Baking Inspiration

Aloha friends, it's Podgy here again today, aren't you all lucky to share my company again so soon? For any of you good peeps in the UK, have you been watching it? What do you mean, what is IT? The Great British Bake Off of course! I tune in for my weekly fix, and always feel inspired to make something straight after. This week was biscuit week, so what better than to don my chef whites and get baking?

We don't have the most recent Bake Off tie in book, yet, but we do have the first book in the series, so I pawrused that for some inspawration.




Mmmm ginger biccies, that was my first make decided. I gathered some ingredients and posed for a photo opportunity...


Then I got baking, with the help of my trusty mixer, Sir Ken-of-the-wood. He makes baking so much more simpler, and saves my poor paws from many an ache.


I considered making one giant biscuit


But conceded the other bears might lynch me if I did, so I divided the dough into measly morsels and baked (them, not me) in my very hot oven...


Keeping a beady eye on them to make sure they didn't walk off onto other bears' paws!!


Look at those yumsome perfectious biscuitynesses (yes, they are all proper words, I made them up so they must be.)


Not yet content with my most marvellous feat, I pawrused the Internet for more inspawration and found a recipe for Peanut butter cookies


These were really simple to make, and even simpler to eat.


I started with one biscuit for each paw, as any self respecting baking bear should do. Now, I'm off to find more baking inspiration.


See you soon.

With love from the bears

Spray Away

Well hello there dear friends, it's Podgy The Great here with you today. Horace has a virus so I jumped up and took his place at the desk. I was wondering what supplies I could play with and decided on sprays, or mists, whatever you want to call them. Anyway, as I pulled our box of sprays out, I ruminated on how expensive they are, and wondered, could I pawsibbly make my own with acrylic paint, and save us some valuable pence? The answer, of course, being Podgy The Great, was a resounding Of Course!!!!!

Now I must confess, I didn't actually have a clue exactly how to turn acrylic paint into mist, so I pawrused Youtube for a tutorial. Twenty tutorials later I decided to follow what seemed to be the most posted and popular method, acrylic paint, Mod Podgy ( my own brand of glue)


and of course, water.


Luckily we already had several empty spray bottles, including an empty Dylusions bottle, which I washed clear.



I began by filling my spray bottle with water, about 3/4s full.



I then added a smidge of paint, the tutorials I watched added such a small amount of paint and seemed to get a great colour from it.





Next was a small amount of Mod Podgy


And a violent shake to mix it all up ( with the top back on the bottle of course)


I tested my new spray, and wasn't at all impressed with the colour, to me it looked like slightly murky water, so I added a very generous squeeze of the yellow acrylic, and shook once more.


This time I was pleased with the colour the spray produced


It even dripped a little too, yay.


Feeling rather more adventurous, I pulled out some mica that we've been hoarding since 1832!


I added a generous dollop, then another generous dollop of the powder.


This time, when I shook the bottle, I made sure to only shake it from side to side, as if you shake powdery sprays up and down it tends to clog the nozzle.


I was really pleased with the colour of this, and the shimmer!


I dried the sprays by rolling kitchen towel over the page, in my own inimitable style!!


Voila, two homemade sprays. I think that once we've used up our bought sprays we'll switch to homemade only. They will work out so much cheaper, and as an extra added bonus, the homemade variety didn't stain my paws, at all.


Aren't I brilliant? :)


If you want to make your own sprays, I'd suggest playing about with measurements to make a spray that's pleasing to you. Just add small amounts of paint or mica until you achieve the desired effect.

With love from the bears

Handmade books and so many photos!

Hello there, It's Horace here today to share with you my latest obsession - handmade journals. It seems I'm a bit of an all or nothing bear and once I develop a taste for making something I have to do it to the death. Hence the fact i have a huge pile of handmade journals that I'd need to live to 958 to utilise!!

One of the simplest journals I made is this.... ( excuse my doctbear uniform, I'm in training to be a bearamedic!!)


This journal is so simple it can be made in minutes, you only need folded over A4 card ( I think this works out to American letter size?) and a piece of 12 x 12 patterned paper or coloured card stock. Then it's just a matter of folding the A4 in half, cutting the 12 x 12 card to the size of the folded A4, making two holes in the middle of the Folded booklet and binding it all together, with the patterned paper forming the cover. As you see I'm using this little book for doodling pawposes.

The next book is recycling at its best. I found I had rather a stash of paper bags in my recycling folder. My furry little brain was whirring with the wonder of what to do with them all when I was struck suddenly with the inspawration to make a paper bag book. I assembled my various bags, which were all manner of shapes and sizes....


I taped down the bottoms of the bags....


Made sure my bags were neatly creased with a bone folder ( why ARE these named bone folders? Has anyone ever folded a bone with them????)


I sorted the bags into a semblance of bookishness, decorated some of the bags with patterned paper scraps to blot out the information on them....


