, which I thought was a great idea as Nans always in the garden and loves her flowers. I started off hating this cake as I couldn't get the icing right, but when the flowers and butterflies went on, I just loved it!!! I actually couldn't believe that I had made it. Everyone at the party loved it including nan, and all said it was too pretty to cut! And as they say one thing leads to another, as my cousin Shauni will be 18 in August and has asked me to make the cake!!! Better get my thinking cap on! Xxx