Tag: how to

How to Draw… a Flower #4

A Three Dimensional (3D) Flower

In this weeks blog we are continuing with more flower drawings.

We are in the last week of The Wildlife Trusts #30dayswild, and we love celebrating the rich habitats and wildlife we have on our doorstep here at Heathlands.

To draw your 3D flower…

You will need:

  • Paper
  • A pencil
  • A pen
  • An eraser / rubber

How to draw a wildflower – cow parsley:

  1. Using your pencil, begin by drawing an oval.
  2. Draw a curved line under this as shown, to create a “bowl” or “goblet” shape.
  3. Add a smaller bowl shape to the bottom of this.
  4. Draw parallel lines down from the bottom bowl to create a stem for your flower.
  5. Draw the flowers “sepals”. The part of the flower between the stem and the petals.
  6. Draw your individual petals, following the curve of the bowl shape. Do the foreground petals first and add the background one after.
  7. Add “stamens” growing out from the centre / inside of your flower.
  8. Complete your drawing by going over your finished sketch with a fine liner. Allow this to dry for 5-10 minutes before rubbing out your pencil lines.
  9. And you are done! You can add colour now if you wish.
1, 2, 3 and 4
5
6
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8

You can watch our video tutorial here:

How to Draw… Flower #3

Flower Heads from Different Angles

For our final mini tutorial on how-to-draw flowers, we are looking at how we can change the perspective of our drawing, through simple changes in our drawing technique.

We hope you are all enjoying the #30dayswild activities that are being shared on the Heathlands Facebook Page and we would love to see any of the creative things you have been up to.

You will need:

  • Paper
  • A pencil
  • A rubber
  • A pen

How to draw a flower heads from different angles:

  1. We are going to start by drawing our flowers first this time. Begin by drawing two (2) simple flowers with long petals like in picture one (1).
  2. Next draw a third flower, this time draw the petals at the top and bottom a little shorter, and the petals on one side a lot shorter.
  3. For our final two (2) flowers, draw the centre as “little domes” and only draw petals coming off the side or off the bottom. This way the are facing a different direction, sideways or upwards!
  4. Finally connect your flowers with some stems and add foliage like we did in our first flower tutorial which you can find here: How to Draw… Flower #1
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You can watch our video tutorial here:

How to Draw… Flower #1

A Wildflower – Cow Parsley

Next in our mini-series of “how-to-draw” tutorials, is flowers!

Here at Heathlands we are blessed with an amazing 8 & 1/2 acres of woodland, pasture, gardens and wetland. We have a huge variety of wildflowers, we are cataloguing these on our Facebook here: Wildflower Post

It is also June, which means we have started our #30dayswild activities here at Heathlands. You can join in at home by going to The Wildlife Trusts website.

You will need:

  • Paper
  • A pencil or a pen

How to draw a wildflower – cow parsley:

  1. Begin by drawing two (2) stems. One main stem and a secondary stem coming off the first.
  2. Add six (6) curved stalks radiating out from the end of each stem. The centre two (2) stalks should be the longest and the outer two (2) the shortest.
  3. Draw two (2) or three (3) foliage stalks coming off the main stems.
  4. Add delicate feather-like foliage to the stalks from step three (3).
  5. Complete your wildflower by adding little “stars” * to the tips of your flower stalks.
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You can watch our video tutorial here:

How to Draw a Knotwork Wreath

Step by step instructions for an interlacing wreath

We have bee concentrating on our drawing skills at Heathlands lately and this post is no different.

This time we are making things a little more complicated with a knotwork wreath, made of two interlocking or interlacing circles.

You will need:

  • Paper
  • A pencil
  • A pen
  • Something round or a compass
  • A ruler

How to draw a your knotwork wreath:

  1. Begin by drawing a circle.
  2. Make 12 evenly spaced point around your circle. Much like the points on a clock.
  3. At each point, draw an arrow. Your arrows should all point in the same direction.
  4. Inside each arrow create a little diamond.
  5. From inside your arrowheads, draw curved lines to the previous arrow and finish them parallel to them. See images for help. Repeat all the way round.
  6. From the open ends of your arrows, draw more curved lines, meeting up with the diamonds of the previous arrowheads. Again see images for help. Repeat until complete!

