Food Cover - 6

Found these straw... ;) nope... glass bead berries at Looksharp once. They didn't come with leaves. I have glued them (hot glue) along with some artificial ivy leaves 

Floating Turtles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtuwbomoWog
Thanks arusuvai.com 

I used foam from take away containers instead of card for base, to make the turtles float. 

Dad's New Project

Dad lives at Elizabeth Knox Rest home. He looks forward for our visits. I usually visit him on Wednesdays since I don't work that day. Chris and I visit him each Sunday after mass. Dad knows my sister-in-law is free on Mondays. He expects us to visit him on theses days but he has had trouble keeping track of days.

Saw this setup in Dad's room today. My brother had already told me about it and also had showed a photo of it. I wondered how he managed to type it.

(This is the last week's diary of Mum. Mum passed away on the 18th of October 2017. She had left this sheet in her drawer neatly folded.)

Dad has used one of those - trimmed it to the right size then stuck cut smiley faces :-) to cover the dates. He has covered the printed side; used last month's calendar to get the Sunday.

The whole setup is stuck to the whiteboard with a magnet. Another magnet with an arrow on it is moved every morning by Dad.

A Spicy Frame

Inspired by... Surejini's craft @ http://www.arusuvai.com/tamil/node/32068

rocks - dry ginger
fruit on the ground - all spice
trunk - cinnamon

stems - rosemary
leaves - cut from fresh bay leaves
buds - cloves
flowers - split cardamoms
aphids - kasakasaa (sabja / basil seeds)
sprigs of flowers - dill seeds

Food cover - 5

I used artificial green apples and ivy leaves to decorate this six segmented blue food umbrella. Hot glued making sure the frame doesn't catch the glue.

Bunny Candles

These bunny candles (click to get to the instructions page.) were very easy to make. 

Are they Trixie & Tracy!!

Nope! They'vs got the wrong eyes and... none of them have floppy ears.

I am thinking of making more cookie cuter candles in future. I don't think I have any more of the white bees wax candle sheets. Might make red, green or blue bunnies. :-)

My Pets

The big one with red eyes & straight ears is Trixie who is 4 years & 3 months old. 

The little girl with black eyes & floppy ears is Tracy. Tracy is 3 years and 3 months old now.

Painted Candle

This was just a trial. I found a pack of candle paint at a boxing sale once - that must have been in 2003. The kit came with this white candle. Painting on it wasn't easy - it kept running. 

A Wedding Anniversary Card

Made this for Mum & Dad in 2008 for their wedding anniversary. It is back with me now with Mum's collections.

Mum & Dad would have celebrated their 57th wedding anniversary today if Mum were alive. They got married on the 26th of December 1960 in Trincomalee - a town in the east coast of Sri-Lanka.

Gumball Holly Sprigs

I have been making these for the past few years. Don't know what gave me the idea. I had a whole lot of old bunches of artificial flowers that I had been saving thinking they will come handy for a craft.

Now... I remember. I was going through the photos of the Christmas cakes I have decorated in the past. Suddenly realized I could change ordinary leaves into holly easily using the same technique - trimming off the edges.

All I had to do was to seperate the leaves with the stalk; cut the edges so they look like holly.
Cut  squares (roughly 5 c.m) of cellophane ad twist a gum-ball in each.
Attach tree gum-balls to three leaves with a kitchen twistie. 

Wrap gum tape to cover the stem.

Placed a red candle in the plate for the last Christmas. Found a white star shaped one this time.

 ‍For step by step photos.... click here. The instructions are in Tamil though.   http://www.arusuvai.com/tamil/node/30177 

Merry Christmas to you all

Christmas Holly Cakes

A very very short post this time. :-) Just open the link to find how to make holly cake decoration. http://www.arusuvai.com/how-to-make/christmas-holly-cake-decoration

Once you have made the leaves, you can decorate the cake any way you like.
I used red cachous for the berries on these two. The greetings were from old Christmas cards. They were made for our neighbours last Christmas.

