Driving success

This weekend I took to a different kind of crafting from usual - cake decoarating.

My brother passed his driving test on Friday and we wanted to do something to mark the occassion. However, having searched in all the local shops, we failed to find anything relating to passing your driving test. Not a card, a banner, and certainly not a cake! I couldn't believe how hard it was to find a card! I asked in a local cake shop about them decorating a cake with a torn L-plate design and they weren't very helpful - suggesting they used rice paper!

So, how hard could it be right? Armed with some white and red icing - it had to be red as he's bought a classic red mini - off I went to decorate some cakes!

After finishing the the torn L-plate cake, I still had loads of icing left. So I made some fairy cakes and once they had cooled I started to decoarte them too.

When I looked at the photo of the finished cakes I noticed my cake tins in the background - wonder where I got my pattern inspiration from! Matching the baking to the kitchen decor - taking it a bit far maybe?

Encourged by the success of the cakes I thought I'd make a card too. After a bit of fun cutting and sticking here's the finished card. 

Marvel-lous homemade art

As you'll have gathered from the post Happy 'Spidey' Easter, about the little felt Spiderman I made as part of an Easter present, I have Marvel fan who had a very plain, empty new flat.

On one of the many DIY store trips, I recently stumbled across some amazing Marvel wallpaper - whilst looking for something completely different - of course! It had a lovely retro style to the images using old covers from various comics and I knew it would make something great to brighten up some of the plain walls.

As with all rented properties we can't decorate the walls - which limits the use of wallpaper a bit. So I had a rummage around the rest of the shop and found some cheap £1 wooden photo frames, some paintbrushes and some red paint - picking out the red in the comic covers. When I got home I spent a sunny afternoon in the garden painting frames and choosing which comic covers to use from the paper.

By the end of the afternoon I had 6 marvel-lous new pictures to hang in the hall all for the grand price of £8! I love the retro feel of them!

 

Airbrushing for a good cause

Previously I introduced you to my brother's Masked Designs airbrushing paint work. Today, I wanted to share some very exciting news for  Masked Designs. He has recently been working closely with MotoGP Monster Energy Tech-3 Yamaha rider Bradley Smith to create a completely one-off aluminium wall art which will be being auctioned off at this year's Day of Champions charity auction for Riders for Health at Silverstone.

The sign is laser cut in the shape of Bradley's racing #38 from high quality aluminium sheet and the image has then been airbrushed on and given the Masked Designs treatment.

As a huge MotoGP fan this has been a fantastic opportunity for Masked Designs to be involved with the day and to create a unique piece of art which will hopeful raise a good sum of money for the Riders for Health charity. 

Find Masked Designs on Facebook or at www.maskeddesigns.co.uk

Find out more about the Riders for Health charity at www.riders.org

A little touch of vintage

Today's post is a little bit different as it isn't actually something made by me - instead it is something that my brother made.

For anyone who has read the about page of the blog, you'll know that the name Ray's Place is the name of our house after our dad. The house sign and name were originally created by my brother too.

The original Ray's Place house sign

He's a talented self-taught airbrush artist who can usually be found painting designs on to ice hockey helmets and motorbikes under the name Masked Designs. However, recently as a present for our mum he made a beautiful vintage style sign.

The sign is made from some planks of wood which he distressed and marked to give them a worn vintage look before joining them together. He then stained the sign and painted on the white design. I think it is very convincing that it has been around for years being weathered and worn.

The final sign hangs in the kitchen at home from some chain which has also been distressed with paint to give it that rusted, well used, feeling.

You can see more of the Masked Designs artwork here.

Another cluster of birds

In my recent post Springtime Felt Birds I showed you a set of blue and purple felt birds that I had spent a lovely sunny day making. Well I enjoyed making them so much that I've been at it again and so another little cluster of felt birds have landed.

This time I tried to break my old habit of always seeming to pick from a similar colour palette when I make things and branched out into some more bright sunny primary shades with yellow, red and blue.

I actually really like the effect of the three colours together. When I make these I tend to try and stick to three colours as I think it looks more effective than having lots of colours and textures in the same decoration. Although having said that, maybe that should be my next habit to step away from and see what the finished product would look like!

Hexie BOM: April

I'm a little behind with the Block a Month patchwork project. I ran out of the hexagons that I had already made and making more and completing the patchwork takes longer than I thought.

Anyway, I've had this block finished for a while but I hadn't had chance to take a photo of it. This was the April design - an Easter basket.

I think it looks very cheerful and Spring-like against the blue. I haven't actually been sewing the finished patchwork designs on to the backing blocks yet as I will lay out the whole quilt once I am done to work out which colour to use for each block.

Hockey season's here

My brother recently started playing for a new ice hockey team - London's Haringey Racers - I thought I'd craft a little keepsake to mark the start of his first season with them. So I enjoyed a couple of hours sat with some felt and threads designing a felt version of their away hockey shirts.

I think it turned out really well, and he was certainly pleased with it. Maybe some hockey themed Christmas decorations should follow.