One of the paper bags had funky red cord handles, I utilised these and made my book into a handbag style. The great thing about using paper bags as a journal is you already have slots and pockets to add extra journalling, photos and what have you. This could be used as a very handy travel journal with space for the ephemera you collect on your travels.


Next I decided to make a watercolour journal. We are lucky bears, owning a cinch, which made this journal a cinch (ha) to make. I used A4 watercolour paper for the insides, and A4 chipboard, paw decorated, for the covers. I think this is my favourite make so far.


Here are all the extra journals I made, all using up stash or scraps, or even junk such as cereal or coffee boxes. I do love a bit of recycling.


Now I just have to figure out a use for each journal, and actually use them, first though, I feel the urge to make another journal. I think I maybe an addict!!!

With love from the bears

WOYWW, a Finished Journal

Well hello there from Horace and other assorted bears, and welcome to another edition of the furbulous
WOYWW , hosted by the lovely Julia. Click on the link, take a look, but beware, you may become hooked!!

So, this week's desk at The House of Bears looks like this



I've just finished the big Dylusions journal, bought for me last year by Wilbear. I date stamped the day I started it as 6th August, so it's taken almost a year of fun to finally finish it. Here I am just decorating the outside. I chose to save it til last as I have a habit of accidentally dragging the covers through puddles of mist and paint!

This is the last page I did in the journal yesterday.



Although it is the last page I decorated, it's actually the first page in the book. I never journal in order. I let the book flap open and decide where I should journal.

My finished cover will be black, (to cover all the messy splodges on there so far) and to add some interest, I've used up some of the 3d alphabets we had


Hopefully the end product will look something like the idea in my furry brain. I'll take a break for now to go and pawruse some desk hoppers' desks.

TTFN

With love from the bears

In Fear of Melting

Hello there dear friends. Is it hot where you are? It is here. The British summer has decided to bring us something other than rain for a change and as furry bears we have been sweltering in the heat. At first I thought it a little bit of a novelty and took full advantage of bathing opportunities





After a while though I felt my fur start to singe so made a hasty retreat to the coolest place in the house




Note the chocolate bar for sustenance!

Once I was suitably cool, I decided to carry on with my newest hobby, sewing a quilt. My good friend Bearemy cut everything to size for me as my paws were not up to all that cutting



I then set to, stitching all my 6 x 6 squares together, first in rows, then stitching each row to the next



This took me ages, but it was fun to see my project growing square by square then row by row.




For the backing I bought myself a single sheet from Asda and cut it to size.



This proved very economical as I had enough left to make bias binding for the whole quilt.


I'm planning to finish stitching the binding in the autumn as it's just too hot to have the quilt on my lap and sew at the moment. Until then I'll occupy myself with small projects. I have a Debbie Shore book which has various interesting sewing projects in, so I'll probably busy myself with one of those until the weather turns cool enough to stitch quilted goods.

Happy crafting, see you soon.


With love from the bears

WOYWW - bears are back in town

Well hello there, Horace here with you today to join in with the wondrous WOYWW If you're not sure what on earth we're on about then click on the link to be taken to the best desk nose in the world.

We've been absent for a long time, but I'm feeling up to sitting in the ( very hot) garden and crafting. As you can see, Wilbear hefted lots of stash out for me to play with....



I think I'll start by eating the toast you see to the right, a bear cannot work on an empty tum! Next I'll have a play in the large Dylusions journal, which is almost full now, and almost a year since we started it too! The little journal is a friendship collabearation between us and the cub, and if I don't melt in the heat I may do something in that too. What fun.

I have Dylusions sprays out, and Dylusions stamps, so along with the journals, it seems like a Dylusions day to me.

I'm off to visit some desks, hopefully I'll catch up with old friends along the way.

Ttfn ( time to fry now?)


With love from the bears

We're back

Well hello there, we're back. Did you miss us? We certainly missed posting. The Human Under the Bed ( known as THUTB) has not been well and we came out in sympathy with her and took to our big bear bed! We had a little break from the blog in order to regroup, rest and recuperate and although we are not yet fully recovered we've missed posting so much that we've come back to say hello and hopefully restart blogging on a regular, although less prolific than before, basis.

You'll see a few minor changes, Cedric was missing The Peak District, where he came from, so he has gone back to live amongst the Bakewell bears. Pooh Bear has decided to go back to Hundred Acre Wood as he was missing Piglet et al.

We shall try and blog once a week. We will definitely be art journalling as getting arty and messy has been very therapeutic whilst we've been recupbearating. It's amazing how sploshing a bit of paint and mists around can lift furry spirits, we may make the occasional card too, as we still have bear birthdays to send to. You may also see some of my (Horace's ) sewing projects from time to time. Podgy will of course be popping up here and there to show you his baked creations, and there may be some general bear waffle here and there too.

With that in mind, I shall start with some misty backgrounds, I hope the Dylusions sprays haven't clogged since our arty hiatus. Excuse the pyjama shot, I'm not up to getting properly dressed yet.



With love from the bears