Have a great Christmas.

Yule Log

All you will need to make this is....
a swiss roll & a suitable sized cake board
chocolate icing (roughly 2 cups)
a pallet knife to spread the icing
A toothpick & a fork for drawing the veins of the log
holly leaves and berries (check http://www.arusuvai.com/how-to-make/christmas-holly-cake-decoration  for instructions.)
a pair of forceps ti place the leaves and the berries without disturbing the icing.

Place the cake on a plate and spread icing to the sides. Draw year rings using the toothpick.
Cover the rest of the roll with icing. and transfer cake to the board.
Draw the veins using the fork. Then clean the board and decorate the log with holly as you like.

Check this link for detailed step by step photos. http://www.arusuvai.com/tamil/node/29835

Paper Cracker Snaps

 It was too late/ when I found out I had no cracker snaps to make my Christmas crackers this year . The shops had run out of them. I decided to make my own. :-) The only thing is... crackers won't crack with a big pop. Instead, we will have to sound the snaps after opening the crackers.

To make it....

Cut 4 c.m strips (lengthwise)  out of A4 paper.

Fold it into half lengthwise.

Open and fold a side inwards till it meets the central fold.

Fold the next side too.

It should look like this.

Fold it along the central fold again. The open ends should be inside.

Fold the entire strip into half.

Fold the two sides out to form an 'M' shape.

Hold the middle fold of the 'M' by your left hand. Set the right hand above the left allowing the flaps to rest on the thumb & the index finger. Pull the strips upwards fast to hear it 'snap'. 

Mehendhi

Mehendhi from last Christmas.

Food covers (2 - 4)

Buy a plastic holly sprig.

Separate leaves and berries.

Hot glue two leaves along with a berry where you want them to go making sure you are not gluing any to the skeleton of the umbrella. This umbrella was a rectangular one.

A square one.

One which had six segments.

Food Cover - 1

I saw a decorated food cover in a gift shop lo...ng ago. The price on the tag was shockingly high. I can't recall what those were decorated with now.

Some years later I started decorating food covers to be gifted to friends. This is one of them. I trim artificial leaves to the shape of holly and hot glued them along with  red plastic berries.

Kolam Coasters

Kolam is a form of drawing (in the Indian culture) that is drawn at the entrance of a house using rice flour. People use coloured powder, coconut, dried tea leaves and all sorts of things to make Rangoli - a coloured kolam. The ones above are called 'pulli kolam' (dotted kolam) or 'kambi kolam' (string kolam) and is popular among the Tamil speaking population of India. Since I am Tamil... I claim it as my cultural stuff too. :-)

All four are 5x5 doted ones that I found in arusuvai website. The instructions on how to make these are on http://www.arusuvai.com/tamil/node/30530

In a nut shell... clean tiles with methylated spirit. Mark the dots; draw the kolam and paint it. Follow paint manufactures instructions on curing & fixing / baking. Remove pencil marks gently with a soft soapy sponge when tile cools completely. Pat dry. Stick foam backing when tile it completely dry.

Done!

One thing I have observed with any hand painted tiles is that they tend to stick to the hot mug and lift with the mug often. :-) With time, paint may peel off or the tile will lift with the cup, drop and attempt for a suicide. :-)

Mehendhi On My Foot

This is the first one I tried a few years back.

I don't stick to any particular pattern.

This is random - my own design. :-)

After taking it off.

A second one.

19/08/2017 - A sole-less slipper! '

Why do I always draw on my right foot only!

Going to try drawing o the left one next time.

Carrot leaves

Carrot leaves!
I tried carving these after seeing the instructions of Senbaga Babu in
http://www.arusuvai.com/tamil/node/29369.

 

Trixie got to try them after that. :-) 

Yum! Yum! Yum!!!

Felt flowers

These aren;t actually 'felt' flowers.

Can you guess what they are made from!

Dry sticks from used old felt pens.

The instructions have been published.... only in Tamil.

 http://www.arusuvai.com/tamil/node/22760