Craftzine.com blog: Arwen O'Reilly Griffith Archives

Archives: Arwen O'Reilly Griffith

DIY Place Setting Placemat

I don't usually use placemats, but I like this DIY place setting placemat so much I might start! I think this would be really cute with different vintage fabrics; I'd probably stitch the place setting silhouettes down since things tend to take a beating in my house!

Recipe: Green Pea Pancakes with Smoked Salmon

The English peas are filling up their pods in my garden, and I've been thinking of trying to replicate one of my favorite dishes at a local restaurant. Pop! Here is just what I was looking for: green pea pancakes with smoked salmon from Cannelle and Vanille (who just shared the cover of her upcoming book!). I can't wait to try this!

House in the Hallway Tutorial

I bow down in homage to the maker of this amazing tension rod hallway playhouse. Simple, brilliant, and chock full of gorgeous details, like the rickrack shingles, mailbox pocket, and cardboard lantern. The tutorial is detailed and clear, too!

CMYK Embroidery

I would never have the patience (or tools) to recreate this, but I love this embroidered CMYK poster from Custhom. It's currently sold out, but looks like they will be making more! (Via Swiss Miss).

Photo Textile Tutorial

I have a photography background, so this wearable photo DIY caught my eye. Using a special light-sensitive dye, you essentially turn your piece of fabric into one of those sun prints. If you don't have large negatives you want to use, the tutorial explains how to turn a digital photo into a negative using Photoshop and transparencies.

Ghost in the Machine by Iri5

We've blogged about Erica Iris Simmons, aka Iri5, before but I just saw a post about her recent pieces on DudeCraft and have gotten lost looking at her incredible work for the past hour! She has been creating portraits of film stars from film, classic composers from sheet music, pinups from wine bottle labels, and recently created an ode to Mandelbrot out of a copy of his Fractal Geometry of Nature. Below are a few in-process shots of the Audrey Hepburn portrait. Be sure to check out her Iri5 Flickr stream for recent work that will be shown in an upcoming show in Princeton, NJ!

Recipe: Gluten-Free Orange Polenta Cake

My friend Beth posted about this fantastic gluten-free orange polenta cake and I finally got around to making it. It's delicious! I changed a few things in the recipe to make it lower in sugar, and we gobbled it up. I particularly love the idea of infusing the finished cake with the orange syrup. Yum.

Orange Polenta Cake

2 large oranges
¼ cup room-temperature butter
¼ cup sugar (I used some fancy rose petal sugar someone gave me, but regular sugar will do) plus 1 Tbs.
3/4 cup apple sauce
1 2/3 cups polenta
1½ tsp. baking powder
2 large eggs, beaten
3½ tbsp. milk
2 tbsp. plain yogurt
2/3 cup (5 fl oz, 150 ml) water

Preheat the oven to 360F. Zest the oranges. Cream the butter, sugar, and zest, then add the rest of the ingredients (minus the orange interiors). Grease a loaf pan, pour in the batter and bake until a toothpick comes out clean. While the cake is baking, make a syrup by boiling down the juice from the oranges (in my opinion, it's only improved by having some pulp mixed in) with the tablespoon of sugar (or some pineapple juice, agave, honey, etc). When the cake is done, pull it out, enlarge the cracks in the loaf, and dribble in the syrup. Let it completely cool in the pan. Delicious!

Wood and Tulle Necklace Tutorial

This charming DIY wood and tulle necklace somehow manages to be both flirty and nautical. I love the bright colors and delicate netting--what a great idea!

Rattle Tutorial

I've made a few soft toys for my son, and admit that the rattles have not been a resounding success, mostly because the bell just doesn't ring quite right. Laura Wilson clears the air with her clever tip for protecting the bell in this rattle tutorial. It would be perfect nestled in one of her adorable plush patterns, like, say, this turtle. I have one of these and my kid loved pulling the turtle in and out of its removable shell. How much better would it have been with a little jingle?

Cardboard Box Millennium Falcon

Everyone knows kids love to play with cardboard boxes, but obviously so do their parents! I absolutely love this awesome cardboard box Millennium Falcom, complete with awed-looking baby and Schnauzer Wookie! Although I think my favorite thing is this great quote from the blog post about the process:

We picked up some silver spray paint at the hardware store and I then proceeded to destroy the brand new garage floor with it. Hey, at least the paint on the floor is in the shape of the Millennium Falcon, am I right? Besides, that's what garage floors are for; a constant reminder of how we did stuff in there, plus the shape is like a badge of awesome that makes me smile every time I get out of the car.

That is indeed what garage floors are for... (Via Inhabitots.)

More:

AT-AT Dog is Awesome

Making of the Epic CAT-AT

Storm Trooper sweater

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