Guest Crafters – Iris and Bertie Birthday Card Makers

It’s now a time honoured tradition that Iris and Bertie come over to make their beloved Auntie Lu Lu’s birthday cards.

It’s a time for Nanny to take a deep breath……..

……. and gird her loins, knowing that  every single sticker in her possession, even the Halloween ones and especially the numbers, will be scrutinized for their suitability ……..

…….. and when less is more  ……..

…….  proportion and balance ………

……. simply fly out of the window ……….

……. in favour of exuberant embellishment and a morning of unbridled love!

Hobbycraft Wooden, Halloween, Haunted House Decoration

I always like the idea of a wooden decoration, but they can be so disappointing, especially for children because, if you use the felt pens often supplied with them the ink almost always bleeds into the wood, which is why I tend to varnish all the pieces first before getting the Sharpies out.

This haunted house kit came from Hobbycraft (£3.00 - 2022 Halloween Range). I liked the design, so bought it thinking I could add some more MDF shapes that I already had to make it completely over the top.   

I started by varnishing all the house and cemetery pieces using Wilko Quick Drying, clear, satin varnish as they were the most tricky when it came to colouring with pen.

It then took two good coats of pen to give a deep coverage of colour.

Next came a layer of green Dovecrafts 3D Enamel Effects (£1- The Range) to slime the house, fences and ground.

I left everything to dry overnight before putting it all together.

It looked good, but I knew I could do better……… but in my excitement forgot to take many photos, doh!

I added MDF bats, ghosts, skeletons, a cat and headstones (all from e-bay from various shops), using white Ranger Enamel Accents on the ghosts and skeletons, black Sharpie on the bats and cat and grey and silver on the headstones, followed by a layer of Ranger Glossy Accents plus tiny  flat back gem eyes.

The pumpkins were table confetti bought long ago, which were again given the Glossy Accent treatment.

Extra lines for crumbing brickwork and to emphasis the various parts were added using a fine tipped, permanent black pen and a white acrylic pen, followed by another layer of the green Enamel Effects to add more dimension.

It’s safe to say I went mad with on the detail……..

……….. but, I think it works.

Then, just as I thought I’d finished, I suddenly remembered the bottle stopper lights Marc got me from Poundland (£1 a pack of two) a couple of years ago, when everyone was going mad for them and they were almost impossible to find  ………

OMG, they couldn’t have been more perfect, the stopper hidden between the back two panels ………

……. to add the final touch of magic and sparkle, ready for my annual Iris and Bertie Halloween sleepover ……… I’m sooooooooo dead chuffed!!!!!

Ghostly Pumpkin Pin Badges

These badges follow on from the skeleton and batty badges of last week, sometimes it’s nice to offer a choice to Iris and Bertie and anyone else I might offer one to during our traditional Halloween weekend, some people like ghosts others may prefer skelliebobs instead!

They are made exactly the same way as last week, painting the MDF pumpkins orange and then giving them a coat of Glossy Accents ……….

…… and colouring the ghosts with white Ranger Enamel Accents.

The spiders are table confetti that I have added two tiny, green, nail art gems to followed by a layer of Glossy Accents.  I also added Glossy Accents to the vintage Dymo Label Maker “boos” to help them blend into the overall shiny finish. 

Then came a scattering of tiny gold and green stars and clusters of three dots to fill in the empty spaces and bring the design together.

Before adding the bar brooch fitting I coloured the back of the ghosts white and doodled a rough pumpkin outline, to help make the badge look properly finished off.

I think they work …… this one’s mine!

£1.50 Charity Shop Of Very Strange Bits ………

I bought a very odd bag of bits the other day from my very favourite Evesham charity shop, which for £1.50, I thought might be worth a punt ………

……. especially when I spotted a few of these “round, holey things” in amongst the pine cones etc……..

…….. thinking perhaps they might work as another version of my walnut snowman tree decorations?

It really was a bag of the weird and wonderful, some sort of very large, ornamental potpourri?  I just don’t have a clue!

These are what originally I caught my, no idea what they are, but I am sure I can get a couple of snowman scene decorations out of them. Shame there weren’t a few more of the middle sized ones, but hey ho.

I am assuming that these (above) could be gourds (?) which I think will be painted orange and turned into pumpkins, with a Fimo stalk added to the smaller one.

These are obviously some sort of nut, and again I think, if I can drill a hole in the top could become small, hanging pumpkins …….

…… but what on earth are these?  They are sort of creepy and quite large?  I am thinking mysterious underwater caves with mermaids and treasure chests, but to be honest, at the moment, wouldn’t have a clue where to begin.

I’m not sure if I’m going to keep/use absolutely everything in the bag, I have more than enough pine cones and whatever they are (above), they are not really singing to me …….. but all suggestions of what any of them might be, or ideas as to how I might use them will be very gratefully received!

Heads Up ……. Birthday Treats

I don’t know about you, but if I give money or a voucher as a birthday present, I like to add a little something extra so that the recipient has just a small/silly gift to open on the day ………..

……. so finding these in various shops, here and there, has tickled me, as they are perfect for such a purpose and the more I’ve looked, the more I’ve found, from Beanies Coffee, Kit Kat, Ice Cream, Baileys, even Cadburys chocolate bars …….

……. so, it must be a bit of a thing at the moment!  Wouldn’t a hamper with an assortment of these bibs and bobs be a lovely idea?  I think I need to stock up when I see something along the theme to make sure I’m never caught off guard for any surprise/unexpected birthdays.

Autumn Door Wreath

Using the goodies that I purchased a few weeks ago from The Range – (http://itsallfiddlefart.blogspot.com/2022_08_25_archive.html), plus fir and beech cones collected and saved from last year, I have finally put my autumn door wreath together. 

To be honest, for someone who just doesn’t do flowers, it’s turned out pretty well and I think it manages to say autumn!

The wreath base came from The Range too, a little thicker, fuller and more expensive than wreaths I’ve use before, but hey ho.  Hopefully, Home Bargains will have their cheaper (£1) bare rattan wreaths in again this Christmas, so I can to stock up on them.

I’m a bit of a bodger where this sort of project is concerned, I simply stuck the cut down flower picks first using a hot glue gun, giving me something vaguely symmetrical to work out from …….

…… and then I just threw everything at it, filling the gaps with whatever I thought fitted and worked well together.

I wish, perhaps, I’d bought another pack of the mixed pick (below),  the acorns included were way too big and totally out of proportion, but I loved the gourds/pumpkins and a couple more wouldn’t have gone a miss.

I have to say, I do love it as I can almost smell autumn when I see it.

It will stay up now, hopefully, until 1st December, with a couple of days off over Halloween weekend when I am not sure whether I will make a new wreath or just put up a shop bought thingy, we will see.

As I still have last years autumn wreath I’ll be sending it to Marc who has been doing some heavy hinting in his comments of late.  It would easily do for autumn or Christmas as the paper flowers are originally winter roses. If he uses it for Christmas I would just add a bit of extra white/translucent glitter round the edges of the roses, put lime green glitter on the wooden foliage and white paint for snow on the cones ………. but that’s entirely up to him!