Bridal Keepsake/Favour ……

Please excuse the glue globs on some of the photographs, it was still wet in my eagerness to get this post written.
I don’t have a clue what to call this ….. when I had the idea I was thinking about the lucky horse shoes you give to a bride outside the church/registry office …. but heart shaped!  If that makes any sense at all?????

I saw this string of vintage decorative hearts in Home Bargains for £2.99 and knew immediately what I wanted to do with them, and as there were four hearts altogether, it was a no brainer, as you just can’t even buy one wooden heart of such quality from craft establishments for that price!

I decided to use one of the small hearts, which measured approximately 5.5ins x 5ins for this project and then raided my cupboards for a whole variety of embellishments including paper flowers, cabochons that I had been sent from WholePort, fabric and crocheted flowers, plus flat backed gems and flowers and pearls …. you name it, I used it  as my desk proves!

Like my jewelled mirrors I built  up the design, adding gems to the fabric flowers and filling all the gaps with small pearl beads.

I think it is all the fiddle fart, very sticky building up and filling gaps are what makes all the difference when looking at the finished heart. I used a narrow cream ribbon to hold it by, threading it through the existing hole at the top, with the bottom hole being easily covered up by all the embellishments. 

I now really want to make a couple of horseshoes for summer weddings, which I think could go down a storm at work.  Marc gave me one when I last went to see him ….. now if only I could find it amongst all my bits and pieces …. I can see it in my minds eye, I just cannot remember where I squirrelled it safely away,  DOH!!

Champagne Flute Wedding Bubbles

I had bought some regular tubs of bubbles from Poundland a while back with the intention of making them look more “weddingy”, but whatever I did with them they just didn't look right, in fact everything looked I tried pants!!!

So I decided to relent and go back to Poundland to look at their “proper” wedding bubbles ….. as I admit I was being “tight” ….. but then when you see the price that some shops/companies are charging for wedding bubbles – 6 for £1 in Poundland is an absolute steal ….. after all, when all said and done, you’ll only really blow a few ….. so the tubs I was originally going to use would really have been too much.

All I have then done is add a bit of frippery using some of the ribbons and punch flowers left over from the invitations and place settings etc. Done and dusted!

http://www.poundland.co.uk/product-range/a-z/wedding-table-bubble-blowers/

A Painting For My Mum’s 80th Birthday

Rather can give you an almost daily blow by blow account of the painting I've done for my Mum’s 80th birthday,  I thought I would deliver it to you all in a single post as a fait au complet, outlining the stages I went through before the great unveiling !

Because it was much cheaper I ordered two (one and a spare!) 48” x 36” canvases from  http://www.canvas-store.co.uk/ which arrived within two days of my ordering them, as did the set of Royal & Langnickel acrylic paints (£5.29) from Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/Royal-Langnickel-Colour-Acrylic-Tubes/dp/B001880N9Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1365961557&sr=8-1&keywords=Royal+and+Langnickel+acrylic+paint

However, when I went into The Works to get a palette,  I saw this Boldmere starter pack of much larger tubes of acrylic paints for just £7.99,  which was far more economical, and I couldn’t  resist, especially as I now had two canvases to paint.

So armed and stocked up  ….. I set to work ….
….. sketching the design out roughly first …..

…. and then gradually filling the design in ….. the above only taking me a couple of very chilled hours while listening to Radio 4 on a Saturday afternoon.

And the last three pictures are the final stages which took me another weekend. It’s the detailing that takes the time ….. outlining first in black. then in white Posca pen …. and then painting over again in the places where I thought needed it.

The trouble at this stage was finally deciding when it’s finished  …. because I could have fiddle farted forever, adding a line here and a swirl there, but I am happy with it now (very top picture) ….. all I need to do is find a rather large piece of wrapping paper and ribbon big enough to go round it!

Free To Good Home ……………..Leave It Alone Helen ………!!!

I spotted this table outside one of our local shops ….. I am sooooo tempted ….

….. but so far I have managed to walk away twice …… if it stays there for much longer my resolve may weaken …… as it could be Decopatched, and make a really cute kitchen table …… !!!

PS ...... I went back for it ...... and it had gone!!! Doubtless there will be other choice opportunities in which to pick up tut!!!

Mini Canvas and Easel

This mini canvas measures just 7cm x 7cm and came in a pack of 4 from Poundworld.

