Heads Up – Small Craft Sticks –The Works

Lockdown has an awful lot to answer for ……

A while back I paid a stupid amount (around £7) for 100 two and a half inch craft sticks from Amazon to make a job lot of the nativity Christmas tree decorations above. I just couldn’t remember where I had got the original ones from and as the Amazon ones were the only ones of the same size I could find online I reluctantly parted with my money.

Another two months down the line, with non essential shops beginning to open in Evesham and what do I find in The Works, the flipping sticks, £1 for 120 of the little blighters!  Needless to say I did stock up ………. but boy did I cuss!

Christmas Tree Inchie Brooch

My apologies this little brooch was a nightmare to photo.

I love inchies and was wondering if, using a 1 inch MDF square as a base, I could combine the idea with a Christmas brooch.  I took small scraps of paper to create a background, shaded them around the edges with a pale taupe pen and then added some faux stitching using a black fine liner pen, before adding some tiny stars in the sky.

The glittered Christmas tree was from a pack of 6 or 8, I can’t remember where from, but they are a perfect size for the square.  Once glued in place I applied two liberal coats of Ranger Glossy Accents to the whole thing.

The last thing to do was attach the brooch pin using super glue to make sure it didn’t come off when wearing.  If I am honest, I don’t think the pictures do the finished item justice.  It looks a little dull in the light.

I think I will make a few more inchies, but explore whether I can make some sort of Christmas tree decoration with one or two.  As it is, it would get lost on a tree but perhaps if I could layer it on a bigger square, or encase it in some sort of box frame????  ………. hmmmmmmm

Very Simple Christmas Lights Card

This card measures 6ins x 6ins and uses a pre-scored blank card from a bulk pack from Hobbycraft.

My humblest apologies, I know this card is truly basic, but it was the paper what made me done it!  It’s a Helz Cuppleditch design from her Christmas Village 6” x 6” pad.  I adore it and really didn’t want to do that much to it, as must be clearly obvious, it also fits nicely in with my quick and easy Christmas card theme for this year.

I simply covered the whole front of a card blank with the design and then mat and layered the silver glittered, wooden embellishment (Hobbycraft)  on black and then silver card, before adding a scattering of small, clear, flat backed gems. Simples. 

I also quite like the idea of black as the main colour of a Christmas card for a change, I picked up a couple of paper pads using that theme last year from Poundland and ( I think) The Range so I have no excuse not to continue with it. 

Experimental Microscope Slide Christmas Tree Decoration

There are some ideas that, if I don’t master, they still continue to “worry” at me until I can’t bear it any longer and I have to have another bash at them and microscope slide decorations are one of those ideas I just can’t let go of, I still feel the need to master them, so my apologies if you see quite a few of them appearing over the coming weeks/months.

I got my Ranger Melting Pot out to try faux soldering again after watching a couple of demos on YouTube.

I decided, as this was just an experiment, to keep things basic.  I took two scraps of a subtle snow print paper, putting them back to back between two microscope slides.

I then gently dragged each edge, one at a time in the melted embossing powder from the bottom of the pan towards the top.  The results were encouraging.

I decorated both sides of the sealed microscope slide with textured, glittery, white snowflake stickers (from Lidl). 

However, it’s always been the fixing for the hanging thread that I have had the main problem with, nothing I have tried up till now has looked aesthetically pleasing or been that durable, this time I tried 6mm ribbon clasps. Again, sadly I am not 100% with the results.  The size 6mm is brilliant, but because they are primarily meant to be used on ribbon/leather etc. they have teeth, and I can see them, aghhh …… and on top of that they take a little effort to pinch them closed and that risks, after all that fiddle fart cracking the glass or the faux soldering, so yet again I need to think of something else that give me the “professional” look I am after.

Because the melted embossing powder sets almost as soon as it leaves the pan it is almost impossible to embed a fixing into it, which would seem to be the simplest idea.  Gluing a fixing on top of the faux soldering is haphazard, looks messy and is not that secure. 

Of course I could just go round the edges with narrow, self adhesive, aluminium tape but once again I have the problem of securing a fixing along the top because I like the back to look as neat as the front.  I know this is just me being super fussy, but if you have any other ideas they would be very gratefully received as it’s driving me mad!

Cactus Christmas Tree Decoration.

I did have quite a collection of cactus erasers ………

……. bought on a wonderful long weekend visit to London to stay with Marc ………

…….. where we did a copious amount of charity shop shopping and mooching in Shepherds Bush and Hammersmith.

These erasers have been one of Bertie’s favourite things to play with when he comes to visit……

……… so when he finds that they have been commandeered for Nanny’s crafting he ain’t going to be a happy bunny ……. ooooops!!!

I started off by taking the eraser apart and covering the plant part with green glitter

Colouring the pot with a red Sharpie pen ……..

…… and the gluing a red, flat back star to the cactus flower, before putting it all back together again to dry. 

However, after a little trial and error I found it was better to cut roughly 1/4 off the pot, using a sharp knife, so that it was lay flat against the back of the decoration.

I then made a shelf base for it using two children’s wooden dominoes.

…… which I covered with scraps of red check paper, colouring the sides with a red Sharpie pen and adding faux stitching around the edges using a black, fine liner pen.