You can colour or decorate your wreath as you wish. I have yet to experiment, however, I believe that if you use an odd number of arrows to start with, you will end up with one continuous interlacing circle, rather than two!

Steps 1, 2 & 3
Step 4
Step 5
Step 6
Complete

You can watch our video tutorial here:

How to Draw a Heart #3

Heart Wreath with Cursive Text

Our current series of mini drawing films is concentrating on how to draw hearts. For this how-to we are learning how to draw a shamrock of knotwork hearts.

You will need:

  • Paper
  • Coloured pencil or a crayon in green
  • Metallic marker pen

How to draw your layered hearts:

  1. Begin by drawing a large “scribbly” heart with you green crayon or pencil.
  2. Next add lobe shaped leaves all the way around your heart.
  3. Finally add your desired message over the top of you wreath with a metallic marker. You could print out a font to trace or draw your lettering in pencil lightly and go over in marker when you are happy.
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3

You can watch our video tutorial here:

How to Draw a Heart #2

Heart Shamrock Knotwork

Welcome to a new mini art instruction!

Our current series of mini drawing films is concentrating on how to draw hearts. For this how-to we are learning how to draw a shamrock of knotwork hearts.

You will need:

  • Paper
  • A pencil or a pen

How to draw your layered hearts:

  1. Begin by drawing four heart with the bottom points, pointing at each other.
  2. From the bottom of each heart, draw short lines on the same path as one of the side of the hearts pointing towards the heart counter clockwise to it, then draw a small square in the centre.
  3. Draw parallel lines to the right hand side of each heart joining the square in the centre.
  4. Repeat step 3 for the left hand sides.
  5. Your heart knotwork shamrock is complete!
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5

You can watch our video tutorial here:

How to Draw a Heart #1

Layered Hearts

In our latest set of mini art films we are learning how to draw hearts in different ways. Our first film shows you how to draw a series of four (4) hearts that are layered and interconnected.

You will need:

  • Paper
  • A pencil or a pen
  • Coloured felt tips / pencils / crayons

How to draw your layered hearts:

  1. Begin by drawing a heart, you can do this in pencil first, or go straight in with your colouring medium.
  2. Draw a second, smaller heart, down and to the right of the first.
  3. Next draw a line with a fine liner or black felt tip, the shape you are drawing is the left side of a heart. It should start in the middle of the large heart and end below it.
  4. Repeat step three but drawing the right side of a heart. You should start above the small heart and the lines should join at the bottom.
  5. To complete your drawing, from the left-hand “half a heart” begin drawing the other side and as you come down loop the line in a figure of eight (8) back up and over itself to form the right hand side of the “half a heart” on the right.

You can watch our video tutorial here:

Drawing with a Difference #3

We are continuing with our new Drawing with a Difference series today, promoting the idea of drawing without traditional mediums or tools.

For this instalment we are exploring pixel art further, by using paper collage as our drawing method.

You can find our live video here:

https://www.facebook.com/Heathlands.Cumbria/videos/738797261074582

What you will need:

  • Colourful paper cut into equal sized squares
  • Card to paste your collage to
  • A glue stick
  • Squared paper
  • Pencils or felt tips to plan your design

How to make your pixel art collage:

  1. Plan out your design using the squared paper and felt tips. You can always use google for inspiration!
  2. Cut enough squares of equal size to complete your artwork.
  3. Find the centre of your design, then mark the centre of your card.
  4. Starting with the centre 4 squares, begin gluing your design.
  5. Continue working outwards until you are done!

Drawing with a Difference #1

Here at Heathlands we love to explore new and exciting ways we can express ourselves with Arts & Crafts.

With this in mind we are starting a new series of live demonstrations, short videos and blog posts, for you to have a go at “drawing with a difference”. So, what do we mean by this? Quite simply we mean drawing, with anything but pencil and paper.

Our first session went live yesterday, Monday 27th February 2023 and the link to the video can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/Heathlands.Cumbria/videos/1359988764543889

Drawing with a Difference Session #1 – LEGO!!!

The inspiration for the first of our sessions is pixel art, a method for creating images with small squares or pixels.

