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’.

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 ….

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 ~ 

 

Home Sweet Home – an Apron, using Graphic 45

One of my lovely neighbours is moving to a new home.  She put her property up for sale just a few weeks ago and it sold really quickly, too quickly for me, because I’m not ready to lose her yet.  (She has a lovely home so I’m really not surprised it sold so quickly). 

Obviously I wanted to make her a ‘New Home’ card, but I didn’t want the usual sort of ‘new home’ card that can normally be found on the mantel shelves of new homes.

So I put my thinking cap on and came up with the idea of making her a shaped card using my Graphic 45 ‘Home Sweet Home’ papers.  And here’s what my fingers came up with…

An Apron card, made using Graphic 45 Papers

Fortunately for me, I already had in my stash some Apron shaped cards, so I didn’t have to measure and cut that, it was already done.   I chose my patterned papers ensuring that the patterns were of the right size for the card and the plan I had in my head.  I used 4 different patterned papers from Graphic 45, and one paper from another brand of papers, which I had in my stash.

The pocket on the front of the apron was easy to make.  I simply drew half around a big pot of paint in my craft room and cut it out.   I added a toning paper to the top of the pocket, and then added some lovely green seam binding which I’d had in my ribbons for ages but never had the chance to use that particular colour of green.  It was a total delight to use it, as it’s such a fabulous vintage colour.

The Oven Glove (mitt) I drew out onto some card, then traced around the card in order to get a glove which matched the patterns on the card itself.  The additions of some buttons helped to hang things off the apron, and also anchor the ribbon neck to the top of the apron.

Inside the Home Sweet Home card.

Again, the inside of the card was decorated with Graphic 45 papers and I added a Recipe Card for ‘Grandma’s Apple Pie’.  Yum!

On the facing (inside) page is where I wanted to write the dedication (To/from) and the best wishes etc.  But I also wanted to add some little wooden embellishments which I had in my crafty stash, and thought they might look kind of cute, and tie the front of the card to the inside of the card ….

If you look on the ‘scoop’ you can just see a scoop of …. something ….

. . .   is it sugar?  Salt?  . . . .  Maybe Grandma seasons her apple pies with something more ‘exotic’!  Who knows.  It’s her secret and it will remain her secret.

And that’s all there was to it!

I haven’t taken it to my neighbour yet.  I’ll do that on Thursday as she’ll be busy moving on Friday.  I shall be so sorry to see her leave.  She’s an incredibly lovely lady and so kind.  I’ll miss her very much.

Anyhoo …. Here in the UK and Ireland, we have received a bit of a bashing from Hurricane Ophelia.  Although it was no longer a Hurricane by the time it reached the land of my heart and home, it still brought with it devastation and took 3 lives in Ireland.

On Monday afternoon here in the south of England, it went very quiet outside.  No bird song was heard.  Nothing.  Inside Cobweb Towers it became black as midnight and we had to put lamps on around the cottage because we just couldn’t see.  Outside – now that’s where things got a little freaky.  Everything turned, first, a warm orange colour.  But then it got darker ….  and darker …. and darker as the minutes passed until it became almost blood orange colour.   It was very strange and rather unsettling.

This didn’t look at all like a regular ‘natural’ phenomenon.   And from what I’ve read in the news this happened over quite a large area of the UK.  Apparently, in London, they experienced a double sun. 

The weird thing is … that those  ‘in the know’  are telling us that it’s dust picked up perhaps in the Sahara,  by the Hurricane, and it was being carried in the winds.  But, and here’s the thing … it really wasn’t that windy here where I live.  I had washing on the line (which was brought in when it began to get ‘orange’ outside) and it was barely wafting in the gentle breeze we had going on here.  The breeze did pick up a little – but it really was only a little.  But the orange … well I’ll be truthful and say that it felt almost apocalyptic.

