I said last week (in The Wand of Doom post) that Little Cobs (my Grandson) and I had done another crafty project together, which I’d share in another post, and I’m here today to share that crafty project, along with some others which I started off, and he finished. All of what you are about to see were made with Little Cobs.
It all began with me mentioning that I knew that Fairies had Fairy Dragons which they rode on, and which protected all of Fairy Land from any dangers like fierce dogs or Ogres(!), and, I said, those Fairy Dragons laid eggs, from which Baby Dragons were born!
Little Cobs, naturally wanted to see a Fairy Dragon Egg. Hmm. Now I’d seen on Pinterest and on someone else’s blog, some ‘Dragon Eggs‘ which were just incredible. But … not suitable at all for a small child, as they were made from drawing pins (thumb tacks). Knowing Little Cobs as I do, I knew that he’d pick those pins out one at a time until there was a trail of them through the house!
So I had to come up with another idea. And I did. And … that original idea turned into another one, and then it made me think of something else … and on and on until … well … I’ll share the photos, and then you’ll see.
It all began with a polystyrene egg … which I painted first to take away the white (but you can get away without doing that bit, if you want to try this out). Then, using glue gel in a syringe, I fixed assorted Candi (made by Craftwork Cards) and overlapped the Candi dots, to make the ‘Dragon Scales’.
Once I’d finished fixing all the Candi dots in place, the egg looked like this ….
The glue gel needs 24 hours to dry – and unless you’re really careful, I’d suggest covering the egg with the Candi dots in two sessions. It’s not a quick to do project, so don’t think you’ll get away with it being finished in an hour. You get quicker as you get used to it … but it’s still a good couple of hours or more to cover an egg.
The egg looked impressive exactly like that – and Little Cobs loved it … but it needed some Fairy Magic to actually bring it to that special place that children love. So … out came the Buff It – by Pinflair. (one of my most favourite crafting items in my craft room – I absolutely love it!). I told my project manager (aka Little Cobs) to choose three colours of the Buff it – which took him ages, – that kid likes to change his mind a lot! lol. I gave him a cosmetic sponge and showed him how to get just a little bit of Buff It on the sponge, and gentle swipe it over the Dragon Scales on the Egg. And when we’d finished, this …. is what had happened …
He was absolutely delirious with joy at this egg. He didn’t want to put it down. He took it to Grandad so that it could be admired. He showed it to the Dog, and even to Alf Capone (one of the cats), who I interpreted for (I speak several languages – English, Dog, Cat, Horse, Rabbit and [mostly] Gobbledygook), and said that Alf was very impressed and believed that it really was a Fairy Dragon Egg – adding that Alf would know this because he played with the fairies every single day!
From there, we went on to colour another Egg I’d pre-made ready for him, this time using all Pink Candi dots . . .
… as you can see we coloured that one totally in Antique Gold Buff It – and you can just see the pink of the Candi Dots peeping out from between the scales, which kind of gives it a sort of rosey glow about it.
…. this picture (above) is of the exact same egg, but stood up (balanced on a glitter shaker lid), with a penny coin, so that you can get an idea of the size.
So, those Candi dot eggs completed, out came some more polystyrene eggs, only this time I did something totally different with them, and Little C and I coloured them up … and here’s what they look like…
This effect of a lumpy, bumpy egg came about by using a heat gun. Now if you try it yourself be aware that you have to be REALLY careful with the heat. Firstly … DON’T HOLD THE EGG IN YOUR HAND while using the heat gun on it. And don’t hold the heat in one place for too long. You have to keep the heat moving around and know when to stop heating. As soon as you begin to see a result that you like, then stop.
Little Cobs wanted to use only Pearl coloured Buff It on this bumpy egg, but I said that it might look a little boring so talk him into letting me add just little bits of colour, here and there, and blended them well, so that it looked as if it had that lustre of a real pearl – or the colours of Mother of Pearl.
