Paint Stirrer Signs! Pin.002

This pin has finally made it into reality! I originally pinned this a year ago. I have realised why this took me so long to get round to doing.. because it takes absolutely ages, and needs quite a bit of preparation! In retrospect, this may not have been worth the hassle! But then again, as always, I did make it harder than it needed to be!

The original source for this pin is from: 'Today'sFabulousFinds'. I wanted to make a sign for our toilet rather than making a Christmas one (though I may do this later) so I used my own template rather than the one provided on the blog. A few other differences: they  used paint stirrers... I used odd bits of wood I had lying around. They had a Laserjet printer and I have an Inkjet printer. On the blog it says if you have an inkjet printer it won't work. However! there is a way around this which I'll get to later.

Needed for 'paint-stirrer' signs:
Pieces of spare wood (or paint stirrers)
Emulsion
Inkjet or Laserjet Printer
Scrapbook paper
Clear varnish or PVA glue
Paintbrush
Holepunch
String
Electric drill to make holes in the wood.

This the wood I used. It measured 11.7 x 10.2cm. Random I know...

I made my own template on Photoshop Elements and made sure the image was the same size as the wood. I tried printing the letters in cream but for some unknown reason it did not want to print so I settled for black.

The paper I was used was craft paper I bought ages ago from my local craft shop. The paper measured 15.1 x 15.1cm, so I had to go into the printer settings to make sure it printed okay. It came out like this:

To dry it out, I then put the picture in the FREEZER for a couple of hours! A tip I found here, suggested doing this with images printed from Inkjet printers so that they don't smudge or blur when you put varnish or glue over them. I painted the wood with Wilkinson's emulsion in 'Soft Cream'. I just bought one of those small testers for £1. I gave the wood 2 coats of paint, letting it dry in between.

I backed the printed image with another piece of scrapbook paper and tried sticking it on, but it didn't work out too well :-(

I only put glue round the edges of the brown paper so when I stuck it to the green and to the wood it had huge air bubbles in it in the centre! It did not look good! I tried to smooth them out but to no avail, so I had to start again, doh! Here's my second copy:

I stuck the printed scrapbook paper onto another piece of scrapbook paper, using glue all over it this time, though only a thin layer. I then made hole punches in it where the string goes. I stuck these onto the wood... and covered in a thin layer of varnish.

I then drilled holes in the wood and threaded the string through and Ta-Da, one toilet sign!

I liked the outcome but man.. did this take ages!! If you want to do this, consider using the paint stirrers and paint stirrer templates, as it can be quite fiddly with sizing if you do it all from scratch! It was worth the time though - I love it!

Click on the image below to see the recipe and Hungry Husband Rating for Pin. 003 'Microwave Chocolate Mug Brownie!'

Nutella Cupcakes! Pin.001

Okay...  I have a confession to make... I cheated slightly.. a few times. The idea of this blog is for me to go through my existing 'pins' and try them out. However, when my friend Pam asked me to bake some cupcakes to raise money for 'Care for the Family' I panicked. I've never made cupcakes before! I'm more a brownie/muffin kinda girl.. I didn't know where to start! Then it occurred to me to find a recipe on pinterest.. and so I did! As I am not experienced in the cupcake field and the prospect of piping icing made me tremble with fear, I found an alternative recipe that was easy peasy and required no icing-piping skills.

The original recipe is from a blog called 'Lickthebowlgood'.

Glancing at the ingredients, I saw that the recipe asked for: 'Hershey's chocolate syrup'. Waaa? I live in the UK and have absolutely no idea what this is, or whether there is an alternative here. Bums. This is where I cheated (again). I decided to use the Hummingbird Bakery recipe book I was given for Christmas for the sponge part of the cupcake. I used the 'Chocolate Cupcakes' recipe on page 126. I also cheated (yet again) as I decided Ferrero Rocher were too expensive. I decided to use chocolate buttons and chopped hazelnuts instead (which I already had in my cupboard).

I was impressed at how easy this recipe was. The Hummingbird Bakery is well known for having amazing cakes and I really thought it would be a lot harder than it was.

Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients:
80g unsalted butter
280g caster sugar
200g plain flour
40g cocoa powder
1tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
240ml whole milk
2 large eggs

For the topping I used:
Almost a whole jar of Nutella
Giant chocolate buttons
Sprinkle of chopped hazelnuts


1. 'Preheat the oven to 190C (375F), Gas mark 5, and line muffin tin with cases.'


2. 'Put the butter, sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a bowl.'

3. 'Beat together on a low speed until the ingredients are well incorporated and resemble fine breadcrumbs.' 

Well.. this part didn't go so well.. The mixture was so fine it went everywhere! Then it was really hard to beat together the butter with the other ingredients. I cut the butter up in cubes and it had been out of the fridge for about an hour but no matter what I did, it did not mix with the other ingredients and it certainly did not resemble fine breadcrumbs!
 
4. 'Pour the milk into a jug, add the eggs and whisk together.' (there were then instructions to add 3/4 of the wet mixture to the dry ingredients before then adding the remaining mixture but I didn't read this part until I'd bunged it all in.. woops!). 

5. 'Keep mixing until all the ingredients have come together and the batter is smooth once again'

6. 'Spoon the batter into the paper cases, so that each is two-thirds full. If any batter remains use it to fill 1-4 more cases in a separate tin.'

Okay, bear in mind this recipe is supposed to make 12-16 cupcakes... when we did it, it made 26. Yup. 26 cupcakes! we filled this tray twice and another two cupcakes in a different tray. I can only think that they were using larger cases...

 
7. 'Put in the oven and bake for 18-20 minutes or until risen and springy to the touch. Leave to cool slightly before taking out of the tin and placing on a wire rack.'

Then the fun part! When the cupcakes had cooled I made a well in the top of the cupcake with a knife, and sort of smooshed it down with my fingers like this:

I then spooned a big splodge of Nutella into the cupcake:

For finishing touches I added a chocolate button and a sprinkle of hazelnuts for each cupcake..and.. Ta-Da!

26 Chocolate-button-nutella-hazelnut Cupcakes!

All, in all, a success I think! They tasted yum and seemed to go down well at my friends cupcake sale too.

Hungry Husband Rating: 4/5. 'I think these were good but the chocolate button got a bit lost in the cupcake, it could be better with a Lindt chocolate sweet instead '. Good idea! These husbands do come in handy sometimes!

Click on the image below to see Pin. 002: 'Paint-Stirrer Signs!'

First things first...

...I have never had a blog. There, I said it. I am a newbie to the blogging world so forgive me if this is a little rough around the edges to begin with!

The Starting Point:

Most of you know pinterest.com right? If not then go there and check it out for yourself. Pinterest is great because it lets you organise and share things you find on the web, and discover new ideas and inspirations by  browsing through peoples 'pins'. You can also add your facebook friends so that you can see all the pins that they post. Pretty cool..

The Problem:

So, I have a pinterest.com account. In fact, I've had it for about a year now. In that time I have collected 149 pins.. and 13 boards. I pin anything from recipes to craft ideas to 'things that make me smile'. So what? I hear you say. Well, do you know how many of those pins I have actually used or done anything about? That would be a whopping great big zero. In a year. Shocking. Well maybe not.. I can't be the only one with this flaw? I am addicted to pinning but seem to have an aversion to doing anything about it.

The Objective:

Simple. Use the pins I have collected on pinterest.com and post the results on here. I'll be honest this blog is partly to spur me out of my inactivity, but I hope you'll join me on the journey. I'll post the results, the good, bad, and downright awful. We'll weed out those craft ideas that just really don't work.. and hopefully we'll discover some gems along the way!