The Works Wooden House Revised

Sorry, only one post this week ......... I am completely out of ideas!!!!!!

Remember this Works little, wooden house drawer (below) that I wasn’t 100% with last week, thinking the bird and branches on the front and back looked a little out of proportion ……

…… well, I’ve had a little play and this is what I eventually came up with ……

I managed to remove the bird etc. pretty easily and after a bit of sanding to remove all the glue I replaced them with three butterflies on the front with a little foliage, to which I think I may also add some really tiny fimo flowers and then another three butterflies on the back……….

I think the proportions look much better now and the butterflies and space make the house feel fresher. This was a one off experiment but I reckon either Iris and Bertie will lay claims to it over the Easter holiday.

As I have a few more of the drawers squirrelled away I’ll be playing again, thinking perhaps a gingerbread house next time, we shall see……..

Easter Bonnet Favours

Please note - This is not my idea, I found it while perusing Pinterest as is my want and just had to try it ………

However, the first hurdle was finding plain, foil wrapped chocolate cup sweets which was nigh on impossible, in the end I  resorted to using Reese Peanut Butter Miniature Cups, which explains my use of yellow and orange materials in an effort to minimise and detract from the logos.

I cut the bottom of the hats using my ancient Stampin’ Up scallop edged punch, with a small daisy flower to decorate/disguise the top.  If I had found plain, foiled sweets I don’t think I would have needed to do this, but hey ho.  I wished I’d also got a few more of the orange pre-tied bows, but out of my big box I just had one!

I put an adhesive foam pad on the bottom of each cup and then stuck them in the middle of each scalloped circle, followed by a flower on the top.

As this was just an experiment, I wasn’t too precious with my Sharpie pen dots round the brim, if I were to repeat the idea again I would be more careful and precise with the dots or might even replace them with a few flat backed gems or tiny Fimo nail art flowers on something extra special.

However, in the long run, I think they work

Now ……..  if I continue to look and find any said elusive plain, foil wrapped chocolates on my travels, I could perhaps turn them into sunhats for end of summer term fairing gifts for the staff at Iris and Bertie’s school ……. all eyes peeled then!

The Works – Decorated Wooden House ……. A Work In Progress

I have to admit I’m not all that keen on this decorated, wooden house, it’s just a bit too much and twee, something ain’t right!

The house (which I varnished before I did anything to it) came from The Works last autumn when they were selling off all their wooden craft bits for half price, so this house was reduced from £2 to £1. Needless to say, I stocked up with a few, but have since been stuck with ideas on how to use them, originally, I was thinking more of a wintery gingerbread house than spring cottage.

However, after colouring the roof red, I decided to marry one house up with some spring themed, wooden embellishments, also from The Works (£1 for a pack of 6), which I also varnished beforehand to prevent any ink bleeding into the wood from the various coloured Sharpie pens I planned to use.

There was a butterfly in amongst the flowers that I didn’t like, so I found some small, wooden butterflies which I coloured and then glued over the original one, which added a little extra dimension.  I also put tiny nail art flowers in the middle of the flowers too.

I quite liked the house at this stage …… and perhaps should have left it at that, but of course I had to fiddle fart with it some more.

Now, while putting this post together and looking at it with fresh eyes through the pictures, I can see that it’s the bird and branches that are out of proportion and throwing everything else out of kilter. I should have simply just put two, possibly three (?) of the yellow butterflies, above the window and on the back instead, doh!

Unfortunately, as they have been glued on with E-7000, it might not work, but I think I am going to try to remove them in an effort to correct the scale and see how the butterflies work ……. fingers crossed!

Small, Wooden Christmas Tree Decorations

I think you might be seeing quite a few variations of these Christmas tree decorations over the coming months ………..

……. because I got a little carried away when these wooden blanks were in The Works Christmas sale………..

I’d seen them in my local shop when a pack of 16 (small and large) was £2, but I’d ermed and ahhed, but when they were reduced to £1 a bag, what’s a crafter to do? I think in the end I bought 4 or five packs?!.  It was their 6mm thickness that really swayed me, as they can easily stand alone, making them simple to glue upright and then incorporate into scenes etc., this gives them an awful lot of potential, if only I could put my mind to it.

However, I am easing myself into Christmas (aghhhhhh) slowly, there are no great shakes with this idea.  I took ten of the larger trees, which stand 6cms tall by 4.5cms at their widest and tried to put a tiny screw eye hook in the top, I managed it, perhaps more to the side than in the middle, but the wood proved really hard to screw into.

