Decoupage Christmas Balls

Handmade ornaments vary from the best on the tree to "let's put this on the back side and hope no one sees", but if you want to do something like, say, a steam-punk, neo-victorian tree and not have it cost an arm and a leg, you're kind of stuck making your own. Decoupage is fairly easy to do,  and relatively inexpensive. This would be an easy craft to to with a kids group, but be prepared for incredibly sticky fingers.

You will need: 

Mod Podge (To make your own, mix two parts water to one part white glue and one part wood glue)

Plastic Christmas balls

A sponge brush

The paper or fabric you wish to decoupage the ornaments with. I printed out Christmas carols and used tea to age the paper

Cut or tear the paper into irregularly shaped pieces. Make sure not to get them too small, you want them big enough to cover the ball. Tearing will give you rough, unfinished edges, but it can be a little more difficult to control the size.

 

Using the sponge brush, paint the back of the paper with the mod podge solution. Stick the paper to the ball, starting from the bottom and working up. Smooth down the the paper by taking a little bit of the mod podge and rubbing it along the edge. 

 

Once the ball is entirely covered with the paper, paint a layer of mod podge over the whole thing. Use your fingers to smooth down all the edges and flatten out some of the wrinkles. Make sure that the mod podge is even, or it will give you a very uneven looking ball.

Hang them up to dry for at least three hours before handling them. If you noticed that some spots were missed, you can go back through and redo those spots without having to go back over the whole ball again.

Flying Clockwork Key

I happen to be a big Harry Potter fan, and, as you already know, I also love steam-punk. This morning I had an inspiration hit me upside the head, mix the two to make flying clockwork keys, sort of like the one Harry had to catch in the Philosophers Stone. I had a bunch of unused skeleton keys floating (heh heh heh) around my house, just waiting for a project of some kind, and I figured there couldn't be a better use for those keys than this.

First I cut wing shapes out of a bit of unused roofing copper, technically anything would do, but I like the way this copper looks. The metal is very thin, so I had to be careful. It also comes with tar on the back, this can be a bit tricky to get off. If you heat the copper up just enough to soften the tar layer, you can usually peel it off without to much trouble.

Once I had my shape all ready, I took a very strong needle and poked holes down each side, making sure that they were even on both sides. I had to put the copper on a bit of fabric to manage getting all the way through, but it worked out. I did six holes on either side

Then I took some 28 gauge silver wire and laced it around the key and through the holes to hold the copper into place. After the copper was secured onto my key I decided I wanted the key to have legs (in case it got tired of flying, one must think of these things when creating), so I took six long spindly bits (technical term there, spindly bits) out of my cache of pocket watch pieces and put them through the first three holes for the wire on either side.

I ended up having to super glue them on when they wouldn't stay where I wanted them too, but in the end my key was standing on its own.

I was meaning for this to be a good solid piece with no moving parts, so out with the trusty superglue again and on with the wing decorating.
The small gears were all either purchased on Etsy, or taken out of old watches by yours truly. The larger gears were out of a bag of a sundry gears I bought from Hobby Lobby.

I was cut on whether or not to add feathers and lace to this key, but in the end, decided against it.
There are gears on both the front and back of the wings, and I added to the shape a little with some strategic gear placement.

 I tried to make both sides as even as possible, so that it wouldn't look lopsided. This is the finished product.

This piece is not meant to be worn, for one thing it is very heavy, for another, very sharp, it is purely decorative.

Now, where to hang it...

Gluten Free Tea Cookies

With fall finally here, and winter on its way, the time has come for big mugs of hot tea, good books, and warm fuzzy blankets. Of course you also need cookies to go along with your tea, and what goes better than shortbread? My quest for the perfect cookie has been going on for quite some time now, made all the more difficult by the discovery that my husband has celiacs. This means that I have no rye, wheat, or barley in the house whatsoever. Makes making cookies a little bit complicated.

I came across a Martha Stewart recipe for Shortbread cookies with ground tea leaves in them and thought, wow those would be amazing! Any of you who have ever had experience baking gluten free know that one cannot simply substitute gluten free flour for regular flour and expect it to come out right, though, so, after a couple hours of searching and comparing recipes for gluten free shortbread, some minor kitchen mishaps, and a few failed tries later, I finally came up with my own. 

When you are making this you will want to make sure that the tea leaves are ground very finely, otherwise your cookies will be very gritty. I used my spice/coffee grinder on some loose leaf Earl Grey I had and got it down to a fine dust, which worked just fine. I also suggest using a very finely ground salt for this, I used kosher salt in my first try, and the cookies left a salty flavor behind when eaten.

The nice thing about making shortbread without the gluten is that you can re-roll them as many times as needed to use every bit of the dough. You do need to make sure you don't fluff the butter and sugar overmuch however, you don't want light and fluffy shortbread. 

Shortbread Tea Cookies Sans Gluten

2 cups gluten free flour blend (I suggest Gluten Free Mamas coconut blend)

1/2 cup corn starch

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp xanthan gum

2 Tbsp Finely ground tea leaves

3/4 cup confectioners sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup unsalted butter (two sticks)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 300°F.  Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

1. In a small bowl, mix together the flour, cornstarch, salt, baking powder, xanthan gum, and tea leaves till thoroughly combined.

2. In bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter, sugar, and vanilla extract together, on medium-low speed, until a thick paste forms, about 30 seconds.

3. Add the dry ingredients and mix till a soft dough forms, about 3 minutes.

4. place the dough on a dusted cutting board, roll into a ball and wrap in plastic. Chill for 30 minutes. 

5. Roll out chilled dough about ¼-inch thick and cut out the cookies. Place them on the prepared baking sheet about two inches apart. 

6. Bake until cookies are lightly golden brown on the edges, 20-30 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on the pan for five minutes and then transfer to wire rack to cool. Repeat using remaining dough.

Makes about two dozen cookies. 

Aging Crochet Roses with Tea

 My mother recently found a pattern for tiny crochet roses, and when she showed them to me I thought that they would make some lovely earrings. One problem however, most of the jewelry I make has some sort of steam-punk element, and these roses, while beautiful, needed a bit of , well, age. I've used black tea to age paper before so I thought I'd give it a try with these.

For this project, you will need some form of black tea in a bag, a shallow bowl or plate, a paintbrush, and, of course, your little flowers. I used chai tea because it can be over brewed a bit and it doesn't hurt the flavor (and it's one of my favorites), but you can use whatever black tea you have on hand. So grab your favorite mug and make yourself some tea.

Let the tea steep for three to five minutes then remove the tea bags.  Squeeze the remaining tea out of the bag into your shallow bowl (I used the lid of my mug, but anything with edges would work nicely).

If the flowers you are aging are colored you can dunk them in the tea and forgo the paintbrush, but if you try that with the white ones they will end up being a little too yellow. Let your flower soak in the tea for a couple minuets, then pull it out and squeeze all the excess liquid  out. Let it dry completely. 

If the flowers you're aging are white, use the paintbrush to put tea on only the tips of the petals, soak the tips so that a little will run down into the center. This should give you just enough yellow to give them the perfect off white, vintage color. 

Here are some before and after pictures of the ones I did.

The rose on the far left is the white one I dunked, the color is more even, but a little dark for my taste. The one in the middle is the unprocessed one, and the one to the right is the one I used the brush on.

The pink roses turned out a little better I think