The rain came later in the day, and it was a good old downpour, but not for long.   Then … just to add a bit of interest to the day (as if we hadn’t had enough) …. we lost all power to our cottage.  Mr.C popped to the neighbours and they’d lost power too, and our other neighbour had obviously lost power as her burglar alarm was announcing it’s shock and horror at what had happened!  We got the candles out, and for a time we were living back in a strange Victorian age.

Of course … the power would go just when I was three quarters the way through on a ink painting!  tsk tsk.

It’s been raining again here today (typing this on Tuesday 17th Oct.) –  a downpour again this afternoon, but turning into just regular raining after that.

Here in the South, we’ve been really lucky, and I’ve given thanks over and over, because I was seriously worried that it could have been very much worse.  But, that orange  …  that is still puzzling me.  I checked my car over today to see how much of this  “dust”  had landed on my car, and considering how orange it got outside … there was very little dust on my car.  Certainly not enough to tell the tale of what happened here on Monday.

The more I think … the more difficult it gets to understand it.  So I’m stopping thinking.

Thank you so much for coming to visit and staying to read.  I truly love your company and love to see you here.  So thank you.  Without you, blogging would be a very lonely, silent affair, and I’d probably give up.  I continue to blog because I love the wonderful people I’ve met through blogging and have made friends with a lot of them.  Of course … there are one or two who I love to pieces … but they know who they are.

Wishing you a truly wonderful Wednesday.  May you be in receipt of joy, supplied to you from someone who likes you.  May you also be free of Orange Air and Red Suns.  Avoid those.  They’re freaky and I’m really very unsure about what they are caused by.

Have a truly blessed day.  ❤

 

 

 

 

A Card with a ‘twist’: Book Marking Vegetables!

I sat at my desk towards the end of last week wanting to make something different in the ‘handmade card’ category . . .  and I came up with  A Card for a Gardener – but one with a difference.   It’s slim and tall, and stands up all by itself, just like a card is supposed to do, but if you pull on the ribbon at the top, you find that there’s a bookmark hiding inside!

pull on the ribbon and SURPRISE! something is hiding inside!

Trying to make a card suitable for a lady or gentleman, either of which gardens, seemed a challenge at first, (I instantly thought of flowers … and flowers on a card is something one normally associates with a ladies card),  but as I was gazing around my craftroom looking for inspiration, my eyes rested upon my collection of Graphic 45 and one of the Graphic 45 collections is a particular favourite of mine, it’s called Home Sweet Home.

photograph credit: Graphic 45

So … the choice was made!  The Card (base) is made out of craft card, which I measured, marked and cut to size, scored and folded, then glued all the parts which needed to be fixed together.

I then chose and fixed to the ‘base’ layer of paper – the papers behind all the adornments.  The deeper green paper on the front and back of the card (the holder of the bookmark) are from a selection of papers by Dovecraft, called Couture de Jour.  But the paper used on the bookmark itself is again from Dovecraft in their range called Floral Muse.

Distressing and inking up took place, and made everything look like it had enjoyed a good ol’ time in the garden with it’s gardening friend. (I almost feel like the distressing looks like soil covered fingerprints!)

I cut out the images I wanted to use from the Graphic 45 papers, and placed them where I eventually wanted them to be, – then leaving them there, I turned my attention to making some vegetables out of Hearty Clay.

If you haven’t already tried this clay then I can highly recommend it.  It’s easy to handle and will dry quickly – I always give it overnight, simply because I want to ensure that all the moisture has had chance to evaporate.  (You really don’t want to put wet clay on a card!).

It’s also very light in weight so it adds little to the weight of a card.

Once the clay vegetables were dry I painted them and put them on one side for the paint to dry.  While I was waiting, I fixed all the fussy cut items to the card.  Then I sprayed the dried vegetables in a quick dry glaze, and once dry I added them to the card, then turned my attention to the bookmark.

showing the back of the card and the front of the bookmark.

