Little Bottle Brush Christmas Trees

I am thinking that these little Christmas trees would make really cute place settings on a festive table or scattered here and there on shelves between the Christmas cards?  

The idea came to me after I spotted these packs of 20 metal candlestick holders in my local Sue Ryder shop for just £1 for a 20! (currently on Temu for £2.28, also available in gold).  Well, it would have been rude to erm....... not avail myself 4 packs!! 

I thought they would be in perfect proportion to hold some bottle brush Christmas trees (approx 3.4 inches) that I already had, taking off the wooden base ........

...... gluing the remaining metal spike into the holders that I'd filled with Hobbycraft Superlight, air drying clay ......

...... before leaving the clay and glue to dry overnight.

I put a strip of red and white gingham, self adhesive, fabric tape round the candleholder to give it an extra Christmassy feel.

Then I took a short length of a small tinsel gift ribbon (Temu £1.43 for 2.74 metres, other colours available) ......... 

 ......... wrapping it around the tree, poking it in between the branches and then trimming it a little closer to the tree.

Then came the real fiddle fart .........

..... adding tiny, red plastic, nail art bows (Temu, 100 pieces for 84p), again in perfect proportion to the tree.

I used B-7000 glue to stick them on, along with an assortment of various sized and coloured, flat back gems. I won't pretend that it wasn't pretty fiddly, but I got there in the end.  

The finishing touch was putting an acrylic star on the top, before trimming any stray, long tinsel ends again.  I'm not sure if the pot needs a little something else, like another bow, but that could be overkill?  However, I still have plenty of time to work that one out before the big day.

Time To Call It Quits.

After 16 years I think I've done my bit for blogging ....... I've got one project left, which I'll today, but then that will be it. I may post pictures of the occasional project, as a way of keeping a record, but I don't think I will be writing anything up, other than perhaps a list of materials.  

Thank you for being there and all your lovely comments over the years, it's been a rollercoaster ride and now its time to get off.

Taking A Break ............

Hi there,

Just to let you know I'm taking a break from blogging for the next little while, probably until the end of September, as I've really not been in the mood just lately and have as such relied on a whole host of scheduled posts to keep going this far, (last post until then below).

The school holidays have just started, during which I'm planning having yet another cull of my craft room, hopefully it will either inspire me to continue or tell me enough is finally enough.  We shall see.........

Another Little Panda Frame for Iris

I'm sorry, yet another Panda frame today, Iris really is a girl who loves pandas! 

And again, there's not a lot to it.

My apologies as I can't remember where the shallow, wooden, 4.5ins square tray came from (probably just a random purchase sometime), however the rhinestone panda came from Temu (£1.31), as were the tiny resin flowers (100 pieces for approx. 98p -  but Temu the prices have a habit of almost changing daily!).

I simply gave the frame two coats of gold acrylic paint .......

..... before gluing a piece of greenish, patterned, scrap paper in the centre to act as a background, swiftly followed by the panda (which is backed on a thick plastic film) using B7000 glue.

I was going to leave it like that, but it did look rather plain, so I added some faux stitching round the edges plus clutters of three dots here and there, followed by the resin flowers ........

...... making it much more appealing to hang in Iris's very, very, very pandary bedroom! 

Swimmer Broochs/Pins

I just couldn't resist these little resin swimmers from Temu (£1.68 for a pack of 12 - but prices can vary on Temu from day to day).

But what to do with them?  Well, the children's school has had a temporary swimming pool installed on site, as it worked out cheaper than busing everyone up to the leisure centre and back, however, it's been a bit of a military operation for the staff, so I thought it might be a cute idea, as a memory, to turn the figures into pin badges for their lanyards.

 No great shakes for this idea then ........

......... I simply stuck a tiny 1.5cm brooch fastening onto the back of each swimmer using B-7000 glue.  

I would have perhaps preferred to use butterfly clutch fastenings, but they were just a little too big.

When the glue was set I pinned the swimmers onto a scrap of blue card to complete the "look"!  Perhaps if I'd given myself more time, I could have edged the cards with white, wavy lines? 

I love the figures so much I've ordered another set as I thought I could make a couple of small canvases that look like swimmers doing lengths in a swimming pool?  We shall see ..........

Small Panda Frame

 Following on from last week, another very simple panda frame for Iris's birthday ........

..... there's note an awful lot to it, using a small, 50p, charity shop, wooden picture frame and a £1.28 panda brooch from Temu, so still cheaper than actually buying a birthday card!

I started by taking the picture and glass out of the frame, before giving it two coats of gold acyclic paint and clipping the fastener etc. off the back of the brooch.

When the frame was dry, I replaced the original picture with a scrap of pale blue, subtlety patterned paper for the new background and putting the glass back too.

I then carefully glued the panda onto the glass using B-7000 glue, not touching it again until I knew the glue had really dried and the panda wouldn't move without a struggle.

It looked OK and that's when I left it for a day or two, before thinking perhaps it needed a cloud or two, remembering some tiny stickers I bought a couple of years ago.

Well, the clouds looked pants, but I liked the effect of the trees on the glass and at either side of the frame, adding a little varnish to keep them in place for good measure.

Not an awful lot to it I know, but a certain little madam, who just adores pandas, was well chuffed.

Just A Girl Who Loves Pandas

This is what I made for Iris in way of a card for her 10th Birthday, as she is totally obsessed by pandas! 

