My Bejewelled Christmas Tree

You know when you have a crafty idea,  but you can’t find what you need to make it and then you almost give up? 

Well,  that was me.  Originally I was looking for some more of the small branched table Christmas trees I had from Poundland last year to hang all the gorgeous beads I got from WholePort, but I scoured every shop in town (and out) and just couldn’t find any!

Then while I was in Dunelm …. just about to pay for my “faux mink throw”, I spied this illuminated tree for just £4.99 from across the checkout, it wasn’t quite an Ulrika moment but ……

…… as didn’t look that special, and I wasn’t really that sure about it,  but when I looked at it up close, I wondered if I could attach the beads to it somehow  ….. perhaps with jump rings?  So, despite my reservations I decided to risk my ill-gotten £4.99!!

I am soooooo glad I did, it looks gorgeous all bejewelled, if I might say so myself, tasteful and elegant ….. very suitable for my festive lounge!!!  Admittedly my fingers are a little sore at the moment as I don’t have a clue how to use the tweezery things I have in my drawer properly, so I admit I opened and closed the rings with my said fingers!!!

But, it was sooooooo worth it!

A Cracker Of A Workshop With Kirsty Wiseman at Domino Crafts

Yesterday I went to a craft workshop at Domino Crafts in Wolverhampton, lead by Kirsty Wiseman.  I have always loved Kirsty’s blog, photography and everything she creates, card wise.  I remember once going absolutely crazy about making flowers using a roll of bandage after seeing the idea on Kirsty’s blog http://limegreenbogiegirl.blogspot.co.uk/

So to meet her in person was just too brilliant!  She was lovely, friendly, bouncy and looked fantastic after losing at least 2 and a half stones …. after cutting out carbs …. so not only did she inspire me craft wise, she also inspired me think about trying to lose some weight (again!!!!!), especially when I had to crop my tum and hips out of the photo below!!!!

We made a cracker using Stix2 products, http://www.stix2.co.uk/ plus a die (the make and name escape me) to make the cracker wrap, very simple but so relaxing.

The most exciting part was Kirsty showing us how to use a glue gun to make cabochons/pearls, I have a glue gun, but now need to get some glue sticks to practice. When Kirsty showed us how to colour a circle of hardened glue with Mica powder ….. OMG …. it was magically transformed!  I admit there are some mediums I know about, but have shied away from, and it’s days like this that inspire and give you confidence to try these new materials.

Kirsty also bought some cards along that used the technique and that she kindly allowed me to photo.
This tree is absolutely adorable using http://www.stix2.co.uk/christmas-tree-with-star-greenAnd this Christmas wreath doesn’t use Candi, as I first thought but dots made with a glue gun and then finished with microbeads, white Micra powder and transfer foils, gorgeous!

And as for the jumper stamp used in these cards  …… again I’m sorry I don’t know the maker, but it’s soooooooo cute and I can think of so many cards it could be used on, especially with Christmas jumpers everywhere this year.

As I said a brilliant afternoon which saw me leaving Domino’s several pounds lighter ……. as I found some very unusual and lovely embroidered ric rac braid and eight bottles of ultra fine glitter, since Marc has re-ignited my interest in using it.  If you are ever anywhere near it’s worth popping in and having a good mooch …..

Nordic Style Christmas Cards

These cards each measure 5ins x 5 ins and are made using hand cut Kraft card blanks.
These are the cards I made using the felt Nordic style Christmas decorations (although it does say wooden on the packets!) I found in Poundworld (they have wooden ones just the same in Poundland).
They are very much, “less is more”, the sort of card I would like to receive.

Removing the bows was a little hit and miss, some came off easier than others,  but I think I have managed to cover up the original hole for the hanging thread with a strategically placed pearl pretty well.

Wonderful, Wonderful Times With Marc – Marc’s Sizzix Pop Up Christmas Card

This is one of Marc’s 2013 Christmas cards.  I can’t give you any detailed instructions as to how he made it,  but hope the pictures coupled with a few comments here and there from me will paint the picture for you.

The base of the card is made using a Sizzix pop up card die
http://www.sizzix.co.uk/product/658048/sizzix-pop-n-cuts-magnetic-insert-die-star-3-d-pop-up
And embossed using the Cuttlebug Three Kings embossing folder:-http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cricut-Cuttlebug-Three-Embossing-Folder/dp/B006RK4PFI

The inside is equally stunning and detailed, Marc used a Darice 4.23” x 5.75” Embossing Folder – Stars Code: DEF-1218-63

http://www.crafterscompanion.co.uk/darice-c1875/embossing-folders-c1505/4-23-x-5-c1878/darice-embossing-folders-p21235

I think Marc encountered a few problems when fitting the silver embossed inside involving quite a bit of trimming that he hadn’t expected, as it slightly overlapped the outside of the card, which it shouldn’t have done …..

