New Fairy Dragon Eggs, & meet one of the makers!

A hundred years ago ….  Ok, I might be exaggerating just slightly there. Let’s begin again.

Last month (February) I shared some Fairy Dragon Eggs that Little Cobs (my grandson) and I had made together.  They were a smash hit with him and he loved them.  So much so that I thought that while he was so enchanted with them, perhaps we could make just one or maybe two more, and enclose them so that they were protected, and (more importantly) they wouldn’t get lost or damaged.  So I put my thinking cap on and came up with the perfect idea.

Little Cobs comes for a visit on Tuesdays.  We collect him from School and he comes to Cobweb Towers for a bit of fun and his tea.

So on the previous day,  (Monday),  I made two tiny eggs – one around 2.5cm tall (just under an inch) and another approximately 1.25cm (which is little bit under half an inch), which I made from Hearty air dry clay, as I wanted them to be light in weight, and quick to dry.

Hearty Clay comes in a variety of colours, and they even have a super lightweight clay which would be fabulous for card adornments which have to go through the post.

The following day we went to collect him from school and, once he was safely ensconced in the car, I told him that I had got two tiny Fairy Dragons eggs in the house, and wondered if he would like to make them look amazing, since he was now considered an expert at Fairy Dragon Eggs.  He was all over the idea and didn’t stop talking about it all the way home.

He bounced into the house, hung his coat up, and was waiting at the table before I’d even managed to take my own coat off!

I stupidly didn’t bother taking photo’s of the undecorated eggs, because I thought “everyone knows what a white egg looks like” – but am now wishing that I’d have taken a photo of them,  next to a real [chicken] egg  –  so that you could see the size difference.  They looked exactly like eggs from the smallest chicken in the world!  Even the little chap said over and over how cute they were. Bless him.

I put out all the ‘Fairy Colours’ of Pinflair Buff-It, and told him to choose the ones he wanted to use.  He wanted them all.  (Thankfully I’d left the pots of ‘duller’ colours in the drawer).

I got out a selection of [cheap – pound shop] cosmetic sponges and put one on top of each of the Buff-it colours and he went to town.  He needed no reminder of how to apply the colours, and was so delicate and gentle.  Finally, when every last bit of both eggs was covered in the magical colours, he took a tissue and gently ‘polished’ them and made them shine and glow.

The Magical Eggs shone, and his eyes shone and twinkled as he gazed at them.

I then produced something which caused him to gasp.  A tiny miniature ‘cake’ stand and matching dome.  I told him that we were going to put these eggs inside the dome and then seal the dome so that no one else could ever touch them, and, even better,  they would never get lost!  “They’ll be sealed inside the dome for alllll eternity.  For ever and ever and ever!”  I said. (trying to sell him the idea because I thought he might not ‘see’ my vision).  He saw. He loved the thought that he would be the only person who knew what these eggs felt like in his hand.

By the time we were ready to put the eggs into the dome it was almost time for him to go home, so I said that I could do that bit, he just had to show me where to put the Fairy Dragon Eggs inside the dome so that I got it perfectly right.  He put them on the stand, and then carefully put the dome on top.  He sat at the table and looked . . .   then gave me a whole new set of instructions of exactly how he wanted things done:

“Grammy – they need petals.  Flower petals.  On the bottom, and the eggs on the top of the petals.  Like in a nest.  You put petals on there and then the eggs on the petals”.

He looked deep into my eyes to see if I understood.  I smiled at him and repeated what he’d said, pointing to the cake stand top, to show I knew where he meant the petals to be.  He seemed satisfied that I understood.

Daddy arrived to collect him, and the last thing Little Cobs whispered to me was: “Don’t forget the PETALS, Grammy!”.   Bless his beautiful heart.  He melts me every time I see him.

I did exactly as I was instructed to do.  I didn’t forget the petals:

It was stupidly difficult to photograph the Fairy Eggs when they were sealed inside their dome home, as the light kept bouncing off the curves.  But I did manage one which isn’t great – it’s a bit dull and flat, but it gives a slightly clearer view:

That’s a penny in the picture, for reference

As you can see . . .  I didn’t forget the petals.  😀  lol.

