Round up of the Year

 Hi Crafters

First let me wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and thank you for stopping by. I realise there are many things you could be doing and blogs you could be visiting so THANK YOU for checking my blog out. This year has seen a good increase in viewers and for that I am very grateful as it gives me the encouragement to continue. 

So this year for crafting has been very messy and looking back at my posts this has been reflected in the mix and maelstrom of my posts. Not just because there has been little structure to the crafting year but also because I like to try my hand at many styles of crafting. I am not sure if this is helpful to viewers but hopefully you can find items you are interested in, although this has made me realise I need to be more careful with headings. 

I have only been able to visit one Craft Show this year (Exeter) and have held one Workshop. In August I attended a Craft Fair, this was not great for me (or many of the other stall holders) which has made me question doing any more Fairs. I am not closing that door completely but I am thinking that I will not do any in 2022, and see if I can find another outlet for items. So in this respect I am looking forward to trying something new. 

For the Blog I would like to tidy it up a little, and have an idea to focus on a particular area for each month  instead of ad hoc posts, with a little more planning for weekly posts. Let’s hope this is a new year resolution that is followed through. If I can plan a little better then my posts will be better structured and photographs to match improved instructions. Please check in  in January to see if this works for you. I would also appreciate feedback at any time as this will tell me if a more structured approach is good for you, the readers. 

So I leave you with a picture of my Christmas Cake this year. Honestly I am no good at cake decorating or icing, so soft icing has been used, meaning the corners are not clean squares but I find ribbon hides a multitude of errors. This is a simple pattern of snowflakes in 3 sizes made from cutters, placed around a circle of icing rolled out and cut using a saucepan lid. 

The cutters used were the push down style:

I am not experienced with these and struggled to remove the snowflake once cut. In the end I found a great system. Press the cutter into the icing and lightly wiggle to cut your pattern. Lift the cutter and clean out the pieces in between the edges, with a cocktail stick, before pushing the handle down. This will not release the shape but a careful pick at the edge with cocktail stick will enable you to get under the shape and go around the edges gently lifting before removing the shape. I then turn these onto a piece of grease proof paper when I I had a selection of all the sizes I placed them around the circle of icing before placing the whole lot onto the centre of the cake. I have placed 3 silver reindeer into the centre of the circle of snowflakes but you could add an iced picture or a selection of Christmas trees or poinsettia, whatever you fancy. I then wrapped the sides in silver ribbon with another fancy ribbon placed in the centre. 

I then used the spare snowflakes to place around the cake stand. I am happy with the finished item, it certainly suits my needs as this cake will sit on the table until Christmas/Boxing Day and once cut will not be around long, and will be probably be shared out to family and neighbours, (if not gone by January) 

Hope you all have a great Christmas and looking forward to crafting in the new year.

Dee