Decorative cookie-jar

As mentioned in an other blog-post, most of my gifts this year has been homemade.
I love giving homemade presents, because I love seeing peoples reaction when they open it! Most people in my family appreciate homemade gifts, which makes it all the more fun!

For my sister and my mother-in-law, I made these cookie-jars filled with homemade Oreo Cheesecake Cookies!
The jars are supereasy to make, just find some jars and something you would like to place on top, and use a durable glue (I use epoxy-glue!)
Leave to dry for a day or so, and then spraypaint in your desired color!
I chose lion and elephant as the animals, because going to Africa this summer, those were my two favorite animals! Yes, I'm a sucker for Africa now that I've been there!

I also decorated a box of hot chocolate-mix for a secret-Santa gift at work.
The stone-inspired paper is self-adhesive and bought at Søstrene Grenes, but you can always use scrapbooking paper or wrapping paper, and just use double-sided tape or glue.

Christmas baking!

I am really very fond of baking, so I decided to do some Christmas baking this year!
It's a tradition in Norway to bake 7 types of cookies for Christmas (but I don't think many people do it anymore..) Well.. I don't need 7 types but I at least made 4!

Here you can see my Kakemenn/"Cookiepeople", Burned almonds and Chilli Jam

The Chilli jam was not one of my 4 types, it was a gift for my mother and my brother-in-law!
Here is the Norwegian recipe and the English one!

Recipe for Burned Almonds 
400 g Almonds
1/2 dl water
150 g sugar
1 tea spoon vanilla sugar
1 spoon of butter

Spread the almonds on a baking tray covered in baking paper, and roast them in the oven on 200 degrees (Celcius) for about 8 minutes
Mix water, sugar and vanillasugar in a wide frying-pan or casserole and heat to a boil on full heat. Then reduce the heat to half, add the almonds and stir all the time.
The water will evaporate and the sugar will remain. Keep stirring and don't turn up the heat!
After a few minutes the sugar will start to melt. Add butter when the sugar has melted to your desire.
Spread the almonds onto the baking sheet again, and separate them as best as you can. Cool and then store in a cellophane bag or a jar!

Original norwegian recipe 

I also made Oreo Cheesecake Cookies (unfortunately only norwegian recipe as I can't be bothered to translate it right now) and Sandnøtter

Recipe for Kakemenn/Cookie People

100 g butter
2,5 dl milk
3,5 dl sugar
1 teaspoon baking ammonia (hornsalt)
12 dl flour

Melt the butter and mix in the milk.
Mix all the dry ingredients and add the milk and butter. Mix the dough together fast, put back in your baking bowl and store cold for 2 hours.
Use a rolling pin and roll the dough anout 5mm thick. Add some more flour if needed. Use cookie cutters to make cookies. and bake in the middle of the oven at 180 degrees (celcius) for 8-10 minutes.
The cookies should be the same color as the dough when you take them out of the oven. They might be soft, but as they cool, they will harden. Store in airtight box or bag to prevent drying.


Last but not least is Sandnøtter/sand-cookies! We used to call them grandma-cookies because my grandma used to make them for Christmas when I was a child.

Recipe for Sandnøtter
250 g soft/room-tempered butter
250g sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
500 g potato flour
125g flour

Heat your oven to 200 degrees (celcius) and cover 2 baking trays with baking sheets.
Mix butter and sugar to a fluffy buttercream. Add the egg and mix well.
Mix all the dry ingredients and use a sieve to sprinkle the dry ingredients into the buttermix. Mix to a dough and then make small balls and place on the baking trays. NB! Don't bake more than 20 cookies on one tray! Press a fork down on the cookies for a decorative finish! Bake in the middle of the oven on 200 degrees for 10 minutes

Rapunzel-slippers

Merry belated Christmas and a happy new year to you all!

December has been a busy month for me as most of my gifts this year has been homemade (and I started a bit to late producing them!)

One of my gifts was something I wanted to make last Christmas, but I didn't have the time, and so I ended up doing it now instead! My niece, age 4, LOVES Rapunzel! So I crocheted a pair of slippers, and I made them using the pattern for knitted square slippers. I have knitted many pairs of square slippers, and I wanted to try it with granny squares, and they turned out really cute! 

I only have picures of 6 squares, but you need 8 for one slipper!

Christmas decorations!

