Wednesday 27 March 2013

Giveaway Winner - Apron Surprise


I recently did a Giveaway here on my blog to celebrate reaching 1000 likes on my Facebook Page. The winner of the prize was Ameera Rahim who also has her own blog: http://traditionalmuslimah.blogspot.co.uk/

She chose the prize of an Apron - so I have been busy the last day or so making her Prize and I also added an element of surprise by making a mini version for her daughter too!

These should be being posted today insha'Allah.

I will also be posting a tutorial soon as to how I made these Insha'Allah


I also made a card with a personalised poem about the Aprons! Below is a copy of the Card:



Monday 25 March 2013

Upcycling Plastic Pots - Bangles



Today's Post is an upcycling project that I did with my children.  Using Plastic Pots we made some bangles.

I used a fresh cream pot but any plastic pots for example yoghurt pots could be used for this kind of project. We wanted these to be gold because we wanted some gold bangles to go with a dressing up costume that we had made.

Instructions:

Step 1: Using Scissors I made a cut in the plastic so that I could insert the scissors in to start cutting all the way around the pot.
Step 2: Insert the scissors to make another cut underneath the first one and again cut all the way around the pot so that you now have a plastic strip (bracelet shape). Depending on how tall the pots are and how wide you want the bracelets repeat the first 2 steps to make more plastic strips.  I cut out 3 bangles.
Step 3: Decorate the bangles, we had some gold tape which we attached to the plastic strips. However you could try other alternative ways to decorate these for example: wrap around ribbon, lace, wool - Painted - Stickers - Glue other craft materials to them. Whatever you have handy.


I have used yoghurt pots in the past for craft projects, below is another upcycling project tutorial I have blogged about previously: http://www.karimascrafts.com/2011/05/upcycling-plastic-pots-tutorial.html







Saturday 23 March 2013

Book Review - The Longing Heart



My Review:

I  really enjoyed this book - It is meant for children aged 11-14. It is about a young man named Abu Dhar who was interested in learning more about the Blessed Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). He returns to his own tribe and continues the message of Islam to his own people. This book is told in a story, rather than a book just giving facts. I didn't read this book to my 5 year old as this is aimed at the older readers and didn't have many illustrations to keep her interacting with the story. The book was however well suited for my 10 year old daughter who loved it.

My 10 year old Daughter's Review:

This book is about one of the many reverts of Islam, Abu Dhar. I really loved this book, it shows how just because of their religion Muslims were disliked. I also loved this book because it gives a reverts point of view.


The Longing Heart – Story of Abu Dhar
Author: Khurram Murad
Illustrator: Hanife Hasan
 ISBN: 0 86037 138 7
Printed by The Islamic Foundation







Thursday 21 March 2013

Chocolate Brioche Recipe


 
I recently found a recipe for some Chocolate Brioches - these are one of my children's favourite!
 
The children absolutely loved these - they said they were better than the shop bought ones!
 
Ingredients
 
250g White Bread Flour
25g Caster Sugar
75g Butte
2 Eggs
1 teaspoon of Easy Bake Yeast
1 teaspoon Salt
25ml Milk
100g Chocolate Chips
 


Instructions:

Step 1: Place the Flour, Sugar, Yeast and Flour into a mixing bowl. Add the Milk and Eggs. Mix the ingredients.
Step 2: Slowly add the butter - mixing as you do this.
Step 3: Stir in the Chocolate Chips
Step 4: Once the dough is ready - place onto a floured surface and divide mixture into 8 equal parts.
Step 5: Shape the pieces into a fat sausage and place well spaced onto an oiled baking tray.
Step 6: Cover them with oiled cling film and leave in a warm place for them to double in size.
Step 7: Set the Oven to 200C
Step 8: Place inside the oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.
Step 9: Allow to cool down - best eaten on the same day.








Monday 18 March 2013

Giveway! To celebrate my 1000 likes on Facebook

Yeah - I have reached over 1000 likes on Facebook and promised to do a giveaway when this happened.  I am sorry for the ones who have entered via Facebook - I only found out that it is against Facebook rules to run giveaways via Facebook - so I have set up this blog post for people to enter the giveaway!  Please leave your contact details - you can do this privately if you wish via karimascrafts@gmail.com if you don't want everyone seeing your details!

Giveaway details:

An Apron or a little girls bag - you choose if you are the one picked to receive the giveaway! Let me know by leaving a message on this post which one you would be interested in or via pm message to my email address. So sorry for confusion!

The ones who have already put their names down on facebook will still be included - I have logged your details - but you can still put your details here too!


Giveaway Ends on Sunday 24 March 2013.

DIY Matching Curtains and Bedding


Here I am sharing with you the matching curtains I made to go with my girls' bedding that I made. I used the fabric from the recycled bedding to make a border to the wine coloured fabric that I had at home. I also attached blackout lining to the curtains as this helps block out all the light to help them sleep in the light nights!

Below is the photo of the bedding that I did as a reminder for you:
Here was the link to this post: http://www.karimascrafts.com/2013/02/matching-bedding-for-different-sized.html


Friday 15 March 2013

Red Nose Day 2013


Today it is Red Nose Day in the UK. This is a fundraising event organised by Comic Relief. Anyone who has children in the UK will know about this day as nearly all schools do their part in raising money for this charity. I have 3 children at different schools and they are all taking part in different activities. My Son, the eldest is just donating money and they can buy red noses for the charity. My eldest daughter donates money and goes to school wearing something red. My youngest is donating money, going to school in something red and also having a fun afternoon. The afternoon involves a party where the children can buy cakes. have face painting etc. for small donations.