For this activity we decided it would be really fun to use Lego Dots, as our pixels as they are movable and easy to use. We also decided to draw a polar bear, Monday was international polar bear day!

What you will need:

  • A Lego base plate
  • Lego Dots
  • Your imagination!

How to make your dot / pixel picture:

  1. First you need to decide what you are going to “draw”.
  2. select your colours and start with key features or if you prefer an outline of your idea.
  3. Fill in your work, moving your pixels if needed.
  4. Repeat as much as you like!

Below are some examples of pixel pictures we have made, including a few step by step images of the polar bear.

Step by step polar bear, you can also find a stop-motion here: https://youtu.be/3QcqkYIWqNU

Secret Valentines

If like us you are a romantic at heart this fun and easy Valentine’s Day card is a whimsical craft that you can easily do at home!

Wax relief or resist, is a simple and versatile technique where a white crayon or oil pastel is used to draw “invisibly” on white paper, then painted over to reveal the design. It is very important that it is an oil pastel and NOT chalk.

For this craft we thought having the recipient reveal the design for themselves was a fun and unusual quirk for a card.

You will need:

  • An A5 piece of white card or watercolour paper, folded in half
  • An A6 envelope
  • A white wax crayon or white oil pastel
  • Water soluble colouring pencils
  • A pen to write your message inside

How to make your card:

  1. Using your crayon or oil pastel, draw your design heavily onto the front of the card.
  2. With your water soluble pencils, colour in randomly around your design. Be careful not to colour over the crayon or pastel. You may need to check where you drew but tilting the card to see the design.
  3. Write a message inside, including instructions to “colour in” the front with water.
  4. Deliver your card!

Easy Origami Rabbit!

This week we have been inspired to make origami rabbits for the start of the Chinese New Yea of the Rabbit!

Below are very simple instructions for our beginners bunny and we have also linked in our live Facebook tutorial for a more advanced fold!

You will need:

  1. Origami paper
  2. Googly eyes
  3. Scissors
  4. A flat work surface

How to make your rabbit:

Here is the video for the simple rabbit:

https://www.facebook.com/Heathlands.Cumbria/videos/744156427389129

In the mean time here is our more advanced rabbit fold:

https://www.facebook.com/Heathlands.Cumbria/videos/849419989649623

How to Draw a Turtle

Today is #worldturtleday, so we thought we would do a simple how to draw instruction for our Arts Live session over on Facebook.

The video will be linked below.

What is World Turtle Day?

World turtle day is an observance day on the 23rd of May every year to raise awareness of Turtles and the challenges that they face; climate change, plastic pollution and habitat destruction for example. To find out more visit https://www.worldturtleday.org/

What you will need to draw your turtle:

  • Plain paper
  • Pencil
  • Black felt tip
  • Rubber / eraser
  • Something to colour with

How to draw your turtle:

  1. Using the template below, trace your shapes together.
  2. Outline with black pen and rub out pencil lines.
  3. Colour your turtle in!

Origami Pigeons

We love to break a stereotype here at Heathlands, and today we thought we look at the common and much unloved pigeon.

Commonly thought of as a pest and carriers of disease, nothing could be further from the truth. The pigeon is an intelligent animal, with excellent recognition skills, as well as superb navigation abilities.

There are 5 regognised pigeon / dove species in the UK with the “feral” pigeon being a decendant of the now rare Rock Dove. You can find out more here:

https://www.countryfile.com/wildlife/birds/guide-to-pigeons-and-doves-of-the-uk/

Today’s craft activity is how to make origami pigeons and doves.

What you will need:

  • Pale blue / grey / cream origami paper
  • A black felt tip pen

Instructions:

Standing Pigeon / Dove
Flying Pigeon / Dove

Tissue Paper Suncatchers

This week we have another suncatcher craft for you! This time we’re using tissue paper and PVA.

What you need:

Black sugar paper and some things to draw around
Colourful tissue paper
Slightly diluted PVA Glue and pritstick
Paint Brush
A poly pocket to work on
Scissors

How to make your suncatcher:

  1. To make your suncatcher frame, use two round objects and draw around them.
  2. Cut your paper frame out.
  3. Place your ring inside your poly pocket.
  4. Cut your tissue paper into little squares.
  5. Paint PVA glue on the pocket over the inner edge of the frame but not the outer edge.
  6. Place your tissue paper piece all over the glue and paints another layer of glue on top.
  7. Allow to dry.
  8. Peal the tissue paper off the pocket and glue it to your frame with pritstick.
  9. Hang your suncatcher in a window and enjoy.

