Man Gift Five - Gobble, Chew, Slurp

While I've been doing a bunch of stuff I can't blog about (sneaky giftie stuff). It's gotten to be only two big sleeps until The Fat Man In Red arrives. (2! How?) Which could mean EITHER that it's time to freak out and panic. OR that it's the perfect time to whip up some last minute edible gifties. OR BOTH! (yay for multi-tasking.)
These edible gifties are my Ma's contribution to the Man Gifts canon. Which is a a GOOD thing; because while my cooking is distinctly average, my mum's is EXTRAORDINARY. (Dinner party for 25? Done. Baking for the local cafe? NO PROBLEM. Deliciousness in general? BINGO!)
Also, there's a good chance that anybody who has tastebuds will like these. So they're not man exclusive.
Hokay. First up is...

Chocolate nut and fruit squares

150g milk chocolate
150g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
100g butter
4 T golden syrup (or corn syrup)

75 g blanched almonds roughly chopped

50 g dried cherries OR cranberries OR giant raisins

75 g BROKEN graham wafers not crushed

100 g white chocolate broken into pieces (do not melt)

grease and line an 18 cm pan (you could stick it in the freezer while you're making the goodies)

Put the first 4 ingredients into a heat proof bowl, melt in microwave or OVER saucepan of simmering water. Mix well until smooth.

Add 2/3 of each of the other ingredients, pour into pan.

Scatter remaining ingredients over the top.

Chill until solid.

Turn out and cut into squares.

For variation use toasted pecans instead of almonds

use wafer biscuits instead of digestives or use gluten free cookies

Sounds good right? Also easy.And you could round the giftie with some savoury snacks. Spicy ones. num.

Spicy Pumpkin Seeds

2 cups raw pumpkin seeds (the hulled ones)

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp cayenne

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp salt

1 T lime juice

Heat oven to 375c.

Toss all the ingredients together in a bowl and then spread on a baking sheet

Bake, shaking the pan once or twice until lightly browned 5 - 7 minutes. You'll need to watch these. Like a HAWK. A hawk with a monacle and an interest in spicy pumpkin seeds.

Cool, store in jars.

Only make these 1 or 2 days in advance of giving. So nowish would be perfect! You could stick these in plastic bags and pop a topper over them. Perhaps this one here? (Rudolph loves him some chilli).

Man Gift Four - Eye Eye Captain!

These are more of a silly-thing-stocking-stuffer than an actual giftie, and I feel kind of cheaty calling this a tute. BUT I've given these to a bunch of people for various occasions and they're grin-inducing. So onto the list they go!
Ready?

=

Yup. That's it.
You grab a bag of googly eyes (I got mine from the dollar store), a handful of magnets (also from the dollar store) and some strong glue.
It's a good idea to stick your magnets to something metal before you apply the eyeballs, to make sure you're putting the eye on the wrong (repelling) side of the magnet. Next add a spot o' glue and an eyeball, then let them dry for a good while.
And that's it.
Presentation wise, you can stick them on bit of card with a face on it. And voila, anthropomorphic EVERYTHING! Is it a microwave? NO! it's Sir Nukesalot! Is it a fridge? No! it's MR. FRIDGE! Is it...

I've also made sticker versions. You can buy eyes with adhesive on the back already, but I use double-sided scrapbooking foam mount (cut into circles slightly smaller than the eyes) which means they can be stuck onto uneven surfaces. Like this:

And all of these.
I'd just like to note that the stickies are removable and don't damage surfaces, so while this might look like a spot of vandalism, technically it's more sort of Littering With Intent. (and I never mess with things that might compromise other folks safety, like warning signs or fire hydrants.)

Man Gift ONE - Leather Patch Scarf

Hokay! We're rolling.
The first Man Gift project is quick, easy and a blatant designer knock off (a triumvirate of fun!) The "inspiration" for this scarf looks like this:

Cute right? Suave with just a hint of geography teacher (totally my favorite flavour).
It's A Maison Martin Margiela Leather Patch Scarf. And it can be yours (or your sweetie's) for the bargain price of three-are you kidding me- hundred and ten dollars US.
OR you could make one that looks a bit like this:

With buttery soft suede and a boiled wool mix that's so soft it's like it's made of kitten parts. For about $15-$20.

