Considered Purchases For Halloween And Christmas

I thought I might not see these Halloween pots this year, they’ve been around for years but like the nets of boney hands and skeleton garlands of yesteryear I wondered if there would come a time when they would disappear too, BUT after visits to  the Poundstretcher stores  in Worcester and Evesham I found them! They also do a skull pack, which I may also get.

I wanted them in particular this year because Bertie’s nursery has an Autumn Fayre where they organise a trail of pumpkins in the school meadow, it is both a magical and entrancing evening especially for the little ones (hopefully pictures to follow as and when it happens),  but funds are tight and I thought I could decorate and fill a few pots with sweets to help raise a bit more money. Pictures below are from my 2012 efforts …… I think I can do better now!

http://itsallfiddlefart.blogspot.com/2012/10/happy-halloween-trick-or-treat.html

http://itsallfiddlefart.blogspot.com/2014/10/safe-mini-halloween-pumpkin-lanterns.html

I also visited Poundland to get some more photo frames for my Christmas Sampler Frames, the design has now changed from the ones they had before, …….. typical ……..

 

….. but I think I can achieve the same sort of result/affect with the frame turned vertically.  I also think I can use the patterned background sheet as a template and or base on which to stick my festive background papers making it a much less fiddly effort than my original one.  I prefer the old frame with its circles but  as soon as I have had a play I will post the results. The frame comes in black or white ……. I am thinking a black one could also be used for a Halloween themed decoartion with appropriate embellishments if I can find some.

Finished Sharpie Chandelier

Following on from last week I have finished my Sharpie pen chandelier! I am so unbelievably chuffed you wouldn’t believe. I don’t think the pictures really do it justice but all the lovely positive comments  from my various visitors have helped reassure me that I haven’t just gone and ruined a perfectly good light fitting, even young master Bertie was totally entranced when he saw it, he thinks Nanny lives in Elsa’s castle!

As I said last week I have made sure I have kept all the drops I took off and replaced for those I coloured, just in case I ever go off it, so putting the light back to it’s original state would not be a problem.

I also raided my twig Christmas tree decoration box to add the now coloured pointed glass drops to the chain links plus the small square beads to make the drops on the candle holders and top fitting a little longer.  The final thrill was finding that I had a glass ball centrepiece to put the finishing touch to the bottom.  The chandelier now consists of both acrylic and vintage glass drops.  My only slight concern is whether the colours will fade over time, however it’s nothing to pull the blind down  on bright day and wait and see.

I am going to live with the light now for a month or so and then may possibly consider getting some coloured chain links ….. we shall see. At the moment I have a dark Next purple, green and teal paisley design duvet set on the bed , but I also have a very bright BHS patchwork set that I am pretty sure will help give over the top bohemian look I am experimenting with a more vibrant appeal.

I have left the box of drops out because I think I will make the chandelier in my own bedroom a little fuller too, but  will definitely be leaving it clear. This also means that my twig Christmas tree will almost certainly be getting a whole new look this year, so I may also need to invest in a new pack of Sharpie pens.

EXTRA POSTS
I am going to add extra posts here and there as it's my favourite time of the crafty year with Halloween and Christmas fast approaching! I thought I would give you quick heads up to some of the things I have spotted and making considered purchases of.

Rose Heart To Give To A Bride On Her Wedding Day

Again, following on from last weeks post, I knew that Bertie and Iris would want to have their own hearts to give Amanda on her wedding. Ideally for the sake of peace they would have been identical, but really they had to be different and then we could stand back and see which heart the little darlings would choose to give (I just hope it isn’t the same one!)

Using the same MDF heart base as per the last two I used E6000 to glue rose and cream glitter resin/plastic flower embellishments from The Works.

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When all was stuck down it became blatantly apparent to me that the garish pink roses in particular would not be at all to the brides taste ……… aghhhhhhhhh …….

Then I remembered a can on cream spray paint I have had squirrelled away for a million years, dare I even think of spraying what had taken me at least an hour or so to put together, believe me there was much wringing of hands …….

……. before I dared and with the first tentative spray I knew that there was no turning back, however the effect turned out to be pretty pleasing as with each layer of paint the vivid pink became more and more muted, until I told myself to stop, before the subtle effect was lost under too many layers, less is more!