Malteser Rocky Road

This sweet treat is a really simple treat to make and can be adapted in so many ways.

Ingredients:

  • 250g dark chocolate
  • 200g milk chocolate
  • 50g white chocolate (to decorate)
  • 200g maltesers
  • 75g mini marshmallows
  • 100g biscuits
  • 200g salted butter
  • 150g golden syrup

Method:

  1. Line a square 8 inch cake tin with baking parchment.
  2. Add dark & milk chocolate, butter and golden syrup to a heavy bottomed saucepan and melt together.
  3. Allow to cool for around 10 minutes.
  4. Break up biscuits and add all of the remaining ingredients, other than the white chocolate, to the cooled mixture.
  5. Pour out into cake tin and smooth over.
  6. Melt the white chocolate in a microwave in short bursts and drizzle over to decorate.
  7. Chill in the fridge for 3-4 hours or over night.
  8. Cut into desired size pieces and enjoy.

Spring Origami Flowers

Known as “Kusudama”, these beautiful flowers are simple to make and can be adapted for lots of occations.

You will need:

  • x5 sheets of origami paper per flower
  • x1 pipe cleaner
  • x1 lollipop stick
  • Glue stick

How to make your flower:

  1. Taking a 15x15cm or 10x10cm square of origami paper, with the wrong side up, fold it in half diagonally.
  2. Fold the outer tips inwards and upwards to meat the point at the top.
  3. Fold these flaps back down so that the long centre edge meets the outer shorter edge.
  4. Open this flap out and fold down to create a kite shape.
  5. Fold the top of the kite shape down and back up again as shown in the pictures.
  6. Fold the kite shape inward in half like below.
  7. Glue the left flap to the right flap to create your petal cone.
  8. Repeat 4 more times.
  9. Glue together with pipe cleaner twisted on itself to make a nodding head and glue this to the lollipop stick for its stalk.

Bonfire Night Pinwheels

Bonfire Night is a beloved event here in the UK but Fireworks are not for everyone. Here at Heathlands we have a number of individuals who do not enjoy the loud bangs and whistles that come with Bonfire Night.

With this in mind we thought we would share a fun craft activity to make a Catherine Wheel full of sparkle and no noise.

You will need:

  • Shiny card – we used gold
  • A ruler
  • Scissors
  • Drawing pin
  • Paper stick or paper straw
  • Loose tinsel (the kind you throw on your tree)
  • Sellotape

How to make your pinwheel

  1. Measure your card along the short side.
  2. Using your ruler, mark the same length on each long side. Join the marks up and cut to make your card into a square.
  3. Again, using your ruler, mark the centre of your square by lining up the opposite corners.
  4. From each corner draw a line towards the centre 10cm long.
  5. Cut along each of these lines.
  6. In the centre and on every other point on your card make a small hole with your pin.
  7. Bend each point with a hole into the middle, using your pin to join them all up, and put the pin through the middle and into your straw.
  8. Gather 8 pieces of tinsel and tape together in the middle. Fold this bundle in half and tape to one of the points of your pinwheel. Repeat this for all four points.
  9. Your silent Catherine Wheel is complete!

Firework Printing

This week we are really looking forward to Bonfire Night!

To go alongside our Firework Pinwheels, we have made this printing activity for you to make your very own indoor fireworks display!

You will need:

  • Large black paper
  • Acrylic / poster paints
  • Cardboard tubes
  • Scissors
  • Glitter (optional)
  • A paintbrush
  • Paint tray

How to make your fireworks display:

  1. Using your scissors, cut your cardboard tubes down from one end in narrow strips, between a 1/4 to a 1/3 the way down.
  2. Fan your cut tube out.
  3. Spread your paint evenly on a paint tray. Dip the tube into the paint and press onto your paper.
  4. Sprinkle with glitter.
  5. Repeat until you are happy.
  6. Using your paintbrush, paint “trail” lines for the rockets shooting up into the sky.