My only claim to fame on this project was the band that goes round the card, an idea I think I may need to copy for some of my cards ….. I printed bands, about 3/4 in deep in Landscape (in Word) using Papyrus font size 20 ….. Marc then cut them out, glued the end together and added a few tiny peel offs. A band is such a special touch on any card

The back of the card is equally as detailed.

Stunning and such a lot of work …… can you believe Marc made of 100 of them, he is so much more patient than I am!.  If I have left anything out or Marc has anything to add I am sure he will in the comments box, which I will then add to this post to help further.

Wonderful, Wonderful Times With Marc– My ThermoMorph Face

This isn’t a project,  just an idea after I started musing at Marc’s!  I took the remains of the ThermoMorph that I was asked to review a couple of weeks ago for Marc to play with, I wasn’t entirely convinced of it’s potential for me “personally” as a crafter, but I thought Marc might be able to come up with an ingenious use for it.

ThermoMorph can be re-used over and over again if an idea doesn’t work out and I had forgotten I had put some “failed” faces I had moulded back in the pot, so when we opened it again there they were.

Anyway, Marc had awakened my interest in micro glitter when he had got out his mahoooosive collection to cover these Scottie dogs to use on tags and cards, he must have every colour under the sun  …..

…… and I started to play with the face, first adding red glitter to the lips, then a thin line of blue to the eyes, followed by eyebrows and a blush to the cheeks using Promarker pens.

The cold, white waxiness of the ThermoMorph gave the face an haunted/ethereal look which all came together when I added a black background and doodled hair with a white gel pen.  perhaps this is an idea I will come back to in time.

And while I am on the subject of ThermoMorph you just have to have a look what Nicky made with hers, …… a snowman kit and Marc if you see this can you make me a set!!!!

http://creativeflourishes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/diy-snowman-kit-made-with-thermomorph.html

And while you are looking,  have a look at this post too, I got the mould from Poundland too to use with my ThermoMorph but unlike Nicky never actually got round to doing anything with it …… doh!!!

http://creativeflourishes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/halloween-decorations-made-with.html

Wooden Advent House No. 2

I must be a glutton for punishment, because yesterday morning while listening to the omnibus edition of The Archers I finally finished a second Advent House, as an early Christmas present for my sister-in-law who has been so unbelievably golden to me over the last eighteen months. I wanted to make her something special, that perhaps will become an heirloom her children will fight over!!!!!!

I now have one last Tesco house left …. and that will be for Tom’s and Laura’s next year, and Lucy will be given my original one.  Anyway I digress …. I decided to use HobbyCraft Christmas 12 x 12 canvas sheets on this house, thinking it would be different to use a textured “paper” and it would save me all the varnishing!!

I kept to my basic design, using the same Hobbycraft Advent numbers as I used on the one for Jacob, but I had to source a lot of new stuff, like new snowmen (Craft For Christmas from eBay), some sparkly gift wrap (from Bulters) which should prove far more economical for other Christmas projects too, for the snow as I had absolutely no A4 white glitter card left………..

….. plus some silver corner and small dot peel offs and some green and gold trim from the market (£1.50 a yard) …… oh and two of the snowflakes I got from the charity shop earlier in the week glued together with a flat back gem in the centre, at the top of the roof.

I think I fiddle farted with this house far more than I did with the other three I have made …. every time I thought that is it, I found somewhere else to embellish ……

……. it just seemed to go on and on and on!!!  But if you can’t over embellish at Christmas, well when can you?

I also need to apologise ….. life is rather busy at the moment, but I have enough posts in the bag to keep to an every other day type schedule,  but I don’t think I will be able to produce the amount of “new” ideas that I have done in the past ….. however, the old ideas are still there if you go to “labels” on the right side of the blog and click on anything that begins with Christmas or sounds remotely like!!!

I will endeavour to do something with all the bits that I have shown you in my recent heads up …… I am slowly building up the blog to it’s former self  ….. and am loving crafting again ….. the buzz is definitely back ….. it’s just that  my social life is too !!!!!!

Wonderful, Wonderful Times With Marc – Ranger Melting Pot Experiments - UTEE Cubes

When I saw an idea for making UTEE cubes using a Ranger melting Pot on the website below I was desperate to have a go during my next stay with Marc ……

http://inkstainswithroni.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/utee-cubes.html

….. however as per usual I left getting the ice cube tray that I needed to the last minute and then could only find novelty ones …. not an ordinary plain square one.  Once in London I searched Notting Hill from top to bottom with no joy, and it was only a chance visit to a charity shop that I found one in Battersea for the princely sum of 25p!