My Project Manager made the executive decision of BLUUUE! (said like that too! lol) – for this egg. Again, this lovely effect was done using the heat gun – but very gently. Once we’d coloured up the egg and Little C had ‘polished’ it to a sheen, it was just fabulous… in fact, it reminded me of a Chocolate Easter Egg, wrapped in foil and waiting for me to break it open and eat!
And finally . . . I wanted to do something that wasn’t Dragon … something with more ROAR and GROWL and ARGGH! . . . and thought that perhaps I could get a result that was more grungy and pitted – in the hope of making a Dinosaur Egg!
This result came from carefully heating the egg in places for a while, then coming back and heating that bit again, then again and again – until the desired result came about. It was still bumpy in some places, but more grungy in others. I have no idea what a Dinosaur Egg might look like, but this, I decided was what our Dino Egg was going to look like. 🙂
The Project Manager decided upon brown and green for the Dinosaur egg, and to be honest, I think he chose the perfect colours for it. They really worked as Dinosaur colours.
All in all we had an absolute ball of a time with these eggs. Great Crafting projects and lots of fun both in the making of and in the colouring up.
Oh crikey! … almost forgot ... all of the papers you see in the photographs is all Graphic 45 paper – from one of their more recent collections: ‘Fairy Dust’.
And that’s all there was to it! 😀
I still have two special eggs to show you – but those will be for another time. I think I’ve kept you here long enough, and that bit of coffee you’ve got left in your cup must surely be cold by now. Shall I get you another? Or do you have to rush off?
Thank you so much for coming. Happy Monday! I hope your week ticks along nicely, with no problems which make you pull your hair out, and no troubles like finding out you’ve got the work or the shops and forgotten your purse or keys.
May an Angel pass over your house and sprinkle your home with love, peace, joy and all the stuff which will give you contentment.
Have a blessed rest of your day, and a truly lovely week.
Sending squidges ~
The Art of Cobwebs 
Oh. MY. WORD!!! Do I remember mangles!!!
My Grandma had one. The metal parts were painted bright pillarbox red, and it had long grey/white rubber rollers. I loved it when Grandma allowed me to turn the mangle handle.
She would stand on one side of the thing, with her sheets, which she had washed in her really old-fashioned top load washing machine, removed, and then folded whilst wet, and then feed them into the ‘jaws’ of the mangle
I had to turn the mangle at just the right speed – because if I went too fast and she hadn’t had the chance to make sure the folds were in the right place, then I’d get a telling off!
Ohhh, I loved the mangle!
My mother too, had a mangle – but this was an electric one which was attached to the top of her electric, top loading, washing machine. I’d been warned and warned (accompanied by a stern wagging finger) to “keep away from the mangle!” – but, it was no good. I was bewitched by it.
One day, the phone rang while Mom was about to feed washing through her mangle. Everything was set and ready for her to wring the water out of the freshly washed washing, using the electric mangle, but just at that precise moment the phone rang, so she raced off to the hallway to answer it. I was left in the kitchen, all alone, with the mangle rollers turning round and round. I moved closer to the washing machine so that I could see better. Yes, they were going round. Just turning. Not too fast, not too slow. I could see the shiny red rubber rollers moving. My fingers began to walk the walk over the metal of the washing machine. I so wanted to touch the rollers. The rubber looked as if it would be soft, and I wondered if it really was soft. Surely it wouldn’t hurt just to touch it to see? It wasn’t as if I was going to do anything to it. I only wanted to just touch the roller to see how soft it felt.
I reached up and put my fingers on the roller. All I wanted to do was just feel the smoothness of the roller.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the day that I was acquainted with a very important lesson in life: When your mother says not to do something – then you’d better not do it, otherwise an unpleasant and disastrous destiny will descend upon your head!
Or upon . . . no, – let me continue:
I felt my fingers touch the rollers. Just ever so lightly – but not enough for me to get an actual feeling about how soft or hard the rollers were, so I touched them again, this time knowing that I had to touch a little harder and leave my fingers there just a teeny bit longer.
Mistake. BIG mistake.
