Monday Mooch – And ……How Thick Can I Be?

I thought it might be nice to have a regular weekly or perhaps fortnightly post about my Evesham Moochings ….. objects of desire, charity shop finds, inspiration and bargains etc., so here’s this Monday Moochings ……

The first item, perhaps is not a “object of great desire”, it’s more of an instant hate it or love it piece, and to be honest the chairs plonked in front hinder my illustration a bit …… It’s a bit of an ugly beast I know, but I sort of like it!  It’s the mirrored panels and the clock that drew me in (I forgot to look at the price tag, sorry).  I have decided I really need two residences, my bijoux flat and another old and rambling place with nooks and crannies to indulge my furniture fetishes ….. this would definitely go in my breakfast room, (get my delusions of granduer), untouched  …….. one shelf would be filled with odd china breakfast tableware, another with jars of homemade jam and honey, and in the morning the top would have a lacy runner on and lots of muesli in jars and odd ornate silver spoons  ….. I really need to get a life!

From my favourite charity shop, a box of unopened glass coasters for 80p, a project for me and Iris, the pack split up and her drawings inserted to make personalised gifts for dotting relatives or perhaps I might keep them, changing the pictures to suit the occasion?

And, from the same shop, this little curio for £1.50, I admit to umming and ahhhing and putting it back a couple of times as I wasn’t sure what it was or what I could do with the sticky up things at the top, wondering if I could saw them off ……… DOH …..

It wasn’t until I actually got it home, after paying my money but still thinking about what it was, when I realised that it had been upside down in the shop but I was too thick to realise it …….  now, I am thinking a Cabinet of Christmas Curiosities like I have seen on Pinterest (below)  ….. adding shelves to the side cupboards, if I can. I just need to keep my eyes peeled for little bits and pieces, I already have a couple of bog brush Christmas Trees, so there’s a starting point.

And finally some felt cards found in a basket on the floor in The Works …..

You couldn’t even make them for 50p, they are now put safely put away for when I don’t have time to make a card or for a fancy gift tag on a present.

Easter Treat Bags With Easter Bunny Tags

Just a very quick idea for today, I have only made five so far just to test the water to see how they go.

I have filled them with small 2 Haribo Easter gum packets, 3 foil wrapped eggs, 3 foil wrapped bunnies, a wrapped chocolate ladybird and a small Aldi chocolate rabbit.

The tags were made using assorted plain and scalloped circle punches, with the cut circles mat and layered and doodled with a black, fine liner pen and a self adhesive, felt bunny plonked in the middle, to which I added a neck with a tiny scrap of white card.

 

I also matted some carrots to go with the tags to use up the extra felt embellishments from the pack (no longer available from Baker Ross, but similar are available).

The tags were then tied to the bags with a white thread and then a yellow ribbon tied in a bow over to hide the thread.  All very simple and basic really.

The yellow ribbon ……. was a very happy memory from the ribbons I am still using, left over from Tom and The Lovely Laura’s wedding almost four years ago now, where on earth does the time go?

Easter Bunny Hair Clips For Iris Roo

I bought these Easter Bunny self adhesive, felt stickers from Yellow Moon (sadly these particular stickers are no longer available, but new Easter designs are, from Baker Ross)  and I got to wondering if they would work if I put them on a couple of hair clips for Iris Roo to wear to Nursery in the run up to Easter, us Geddes’s …… we love to work to a theme!

The stickers are really good quality, well printed and made using a nice felt type fabric.

To make the rabbits look “professional” I decided to make them double sided, taking off the paper backing and sticking the rabbit heads onto some coordinating adhesive fabric from The Works…….

……… and then carefully cutting round them.

I glued the back of the rabbits head onto a matching pink hair clip, pink being Madam’s colour of choice, with E6000 glue as I wanted them to be as firmly attached as possible.

I then made a presentation card to put the clips on in the form of a tag, putting two slits down the middle to hold the clips in place and using some of the adhesive fabric from the back of the rabbit to carry the theme through.

I have resisted, but only by the skin of my teeth, adding googly eyes, I have a lot of rabbits leftover, so I think it’s inevitable that when I make a few more they will be getting eyes.

The carrots in the set are also very cute, so I am now need an idea for how to use them.

This is the first time I have ever made anything like this, however I can already see endless possibilities for all occasions, and it’s also when my mind is buzzing I miss the pound shops and Primark of Wolverhampton!

Flower Button Birthday Card – With Room For Improvement.

This card measures 4.25ins x 4.25ins using a white linen effect card blank. 

