Happy Halloween

No Advent Drawers to post this week ……

….. rain has temporarily stopped play……..

…….. to be honest I only have one left now that I haven’t posted …….

……. but have no fear,  they are on my “to do” list for this coming weekend.

Instead, a few pictures of Iris and Bertie from this past weekend when they had a Halloween sleepover at The Towers.

There were pumpkins to “create” exactly as they wanted ………

…… as well as satsumas and balloons to make as spooky as they could too.

Nanny not wishing to be outdone had a go at “creating” some scary tissue paper spiders ……..

Hmmmmmm, not quite my forte …….. I think they look more like mad, fat crows!

Iris also spent ages drawing a set of forfeit cards to put in our Halloween Pass the Parcel parcel ……..

Her drawings always make me melt ……. my favourite? Her skeleton for her “wobble like a skeleton card” ……. I reckon he’s got most, if not all of his joints!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

MIni Decorated Christmas Printers Tray

This mini decorated Christmas printers tray measures 22cm x 10cm and originally housed a set of wooden alphabet letters from The Works.

I’ll be honest, I am not 100% about the elongated oblong shape, I just think a square, six section decoration is somehow a much cuter size, but what do I know?

I also admit to being a bit rusty as far as my printers trays go, if I remember rightly, in the past I have put a couple of foam pads behind the background papers to bring the embellishments that tiny bit more forward.

It took me a while to finally pluck up the courage to colour the outside and dividing slats of the tray with a red Sharpie pen, without it it looked a little unfinished, but I was wary that despite my gut feeling the added colour could possibly ruin the overall effect, fortunately my worries were proved wrong and I think it really makes the tray look all the more Christmassy and complete.

I’ve used bits and pieces left over from many Christmas’s past and then further embellished them with extra stars, flat backed gems, glitter,stickers and Glossy Accents.

The one thing I learned on this project was to write Santa’s Letter in black biro, my first effort somehow got wet and smudged and had to be done all over again.

This tray is destined for my lovely neighbours Kata and Laci as a special festive keepsake in place of a card which more than like end up in the bin after Christmas or get recycled.

HUGE HEADS UP TO THE WORKS

I nipped into Worcester yesterday (23rd October) and found almost all their Christmas craft stuff was “Buy One Get One Free” – the lady in the shop said the offer was on all the red topped packets if that is any help to you and I don’t think the offer is online, it’s in store only as far as I can see.  She also wasn’t sure how long the offer was on for.

Now, I am pretty well stocked up, but it would have been rude not to have a mooch and spend erm…….. £4.

Spending just £1 on each of them  I am certain of a wonderful afternoon spent with Iris and Bertie when nursery and school is out for Christmas fiddle farting.

Bertie, last Christmas aged 20 months totally absorbed painting his suncatcher.

I got them both a snowman suncatcher and foam tree knowing that they can also rifle through Nanny’s drawers, if you’ll pardon the expression, for a few extra bits and bobs. If the offer is on when I go into town next I might get a few more bits …… 50p ….. what price peace?

I also treated myself to four packs of these layered snowmen embellishments as I think I will be able to make some really cute cards using them – 16 for just £2 it’s a steal!

Heads Up – Poundland Doll Parts

I couldn’t quite believe these when I saw them in the Halloween section of Poundland ……..

……. doll parts!!!!  I have to be honest they are just a tiny bit creepy, but as soon as I got over the initial eeeeewwwweeeee I thought of Marc!!!  Don’t tell him I said that, although I may keep a few for myself.

I am thinking altered art?  Sprayed white, gold, silver etc I can see them made into jewellery, or as part of a printers tray display ……..

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/547539267190677133/
I’ll present them to the said Marc and see what he comes up with ….. watch this space.

Advent Drawer Wednesday

Two more drawers today, but progress towards another completed Advent Calendar seems to be slow. I am hoping to get it finished for Christmas, but we shall have to see, life with those delicious babies just seems to get in the way, and to be honest, that is the best place to be.

I am finding that this sort of project is really getting through all the small embellishments I have collected over the  years, but some I’m getting a little bored of seeing.

It would be an exciting prospect to get to end of another crafty year to find all my embellishment boxes almost empty so that I could start the New Year looking for interesting new bits, especially in the sales. If there is anything left I think I really need to evaluate them all to see if I would actually ever use them and then perhaps pass on to others who would. 

Pirate Mirror – Part 2

Wooooo hoooooo Bertie’s pirate mirror is finally finished and I can’t help but breathe a huge sigh of relief ……..

…… it may have taken me 14 months but I have never given up!

Though firmly stuck down the pirates arms can still be moved, so to add an extra dimension I have put dangly bits (if you’ll pardon the expression) in their hands and the crab with its wibbly wobbly legs guards a precious gem. 

With the pirates, compasses, maps and large gems in place I could then drape the broken pearl and chains necklaces round them ……….

……. and then fill the smaller gaps with smaller gems and pirate cabochons.

The only thing I wished I’d done was colour/spray the compass bodies gold before they were stuck down, trying to do it on a finished mirror was fiddly to say the least.