In the end, I loved the look of these so much that I’ve decided that I’m going to make some for myself. They look so impressive in real life that I just HAVE TO!

When he came on the Saturday, he fell in love with his Fairy Dragon Eggs all over again. He took them home at the end of the day, and his mummy (daughter No.2) told me a couple of days later, that the Fairy Eggs had barely left his side since he’d taken them home.  He was carrying them around with him everywhere he played.

I promised, in the title of this post, that you could meet the maker . . .  and you shall…

We’ve had snow here in Dorset in the last few days, and obviously, like all children do – Little Cobs wanted to play in it … and his mummy took photo’s.  She sent me some in a text message … and although I’m extra mega careful of sharing photographs of children on-line,  I asked, for the first time ever, if mummy would mind if I shared one of the photographs on my blog, so that you could see the little chap who I’m totally nuts about … and mummy said yes!

So here, with an enormous amount of pride [which bursts out of me like rays of the brightest sun, shining through every pore on my body], is my fabulous Grandson – Little Cobs…

photograph not for reproduction – altered or otherwise.

…  I’m totally dotty about this child. He’s an incredibly handsome little chap.  The product of a very pretty mommy (daughter No.2) and a very handsome daddy (son-in-law, husband of D.No.2).   But …  he has my eyes – the same colour of Hazel, with the same flashes of gold dotted randomly around the iris, which really show up when he’s happily excited about something.

This isn’t the end of the crafty creations that he and I have made together over the past couple of weeks.  I still have one final thing to share – but that will wait for another day.

Thank you for coming and sharing a coffee with me.  Wishing you a happy rest of your day. 

Love . . . 

 

 

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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 ~ 

 

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 ~

 

 

 

A card for Aunt Beulah . . .

I heard that another of the cards I’d made for a blogging friend who lives in the USA arrived on time for Christmas and so I can now share the card with you.

I know that to some of you, you might think that I’ve made the same card that I sent to someone else, (Rabbit, at The Rabbit Patch),  but I haven’t.  (see below) 

I made a card for Rabbit at The Rabbit Patch – which had a similar look about it – but it was different, and the insides were completely different from each other too.  This was the card I made for Rabbit – which I shared with you a few weeks ago:

… this (above) was the card I made for Rabbit – at The Rabbit Patch – but it’s completely different from the card for Aunt Beulah.  The flowers, the pearls, the leaves, the backgrounds – everything is different.  Even the hanging hearts are different.  😀

But this (below) is the card I made for Aunt Beulah . . .

All the cards I made for blogging friends were made using things which had something from my home about them.  On this, Aunt Beulah’s card, – the little Pine Cones – came from my garden, where the four 100 foot tall pine trees in my garden had dropped their cones.  (I reckon those trees are in a competition with each other to see which one of them can trip me up and leave me flat out on the decking!  tsk tsk).  Of course – I had the professional help of my assistant,  Little Cobs,  in the collecting of the pine cones, and he was paid his pocket-money for helping.  (He’s going to end up with more money in his money-box than I’ve got, at this rate!)

The background, wooden planks ‘look’ paper …. well now that’s actually cut from a spare roll of wallpaper.  I have this wallpaper on the wall behind my big wooden bed in the bedroom.  I kept around half a roll of the wallpaper  *just in case of some accident or other* – and I wanted to ensure that I sent a little bit of ‘me’ in the card,  so I cut a square of the paper to make the card look like it was a timber wall.  It’s great paper, as it has a texture of old wood.  Very soft and gentle, but it does have that look about it.  (I have no other wallpaper in my home – just that on the one wall.  I saw it and fell in love, so ordered it there and then!).

The hearts were all handmade by me out of very light weight clay, and coloured up using Buff-it,  which is made by Pinflair. (Highly recommend this product – I would use it on every card if I could – I love it soooo much!)