Everlasting Jack O’lanterns

We love Halloween at Heathlands! Dressing up, carving pumpkins and caramel apples are all favourites.

The thing about pumpkins though… they don’t last forever. So! We thought we’d share with you how you can make an everlasting pumpkin!

You will need:

  • 1 piece of A4 orange card
  • 1 piece of A4 green card
  • Two split pins / paper fasteners
  • Scissors
  • A ruler
  • A hole punch or something to make holes in your card
  • A pencil
  • A black felt tip pen

How to make your pumpkin:

  1. Along the long sides of your orange card make marks in 3cm intervals and join them up using your ruler.
  2. Cut 8 strips of orange card.
  3. Cut a piece of green card for a stalk. We have put a picture below to show the S shape we used.
  4. Put holes in each end of every strip of card and in one end of the stalk.
  5. Put the stalk onto a paper fastener first and then thread all of the card board strips on at one end. Spilt the pin and flatten it out.
  6. Use the other paper fastener to connect together all the other ends.
  7. Twist / turn the layers out to form your pumpkin.
  8. Use your felt tip to give your pumpkin a face!

Spooktacular Halloween Lantern Jars

We are getting in a spooky mood here at Heathlands with the run up to Halloween. Today we’ve mean making tealight jars, inspired by Helen W’s tissue paper lantern jars that can be found here!

You will need:

  • A glass jar
  • PVA Glue watered down. Around 50:50 is perfect.
  • A paintbrush
  • Tissue paper. White and black for a ghost and orange and black for a pumpkin.
  • Scissors
  • A pencil
  • Some scrap paper or newsprint to work on.

How to make your Halloween jar:

  1. Decide what style of jar you are making and pick appropriately coloured tissue paper.
  2. Water down your PVA and mix well.
  3. Cut your tissue paper into 2-3cm squares.
  4. Paint a little of your jar at a time and make one even layer of tissue paper all over. Making sure there are no gaps.
  5. Use a hairdryer if you want to speed up the drying process, or leave overnight to set.
  6. Fold a small piece of black tissue paper in half and from the folded edge draw a mouth. Also draw an eye shape. Cut these out, the mouth should be one piece and symmetrical, you should have two eyes that match.
  7. Glue these on and paint another layer of glue all over. Leave to dry.
  8. Put a tealight in your jar and place it in your window!

Eva Stamps!

This week at Heathlands we have been making stamping blocks! These are really simple to create and are a great way of getting creative and decorative with your crafts.

We’ve made our stamps to be interchangeable, meaning that the number of stamps you can create are only limited by the scale of your imagination.

To make your stamps you will need:

  • Eva foam / funky foam
  • Sticky back velcro / hook and loop tape
  • A block of wood
  • Staple gun
  • Scissors
  • Pencil / pen

To use your stamp you will need:

  • Flat paint tray
  • Poster paints / acrylics
  • Paper / material to stamp on

How to make your:

  1. Stick the hook side of your velcro onto your wooden block.
  2. Staple to secure at each end.
  3. Draw your desired shapes for your stamps onto the eva foam making sure not to make them any larger than the block of wood.
  4. Cut out your shapes and add the loop (soft) velcro tape onto the back. Remember that your stamp shapes will reverse or “mirror” when you are stamping. So draw letters and numbers the wrong way round.
  5. You are ready to print! Pick your favourite paint colours and add an even layer to your stamp and get printing. You may need to gently rock your stamp to get it even.
  6. Remember not over load your stamp or it will slide.
  7. Have fun!

Other idea’s for simple stamps include: leaves, flowers, simple shapes, birthday balloons, snowflakes and Christmas tree’s.

Origami Giraffe

We’ve been working on our origami again here at Heathlands. This week we’ve decorated paper and folded a giraffe. You can follow our instructions below and watch our live video as well.

You will need:

2 squares of paper and a surface to work on
Pritstick
Paint, palette, brushes and a sponge if you are decorating your paper

How to make your giraffe:

  1. Decorate your squares of paper with a yellow fur texture, allow this to dry, then use a rough sponge and brown paint to create splodges for your giraffe.
  2. Follow the instructions below for how to fold, or follow the link to our Facebook Art Live video.
  • Origami Body & Legs 1
  • Origami Body & Legs 2
  • Giraffe Neck & Head

Minion Memo Board!

