Sea glass art

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I have a stash of sea glass collected from the beach during my morning dog walks. I was inspired to use up some of the smallest fragments by artwork that I saw in a Cornish souvenir shop. Clean and simple appeals and I knew I could do this but without the title that they artfully scribed on theirs. Mine will have the beach name written on the reverse instead.

I cut a stencil from card and spread some Distress Collage Medium matte glue through the stencil directly on the canvas/textured paper before positioning the glass pieces like a jigsaw. Once dried I pulled off the stencil and the job is done.

I prefer the fish in the smaller photo frame and still have lots of glass to use up once I decide on other shapes. Do they have to be beach related?

Book page pockets

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01A9F173-04DE-42F0-B022-293982075ED7Four pages from a proverbs dictionary and a few moments at the sewing machine…

glue pairs of pages together at the very edges (so you don’t get glue on the needle later on)

trim one set down by about a third for the front and chamfer the edges of the back set so you can later fold it over

if decorating now is the time to stamp or stick, here I stamped in black then outlined with distress crayon which makes it look layered

sew across the top of the shorter front piece, clip front and back together (don’t pin or you will make holes) then sew all the way around the edge

now fold over the flap

when you have filled the envelope you can seal with double sided tape or a glue dot as you choose

 

Clean and simple cards for men

~ guernseyjane ~ 2 Comments

The hardest cards to make…

The greetings were printed from the laptop on photo paper. The metal embellishments did all the work on those cards. I cut out the stamped flintstone image with the scan n cut, coloured it with whatever pens came first to hand and stopped myself embellishing beyond a few enamel drops.

I stuck to my objective of making at least two similar cards at a time and now have some masculine cards ready

Easiest dinner menu …

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Must remember how very easy this was to prepare so am posting …

Starter: Asparagus Spears wrapped in streaky bacon and oven baked, serve yourself butter and parmesan on the table

Main: Chicken and chorizo bake (thighs, chorizo slices, halved new potatoes, oregano, lemon and onion), green beans or salad on the table

Dessert: Affogato (expresso coffee shot over vanilla ice cream), ratafia biscuits optional

(pictures cobbled together as were the actual recipes I followed)

‘No pill – ache ease’ rice pad

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4B6C132C-48C1-43C6-BD82-315CFB9F5A0BA quick and easy sew that is very practical…

1. cut two rectangles of a cotton or fleece, any size that suits you. Hand or forehead size about 4” by 6”, neck size a bit wider, up to 12” by 8” for a big tummy comforter.

2. With right sides facing,  sew along the edges of both long sides and one short side. A small seam allowance is fine as long as you don’t leave any gaps. Start and finish 1” inch from the end to give yourself wriggle room at step 7

3. Turn right sides out and press. Fold in a half inch hem on the remaining raw edge and press.

4. Sew a straight line along the middle of the rectangle from one closed short side to the open short side, again stop 1” from the open end

5. Sew two more lines, each equally spaced between the centre line and edges so you end up with three parallel lines that form four tubes in the fabric.

6. Fill the tubes with rice that is scented with your choice of essential oils. I chose peppermint and lavender but whatever you have that will soothe and relax you. Fill to create a firm pad but don’t fill over the end of your lines. You might want to pin or clip the open end closed to avoid rice spilling out.

7. Sew closed the remaining edge closed.

I keep my rice pads in sealed bags until needed and then pop them in the microwave for 30 seconds bursts until warm then hug until aches are soothed.

Heat transfer vinyl, easy peasy

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8D83804E-25EF-444D-9282-F7F3F1EE39AFRescue an old t shirt, make a fancy dress effort with minimal expenditure, make gifts a bit special or just personalise your stuff. I love htv ( makes me sound professional using the acronym doesn’t it?).

I bought a sampler pack on amazon which has more than enough useful colours (black and white most used) and lots of brights I might use up one day…

The cutting machine is vital though, so -for this project for a themed party – I found some squiggles on lovesvg.com and used a scan n cut font to make my statement.

