Ruffle Cake Workshop

There is a lot of colour and fun at the Ruffle Cake Workshop! I love how everyone chooses different colours to create their masterpiece!

The ruffle cake is so elegant & pretty it is great for those special occasions like Birthdays, Baby Showers and even as a wedding top cake with cupcakes underneath!

In the 2.5 hour workshop you will learn to cut & fill your cake, learn how to create those gorgeous ruffles and achieve the right colours and make a fondant flour to go on top!


To book onto this fun workshop  follow the link
Ruffle Cake Workshop Click Here

Also next month our theme is LOVE!! And check out our LOVE Cake! Only 8 spaces available in Total

The Look of Love - Challenge

The Look of Love - FEBRUARY CHALLENGE
closing date 15 February 2013

Each month here at Make we are focusing on a new theme - to keep inspiring you and to create a community online as well as in our store for our customers to feel part of!

So bear with us as we find our feet with this and hopefully turn it into something amazing and please forward any suggestions on how we can make it better.

So for February we are focusing on Love of course! We have some great workshops and tutorials coming up focusing on just this - but we also want to extend the creativity to you. So we have a new monthly challenge.

For February we want you to show us love in a hoop. It does not have to be embroidery or even fabric related. If you are into scrapbooking or paper craft feel free to use that too, basically use your hoop however you wish but the focus does need to be on Love.

We would love to have your hoop on display at our shop in Christchurch, we have a huge blank wall that is longing for some creativity to come it's way! We do realize that not everyone can send these down so we will have a Pintrest Board showing off your great works too. Simply send me a link to your blog/website with your image or just send me a picture and we will upload it.

The cut off for entries is 15th February 2013. We will let our customers vote for their favorite in store and give away a copy of the new Simple Things Magazine to the winner online and in store.

Happy Creating!

Fly your flag - Glamping Cards

If you are not sure what Bunting is just type it into Google or Pintrest and you will be overwhelmed.

There is no simpler way to shout "I ♥ craft" than with decorative flags in many shapes & forms

Make crafting simple - simple is beautiful and very often simple fits in with our busy lifestyles.

These little cards are made with Washi Tape and Embroidery Floss.

I love the way you can quickly whip these up and add that crafty touch. I think I will make up a whole stack of these including some miniature ones to have available for all those last minute events! By changing the colour of the bunting you can make these cards for any occasion - perfect for a Wedding card too by matching it to the brides colours in fact any celebration deserves bunting!

I tried different techniques with the string of buntng -brads (split pins) for the red card and just securing it to the underside of the card for the purple. 

For more inspiring bunting come and see our bunting that Holly made for the shop (I'll get a pic of it soon!)

Watch out for our February Challenge of Love! 

Roll up Roll up - Glamping Essential 1. The Cutlery Roll

Nothing feels better  than to set up a home away from home when out camping. So far for me camping is about being outdoors and doing lots and lots of boy stuff but if I truly think about it, I like to still play "House"- setting up a make shift kitchen, dining area & bedrooms - it's my way of making it girly and glamorous. (besides from my hair dryer and bath mat)

So with glamping the word on every crafters lips in January -Southern hemispherically talking - (don't you ♥ making up new words?)  its time to take pleasure in making something pretty to bring the the camping table - and these are great for those picnic days too.

I have a spare set of cutlery that I keep in here, which works well if you have extra dinner guest

The Cutlery Roll is as simple as a Crayon Roll if you've made one of those before.



What you'll need:
3x 1/4 meter (25cm x 112cm) of co -ordinating fabrics
1/2 meter of iron on interfacing (25cm x 112cm)
A length of grosgrain ribbon
Your cutlery

Instead of a third 1/4 meter I patch worked my two fabrics together to form the 3rd piece as I had slightly larger pieces anyhow and loved the combo.

1.Iron your interfacing onto the back of your bottom 1/4 meter of fabric trim any excess fabric/interfacing.

2. Fold a 1/4 meter of co-ordinating fabric in half lengthways and place on top of your backing fabric. Place you cutlery on top and work out your ideal spacing. You don't want it too big and not too tight either. I use 1.5 inch (3.8cm) as a marking

3.Mark out along your top fabric (the rose one in my case) with a washable fabric marker or alternatively you can pin the lines too. I like to make a mark at the top and bottom (it helps me sew straight!)

If you find your fabric roll is too long, just trim off the excess fabric down the end.

4. Pin the top fabric to the bottom and sew your cutlery lines reinforcing your stitches at the top (as this will take quite a bit of wear & tear.  Cut off excess threads

5. Place your grosgrain ribbon (cut into 2 strips) to the one side and pin into place

6. Place your top 1/4 meter on top of your bottom pieces right sides facing and sew around the edge leaving a 2 inch gap to pull through.

7.Fold inside out and top stitch around the edges, closing your opening. Tuck your cutlery in, roll up and your ready for a pretty spread next time your out!

January is our Glamping Month - Follow our Camping Handmade Board  on Pintrest for some fantastic ideas!

Upcycle - Revamp

So considering how much we love upcylcing (90% of our shop is fitted from 2nd hand items!) how lucky are we to have a Salvation Army right next door.

It has been an absolute blessing in disguise, we have run in there for extra teaspoons, flower vases and even tea pots.

Gladys and her staff  are just lovely in bringing things over she knows we are always on the lookout for.

And heaped in the corner in a secret spot I am not yet willing to divulge are a heap of old crocheted doilies.
I have been collecting them for a while now in order to decorate our tables.

So just before Christmas I had a go at dying them, I went with the closest I could find to a teal colour  but this was my first time using dye so I was interested to see the result It is quite pricey, almost $10 a pop and I did not want them all the same colour so I halved the dye and all the other ingredients needed.

Using a fork - highly recommended (don't get this dye anywhere it really stains! Really it does!)

Hanging out to dry above the gorgeous hydrangeas  

End result all pretty in the cafe!