National Pancake Day

Happy National Pancake Day!!
Hope you are enjoying some pancakes for dessert tonight. Why not try a new recipe for super fluffy pancakes?

Ingredients: (makes about 30 small pancakes)
280g Self-raising flour
50g Caster sugar
2 Eggs
300ml Milk
Pinch of bicarbonate of soda
Pinch of salt

Instructions:

1. Mix the flour, sugar, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a big bowl.
2. Mix the eggs and milk together in a separate bowl.
3. Make a well in the flour mix and add 1/3 of the milk mix. Mix it all up and keep adding more of the milk mix slowly so you don't get any nasty lumps!
4. Once it is all mixed together you can decide if you want to add extras (like raisins, lemon juice & zest, blueberries etc)
5. Dip a kitchen towel into some oil and wipe the bottom of a frying pan with it. You really need very little oil for these pancakes! I oil the pan once at the start only, no need to do it more.
6. Heat the frying pan over the lowest heat on your stove. Using a dessert spoon, spoon 3 lots of pancake mix into the frying pan to make 3 small separate pancakes (you may be able to fit 4 in at once if you have a large frying pan).
7. Leave the mix alone (really don't touch it!) When the tops of your pancakes are all covered in bubbles (usually 2-3 mins), carefully flip your pancake.
8. Leave for another minute or so. To test if they are done try nudging them gently with your spoon, if they move freely they are done, else give them a bit more time.
9. Dress with chocolate sauce or maple syrup and enjoy!!

Thank you Stephanie from Toastie Studio for sharing this yummy recipe, we hope you enjoy your pancakes!!

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Treasury Challenge Winner

The themes for Challenge #4 were "Country Fair" and in honor of National Sewing Month "Sew Awesome". The winner was Stephanie from Toastie Studio! Stephanie is also one of our team's Co-Leaders and does a lot of work with our website and graphics.

'Sew Pink - for National Sewing Month' by toastiestudio

Celebrating National Sewing Month with lovely pink handmade sewn items from the EtsyKids Team

Gina Piggy softie t... milipa $36.00	Pink Chevron maxi l... beckyboo1102 $68.00	Fairy Princess Cape... FairyGodmother... $38.00	Baby Bandana Bib &#... CwtchBugs $6.00
Girls Baby clothes ... RaeGun $26.50	Pink Flamingo Dress... thetrendytot $52.00	Baby Swaddle Blanke... LeytonSmiles $24.00	Ruffled Apron -Girl... ccooperdesigns $25.00
Child Robes-Pink-Da... tanjadlyn $48.00	Hot Pink Striped Bu... EmmaNicoleDesi... $27.00	Pink infant girl ba... allthingsforba... $29.00	Super Hero Cape and... worldofwhimm $32.00
Girls Jumper Dress-... togs4tots $38.00	Romper with huge pi... sweetsmilesbab... $25.00	Pink : A Boutique ... pinkmouse $24.00	Gift Bags, Party Fa... CurlyMaeDesign... $2.25

Treasury tool supported by the dog house

Toastie Studio is an European based Etsy shop. Owner Stephanie is originally from the UK, but moved to the Netherlands in 2009. She took the opportunity of living in a new country to follow her love for sewing and designing. She set up her own company, Toastie Studio in 2010 and has been making soft toys, cushions and other fun whimsical items for kids ever since.

"I cherish the fact that I can work for myself from home doing something I love. Every morning I wake up and don't have that dread of an office desk job. My Etsy shop started slow, but over the last year has really bloomed. A big part of that is because of the EtsyKids Team, I have loved been part of the Team, and all the members are so supportive and great to work with. With the New Year not so far away, I am dreaming of everything it has to hold for me."

To continue our celebration of National Sewing Month, she has chosen the themes "Tucked Up in Bed" and "Sew Spooky". Catch a sneak peek of this weeks entries on Etsy.

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Chinese New Year - Lantern Printable

Today is Chinese New Year!! 2012 is the year of the dragon

To celebrate I have a fun printable to share with you! Chinese Paper Lanterns

Download in black & white
Download in colour


1.  Print out the lantern. You can print off the black and white version if printing onto red paper, or if you want to make a fun colouring activities with the kids.

2. Cut out the lanterns. Cut along the solid black lines, and fold along the dashed black lines.


3.  Starting at one end of the lantern, glue or tape each of the tabs onto the next panel of the lantern. Keep going all the way around the lantern, for the top and bottom tabs. When you reach the end, glue the last tabs onto the first panel.

4.  Punch two holes at the top of the lantern (where indicated with black dots). Thread the lanterns onto some string, or onto some fairy lights like I did. Do not place a flame inside the lanterns.

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Thank you letter printable

Courtesy of Steffi of Toastie Studio

I have to admit I am terrible at sending out thank you cards after Christmas. Half the time I send them out so late I should just ring and say thank you.
This year I saw in the shops some thank you cards for kids and knew I wanted to design my own. I think having a fun design and letter format can make writing thank you letters more fun for kids! So here are two designs for a thank you printable.

You get two letters per sheet of paper. Simply print at 100% scale and trim down.

Download: Red Girl / Blue Boy

I also have other thank you card printables in my etsy shop, including ones like this where you can design the character and colour scheme yourself.

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St. Martins Day Tutorial

{This post is brought to you by Stephanie from Toastie Studio}

It makes me sad seeing all the fun Halloween posts in blog land over the last few weeks. So many beautiful costumes made and decorations but in the Netherlands no one really celebrates it.
But we do celebrate St. Martins Day on 11th November!
On St. Martins night kids walk around the neighbourhood with handmade paper lanterns or candles. They knock at your door and sing you a little song about St. Martin in exchange for some candy.

Although St. Martins Day is not celebrated everywhere in the world, I am sharing a little tutorial to make paper lanterns today. You can always use the tutorial to make some lanterns for Thanksgiving or Christmas.
And if you like this printable check with my etsy shop in the coming weeks as I expand into party and celebration printables.

You will need:
Template (download here, includes small and medium template)
Coloured card
Tissue paper
Glue
Decorating materials, this can be what ever you have on hand, pencils, glitter, stickers, felt etc.

Print off the template onto your coloured card stock and cut around the edge and cut the 4 squares out of the panels. Score along the fold lines to make it easier later on.
If you are making the medium lantern, glue the two pieces together so it looks like the small lantern template and keep some scrap card to make the hanging loop.

Cut your tissue paper into squares big enough to cover the cut out panels and glue them into place on the back side of the lantern.

Turn your lantern over and take your decorating materials and make your lantern look super pretty! You can really use anything to decorate it with.

Once you have finished glue the end tab of the lantern to the other side so you get a square.

Then glue each of the tabs on the top two sections all the way around making the lanterns shape.

Now glue on the little handle strip, or use ribbon if you prefer.

In the Netherlands you can buy little sticks with string on one end and an electric candle attached so you can hang them from the stick to go out and sing with. But you can always leave them on the table with an electric candle inside.

NOTE these lanterns are made from paper, do not use a real candle in them as its a fire hazard!!

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