Those rollers grabbed hold of my fingers and sucked on them really hard. They stuck my finger tips to the rollers and then proceeded to pull them into the mouth of the mangle monster! The rollers continued to roll steadily, . . . dragging all my fingers into the rollers . . . I screamed!!
“MOM! MO-O-OM!” I yelled from where I stood, slowly being eaten by this vile dragon in the middle of our kitchen. I could feel my eyes growing to the size of saucers. “MOMM!!” Panic was setting in.
I looked back at where my hand should have been on the end of my arm, and it had been swallowed! It was NOW STARTING TO EAT MY WRIST!!!
“MOM. MOO-OM. I’M STUCK. MO-O-O-O-O-O-M!” by now I was screeching.
I could vaguely hear her voice in the distance. I knew she was still on the phone because I could hear her posh ‘telephone voice’.
I looked at where my wrist had once been, and could see that my whole arm was now about to be taken forcibly and violently into the point of no return. I was going to be eaten by this machine. I knew I was going to be squished flat and very probably dead.
The machine began to make a very bad noise. It was growling, moaning and groaning.
This was it . . . this was where my short life was going to end.
I was just about to scream the living daylights . . . when suddenly, like an Angel which had been sent from God, there was my mom coming through the door to the kitchen . . . My Mom, – My Hero! She was going to save me!
Thank you God for inventing Moms!
“HELP . . . ” I cried. “IT’S GOT ME! IT WON’T STOP!!!” … by now I was feeling the pain of me pulling against the pull of the mangle rollers. This machine was way stronger than I was.
My mother stood for a second, took in the scene like only Moms can, and instantly knew what to do. She sprang into action. Turning the machine off at the electric socket, she pulled out the plug, and instantly the growling, groaning noise stopped and the mangle became still. She lifted something on the top of each side of the rollers – sort of like a little metal cap – and then lifted the top roller out. I was free, – and . . . I was alive! ALIVE!
Not only that but . . . There was my arm! It was still there. I was incredulous! I stood gazing, open mouthed, marvelling like an idiot at the wonderment of my arm still being intact – and not at all grizzled or eaten. There wasn’t even any blood or anything!
I was feeling so much gratitude and thankfulness towards my mom for saving me from the gates of purgatory that I flung myself at her. I was going to give her the love of her life, and squish her in a big hug like she’d never had ever before in her life.
She caught me with her hands on my shoulders. One hand on each shoulder, and just for a second I thought she was going to ask me if I was ok, and then probably kiss me and hug me and love me as one would love a favourite child.
But I couldn’t have been more further from reality if I’d have suddenly found myself on Mars.
There she stood, one hand on each of my little shoulders (one of which by the way, was attached to the very arm which had just been eaten by the Mangle Monster, and so needed to be treated carefully so that it didn’t fall off!) – she bent over just slightly and . . . . shook the living daylights out of me, – and gave me the biggest telling off I’d had in my life, at the same time.
I heard exactly how much pocket-money I was going to be paying for the rest of my life if that dream machine was broken.
I heard that I should: “wait till your father hears about this, young lady!”.
And I also was told that my mom was “going to tell Grandma that you mustn’t be trusted with a mangle ever again!”
I was bewildered. Did this woman not realise the danger I’d just been in? Did she not understand that the very machine she was concerned about had just nearly eaten me alive? Surely she had to see that this very machine was evil?!
Strangely enough – it was that last threat, regarding her telling my Grandma that I shouldn’t be trusted with a mangle – which was the one that made me howl. I was sent to my room to wait there until I was told to come out again. (But quite frankly, I was in so much misery at that point that I didn’t care if I wasn’t allowed out of my room ever again! What was the point if I couldn’t roll the handles of my Grandma’s Mangle, – and even worse – I had been shown that my mother loved the Mangle Monster more than she loved me! Surely it was the Mangle which should have been thrown out. Not me!!)
Oh yes … I have fond memories of Mangles. 😀
… and yes, – it really is a true story. ~ Cobs. x