Objects Of Desire ……. ????

Not to everyone’s taste I know, but these marble topped bedside tables rather caught my eye at the Old Georgian Shop in Evesham.  Sorry, I couldn’t find a price ….. I’d have said £80 the pair?

They really are beasts, being rather ugly and quite masculine, not my usual “oooooo ahhhhh” style, but in the right setting, they could make really make a statement and a million miles away from anything from Ikea.

I am thinking…… clean up the marble, paint them two shades of navy blue and then really polish up the brass knobs and hinges ……. I really do need a second house just to play decorating in!

Iris’s End Of Term Seashell Holiday Wish Bracelets

Following on from Bertie’s Chinese Cat wish bracelets of last week, I decided to make something similar for Iris as a small end of school year “Thank You” for all the people that made this year special for her.

For Iris, I went down the holiday theme for her bracelets, using these double sided, seashell charms that cost £3.96 for 36 (so working out at approx.10p each) from eBay.

To make the shells a little more special I glued a small flat back pearl on one of the sides………

…… before threading the charms onto a thick, waxed, blue thread that was long enough to be tied round a wrist.

I then found a wish bracelet poem that I altered slightly to fit with the theme. I think it works and has a flow to it? I did this on Publisher and used “Ink Free” font in font size 13. Once happy, I printed off a few sheets of poem cards, cut them up and under the heading put small holes on either side to put the cord through.

To keep things tidy,  I stuck the threads down on the back of the poem card with a white label and then put piece of card the same size in front of it in the cellophane packet, to keep everything hidden and professional looking.

As the time gets nearer I’ll pop the bracelet in a bag with a small stick of proper seaside rock, bought in advance and in anticipation when we were in Minehead over Easter.  I am also thinking of making something else with a holiday/seaside theme to help use up some of the seaside MDF shapes I bought last summer.  A decorated mini easel or a fridge magnet? We shall see.

Mini Halloween Skeleton Trick Or Treat Easels

My first Halloween tranklements of the year……. I think?

Made using the wooden, natural coloured (place-card) mini easels I found on either Amazon or Ebay, sorry I can’t quite remember – I think they usually come  under the heading of weddings (?).

I started by giving the easels a couple of coats of Wilko quick dry, satin varnish, because if you try to use a felt pen on these cheaper type of easels, it  tends to bleed into the wood.

Once the varnish was dry  (it really dries quickly) I coloured the edges and shelves of the easels with either an orange or purple Sharpie pen and then added faux stitching round the edge of the chalkboard with a fine, white Posca Pen.

While I held the body of the skeleton in place, I was able to position the writing where I more or less wanted it, but because the board was varnished, any mistakes were pretty easy to wipe off to start again if needed.

I was then ready to add all the MDF shapes, coloured in beforehand either with Sharpie pens or in the case of the skeleton, white Ranger Enamel Accents using E8000 glue, because I wanted a really secure fix.

I also used Ranger Glossy Accents to help make all the various components, except for the skeleton to pop.

When everything had dried I then used green Dovecraft 3D Enamel Effects to add the dripping slime effect.

For extra fiddle fart and to help fill in some of the empty space bringing everything together I added tiny red stars and clusters of three white dots around the writing.  I also gave the bat and rat tiny, red nail art gems for eyes

Once I have worked out a system of putting everything together these little favours are pretty quick and easy to put together.

This year, I am really hoping to use up all the Halloween MDF shapes I have, last year I did buy rather a lot,  but they’re not much good if they are just left sat sitting in my craft drawers, if you’ll pardon the expression!

Bertie’s End Of School Year Tranklements – Chinese Cat of Good Fortune Wish Bracelets

Where on earth has this school year gone, to have me thinking about end of term presents?  A time when I like to send in a little something from Nanny, just to say “thank you” to all the staff in his class, the lunchtime supervisors and Breakfast Club staff for everything they have done for him over the past year.

So, taking the little fella’s love for all things Chinese, (goodness only where he’s got that from), I decided to reflect it in these wish bracelets.

These double sided, 15mm x 11mm Chinese Cat Charms have some weight to them and cost £2.89 for 20 (so working out at approx. 24p each) from eBay.

I simply threaded the charms onto some waxed, red cord in long enough lengths so that they can be tied on to a wrist.

I then went about looking for a suitable wish bracelet poem that I could alter slightly to fit the theme, I think it flows pretty OK?  I did this on Publisher and used DaleFont, size 16. Once happy, I printed a sheet of poem cards, cut them out and under the heading put small holes on either side to put the cord through.

To keep things tidy,  I stuck the threads down on the back of the poem card with a white label and then put piece of card the same size in front of it in the cellophane packet, so everything was hidden and professional looking.

When the time gets nearer I’ll pop the bracelet in a bag with one of the Chinese Lucky Cat badges I posted a few weeks ago, along with a fortune cookie and perhaps a small wand of bubbles. 

