Friday, 31 October 2014

Pumpkin Carving

Happy Halloween guys!

I've been contemplating buying a pumpkin to carve for about two weeks now and then yesterday I thought why the hell not and bought one. Its been a quite a while since i've actually carved a pumpkin, so I looked on Pinterest for some inspiration (as you do). I found this cool idea to use cookie cutters to cut neat shapes out, but it didn't go to plan! I tried to hammer the cookie cutter into the pumpkin, but it wouldn't go through. So instead I used it as a template, and it worked out well :)

You will need: 
  • Pumpkin
  • Cookie Cutter
  • Knife
  • Colander
  • Big Serving Spoon 
1) Cut the lid out of the pumpkin. This involves a certain amount of wiggling.
2) Once the lid is cut out, you can scoop out the insides of the pumpkin using a big serving spoon. You can discard the seeds or wash and roast them (yummy!) 
3) Using the cookie cutter as template, imprint the cookie cutter shapes onto the pumpkin making a design of your choice. 
4) Carefully cut out the shapes. I suggest cutting out small bits at a time.
5) Once cut out, put a tealight inside the pumpkin sit back and admire your work :)
Hope you enjoy, if you guys carved pumpkins we would love to see them, so please tweet us a picture :)

Don't know what to do with the left over pumpkin seeds? Why not try out my recipe for sweet baked pumpkin seeds.

Thursday, 16 October 2014

D.I.Y- Mason Jar Candle

Hey Guys, 

April here, and i may have gone mental with candles this week!
(My whole window sill may or may not be literally full of candles, much to the despair of my fighter fighting father)

Since i mentioned "twinkling Yankee candle's" in my previous post, its inspired me to try and make my own candles since its cheaper, and lets not forget, more fun. 
This is how i got on, and how to make your own...


I went online and ordered one mason jar, extra long candle wicks and a few blocks of wax, granted the wax colours weren't what i ordered, but i was too excited to giving candle making a go, that i didn't bother going through the hassle of returning it all back to amazon etc.



For this D.I.Y you will need;
  • 1x mason Jar
  • 1x extra long wick
  • 2x blocks of wax
  • A non stick, cheap ass sauce pan that you don't mind messing up, and use it to create a Bain-marie/double boiler to melt the wax (click here to learn how to make a double boiler)
  • Some sort of jug, to pore the melted wax in to the mason jar
  • Some heavy objects to balance the jar against if you want to set your wax on angles
(you may need more double boiler set ups, depending on your pattern you wish to produce and/or colours you want to use)
 [I used 2 double boiler set ups, so i could alternate the colours to make a zig-zag pattern]

(heavy objects)                                                (double boiler)

Instructions for my specific pattern;
  • Melt your first whole wax block down (10 mins to fully melt)
  • Dunk the end of the candle wick (metal bit) in to the melted wax then place in the bottom of your mason jar, give this 5 mins to set.
  • Carefully pore 1/3 of the melted wax in to your mason jar, via a jug (you need to make sure the wax sets at the same angle when using both colours, or the pattern will not look right)
  • You can now turn the cooker that's fuelling your double burner off 

(don't worry about the melted wax, it will set in the pan, but can be easily re melted when next needed)

  • You must allow plenty of time for each layer to set. I left each layer balanced between my heavy objects for half an hour then gave it a quick session in the freezer (10 mins) to make sure the layer is solid, this is so it can stand the heat of the next layer.
  • I then repeated this process 6 times over  until the jar was full to create the middle zig zag effect,.
  • Leave the full candle in the freezer for an extra half an hour to fully cool down
  • During the setting process, sometime the wax sinks in the middle, if this happens you can fill the hole up with some more melted wax, or ignore it, and once the candles been lit, and melted down a little, the problem solves its self.

 Here's a little time-lapse of the candle!

There we have it, a super cute, inexpensive alternative to a +Yankee Candle , I hope you enjoyed this D.I.Y - AND spoiler, i have something related to this for a Halloween special, stay tuned to find out ;)

Toodlepip xx


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Monday, 22 September 2014

DIY Topshop Inspired Tshirt


Today I thought I would do a fashion DIY for you guys. I saw this T-shirt in Topshop and thought why not try and make it myself. Personally for me when I see a plain tshirt like this which is covered in not that many beads I really do think its not worth the £30! I would rather make it myself...and thats what I did. 
I bought a similar T-shirt from Primark which cost me £3 and I have loads of beads at home so I used those. But you can buy packs of beads really cheap especially at the Rag Market in Birmingham. Also Hobbycraft has a growing amount of bead choices, so its worth having a pop into there. 
You Need:
  • A plain T-shirt 
  • Scissors
  • Thread and needle
  • Variety of beads and gems
  • Fabric glue or all purpose glue
  • Spare paper 
1) First of all lay your T-shirt on a flat surface then get some spare paper and slide it into the T-shirt. This will ensure that when u glue the beads on it will not stick the T-shirt together.

2) Lay your beads in any design of your choice. I used the Topshop tshirt as a guideline.
 3) Now start to glue them onto your T-shirt. I would advise you to use the glue sparingly. The reason why I used glue, is to ensure that the beads don't run away whilst I try to secure them permanently with my needle a thread.

4) Once all the beads are glued on leave the T-shirt to sit, dry and setttle for 24hours. By doing this you are making sure that the beads are securely stuck onto your T-shirt.
5) Secure all your beads with a needle and thread and your done!

Hope you enjoy making this T-shirt as much as I did. If you do manage to make it tweet me a picture!
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