Here at Heathlands we will soon be opening our brand new and renovated portacabin! It was designated “blue bubble”, however we wanted to make the space as warm and cheery as possible. So, the space will be decorated with both blue and yellow. Thus Minnion Bubble was born.

With that in mind, I thought for this weeks craft we would make something for our new space. A memo board inspired by minions! We’re using lightweight denim and yellow ribbons for our theme, but you can use any colours or patterns you like.

What you will need:

A wooden board or piece of MDF

Fabric

Ribbon

Quilt wading

Decorative upholstery tacks

Picture hanging fixings

Staple gun

Scissors

Screwdriver or cordless drill with phillips head bit

How to make your memo board:

  1. Make sure your board has no sharp edges and sand off anything you think might snag your fabric.
  2. Place your board on top of your wadding, leaving a gap around the edge so that you can wrap the wadding around to the top.
  3. Cut the wadding to size.
  4. Cut your fabric to the same size or every so slightly larger.
  5. Wrap the wading and fabric around the board, and starting from the centres of the sides, working out, staple them down. Periodically check that the fabric is stretching evenly.
  6. Starting from one corner, staple your ribbon from the back, and wrap it diagonally around the front of the board. Cut the ribbon after each wrap. Work along the board, making sure to leave even gaps.
  7. Repeat step six in the opposite direction to create a diamond pattern with your ribbons.
  8. Use your decorative upholstery tacks to pin down the ribbons at each point where they cross.
  9. Attach hanging fixtures to the back, put up on your wall and enjoy!

Beaded Suncatcher

A few weeks back we decided to follow up our #30dayswild nature dreamcatcher craft from The Wildlife Trusts with a suncatcher.

The craft was for one of our Facebook art live shows, so I thought I would write a blog post with instructions on how to make your own.

What you need:

A sturdy stick to hang your beads around
Wire
Glass beads
Twine
Small pliers / wire cutters
Scissors

How to make your suncatcher:

  1. Cut 5 lengths of wire, x1 30cm, x2 25cm and x2 20cm
  2. Place a small bead about 2cm from the end of each wire, turn the wire back on itself and twist together.
  3. Thread each wire with your favourite glass beads, leaving 4cm to wrap around your stick.
  4. Arrange your wires: small, medium, long, medium, small, along your stick, around 3cm apart.
  5. Cut a length of garden twine around one and half to two times the length of your stick and tie it to either end of your stick.
  6. Hang your suncatcher in a window and enjoy.

Nature Dreamcatcher

As part of our #30dayswild activities from The Wildlife Trusts, we decided to follow one of their instructions that you can find here.

Making a your dreamcatcher is simple and fun. It’s also a great opportunity to get outdoors and explore nature. Go for a walk and collect natural materials to make your dreamcatcher with.

What you will need:

Three sturdy sticks
Garden twine
Natural materials to decorate – hag stones (stones with holes in), feathers, shells, leaves, flowers, grasses etc
Scissors

How to make your nature dream catcher:

  1. Arrange your sticks in a triangle and tie together with twine. Leave one with a long tail to hang.
  2. Create a pattern of your choice in the triangle with twine. It can be a simple or as complicated as you like.
  3. Once you’re happy with your twine, start decorating! You could also suspend some of your materials from pieces of twine from the bottom.
  4. Think about adding flowers for colour and herbs for fragrance.
  5. Hang your dreamcatcher and change out the fresh materials when they wilt.

Country Slice Cake

Ingredients:

215g self raising flour

22g butter

200g caster sugar

1tbsp cornflour mixed with 3tbsp of cold water

3 eggs

1tsp vanilla extract

80g sultanas – soaked in hot tea for 10 minutes and drained

Sugar crystals to sprinkle with

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 160°C (fan)
  2. Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy.
  3. Slowly add the whisked eggs and vanilla extract.
  4. Stir in the cornflour mix.
  5. Add a handful of flour to the sultanas to coat them – this prevents them from sinking into the mix.
  6. Sift the flour into the bowl and fold together.
  7. Put into a lined cake tin and sprinkle with sugar crystals.
  8. Bake for between 45 minutes and 1 hour.
  9. Test with a wooden skewer, if clean, cake is done.
  10. Enjoy!