Because htv comes with its own carrier sheet  for when you are ironing,  make sure to reverse any text image before you cut. I also do a test cut to make sure I am cutting on the right side as it can be hard to spot with the naked eye. And pressure is usually -2 on my machine.

Once cut, weed off the vinyl you don’t want, place vinyl side down on your garment and iron on. I use a towel inside the shirt and a pressing cloth ie a bit of cotton between hot, dry iron and carrier sheet. Let the vinyl cool before you try and peel off the carrier sheet, if there is resistance iron some more. That is all.

 

Key Ring Pocket – ideal for Mother’s Day

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These little pockets fit on your key ring and usefully hold a lip balm or some pooh bags or emergency fiver. I made a bunch of them with co-ordinating tissue pockets (see post from 2015 A-tishoo! A tissue …) for a sweet little handbag accessory gift. The original idea came from Lorrie Nunemaker but I simplified her project a bit.

All you need is a piece of fabric that is 5″ x 9″ plus a 2″ square for a tab that will slide on your key ring. If your fabric is lightweight cotton interface the main piece then fold it in half  (right sides facing and iron it so you have a piece that is 2.5″ x 9″.

Sew around the open edges with a 1/4″ seam leaving a turning gap between 2″ and 3″ from the top.  Clip the corners and turn right sides out then iron flat again.

Now make your tab by ironing the 2″ square in half opening it out and ironing two sides towards the centre fold and then folding in half again so you have a strip that is 1/2″ x 2″. Sew around the four sides of the strip with a narrow seam.

fold the tap in half and push it inside the turning gap  left in your main piece as shown

Now fold the top down to about 1 1/2″ from the bottom to form the pocket

In this picture I have now rotated the fabric 180 degrees – I didn’t poke out that corner very well did I?

Now sew around the sides and top with a tiny seam allowance to finish the pocket and fix the tab in. Take it slow over the tab as it is quite bulky.

If you have KAM snaps this is the time to use them, if not some old fashioned poppers or velcro tabs would work as alternative  fasteners.

Bonus for middle aged users: the brighter the fabric the easier it is to find your keys at the bottom of your handbag!

Oil pulling experiment

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Another experiment that seems a bit wacky… swilling coconut oil around one’s mouth for a few minutes to help remove plaque.

Proponents say that using a teaspoon or so each day is good for mouth health so I thought I would try it. I like coconut oil so wasn’t expecting to gag when I put the cold oil in my mouth and started to swoosh it around a bit like a mouthwash. But the gag reflex soon passed and it became an inoffensive taste to work with.

While swooshing for the suggested 10 – 15 minutes I decided to look up the possible downsides (why not do this beforehand I hear you ask?) and found that inhaling or swallowing could be problematic and that many people recommended keeping the swilling to 3 minutes to avoid dryness afterwards. So I didn’t inhale or swallow and spat out after a few  minutes.

OneGoodThingByJillee suggests adding tea tree oil to the oil to boost the benefits but I am keeping it simple for now.

The research I should have done beforehand also suggested that there aren’t any proven benefits beyond plaque removal and possible halitosis or gingivitus avoidance but just in case the whitening  – without the risks of enamel damage – and remineralising claims are right, the plan is to do this twice a week.

 

 

 

Mini gift basket

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A quick cut project using  the scan n cut based on Applelover53 berry basket (free from her blog cut files).

Ready for Easter or biscuits or to present home made goodies when filled with crumpled tissue paper. I used red liner tape to fix the two top ‘holding strips’ to the sides and the handle to the basket but it won’t be weight bearing. I also added a little felt tag tied to the handle as I have a pile of them to use up somehow …

I guess you could devised your own pattern and hand cut – pieces shown below – but I am grateful to find the file ready to use. For this version I used some Kanban light card which has a two tone pattern on one side and is plain on the other.