The string of red pearls are pearls that I used to use on one of my own Christmas Trees, but every time someone walked too close to the tree, those pearls would jump off the branches in an attempt to make an escape bid for the floor … so I said ‘no more’ and decided that I wouldn’t use them again.  I didn’t know what I was going to do with them, but I took them to my craft room and squirreled them away in there, knowing that at some point, I would use them.  And … I did.  For the first time – I cut a length off the long string and decorated the card for Aunt Beulah with them.  I antiqued them up a little using some silver wax – which I simply rubbed on with my finger, to give the pearls a shimmer.

The flowers, red and white berries and the dried corn …. etc,  all came from my stash of flowers, and I touched them with a little ‘snow’ and dusted them with ice crystals to make them twinkle.

Finally … I stamped the sentiment onto a length of card which I manipulated so that it bent and ‘travelled’ over the page in a pretty way,  – popped it into a memo pick and fixed it to the card.

And that’s all there was to it!

I was SO relieved to hear that the card had made its way to Aunt Beulah, and that she liked it.  If you would like to find out why I love this fabulous lady so much, please just click on her name and her blog will open up in a new window for you.

Aunt Beulah ~ thank you for the wonderful reads that I find on your blog.  Thank you for the thoughts, the smiles, the joy and sometimes even the tears.  Thank you for being the person you are, for the person you are is totally incredible.  Sending you much love for the New Year, and wishing for you – contentment.  May a blanket of contentment come to rest upon your home and wrap itself around your heart and life. ~ love ~ Cobs. xxx

Thank you too, reader, for being who you are.  I thank you for coming and spending time here with me on this blog and hopefully enjoying the read too.

Happy Tuesday.  May your day be bright and may the sun shine enough to melt any snow that’s hanging around, and melt the ice on your car windows.  May you find something to smile about, and may love wrap itself around your heart and keep you warm inside.  Even if it’s only the love I send you here….  because love is love is love.  It’s all good!

Take care out there …  much love and plenty of squidges ~

Believe in the Magic . . .

In a comment on my last Fairy Dress bit of artwork (an A.T.C. – you can see it  HERE  –  it will open up in another window for you),  I received this message … or maybe it was a letter … 

Dearest Cobs,
I would like to place my order for a lovely fairy dress in my size. I would also like it to have a bit of magic in it so that it makes my size be about 5 sizes smaller. And if I’m going to ask for some magic I should also like the feathers to be completely functional so that I can lift my skirt and fly away whenever the mood strikes me!
Sending you the fluffiest of fluffy feathered blessings!
~ Tami

Well, this young lady didn’t discuss colours, she only mentioned feathers, and a magical dress which would make her look at least 5 sizes smaller.  But … I don’t think it would be small enough for a real Fairy Dress in Fairyland … so I’m going to have to wave a Magic Wand over Miss Tami and simply change her into Fairy Size.  However, I have made her a dress which has a feathered skirt, – the feathers of which have been kissed with colour by a Kingfisher as he flew past.  As Fairy Tami flies, the feathered skirt will simply brush away from her legs which will allow her to land easily.

The Fairy Wings are the most beautiful of feathers …. but they’ve been died, cut and tinted to make them look like a butterflies wings.

The Skirt …  has been adorned with Diamond like Crystals, which can also be found on the bodice, at the centre of each flower.  The Bodice was all hand painted.

Above the Fairy Dress is a crown of gold ….  again decorated with Diamond like Crystals, and placed at a slightly jaunty angle, as I feel that Miss Tami would wear her crown at a slightly jaunty angle to show the fun side of her character.  (And believe me, that gal has a MAHOOSIVE fun side!  lol).

Although the four photos might appear to be exactly the same, they actually aren’t.  I tried my best to show the little details of this card so had to use different lighting in the hope of drawing attention to things so that you got a full idea of the whole card.

The Fairy Dress and Wings are mounted on an 8″x8″ plain white card blank.  The Teal colour around the edge is actually called Aquamarine, and is made using one of my most favourite crafty products – Pinflair Buff-it.  I LOVE this stuff and have it in about 8 different colours.  You can buy it direct from  Pinflair HERE –  I’ve shopped with them for many years now and cannot fault their service.