Mini Birthday Chalkboard Easel Cards

The thing I like best about these Home Bargains place card easels is that they are such good quality that the blackboard part doesn’t need varnishing before you can add any writing, where others I have bought from Amazon and eBay always tend to bleed into the wood.

There’s not a lot to this idea, except all the fiddle fart adding the tiny details to the wooden, little girl embellishment.

I started by getting the sentiment, using a fine, white Posca pen in the right position on the board so that none of it was hidden when the girl was added.

I used E800 to glue the girl onto the easel shelf as I needed a really strong bond, not wishing the girl to be easily pulled off.

The bunting was simply tiny diamond shapes cut from appropriately proportioned patterned paper, folded in half and glued onto a piece of thin gold wire and then glued, again with E8000, to the top and shelf of the easel.

Obviously the little girl then needed googly eyes,  followed by having her hair tidied up by gluing it down onto her face, before adding a tiny ribbon bow.

I also added incredibly tiny, pink embroidery thread bows to her shoes. 

These almost drove me to distraction to tie, in the end I put a little PVA glue on my fingers and ran it along a length of cotton so the threads wouldn’t split and when dry tied the bows before sticking them on the shoes …… aghhhhhh!

So far I have only made four of these easels, but thinking that I might get a craft stall later on in the year I am thinking I should make another six at least …….

…… and although I am really hoping to hit the Christmas market, as that’s what I always make most of, I think having an extra supply of birthday and other bits and pieces for various occasions might also be a good idea and if they don’t sell I can always use them myself.

Heads Up – Home Bargains - Mini Chalkboard Place Cards /Mini Wooden Easels.

OMG, look what’s back in in the wedding section of Home Bargains, only the chalkboard place cards/mini easels!  99p for a pack of 4. After almost a year I really believed that was it, I’d never see them again …..

…… but there they were sat sitting on the shelf in Evesham Home Bargains, they also had the natural coloured ones in too.

The price is just unbelievable, working out at just 25p each, especially when the cheapest identical white ones I’ve found online are  £5.99 per pack, which makes crafting with them prohibitive.

Needless to say, despite all I said the other week after my big sort out, that I wasn’t going to buy any more stuff, what’s a crafter to do? So yes, I did buy one or two packs, but I am going to hopefully justify their purchase by doing a quick turn around, making some Christmas shelf tranklements to sell if/when I get my craft table towards the end of the year.  Happy days!

Small Jewelled Mirror

A friend painted a small cupboard for me as I wasn’t brave enough and then after we agreed a price refused payment as it was her first chalk paint project for someone other than herself and wasn’t sure about it, even though I was well chuffed!

So I gave her my used once sanding mouse and pack of papers,  as I don't think I’ll ever be doing any sanding again and she’s been doing all her sanding by hand.  It really didn’t seem enough, so as she said off hand that she’d love one of my jewelled mirrors, that’s what I decided to do as a way of a “thank you”

The square, 25cm x 25cm, copper framed mirror cost £2.99 from Poundstretcher a couple of years ago and the various jewels, embellishments and beads I’d got anyway, left over from other projects.

It was just a matter of just sticking it all on and the perfect excuse for using all the dregs in my old E800 and B-7000 tubes.

I started out pretty symmetrically, starting with the metal leaves, from an old, necklace, painted and varnished one summer with Marc, as were the metal flowers.  I think the roses were in a sale from The Works.  The colours were rather garish so I sprayed them a while back with a off white coloured paint.

Once the main bits were on I just filled in the gaps randomly, trying to add a few layers as I went.

I think it’s turned out pretty well. I just wish I had some more bits and pieces of broken jewellery as there’s not that much variation. 

What I would have really liked was so add a few white and yellow daisies to the top layer, but I just couldn’t justify the prices on eBay etc. There were some charms, but they had an attached loop that would have needed cutting off, but what if it didn’t snip off cleanly?

I always look in charity shops or Poundland, but small flowery jewellery seems to be hard to come by at the moment. To justify breaking up a piece, I would need at least ten flowers/leaves per item for between £1 – £2 ……… but wait …..

I couldn’t believe it, I was looking through a box of bits for something completely different and found another 9/10 small, metal cream flowers with a pearl in the middle, I couldn’t believe it, not daisies, but they still worked ……..

I added them here and there, to add the extra layer I wanted and then while I was at it found some gold rimmed pearls which I added to the centre of all the enamel flowers.  I don’t suppose many would have noticed the extra fiddle fart, but for me, it was the final touch I needed. I also added small pearls to cover up the holes (not shown in photos).

This has now just about completely cleaned me out of flowers (plastic, metal or otherwise) so I am guessing it’s going to be a long time until I can gather up enough stuff to make another one …… but you never know.