From there the best thing to do was to let it dry out properly overnight and see if my reaction was still as favourable in the morning. 

Fortunately it was, and after a little more thought I decided not to over egg the pudding, all the heart needed was a tiny pearl in the centre of the resin flowers and larger roses and then add a ribbon for the bride to hold.  The only thing I wish I could have tried was a little perfect pearls rubbed over the petals, but sadly the collection I used to have didn’t make it in the crafty cull I had to have when I moved because I didn’t really use them that much, sod’s law!!!

The ends of the ribbon were hidden on the back using a piece of contrasting paper which  I faux stitched round the edges of with a black fine liner pen to finish the whole project off.

This wasn’t a cheap project, using £6 worth of embellishments, but I think it is pretty unique and a change from the usual good luck horseshoe. 

Sharpie Chandelier – A Work In Progress

As you know I have “a big thing” about chandeliers, especially, at the moment, coloured ones.

My flat is pretty much finished, but it doesn’t stop me from pondering upon and fiddling about with the “fripperies” which really put my stamp on the place, love them or loathe them.

And as such I have always wanted to give my spare/guest room a colourful bohemian/gyspy feel to it, but at the moment it remains, in my eyes, very conservative, so I have been looking towards the el cheapo (mostly acrylic) chandelier that’s in there as a stepping stone to becoming more flamboyant, wondering if I could adapt it to look like the coloured ones I have been lusting after.

I have looked on various websites to see if I could buy coloured drops, but I would have been limited to just a few colours as they generally come in sets of 5 or 10 and to be honest at the price they were I could have simply bought a new colourer chandelier for around £50. I even pondered buying two really cheap coloured shades for around £12 each to dismantle, but again that would limit me to one or two colours and could prove to be an expensive fiddle fart if the idea in my head didn’t actually materialise.

Then last week completely unconnected so I thought, I found this light shade in a local charity shop for just £1.50, well it would have been rude not to buy it especially at that price, thinking I would take it apart to make some Christmas tree decorations, I definitely wasn’t thinking bedroom chandelier at the time.

But then, I had an Ulrika moment just as I was nodding off to sleep …… I wondered if I could colour the drops with Sharpie pens, well, I may now have a very discoloured thumb and index finger, but it worked!

There was only one thing to do then and that was to see how the first four looked on the existing chandelier ……. OMG, I was so thrilled I can’t tell you.

The drops turned out to be exactly the same size/shape etc. as the originals but I have carefully replaced and put them in a safe place just in case I ever want to put them back in the future.

This is as far as I have got so far, I think it could still take a bit more colour, but I need to get into my Christmas decoration box where I know I have some of the smaller link bead chains and, am pretty sure, another large, round centre ball to finish it off.

On the £1.50 shade, in total, there are at least 100 drops, they are a bit of a fiddle to remove, but I reckon I could add a few more drops evenly on the linking chains…….. post will be continued when this has been done.

Then, I plan to colour and use some of the remainder  on my twig Christmas tree. For the past two years it has been all very twee and tasteful and I am sure I would get that “same old same old” sort of feeling when I come to decorate it, so this year I hope to bring out it’s inner gyspy as well ……….

Bride’s Wedding Day Heart

Following on from last weeks jewelled heart that I couldn’t let go of, this is the one of the replacements I made for either Iris or Bertie to give to bride.

The base is an MDF heart which I covered with layered, punched daisy flowers and leaves.

Putting together the four layers (three large and one small daisy punch) to make each fiddly flower made my gums itch by the end, I am not good with repetitive tasks!

A flat backed gem or tiny pearl rose was then added to the middle of each flower with the odd punched leaf interspersed between them. When thoroughly dry this was followed by a bit of fluffing up to separate the petals and add some extra texture.

The ends of the ribbon were hidden on the back using a piece of contrasting paper which I faux stitched round the edges of with a black fine liner pen to finish the whole project off.

It was a fiddly job, but someone had to do it. It does look incredibly pretty, and if the ribbon was removed the heart could then be framed in a shadow box as a lasting memory of the wedding.  

