Wooden Ghost Halloween Pin Badge/Brooch

Following on from last weeks Halloween bat pin badges I have the ghost type version this week, which I think have turned out a little better.

Again using the extra small Christmas domino pieces I buy especially for crafting, I covered the picture side with a plain orange paper and coloured the plain side with an orange Sharpie pen.

I then covered the small MDF ghosts (eBay) with white Ranger Enamel Accents with a sprinkling of iridescent ultra fine glitter to add extra and catch the light on a Halloween night.

The ghosts were then stuck on to the covered domino which I had edged with a little faux stitching using a black fine liner pen. When the ghosts were on I put  a few tiny silver stars in between them, again for extra spooky sparkle.

All that was left to do then was to add a tiny brooch finding on the back using an epoxy resin glue as I don’t want to risk the pin coming off when Iris and Bertie in particular wear them.  I also coloured the back of the ghost black to make the brooches look finished off and more professional (not shown).

A really simple project that I am thrilled with, so much so that they then spawned another idea that I will show you tomorrow.

The Connection Between Live Writer, Changes to Blogger and Not Being Able to Save Pictures to Pinterest - Answers On A Postcard Please!

This is just a little information/winge for fellow Blogger bloggers who, like me, may have had difficulty in saving pictures of their projects to Pinterest recently......

As you know I have used a programme called Live Writer to set out my blog posts before publishing via Blogger for almost forever.  I just loved Live Writer because it was far easier to arrange a post, allowing you to add watermarks and borders to photos, as well as size and arrange them on the page far better than Blogger, a very common complaint with other users, which is why Live Writer was so beloved among bloggers.

A while back there were huge problems with Live Writer being "retired" and therefore no longer being updated, which meant changes to Google photos had a massive impact on bloggers (including myself), in the end, GitHub took it over and miraculously created a fix after many months of hard work. In the meantime I had to readjust to using the clunky Blogger interface, so it was a great relief eventually when I was finally able to rekindle my relationship with Live Writer after downloading the new fix.

Then just recently Blogger changed their interface again, I had to move over to it but only used it as a vehicle to publish my Live Writer posts through,  and that's when, in hindsight, my problems saving my photos to Pinterest started.  To start with it was hit and miss, then became an outright refusal to save. I spent a whole flipping day, uninstalling the Pinterest "save" button, I even e-mailed Pinterest (still waiting for that reply!). I am pretty convinced (like the last time) there must be some connection between Google and Blogger that is preventing this, as I need a Google account to log into my blogs, but I haven't been able to work it out yet and don't think I have the will to now!

However, in the end something made me try simply writing a post with pictures using the new Blogger interface, publishing it and then seeing if I could save the pictures .......of course it worked!

I have put the issue on GitHub but I doubt it will be picked up, however I am sure I am not the only blogger who has been affected.   So sadly I am back to using Blogger for FiddleFart in order to save projects/pictures to Pinterest.  

If anyone has had a similar problem and solved it I would just love to know

My Barbola Mirror–Still A Work In Progress.

My version of a barbola mirror is still not put together, I am biding my time  …….

Marc and I put a great deal of time and effort into the Utee flowers I made using my Meltpot when I recently stayed with him at the Worcester cottage ……..

….. in fact we fair transformed them, from dull and flat to vibrant and polished, using goodness knows how many different paints and finishes, it was such fun.

The metal leaves, taken from several identical necklaces found in charity shops and eBay also received the same treatment.

I was also particularly thrilled with how the rather insignificant metal Craft for Occasion flowers turned out ……..

……. after being painted to an inch of their lives and these, along with the leaves will now remain untouched.

However, on getting home and looking at pictures of original barbola flowers ………

…… I want to try to add a few more colours to the utee flowers to see how they look before committing them permanently to the oval mirror I aim to set them on ……….

…….. just in case an extra subtle paint stroke here and there adds something special.  I have more than enough flowers to experiment with a few, so if it doesn’t work, nothing will be lost, I just need to see ……..

….. and after that and with the purchase of a large tube of E6000 it should be mirrors akimbo ……. fingers crossed!