After I’d applied the Buff-it and polished it to a shine,  I then applied wriggly lines of glue all over the card and added very fine glitter dust to that glue.

I fixed the Dress and Wings in place;  fixed the crown at a jaunty angle, and finally fixed the word ‘believe’ to the bottom right hand corner – which I’d printed onto some thin white cotton.

And that’s all there was to it!

I do hope Miss Tami likes it.  Of course… she’ll have to have a fitting to ensure that it fits OK, but personally .. I can’t see a problem.  I think it will fit like a glove.

All that’s left for me to say now is ….  I hope your week is going well and that it’s not too hot, nor too cold where ever you are right now.  Here … well it’s a little humid in my cottage, but I’m sure it’s like that for a reason …  and being England, the weather will change if you blink so I’m sure it won’t last for too long.  (Although it’s three days here in the South Coast, and I am getting just a little fed up of feeling like a wilted flower).

Have a wonderful day, whatever you’re doing.  And whatever you’re doing, be nice.  Smile.  A smile costs nothing, but it can change a person’s whole day.

Squidges, from me here in my corner to you there in yours.

A moment lasts all of a second . . .

. . .  but the memory lives on forever.

 

I made a card based around one I saw in a magazine a few weeks ago.  It was the sentiment they’d used on the card which struck me and I wrote it down in my note book, hoping to use it at some stage.  I went on-line to check that this sentiment didn’t belong to a crafting company – a stamp or something like that,  and it didn’t  – (yay!).

I printed the sentiment and cut it out using an oval die from a set bought  a while back from Tattered Lace.

The card is pretty much self-explanatory if you look at the selection of 4 photos in this post.

The papers I used are from a selection of left-over scrapbooking papers – the two different prints were originally from the same book of papers.  I layered them up on top of a soft rosey pink paper to pick out the lovely pink in the roses, then onto white card.

Made on a white 6×6″ card – the front of which I scored down the centre and folded it back on itself so to give that an extra dimension to the card. The oval sentiment is mounted onto the folded front of the card.

The adornments – the roses, the star, and the Angel bunny inside the card, are all from a selection of Tilda adornments, which I’ve had for ages.   I tied a bow of pink satin ribbon from my stash and . . . .  Voila!  That’s all there was too it!

Once I’d figured it out, and chosen the papers I wanted to use, – the actual making of the card was really quite quick.

Well …  It’s Wednesday again!   I’ve not liked Wednesdays very much since I was at school. 

On Wednesday (when I was at school)  we had:-  a whole morning of Cookery.  Loved Cookery!  Then after lunch we had Double Geography (which I didn’t like),  then a lesson of History – which I quite liked,  and finally, at the end of the day, was a Double PE  (physical education).  Having PE  at the end of the day  Was. A. Nightmare! 

Our [meany] PE teacher wouldn’t end the lesson until five minutes before the end of school bell rang.  This meant that we had to: Get stripped off;  take showers;  get dried;  get dressed;  and get out of the door and run the length of the playground and to the bus stop,  all within those five minutes,  or the chances were that we’d miss the bus and have to walk home.  She was a real pain and wouldn’t listen to us when we begged her to give us ten minutes instead of five, to wash, dress and get out to our bus.  Hence …  I hated Wednesday, and after a gazillion years of not being in school, I still have that ‘droopy mood’  feeling about the day.

What about you?  Do you have any day that you don’t like very much?  Or days you remember from school which you didn’t look forward to?  Do tell and share with me.

Aaanyhoo …..  Wishing you a truly lovely day.  May the weather be warm, may the wind be gentle, and may you get out of school in time to catch your bus!

Sending squidges from my corner to yours ~

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The First Christmas Card of 2016

I finally did it.  I jumped in and made my very first Christmas Card of 2016.  I don’t in the least feel anything like it’s coming up to Christmas, but there was a little niggle forming inside me telling me that I really should do SOMETHING,  and I think it was simply because other blogs have all started featuring their own Christmas cards.  It kind of made me feel like I was being a total lay-about.  Like that pupil in school who never turned in their homework.

