Mini Birthday Chalkboard Easel Cards

The thing I like best about these Home Bargains place card easels is that they are such good quality that the blackboard part doesn’t need varnishing before you can add any writing, where others I have bought from Amazon and eBay always tend to bleed into the wood.

There’s not a lot to this idea, except all the fiddle fart adding the tiny details to the wooden, little girl embellishment.

I started by getting the sentiment, using a fine, white Posca pen in the right position on the board so that none of it was hidden when the girl was added.

I used E800 to glue the girl onto the easel shelf as I needed a really strong bond, not wishing the girl to be easily pulled off.

The bunting was simply tiny diamond shapes cut from appropriately proportioned patterned paper, folded in half and glued onto a piece of thin gold wire and then glued, again with E8000, to the top and shelf of the easel.

Obviously the little girl then needed googly eyes,  followed by having her hair tidied up by gluing it down onto her face, before adding a tiny ribbon bow.

I also added incredibly tiny, pink embroidery thread bows to her shoes. 

These almost drove me to distraction to tie, in the end I put a little PVA glue on my fingers and ran it along a length of cotton so the threads wouldn’t split and when dry tied the bows before sticking them on the shoes …… aghhhhhh!

So far I have only made four of these easels, but thinking that I might get a craft stall later on in the year I am thinking I should make another six at least …….

…… and although I am really hoping to hit the Christmas market, as that’s what I always make most of, I think having an extra supply of birthday and other bits and pieces for various occasions might also be a good idea and if they don’t sell I can always use them myself.

Heads Up – Home Bargains - Mini Chalkboard Place Cards /Mini Wooden Easels.

OMG, look what’s back in in the wedding section of Home Bargains, only the chalkboard place cards/mini easels!  99p for a pack of 4. After almost a year I really believed that was it, I’d never see them again …..

…… but there they were sat sitting on the shelf in Evesham Home Bargains, they also had the natural coloured ones in too.

The price is just unbelievable, working out at just 25p each, especially when the cheapest identical white ones I’ve found online are  £5.99 per pack, which makes crafting with them prohibitive.

Needless to say, despite all I said the other week after my big sort out, that I wasn’t going to buy any more stuff, what’s a crafter to do? So yes, I did buy one or two packs, but I am going to hopefully justify their purchase by doing a quick turn around, making some Christmas shelf tranklements to sell if/when I get my craft table towards the end of the year.  Happy days!

Small Jewelled Mirror

A friend painted a small cupboard for me as I wasn’t brave enough and then after we agreed a price refused payment as it was her first chalk paint project for someone other than herself and wasn’t sure about it, even though I was well chuffed!

So I gave her my used once sanding mouse and pack of papers,  as I don't think I’ll ever be doing any sanding again and she’s been doing all her sanding by hand.  It really didn’t seem enough, so as she said off hand that she’d love one of my jewelled mirrors, that’s what I decided to do as a way of a “thank you”

The square, 25cm x 25cm, copper framed mirror cost £2.99 from Poundstretcher a couple of years ago and the various jewels, embellishments and beads I’d got anyway, left over from other projects.

It was just a matter of just sticking it all on and the perfect excuse for using all the dregs in my old E800 and B-7000 tubes.

I started out pretty symmetrically, starting with the metal leaves, from an old, necklace, painted and varnished one summer with Marc, as were the metal flowers.  I think the roses were in a sale from The Works.  The colours were rather garish so I sprayed them a while back with a off white coloured paint.

Once the main bits were on I just filled in the gaps randomly, trying to add a few layers as I went.

I think it’s turned out pretty well. I just wish I had some more bits and pieces of broken jewellery as there’s not that much variation. 

What I would have really liked was so add a few white and yellow daisies to the top layer, but I just couldn’t justify the prices on eBay etc. There were some charms, but they had an attached loop that would have needed cutting off, but what if it didn’t snip off cleanly?

I always look in charity shops or Poundland, but small flowery jewellery seems to be hard to come by at the moment. To justify breaking up a piece, I would need at least ten flowers/leaves per item for between £1 – £2 ……… but wait …..

I couldn’t believe it, I was looking through a box of bits for something completely different and found another 9/10 small, metal cream flowers with a pearl in the middle, I couldn’t believe it, not daisies, but they still worked ……..

I added them here and there, to add the extra layer I wanted and then while I was at it found some gold rimmed pearls which I added to the centre of all the enamel flowers.  I don’t suppose many would have noticed the extra fiddle fart, but for me, it was the final touch I needed. I also added small pearls to cover up the holes (not shown in photos).

This has now just about completely cleaned me out of flowers (plastic, metal or otherwise) so I am guessing it’s going to be a long time until I can gather up enough stuff to make another one …… but you never know.

Congratulations Your Maj ……

Today we see history being made the likes of which we may never see again for many, many years (even generations) to come.

