Wooden Reindeer Tags

As a change from what has seemed to be a very snowman dominated crafty Christmas,  I thought I would have a cheeky little experiment with reindeer instead.

I started by giving both sides of these 10cm x 5cm wooden dominoes pieces (below) two coats of brown emulsion paint.

Then I set out to create some antlers ………

…….. from small, 6.5 cms craft sticks. .

These were then painted, again on both sides with a darker shade of brown paint.

Although I didn’t do it in the example above, I found it best to put a screw eye hook at the top of the domino (to hang the finished tag from) before adding the antlers!  When the antlers were set firmly, I was then able to give the reindeer two coats of quick dry, clear, glossy varnish. 

This wasn’t absolutely necessary but I just find that varnishing often makes a tag look more professional as well as protecting the paint from chipping.

Then it was time to add the character to the reindeer starting with a bit of a fringe made from a scrap of brown paper, making a tiny fold to stick on the top of the reindeers head in front of the screw eye hook.

Next came the face using 18mm googly eyes, a red Fimo nose that I had made earlier.  I did wonder about a mouth, but to be honest, when I tried, it looked too much and sort of changed the character of the face, if you know what I mean. 

I thought I was finished at this stage giving the reindeer a collar using a piece of red and white gingham ribbon with a jingle bell attached ………

…… then I thought about adding some Christmas light trim (One Below £1)  to his antlers for comic effect. This was sooooooooooooo sooooooo fiddly, I hated every single moment. The final touches came from clusters of three white dots here and there using a fine tipped, white acrylic paint pen. Et voila!

I am pretty chuffed with how these have turned out. I have another 17 of this size domino that really need using up, so I am planning on getting them done before January is out, done and dusted ready for Christmas 2022 (??????). I must be mad  but with, perhaps, a little more fine tuning, I think the noses need to be quite a bit bigger than the eyes, which isn’t a problem and perhaps I could find some more durable scraps of leather for the fringe?  We shall see.

Charity Shop Mooching ………

I am experiencing a bit of a barren spell in the local charity shops at the moment, which, to be honest, is no bad thing as I made a conscious decision that I wouldn’t be listing anything new on eBay until the New Year, because I simply couldn’t face the inevitable, horrendous queues at the Post Office.  I post all my cards, parcels etc. on 1st December and then that’s it, we remain strangers until January! 

However, it still doesn’t stop me from popping in (to the charity shops) to drop off the bits and pieces that I no longer want/need, December and January always being a good time to have a sort out and well, it would be rude not to have a little mooch…….

So to fill an otherwise empty Wednesday post I thought I would show you the things I have either lusted over or temptation got the better of me …….

I have fancied a dolls house to “do up” for a couple of years now, but size is an issue, it has to be really small, to fit on the drawer unit in my craft room/spare room, where my printer currently sits, but which could be put somewhere else at a pinch if the right house came along.  I saw these two dolls houses in the Salvation Army Shop over a couple of weeks, they were only £30 each, which was a steal as they must have cost much, much, more new.

If they had been half the size, at least, I might have been tempted, but really in my minds eye, I imagine me with a really dilapidated old house that could be quirky, rather than something pristine that I would be frightened of messing up and having to keep the contents to scale ……

I did however buy this box of wooden vintage style decorations for £3.99 in another charity shop. There are 45 pieces altogether, plus the wooden box that they came in, which I am sure I can turn into a small, whimsical style painted tray. 

The figures are very well painted, so these, I don’t think would have been cheap originally.

I am torn between putting these towards another Christmas wreath or maybe making up some small, craft stick, house shaped bases to create more detailed kitschy scenes as individual tree decorations. We shall see……..

This little wooden jewellery box for just £1 appealed to me, because, apart from my free Burnham On Sea charity shop chair, I doubt very much, due to space, I’ll able to paint any more  furniture in my current favourite whimsical style, but I could go smaller. I am thinking of re-painting it white to give it a base after which I could use acrylic paint pens to create the patterns, well that’s the theory anyway. So a few projects in the making for the New Years

And finally …….. my first pair of Irregular Choice shoes for £5. I don’t know what possessed me, because they are a size 39 (five and a half?), no where near my size, but they are beautiful, my pictures don’t just do them justice.  I think they were most probably wedding shoes and worn once for that occassion, as there is very little evidence of wear other than on the bottom, where the pattern is a little worn.  They are perfect dressing up shoes.

I know very little about this make of shoes, except that I drool over them and I seriously do not generally do shoes.  I am guessing the date 01/2013 was when they were produced/made?

I don’t know what I am going to do with them, dare I show Iris?

In all honesty, with undoubted sellers regret, I think I will sell them on ………..

…….. but only after I have loved them for a little bit longer ……….

Stand Alone Snowman Decoration

Remember those giant wooden dominos I found from the other week, well,  since I have been on quite a snowman roll this year as far as my festive crafting has been concerned the first logical idea was to see how they worked as a stand alone Christmas ornament ……….

I started by sticking two average sized  craft sticks together and just colouring the bottom with a black Sharpie pen, so there were no tiny edges to paint between the hat and face …………. 

