Handmade Monday #52

Hi and welcome to the 52nd Handmade Monday link up here at Sum of their Stories. 

Handmade Monday is our weekly craft link up, a chance to share our makes, bakes and other handmade craft ideas and find some new inspiration.

Some things are easy to believe and somethings are next to impossible. Can you believe it has been a whole year since I took over the hosting of Handmade Monday from the lovely Vicky of Lucy Blossom Crafts? I know I can't! It's week 52, that's a whole year! (stating the obvious sorry)
I love that we have so many newbies to Handmade Monday who have joined us over the year, and I love that some of you have stuck with us from the days at Handmade Harbour and Lucy Blossom Crafts. 
Have you had chance to get your craft on this week. I have had fun with this: 

But that's all I'm showing you for now...more later in the week!

Now let's look at the features from last weeks Handmade Monday:
Chas shared this lovely sunflower wreath made from clothes pegs, isn't it pretty?

Chrissie D showed us a beautiful Highland Cattle Cushion she made using an amazing technique called FPP. Isn't it cool?

It seems I am a sucker for a granny square crochet project, I do seem to choose them a lot as my favourites! Take this banner from Made by Demi, so sweet that I just can't help myself!

Congratulations to you all, here is a "Yay! I was featured" button for your blog.

<div style="width:100%;text-align:center;"> <span style="margin:5px;padding:5px;border-radius: 5px;border:1px solid lightgrey;display:inline-block;"><a rel=_nofollow href="http://www.sumoftheirstories.com/"> <img style="border: 1px solid gray;width:150px;height:150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJK6GjfiYCihYs7yN5bI2KiuuM6RlAoPTFz8KVoDUqHF3puN9_2mSVFcI9FdaVhyf8DJULWyM24nNIqTYSdh2Fbjj24s7SvAQHhry3rWdocC8lEPpqg59szjVwSiNCeCOKKFS5YEIADQ/s200/Handmade+monday+featured.jpg"> <p style="allign: center;"> </p> </a></span></div>
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Handmade Monday is all about building a craft community, so please take a few minutes to visit some of the other links, leave a comment, and maybe share your favourites on the social media of your choice if you can.

Come and pin with me!!! We have a Handmade Monday group Pinterest board and you are welcome to pin your projects there too. Follow me and the board then send me a request letting me know the email address you use for Pinterest. 

The rules for Handmade Monday are simple:

• Did you make it? Yes - hooray, we'd love to see it!
• Add the link to a specific blog post, not your main site URL.
• Link up to 3 posts each week.
• Mingle - visit some of the other links - comment - share - let's support one another and grow our craft community.

If you're not sure on anything, more information can be found here.

An InLinkz Link-up

Inspired by - Felt Scrap Garland

Use left over felt scraps to make a upcycled Christmas garland. 

This post contains affiliate links, if you click through and make a purchase then the cost to you is the same but Sum of their Stories receives a small commission Today I'm sharing another project inspired by another fantastic blogger - part of my "Inspired by" series. This time it's a lovely felt garland made from felt scraps inspired by one I saw a couple of years ago over at Pillar Box Blue.

What I love about this project is that it uses the teeny tiniest scraps left over from all my recent felted jumper projects.  It's super simple. Take little left over bits of felt, cut them into pieces approx 1" square and then thread them up to make a garland. I've been on a bit of a 'felting old jumpers and cardigans' crazy recently and have been making all sorts of things with the felt. I've already shared a few here, some felt flowers & these felt lavender bag houses and I have quite a few more to come. What this has generated is a lot of tiny scraps and I was really pleased to remember this garland idea. It was so quick to make up and saves all the little pieces from the bin. Yay! 

I used a Green Pearl Thread and made my garland about 145cm/57" long (plus the tassels) . It actually gets pretty heavy so this feels long enough. I finished the ends of my garland with a few beadsand a tassel made from more of the embroidery thread.  

You can see the felt from my felted jumpers and cardigans came out in different thicknesses, that doesn't matter at all for this project. Not all my pieces were perfectly square either, I used every little corner so as to not waste a scrap! 

Pillar Box Blue has a lovely bauble idea too along the same lines if you want more options, check out it out here. I wanted something to use up my tiny felt scraps - job done! 

Handmade Monday #51

Hi and welcome to another Handmade Monday link up. 

Handmade Monday is our weekly craft link up, a chance to share our makes, bakes and other handmade craft ideas and find some new inspiration.

Have you had a good week? This is the first Remembrance Sunday in over 15 years that we've not got up early to drop at least one of the kids to a beavers, cubs or scouts Remembrance Day parade or memorial. They have all left scouts now - end of an era! 

I took this photo way back in the summer when the road side wild flower planting was at it's best. Poppies really are a beautiful flower aren't they? 

Now let's look at the features from last weeks Handmade Monday:
Jo from Three Stories High shared a lovely poncho she made by adapting an old pattern. I think ponchos are always in style, don't you? 

Claire from Pillar Box Blue has made a lovely paper envelope advent calendar. They put a little chocolate treat and a cheesy joke in the envelopes each day - what do you put in your advent calendars?

Paper Seedlings shared with us an effective technique to make glossy card look like linen. It's such a lovely effect and I love the way that Linda showed us all her attempts including the ones that didn't work so well.

Congratulations to you all, here is a "Yay! I was featured" button for your blog.