I got the box frame from Temu, it was a little on the spendy side at £3.48, but when I compared it to the frames I would normally use (usually the boxes small wooden embellishments come in), they are quite a bit bigger and I really like the larger space at the top to put a title etc.

The pandas are Croc clog embellishments (again from Temu), they have a stud on the back that you poke through the holes in the clogs, but which are also perfect for using as a base for the glue and add a little extra dimension to the project.

I started by cutting squares from scraps of patterned paper to use as a background for all the compartments before adding said pandas.

I cut an oblong of spotty paper for the larger compartment, using my trusty, old Dymo printer to write the sentiment, adding a little faux stitching round the edge of the paper, as I did for the smaller squares.

I then backed this onto a piece of card for extra rigidity, with a double layer of sticky pads on the back before sticking it into the frame, this added dimension, rather than having it lie flat in the back of the space, if that makes sense?

I also edged the dividers and sides of the frame using a purple Sharpie pen .....

 ...... covered the sides with the same spotty paper, adding a purple edge to them too.........

...... before finishing the whole thing off by embellishing it here and there with red, flat back gems and silver nail art hearts.

.

There's not an awful lot to it to be honest, it only took me about 45 mins .......

...... but it's more of a lasting memory than a card that's soon put away, forgotten about and eventually thrown away.

Note to self ..... if I were to do this again, I might also colour the inside of each compartment?  

Made By Marley Inspired Drawers

Sorry this is a long post! This is one of those projects I wasn't sure if I could actually pull off, let's just say the judges are still out on that one ........!!!!

I was desperate to have a go after watching almost all of the Made By Marley videos on YouTube. She makes everything look so do-able, but I was still apprehensive, despite having three packs of her luscious decoupage papers ready and waiting.

Then, I found this set of drawers sat sitting, going free, on the kerbside on the school run, well it was a no brainer, with such a basic shape, how could I go wrong??? 

I started by removing the handles and then tearing part of Marley's Passion Flower paper (£18.95 for 3 sheets) and a little Roar (£18.95 for three sheets) to fit the two drawer fronts using Modge Podge ..........

I did the top of the unit just the same and then started the part I was so nervous of, blending the paint into the paper so they looked as one!!!! Aghhhhh 

Now I'll be honest, I don't have any of the paint or brushes Lel uses, at this early stage of my interest, it was too much of an investment, so I was relying on the emulsion matchpots, acrylic paints and tiny dabbing sponges (from Temu) I already had, totally mad or what, with so much riding on the project being a success?

I started dabbing with the turquoise ........

........ then adding some wine (the colour not the juice!) ........

........... before a little yellow .......

....... and then got carried away, but at this stage I thought that it could work!  I proceeded to dab the edges and dividing bars of the unit ........

....... however, as the mix of paint proved not too robust on the plasticky surface of the unit, I decided to save any tears further along by giving everything two coats of Modge Podge to help preserve what I had done so far. 

When it was all dry, I put the drawers back into the unit to see how it looked......

I couldn't do the sides as I had run out of the Passion paper, but had enough confidence at this stage to buy some more.

However, with everything dry, I was still sufficiently buoyed up to try and have a go at stencilling (pack of 6 stencils from Temu) something well and truly out of my comfort zone, to help draw everything together.

Unfortunately at this stage I was so wrapped up in the process that I forgot to take any pictures ........

........ but believe me, I was well and truly winging it, with nothing but a hope and a prayer........

........ adding dark blue, metallic gold and a touch of bright pink here and there .......

At this stage I was well chuffed ........

 ....... and thought it might just work, however, without any more paper, I couldn't do much else except for adding more colour and stencilling to the narrow sides and cross bars.

I also painted a little of the inside of the unit to stop any of the white from showing when the drawers were in place. These would be varnished and levelled later on.

I then left the drawers for a day or so waiting for the new paper to arrive and in that time I think I lost the plot/flow ........

...... however when they did arrive, I was up to get going again .........

........ all was looking OK and on the right track, but then, I went on holiday ........

...... and when I got back, I found it hard to replicate what I'd done before. My stencilling was pants (first time trying to be honest) but I can't really be that surprised when I was using acrylic paint instead of chalk paints ........ so again the pictures drew to a halt ..........

............ until the whole thing was finally finished.

I know there's an awful lot going on with it now, layer upon layer of dodgy stencilling, the gold is subtle, but the dark blue not so. The papers now really blended into the background, so not showing to their best advantage.

Where I couldn't fit the edging stencil, I tried to copy it with a dark blue Sharpie pen (????), but that stood out too much, so I had to gently sand it down to give a more faded look ......

..... and then as if that wasn't enough, I went and added all the gold dots using a chrome marker on either side of the edging !!!!!

However, I still like it. It's not what I had in mind when I first started, but it reminds me, with the illusion of all those layers of faded paint, of an old, neglected, relic found after years of being hidden at the back of a shed, dusted and cleaned down, then bought into the house to live again in all it's shabby splendour for a few more years ............... well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

An awful lot of lessons were learned during this project, like to use the proper paint and materials, take your time but try to keep the flow going and know when to stop!  I have another small, drawed table sitting in my bathroom, ready for another go, along with another pack of paper ............. sooooooooooo onwards and upwards!!!!