Ingredients in Bold are allergens

Devilled Eggs

These are a firm favourite in our house, and there is always a plate at a family buffet or picnic. Making devilled eggs is also a fantastic way to use up your pace eggs!

Ingredients:

6 Hard boiled eggs

3 tbsp mayonnaise 

1 tsp curry powder OR 1 tsp English mustard

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

To garnish:

Pinch of sweet paprika

Method:

  1. Make your hard boiled eggs. To do this put the eggs on to boil and when they start boiling set a timer for 7 minutes.
  2. Put immediately into cold water to cool.
  3. Peel your eggs and cut them in half.
  4. Remove the yolks and place in a mixing bowl with all of your other ingredients except your garnish.
  5. Mix together well until smooth.
  6. Spoon or pipe your mixture back into the half eggs.
  7. Sprinkle with paprika and enjoy!

Tartiflette

I only recently discovered this truly delicious dish, thanks to my Brother in Law. I won’t lie, it is indulgent, but very much worth it.

Ingredients:

1 medium white onion

4 cloves of garlic

200g bacon lardons

1kg waxy potatoes

2 half rounds of reblochon cheese or a whole camembert or two pieces of brie

200ml white wine

200-300ml double cream

A little butter

Salt and pepper

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees C.
  2. Finely dice you onion.
  3. Gently fry your onion and bacon.
  4. Peel and halve your potatoes and put them onto part boil for 10 minutes.
  5. Add wine to onion and bacon and reduce.
  6. Add cream to onions and bacon.
  7. Drain your potatoes, put in a large casserole dish and stir in bacon and onion mixture.
  8. Fine chop your garlic and stir in.
  9. Remove the bottom off your cheese, chap up and stir in.
  10. Add your cheese with the cut side down onto the top and cover.
  11. Bake for 45minutes check occasionally and add extra cream if you think it needs it. Uncover for the last 10-15 minutes.
  12. Serve with a salad and enjoy!

Ingredients in bold are allergens.

Origami Diwali Boat

What is Diwali?

Diwali [or deepawali] is the Indian festival of lights, usually lasting five days and celebrated in the Autumn, in the Hindu Lunisolar month Kartika, mid October to mid November.

The festival is widely associated with Lakshmi, goddess of prosperity and it celebrates the victory of light over darkness, good over evil and knowledge over ignorance. Diwali is also a harvest festival, and is different from many other Indian festivals in that there is no fasting, but instead feasts celebrating the seasonal bounty.

Other traditions include cleaning or decorating homes, prayers and rituals and one of these is lighting Diyas. Diyas are small oil lamps, that are often floated on the Ganges river, during Diwali they represent enlightenment, knowledge or wisdom. Floating on a river these appear like little boats.

So we thought making a floating boat for our origami instruction would be perfect coming up to the festival. This year is between the 12th and 16th of November.

Remembrance Day Poppy Origami

Here at Heathlands we are very proud of the support our members have given to the poppy appeal over the years. For many years now we have staffed the poppy appeal table at our local ASDA but due to restrictions this year we cannot. So instead we are making poppies to sell here!

Here are our origami instructions for you to make your own poppy at home. We will update the post with a video when it has been loaded to YouTube.

You will need:

x1 15cm square of red paper

x 1 10cm square of black paper

How to make it:

1. Fold your red paper in half lengthways in both directions and then again diagonally. Four folds in total. Repeat this with your black paper.

2. With your paper in half diagonally, fold in the widest points to match the top points. Again repeat this for the black piece.

3. Insert the black piece of paper into the red as above, taking care to make sure all the folds match.

4. With the closed folds facing towards you and the open end away, turn up each flap, folding it to the middle. Repeat this, turn your work over and repeat again on the other side.

5. Fold your work in half from top to bottom, so the top point meets the bottom.

6. Open this fold out so that the top layer goes up, the next layer turns outward and the bottom layer remains down.

7. Flatten out your poppy and turn back the points of the petals and points on the centre to “round” the flower off.

And your poppy is complete!

