26 October 2015

Halloween DIY // Creative Living


Halloween is such a creative time of year in our household - we love to experiment with new ideas and craft projects each year. But there are a couple of projects that we did some years ago now, which remain our favourite to adorn our house with year after year - our 'spooky' bunting and our colony of bats.

Here, we are sharing them with you - follow the links below to get your free PDF downloads of the bunting and bat templates. The artwork is across a number of A4 pages, ready for you to print straight out and enjoy.

Spooky Bunting
Simply print onto white card, cut out, hole punch and thread with string or ribbon, to adorn your wall or fireplace. Download here.


Print onto white paper and draw over the outlines with pencil. Place this face-down on black card and retrace the outlines again from the reverse of the paper, which will transfer the pencil faintly onto the black card. Simply cut out, white tack and display in colonies! Download here.

We hope that you enjoy these fantastical craft DIY's - and do share your pictures with us over on Twitter or Facebook.

19 October 2015

Let's Go Outside // Inspiring The Small




With the Nature Nurtures approach in mind (and the fact that our small loves nothing more than to be outside), last spring we transformed our back garden into an adventure ground.

A mud track for his cars, a fully equipped mud kitchen (complete with 'plumbed' sink and hob details), a bee nesting pole and bird feeding table, decking for growing his own plants and tomatoes (complete with hedgehog feeding station underneath); a tepee to shelter in, a mini beast mansion and log pile to encourage bugs and mammals, and finally our latest addition - a fire pit to enjoy cocoa around before bed in these Autumn and Winter months.

We have already enjoyed watching the bees making nests during the summer months, exploring and escorting mini beasts to their mansion, feeding our array of garden birds and our resident hedgehogs too.

The scope for imaginative play is huge, messy play has been a huge hit with mud pie making and garden maintenance, and his connection and understanding of nature and wildlife has developed hugely.

Why not let your imagination run wild and get creative with your outdoor space, to inspire your small.

12 October 2015

New Brand Design // In The Studio




This week we have begun the first stage of work on a new and exciting brand design, for Stafford based paper-cutter Fennie Designs ('Fruity' cut by Fennie directly above). Fennie is bold, bright, warm and passionate; expert and high end, and needs a brand that reflects this.

The start of a project is always so exciting. It is the opportunity to get lost in our endless books of inspiration, to draw on colour and concepts, and let ideas roll out of all control - it is wide open and anything is possible. We really look forward to seeing where things lead us, and sharing the end result with you in due course.

Do you have a business in need of re-connection with it's brand? See what we can do for you... leaffdesign.co.uk.

05 October 2015

Vegan Coconut Shortbread // Good Food




(Makes approximately 12 biscuits)

Ingredients

150g coconut oil
100g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
250g plain flour

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C / Gas mark 4.

Cream the coconut oil and sugar in a bowl with a wooden spoon until fluffy. Stir in vanilla.

Sieve in the flour and mix well until it starts to come together. It is best to then get your hands in there to knead it until it forms a ball of dough - this can take some time, so do keep at it, it will happen!

Roll out the dough to 1cm thickness - we found it easiest to roll it out between 2 pieces of baking parchment to avoid it sticking to the table / the rolling pin. It is quite a crumbly dough, so go carefully.

Cut out with biscuit cutters and place on oiled baking trays. Bake for 20 minutes.

Leave to completely cool before decorating (if desired) or serving.


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