So I did my first Card for Christmas this year …  but with a twist.  It’s not the normal ‘opening’ card with four sides (front, open left, open right and then finally the back).  Nope.  This one is made on a great big post card (as you can see) which measure 21cm long – or for those of us who still work on the fabulous, can’t be beaten, original measuring system in the UK – that’s 8.25inches.

The Post Card doesn’t open up.  Instead I cut a stand for the back of the card which folds out, and makes the card stand up all by itself.  If you can’t imagine what this looks like …  go back to your school photos, the ones which came in a mount.  On the back of those mounts was a fold out stand, with another little bit to it which then folded down, and locked the stand in place.  Well that’s exactly the same as the stand on the back of this card.

I totally forgot to take photo’s of the making, apart from one .… so this is all I’ve got to show you how it all came together …  so I’ll try to tell you, but if there’s anything I miss or anything you want to know, just ask away in a comment.

I began by tearing up some corrugated card, and then some paper which I’ve had in my stash for a while, pale beige with white snow flakes on it.  I distressed and inked the paper and fixed it onto the card next to the corrugated.  Added some Polyfilla in appropriate places and in order to give it all that frost appearance, I added, to the Polyfilla while still wet, some Mica Flakes;  Chunky glitter, and some very fine glitter dust.

I used a mixture of Polyfilla (yes the type you use on the walls – but buy the flexible Polyfilla in the tube – so that it doesn’t crack and flake) and in some places (along the top) a little dimensional paste, in order to achieve the snowy, icy look I was after.

The Father Christmas ‘postage stamp’ you see in the top right hand corner, is a stamped image, which I stamped onto some brown paper and then fussy cut out.  Then added the white berry twig, twisted into a wreath.

While that all dried I used some Buff It  (by  Pinflair) in red and gold, to the sleigh.

I cannot recommend Buff It highly enough.  It’s a fantastic product, which you use very little of, and mix it with a tiny bit of water.  If, while you’re working on your project, the Buff it on your plate, or tile or glass mat, dries up, you simply add another little tiny drop of water, and it all starts working again.  It dries super quick.  You then buff it with a soft cloth (I use a dried baby wipe) and it positively gleams!  You can find it HERE on the Pinflair website.

Then I began to build up the elements . . .  using the holly and berries (which are made from felt), and the red tinsel (which I curled) along the bottom.   The Poinsettia flower and leaves are made from a set of dies – (which I bought from a fellow blogger about 3 months ago).  I cut the flower itself out of red card, but the leaves were cut from three different shades of green card.

I wanted everything to have that crisp, icy look,  so after I put the flower parts together, I dragged a tiny bit of dimensional paste around the edges of some of the petals and leaves, and using some Tonic Glitter Accent in Fresh Snowfall I ‘iced up’ the flower & leaves.  This Tonic Glitter Accent in their Fresh Snowfall,  is ‘like’ a Stickles (only in a much bigger bottle) but this particular one, in the Fresh Snowfall, is very thick.  Very sticky, and sets hard.

While everything was drying I made some ‘gifts’.  These gifts took me ages!  Bits of paper and card.  Tiny bits of bakers twine. Sticking the paper down without sticking the whole thing to my fingers!  Ugh!  I popped the presents into the sleigh then turned my attention to making ‘snow’.

I found some fabulous little tiny round dots which twinkle like a million stars, in The Range (in the UK – sorry to folks in other places) when I went shopping last week and fell in love with them.  I wish I could show you how fabulous they are but I can’t get a photo of the twinkles.  They look more like sequins in the photos, but they’re really nothing like them at all.  So so lovely, and, would you believe, all made from a tiny bit of plastic.

I added Christmas Red Stickle ‘berries’ to the wreath surrounding the Father Christmas stamp and some Red and Green ribbon and string bows at the left hand side of the card.  A metal silver charm in the shape of a snowflake hanging from the berry wreath, and some more red tinsel around the seating area of the sleigh.  Aaaaand  that’s all there was to it.