Unfortunately, by this time I only had a shady idea of the blog post that had inspired me …. and looking back now I’d got it wrong!!!  I started by putting a small square of patterned paper in the bottom of each cube, followed by some tiny charms and at Marc’s suggestion some hologram glitter and micro beads, our expectations were not too high as this first try was only an experiment.

I poured in about 10mm of clear UTEE into each square and then we could only keep our fingers crossed. As we were watching the Create and Craft demonstrations as we worked because the Melting Pot was the Pick of the Day we found out that by using a heat gun it was possible to get rid of any bubbles that formed in the pan.

Once set the cubes came out of the tray without too much trouble, eased out carefully with one of Marc’s pokey tools.  The results were mixed, but we learnt an awful lot for “next time”.  I think I need to find a shallower ice cube tray or square fondant mould for example and after checking Roni’s post again I shouldn’t have put the paper on the bottom because the charms disappeared into the pattern….. doh!

However, the beauty of the Melting Pot is that nothing goes to waste, if things don’t turn out as you hoped, you simply melt them down again, and believe me Marc doesn’t waste a thing,  he patiently removed the paper from the back of any “dodgy” cube, and then melted it down again, removing and saving all of the charms.  He then poured the UTEE onto the heat resistant craft sheet and when set it was put away safe ready to be used again.

I only stumbled on Roni’s blog a short while ago, but I just love it,  I don’t think that there was anything I didn’t love on her 31 Days of Halloween ….. and I definitely need to make an Apothecary/Halloween House for next year.

http://inkstainswithroni.blogspot.co.uk/

I have to be honest, this is the second time Marc and I have played with his Melting Pot, and this time it’s potential has blown me away …… being able to use something like this has made all the difference, how many of us have seen something demonstrated, been enthralled, got your hard earned money out and then bought it home only to gather dust after an initial play ….. I hold my hands up ….. I bought a Sizzix Texture Boutique after seeing it demo’ed on QVC and have used it once!!!!!!

The proof and value of any new tool has got to be what you do with the things you produce, I am sold, but what I do with what I have made with Marc when I get home will be our validation …. I am thinking perhaps an embellished luxury gift tag …… so as I always say, watch this space!

I also think that I could make a “job lot” of cubes containing just glitter and mircobeads to use as base pieces of one of my bejewelled mirrors, giving me an even foundation on which to build the more fancy layers etc. 

Let’s just say it’s a long, long time since I have been this excited by a piece of crafting equipment!

Wonderful, Wonderful Times With Marc –Ranger Melting Pot - Movember Moustaches

Last time I stayed with Marc we “just” dabbled with his Ranger Melting Pot, but on this visit we really got down to business! It also really helped as the said Melting Pot was Pick of the Day on Create and Craft and Ideal World while I was down, which meant that we were able to follow (and record) all the demonstrations as we worked.

My mission was to make moustache brooches/pins for the ladies to help support Movember 2013 and the gentlemen at work who are taking part, and for that reason I was thrilled to find a moustache ice cube tray in Poundland to use as a mould.

So Marc and I melted a good lot of clear UTEE adding black pigment powder to it and were then ready to rock and roll,  however calculating the right amount of UTEE for each moustache proved harder than I first anticipated. The mould was really too deep, as it intended for ice cubes and also as it was black,  it was hard to see the level of the UTEE as I poured.  The first four trays of moustaches all went back into the melting pot as they were far too thick/deep, but Marc and I persevered and with a change in the angle of light and counting quickly to three (???) as I poured a production line of moustaches was finally established, with very satisfying results.

With a neat pile of about thirty moustaches completed I was quite happy to leave them as they were and just add a pin back to them, however admittedly some of the finished results were not as smooth as others and that was when Marc got out his mahoooosive box of glitters and the said moustaches took on a whole new vibrant look!  And oh my life Marc must have every ultra fine glitter colour that has ever been invented!!!

We applied a even coating of Anita’s PVA Tacky Glue and then the glitter, and that’s also when I learnt that Marc is always right about colour,  the colours that Marc suggested and I turned my nose up at were the colours that always “popped” ….. but Marc, I still don’t  do copper tones!!!!!

Now home, some of the moustaches have shed a little glitter and need a “touch up”, and the beauty of using PVA glue is that if I don’t have a similar glitter colour all I need to do is soak the moustache in water and start again! With shedding in mind I have also decided that once I have done all the touching up I will add a coat of Ranger Glossy Accent to seal the glitter in properly.

When I am completely happy with all the results I will add the pin backs and then work on a packaging idea to make them look “professional” enough to  take them into work to hopefully sell and help bolster Movember funds, so watch this space for an update!