Wooden Halloween Bat Pin Badge Brooches

I think at least four of these pin badge/brooches will find themselves in crackers for my annual Halloween sleepover party later on in the year, Covid-19 obliging.

The badges were made using MDF bats found on eBay, mini Christmas dominoes that I buy specifically for crafting and starry patterned paper.

The plain side of the dominoes were coloured using a black Sharpie pen and the fronts covered with the paper.

The bats were also coloured in black on both sides and then glued to the front of the domino with two tiny red flat back gems added for eyes.

On a few I added a “boo” using my Dymo label maker, but I wasn’t sure if I liked that idea or not.

I wish I had then simply varnished the front with PVA glue instead of using a generous layer of Ranger Glossy Accents ……

……. because I think it’s given them too much shine and somehow the bats and background are lost under it, but that being said taking pictures so close up don’t exactly do them justice. 

I then had another “play” with the idea, using a plain orange background paper and without the Glossy Accents to see if I was right.

Hmmmmmm, I am still not sure, I now don’t like the Glitter Modge Podge I added to the orange paper to seal it ….. and I don’t think the white dots on the bats add anything either. I think I could fine tune the idea again, but to be honest there are only so many badges we can wear on the day …… so perhaps I’ll just leave it at that ……. for now.

Acorn Peg Dolls Christmas Tree Ornament

The new set peg dolls I had ordered from China arrived much faster than I thought they would, two weeks must be a record, but what to do with them ……… acorn peg dolls!

I started by making a house base using plain mini craft sticks from Hobbycraft (£1), colouring the roof with a red Sharpie pen.

I used a small Christmas domino piece (painted white) that I buy especially for crafting for the shelf,  because the doll would have otherwise hung over the narrower stick everso slightly and I didn’t really want that.

I then took a peg doll and gave him an acorn hat, admittedly, at first, it looked a bit big, but there again it also looked pretty cute, so I went with the flow.  This autumn will now be spent looking for more acorn cups,  the ones I used on this project go back at least three years and I only have a few left now.

The peg doll was then given a green felt scarf, tiny, black, flat back eyes and brown flat buttons, left over from my daughters diamond art project.

I then attached the doll to the house base with a good dollop of Aleene’s Glitter Snow.  I have got through my first tub already but as I have enjoyed using it so much this past month or so I have ordered another two tubs, it’s only August, so with five months to go before Christmas I am sure I will be wanting to use it an awful lot more.

I also added the Glitter Snow around the top of the roof, the red Sharpie pen did bleed a little bit into it, but nothing a few dabs of white paint couldn’t hide.

It was then time to add the little Christmas Trees (Amazon), removing their original base and replacing it with a smaller bead to get a slightly better proportion and also trimming the bristles on the back so that the tree could be glued flat onto the house frame.

I can’t say I particularly enjoyed added all the flat back gems to the trees, it was blooming fiddly and I probably used far too much glue, but I think I got away with it.

The last thing I had to do was add a small finding on the back so that the finished decoration can be hung up on a Christmas Tree etc.

Voila, I managed to make twelve of these decorations before running out of suitably sized acorn cups, the rest were just too big.

I may however make a few more …….. if mission acorn hunting 2020 is successful.

Malvern Antiques and Collectors Fair

With lockdown easing Lu and I were feeling suitably brave enough to visit the Malvern Antiques and Collectors Fair a couple of weeks ago before we went stir crazy.  We got there at around 9.30am and dutifully paid our £5 entrance fee, despite Lucy only spending £1 on a set of four vintage, gold rimmed tumblers and me nothing, we were not disappointed, it was a glorious day out, with so much to see and talk about.

I was happy to just take pictures (with permission) of all the things I desired but couldn’t afford, like this 19th Century wooden shrine, it was £65 and despite stroking it lovingly it didn’t make it get any cheaper!

I dare not stroke this French marriage dome at just £120! However, I do have a spare dome, I could possibly find a Virgin Mary on eBay and then a few dried flowers ……. hmmmmm

You know I absolutely love a mirror and this one was not only right up my street but also absolutely mahoooooosive, I didn’t dare ask the price, but if I had the right sort (and big enough house) this would definitely find itself behind my bed as a bed board.