Rats Tails!

Yes, you read that right! Rats tails. This is a delicious snack for bonfire night, to accompany, in our house at least, jacket potatoes and chilli!

If you don’t like spicy food you can substitute the chillies for sweet baby peppers.

Ingredients: 

Large green chillies

Cream cheese

Streaky smoked bacon

Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees celsius or gas mark 5.
  2. Half your chillies or peppers and clean out the seeds and pith.
  3. Fill with cream cheese.
  4. Wrap filled chillies or peppers with bacon.
  5. Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes and enjoy!

Terrifying Tassels!

Do you remember a while back we shared a post showing how to make tassels? We thought we’d re-visit that idea to make some terrifying Halloween decorations!

You will need:

  • Yarn (white for ghosts, orange for pumpkins)
  • A piece of cardboard (ours was about 17 x 7 cm for the ghost and 9 x 7 cm for the pumpkin)
  • Scissors
  • Felt scraps
  • Glue (PVA or fabric glue is best)
  • Yarn or thick thread

Step 1.

Cut your cardboard to size, the length of your piece of cardboard determines the length of the tassel.

Step 2.

Begin wrapping your yarn around your cardboard.

Step 3.

Keep wrapping! The more wraps you have the thicker your tassel will be.

Step 4.

Cut a piece of yarn or thread and slide it under one half of the wraps. Tie the wraps tightly together at one end. Leave the ends of the yarn you’ve used to tie it up to hang the tassel up with

Step 5.

Cut the wraps at the opposite end of the cardboard.

Step 6.

Cut another piece of yarn and use it wrap a section of the tassel about 3 cm from the top to make a head.

Step 7.

Cut eyes and a mouth from the felt and stick them onto the ‘head’ to make a face.

Step 8.

Hang up your spooky creations and enjoy!

Susan’s Windfall Soup

As I am starting to get windfalls from my pear tree I decided to try and use them in a soup
for a change. Windfall apples will work just as well! This is such a delicious warming recipe.

Ingredients:

Salt (half teaspoon or to taste)
Black pepper (half teaspoon or to taste)
Finely chopped garlic (heaped teaspoon or to taste)
Vegetable stock cube
Ground cumin (half teaspoon or to taste), dried sage or basil can be used if preferred.
1 onion chopped
1 Butternut squash peeled diced
4 pears peeled and diced
( any slightly sad veg leftovers can also be added to use up, carrot, courgette, celery, radish
etc.)

Method:

I don’t bother with all this sautéing in oil malarkey, as it just adds calories, but you can if you
really feel the need.
I prick the squash with a fork then microwave on full power for 3 minutes, watch out as it
will be hot but is a lot easier to peel.
Put everything in a large pan then add enough water to about 2cms (half inch) below the
top of the veg, give it a stir. Bring to the boil, stir again then leave it to simmer for 20 mins
or until the veg are just cooked.
Blitz with a food processor, liquidizer or one of those fancy hand held puree/blender’s.
It can b course and lumpy, or smooth and silky, depending on your preference.

Serve and enjoy!

Origami Puppy

This origami fold is a little more complicated than previous activities we have done, but the extra work is definitely worth it!

This week for our paper folding, we thought it would be fun to make a little decorative friend. All you’ll need is a piece of square paper and two googly eyes.

To make your own cute puppy friend follow video and the instructions below:

Weetabix Cake

We’ve had lovely feedback from our Easy-peasy Chocolate Cake. So we thought we’d share another great and simple cake recipe with you all. This recipe uses cups as measurements. We quite literally use a coffee mug to measure!

You will need:

Ingredients:

  • 2 Weetabix crushed
  • 1 cup of Self-raising Flour
  • 1 cup of dried fruit [sulphites] you can pick, we used sultanas, glace cherries and chopped dried apricots
  • 1/2 cup of caster sugar
  • 1/2 cup of milk
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder

Method:

  1. Pre-heat your oven to 150 degrees.
  2. Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
  3. Grease and flour a 1lb loaf tin and pour in mixture.
  4. Bake in the centre of the oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
  5. Allow to cool for as long as you can stand it and enjoy with a cup of tea! We like to butter it too…
  • Ingredients in bold are allergens