Guest Crafter Paula W, With a Big, Fat Thank You ……

On the morning of Iris and Bertie’s Halloween Sleepover a wonderful parcel arrived from my crafty friend Paula  what can I say ……..?

It contained the cutest little knitted ghosts ever, which are staying exactly where I put them, all the year round, because they just make me smile so much whenever I gaze over to them, they have proper little characters ………… but that wasn’t all …….

……… there was also this beautiful, beautiful bag, it’s so me and I know for a fact that if Marc ever claps his eyes on it he would absolutely kill for it.  It really  is stunning!

OMG the detail!  Sewing really makes my gums itch, I loathe it so much, despite a CSE in needlecraft, I still don’t have the faintest clue, so I truly appreciate all the work that has gone into this unique bag.

The fabric ……….

……. and the machine embroidery is to die for.  I can’t tell you how much I love it!  It was used within hours of it arriving, as we went to the Halloween Craft Fayre up the road, lets just say it eclipsed anything on sale there that day.  It’s now my main bag for bits and pieces shopping, all others now caste to the wind.  What can I say Paula …….. but thank you so, so, so much, it’s a very special treasure, that will definitely be used and much admired wherever I go, thank you  xxxxxx

Charity Shop Shopping …… And A Project – A New Whimsical Style Painted Chair ……..

Last week I was in Burnham on Sea with Lu for the day.  We had hoped to visit the charity and independent shops of Gloucester Road in Bristol, but OMG even on a Monday morning there was no where to park, so instead we headed to Burnham on Sea for a quieter mooch and sea air. Let’s just say we were not disappointed …….

…… because look what I found in, what I think is called Larkins Discount Shop at the top of the High Street ……..

……… only packs of 4 glittery silver nameboard/easels for £1. I was sooooooo excited …….. I loved the white ones I originally got from the wedding section of Home Bargains, but they are no more and unlikely to be stocked again, but these will do very nicely for next Christmas’s  fairing gifts in place of a card …..  I can’t believe I’ve actually said that when we haven’t even had this Christmas!  What am I like? Anyway I availed myself of 6 packs.  The shop is one of those places that is packed to the rafters with all the things you didn’t think you needed until you saw them, plus the sort of things you only seem to find at the sea!

The charity shops yielded much too, i.e lots of immaculate and clean Ty Beanie Teenies for putting in Iris and Berties Christmas crackers, plus a few mini Beanie Bears to hang on their Christmas tree.

I also found a bag of these (above) which I believe are iron on, applique flowers for £5 and there were at least 120 flowers in total.  I recently bought a black duffle style jacket for £6.50, (also charity shop shopped) and if I am feeling brave I am wondering how it would look with these added on to the pockets, cuffs etc. ……… we shall see.

This unused purse cost me £2.75, perfect, as my old holiday purse has just given up the ghost, however when I got home, as I had never heard of the make/designer before I thought I would look him up ………

It seems these Jimmy Liao purses (a famous Taiwanese illustrator) are pretty hard to find in the UK and quite expensive to buy new, even coming in their own fabric drawstring bags. 

I might try my luck with it on eBay and if it sticks, well, I’ve still got a posh holiday purse to use.

And finally two of these capiz shell light shades.  I think the lady in the shop was just relieved to see them go …… they cost £3 for the two, which was such a bargain as I bought them to dismantle and then do something crafty with the squares, but perhaps for this Christmas, at least, hanging one lightshade’s worth in their string/rows on my twig tree (???).  Each square measures 5cms x 5cms and there are 12 strings of 3 squares, 16 of 4 and 20 of 5, making a total of 200 squares per light shade (400 total!)

I don’t think there’s a lot of age to them judging by the attached sticker, however the quality and colour of the shell, after again doing some research, leads me to think that these might be something a little special too, having a real retro feel to them.  So I might again chance my luck in the New Year with at least one on eBay.  What I would do with them craft wise I am not sure of at the moment, paint them or bejewel and/or add snowflake designs …….  all suggestions very welcome and  I am pretty sure something I find on Pinterest will inspire me …..

However, my best “seaside souvenir” from Burnham came from The YMCA charity shop, where they had four odd wooden chairs sat sitting outside for free.  I oooohed and ahhhed and then we decided to think about it while we were still exploring the town. When we went back, one had already gone but as we had room in Lu’s car we asked if we could also take one.

Since doing my whimsical hall table I have been desperate to do something similar again, especially after all the things I learned the first time round, and a chair, I thought could fit the bill, living in my craft room when I am working in there and then under my decopatched table in the lounge when I have overnight visitors, without losing any floor space in my small flat.

The chair is in a pretty battered state with no woodworm. It was the turned legs that did it for me, as each section would lend itself to a new colour/pattern as does the back panel.  The seat shouldn’t take too much work/time to re-cover in the final stages but I am very excited. It was all spookily meant to be, as I bought a tin of primer for no reason, on a whim only the week before.

I am not going to rush this project.  I am looking on Pinterest for ideas, I’d like to be a little more intricate with my design than I was with my first effort, perhaps even adding some gold, but I know I need to be very patient and only work with one colour at a time …………. now where’s that primer?

Mini Tumbling Block Snowmen.

A lot of my Christmas craft so far this year seems to be quite  repetitive, today I bring you more tumbling block snowmen  …… my apologies.