This second mirror was not so glamorous, in fact its flipping ugly, but in the right place I could see it work ….. in a bathroom perhaps?

This cruet set was within my budget at £6, but would I use it? Probably not. Would it sit on my shelves, gathering dust. Yes. Could I live without it, again, probably yes.

This table was cute …..

…… as this monstrosity was erm …… different.

I have two – "ones that got away" ……. this really colourful ornament of a church mouse wedding for £5.  I now wish I had taken a picture of the mark on the bottom so  that I could look for similar pieces.  There was also a cat, with two mice by the same artist but without a mark or name it’s going to be a long, hard search.  The mice remind me of Bertie’s favourite stories about Pip and Posy, I am not sure if they are related in any way.  Anyone any the wiser than me?

This second – “one that got away” was a bag of mostly glass leaves, which I was told, when all put together made some sort of a chrysanthemum type ornament.  It was all filthy and the wire fastenings on the leaves etc, well and truly rusted …… and the price £30!  Believe me I thought long and hard, it was the leaves I was really interested in, and after a rough count there were well over 30 of them, so all in all less than £1 each, without counting anything else.  If a fiddle farty idea had sprung into my mind then and there I think I would have had them, but it didn’t, other than painting them ……… so they stayed on the stall.

I believe originally it might have been a fancier version of something above, a vintage Chinese jade ornament …… I don’t think it was jade, but who knows.  Yes, I could have bought it, but it could also  have then languished in a drawer for years after than. 

And finally, this is Lucy’s one that got away, well, the booby ladies sitting on the edge of the glasses to be precise. There were four of them, but the man would only sell the glasses and the cocktail paraphernalia as one lot for £10 which was a lot to pay when only wanting one or two items from it to sit on her cocktail shelf, so we walked away, but I will be looking for something similar on eBay in the future for Christmas/birthdays etc.

So, that was our day, there is a Flea Market at the showground on August Bank Holiday, we’ve been before, the prices tend to be a little cheaper so perhaps there is more of a chance for a few considered purchase being  made, fingers crossed!

Little Snowman In A Bottle Christmas Tree Ornament/Decoration

This is another project Marc and I worked on while I stayed with him a few weeks ago, tiny snowmen in bottles.

Marc was in charge of the bottles (The Works – 6 for £1) ……..

……. wrapping a length of thread round the top, attaching a plastic snowflake charm and then gluing the charm to the bottom, as they had the habit of sticking up/out if left to their own devices.

On the cork Marc glued a silver spacer bead with a screw eye in the middle so that the bottles can be hung from the branches of a Christmas tree etc.

Above is my practice run bottle made at home, the purpose of which was to gauge the size of the snowmen I needed to make to fit in bottles and also to see what “snow” worked best, tiny polystyrene balls or glitter.  In the end I went for the glitter as the balls tended to cling due to static electricity. I can’t remember the type of pen I used for the hat, face and buttons but it bleed, I put this down to not giving the air dough sufficient time to dry out thoroughly.

When I got to Marc’s I made more snowmen who had the tiniest of tiny Fimo noses, aghhhhhhh!

It was then Marc’s idea to give the snowmen arms using legs cut off plastic Halloween spiders, they were perfect and “gave a little” when a few of the snowmen were later carefully inserted into the bottles.

……….then after a day or two of drying came the task of giving adding their tiny eyes, buttons and a scarves using a single strand of red cotton yarn.  Marc has so much patience with “the detail”

I spent a morning colouring in the hats with fine tipped red and green Sharpies and then the snowmen were all bottled up ready for me to add the snow when I got home.

However …….. the red ink from the pens continued to bleed into the snowmen, giving them a slightly pink hue around the gills, I admit to only giving them about three days to dry out ……. bum, I don’t think it was really long enough!  I currently have a month old snowman that I have marked with the same pens to see it will bleed after that length of time.  I know I am being a diva perfectionist, but if I was given one of these bottles, I know the first thing I would notice would be the pink seepage, I cant help it!

So, although Marc’s bottles were perfection, my impatience is questionable. I think I am going to make another set of snowmen, this time either using Fimo, adding a hat in another colour or trying air dough again, but giving it a good couple of weeks to settle before adding any colour.  So watch this space …………