They come in a variety of different paper stocks, from regular notepaper to watercolour paper. You can choose from blank, lined or a grid print. So you can write, doodle, paint or calculate. And they have different sizes too.

Mr.C uses them at work for all his concept work, so I decided to get the kids to personalize a couple for Father’s Day gifts a few years back. They drew and painted with pen & ink on thick watercolour paper, which I then varnished. Then I just sewed the suckers on with my machine, right through the cover.

Because you have to negotiate the book inside the sewing machine arch, the stitching is not always as perfect as you’d like. But that just adds to the drawing book factor. (I wonder if Mr.C did come up with some monster ideas as hoped…)

Here’s another one N made for his dad. He drew a guitar on tracing paper, then stitched over the paper on the machine. Then he removed the bits of paper with tweezers! I love the way he used the stitching on the inside as part of the design.

Then I made some using metal scrapbooking tag rims and some photos.

I stitched just inside of the metal rims to attach them. For the fabulous green frame one, I had to use glue and double-sided tape to stick it to the cover. The tree photo book was made for my gardener friend, Rina. The red image I took of a door detail in France. I gave this one to my French painter friend, Sandrine. The funny bead picture is an abacus N made for himself, so this book was for his Pop.

My friend Jacquie and I go for dimsum regularly, so for her birthday I scanned the dimsum menu and superimposed a pic I drew of her famous retro glasses.

Then this week I made one for Krista who is flitting off to France soon, lucky canard. I figured she’d take it around with her during the day so I picked the small notebook, that wouldn’t fill up her day bag. I decided on the grid pattern for the pages – perfect for designing quilts while sipping chocolat chaud with a croissant.

Being the stitchy gal that she is I had to embroider it, of course. The space inside the frame was tres petit so I embroidered the weeniest little Eiffel Tower I could. Oo la la!

Are you all inspired to go and draw, write, scribble and doodle now? If so, mission accomplished!

Last week Amy dropped me a line to tell me about this little challenge by Generation Q ezine. Oooh. Needlebooks. I’m in! The challenge involved making a felt needle book using their free toadstool pattern, available here. Not being a placid, taupe kinda girl, I of course had to take it on the bright side of life.

The next step was to develop your own pattern. I decided on a Japanese girl face. I thought she was quite sweet and innocent looking. My kids, however, immediately decided that she was “Miss Swan” from Mad TV. LOL. Not quite what I had in mind! Might be the bob hair-cut that got them going. Either way, here she is:

Inside are felt pages inside for needles. Needlebooks are quick & fun to sew up, and make great travelling needle carriers when you’re taking your stitch work on the go with you.

So what do you think: sweet and innocent Japanese girl, or crazy Miss Swan? If it’s the latter I may have to make a matching handbag mini pincushion.

Instead of a pair, she made two sets of potholders. On the first set she appliqued / machine-illustrated tea cups and a kettle. I love the scribbley linework!

The second set was made with this funky, mod fabric with fabulous tea cups on it. (I don’t drink coffee, so they are tea cups!) Lysa then embroidered a couple of moustaches on for amusement sake. Love those muchachos!

Then on top of two sets of potholders, Lysa also snuck this little bit of fabulousness in the package: a moustache cup cosy. It make me squawk out loud when I saw it. I love it! And look how toasty it looks on a hot chocolate with whipped cream and drizzle.

Thanks Lysa for the treasures. And I promise that I will no longer pull my sweater over my hands to use them as potholders anymore. (I know – I’m just genius!)

See what I mean about the eyes?

Seven years ago I got to meet my then 2-year-old nephew, J for the first time. I dubbed him the “Cutest, little terrorist” at the time, after he silently snuck upstairs, closing all the doors en route, and speedily attempted to flush my $70 Clarins cream down the toilet – along with a bar of soap, and a few candles thrown in for good measure. He also hammered dents in our new drywall, and scribbled permanent marker on my family heirloom yellow wood sideboard. This all during a short visit with us, and as I say, he was just two at the time. Charming little devil! I say cute and charming because you should see the angelic blue eyes and lashes-to-die-for on this kid. He’s also has a contagious smile, and dishes out enthusiastic hugs and kisses spontaneously. You just can’t help but forgive and adore him.

Because our families live on opposite sides of the globe, and travelling with kids is $$$, we sadly haven’t seen each other since then, until our recent trip to Sydney. J, now nine, lives there with his older brother and juicy little sister. It was just great for my little terrors to meet their Ozzie counterparts. I took some of my Happy Sew Lucky kits for his family, in the hope that I’d get a chance to whip them up before our Christmas dinner. (My SIL is a self-confessed “tart for Christmas decorations.”)

