The other Sunday I took Iris and Bertie to the nearby Abbey Park, and in between waiting for the tanks to refill in the water park Iris was busying away in her notebook ……
I thought she was writing another one of her detective stories (she’s currently obsessed with Agatha Christie) until she proudly showed me her drawing of Evesham Bell Tower, which was just on the hill, in front of us. Me thinks the girl dun gud!
I’m really not sure about these decorations, which is why I have only made four of them, perhaps they just don’t have enough fiddle fart for me!
There’s not a lot to them, I started off by painting wooden oblong building blocks (part of a charity shop find) with two coats of red acrylic paint.
I then added a black belt around the middle made using a short length of black paper and then applied two coats of Wilko quick drying clear gloss varnish ……
….. before adding a white, textured, 3D effect paint around the bottom for fur.
The buckle is an MDF shape, that I coloured with one of my new silver chrome maker pens. I only put buttons on one of the decorations as I wasn’t really sure about them re: proportion and I’m thinking about it, I’m not even sure Santa actually has any on his jacket?
The last stage was to put a tiny, silver eye screw in the top of the block with a short length of silver thread to it hang by.
DOH……. having just Googled images of Santa, I now know where I’ve gone wrong with these decorations and why I am not that keen on them, not only do I find that he doesn’t usually show his buttons but that I have completely forgotten about the fur trim that goes down the front of his coat, doh, doh, doh …… what am I like?
If I can find some largish wooden dominoes pieces on my travels I might have another go, but this time making gift tags, just to prove I know what Santa actually looks like!
My usual crafting motto is “less is more”, however that certainly isn’t the case with these Halloween Trick or Treat tins, I am afraid I got totally carried away, but if you can’t get carried away for Halloween, when can you?
The asking price for used cigar tins (or similar) on eBay is stupid! My husband used to smoke Café Crème cigars and if I’d kept all the tins I threw away when I moved, I’d be a very, very, rich lady, with prices going from about £5 to over £12, madness! So, when I spotted these 2cm deep cigar tins on eBay for just £1 for ten, plus £3.80 P & P, I knew they were a bargain, so I bought 20. The lady offered me more, but I declined, but now I am wishing I’d bitten her hand off! However, a bargain isn’t a bargain unless you use what you’ve bought and these have been sitting in my drawer since August last year, so they needed to be used.
My first thought was Halloween and since I also had a can of black spray paint (£2.69) it was a no brainer. I couldn’t believe how easily and well the paint went on, the tins only needed one coat on the back, front and the inside.
With the tins beautifully covered, (the one above was my first effort where I scratched it to add some wear and age, before I decided the tins didn’t really need it) I then proceeded to edge the tins with slime using Dovecrafts green Enamel Effect 3D paint.
While the slime was drying I started to paint/colour various MDF shapes (eBay). I painted the ghosts and skeletons white and then a layer of Ranger Glossy Accents. I did find that the white wasn’t as clear/sharp as if I had just used white Ranger Glossy Enamel on its own, but with so many shapes to do I was being mean with my enamel!
The other shapes I coloured with orange and black Sharpie pens (bats and pumpkins etc.) followed by more Glossy Accents
With everything totally dry I was then able to add the shapes on to the front of the tins using B-7000 glue to make sure I got a really secure fix…….
….. before adding the writing using a fine tipped, white, Posca pen, a few more wooden shapes and then small, coloured confetti stars and clusters of three white dots to fill in the empty spaces and bring the whole design together.
With the fronts done, I looked at the inside of the tins and that’s when I think I got carried away, taking scraps of Halloween themed papers, gluing them into the lid and bottom of the tin and then edging with more green or purple Dovecraft Enamel Effects and writing “Boo” in black.
Then came all the embellishment, silver confetti webs, wooden spiders, bats and cauldrons with clear, flat back gems bubbling out ………
……. followed by lots of stars, swirls and dots, again using a white Posca pen to fill the area around the centres. I also used a little gold chrome pen on the flames/smoke coming from the cauldrons.
Now the tins are finished I need to be patient and wait for all the foil wrapped Halloween sweets to hit the shops to fill them with.
I am dead chuffed with how these turned out, Iris and Bertie are going to love them with a few treats inside and when they’re gone they will have a spooky box to put all their little treasures in afterwards. I have only have another four tins left over, I wonder if I could do something similar for Christmas? I really wish I’d bought some more tins when I had a chance, now I have realised their potential!
I think I must have painted these tumbling blocks sometime last year while staying with Marc, but that’s as far as I got with them.
The box of 57 8cms x 2cms wooden blocks cost me just 50p from an Evesham Charity shop, so it was a no brainer purchase really and having them painted already all I have left to do is the fiddle fart!
My aim is to complete ten a day over the coming week so all the fiddly work doesn’t feel too onerous or repetitive.
Last year Iris and Bertie helped me drop similar snowmen all round Evesham as a random Christmas kindness, this year as I will be continuing to listen to readers in school two afternoons a week, I was thinking that they could be popped into reading book bags at Christmas, but before I do I need to check with Health and Safety that they are safe to do that.