<div style="width:100%;text-align:center;"> <span style="margin:5px;padding:5px;border-radius: 5px;border:1px solid lightgrey;display:inline-block;"><a rel=_nofollow href="http://www.sumoftheirstories.com/"> <img style="border: 1px solid gray;width:150px;height:150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJK6GjfiYCihYs7yN5bI2KiuuM6RlAoPTFz8KVoDUqHF3puN9_2mSVFcI9FdaVhyf8DJULWyM24nNIqTYSdh2Fbjj24s7SvAQHhry3rWdocC8lEPpqg59szjVwSiNCeCOKKFS5YEIADQ/s200/Handmade+monday+featured.jpg"> <p style="allign: center;"> </p> </a></span></div>
Instructions: Select all code above, copy it and paste it inside your blog post as HTML

Handmade Monday is all about building a craft community, so please take a few minutes to visit some of the other links, leave a comment, and maybe share your favourites on the social media of your choice if you can.

Come and pin with me!!! We have a Handmade Monday group Pinterest board and you are welcome to pin your projects there too. Follow me and the board then send me a request letting me know the email address you use for Pinterest. 

The rules for Handmade Monday are simple:

• Did you make it? Yes - hooray, we'd love to see it!
• Add the link to a specific blog post, not your main site URL.
• Link up to 3 posts each week.
• Mingle - visit some of the other links - comment - share - let's support one another and grow our craft community.

If you're not sure on anything, more information can be found here.

An InLinkz Link-up

Chocolate Chip & Orange Porridge Oat Cookies

Mix, bake and cool slightly, these chocolate chip and orange flavour porridge oat cookies can be ready to eat from start to finish in about 30 minutes.

I don't know if a Terry's Chocolate Orange is a specifically British thing or if they are available worldwide but I do know in my family Christmas is not Christmas without a Chocolate Orange. "Don't tap it, Whack it" "One of my 5 a day"  and "It's not Terry's it's mine" are all common catch phrases linked to this most Christmassy of treats. So for me chocolate and orange just go together, especially at this time of year and I've been experimenting with a family favourite cookie recipe to give them a chocolate orange twist. You might notice I am calling these cookies too, not biscuits as I should do, being an English girl and all. They are quite cookie like though I think as they are slightly chewy inside.

Chocolate Chip & Orange Porridge Oat Cookies

Makes between 25 and 30 230g Baking Margarine or butter 230g caster sugar 2 eggs 2 tsps orange essence 300g SR flour 150g porridge oats Zest of 1 orange (optional but makes it more orangy) 100g plain chocolate chips 100g milk chocolate chips 100g chocolate for decoration * you can get an easy print version of this recipe with a conversion to cups too here.
Heat the oven to 180 c   350 f   gas 4
Beat the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy. If you have a lovely food mixer use that (you lucky thing you!) or use an electric hand whisk or a wooden spoon. Beat in the eggs and orange essence. Stir in the flour, porridge oats, chocolate chips and zest if using. Mix until it forms a stiff dough and you can't see the flour anymore. Use a desert spoon to spoon out blobs of mixture and roll them lightly in your hands. Place them on the baking tray and press lightly with a fork to flatten them slightly.

These cookies don't really spread very much as they cook so whatever size/shape you make them now is pretty much how they will end up. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes until golden brown, then cool on a cooling rack. Melt the remaining chocolate and drizzle over the cookies to finish.

Enjoy! I'll be sharing this recipe at some of these linkups.

Handmade Monday #50

Hi folks and welcome to another Handmade Monday link up. 

We had quite a few new bloggers joining us last week for the first time, so if you are a newbie here - WELCOME. If you're not a newbie (and oldbie???!) - you're welcome too!! 
Handmade Monday is our weekly craft link up, a chance to share our makes, bakes and other handmade craft ideas and find some new inspiration.

How was everyone's week? the big news in our house was that it was our middle son's graduation on Saturday. Actually, I say middle son but then that sounds like we have 3 sons. Oldest son/middle child graduated on Saturday, lots of pomp and ceremony, photo taking and feeling ridiculously proud!

Now let's look at the features from last weeks Handmade Monday:
These little zipper pouches by ChezVies are so pretty and there are links to a couple of different patterns. Elvira also has a great idea for storing scraps of interfacing.

Coloured Buttons has a very simple tutorial for this sweet little felt leaf bag. Perfect for collecting 'stuff' on a nature walk. 

Congratulations to you both,  here is a "Yay! I was featured" button for your blog.

<div style="width:100%;text-align:center;"> <span style="margin:5px;padding:5px;border-radius: 5px;border:1px solid lightgrey;display:inline-block;"><a rel=_nofollow href="http://www.sumoftheirstories.com/"> <img style="border: 1px solid gray;width:150px;height:150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJK6GjfiYCihYs7yN5bI2KiuuM6RlAoPTFz8KVoDUqHF3puN9_2mSVFcI9FdaVhyf8DJULWyM24nNIqTYSdh2Fbjj24s7SvAQHhry3rWdocC8lEPpqg59szjVwSiNCeCOKKFS5YEIADQ/s200/Handmade+monday+featured.jpg"> <p style="allign: center;"> </p> </a></span></div>
Instructions: Select all code above, copy it and paste it inside your blog post as HTML

Handmade Monday is all about building a craft community, so please take a few minutes to visit some of the other links, leave a comment, and maybe share your favourites on the social media of your choice if you can.

We have a friendly facebook group for Handmade Mondayers where we share useful things we find, advice etc. You are welcome to join us if you share your projects here at Handmade Monday. 

The rules for Handmade Monday are simple:

• Did you make it? Yes - hooray, we'd love to see it!
• Add the link to a specific blog post, not your main site URL.
• Link up to 3 posts each week.
• Mingle - visit some of the other links - comment - share - let's support one another and grow our craft community.

If you're not sure on anything, more information can be found here.

An InLinkz Link-up