Platinum Jubilee Pin Badges – Union Flags and Crowns

This Jubilee badge idea sort of snowballed, originally I was just going to make three for  “The Boyz” to wear in their a Platinum Jubilee pictures, but then Iris and Bertie’s school announced that they were organising a special Jubilee event  and well it would have been rude not to make a few more for the staff I have grown to know, since I’ve been in listening to readers two afternoons a week.

There is really no great shakes to them ……..but it’s certainly been away of using  some of the stuff I’ve bought from The Works, like a few pages from the Simply British 6” x 6” paper pad and the self adhesive crown embellishments I  bought a few weeks ago along with some wooden discs, also from The Works, I am sure, but goodness only knows when.

I started by covering the larger of the wooden discs with the Union Flag design paper.

I punched out smaller circles from silver card ……

…… putting a crown in the middle, and then gluing to smaller wooden disc that I had covered in white card to help give a little extra dimension.

…… I put tiny faux stitching around the edge of the white card left showing, with a black biro to prevent the ink running ………

Then, to give them a glossy finish I covered everything, except for the crowns, with Ranger Glossy Accents.

I wasn’t really sure about doing this, but once dry I was really pleased with the results, they looked almost “professional”!

After this, I decided why not go for the full bling and added small clear or red flat backed gems to the crowns, which really finished them off.

On the back I used B7000 glue to attach the brooch backs as I wanted a really strong bond if the badges were to be worn for a full day.

Really, really chuffed with how thee have turned out as a spur of the moment sort of thing.

Super Badge-It – Chinese Lucky Cat Pin Badges

I have to confess that I always buy any boxed Bandai Badge Makers if ever I see them in a charity shop, especially when they are usually priced at around £1.99 or less.

It’s not the machine itself I want,  I already have a Super Badge-It (no longer made by Bandai), which makes three different shapes/size badges plus the standard sized one, which makes 30mm circle badge, it’s really the badge bits, pins, and plastic covers I’m after, because they cost stupid money online, and that’s if you can find them! 

There is one company currently selling a compatible set on Amazon, but not at £17.99 for 30 badges!  I guess one day I will run out of spares completely, but it will have been a good run while it’s lasted, ten years at least.

I don’t really want to invest in a “proper” badge making machine, because badge making is usually a once/twice sort of thing per year for me, but still nice to have amongst my tools.

Anyway, this idea follows on from Bertie’s fridge magnets of last week, using the cheap Lucky Cat stickers I found in Home Bargains (sorry, I can’t remember the price, but less than £1 I think). With the end of the school year not being that far off, I wondered if I could incorporate Bertie’s obsession with all things Chinese into making badges to go towards his end of term thank you gifts, so I dug out all the larger circle badge parts out.

Attaching a sticker directly onto the badge front,, something I’ve never done before, trimming the excess bottom of sticker away and then adding a few stars and dots using a fine tipped white Posca pen. I loved the look!

I decided to still put a plastic covering on the badge as I wasn’t sure how durable the Posca pen would be when the badge was worn for a while.

I love the effect, with no spoilt badges, which I put down to the reduced bulk on the badge front.  Usually you cut a disc of paper and decorate it before adding the cover. So I will certainly be looking for similar, very thin, foil stickers again, already thinking of Halloween, Christmas and birthdays.

The completed badges were then attached to a small, handwritten card with a foam pad ……..

……. and then into a cellophane bag to make them look that bit more professional.

Part of Marc’s Birthday Tut …… Chickens Akimbo!

This year I spent Eurovision at home, which was a bit of a novelty as I’ve spent it with Marc and Rick at the cottage in the depths of the Worcester countryside for many years now (except during lockdown). It’s also a long weekend when we’ve usually also celebrated Marc’s birthday.

Rick and I in Stockholm for Eurovision 2016 (can it really be 6 years ago?  It only feels like yesterday)

However, this year Rick has been working at The Royal Windsor Horse Trails and, as I said to Marc, Eurovision just wouldn’t be the same without Rick, so, as a one off, I went down a week later, for Marc’s actual, real life, birthday, which also meant that all the attention was on Marc and not shared with 40 odd competing countries!

We don’t really do birthday presents, but it’s now tradition that I take a couple of pillowcases full of absolute tut, collected from various charity shops etc. just for the fun of it.

So, when I saw this photo in an ill fitting frame for 50p, what’s a girl to do? It just reminded me so much of the story I’ve told you before, when Marc overheard two women talking about us when we were out and about together and I knew it would make him howl with laughter with a small addition!

I wish I hadn’t had to cut the ladies feet off for the picture to fit the Poundland box frame (25p from one of their sales) ……. but hey ho

I was going to leave it at that, but then I remembered some really old school, wooden chicken embellishments Marc had given me a while back ……….

It would have been a real waste of a box frame not to add al little something to it ………

So I did and yes, he loved it ……….

…….. especially as he’d been hatching chicks like there was no tomorrow in the week before my visit.

I also found this picture for Rick for another 50p ……..

……. as it reminded me of so many wonderful, lazy afternoons ……….

……. sat sitting in their garden just chilling ……….

Happy days!