So there you have it  … I’ve made my first Christmas Card!  I have no idea who I’ve made it for as I didn’t have anyone in mind while I was making it, I just knew I wanted to make a Christmas Card on a big Vintage Style Post Card, with a sleigh on it and some tinsel.  After that I just kind of winged it!  But have to admit that when I stood back and looked at it once finished,   I loved it  …  and hope you like it too.

Have you made any Christmas Cards yet?  I’ve done a little Christmas Shopping, but making cards just …. well, it still feels too early for me.  Tell me what you feel about it.  I’d like to know that I’m not alone in this feeling … but I’m starting to think I am.  eeeek!

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A Fairy captured in a Fairy Jar

 

When you capture a Fairy, you capture a moment in time.  For you don’t actually capture the Fairy herself (or himself), what you’re actually catching is a fairy shadow.  You see … a Fairy moves far too quickly to be caught in a jar, for no sooner have you got her inside the jar, than she’s popped out before you’ve even managed to even think about putting the lid on!

And back in the room again … (smiling here) ….  Well I said that I’d like to make another Fairy in a Jar, and so I did.  Only this time I remembered (mostly) to take photographs of each step as I did it, so that means this post is a little photo heavy, so because of that I’ll try to keep the talking to a minimum and just give you the point by point things which will explain what you’re looking at or need to know if you’re going to make a Fairy Jar yourself.  Get ready… here we go….

I found a lovely new jar in Mr. Cobs shed which  I swiftly took ownership of before he noticed it was gone,  he kindly donated (cough) and I decided that this would make a fabulous fairy jar.  I assembled everything which I’d need and began.

In the beginning  …. the was a jar.  A nice, clean, unused jar waiting to be loved.

Add grass (of the card kind) using glue to stick it in place … only …  this is where I found I’d run into a problem.  I couldn’t get my hand into the jar.  This is a very important point:   MAKE SURE YOU CAN GET YOUR HAND INTO YOUR JAR BEFORE YOU BEGIN.

• If you’ve found a jar which is narrow necked and too long for you to reach the bottom using your fingers, or tweezers … then may I suggest that you buy some extra long tweezers before you begin.  You can find them in .. Pet stores (particularly ones which sell Lizards or food for Lizards).  Or you can find them on Ebay, or at some Kitchen/Cake making supply stores.

 

I didn’t have extra long tweezers at the time I was making this Fairy Jar,  so I did my best with what I had.  (And made an unholy mess too! – see inside the jar!)

Because this particular jar wasn’t straight sided down to the bottom it meant that there was a gap between the bottom of the ‘grass’ and the base of the jar (which would have let the light shine out and it would have looked odd) .. I remedied this by twisting a little bit of black tissue paper and glueing it in place.  Again … a mess happened, but I used glue which dries clear so I knew that it wouldn’t be seen once dried.

While the glue dried, I turned my attention to the lid ….

I didn’t want a shiny gold lid,  but wanted something which looked old and almost creaky, so wanted to ‘rust up’ the jar lid. I used a tried and trusted method, using Rust-it, made by Pinflair which always gives great results.  One coat works well, but two coats really takes it to town!  (And each coat dries really quickly – so you’re not hanging about all day for it to dry.)

Two coats of Rust-It, and it looks like I found it in a good old-fashioned English, secret, walled garden. Perfect!

Although it was now lovely and old-looking, I wanted to give it a little something to make it more special….

Glitter Paste by Pinflair, in Aqua and Copper.  The paste looks thick when you open the lid but it’s a lot more ‘fluid’ when you start to use it.  It spreads very easily, so apply a little at a time as it goes a long way.

I missed taking a couple of photographs at this point as I got carried away with myself … so I’ll have to catch you up with words … 

By this time you should have chosen your fairy and are ready to add her to your Fairy Jar.  Simply choose the position you want her in and then using an instant fix glue (we call it Super Glue here in the UK.  It bonds in seconds and can be used on paper and glass amongst other things).  This will hold your Fairy in place.