This year I actually made some homemade cakes for my youngest to take into school - normally I buy shop bought ones! But seen as I now have some recipes for cakes that I can cook, I made them this year!  I really need to have more practising with cake decoration. The Top photograph is the cakes that I made.  The photograph below is of some cakes that my 10 year old daughter made and designed herself to take to her school.


The recipe we followed for these cakes was my madeira cake recipe - here is the link: http://www.karimascrafts.com/2013/03/madeira-cake-recipe.html



Wednesday 13 March 2013

Madeira Cake Recipe




I have recently started to be in the Kitchen a lot more and actually surprised that I am enjoying it! I have mainly been making desserts and thought I would share some of the recipes I have been using. I normally find a recipe online and then adapt it to my own needs. I will however share the original recipe when I can. Here is the original one for this cake: www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/madeiracake


Ingredients:
175g Margarine
175g Caster Sugar
150g Self Raising Flour
3 Eggs
Half Teaspoon Vanilla Flavouring
Half Teaspoon Lemon Flavouring
1 Tablespoon Milk



Method:

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a suitable tin (I used bread tin)
Step 2: Cream the butter and sugar together until it becomes pale and fluffy.
Step 3: Beat in the eggs - one at a time. Add a tablespoon of flour after adding the last egg. (This is meant to stop it from curdling)
Step 4: Add the flavourings to the mixture.
Step 5: Sift in the flour gradually and fold in.
Step 6: Add in the tablespoon of milk or more if needed to make sure that the mixture falls slowly from the spoon.
Step 7: Place the mixture into the prepared tin and level out the top.
Step 8: Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 40-50 minutes. Test with a sharp knife inserted into the middle to see if the inside is cooked. If the knife comes out clean it is ready. If the knife comes out with mixture on then place in the oven for longer to cook fully.
Step 9: Remove from the oven and allow to cool down before removing from the tin.
Step 10: Remove and place onto a wire rack to cool completely. Make sure that you loosen around the edges of tin so that the cake can fall out smoothly.

The original recipe asked for Lemon Zest but I changed this to vanilla and lemon flavouring. Also the recommended time of 30-40 minutes cooking time didn't work for my oven - I had to cook this for 50 minutes in my oven (which is electric).

I normally have this cake for breakfast for the family or as a dessert with yummy vanilla ice-cream.











Monday 11 March 2013

Scarves Storage Ideas - Great Ideas



If you have plenty of scarves at home and are wanting some ideas on how you can store them, then here are 2 ways that I am sharing with you today.
 
The First is a Trouser Hanger, these are ideal to store many of your scarves and can be hung either in the wardrobe or on a coat hanger or even over the top of a door as the photograph shows.
 

The Second is using an over the door hanger, these also can hold many scarves and are great to place over any door in the house.  I actually have one of these placed on the passage door near the front door. This makes it easy to just grab a scarf before leaving the house!


There are of course many other ways to store your scarves, simply doing a google search will show you some other great and weird ways! Below are some other ideas:

Folded neatly into drawers
Using Shower Hooks on a hanger
Rolled and placed in baskets

Below is another idea if you don't have that many scarves - Rolled onto a tube!


 






Thursday 7 March 2013

Book Review - The Very Hungry Caterpillar



My Review

This book is one of the best! All my children have read this book since they were very young and all of them have loved it! The story gives a very lighthearted view of how a caterpillar turns into a lovely butterfly by eating food such as lollipops, which certainly gets the children giggling! I would highly recommend your children read this book, it is probably one of the most well-known books out there for young children.

My 5 year old daughter's Review:

"This book is great" - and to show you how great it is,I have my daughter on video here reading the whole story all by herself!


I hope you enjoyed this review and the video.

 
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
by Eric Carle
Penguin Book








Monday 4 March 2013

Dress to Bag Mini Tutorial

 
 I made a tote bag recently for myself which I thought would share with you.  Anyone who knows me, knows this is the bag I always carry with me lol!
 
I made this from fabric that I already had at home including the main part of the bag coming from an old denim dress that belonged to me. I made this bag just the right size to hold an A4 Binder inside and also the pocket large enough to hold my A5 Diary/Planner inside. The 2 small pockets hold my mini umbrella and my phone!  This is not a full tutorial as I didn't take many photographs, so thought I would just share with you a brief mini tutorial. 
 

I cut out two large rectangles of fabric. One piece the denim dress and the other piece of fabric to use as lining.
I cut out the front part of the dress including the pockets to use a large inside pocket for the bag. I had to stitch up beside the buttons to make it all one piece of fabric.
I used fabric to make a Binding over the top of the pocket. I used the same fabric to make the tote bag strap and the binding for the top rim of the bag. I actually added some Elastic inside the rim so that the bag closes a little to keep my things a bit more secure.
I used strips of Ribbon to go from the front to the back of the bag for design purposes.
I hand sewed some decorative buttons I had to the front of the bag.
I hand sewed a flower hair accessory that I had to the front of the bag.
I had a pretty keychain that was broken which I also attached to the front of the bag for decoration.

I so love this bag and it is great to keep my A4 Binder in when I attend my Arabic/Islamic Classes. And I always like to have my Diary/Planner with me so this is kept in its own pocket inside the bag for easy access! I have plenty of space to keep my money purse and other things too!

If you are interested in making one of these yourself there are plenty of free tutorials online - just search for tote bag tutorials and find one that you feel is easy for you to follow. I have included a few here if you wish to look at that them:

20-minute-tote-bag
how-to-make-a-simple-reversible-totebag
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a9Yt1gmutQ