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Honeycomb wall art

Rating- Very easy, but time consuming (About three films worth of crafting). And you will get glitter everywhere.

You’ll need:

Colourful or glittery scrapbook paper. I used black, and two shades of silver. Each sheet was 12x12, but I didn’t use all of the cut out pieces for it.

Bristol board

Pencil, scissors, and glue stick

Stencil, or cut-out punch in the shape you want.

Steps:

Cut or punch out your shapes from the glitter paper. Any shapes will work for this as long as they can interlock, like honeycombs or triangles or squares, etc.

Use the glue stick on the back of each cut out and working like brickwork, create your pattern by gluing them to the bristol board. You can keep it a square like I did here, or you can do abstract shapes.

Trim off any of the board that might be showing around the edges. I just smacked it onto my wall with double sided tape.

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I made potato chips from scratch this afternoon. Get the recipe below.

Russet/baking potatoes. I found that two medium sized potatoes makes about the same amount as a bag of chips from the store.

Vinegar

Water

Oil for frying

Seasoning to taste (I used a sprinkle of sea salt, but any kind of powdered seasoning that you like, such as garlic salt, cheese powder, etc would be great. They’re also delicious on their own.)

After scrubbing clean, slice your potatoes evenly, about 2 or 3 millimetres (1/8 of an inch or so) thick. You can use a mandolin for this if you have one. I just used a sharp knife. Leave the peels on if you like, or remove them before slicing. Up to you.

Soak for a few minutes in a large bowl of cool water, to release the starches. Drain the bowl, then run under a tap until the water in the bowl starts to go clear.

Add half a cup of white vinegar, then cover with two to three litres of cool water (Or, enough to cover the potatoes in the bowl.). Set aside to soak for at least half an hour. I left mine for an hour and a half.

Drain and pat dry the slices of potatoes, and bring your oil to about 300 degrees. Too hot, and your chips will brown on the outside and the middle won’t cook. Too cool, and the chips will soak up a lot of oil, and won’t get crisp.

Fry the chips in batches. Two russets took me four batches. Keep them moving in the oil, flipping them around carefully with a slotted spoon or a spider.

When you take them out of the fry, let them sit for a few minutes on some paper towel to soak up any extra oil.

Toss with your seasoning, let them cool off, then devour. If you don’t eat them all in one sitting you have more will power than I do you can store them for a few days in an air tight container.

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A video tutorial on how to make cute, custom paper corsages/boutonnières.  

Comment on the video, or send me an ask here, with requests for the next project.

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My very first video tutorial, making cute little paper parcels.

Send requests or ideas for future tutorials here.

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I made a couple more journals/sketchbooks to add to my collection. The first is very pale blue and brown paisley, the other is black satin. Open the images in a new window to see the detail.

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Double Pointed Needles. AKA *Knit, knit, stab yourself in the hand*

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One of my favourite meals, right here. In fact, I’m eating the plate shown in the picture, as I write up this post! I’m going to give you a basic recipe that you can adapt to your own tastes, as well as show you how to make them.

For a recipe that makes about twenty-five to thirty dumplings, you’ll need:

1.5 to 2 pounds ground pork. The finer the grind you can get on this, the better. The more its minced, the more delicate the texture when you bite into the dumpling. You can also substitute ground chicken, but use smaller portions in each dumpling, to make sure it’s cooked through.

Green onions/scallions/spring onions/whatever you call them in your region. You can also use chive.

Grated ginger.

Minced or grated garlic.

Sesame oil

Soy sauce (I used reduced salt in my recipe)

Salt and pepper to taste.

I didn’t include measurements for the other ingredients, because everyone prefers their own flavour. If you’re a fan of garlic, use more of that. I don’t like ginger, so I usually go light on that, and just squeeze the ginger juice into the mixture, rather than the pulp. To test to flavour of the filling before going through the process of making all the dumplings, simply fry up a little meatball of the mixture, and give it a taste.

Photo instructions for how to make these are below the cut.

Have a request for another recipe or tutorial? Send me an ask. 

Happy eating!

First, we’re going to assemble our ingredients.

No need for name brand, here. I used a knob of ginger. To peel it, just scrape a spoon over it. I prefer mine nice and garlicy, so I used half a bulb, and I actually used about a cup of green onion. If I could, I’d put green onion in everything. Sesame oil has a strong flavour, so you’ll only need about a teaspoon. But, if you like it, add more.

I cheated! I use store bought dumpling wrappers. These come in packs of about fifty or so, and I get them for less than two dollars. The ones I get also come in square wrappers, and they freeze well.

Chop and mince and grate everything up, and mix it in with your ground meat. It will not look pretty. This will be when you will make a test ball, to see if you’re happy with the flavours. I’ve made this recipe enough that I skip this step, now.

Put a ball of meat (Mm, isn’t that appetising?) in the middle of your wrapper, and wet the edges. I totally cheated again here. Just off camera, is my little cup of water, with a paintbrush. I cannot stand the sensation of flour on my fingers, so I use a wet paintbrush to dampen the edges.

Okay, this is where photo taking got hard... What you need to do, is simple fold the wrapper in half, and pinch the edges together.

Work the whole way around, being sure to squeeze out the air from inside as you go. You can also pleat the edges now. I used to have a handheld device, that you fold over to do the crimping, but it. Did. Not. Work. Ever.

When you’ve done a few, lay them out in a single layer on a baking sheet, lined with plastic wrap. (You can see that I pleated some, and left some just folded over.) This is if you are making a lot, and want to store them. Just freeze them and divide them up.

If you’re cooking them right away, put about a half cup of water in a frying pan, and set it to boiling.

If you have a bamboo steamer tray, you can put them in that, and skip this step. Otherwise, put your dumplings in the boiling water. If you can, try to put them so the pleats face straight up. As you can see, one of them didn’t want to stand up.

Cover the pan, and boil the water. You can see that the dumplings change colour a bit, and you can almost see through the dough.

Boil off all of the water.

Add some oil to the pan, turning the heat down to about medium. I used a non-stick pan, so I just needed to give it a shake once in a while. If you’re using cast iron, be sure to lift the dumplings up every minute or so so they don’t fall apart. Cook on one side, until they are crisp and golden brown. Be careful, there will be some splatter.

If you are cooking from frozen, the method is the same, just add more water to the pan to cover them, and wait until they float to the top before you boil off the water.

Serve hot with some soy sauce. I eat these beauties with my fingers.

Hope you enjoyed it! Let me know how yours turned out, and maybe give me a suggestion for the next recipe I should try.

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Craft Confession:

I have broken down nearly every knitted item I’ve been given over the years, and turned them into balls of yarn. I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve heard “That’s a cute scarf. Didn’t I give you a jumper in the same colour?”

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The Teddy Bear Hat.

Made with chocolate brown, super chunky yarn, and crocheted with a 10mm hook. It was originally supposed to be a kitty hat, but when I put it on, I felt like a teddy. An adorable, soft teddy.

I’d be happy to do a tutorial of this one, if anyone is interested. Let me know!

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Wire wrapped ring, made of copper and amethyst chips.

I love amethyst, because of the variation in tones. For this piece, I used three different chips, each paler than the next to give it an ombré effect. The ring itself is made from one piece of wire, and is self wrapped. 

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Plum Drops Copper Choker, for sale on my Etsy. 

Variations available at no additional charge.

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My Ace Pride bangles, with the black and purple bars made up with box chain for some added sparkle and shine.

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I had a lot of fun designing this choker/necklace combo piece.

Copper chain and hardware, honey coloured Chinese crystals, and a citrine drop.

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Me wearing my genderfluid, asexual bracelets. Aren’t they pretty?