Inspiration Needed ……… For Extra Large Domino Pieces

Huston we have a problem ……. I just can’t leave any wooden children’s dominoes on a charity shop shelf when I find them, especially when they are priced at only £1 or even 50p per box!

This are my latest purchase, made by Chad Valley, so brilliant quality, 28 pieces in the box and they are huge, measuring 13.5cm x 7cm  and 1cm deep.  If I bought MDF blanks from eBay can you imagine how much they would cost, when these only cost me £1.

When put beside my normal crafty domino stash you can see how just big they are …….

……. the dolphin ones being my usual domino “go to” size, with the middle ones the next step up for my snowman tags. Have I bitten off more than I can chew with these new mahoooosive ones, because at the moment I don’t have a clue what to do with them?  With their thickness, they can easily stand alone on a shelf, perhaps a simple Christmas  plaque? I would really have to scale up on my embellishment stock or dare I have a go at painting?   ALL suggestions would be very, very welcome ……………………..

Penguin Christmas Tree Decorations ……. To Be Continued

This idea is all a bit of an ongoing experiment after I found a Penguin Float game in an Evesham charity shop for 99p.

I admit I did open the sealed box to see what the penguins looked like and if they had any crafty “potential” – I thought they did and working out at 10p each, well worth the gamble.

The penguins are made of a light (hollow) plastic and measure 1.5 x 2.5 inches with a depth of 15/16ths of an inch.  The first thing to do was cover the print on the bottom over with a black Sharpie pen, which was a piece of cake!

Naturally, adding a pair of googly eyes was the next course of action and as the original colours were a bit dull, a couple of layers of orange Ranger Enamel Accents on the feet and beak and white on the tummy to give the penguins character.

I next thing I needed to do was see if a screw eye hook could be fastened securely into the top, again yes, a piece of cake!

They look pretty cute as they are, but you know me, I love to fiddle fart ….. I tried one of the mini top hats on him that was left over from the fluffy snowmen heads posted last week, it looked cute, but the black was lost, so I have ordered a new set of assorted coloured hats that will always come in useful, plus some large, coloured wooden fish beads to hang from the bottom, again, they will also get used over time.  As they are coming from China it’ll be a few weeks before I can finish the penguins completely ……. but for now, they’ll do.

Reindeer Mini Easel Christmas Favours

These easels very nearly didn’t get made  …………

…….. despite my thinking I had made more than enough fairings to send this year in place of a Christmas card, I found that I was still short of a few bits and pieces that could be sent flat as a large letter, aggghhhhhhh ………

……. but then my mind turned to the silver glitter easels I bought in Burnham On Sea a week or so ago (£1 for a pack of 4) and the wooden reindeer embellishments I bought from The Works a while ago, no problemo!

However, nothing could prepare me for the glitter the mini easels shed, I think you can see just how much from the background of some of the pictures. To be honest, I thought that they were just too tacky to use, but something told me to persevere, perhaps thinking of the six packs I had already invested in.  I started with the text using a fine white Posca pen, totally unconvinced I could make them work.

After the addition of the reindeer heads and plastic snowflakes and much brushing down, I began to chill a little ……..

……. they were beginning to come together, despite my misgivings.

It was the googly eyes and red flat pearl noses that bought the reindeer to life that finally did it, along with the added clear flat back gems in the middle of the snowflakes and gaps on the blackboard filled with clusters of three white dots.

I had pulled it off, somehow the reindeer pull your eyes away from the tackiness of the glitter but on looking at them with fresh eyes, the glitter makes them, it says Christmas ........does that makes sense???????

So making more is now very much on the cards ........

........ I just need to check how many reindeer I have left ……….

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.