As soon as I set up the machine on the kitchen table, J was at my side with intrigue & questions: “What are you doing?” “What’s it for?” “What do you mean you designed it?” “Can I sew a bird too?”

Those are words to make a crafty gal’s heart skip a beat. So I started him turning my birdies right side out then stuffing them. He got the knack of the straw and stick technique in a jiffy and whizzed through this task with glee. “What’s next?” he piped up. OMG I was in love with a terrorist again!

Given that he’s a tad impulsive (!) and had zero experience operating a sewing machine, I gave him my LOVE banner kit to sew. Straight lines, more turning, a quick lesson on ironing, and some ribbon threading = all do-able with a bit of supervision. (I sewed the curved hearts for him.) I was amazed at his intense focus during the exercise. The kid was clearly motivated and into his craft. (In the gene’s I tell you!) And look how well he did. (I had forgotten to bring the cotton tape with the fabric, so we improvised with some striped ribbon we found.)

This banner is double-sided. This is the reverse side.

Now J was hooked! And with all our birds done and the banner up, we were out of supplies. I suggested making a felt stuffie and sent him off to draw up the design. (Sadly I forgot to take a pic of this masterpiece.) We went on a craft shopping expedition and bought some felt, then raided the house for stray buttons, piece of string etc.

The Robot, named MENARO (with an “O” shaped like a rectangle so it’s robot-ish, please) was quite the design. I was informed that it operates with solar power – note solar panel behind his head. (with white stitching, please) Lots of knobs and buttons on the front – each with a designated purpose. We made the knobs by cutting little slits in the felt and pushing folded strips of felt through. I secured the strip ends beneath by stitching around the “knobs”. On the back it has a rip cord for a parachute. We had a good laugh when we repurposed a piece of string for this – I’d just cut it off his shorts because it was bugging him. I did the embroidery and trickier, smaller buttons. J sat at my side art directing thread colours, button placement etc.

Once we had all the bits sewn onto the panel he got back onto the machine and slowly went around the edges. (I had to go over a few spots where he missed and left holes for the stuffing to escape.) Then he stuffed his robot up and sewed on the final big button on his head.. All around it was pretty successful don’t you think? He was very keen to be blogged about, as he seems to think instant fame will follow. As you can see he had no problem having his picture taken for the occasion. Def a celeb in the making! So drop him a comment if you’re in the mood. You can bet he’ll be looking out for them.

J, thanks so much for crafting with me. It was a blast. We’re going to have to work on some projects via Skype now I think. Oh, and thanks also for out-growing your “flushing” phase.  

For those of you banner fans, I also have a BABY banner kit in my Etsy shop. Check it out if you’re decorating for a new arrival or planning a baby shower.

Last night the sun finally popped its head out and we sat on the deck having a drink. My sister-in-law, Jeannie, whipped up this yumminess to go with our ice-clinking ginger-mint cocktails. The Ozzie’s are big beet fans – they are even notorious for eating them on burgers – so as a fellow beet fan, I am in heaven. This little dip is a quickie to make, super healthy and, for those of you who don’t do meat, it’s vegetarian.

Here’s what you’ll need: (Note we forgot to put the feta is this pic)

JEANNIE’S OZZIE BEET DIP:

1 can of beets (drained) – apparently you can use roasted beets for this too.

75g feta (about a third of a 200g block)

1/2 a lemon (squeezed)

2 tablespoons of Tahini

2 tablespoons of Olive Oil (If you use roasted beets you may need more liquid here)

1 tablespoon Dukkah (Egyptian mix of herbs, spice, nuts & seeds)

1/2 clove of garlic – or 1 whole small clove

Small bunch of mint (a few sprigs – see pic for amount)

Freshly ground Salt & Pepper

Ah, here’s that missing feta…

Simply pop everything into the blender, whizz it up till smooth, and, as Jeannie says: “Voila!”

Sprinkle with a little more Dukkah and serve with some tasty crackers. The garlic and tahini give it a lovely richness to go with the fresh, minty and sweet, beet flavours. The texture is creamy and the intense pink colour looks simply divine on an appie table. We served it with seaweed rice crackers, but anything salty, crunchy and tasty will do. My best thing about this recipe is the speed at which you can whip it up. Great for those unexpected visitors at this time of year.

Quick side note on Dukkah: This is a great thing to keep in yout fridge. You can either buy it premixed in a deli that sells Middle Eastern ingredients or you can make it yourself. Just Google “Dukkah” for a million recipes. The Egyptians often serve it with pita bread dipped in olive oil alongside a salad for lunch. Since the nuts and seeds are roasted it should be kept in the fridge.

The Converse stocking comes in Red, Periwinkle, Green & Pink. It’s sold as a fabric panels and is available in my Spoonflower shop. Also a bit last minute notification but in case you aren’t a Spoonflower blog follower, they are having a 2-for-1 fat quarter sale until 6pm EST today. Stock up fellow fabric hoarders!

