Don't be tight, spend a little time ... ...

I know that Valentines day (like a lot of other days) has been hijacked by consumerism, but that doesn't mean you have to buy into it, instead of spending a load of cash on a card and a gift for your better half, why not spend a little time making something instead ?

These days all I seem to hear is I don't think I could make this or that, and I'm no expert in making stuff, but that's no reason to not try.

If I can make it you can -

Simples.

So with that in mind I've made my wife a present for Valentines day and it cost... ... nothing, apart from a little time, and you don't need any special skills either, just a few tools, and to be honest I'm not that old (unless you listen to my kids) and I learnt how to do most of this kind of thing in school, so most people around my age really should have the ability to make things of all kinds.

This isn't a new idea, it's something I've played around with before, but this time I have some new toys, in the shape of some embossing pens, which cost £3 for a set (peanuts) but you can use anything with a rounded end, I was using the end of a crochet hook.

The embossing pens -

They work very well on tin.

A close up of one of the ends, they are like little balls - 

This is the largest one.

These aren't technically for using on metal, more paper, but they work well and make drawing on metal much easier as they run smoother than a crochet hook.

Okay so I've spent a few quid on some embossing pens, but I would have got them anyway ;-) as for the other materials, well tin is easy to come by, in fact if you have a beer or 2 in the fridge you have a load of tin, it just needs a little preparation, you'll need to rub the printing off the can, wire wool works well for this, it's also best to cut the can so you have a flat sheet of tin to work with.

When drawing on the tin I've found it best to put a couple of sheets of paper underneath it, makes all the difference, you can print something out and trace it onto the tin, or do something free hand or draw round something, doesn't have to be complicated.

This is what I ended up with - 

Took about 10 minutes in all.

And that's about it really, all I did then was to stick the sheet of embossed tin onto a bit of hard board using glue, thin plywood works just as well, then I used some Buddleja sticks to make a frame, this is where some basic tools and basic wood working skills come in handy, as you'll need to cut the sticks to make a frame.

Here's mine to give you an idea - 

I used copper wire for the hanging loop.

 The wire hanging loop is made by winding some thin copper wire together, but you could use string, or ribbon, or just drill a small hole in the middle at the top to hang it on the wall, I got the wire from and old pc power supply, top tip, transformers are wrapped with copper wire, you just need to extract it, so any old electrical equipment (and old radio for example) should have some useful copper wire in it.

To make the loop I took 4 equal lengths and wound them together, and what you get should look like the picture below.

The wire loop - 

I used a drill to wind it, it's quicker.

 It's simple to make and comes from the heart, and all it takes is a little time and effort, you'll be re-cycling and did I mention it's cheap (virtually free) which means you can always use the money you saved to replenish the beer supply so you have some tin for next Valentines or for when ever you feel like making something for your better half.

Thanks for reading.

Elder flower cordial ... ...

I've made some elder flower cordial, which I'm quite pleased about, mainly because it worked :-) we wanted to make some last year, but missed the best of the flowers, so we put it off until this year, and today I bottled the cordial up (all 2 litres of it) we also have some elder flower champagne on the go, although it'll most likely end up as wine, but I go into that another time.

Here's the cordial -

Nice and refreshing.

Looks good, and tastes great, now making this is pretty simple, although I was a little concerned about it as I've never used flowers in this way and wanted to get it right, and not kill anyone in process :-) we've made cordials before, we make rhubarb and blackberry cordials, and if we get enough black currants we'll be making black currant cordial as well, how ever using elder flowers requires a slightly different method. (you can read about the rhubarb cordial here on my wife's blog opens in new window)

Okay so how to make the cordial ?

Equipment :

• Measuring jug.
• Saucepan for boiling water, or you can use the kettle.
• Large bowl,bucket to keep the mixture in while it infuses.
• Straining bag or muslin.
• Funnel (not essential, but makes bottling up easier)
• Bottles.

Ingredients : (feel free to adjust to suit your needs)

• Sugar (about 1kg, you can adjust to suit your tastes)
• 2 lemons (un-waxed)
• Water about 2 litres (we used 2 litres, but you could use less or more, again adjust to suit your needs)
• Citric acid (helps it last longer, we used 2 teaspoons, but you can add more, or not use it at all)
• About 20 good sized elderflower heads, make sure they are as fresh as possible.

The ingredients are easily adjustable, and with the citric acid you don't have to use it, it just helps it last longer, although from the way the kids have been drinking it we needn't have bothered :-) you can also freeze it in ice cubes, which we've done as well, this will help it last longer as well.

Method :

First boil your water, either in a saucepan or use the kettle (if you use the kettle make sure no lime scale gets into it) then put it into your bucket / tub, then add the sugar, and stir it until all the sugar has dissolved, you can use more or less sugar, we've found that 1kg is probably a little too much for us, but we'll just water it down more.

Add the zest of the lemons (again you can use more or less lemons, or add oranges and limes) then cut the lemons into quarters or slices and squeeze the juice into the mixture, then chuck the lemon pieces in the mixture, if your are using citric acid (which you can get from your local pharmacy) add it now.

Now for the elder flowers, before you put them in the mixture there's 2 things you need to do, make sure that the mixture has cooled and remove any bugs, and if your elder flowers are anything like ours there will be loads of them, give each flower head a shake, but not too hard as all the flowers will drop off, you can also rinse the flower heads in cold water.

Our mixture in the brewing tub we use for this type of thing -

The smell is fantastic.

