Paper Napkin Lotus Flowers

Recently I shared about some date nights I am doing as part of hubby's Christmas gift this year.  One of them was an Indian date night.

When I shared that photo, someone asked me how I did the lotus flower paper napkins.  it is not always easy to follow written instructions for this particular fold, and even with photos it can still be tricky.  So I decided to make a video.



Yes, I do have very freckly arms!  Hope that helps you work it out and if you have any questions please ask.

Before you go, why not check out my recipes index page, or my craft projects index page, I am sure you will find something there to interest you.

Living Thankfully

Another week, another list.  Here we go then, in no particular order, On Monday 12th March 2012 I am thankful for . . . . 

666.  Last week's session of the leadership Interactive course went well.  Food was yummy, well done to whoever chose Syria for the nation to be the subject of prayer that night.

667.  New mattress for youngest's bed arrived safely.  He says it is much more comfortable than his old one.

668.  Hubby having the larger company car over the weekend meant we were able to take the old mattress to the tip (dump) ourselves, rather than pay the council to take it away.

669.  Realisation that the study we were using in small group wasn't working led to a new idea that hubby and I both feel will fit this group well.

670.  A friend from church also wished to attend the funeral on Thursday of a lady from the school I do assemblies in.  Our local crematorium is not at all easy to get to on the bus, and because he was going I was able to get a lift.

671.  Dropping hubby at work on Friday morning means I have the car for the next 2 1/2 weeks while he uses a company car to support some work off site.

672.  It also meant I finally got to visit the National Memorial Aboretum which is just down the road from where he works on my way home.

673.  Picking youngest up from college last week and trawling the charity shops for a costume for his musical theatre performance next week led to a couple of nice bargains for me.

674.  Living close enough to the QVC Outlet Store to be able to pick up awesome crafty bargains when they appear.

675.  3 different sets of friends successfully moved house over the weekend.

676.  Youngest's reunion with a group he did some young leader training with, meant a day out in greater London for hubby and me.  We went to Kingston upon Thames for the day.

677.  We didn't know until we got there that it was the boat races day in Kingston and so we were able to spend a couple of hours down by the river watching them.

678.  That meant we also got to watch the swans for a while too.

679.  Although I was on the rota for Sunday's Cool yesterday, it was the first time in 4 weeks.  NOT BAD!

680.

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Before you go, why not check out my recipes index page, or my craft projects index page, I am sure you will find something there to interest you.

Crafty Goodies Haul

Have you ever wondered what happens to the stuff that gets returned to QVC when customers don't want it, or the stuff they overstocked and did not manage to sell?
Well, QVC have an outlet store just like many other major brands.  And it just happens to be in the town my son goes to college (16 to 18 year olds, we are in the UK remember) in.  Some times the craft supplies in there are a bit pointless, but at other times they get great overstocks in!  I mean really great!  And since my son often pops in there on his way back to the bus stop he will tell me when there is good stuff in.

Let's go from the top down on that receipt.
I paid £2.99 for BOTH of these Crafters Workshop Stencils in the 12 by 12 size.  Those things are usually £7 EACH.

£3.99 got me this set of mica powders with a tiny stencil brush.  These are usually £3 or more PER POT!

I paid just £1.99 each for these sets of clear stamps.  I put the ruler in so that you can see these are not just tiny stamps, these are a decent sized set.  Stamp sets that size usually go for around £10 each.

And finally just 99p for a pack of Mica pieces.  These usually retail at around £8 or more.

All in all, a pretty good haul!  Both stencils and some of the stamps have already been used, BUT I can't share pics of the project because it is for something special and I don't want it seen until it is finished and given.

Before you go, why not check out my recipes index page, or my craft projects index page, I am sure you will find something there to interest you.

Wise Men's Gifts

We are continuing to do the weekly bible story school assemblies through Open the Book.

We have finally reached the New Testament.  We did do the birth of Jesus as our last one before the children broke up for Christmas, so now we go back and cover the Epiphany.