I used my Whisper Pens first to put down the basic shapes of the flowers, I was worried that the ink might bleed into the canvas, but as you can see it didn’t, however my Stabilo fine liner pen wasn’t too keen on the rough, unyielding material …. but I got there in the end.

….. just a little trinket for my desk at the moment, but I might turn it into a sort of alternative card for someone special when the next birthday comes along.

Framed Word Art

I love some of the “Word Art” that is around at the moment, but it’s a bit pricey ….. and with most things that I see, that I like,  a little voice in my head says …. “I could do that” …………

So in this case I did!!!  I already have piles of old sheet music rescued from a skip so all I had to do was trim some everso slightly to A4 size.

Then using Publisher I set out the words …. nothing fancy …. using Ariel Black in font size 110 …. and printed it onto the sheet music, then all that was left to do was pop it straight into an A4 certificate frame from Poundworld …… and Bob was my Aunt Fanny …. simples!!!

From what I have seen, I think that song lyrics are usually printed on music sheets, while other quotes/sayings are printed on pages from old books ..... I am now thinking that pages from old altlas could look good too .....  so I may be found hunting round in some more skips .........watch this space!

Like most ideas …. one thing tends to lead to another …. and I wondering  if I could make a set of  notelets along a similar vein …… 

Altered Mirror

You wouldn’t believe how many reincarnations this mirror has had to go through to get to this completed stage, in fact this is the second version, the first one ended up in the bin!

The mirror is from Ikea – “Malma”  and measures 10ins x 10ins

Like the very first mirror I altered I used a mixture of Promarkers and Sharpie pens to do the flower doodling, drawing the basic shapes first and then using a black Sharpie for the outlining, finer details and to fill in the gaps.

To be honest, at this stage, after a couple of coats of quick drying, gloss varnish the mirror looks pretty OK, but me, being me,  just had to fiddlefart some more …. which is where I went wrong with my first mirror, hence the bin!

I really like the effect of adding a white outline, but getting the right pen that stayed put while being varnished was a problem, the first couple of pens I tried dissolved immediately ….. however I found that a white “Pilot Super Colour Permanent Type Ink” held fast …. wooo hooo, but although it is labelled as “extra fine”, I would have really preferred it to be even finer …… but that’s me being very picky!

The final stage was to mix a generous sprinkling of iridescent micro fine glitter to the varnish,  which gave the mirror a delicately sparkly fairy type look, which was exactly the effect I wanted, but unfortunately the pictures really don’t pick this up or do justice to it.  The white outlines are also much subtler from a distance, giving the mirror a softer effect not looking half as harsh as they do in these pictures. As you can see compared to the first jewelled mirror I did (behind) the detail is much finer, I have also resisted adding any gems at this stage …. for now I am going to leave it as it is and then perhaps revisit it in a couple of months time ……

Altered Poundshop Clock

I cannot believe I didn’t take any pictures of this clock as I was working on it, what am I like?

The clock came from the Poundland Mothers Day range, Marc spotted it on the website and said it would be perfect for altering.

The only thing that needed to be done to prepare it was to remove the wooden motif and then a bit of sanding to smooth over where it had been.

After that I just doodled basic flower and leaf shapes straight onto the clock using Promarker pens, then outlining and adding detail to them in black,  as well as filling in any gaps,  before applying a couple of coats of quick drying glossy varnish.

When the varnish was dry I couldn’t help myself by just outlining the design again in white using a white Pilot Super Colour pen before a couple more coats of varnish with a little ultra fine iridescent glitter added for a fairy lustre effect.

And finally ……. small, very sparkly flat backed gems round the dial ….. done and dusted and now sitting in one of the partitions of my what not shelf on my desk.

I just wish I had bought a couple more of these clocks ….. because now I can think of lots of other ways to decorate them ….. I am thinking way ahead to Christmas …. and can just see one painted with a blue sky, stars, glittery snow and a couple of cute snowmen standing at the bottom …… !

Framed Jewelled Heart

This project has been in the making since Christmas when I asked for a deep box frame from Hobbycraft for an idea I had for my newly decorated “guest room”

http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/innova-editions-white-deep-box-frame-40-cm-x-40-cm/567512-1001

I had made a friend a small jewelled heart on canvas a while back and always said that I would make myself another bigger version when I had the time ……  famous last words as that was at least three years ago!

The first thing I did was to cut the heart out in white card to fit the centre of the frame ……

….. which I then covered with all the clear, turquoise, green and pearl flat backed gems in various shapes that  I could muster …. I thought it would take forever but a couple of hours did it …. as I watched Emmerdale, Corrie and Grand Designs …..