A Wonderful Bag Of Treasures

I’ve been working on Bertie’s pirate mirror, it’s taking me a lot longer than I anticipated but hopefully now he should get it for Christmas …… sneaky, tantalising pic below.

I had a real good run on it a couple of weeks ago and thought I was almost done until I started to run old pearl and chain necklaces between the large gems and round the gold doubloons.  I loved the effect but then realised I didn’t have enough to finish and so needed to go hunt the charity shops for more, the mirror was then sadly returned to the cupboard.

I found a couple of suitable necklaces in the YMCA shop in Cheltenham and mentioned what I wanted them for to the lady who was serving me when she said she had a big bag of bits in the back if I was interested.  I gave a tentative yes, but when she bought it out and said that she would normally sell each piece for about £2.99 I thought I really couldn’t afford to make an offer ……

…… but when she asked me if £5 for the lot would be OK, well, it would have looked rude not to snatch her hand off.  Poor Lu went pale as I paid my money and she put the humoungously heavy bag of swag in her backpack.

It now needs a very careful going through, some bits I will use, Marc will probably be on the receiving end of a lot of the beads and other bits will probably find themselves back to another charity shop.  Treasures like this don’t happen my way very often so I was like a kid at Christmas as I looked through all the goodies within ……. and yes ……. give me a free weekend and Bertie mirror will finally be finished and posted.

Jewelled Wedding Heart

Oh dear ……. this jewelled heart was meant for either Bertie or Iris to give to my nephew’s bride Amanda at their coming wedding ………..

……. only I decided that I couldn’t bear to give it away and want to keep it for myself!  What am I like? I can just see it now in a shadow box frame on one of my shelves!

I knew as soon as it was almost finished that I couldn’t be parted with it, so with time ticking I now have to come up with another couple ideas for the said bride so that she won’t be found empty handed after the ceremony!

I used a MDF heart as the base and started by placing parts from a cream flower necklace in prominent areas and then building up the layers and filling in the gaps with bits and pieces from my box of broken jewellery. The only new “bought” bits used were two types of plastic, white rose embellishments from The Works. I was really surprised how much stuff I had that just seemed to really go together.

I used E6000 glue to keep everything in place and I now just need to remove the odd, stray, dry glue strand, as the pictures show, before I frame the heart  (the ribbon needs to go too).  It reminds me of something the Victorians would have done with seashells.

Luckily I have another couple of the spare heart bases so that I can have another go at making something that I can actually bear to give away.

I am also hoping to now post on a Tuesday for the next little while, objects of desire, heads up for what's crafty in the shops, the odd charity shop find, and drawers that will make up my next Advent Calendar,  the long crafty blog break really seems to have paid off.

Christmas Sampler Photo Frame

I have to admit that of late I have been very much a stranger to inspiration, but then suddenly out of the blue my brain went into crafty overdrive when I spotted this multi aperture photo frame Poundland in Worcester.

All those barren months and then ping, I couldn’t wait to get home with my find, knowing exactly what I was going to do with it.

The frame is made from a good quality plastic, and has some weight to it. All did not run as smoothly as I’d hoped because when I removed the glass (now in the recycling bin) as there was very little edge round the inside of the aperatures on which to glue each patch of background paper ……….

…… so the inside the frame is a bit of a dogs breakfast, but, when I repeat the exercise knowing what I know now I will be an awful lot neater, but there again, who’s going to take the back off and look at the mechanics?

It was then time to reek havoc on my embellishment boxes to find something to fit in each of the backed apertures. 

I’ve used a right mixture of laser cut wooden pieces, resin, and plastic.

……. and then embellished them some more with Enamel Accents on the two Christmas trees, Glossy Accents on the wooden pieces, plus glitter, stars, flat backed gems and small buttons, it was hard to stop.

The finished article turned out even better than I had imagined.  If I can find any more of these frames or similar on my travels I will probably invest in at least another five.  As you know I prefer to give a lasting memento at Christmas instead of a card, something that can come out over the years. This first one will probably go to my sister-in-law.

As I already had all of the embellishments and papers collected over the years I reckon in all this frame has only cost me about £2.50 at the very most to make, considerably cheaper than an awful lot of individually sold Christmas cards.