Sometimes it takes longer to find all the bits and pieces for an idea than to actually make it. This idea follows on from yesterday and the spark of inspiration I got just before I was going to give a bag of wooden fruit beads that I got in a Works sale a while ago to school……….. an anniversary easel for my lovely neighbours across the hall, Kata and Laci.
I used a £1 mini canvas and easel and two wooden pear beads from The Works.
I started off with a faux stitching around the edge of the canvas and then spacing out the writing and doodled legs and arms as centrally as I could using a black, fine tip Stabilo pen.
On the pears I added googly eyes, pink flat backed gems for the checks and a smile made using a black, fine tip, permanent pen.
Then, all that was left to do was glue the pears on to the canvas using B-7000 glue ………
…… and then mounting it all on the easel…… simples!
I think I will make a few extra of these for my craft stall (if I am lucky enough to get one towards the end of the year) as I might just make a little extra if not all my stuff is Christmassy. We shall see.
This is a quick and easy fiddle fart I came up with after contemplating giving a bag of painted, wooden, fruit shaped beads to school, I took another look at them and thought I might just get at least one idea out of them, thinking on the lines of “an apple for the teacher”, a lanyard pin badge for Iris and Bertie’s classroom staff on the first day of the new school year ????
The beads came from a sale at The Works, I think they had been reduced to 25p a bag, for quite a big bag, of which I bought two.
All I really did was add a clear, flat back gem over the painted shine on the apples ……
……. before adding a very small brooch back on the back using B-7000 glue to make sure I had a secure fix.
I then made up some small display cards to pin them on and put them in small cello bags, simples!
I am now thinking of doing the same with a few of the strawberries…..
…… adding tiny clear gems to the outside pips. I also think the pears have potential, perhaps on an anniversary card or two …… and then the rest can go to school!
I was in Leamington Spa last weekend and look what I stumbled upon in The Royal Priors Shopping Centre ……..
It’s “The Works” but craft only! Well, it would have been rude not to go in and have a mooch and make a couple of considered purchases wouldn’t it? As you know I have used The Works in Evesham for a lot of my craft supplies since I moved, but I always nip into other branches when I see one as no shop seems to carry a full range of their products and then if all else fails I look online.
Much of the stuff I had bought or seen/before, but perhaps not in such abundance, however I still managed to invest in a couple of packs of wooden embellishments.
I have noticed prices are slowly creeping up, but the wooden embellishments still remain good value for money.
I particularly liked these angel wings, I am thinking they could look pretty fantastic painted with either a silver or gold chrome pen on a wooden peg doll angel?
As far as I can see there are only two Craft Works in the country at the moment in Leamington Spa and Buxton, but who knows, perhaps they’ll soon be springing up everywhere.
https://www.theworks.co.uk/Store?storeId=0918
https://www.theworks.co.uk/Store?storeId=1163
With Halloween and Christmas crafting ideas looming (????) I would also love to see a “One Below” in Evesham, because at the moment I will have to travel to Wolverhampton to stock up on their fantastic range of seasonal craft items. I thought I stockpiled enough last year, especially their stickers and embellishments but I can see them whittling down very quickly. Their favour/sweet bags/boxes were also brilliant, so fingers crossed they do the same again this year and I can get to them!
I’m not 100% about this easel, it was done in a hurry and I think it shows, partly because once I had decided on the embellishments I was going to use, I was determined, because I didn’t have the time, to use them, come hell or high water!
I started with a natural coloured wooden chalkboard easel from Home Bargains (99p for a pack of 4), small, wooden, self adhesive scrabble tiles (I believe I ordered these from the US, years ago, when I could afford the postage!) and a painted, wooden birthday cake button.
I first added faux stitching around the edge of the chalkboard using a black biro because the ink wouldn’t bleed into the wood.
Equally spacing out the scrabble tiles to fit everything in was a right pain, in the end I had to put the “birthday” nearer to the bottom than I would have liked.
However, once in place I was then able to add the “Happy” and the cake, filling small empty spaces with various sized, coloured confetti stars and clutters of three white dots using a fine nib Posca pen.
Looking at the easel now, I might have got away with not using the cake (it was for a ruffy tuffy man???) and just added a few more stars and dots??? Anyway, not a design I think I will repeat.
With a holiday theme in mind, I made a few of these badge/brooches for Iris to put in her end of term “Thank You” bags for all the female staff who work in her classroom to put on their lanyards.
I started by using B -7000 glue to stick the brooch fittings onto the back of small wooden frames.
I then gave the MDF crabs one coat of “Cheese Puff” Ranger Enamel Accents …….
……. adding two googly eyes when the accents was dry ……..
…… before gluing the crab, again with B-7000, to the front of the frame.
I decided to leave the frame “au natural”, just adding some tiny, silver flat back gems for bubbles. There wasn’t an awful lot to them really.
As these were going to be small gifts I decided to put them on a display card, just to make them look a little more professional ……
……. made using a 2cm x 2cm scrap of white card, a small hole punch and some doodling round the edges. Et voila!
