Children – The Art of Cobwebs

Fairy Dragon Eggs ~ the Cobs way.

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’.

Dragons Scales Egg 1 - Half completed — Photo showing the egg, half way through the making process.

Once I’d finished fixing all the Candi dots in place, the egg looked like this ….

Dragons Egg 5 — A Dragon Egg . . . but it needed ‘the Magic!’

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 Wand of Dooom ~ by Little Cobs aged 7 (almost)

Little Cobs, my scrumptious Grandson (aged nearly 7 – as he’s fond of reminding me), has never, up till now, been that ‘into’ crafting. It was such a heart-sore to me but it was something that every now and again I’d have a play around with, at the dining room table, to see if I could spark him up and get him going. That was until last week when I asked him if he wanted to do a little painting or something … he positively JUMPED at it! So, acting upon his instructions I got various colours of paint, and bits of card, and he went off to his bedroom, (here in Cobweb Towers) coming back with an armful of Dinosaurs. “Lets do Dinosaur footprints!” he said excitedly. So … we did. We painted (with a cut sponge) the dinosaurs feet and made them ‘walk’ across the bits of card!

Not wanting to end this sudden change of craftiness, I said …. “Oooo, I know … let’s paint a proper painting. On a canvas – just like an artist does!” He was all for this … so another trip to the craft room, and I returned to the table with a small canvas – about 6″x 4″ (roughly) … and we painted birds – …. well, actually he painted different coloured splodged finger prints, and I said I would do some magic and turn them into anything he wanted – except dinosaurs (because we’d already done those) … birds was chosen – along with a special request from him of … “A SLUG!” – which we named Cecil. We left the painting to dry, I added some details to the back (name, date etc) and then sealed the acrylics lightly so that he could take it home and impress mummy and daddy. (They were by the way (impressed).

So this week I thought I’d try to get him to do something else crafty …. and … we made his very own Wand!

I’ve seen wands on Pinterest made for children, using a hot glue gun. Personally – I don’t think the making of anything using a Hot Glue Gun is child friendly. But that’s just me and my over-protective Grammyness!.

Most of you know that Little Cobs has Cerebral Palsy – which, along with other problems, can affect his hand/eye co-ordination a little, and sometimes he can be a bit shaky – hence the reason I wanted to get the main hot glue stuff out of the way. BUT … I knew we would still have to use the glue gun for fixing adornments.

He chose three different coloured jewels, a red one, a blue one and a black one, all which had one side covered in aurora borealis and made the jewel flash all sorts of colours as you moved them.

I explained that Grammy would have to fix these jewels to the wand using some very special glue and a hot glue gun. I told him that this was very dangerous stuff and only for grown ups to do – so although he could tell me where he wanted his jewels to be, I would have to glue them.

Bless his heart, he was so good about it. He sat patiently, watching – and playing with all the jewels in the pots – (he even went and got his little matchbox digger/earth mover and made a building site on the table while waiting).

Then came the painting bit – and after that …. best of all …. we added shine and glimmer, which gave it “the MAGIC!” (apparently) – at least that’s what Little Cobs said, and he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to magic. (apparently). 🙂

I gave him a little make up sponge and showed him how to gently add the glimmer and shine to the wand, in the places he wanted it to be. He had an absolute ball of a time with it. So much so that I had beautiful gold fingernails where he’d sponged me with it too.

The glimmer and shine (the MAGIC) comes from one of my favourite products in my craft room. Pinflair Buff It. Available HERE. (scroll down just a little to find where the Buff It products are listed). I use the original Buff-it rather than the liquid Buff-it. I’ve never tried the liquid so can’t comment on it. As you can see in the above photo … the buff it will ‘go’ just about anywhere. On the wood and on the glue, beads, jewels and on Grammys too! Then after a gentle polish with a soft tissue, the wand was finished and ready to wave, with a swish and a flick! (Harry Potter fans will ‘get’ that).

And that’s all there was to it!

I thought a great name for this wand would be: The Three Eyed Dragon Wand (because the jewels look like three dragon eyes peeping out) … but Little Cobs felt that he could come up with something far better … so while I went and washed my gold fingernails, young Cobs turned his Grandad into a Frog and when I got back into the living room Little Cobs proclaimed that this (waving his wand about with abandon) was … “THE WAND OF DOOOM!” – you have to say it in a deeper voice than normal and prolong that ‘Dooom’, so that it gives the listener a feeling of impending … dooom. LOL. When I said it as The Wand of Doom, I was corrected and made to say it several times until I got it right.

Some people are so bossy! 😀

We did actually make something else too ... but I’ll leave that for another day.

Well …. Happy Monday! The start of another week. Another one! Coo, aren’t we lucky that we get given these weeks, and we don’t even ask for them or add them to our shopping lists! We get them free too – which is my very most favourite price!

Thank you so much for coming and having a coffee with me. May today be a really great day for you. Remember … you’re in charge of your mood, so pick a good one!

Sending love and squidges, from me, here in my corner, to you, there in yours ~

Things I’ve Learned This Week.

Happy Friday! Last Friday of November this year. You know what that means, don’t you? ……. It means that ‘thing’ is upon us. Yes… Christmas is only four weeks and one day away! But don’t panic – we have ages yet. 29 days in fact. (not including today and Christmas day of course). Ages! Just remember to put your sprouts on a low light by the end of this month and you’ll be fine! (I think British readers might understand that little joke about ourselves, more than anyone else understands it).