We are hopefully going to be able to borrow wise men's costumes from another Open the Book team, but those costumes don't come with gifts for them to carry.  Actually for this story the Wise Men are called Star Watchers, but you all know who I mean.

One of the problems we have with props is making them look clear and bright enough when we are standing at the front of the school hall, with a white wall behind us.  I saw this awesome post on another blog about using paint on the inside of bottles and knew I could use that technique to make something really good!

So I went on a charity shop trawl and this is what I came up with.

I love the shape of the orange container and the chunkyness of the other one.  You can see I paid £3.50 for the 2 items and each pot of paint cost me £1.

I wasn't sure what colour the orange one would turn out with the pink paint inside it, but it came out OK in the end.

The first thing to do is give your bottles a good clean and remove any labels.

Give your paint a good shake or stir, then pour it into the vase, bottle or other container.  This paint is quite thick and in hindsight I might have chosen to add just a tiny bit of water.  It's ordinary household emulsion (wall paint).

If you can choose (and believe me I did not even think about that when buying them and it made me laugh) a vase that has an opening that the paint pot just exactly fits into, so much the better, you don't have to stand over it.

Once the paint is in there, tip and tilt the bottle so that the paint coats the sides.

In this case, of course, I was also able to stand the bottle upside down, balanced on top of the paint pot.  That saved a lot of effort.

Keep tipping and tilting until the paint covers all inside surfaces.  With thinner paint, you might need to do more than one coat, but with thicker paint it can be difficult to get into all parts of the vase.

If something like this happens, you need something long and pointy, but flexible, I used a bamboo skewer and just poked it in there and fiddled around with it until the paint went into all areas.

Leave to dry.  You can see, some parts didn't quite get covered first time, but as the paint came out and fell onto the tray I just scooped it up with a teaspoon and poured it back in there.

But that's only 2 gifts.  I knew I wanted to do something gold for the other gift.  I have lots of gold wrapping paper. So, I found a mailing box, and just wrapped it off.  I chose this gold wrapping paper that has a bit of a pattern on it, rather than the plain one.  I like this.

I wrapped it as neatly as I could, but used double sided tape roller between layers of paper, rather than sellotape over the top, to keep it looking really neat and tidy.

And there you have it, gifts for the 3 Starwatchers or Wisemen or Magi, whichever you are going to call them.

If you are interested in other bible props or costumes, check out this list:

1. Quick and Easy Bible Costumes
2. Tree from the Garden of Eden
3. Joseph's Multi Coloured Coat
4. Pharoah and other Egyptians
5. Egyptian Princess Wig
6. Jonah's Whale
7. Goliath's Spear

Before you go, why not check out my recipes index page, or my craft projects index page, I am sure you will find something there to interest you.

Home Made Pizza Sauce

Yesterday I shared the wholewheat pizza dough recipe that I have been using.  Today, I am sharing the home made pizza sauce that I used on those pizzas.  This sauce can also be used to top pasta.

You will need

2 tbsp butter
2 tsp crushed garlic from a jar
400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tsp basil, chopped
1 tsp dried rosemary (you could use other herbs depending on your tastes)
1 tbsp tomato puree (Paste to my American friends)
3 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

1.  Place the saucepan on a medium heat, add the olive oil and butter and allow the butter to melt.

2.  Add the chopped onions and garlic and stir.  let it cook down for 3 - 4 minutes, until the onions are soft and transparent.

3.  Add the tomatoes, rosemary, basil and tomato puree to the pan.

Season with salt and pepper and stir well.

4.  Bring the sauce to a boil, then turn down the heat to a fairly high simmer.  Allow it to cook for 20 minutes.  When it is ready, it will have thickened significantly and you should be able to draw a spoon or spatula across the bottom of the pan and have that line stay there for a while.

5.  If you are using this on pasta you can use it right away.  If you are using this on a pizza you need to let it cool a bit before using.  I made this in the morning for use in that evening's meal.

6.  If you check out yesterdays post about the whole wheat pizza dough you will see the pizzas I made with it.

Before you go, why not check out my recipes index page, or my craft projects index page, I am sure you will find something there to interest you.