I started off designing an owl potholder with the thought that if it turned out OK I’d make a pattern out of it. It was a great design for using up scraps. The turquoise feathers are scraps of shot cotton from the special Rob quilt. The little heart print is one of my Happy Sew Lucky Spoonflower designs. The divine blobby yellow binding is Brook Sunshine Dots by Studio E.

On the back I decided to piece the word “HOOT” which co-incidentally also kinda reads as HOT. This serendipitous little fact made me happy, given that it was a potholder. I know. It doesn’t take much to amuse me. Whatever!

Lovin’ that Hugs & Kisses Candy Loulouthi fabric in the “H” by Anna Maria Horner. The yellow daisy fabric is also a Happy Sew Lucky design available at Spoonflower. I’m super happy with how the owl potholder turned out, but thinking about it now, it’s a fair bit of work for something you’re likely going to dunk in lasagne sauce. So maybe this pattern is better suited for a cushion cover or small quilt. Opinions welcome / encouraged on this debate.

For the second potholder I seriously lucked out. I was at the fabric store looking for the tree bark on the owl one, when I walked past a display of fabulousness that had a sign on it that said “Designed by Helen Dardik.” I nearly keeled over. I knew Helen’s work as a Canadian illustrator, and had admired it for some time. But I’m obviously not an avid enough follower, as I didn’t know that she designed fabric. This is her second fabric line. Her style is retro-funky, whimsical and colourful. Her latest line is called Toomuchery and when I looked closer at them in the store display, I realized that I had already bought a few of the designs in the past, not realizing that they were Helen Dardik’s. The design that caught my eye on this day though, was a series of 6″square panels – they practically had “potholder” written all over them!

Talk about karma, huh? So I snagged some immediately, and here’s what I did with it:

Well, Eryn, the type is kind of Gee’s Bend-ish at a stretch, there are no Japanese coffee mugs, and I am physically incapable of doing minimalist or traditional, but aside from that I think I got everything covered.

What can I say? The kid was gifted from an early age.

Kidlet#1 placed 5th in the Spoonflower kids contest this year with his debut as Bobby von Sandwichface. His design was called The Amazing Milky Way. Space being one of his obsessions, it was an obvious subject choice.

He drew it with a Sharpie marker, then scanned it into Illustrator, outlined it and coloured it. I love this detail of the Milky Way pouring milk into the Big Dipper.

Well, Christmas is coming and if the geese aren’t getting fat, I think parts of me may be compensating. (All that winter weather baking!) And since this crazy gift giving time is on it’s way, starting today I am going to post a series of ideas / tutorials for making hand-made gifts. Not all specifically Christmassy gifts. In fact many of the ideas I’ve documented are good for birthdays, Father’s Day or any old “Look what I made you!” days.

In our house we make a lot of hand-made gifts. Tshirts are one of our faves since everyone wears them, they’re inexpensive and pretty easy to personalize. We have a few different techniques for designing Tshirts. And I’ve documented many productions of them over the years so I’m consolidating my pics into video tutorials to share. Today’s tutorial is also the launch of “Bobby von Sandwichface’s Epic Craft Tutorials – Awesome crafts that even a kid can do.”  The title is pretty self-descriptive. So on that note, welcome “Bobby”!

Hope this inspires you and your kids to be creative rather than buy plastic for the landfill. And it’s a great way to spend time over the holidays. More from Bobby to follow soon.

I also used fresh pineapple instead of canned. The recipe called for some of the juice from the canned pineapples which I replaced with pear nectar I had in  my fridge. So I guess that made my version more of a upside down pineapple, pear & blueberry cake = Frutti-Tutti, rock on!

Not sure whether it was because I had broken the recipe rules or not, but everything tipped out beautifully when I turned it over, except for the pineapples that where a bit stuck in the pan. Not stuck in a goopy way, more a bit of inertia. I think the rings would have been heavier and fallen out with the rest of the cake. But it didn’t really matter because all I had to do was fork them out and put them into their nicely moulded spots in the cake. It was like doing a puzzle. Here’s how it looked when it was all done.

It was super yummy. I recommend serving it with a dollop of thickly whipped cream. As my friend Rina, who popped in for tea, said when she ate hers: “I’m trying not to be a pig and wolf it down, but being so delicious it’s really hard!” Oink!

Don’t you love the rainbow plate? My sister J made it. She left it at my house when she came to visit once. Fat chance she’s ever getting it back.

Thanks to everyone who entered for their lovely comments. Congrats to the winner! I will be in touch.

And for the rest of you who were inspired to get messy and do some hand-printing send me a link to some pics. I’d love to see what you get up to.