I used Crafters Pick “The Ultimate” glue which I found dried pretty quickly, this in turn made me work pretty quick too!  The fiddle-farty bit was filling in some of the smaller gaps which were left when I had almost finished, I dropped seed beads into them after I gave up on tiny flat backed gems using a cotton bud as being just too fiddly, even for me!

To add a little more dimension to the heart in the frame I used foam sticky pads to stick it on to the background ….. and really that’s all there was to it …. simples!

I have a four more smaller box/shadow frames from Ikea to use up now, but as of yet haven’t had any other brain waves as to how to fill them …… but that, I expect, is only a matter of time!

My Doodled Brooch Experiment

This project was a bit of an experiment as I had an idea but wasn’t sure if it would work.  As you know,  I have been finding doodling very therapeutic and relaxing of late  …. and this time thought I would go from the sublime  …. the mahooosive doodling that is the base of my paintings to the ridiculous …. a small brooch.

I got these clear glass cabochons from China a couple of years ago, and to my shame have hardly used any of them. I had seen something similar in a UK craft based magazine,  but when I saw how much they were for just one,  there was no way I was going to pay the price ….. but after a little researching on the internet and I found these for silly money,  as I said from China.

Anyway …… I started with a very small doodle using Whisper pens and then stuck the cabochon on top (resisting my usual urge to add a little iridescent micro fine glitter) using a little Ranger Glossy Accents which, when dry,  goes completely clear …. and then all I had to do was wait patiently for it all to dry and to see if the colours ran ….. they didn’t, wooo hoo!

However, the ink did run a little into the back of the paper, but as this brooch was for me I added the brooch back using E6000 glue, and when that dried, added a good layer of Ranger Glossy Accents to seal the paper, .…. but when I use this idea again …. I will either colour the back in with a solid colour or cover it with another layer of paper before adding the pin …. to make it look more professional ….. I am planning on making a set of fridge magnets in the next little while, so can then see which idea works best.  But for now,  this brooch is pinned firmly to my jacket lapel.

Saucer Crackers

A friend mentioned that she was planning a vintage tea party and I remembered some saucer crackers I has seen in a magazine a while back and got to wondering if it was something I could cut on my Silhouette using a small pattern paper ….. and this is what I came up with ……

http://www.silhouetteonlinestore.com/?page=view-shape&id=1770

I managed to get six crackers from one sheet of A4 sized paper using these dimensions.

I believe “the real thing” has a snap and a motto inside ….

…… I don’t know about the snap …. but I am sure I could type out a few mottos or jokes and then find a pair of stud earrings, a bracelet or necklace to pop in!

And just think about Christmas …… you could use Christmas colours and papers and put in Christmas earrings …… the world is your festive lobster!!!

The ribbon I have used is 4mm wide.

Today ….. Guest Crafter Maisie And Her Wonderful, Wonderful Pink Mirror.

Oh my life ……  someone is trying to make me look like a right amateur ……
….. this gorgeous mirror was made by Maisie who,  can you believe,  is only six!!!  She and her Gran Anita  are followers of FiddleFart …. and this is what Gran Anita  told me via Facebook …….

Anita : Helen my six year old granddaughter has been collecting bits and pieces since she saw this (*my first boudoir mirror) and wants to start her mirror this weekend. What did you stick the bits on with?

Me: I used E6000 glue Anita ......it's like a very strong bostik

Anita: Thanks Helen. My granddaughter loves to see what you have made. She loves all the sweetie bags etc. and has done some for the school fair and Christmas fair. She always makes all the teachers presents as well.

Me: Say a huge hello from me .... and send me a picture of her mirror and I will make her my guest crafter xxxxx

Anita: She would be thrilled with that Helen. She is very into pink and purple and says that's what she is doing it in.

Anita: “ …… Maisie's mirror that she has made for her bedroom. Done all by herself. Hope you approve Helen. She sat all Saturday whilst we were busy in the garden. She never had as many bits as we thought but had painted it pink so she doesn't mind. She loves it and is really pleased with it.

How can I compete with this sort of talent???? 

Well done Maisie, I know how proud your Gran is of you …..  your mirror is WONDERFUL ….. and very, very special because you made it all on your own ….. and to be honest … it’s better than mine, so I think I had better practice a bit more to get as good as you! …… Lots of Love …. Helen