But let us put away thoughts of Christmas and instead turn our attentions to Friday, because, after all, that’s what we’re here for!

Shall I share with you what I’ve learned this week? Do you have your seat belt on? Ready? Steady? GO!

This week I’ve learned: That The founder of match.com, Gary Kremen, lost his girlfriend to a man she met on match.com! How embarrassing, but fantastic is that? It’s sad, but it proves that the site actually works.

I also learned: The sun’s core is so hot that a piece of it the size of a pinhead would give off enough heat to kill a person 160 kilometres (over 99 miles) away. Can you believe that? A tiny piece like that? WOW!

I learned this week that: the shortest war ever fought was between Britain and Zanzibar on August 27, 1896. Zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes. (You can read about this if you want to find out what this was all about, HERE)

I learned a very important lesson this week, that being: … Medically – you shouldn’t ever ignore a symptom. If something isn’t quite right or doesn’t seem or feel right, you should get yourself to your Doctor and not hang about. Hanging about can make a problem worse. So look here you lot!…. Do as I say, not as I do!

Oooooo . . . This one tickled the heck out of me:-

I learned this week that until 1913, children in America could legally be sent by parcel post. I can’t see a problem with this. It’s an economical way of travelling and I think we should all do it! I bet it would be cheaper than buying an air ticket! (nooo… I’m only joshing with you! lol)

Ohhh, and this one sent me off on a totally different thought pattern .. Did you know that if you drilled a tunnel straight through the Earth and jumped in, it would take you exactly 42 minutes and 12 seconds to get to the other side. Again … another cheap way of travelling. I think Walt Disney ought to look into this. They could make it into the ‘Worlds Biggest Slide’, and charge people to experience Time Travel just by buying a ticket to: ‘Travel on the World Slide‘. We could all visit Australia (or wherever the other side of the world is for you where you live) just for the day. Travelling time to go there and back would be just One hour and 24 minutes! It would be a Walt Disney Spectacular! (Those Airlines would soon be putting their charges down and bringing back those good old-fashioned seats which gave paying customers leg room and comfort!)

And here’s something I learned this week which I absolutely loved …. When he enlisted in the army, J. R. R. Tolkien’s son Michael put down his father’s profession as ‘Wizard’. Ohhh I love this sooooo much! It tickled me in just the right place, I think perhaps because our girls talked it over when they were little and decided, that I was The Magnificent Mad Madam Mim – from the Walt Disney film: The Sword in the Stone. I don’t think they saw her (at their tender ages) as being an antagonist or wicked person – but more of a slightly crazy but kind of loveable woman who made them giggle.

However … ‘pet’ names sometimes live on, and for daughter No.1, who is now approaching her mid 30’s, I am still and probably forever will be: “Mim”.

Of course, I always showed mock horror and denied that I was anything like her. “After all,” I said, .. “I don’t have Purple Hair!”.

And finally …. Friday wouldn’t be Friday if I didn’t share a few jokes with you which I’d learned this week!

What key won’t let you through any doors? ……. A turkey.

Why do bees hum? …. Because they don’t remember the words!

What key would open a banana? ……. With a monkey!

What’s white and sits on the TV at night? …. *click and hold the click and roll your cursor over this area here to see the hidden answer → A fly in her nightie.

It has four legs and it can fly, what is it? ……. do the same again, click, hold the click and roll your cursor over here → Two Birds!

How can you tell you have an elephant in your bedroom? …… By the big “E” on his pyjamas.

How do you measure a snake? ….. In inches. Snakes don’t have feet.

Why did the elephant wear green socks? ….. Because the red ones were wet.

Why did the elephant swim on his back? ….. So his green socks wouldn’t get wet too.

What is black and white and waits on the washing line? ….. find the hidden answer by holding the click and hi-lighting here → A fly in a wedding dress. ← (you didn’t see that one coming, did you! LOL)

Thank you so much for coming and sharing a coffee with me. This week has been an adventure of learning, and I’m sure that you’ve learned some stuff this week too. If you’d care to … I’d love to hear about whatever you’ve learned this week too. Just tell me in a comment, so that I can come and spend some time in your world too, and see how your ‘education’ has, like mine, grown this week.

This weekend … waste some time. Hard working people never waste time on frivolous fun-filled activities. Yet, for hard-working people, any time spent this way is far from wasted. So one of my wishes for you this weekend is to waste some time. Grab your coat, and a friend or partner or dog or the children, and go out and have some frivolous, fun-filled time doing nothing but enjoying the freedom. If it’s raining, have a tea party in the house with your little ones, and if you don’t have little ones, then go and visit a friend who does, take some little cakes and biscuits (cookies) which the little ones would love, and tell them you’ve come for a tea party. Really throw yourself into it.

You’ll be the bestest, most loved, fun-filled uncle/aunty/grammy/granddad etc, etc, that they ever knew, and you, in turn, will have had one of the most enjoyable few hours, ever!

Of course … if there are no children around to have a tea party with … then have one with a friend or two! Make, bake or buy cakes, set the table and get your friends over for a tea party, and just to have some fun. Of course … you could also have a Beer and cake party if you’re a chap. Or … how about visiting your parents and taking the tea party idea to them as a surprise?!