Again, wanting to make sure that the card could be given to a lady or a man, I chose the stamps carefully.  All the stamped images you see are Graphic 45, and from the same Home Sweet Home range.  I stamped the images in black dye ink, then hand painted them using watercolours.

showing the ‘stand’ for the back of the card.

Finally … I made a fold out stand for the back of the card so it could stand up by itself, or if preferred it could lean against a book or a shelf, wall,  etc.

trying to show the glaze I gave the card.

But . . .  there was just one last thing I wanted to do … I glazed the front of the card so that it gave it an extra sort of ‘aged’ look to it, and especially so to the craft card.  (see above photo)  It made it look like I’d found it in Grandads shed, a left over from the 1940’s.  It was a bit difficult to photograph the glaze, but the photo above was the best out of the ones I took.

And that’s all there was to it!  🙂  The bookmark can be separated from the card holder, and the card can stand there all by itself without the bookmark.  So your gardener friend or relative can use the bookmark in his/her  [gardening]  book and not lose the page they were reading , –  AND …  they will carry your inscription around with them tucked into the pages of their book!  Something which would make me smile over and over!

Actually …  perhaps we could make this card a give-away!  Yes … let’s do that.  If you’d like to enter your name into the mix for this card to be sent to you, simply add the word GIVEAWAY either to the start or end of a comment,  and we’ll give it till Thursday of this week – so the 4th of May – at 6pm (UK time), at which point I’ll get a number generator to pick a number and I’ll announce the winner on Thursday evening!  Oh … and those of you who’ve won a previous give-away, please enter if you’d like to win this card … you’re not excluded just because you were picked out before.  It’s all just down to the luck of the generator.

I can either write the card out to whoever wins …  or I can leave the card blank, and the winner can give it to someone else as a gift for their birthday.  Winners choice.  😀

Happy Monday, and …. HAPPY MAY DAY!  In case you didn’t look at the calendar this morning, today is the 1st of May 2017.  This day won’t ever happen again.  It’s the only May Day of 2017, so beg you to enjoy this day like it should be enjoyed.

“The world’s favorite season is the spring.
All things seem possible in May.”
Edwin Way Teale

I feel the earth waking up truly now.  Everything seems brighter, lighter, more joyous.  People seem to be happier too.  Oh … and the little cottage along the road has some holiday makers in it already!  I saw the people there walking their dogs earlier.  (I wanted to run off with the dogs!  Two fabulous White Highland Terriers, all snuffly and smiley).

Oh anyhoo …. I’ve yapped enough.  I shall shut up and leave you to enjoy the last gulps of your coffee.

Thank you so much for coming and having a coffee with me.  I absolutely love seeing you.  It brightens my day and makes me so happy to share some time with you.  It’s like having an open house and all my friends popping in, sitting around the pine kitchen table to share a few smiles and giggles together.  What a great way to start the day!  ❤

Sending lots of May Day love and buckets of squidges, from me here in my corner, to you there in yours.  Be good to each other and … may your God go with you.

Edit to add: —> GIVEAWAY now closed! <—

Save

Save

We have a WINNER!

A few days ago I shared  a Tag Card I’d made and thought we could have a bit of fun by doing a ‘give away’ of that actual Tag Card which you see in the photo.  If anyone wanted to join in all they had to do was to comment with the word  GIVEAWAY  in their comment, and I’d include them as being one of the people who might like to be the owner of this card.

Shown here without the easel, but the easel is included as part of the Tag Card Give Away.

Using the word GIVEAWAY typed as all one word, to enter the Give Away – meant that I could find entries easily by just searching for that work on the page.

Earlier on I closed the entries, and made a list of all the names of the people who’d entered, giving each name a number, as I went down the list of people.  These are the people who entered GIVEAWAY into their comment, along with their numbers …

1.    marijo1245 (can’t find a link for your blog Marijo – sorry)
2.    Florence
3.    PaperPuff
4.    Mrs P
5.    ChickenGrandma
6.    Artisan Duck

Then, I went to the Random Number Generator website and asked it to do it’s job and pick us a winner for the Tag Card.  . . . .  [drumroll] . . . .