 

……… and then glued the sticks to the domino at a jaunty angle, doing the same to the back, at the same angle.

I then applied two coats of black emulsion paint to the front and back of the hat and the same again in white to the snowman’s head.

When everything was coated evenly and dry, I gave the front and back a coat of coat of Wilko quick dry, clear, glossy varnish as a contrast to the matte finish of the head.

Then I was able to add all the fiddle fart, to the hat I put a double leaf holly confetti piece, to which I also gave a layer of Ranger Glossy Accents, followed by three, tiny red berry buttons.

The face was also simple enough with two 12mm black flat blak domes for the eyes ….. five smaller ones for the mouth, plus a nose, which I had made ahead using  orange Fimo.

At this stage I wasn’t sure if the snowmen needed a scarf or not, I tried various ribbons that I already had round the bottom but none looked right  so I decided to order some red 18mm gingham ribbon and if it didn’t work, I would leave them as they were.

I was dubious when it arrived, but as soon as I started playing with it I could see that it would work, adding the plastic snowflake was the icing on the cake.  I was so chuffed!

I have 25 more of these extra large dominoes (£1) and have already decided that I would rather have them all used up than have them cluttering up my craft drawers waiting for another idea, so I know it’s very early, but these are going to be my Christmas card favours for 2022. I reckon they will cost me no more than 50p each, if that, to make,  all I need is a pack of orange Fimo

Snowman Soup 2021

I am not 100% with my snowman soup this year, they a rather austere if you know what I mean? I made the decision not to design or print the card inserts as I have done in the past, but as soon as I put everything together realised it really is what makes the whole thing special. However, since I don’t have a clue how much ink is currently in my printer, I didn’t want to risk getting half way through and then come unstuck.  *Note to self, stock up on coloured printer ink at the start of the New Year!

I did have enough black ink to print out the snowman soup poem though, which I rejigged a little adding the ingredient “marshmallows” to the rhyme, not sure why, but hey ho.

I’ve had sturdy patchwork Christmas tree card for at least three years and it really was time it was used.  I cut it into 6.5ins squares to fit the cello bags I already had.

I stuck the cut out poems in the centre of the patchwork square and then added a snowman sticker by the side to help to pull the theme together. It was at this stage that I wished I’d gone the printed sheet route, they just weren’t “pretty” or fiddle farty enough, however I ploughed on.

As the back of the card was plain I added a little doodled edging using a black fine liner pen.

As per usual I added a hot chocolate sachet, candy cane, small packet of mini marshmallows (made using cello bags, sealed with my old as the hills Logitech vacuum bag sealer) plus a small tube of bubbles, just because. 

Et voila!

These festive “favours” will be given to all the amazing and caring lunchtime staff at school as a small thank from Iris and Bertie.

I need to grab a few more packs of the bubbles when I see them next (Poundland, pack of 10 for £1) as the wand has a hollow star at the end, through which a thread can be looped to add a little something extra to gift bag tag, with perhaps a couple of extra charms too? It’s an idea I need to explore more in the New Year, as they definitely have crafting potential.

Just An Idea ………. Poundland Jelly Bean Candy Canes

Just a bit of a heads up of an idea this morning ……….

This is just an idea I have seen a couple of times on the Facebook Poundland Appreciation page using their Elf on the Shelf jelly bean filled candy canes (£1 each) that I thought you might be interested in ………..

……. it seems people have been using them to save their £1 coins throughout the year to either give as a very generous present, since, from what I have read they hold around £80 or use the saved coins themselves to help them towards for the following Christmas.  I’ve bought two, whether I will use them for that purpose I’m not so sure …….. however, I thought they might be something handy/interesting to have in my crafty stash for when inspiration strikes, after Iris and Bertie have helped relieve me of the contents.  We shall see ……….

Christmas Tree Penguins

You may remember my penguins from a couple of weeks back, made using plastic penguins from a bath toy game ……. well, the extra bits I ordered to finish them of properly have arrived from China (they only took 17 days to get here) and I am so chuffed!

I ordered 100 wooden fish beads which cost me £3.65 and 80 pink, white, blue and black hats for £5.04. Far more than I needed for just nine penguins, but I am determined to use them all up, if not for this Christmas, then next.

The first thing I decided to do to give the penguins some extra festive pizazz was add a sprinkling of ultra fine, translucent glitter to their Ranger Enamel Accent tummy's.

Then screw eye hooks were screwed into the top of the hats, followed by a tiny punched holly leaf and trio of red, flat back pearls to decorate.  When dry the hats were glued securely using E8000 to the top of the penguins heads.

It took me a while to work out how to hang the fish from the penguins, originally I wanted a string of them, but that didn’t quite work, so in the end after giving each fish two clear, flat back gem eyes (one on each side),  I  opted for a single, horizontally hanging fish to match whatever colour hat I gave each penguin. 

I think they work??!!!???

So, for next year ………. I am thinking of sandwiching a couple or three average sized wooden dominoes together so that they are deep enough to take a hat, making another version of the same penguin idea …… if only to justify the surplus fish beads and hats I’ve now got!