This time these are really tiny, made using a pack of tumbling blocks from Maxi Save (£1.29 for a box of 35 blocks) so much cheaper than from eBay or craft shops etc. ……….. they aren't the best quality, a bit rough and ready, but this sort of worked well in giving some texture to the snowmen.

……… which I took advantage of painting, using a white Wilko’s matchpot while staying at Marc’s recently. 

When I got home all I had to do was add the scarves using 3mm red satin ribbon …....

…… which was really fiddly, using PVA glue was just too time consuming, so in the end I resorted to using tiny dabs using a glue gun for an almost instant fix.

The details were equally as tiny, cutting the noses from orange coloured card and using 2mm and 3mm black flat back gems for the face and buttons.  I have recently bought a set of 5 wax picker pencil tools (£1.99 eBay) which has made placing such tiny gems more precisely and easily. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/282070730666

All that was left to do was add a small gold screw eye hook and gold hanging thread. 

I am going to give the snowmen in sets of three as a fairing gift in place of a Christmas card.  I may get another box of the blocks as I have a couple more ideas, perhaps not for this year, but if they work, certainly for next Christmas.

Snowman Head Christmas Tree Baubles

It’s weird the things that come to you in the middle of the night necessitating that you get up and find the bits and pieces you were thinking of to “see” if your idea would work, because if you don’t, it’ll take forever to get back to sleep thinking about them.

This is sort of returning to something I made back in 2015 would you believe. http://itsallfiddlefart.blogspot.com/2015/12/fluffy-snowman-baubles.html.

…….. using small polystyrene Christmas tree baubles that I must have bought in a sale a while ago, so long ago that I simply can’t remember how much they were or where from, however I have 20 of the things and because I am mean they wouldn’t have cost an awful lot.

The tiny top hats came from Amazon last year, there were 50 in the box,  I can’t remember how much they cost, however they wouldn’t have been that much either.  I started by making a hole in the top of each hat with a nail and then screwed in a tiny, gold eye hook for the hanging thread.

I decorated each hat with a tiny punched sprig of holly (Hobbycraft £1) and three equally tiny, red pearl flat back gems.

I then removed all the caps from the original snowball decorations, putting them somewhere safe as I am sure I will find something to use them on one day ……..

……. and replaced them with the top hats, using  Docrafts Stick it! glue to fix them.  I’ve had this glue for years, but didn’t get on with it as it seemed so thick, but finally for this job it proved perfect as I needed a really good bond.

I’d bought some glue a while back which I thought was suitable for polystyrene ………..

……. it wasn’t!

While the hats were setting I busied myself by making a whole pile of snowman noses from orange Fimo.

I experimented and found the best way to fix the noses was to make a hole in the middle of the face with a rounded end of a small paint brush, fill the hole with Stick It! and push the nose in. It took a while to set, so I gave it a good 24 hours before adding the rest of the face.

I then experimented with my collection of black flat back gems to find the right combination of size to make the cutest face.  On the demo one (above, with no nose, the eyes and mouth were just a bit too big.  In the end I think the 3mm and 4mm work pretty well together.

I would have liked to have given them all a hint of pink on the cheeks, but I was a little too heavy handed on the demo one and my blusher was too orange. it didn’t look right.  

The last thing to be done was attach the gold thread to hang the snowmen by on the tree.

I’m really chuffed with these ……. especially as I’ve emptied another box in my craft drawers, but I dare say, if I found any similar baubles again in a sale I would be tempted to buy them again.

Wooden Snowman Gift Tag

As you know when ever I am out and about charity shop shopping I just can’t resist a children’s wooden domino because they are usually such a cheap way of obtaining good quality craft materials.  Plain wooden rectangle blanks are so expensive to buy, so a box of 25 for between 50p to £1.50 is always a no brainer.  I recently found a box of square dominoes with a green gingham backing can you believe,  again 50p.  The holy grail for me at the moment would be to find a game that uses wooden triangles ……… for Christmas trees. Any ideas?

Anyway, while sorting out my craft drawers I found this box of large dominoes, to be honest I have no recollection of where they came from at all, but they are quite a bit bigger than I ones I usually find at ……… and I immediately thought Snowman gift tags.

…….. using a craft stick as a brim for the snowmen's hats.

Then started the long process of painting the dominoes white, using a white Wilko match pot – it took three coats both sides, but fortunately the paint dries pretty fast.

I edged the craft sticks using a black Sharpie pen before gluing them onto the painted dominoes to make sure every part was coloured, I didn't want a thin strip of wood showing on the underneath of the hat, if you know what I mean.

The hats were all duly painted, this time with a two coats from a black match pot, followed by two coats of Wilko quick drying clear varnish for a really “professional” finish ………

A little time consuming, but while waiting for everything to dry I made and cooked the snowmen’s noses using orange Fimo.

When I was dry I was able to add confetti holly leaves and small red flat back gems to decorate the snowman’s hat.  I used E6000 glue, as I wasn’t sure how PVA would hold on the varnish.

Then came the fun part when the characters of each snowman begin to show themselves, using ?mm and ?mm black, flat back gems for the eyes and mouth and the Fimo noses.  Soooooo cute!

I forgot about the scarves, made using a saddle stitch grosgrain ribbon and stuck into place using glue gun glue.

The last thing to do then was add a hook eye screw at the top of the snowman’s hat for a gold hanging thread.

These turned out even better than they looked in my head .........

....... so I think I am going to make another batch to use up all the other dominoes in the box. 

I think I may have some even large dominoes somewhere too, so I might experiment with them while I am at it.