This card seemed to make itself, it wasn’t the idea I had in my head when I sat down to make it,  but I think, in part, it’s worked……

The flower buttons came from The Works (Children’s Crafts) and the silver foiled sentiment from Craftwork Cards.  I started by seeing if  the largish clear flat back gems I already had would fit in the middle of the flowers

My original idea was simply to put the three flowers in a row and just doodle a stem on each with a few leaves, but it just looked pants.  That’s when I got out the silver foiled sentiment, mat and layered it  and then arranged the flowers round it.

The punched foliage followed and then the flat back pearls.

However, coming back to it again now I think I could go up an inch or two on a card blank, using this card as a topper to make it look more balanced, less crowded and in better proportion.  Here I go again, watch this space!

Brights Christmas Tree Card

This card measures 5.75ins x 5.75ins using a white linen effect card blank.  The paper is from the Dovecraft Merry Magic 12” x 12” paper pack.

I would say 99% of my Christmas cards are in muted or traditional colours and designs, but when I saw this pack of bright, modern papers I just had to have it and it being reduced to just £2 for a pack of 36 papers, well, it a no brainer.

The card is very basic, no frills, using a bit of mat and layering, assorted plain and scalloped edge circle punches and a Craftwork Cards Christmas Sentiment Circle plus three green, flat back gems.

I think that the card would also work well without the band and sentiment, it would be a fiddle fart but all those snowflakes on the trees could be embellished with assorted, tiny flat back gems and the  stripes on the other trees could be accentuated by the odd line of translucent micro glitter running across the tree ……. so watch this space …… 

Easter Bunny Takeaway Box Favours

A very quick Easter idea for today ……

I have only made six of these boxes so far just to test the waters to see how they go.

The takeaway boxes were a very fortuitous find in The Works, reduced to 50p for 3 from £1 ……… and in perfect Easter colours.

I have put 2 small Haribo Easter gum packets, 3 foil wrapped eggs, 3 foil wrapped bunnies and a wrapped chocolate ladybird in each of them, not going over the top and keeping costs low.

No fancy fiddle farting on these either, I just put a rabbit on all four sides with  two punched leaf flourishes, I was going to add a few flowers too, but it just looked bitty and too much.

I also kept the tags simple, with a plain, handwritten “Happy Easter” and a bit of faux stitching using a black, fine liner pen.

I think it’s the ribbon that makes the boxes come together ……

……. found in Lidl, 99p for 5 metres. Voila, done and dusted!

Christmas Tree Microscope Slide Decoration.

More experimenting today  …………  I prefer using silver to gold on most crafty things, but because the Christmas tree had gold elements and I don’t like to mix gold and silver together on a project, I have used self adhesive metallic gold tape and gold spring bails on this slide for a change.

I started by sandwiching some white glitter paper and tiny gold stars to the inside of the slide to create a background.

I found that the metal tape seemed to have lost some of it’s stickability, so the adhesion wasn’t as firm/solid as I would have hoped.  I seem to remember reading somewhere that this sort of tape is best kept in an air tight container, but there again, I may have dreamt it.  I know I have had it for at least five years and I am not sure how readily available it is now, as I said in a previous post, finding a new source of silver tape was hard enough…….. do I start looking for 6mm gold now?

Once the microscope slide was sealed I used E6000 to attach the tree to the glass, adding a few flat backed gems and a spring bail using G-S Hypo Cement to the top and then left it well alone for 24 hours to set properly.

When I was sure the bail was firmly in place I added a bead and a length of gold jewellery wire to make a hanger.

My next experiment is to see how the 6mm silver aluminium tape I have just bought colours using Sharpie Permanent Pens, it could be fiddly, but if it works I can then hopefully match the tape to any embellishments/enamel charms I might want to use on later ideas.

Pyramid Christmas Tree Christmas Card.

This card measures 4ins x 4ins and is made using a hand cut, white linen effect card base.

The inspiration for this card came from the triangle charms taken off this charity shop find bracelet. It was the triangles that caught my eye, but the bracelet has been languishing in my jewellery boxes of bits for a couple of years now, until the other day when I wondered if the textured, metal pyramids could possibly be turned into Christmas trees.And I can’t believe how brilliant they look on a very less is more card, set on a gold mat and layered panel …….

…… with the trees topped with a tiny, bronze coloured star.

I was going to leave it at that, leaving the holes as they were, but when I went back and looked again, I decided a tiny flat back pearl would just be the perfect finishing touch.

I am so chuffed with how this card has turn out, I think it has to be one of my all time favourites!!