And now it is done and dusted in a yo ho ho bottle of rum type way ……  it just needs to be bubble wrapped carefully until Christmas then it can be hung in Bertie’s bedroom.  I will put a special message on the back for him and hope that one day it might become an heirloom or at least a memory of mad, always fiddle farting mad Nanny Nell ……….

Pirate Mirror – Part 1

I have to hang my head in crafting shame …… I can’t believe it but I actually started this mirror for Bertie at the end of August 2017, what am I like? https://itsallfiddlefart.blogspot.com/2017/08/pirate-mirror.html, needless to say he didn’t get it for last Christmas, but I think it’s a dead cert for his stocking this year. 

To back track to August after covering the mirror with play doubloons I just couldn’t find the right embellishments in the right materials and proportions to feel happy in progressing any further, so sadly it was put at the bottom of the wardrobe and quite frankly forgotten about unless I cleaned in there!

One stumbling block was that I only had one pirate to put on it, however without even looking I found another five bagged together in a charity shop in Worcester, now £4.99 was a little out of my comfort zone but as they were the same make as the original one it really was a no brainer.

The mirror was bought out again and the pirate positions jiggled with along with the compasses, but again I hit a wall as I couldn’t think of anything to bring them all together and fill in the gaps, so after a brief reprieve the mirror was put in mothballs again …… aghhhhhh.

Finding a pirate ship in the 10p box of an Evesham charity shop brought it out again …….

……. and it was then that I found the confidence to commit to some gluing (E6000) the pirates and compasses along with some small pirate beads and cabochons, however, these were removed shortly after when other ideas came into play ……..

…… especially after I decided that making a few pirate maps using Fimo could possibly be the link I had been missing ……. I made four and from there I could now see where I was going.

But you know me, I like things to be balanced and symmetrical so after raiding my old, broken jewellery stash for big gems I spent quite a bit of time distributing them evenly around the mirror ……… and then I am afraid  I hit another halt. I loved the effect when I added broken pearl and chain necklaces, but realised I didn’t have enough, so before I filled all the gaps with gems another trip to the charity shops was called for to find some more ……..

……… and that’s where I had to leave things for yet short period of time, but tomorrow you will finally be able to see the finished results of what became something of a pirate epic!

Spotted In Worcester - Marc Would LOVE This ……

I saw this in a knitting shop in Worcester …………………

……. and thought of  Marc, who absolutely loves a festive knitted decoration.

Quick Halloween Trick or Treat Favours

I put these favours together very quickly for Bertie’s nursery autumn fayre ……

……. using the delightfully named Twisted Guts marshmallow twists that I found in Home Bargains ….. yuk!

There’s not a lot to them, I simply tied two together with a green bow with a rubber bat and a tag, left over from the Halloween pots I made the other week …

….. but hopefully they will help raise a few extra pence towards some much needed equipment etc.

Advent Drawer Tuesday

Another two Advent drawers today ………

….. as you can see I am still struggling with using blues and greys, but hey ho, I’ve given in and am just going with the creative flow.

I don’t like to clock watch while I am working, but so far I reckon each drawer has taken me approximately an hour, but that’s starting with a blank canvas each time and lots of fiddle farting getting everything in the right place and then often changing this and that, no matter how small, until I am really happy with how it looks, before finally the gluing can begin.

Boho Style Christmas Tree Decorations

After two years I am considering injecting a bit more oomph into my twig Christmas tree this year, it’s all been very tasteful so far, but now I think I am done with the less is more chandelier drops and small balls effect, if you’ll pardon the expression.

So with that aim in mind I have been experimenting with some boho style decorations using some of the rectangular plastic drops I have put on the tree in the past.

However, the idea proved to be a lot more fiddly and long winded  than I first anticipated and as you know I am not blessed with much patience when things don’t go as well as planned ….. and so I got a bit bored with the project, but I did persevere.

I started by covering the flat side of the drops with various  decopatch papers and then gluing two together back to back, well, that was the theory, but the drops had a little bit of a curve in  them so would not stick together flat without a fight!

It was a full on battle to keep the mini bulldog clips in place without them pinging across the room every five minutes but once settled I left them over the weekend for the glue to cure properly.

I coloured all the joining beads and drops with Sharpie pens, again a bit fiddle farty for an impatient me. Flat back flower gems were then stuck on both sides of the decoration for extra bling.

Not that I intend to attempt to make them again, but if I did I  might add a little ultra fine silver or iridescent glitter to the papers before I glued them.  Whether they end up on my tree I am not to sure but I will find somewhere for them.

Heads Up Christmas Shopping

I was thinking “snowballs” to go in a few of the mini mason jars I showed you last week as table favours …….. but the Cadbury snowballs I had thought about proved to be a little expensive at 99p per bag, not making it that cheap an exercise …….. so I went delving a little further along the Home Bargain shelves ……..

…… and found these Cadbury footballs for 39p per bag, the same weight as the snowballs but these don’t have a dusty sugary coating …… but who’s going to know? Well, with a saving of 50p per bag it would have been rude not to make a considered purchase. My jars should now come in at just 79p each plus a couple of pence for a tag and attached snowflake.

Just to be on the safe side I did check the sell by date on the bags  but that’s not until April 2019, I am well chuffed!