Some may say that I started a bit early, but the thing is, I wanted something to do because I wanted to start making Christmas gifts, but I didn't have the things I needed, nor did I have the money to buy it (yet), so I figured; hey, why not just start making some decorations then! After all, I have all the materials, and they are very inexpensive to make! So if you think it's too early to make these, check back in on the 1st of December! 

How did you do that, you might ask! It's really easy

All you need is
A rolling pin
A pin/stick or straw
Cookie cutters
Stamps
Stamping pads (if you want the print colored)
Hemp, leathercords or whichever fits you best for hanging
Clay (there is a wide variety to choose from, fimo, air-hardening clays, salt dough)
(Fimo effect-clay with glitter gives pretty results aswell, I used those last year!)

I used this clay bought from Clas Ohlson for the fine sum of 65 NKR
What's great about this one is that it's air-hardening so you don't need the work of cooking it in the oven (though, I recommend ovenbaking-clay of you're in a hurry or want to finish up quickly. They are often more expensive..) This one is also fairly durable and when it dries, it gives of a porcelainy feeling. You can also modify it using sandpapers and stuff.Its also durable in usage, and if you don't want to use all of it, just tape the package shut and keep it in a plastic bag. If it becomes dry, just ad some water.

Now, over to the real fun!

Take your choise of clay out, and work with it a bit to make it warmer and easier to work with. 

Use your rolling pin to roll out the clay.. This is basically just like making gingerbread-cookies.
Roll it so it's about halv a cm or a bit more. You don't want them too thin, they will break more easily when thin! You may also add glitter if you feel like it! I made some with glitter and some without. After, place on a flat surface if airdrying, or on a bakingtray if you have bakingclay

While the clay is still wet, use your stamps to create decorative patterns on your figures. If you want to, you can put colors on your stamp, just use your regular stampingpad!
Also remember to poke a hole for your thread!
Also also remember to wash your stamps after as clay may contain oily substances and may stick to the surface!

If you use airdrying clay, remember to turn your artwork a few times during the drying period so they get to dry on all sides. This will also prevent cracking.
Follow bakinginstructions if you use bakingclay!

I don't have a very flattering picture whit them hanging as of now. I need a branch or a Christmas-tree..
I am going to use these for decorating presents this year!

~Happy making!

Concrete and flowers

My sister's birthday was in September. I decided to give her flowers in a homemade pot!
Made out of a towel and some concrete, because we all know by now that I'm slightly obsessed with concrete..
The present was well received by my family and my sister, and it was very easy and fun to make.

We have two cats, and one of them, Sherlock, is always very curious about everything new that comes into the house, and he always checks it very thoroughly! 

Down bellow, you can see how I made this pot!
Everybody can do it, you just need
-Concrete
-Water
-Towel
-Buckets

Plastic bags and dish washing-gloves makes the job so much easier!
Do this outside or on a covered floor (Not in your livingroom..), because it is messy!

Step by step: 

1.Cover up your floor and the buckets you will be using by placing plastic bags on the floor and on the bucket (I used one bag in the bucket where I mixed the concrete, and I had one plastic bag outside of the bucket I would use for shaping and drying the towel. Keep your gloves ready!

2. Cut out the size of your towel, I made mine a big square. Now, here I learned something a bit delayed! Dip the towel in water and then squeeze all the water out of it! I did not do this, so the towel sucked all the water out of the concrete and I had to add new water all the time..

3. This is where the gloves come in handy! Mix your concrete into a soup. How much you will need depends on the size of your towel, so just try this part out! You should be able to soak your entire towel in it.

4. So do that.. Soak the towel, just leave it there for a few minutes and also stir a lot, to be sure all parts of the towel has gotten as much concrete as possible. 
5. Now, place your towel on top of your covered, upturned bucket (or whatever else you want to use)
I had to make mine higher by placing a few more buckets under it.

6. Be patient! If it's sunny, the concrete will dry faster in the sun.

7. Turn your new pot, and use as you would any other pot! 

Concrete candles

Lately, I've been really into using cement/concrete for making stuff, and I hear it's quite in on the fashion-side as well!

I've been making some of these really easy candle-holders. They are incredibly cheap, easy to make and really cute.

What you will need is:

Washed out milk-cartons

Empty toilet-paper roll/something candle-sized

Vaseline or oil

Stick for stirting

Cement/concrete (mine is from Coop Bygg, 59NKR for 25KG)

Water

Some tape

Spraypaint

So what you do, is really easy!