I then coloured the trees on both sides with  green and brown Sharpie pens, followed by a couple of coats of quick dry, clear, gloss varnish to seal in the colour to prevent any rubbing off if/when stored in the future.

All that was left to do then was decorate the trees (again on both sides) with small snowflake confetti with a tiny, gold, flat dome in the middle and clusters of three dots here and there to help fill in the gaps, using a white nail pen.

All that was left to do after that was add a silver hanging thread, as I said, nothing to them at all.

I am thinking that with having so many of the trees, in time, in all their different guises, that they will probably make up the bulk of the RAK Christmas fairings it has become traditional for Iris and Bertie to leave along the school run in December ……. I just need the inspiration…….. happy days!

The Works - Easter Decorated Crates

My apologies, I know I ask this every year, but why do I always find Easter such a struggle to craft for? Perhaps it’s the colours or being seemingly limited to bunnies, chicks and eggs, but nothing I do ever seems to gel, despite poring over Pinterest from February onwards for inspiration. I guess I’m just not a spring person!

Even these decorated crates for Iris and Bertie are seem awfully lack lustre to me, but there again I know they will be loved and filled with all manner of treasure, Bertie’s, probably with teabags and Iris pens!

The wooden crates came from The Works last autumn …….

………. when they were reduced from £2 to £1 each for a couple of weeks, so I stocked up.  They still sell them, but they’ve now gone back up to their original price.

All the wooden embellishments, which have been collected over the years have mostly come from The Works, with the exception of the rabbits.

I suppose, all told, this idea was an excellent way of using up a few more of the Easter stragglers still left my seasonal take-away boxes.

The leaves were coloured using a green Sharpie pen, before everything was simply stuck on the sides of the crates using E-7000 glue. This was followed by adding a few clusters of three dots here and there with a black biro (to prevent any ink bleeding into the wood) to help fill in some of the empty space.

The bunnies came from Home Bargains and cost 99p each, as did the carrots which were 79p, I believe for a pack of 6 or 8(?).  The carrots, which have a hanging loop, are a bargain, especially when you see what they are charging for similar packs in other shops and online. I particularly like the paper “leafage” on them much better that the really plastic-y stems I have seen on other carrots elsewhere.  Needless to say I bought a couple of packs which I think I will scatter here and there and hang on my small, charity shop, illuminated table twig tree nearer the day.

I then put a few chocolate bits and pieces in the crates. Iris and Bertie like chocolate but in small doses, unlike their Nanny, who can never have too much! Bertie still has a stock of his Christmas chocolate in his bedroom, which he has, on occassion, carefully wrapped in a dried out wet wipe and a mountain of Sellotape, that boy loves a tape dispenser, to present to me when he feels the occassion is right!  What is he like?  You just got to love him!  Happy, happy days!

Small Heart Shaped Jewelled Wreaths

Just one post this week, sorry, it's been a busy few weeks ........ coupled with a very severe dose of crafters block.  Hopefully a long weekend by the sea, in Weymouth, will inspire me for when I get back! 

Two small, jewelled wreaths given to two very special ladies on Mother’s Day.

The small MDF wreaths came as part of a pair bought online from https://www.everycraftsabargain.co.uk/MDF-Heart-Wreath and for just £1.50 they were a steal.

To start I painted both sides of the wreaths with a white emulsion paint, before all the fiddle fart ensued ……….

Most of the jewels came from elasticated bracelets bought from https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/mypensionfund66, and then broken up, along with the odd charity shop find.  The small, assorted plastic roses came from China.  I used E-7000 to glue them for a really secure and solid fix.

I put the bigger jewelled pieces on first and then built up the layers with the more flowery pieces with a few leaves scattered here and there. I then waited a couple of days for everything to set before filling in any gaps. Even looking at these pictures now I can still see a couple of places I’ve missed.

I used a staple gun to put two staples in the back of the wreaths through which I threaded a double strand of gold wire which I twisted and knotted to make a rough sort of hanger. My apologies, I’m really pants at this, they aren't all that tidy but they are strong, which they need to be as each wreath is quite heavy.

I wasn’t expecting it, but these took a lot longer and were far more fiddlier to do than the larger ones I have made, probably the size?  I also think, perhaps, the proportions of the jewellery bits suit the large hearts better?

….. but despite all that they still turned out pretty OK. Next wreath please…..