Once your elder flowers have been de-bugged and the mixture has cooled you can put them in, then just give it a stir and cover it with a lid or a clean cloth, cling film will do as well, then leave it in a cool place for 24 / 48 hours to infuse, the amount of time you leave it is up to you, I looked on various web sites and found people left theirs for a day or two, some a week so it's up to you, obviously the longer you leave it the more flavour it'll have.

When it's ready for bottling all you need to do is strain it through a piece of muslin or a straining bag, then you can pour it into your bottles, make sure they are clean first, once bottled put it in the fridge to chill, or you can freeze it as ice cubes, or ice lollies, you could also make sorbet out of it, it's quite versatile :-)

Here's some in an ice cube tray - 

These go down well with the kids, as would ice lollies.

Just to point out that the flowers contain a natural yeast, if you leave the mixture in a warm spot long enough it will start to ferment and you'll end up with a slightly alcoholic mixture, this is how elderflower champagne is made, and whilst this may be nice for adults it's probably best the kids don't have any ;-) I have another post about our elderflower champagne, which I'll try and write soon.

And finally, you can also make lemon cordial in a similar way, just leave out the elderflowers and don't leave it so long, if you chuck everything in your tub of choice when the water is hot and leave it to cool, you should then end up with a lemon cordial, or you could use limes or oranges.

Thanks for reading.

Artistic recycling ... ...

It seems that these days it's all about recycling stuff to save the world, round our way we have 3 bins now, a blue one for recyclables like paper,tin cans and such like, we have a black bin (most are green) for normal waste and just recently we got a mini bin for cooked food waste, not that we have much, what we don't eat the dog does ;-) we also have the option for a brown bin that costs extra for garden waste, but we compost all ours.
 I will freely admit that it's a hassle sometimes, sorting stuff into various bins, but I guess it has to be done.

Now I have long been a fan of making things out of odd stuff, which makes the whole recycling thing a lot less tedious, especially if you get good results.
Have you heard of a website called " Instructables " ? I'm pretty sure a lot of people will now the site, but just in case here's the link ---> instructables (link opens in new window) it's a fantastic site for inspiration on just about everything you can imagine, sewing,wood working,metal working (the list is probably endless)

Whilst I was having one of my regular trawling of websites sessions I found an excellent craft idea on the site I mentioned above, and it's the best use of a drinks can I've ever seen (from an artistic point of view) here's the instructable page ---> drink can tinwork (opens in new window) take some time to look through the various steps used to create this piece of artwork, it's worth it, but please come back here after ;-)

I have to say that I was impressed a fair bit by this, it beats squashing the cans and taking them to the recycling bin, I haven't actually tried to make the box, but I will.
This set the wheels in motion and gave me the inspiration to have a go at creating my own artwork using a similar method. Now we don't really have drinks cans lying around, we don't drink fizzy drinks or beers, we do however have some cans of coconut water, so I've been bugging my wife to drink them so I can have the cans.

The items I have made are prototypes really, I have been playing around with different ways of putting them together, and different materials.

Here's what I've managed to make so far -

Be nice ;-)

You can see how I've applied the method used to create the tin box for my own ends, basically using some wire wool I've rubbed all the printing of the cans to get back to bare tin, this actually gives quite a nice effect, then I've applied a pattern to one side so that it appears raised on the other, there's nothing stopping me from switching them round so that the patterns look like it's been engraved.

The tin is pretty easy to work with, it's not very thick which helps when getting a design onto it, all I've used is a ball point pen and the end of a metal crochet hook, you don't need to press too hard.

Here's a picture of the first ones I made - 

The best one is the bottom left in my opinion.

The designs aren't as crisp as I wanted, the best I think is the bottom left one (the triskelion / triskele) and the frame on the bottom right isn't to my liking, I was trying different ways of making the frames, I think I'll stick to the way I did the frames on the other 2.

Since I made these 3 pictures I've bought a scroll saw, which means I can make templates of various designs, so I can get the designs crisper and neater, and also put them on the tin faster, still working on a quick, but neat and tidy way of making the frames.

Here's a picture of the templates - 

I printed out some designs and stuck them to the hardboard.

My lovely wife remarked that with a bit of spray paint the templates would look pretty good as well, that's why she's the brains of the out fit.

Here's one made with a template - 

The wood for the frames comes from our garden.

In my opinion this one looks neat compared to the others. As it says in the caption all the wood comes from our garden, the frame for the one above is actually made from buddleja that I had to prune because it got damaged by the wind, the string hanging loop is an off cut of string left over from knitting hanging baskets, the only part of these that doesn't come from our house is the hardboard back I have fixed the tin to, I got 2 off cuts from a bargain bin in one of our local diy stores, so it is kind of recycling as they generally throw the smaller stuff out if no one buys it.

And it's not just designs like the one above either, it's possible to do loads of different designs, especially if you use a template ;-)

Here's one I made for my wife - 

Again I've used buddleja for the frame.

The one above I made by printing out the word on paper and then using some masking tape to secure it I drew round the letters with a ball point pen, can't really get easier than that ?

There's a bit of flexibility on how you can display them, for example with these ones I've used string to make a loop, I have also worked out a way to make them stand up like a picture frame does, you can also hang them together to make bigger hangings, have a look at the picture below.

Hung in a group of 3 - 

Looks pretty good, but then I'm biased ;-)

Just by using a drawing pin you can hook them up in groups like this, and make combinations of them, and if you had 3 that were all words you could make up short sayings, so there's a fair bit you can do with them (have I sold the idea to you yet ?) so why not have a look round your home or garden and see if you can make your own unique piece of recycled artwork.

Thanks for reading.