And the winner is:

In case you’re not Lee Majors and don’t have Bionic Man/Woman eyes … here’s a close up of the number which was generated:

The winning number is NUMBER 4 … which means  . . .  [drumroll] . . . .  THE WINNER IS ….  Mrs P!

Many congratulations Mrs. P.  I’m absolutely chuffed to pieces for you.  I’ll contact you and let you know about sending me your snail mail address so that I can send this to you.

Well that’s our second Give Away and I don’t know about you but.. I loved it!

It’s a lovely bit of fun between us blogging friends.  . . .   and because there aren’t that many people entering, the law of chances tells us that you’re bound to win at some stage – you just have to enter.  (. . . And if you’ve seen my other post today, you can see what happens when you put your name into the mix and hope to win!) So what d’ya think?  Shall we do it again soon?

Congratulations again to Mrs.P.

Sending squidges to all of you in your corners, from me here in mine ~

A Classic in Times Nouveau, on an Easel.

I broke out the Graphic 45!  I did.  I really did.  Graphic 45 in their Times Nouveau collection, and made a Tag Card,  on a Graphic 45 large tag, and it’s all held onto an Easel which has a working stand, which ‘folds’ out from the back and holds the card like an easel would hold a piece of art work in a Gallery.  It has two hidden tags (one you can see in the picture above) and a little something special on the back, for writing the message.

I wondered if perhaps we could do another GIVE AWAY for this card – if anyone would like it.  I’ll explain in a minute how to enter the give away if you’d like to, but first … I thought I’d better show you how I made the card.

• SHOPPING LIST (roughly’ish’ – if I’ve forgotten to mention anything just point it out in a comment and I’ll let you know.)
• Pinflair Novelty Easel Card – minus the ‘canvas’
• 1 x Graphic 45 Lrg. Tag from a Regular Tag Album (9 pack)
• Kraft Mannequin from a pad of 45 (2 sizes: large, smaller, & either plane or foiled in gold and silver) by Craftwork Cards
• News Print card by Anna Marie Designs
• Olive Spot  and larger spot in black card – both by Anna Marie Designs
• Graphic 45 Times Nouveau Classic Collection – plus some chipboard tags and stickers from this collection.
• Very pale mint spot from stash.
• Tiny black with off white spots paper from stash.
• Ribbons and twine are all from stash.

How I made it:-  Take one black card tag … cover it on one side with Newsprint card,

Add a tiny piece of very pale mint spot paper, and a larger piece of olive spot card.  Making sure you leave a section for a tag to ‘hide’.  (shown by the bit of white and grey leaf card)

Add a piece of Graphic 45 Times Nouveau in the dog-tooth design.  (Again building in a section for a tag to hide in – not shown in this picture (above) but you’ll see the tag hiding place in the next photo)

Can you see where the little hiding spot is on the right hand side now?   Here in this photo (above) I’ve added some black card with very tiny white spots on it;  a mannequin which I distressed and wrapped in a little length of green organza;  I added a fussy cut rather stylish lady, which I mounted on first black larger spot card, then again on small spot card – just for the contrast;  A vintage Car – again fussy cut, but this time from some papers I had in my stash.  I then popped the chipboard ‘Swanky’ tag onto the card and pushed two pearly hat pins behind the card, so that they peeped out a the top of the chipboard tag.

Then came some finishing touches …  Added ribbon, made a bow and added netting in two colours and a couple of flower from my stash;  some tiny pearls around the neck of the mannequin and tucked some sequins into one of the folds of the organza so that they would catch the light.  I then made some little tags using both spot papers and some Graphic 45 Paper, . . .  and then came the easel for it to be displayed on  …

There is a little ‘making’ to the actual easel – but it’s nothing which is difficult.  They’re fabulous easels, and so beautifully made.  Everything is cut ready for you, and REALLY well cut too.

