Recipe for clay free shepherds pie

Clay free shepherds pie

You will need :
You choice of serving dish.

Grated cork. You can buy this at shops that sell stuff for model trains. But you can easily make your own using a cork and a fine grater. The ones you use for lemon zest or nutmeg work great. The grated cork will become your mince meat. You will a real cork not the modern plastic kind. Last time I made this I used a cork mat and it worked like a dream. Easy to grind and so good looking !


For the vegetables  some tiny  pieces of orange and green craft foam  or plastic. You can cut them from a plastic bag if you like. I chose green for peppers and  orange for carrots but you can pick any color you like.

Glass paint in a light brown color. To make the sauce.

From left to right : cork for mince meat, carrots and peppers and glass paint for the  sauce.

For the mashed  potato on top you will need :
Snow paint ( like Aileene's true snow) and some cream paint. Mix a little cream into the snow paint till it looks like mashed potato.  If you cannot find snow paint try white puff paint or some of the stuff you use to fill holes in the wall with.  They all give similar results but I like the snow paint best.

To add the nice brown color on top you will can try things like : light brown chalk, oil pastels or even eye shadow in the right color.

Let's start cooking.

Put a blob of glass paint in the dish you want to sever the pie in. Add some cork and some veggies and give it a good mix.  If needed add more paint or more cork. If you want the dish to look like mine with some of the pie already served you need to have more filling on one side and you may have to remove some excess.

Believe me it will look like a real mess. But give it time to dry and you will be amazed to see how  good it looks

             
Then it is time to add the potato topping.  Mix  the snow paint or whatever you are using  with some cream paint to create a nice colour. Make sure it is not runny or it will be allover your dish. You want it to be like the real thing so puree like.

Spread over the top. A knife works really nice there. I make some little peaks using a toothpick for I think that makes it  look better. Leave to dry. Overnight is best.

The finishing touch is adding the golden color to the top of the dish using pastels, chalk or eye shadow. Use a Qtip or a small brush and start with a little bit of color. Adding is easy taking off not so easy.

Now you are done , serve with pride and enjoy

Food pictures

Today I am sharing some "golden oldies ", photos of mini foods I have made over the years.

All food has been made without clay using everyday items and ingredients that will surprise  you.

At the moment I am working on little ebooks to share my recipes in.

Buffet of cakes, pies and puddings all made without clay or Fimo.

Collection of different breads. All clay free.

Mac and cheese and shepherds pie  plus the  veggies   for the pie.

 Dutch winter food called Boerenkoolstamppot. It is curly  cale / green cabage mixed with mashed potatoes and served with  a Frankfurter type saucage   and gravy

This is not my favourite but it is a very popular Dutch winter food as well. It is called Hutspot which roughly translates into Hotspotch. It is mashed potatoes mixed with boiled carrots and and onion. The best thing about this dish for me is the  meatball and the gravy LOL

There you go . lots of options for dinner and no clay and no cooking involved.

And  there also will be some yummie deserts.

Even some done in crochet. 

I am also going to work on poly clay free breads.

Happy Blogger.

Writing a blog is a fun thing to do but it is even more fun when people actually read your blog.
It takes time and efford to get  the word out and to get people interested. Sometimes you feel like you are doing it all for just yourself and you may  even think why bother ?

But suddenly last week  I got 575 views in one day! A lot of likes on Face book and even some comments in the guestbook.

                                 Wow !!!

People are actually reading my blog and they even take the time to tell me they do.
So I want to thank all of you for making me a Happy Blogger.

I love to share projects and it is a great feeling that people are actually seeing them and liking them and who knows will get some inspiration from them.  It is inspiring  so watch this space for new projects.

Special thanks to Taeggi, my very best Furry Friend.

Some people have told me that they cannot register to follow the blog or subsribe by email. I am not sure what the problem is. Some did manage to become followers and others did not. Some people subscribed and others said they could not. I have tried to figure out what is wrong but no luck.
Cannot find any info on Blogger anywhere.

I am very sorry about this and I am working on it. Please try again if you did not get in. It seems it is working sometimes .............

Anyway  I will announce new posts on  Facebook so you don't have to miss anything.

My memory box project published in Aim Magazine

This months AIM ( Artists in Miniature ) issue has an article with instructions for making  this lovely little box.

The process of doing the paint effect, the decoupage and filling the box is explained so you can easily  make your own version.

The Aim magazine is a wonderful free magazine that you can read on line or download. It is made by miniaturists for miniaturists. It is full of inspiration, tips and how toes. I love every copy of it.