First, cut your milk-cartons so they are not as high. Makes it harder to work with, in my opinion.

Put some cement in the carton, and put in some water. Yo can always add more as you go, depending on how big or high you want your candleholders. Stir well, make sure there are no dry lumps. It should be like a thick soup.

-I recommend using a concrete that is as fine as possible. This one is a bit rough, I have now tried over with a finer one, and it's better!)

What I did to make the holes for the candles, were to put tape all around empty toilet-paper rolls, covered them with vaseline (you can also dip in oil), and I just pushed them as far down as I wanted them. If you want them shallow, you can also use candles, but use the candles with aluminium-foil around it! Will make it much easier to take them out later. Trust me!

 I had to tape my toiletpaper-rolls to the carton as they were so light they just floated back up!

Leave it for a day or two, then take them out of the cartons, and let them dry a bit more. It will be faster where it's hotter and sunnier.. 

When dry, tape the part you don't want colored! Tap the tape closely on and make sure to cover everything you don't want sprayed! As you might see, I used 3 different types of spraypaint.
I'm not very particular about which one to recommend, I like them all.
Only thing is that the silver one is a bit.. tame, or flat. If you want it very silvery, I recommend trying a krom-spray.

Chose your colors and spray to your hearts content! 

I had two layers!

African Giraffe approves.

Cupcake candles

A long while ago, I made these cupcake candles. They are made entirely from candle scraps that my mom's been saving up (she burns a lot of candles). They are very easy to make, and very decorative!

This is how you do it!

Sort out your candles! You will want one color of candles for the topping and one color for the bottom. 
You should keep the colors of the candles that you mix for each part as similar as possible, or toss in some white if you don't have enough. 
Start by melting the candle for the bottom first. When melted, pour into silicon cupcake molds, place a candle thread in the middle of it. Hold it up using a wire or some other method of your preffering. Place in the fridge so it cools down quicker.

Melt the candle for the topping in a wather bath as well.
Use a handheld mixmaster to fluffen up the candlewax as it cools. This might take some time in the beginning, but when it starts to cool, it cools quickly.
Use a spoon or two to shape the fluffy wax around the thread. Place in the fridge until cooled, and then you can remove the silicone mold.

If you want it to smell nicely, you can add a few drops of candle

(There is something wrong with the text adjuster. I can't center the writing..)

DIY: Yarn-spun bottles

I was asked by my best friend how to make the yarn-spun bottles that I've been making, so I decided to make a DIY about it, because that is -so- much easier than to try to explain!
Yarn-spun bottles are incredibly easy to make. It's cheap, quick and surprisingly decorative!

What you'll need:
-A bottle (or something els you want to spin)
-Glue (Decoupage or mod podge are my preferred choices)
-A sponge or paintbrush
-Yarn (Thinner yarn is easier to use as it is easier to spot errors and easier to handle)
-A small plate for glue


Gather your materials and also wash the bottles both inside and outside, and remove any labels. 

Glues and sponge for the trade. Pour a little glue over on a plate so as to not ruin all of your glue if it dries up. 

Start up by applying a layer of glue to the top of the bottle.
Don't apply glue on too much area at the time, as it will become sticky, stick to your fingers and dry up so it has no effect.

Fasten the yarn by overlaying it with itself, as shown here. Be careful when pulling the yarn at first, so it doesn't slip up again. Be patient and give the glue a few seconds to grab hold of the yarn. 

Spin around and around, keep steady pressure on the yarn, but be careful so the top doesn't slip up.
Apply more glue as you "use up" the old one.

If you have a bottle, be careful not to pull too hard on the curves of the neck. If too much pressure on the yarn, it will crumble upwards towards the opening, and it will be all bumpy and stuff..

Keep a steady pressure on the yarn, and pay attention that you don't get spaces between the yarn.
Be careful not to apply too much glue as it can cause a change of color and texture to the yarn if spilled all over the place.

The end is the tricky bit, as it curves inwards again, and it's hard to keep the yarn in place. Just be generous with the glue, and patient. Hold the yarn in place till it sticks to the glue by itself. Cut of the yarn, and apply some glue to it and just hold it with your finger so it sticks.


And voila! You have a fashionable vase pr candle-holder or whatever you wish to use it as!
Simple, cheap, fast!

Good luck :)

~Elisabeth