Wanna try? You'll need:
4 Suede patches (two ovals two rectangles) OR one "recycled" suede/leather item (coats or skirts give you LOTS to play with) OR suede/leather by the meter.
Scarf weight wool mix. You could either use the length (selvage to selvage, approx. 150cm) which means you can get away with using just 20-40 cm (be aware of patterns) OR you could buy 1.70-2 m it you want a longer scarf or if you're making a few scarves.

The nice thing about buying the smaller amount is that you can get The REALLY GOOD STUFF (you know the wool blends that are so expensive they make you kind of sweaty? Doesn't happen to you? OH.) Anyway the small amount combined with a 50% off sale at Fabricland means that the scarf is seriously luxe feeling but only cost about $12 (and 40 cm is enough to make two scarves).

The first step is to get your straight lines marked out:
I folded selvage to selvage, then marked my line with chalk.


(just as an aside, when I asked the lady in FabricLand for really straight cut she acted like I'd peed in her cereal and was super eye-rolling rude. But this is what a straight cut looks like there. So whatever lady... Phew good to get that off my chest.)

Right. Once you've got your STRAIGHT sides cut you should have something that looks remarkably like a scarf. Mmmm and soft.
With a boiled wool like this you could actually just leave the edges but I think that frayed edges look more scarfy. So I did that next, see:


The next part depends on weather you're using premade patches or recycled leather.
to make your own patches the first thing you do is make a template. I used a little serving dish to make mine. Mark your cutting lines (bog standard pen worked fine for me, chalk made a mess).


It you're using an old jacket or skirt bear in mind that the "wrong" side of the leather might be just as soft and less marked. And that you can rebuff suede (or make it even softer) with a clean, dry plastic scouring pad, just lay it down on a flat surface and scrub in little circles.

Next cut your patches out. I used my pinking shears because the patches on the original scarf have pinked edges but you totally don't have to, leather won't fray.

Right. Got your patches? Good. The next step is to sew those suckers on.
Getting the patches to stay in one place is half the battle here, because using pins will leave holes in your leather.
If you have some of that spray sticky stuff (um, the kind that quilters use? What is that called?) then have at it. But DO check if it marks on a scrap first. If not you could either...

Just wing it, holding you patches and fabric firmly and going really really slowly.
Or
Use a bit of tape like this:
('scuse the lousy picture)
I used low tack masking tape and I stuck it to my shirt first to make it even LESS sticky. And of course I tested a whether it left marks on a scrap piece of suede first (nope it didn't). You need to stick it down as close to the edge as possible as you'll be sewing INSIDE the tape.

And... Sew away. ( I don't have a picture of this step - not enough hands) But I can tell you that I bought special leather needles for my machine. And then totally forgot to use them. So a regular needle works fine, turns out. The other thing is that you should go SLOW. Really really slow, adjusting and making sure you're flat when you need to.

Well HEY! almost done.
I put my patches on different sides. Like this see:

So the wearer can have softie suede next to their neck, and the oval patches are still visible. But you can do whichever.
A voila. One Man Gift!

Oh, and I shared here, here and here.

Manly Man Gifts

I'm pretty sure that I'm preaching to the choir here but firstly of all, Handmade gifties = finest kind.
They say, "Hey, I love you and I spent some time making this with my hands because you're awesome".
Which is easy when it comes to the girl types and the under 10's on one's list (and by "one's'" I totally mean mine).
But you guys. Crafting gifties for men folk over the age of 12 or so. YEESH.
So with that in mind, over the next three weeks or so I'm going to be working up some tutes for manly manly Man Gifts! And because I'll be making them the prerequisites are super easy and relatively quick. Quirky, useful, funny or beautiful (or a combination of those things) is a bonus.
They're all things that I have either given my boys (to good response) or they're things that I'll be giving them this year.
If you want to play along feel free to grab a button from the sidebar there ->
or hit me up with suggestions or links (ooou yes! links please!) to what YOU'VE made for the guys in your life in the comments.


Now! On to the projects...
First up a Designer Knock-off Leather Patch Scarf
Secondly, a Leather 'Tache Keychain
Third, a guest post and a MAN BAG (murse!?) from Farah Makes Stuff
Fourth, get your GOOGLY on with Googly Eye Magnets.
And watch this space!