When the “shelf” was dry, I glued down the cactus ……..

………. adding the sentiment using my old faithful Dymo label maker to the background with a two clear flat back stars either side and finally a small disc bail on the back to hang it from the branches of a Christmas tree. 

I think one or two of these had better go in Bertie’s box of Nanny’s Christmas memory decorations that I always give to Iris and Bertie on the 1st December each year ……

……… to make up for missing ones when he asks to play with the cactus's next!

The Joys of Home Schooling ………

A message from Tom re: the joys of home schooling………

Joy – Christmas Tree Plaque Decoration

This is another idea for a Christmas tree decoration, loosely inspired by something similar I found on Pinterest.

Using a children’s wooden domino piece, measuring 8cms x 4cms, I covered  both sides with two scraps of dotty paper, before giving them a coat of varnish.

I then covered the sides with aluminium, self adhesive tape, not my best effort, but it’ll do.

The wooden J and Y were coloured red, edged in black with a biro to stop the ink bleeding into the wood, and then given a liberal dosing of Ranger Glossy Accents.  It took several layers to colour the laser cut snowflake using a white Posca pen.  These were then glued onto the plaque. 

I like the way they stand out from the background giving extra dimension and texture.  In the centre of the snowflake I added a small, red, flat back pearl.

So that the plaque would hang evenly on a tree or wherever, I put a tiny, silver eye screw at each end. at the top and then used silver jewellery wire, with six red, wooden beads to create a hanger.  Voila!

Simple Holly Christmas Card

This card measures 6ins x 6ins and uses a pre-scored blank from a bulk pack from Hobbycraft.

This is another of my many planned, simple, festive word cards made in an effort to use up as many of my alphabet packs/sets as I can by the end of the year. 

I covered the whole front of a 6inx x 6ins card blank with a Christmas patterned paper from huge origami paper pad from The Works. The wooden letters were also from The Works, which I coloured green with a ProMarker pen before finishing them off with good layer of Ranger Glossy Accents to add  a bit of extra shine and texture.

I have had the holly sequins forever, but they are always a good craft room staple.  To keep things really simple I only used three, adding three small, red flat back pearls for the berries.  A scattering of clusters of three dots using a black fine liner pen completed the design ………..

…….. or so I thought, because as it sat on the table it began nagging at me, less is more, but this wasn’t quite enough ……….

……. so after some thought I decided to add two strips of matching wavy patterned paper, mat and layered on silver mirror card and five red pearl flat back gems for good measure …….. then it was enough!

I know it’s all very basic, a bit different and less traditional, and especially very quick to put together …….. and I think I may have got away with it. 

My Take On A Vintage Barbola Mirror.

One of my memories from the first year of Marc’s and my friendship was a Saturday afternoon  “playing” with his Melting Pot back in 2013 http://itsallfiddlefart.blogspot.com/2013/10/playing-with-marcs-melting-pot-and-utee.html.  A little while later Marc gave me my own melting pot and huge box of ultra thick embossing powders and Utee.  I like having it there, even if it only gets used a couple or three times a year, but while we are in lockdown it’s been out quite a bit and now I think I have a major project on my hands!

I have always loved vintage Barbola mirrors which date back to the 1930’s but they are always quite expensive and usually because of their fragile nature, being made of, I believe, Gesso paste are quite often damaged.

http://jollyvolley.co.uk/index.php/2018/01/20/reflections-on-the-history-of-the-barbola-mirror/

But, I’ve been thinking, why don’t I try to make my own?  I already have an old, oval shaped, wooden backed mirror at the back of my cupboard that I got a couple of years ago from the Georgian House in Evesham, which cost me £4 after haggling it down from £5.

I also had a huge box of embossing powders that were doing absolutely nothing sat sitting in the box ………

…… plus a whole pile of Martha Stewart silicon moulds from my lovely friend Di Wray http://pixiescraftyworkshop.blogspot.com/. What I have got to lose?

It’s all very much at the experimental stage at the moment, I found some metal leaves from an old necklace that I had a go at enamelling before getting really started, however am not sure whether to use them on this project or keep exclusively to using the Cosmic Shimmer ultra thick powders.

These are the flowers I have made so far.  I added a few pieces of glue stick to the mix each time I made a set of moulds to help prevent the flowers from being too brittle.

I then had a little play to see how the flowers might look on the mirror but as you know I have a terrible habit of what I call  “worrying” things, wondering what if ……

…….. well, this time I got wondering, what if I painted the flowers with the acrylic paints I got from Hobbycraft?

I didn’t have a clue where I was going with the idea, but I quickly realised that by doing so I could give the flowers a more aged look that reflected the original mirrors.

It’s a subtle difference from the unpainted ones at the top of the picture above, but what a difference, turning the mirror, may I say, into something much classier?

I am also thinking that I don’t really need the smaller flowers, although I might change my mind when I finally commit to gluing everything together, if I am careful I think I can  fit a single row of flowers all around the edge of the mirror without gaps, however, just in case, I am going to make a pile of leaves using the other moulds in the set.

It’s going to take a bit of time ……. but I am really excited, so watch this space.