Little Gingham Cat Photo Frame

 I’ve had this blank photo frame for ages, it was part of one of mine and Lisa’s (CraftFairy) swops, I think it originally came from Baker Ross.

 

I’ve covered the shape with a gingham paper, which was a bit fiddly and then painted over it with a couple of coats of Modge Podge.

Positioning the face was a bit of a faff too, but I think it looks OK now. The final touches have been made using wobbly eyes, a ready made bow, a small jingle bell and a few clear flat backed gems. Done!

Modge Podge Altered Bangle

Remember this 10p bangle I got in Primark’s reduced bin?

Well I’ve covered in DecoPatch paper and Modge Podge sparkle finish and now it looks like this:-

I’ve only put one layer of DecoPatch on so the gold leathery effect of the bangle shows through giving a lovely effect.

I’ve only recently started using Modge Podge, I got a starter pack, which had one small bottle of each finish in it to try.  I am hooked, it dries very quickly and doesn’t run and the various finishes it gives are fantastic, much better and easier than some of the varnishes I have used in the past.

Altered Desk Calendar

I’ve made this desk calendar for me, altering it was a little unnecessary, but I am having a lot of fun experimenting with Modge Podge and covering things with different types of paper etc..

The calendar cost 99p and was from a funny Pound type shop called Hardy’s in Telford

It was just painted black when I got it, but I’ve covered it with oddments of Cosmo Cricket paper that I got from QVC.

Covering it was fiddly, but it was a useful exercise.

I know it’s nothing special, just a bit of fiddle fart, that will look OK on my desk at work.

Bingo Card Fridge Magnets

I’m not too proud to show you one of my not so brilliant ideas, it’ll give you a good laugh if anything!

I love bingo tickets, goodness knows why, and I had this daft idea of making fridge magnets with them.

But though the idea isn’t a bad one, my choice of materials was totally wrong from the start.  I decided to use magnetic foam as the base, but though the magnets are light, they have a spongy texture and so don’t feel strong or rigid enough. If I were to make them again, I would put a strong card between the ticket and foam.

I then applied several coats of outdoor Modge Podge, thinking that would add a little rigidity ….. no!  I also stuck  self adhesive letters between coats ….. hmmmmm not sure …. and to be honest the finish of Modge Podge wasn’t as glossy as I had hoped either ….

However not one to throw a project in the bin until I’ve exhausted all the options, I thought I’d glue on an old wooden bingo counter (a carboot find) – but the letters are quite modern and bright beside the old counter, so the mix just doesn’t gel.

My final effort to salvage this project  was to  apply peel off strips round the edge to hide the foam ….. but one strip wasn’t enough to go all the way round, so there are a couple of joints, so the whole thing is just totally tacky!!!

You’ll probably see this project again ….. now I know where I’ve gone wrong!

Tesco Advent Calendar House Update 1 – Slow Progress

Do you remember back in April when I started to alter my Tesco Advent Calendar House?

http://itsallfiddlefart.blogspot.com/search/label/Tesco%20Advent%20Calendar%20House. Well progress has been slow non existent, but now that I have started my Christmas blogging,  I thought I had better pull my festive finger out!

The last time you saw this project I had just spray painted the body and had sat on a very hot April Saturday afternoon giving the drawers two coats of paint by hand. I have a very low boredom threshold, so after doing five my gums were itching, but I persevered.

Choosing a theme was hard, but eventually I decided on 'snow and snowmen', with a dull turqouisey blue, white and browny colour scheme basically because I had several sheets of Basic Grey, (BLI –337) Jack Frost – Blitzen left over from another project. This paper was for the front of the drawers, the side panels and the eaves of the house.  I had also worked out how to make the little knobs for the drawers (if you pardon the expression) as I was worried that they might not be that easy to open …… and that’s as far as I got!

Coming back to the project in September, I found that after two layers of paint the drawers didn't slip out of the house very easily, so I spent a joyous evening rubbing each one with candle wax (a tip I got from UKScrappers) which worked a treat.

I have also prepared the drawer knobs ……… what a fiddle fart, these were, made using wooden beads from a Poundland necklace that I spray painted white and then glued a flat back gem to what would be the front part, doing twenty three of these sent me cross eyed.

Finally, to the drawer fronts, I made a stencil and cut and glued on twenty-three of the little blighters plus one star shaped one for the top "24th" drawer..
 

I have covered them with several coats of Modge Podge Sparkle, which has given the house a really subtle, twinkly, magical appearance, something I had hoped for, but having never used this type of Modge Podge before I wasn't sure of it's properties, but when completely dry it does look quite beautiful.  That's it for the moment, I now need to work out how to do the roof ………..

Altered Bingo Board

I’ve altered a bingo board for Lisa http://craftfairy.blogspot.com/  I was going to keep it until Christmas but I wanted to see her face when she saw it, so I gave it to her the last time I saw her.

It’s only recently that I found out that she loves bingo and as I’d got a couple of bingo boards squirreled away (from Poundland), I thought I would make her something a little more individual for when she goes off to the Mecca!

I’ve stuck bingo tickets from a huge tear off pad (also from Poundland) onto the board and circled a few numbers in pink to add a bit of colour, then applied several of coats of  lustre gloss Modge Podge, which dries pretty fast and has a lovely finish.

But something was lacking, so after a bit of thought I added some K & Co. die cut butterflies and varnished over them too with a sprinkling of hologram micro glitter.

The temptation was to add jewels and 3D flowers etc. but, not that I know a lot about Bingo, I don’t think Lisa would want sticky up things on her board when she is trying to mark her numbers off quickly.