Experiments with fabric, ribbon and patterned paper remnants to create a series of cards.
Wonky houses
Craft
Resin crafts
Resin that cures in uv light is super easy to play with and the ‘Let’s resin’ kit got me hooked.
Key rings, pendants, earrings and embellishments galore.
Boring safety stuff aside (gloves and mask essential) I love this. And walking round craft and jewellry stalls at local markets I realise how many other people do too.
Thank you Frugal Crafter for the suggestion
Upcycle jars – using die cuts
Inspired by a sizzix promotion, I upcycled a plain jar into a rustic summer vase.
Assorted die cuts were glued on the clean jar with mod podge. I then used an old tester pot of emulsion paint to cover the jar. A light touch of metallic finish – gold finger by daler rowney – and a sealing coat of mod podge made it a useable vase.
What I learnt: (1) Three coats of paint were needed for an opaque finish. (2) Impatient as ever, I used a heat gun to dry the paint which lifted a couple of the die cuts a little. Actually a happy accident as it added to the rustic effect. (3) less is more with the metallic finish and you can’t take it away if you put too much on.
Die cutting felt
Time to use some felt scraps. decided to make some badges to brighten winter coats to stuck the layered flowers on felt circles and then stuck on badge pins sandwiched with felt rectangles for stability.
This is a very frugal activity using up old badges and taking miniscule scraps of felt. So while I have supplies out I am going to make embellishments for lavender bags etc. And happily nearly all dies designed for paper seem to work on felt – including the bee and butterfly – although the stamens die does create very flimsy results.
While I used hot glue for these, a more refined approach would be embroidery to fix flowers to the backing. I have used a few French knots here but really enjoy how quickly these come together.
Now to go through my dies to see what other little felt shapes I can cut…
Macramé, well sort of
Step three of a Christmas project involves making a hammock for a stone, (completed project reveal after Christmas) so I tried my hand at wrapping using v basic macramé. might try this for wrapping sea glass with thinner wire next.
Dressing up for video calls – Badge and brooch bonanza
I wear a different brooch each day – I have a collection – but wanted some extras right for the times, so made some quick pin ons for all those upcoming virtual get-togethers.
These involve clippings from salvaged thesauruses (thesauri?), quotations and discarded dictionaries that have been glued (mod podge) onto card and then stuck (glue dots) on to pins.
Sellotape and safety pins will also work as these badges will have a short, indoor life. I might also embellish with buttons or sequins at some point. Depends how much time I can find in my busy schedule!
Papercraft society, feb 20. One for the boys?
Vinyl records upcycle
What to do with a windfall of old records?
Unplayable, unloved and now upcycled into a fruit bowl.
Pre-heat the oven to medium hot then balance the record over an upturned bowl and bake it for about 4 minutes until it has draped itself over the bowl creating the folds and contours you see here.
As you take it out of the oven you have a few seconds to manipulate the hot vinyl a bit before it cools.
Ok, not food safe and there is a hole at the bottom but it is FUN and I used the album cover to make a presentation box. Yes, some lucky person is getting this for Christmas.
Use what you have wreath
A huge donation of crafty stuff set me up for months of playtime so I decided to use some of the flowers in a decor wreath
I cut a disc of cardboard from the recycling bin and wrapped it with wool before hot gluing flowers around. To keep balance I visualised the wreath as a clock face positioning flowers roughly at the hours but clustering them in odd numbers.
I kept going until the wreath felt full then gifted it to the lady who gave me the wool stash in the first place. Happy 90th!
Felt piggy bank
While the felt and googly eyes were on the table, I remembered this Pinterest inspired ‘to do’.
In practical terms, bigger is better – this one wouldn’t hold many coins, but I was pleased at how easy it was to make from some of my Ali Express little felt squares.
I sketched the outline in pencil direct on the felt then cut it out on two matching pieces of cheap, stiff, nylon felt before zig zag stitching around the coin slot and edges. The googly eyes were stuck on with collage medium.
It might be fun to make a suitcase or flag shaped one for someone saving for a holiday; car shaped or Christmas tree shaped or …
janecrafts 