I am very proud to see my project among projects be really great miniaturists. Many thanks to my dear friend Sally Watson who turned my notes and photos into a lovely article.

Do visit  : http://www.artisansinminiature.com/


  And  take a look at this wonderful magazine ! These days it is pretty hard to find something that is so good for free !
Thanks to all the contributor's, the editors and everyone for making this wonderful magazine available to all of us.

The beg, steal or borrow Halloween project.

 I made this little Halloween decoration to take with me to the Crafts Show I went to.  So it had to be  portable and  pretty small.

 I could not buy anything because there are no Halloween minis around in my country
So I had to improvise with stuff from my stash of Halloween gifts I recieved over the years from my US and UK friends  and "borrow" a few things from other projects and that is why I named it the beg, steal or borrow Halloween project.

The Hutch came from my stash and got a coat of grey paint. I used some printies I found on the net to decorate the back of sheleves with. I think that really adds a nice touch. It also makes the shelves look more full in case you do not have enough real items.

I "borrowed"a chocolate cake from another project and added a plastic skull. The skull got covered in  3 D snow paint and I also used that to make the arms, With some grated cork for earth and some green stuff from my box of floral stuff I think is looks pretty good.

Never knew that Fibre Fill from a pillow would make such great cobwebs till I saw this tip on a Halloween website and tried it for minis.

Pearl beads and a bit of blue and black paint made nice eye balls. I dropped them in a dish filled with red glass paint. 

I think this shows that you can make a very easy  and  fun  decoration in no time at all by just begging, stealing and borrowing  !

Happy Halloween. 

Taking my minis on the road.

Every now and then I take my minis on  the road. I cannot take a lot on my scooter but I can manage to take several scenes and room boxes looking like a bag lady.

I agree it is a bit scary to take your minis on a trip. But I have to admit that over the years I have learned that most minis  travel really well if you wrap them with some tender loving care.  I leave the glass domes and stuff like that at home and make sure everything is glued firmly in place. But if you are lucky and do have a car the whole thing becomes a lot easier.

I have taken minis to dolls house fairs and that was pretty easy because  I did not have to take a scene or a room box and could  put everything in boxes.  I also could take a lot of decorations and stuff to make my table look pretty.

But more often I take my minis on trips to local craft shows where I am not allowed to sell stuff but only to show off what I make and try to  get others interested in the hobby. I actually like doing that a lot for it is great day out . Last Saturday we had a local craft show and even though I could not take a lot of stuff I still I think my table did look pretty nice and there was a lot of interest in the minis.

One of my favourite  places to take my minis to is the local care center for the elderly. Ladies and gents love seeing my minis and talking about them. It brings back memories and we always have a good time. So if you feel like doing something really fun with your minis take them on a trip and show them off !!

This can happen when you take your minis on the road . I had no idea but the local paper wrote about the minis and had my picture . OOps? Wow ? not sure but sort of fun.

Crochet cakes are so much fun.

I love cake and crochet. So making crochet cakes is a lot of fun for me.
Over the years I made  quite a few of them.

The first cakes I made were life sized ones. They made fun gifts and decorations around the house.

When I wanted to make 12 th scale versions of them I learned that   making really yummie mini cakes was easier than  I ever thought :

Just take a pattern for a life size crochet cake and make it  smaller by using thinner thread and a smaller crochet hook.

This picture shows a life size crochet cupcake. Made in wool using a 3 mm crochet hook. The cake on the cake stand is the exact same pattern but worked in DMC tatting thread using  a 0,60 mm crochet hook.


  The small cake on the 12 th scale plate was  made using sewing thread and a 0,40 mm crochet hook. This one is made out of 4 crochet circles glued together.

Here are some life size cup cakes. Once again made in wool with a 3 mm crochet hook.  For a mini version of these cakes you can use  DMC tatting thread , a 0,60 mm crochet hook and the same pattern. Yes, it works, just give it a try.

 The pink cake is a variation on the pattern I used for the chocolate cup cake and chocolate mini cake. I used DMC tatting thread in pink and white for the cake.

The flowers and leaves on the cake are also done in crochet. I did make up a pattern for those myself but you could use any pattern for crochet flowers and just make them in tatting or sewing  thread  to make them smaller.



The lemon meringue pie. Is done in three colours of tatting thread. I used a free pattern  I found for an amigurimi pie slice and changed it till I was happy with it .

I think crochet food is fun and it does not have any calories plus for the people like me who cannot work with clay the  crochet is a way of making food without frustration.


If you are looking for some amigurimi cake patterns to get you inspired try this link :

https://www.pinterest.com/1ret2vrang/crochet-food-cakes/