I had trouble lighting this card.  I tried it with the flash, without the flash, with desk lamps, with ceiling lights … and every combination of the previously mentioned ways.  I would say that the true colours are somewhere between the last two photographs above.  The one on the easel seems to have a little too much of a yellow tinge to it.  Where-as the photo before it is rather pale and wiped out by the flash I think.  It looks like it needs to be taking iron tablets.  lol

OK… here’s the  *instructions*   for entering for the give away for this card if you would like to throw your name into the mix and be in with a chance of winning it . . . .

TO ENTER THE GIVE AWAY HERE’S WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO

You MUST be a follower of the blog –  The Cobweborium Emporium. (This is because I have to keep in mind that I’ve made great friends with almost all of my blog followers and so have a great loyalty to them and would want one of them to win the card.  I think this is fair).

IN A COMMENT BELOW YOU MUST TYPE THIS WORD IF YOU WANT YOUR NAME TO BE INCLUDED  …. and that word is:-  GIVEAWAY.  ← Exactly like that.  One word.  Type it at the start or end of your comment.

You have to put it exactly like that –  one word, in capital letters.  Simple – and it makes sure that I don’t miss anyone.  🙂

And that’s it.  That’s all you have to do.  Simply make a comment with the word GIVEAWAY either at the start or the end of your comment.  It couldn’t be easier, could it!  Oh … and …   Please  DON’T  put your real name or address in the comments box.  I need to look after your privacy and security.  If you win, I’ll organise how to get your address afterwards.

To make sure that all is fair,  each entrant will be assigned a number in the ‘time order’ in which they make the comment, and  I’ll get the Random Number Generator to choose the number, and do a screen shot of the R.N.G and post it so that you can all see which number was generated.

I’ll ‘run’ this giveaway from today (Wednesday 5th October 2016), until next Tuesday – TUESDAY 11th OCTOBER, and it will end on that day at 6pm UK time.  Just a week – so that no one is kept hanging around waiting for the result. (We don’t have zones in the UK, we just have one time zone for the whole of the UK – so you’ll have to ask (perhaps) Google to work it out for you so that you know what time that would be where-ever it is that you are.)

This is open to ANYONE IN ANY AREA OF THE WORLD … so long as your country allows a card posted to you from outside your country through your customs. You won’t be asked for any postage or any monies what-so-ever.  This really is just a little fun between us friends.

Well, Wednesday has found it’s way to us all again.  I have a plan for today already ear-marked:   I’d love to show you, if you don’t already know, how to make your own professional looking Christmas Crackers.  Not from a kit …   not those kits you buy for making Crackers, which are from thin card and don’t look like proper Christmas Crackers at all.  I want to show you, if I can, how to make firstly a regular Christmas Cracker …  and then how to spice them up a little and make them into something way more special.  The problem is … can I do it in pictures?  I’ve only ever shown folks how to do this face to face, sitting next to each other so that they can see exactly what I’m doing.  And … I still don’t know how to do the video thing … and load a video onto YouTube – which perhaps would make things easier.  But … I’m going to give it a try and see if I can make it work, and hopefully I’ll be able to share the secrets with you.

So anyway ...  what are your plans for today?  Going anywhere?  Making anything?  Cooking something?  Sewing?  Knitting?  Anything?

Do share the information with me because I can then come to your blog and badger you if you don’t post the results of it for me to drool over!  🙂  lol – just joking.  Actually … no, no I’m not.  I feel, as your friend, that it is my duty to come and badger you.  So yes, I shall come and badger you and poke you with the end of my stick!  It’s a tickling stick and so will make you laugh!

If you’re still reading,  (well done),  I wish you an absolutely WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY!  May the day be bright.  May the winds be gentle.  May your day be easy.  And, until we meet again, may your God hold you in the palm of his hand.

Have a blessed day my friends,