Once you’re happy that she’s not going anywhere …   you’re ready to adhere some tissue paper to the outside of your jar.  You can simply use PVA glue for this, and just one sheet of tissue paper. (one sheet thick – if you need more tissue to go around your jar, obviously use more.  But only one sheet thickness).

Spread PVA over part of your jar,  (make it a full bottom to top section, but not covering the screw part where the lid fits, obviously) then lay the sticky part down on your sheet of tissue paper, lifting it up straight away, otherwise the glue will quickly make the tissue tacky and it will stick to your work surface. eeeek!

Do this all over your jar, in sections at a time, until you’ve covered the whole of the jar.  Allow it to dry.  (Give it about an hour).  Then you can begin decorating the outside.

Add some magic to the outside of your jar using glitters and anything else you feel will give you the result you want.  Here you can see that I’ve used a mixture of Pinflair Ice Diamond – which is really chunky type glitter – but it’s not twinkly like normal glitter.  It’s got a fabulous magical feel to it.  I also added just a tiny bit of Pinflair Snow Dust – just to give the outside a sort of crisp look.

For this jar I tied string around the neck,  however you can use ribbons, straw, or anything which gives you the look you’re after. (On the previous Fairy Jar I made, I used a hessian ribbon – which I loved. You can find that jar on the Cobweborium blog).

Then …  add your flowers … or anything else you’d like to have on your Fairy Jar.  You can personalise it in a gazillion ways.  Whatever takes it in the direction you want it to go!

There are many things you could add to your Fairy Jar.  Here, on this, (2nd) Fairy Jar, I’ve added a ‘Key to the Land of the Fae’, and a tiny vial of ‘Fairy Dust’, which has been corked and then sealed with pink wax.

The Key to the Land of the Fae, and a glass vial of Fairy Dust.

One side of the Fairy Jar ….

The other side of the Fairy Jar …  but … this jar has a secret ….  and it’s on the back …

Hidden within the jar isn’t just a Fairy, but it also hides a Fairy Wishing Tree!  On the outside of the back of the jar, I added some nature, some nurture and some love.

Time to add a little magic.  Shall we?

 

The inner light, although magical looking, is made by T.Lights.  BATTERY operated T. Lights.  Please, please don’t use real candles.  Paper, card and candles don’t mix well.  Only ever use battery operated T.Lights inside Fairy Jars.

The Fairy Wishing Tree, lit from within.

The side of the Fairy Jar …  but do you see what I see?  There is one light at the base ….  and another light half way up the jar.  How can that be?  Is it floating?  Is it … MAGIC?

If you’re making a Fairy Jar for yourself,  you’ll find that it’s best to use smaller fairies as the lights from your T.lights will only shine and flicker at the base of your jar.  However, I wanted to use a larger fairy,  so had to figure out a way to let a light shine further up the jar.  I could have bought some of those short lengths of craft lights – a little like Christmas Tree Fairy Lights – only made for crafters and operated by battery,  but I wanted that warm glow that you get from a candle so … I found a way of making that happen. ….

I made a little gizmo out of Florist’s Wire, which I loosely wrapped around the ‘flame’ of the lower candle and then supported another candle which kind of hovered about it.  I’ve taken more photos from other angles so that you could see how this wire frame works…

Make sure, if you make one of these, that you bend the end of the wire at the top so that you don’t put your hand inside the jar and get stabbed by it.  It would be jolly painful!  So bend it over and make a sort of handle so that you can easily lift it out of the jar to turn the candles on/off.

Photo taken from ‘underneath’  showing how the wire is bent under the upper T.Light,  to support it.  Then shaped around the outside of the T.Light and over the top, and around the ‘flame’ to anchor it.

Photo taken from over the top of both of the candles.  You can see that the candles pretty much line up, and also how the wire extends over the top of the candle and wraps gently around the flame to just keep the wire in place.

This wire support isn’t made of stiff wire, but it’s ‘bendable’ wire,  so take a little care when using it.  But if you knock it out of shape when you’re turning the T.Lights off and on, then you can easily just fiddle with it to make it stand up again.  Once you get used to the way it needs to be bent, you’ll get the hang of it.

I loved making this Fairy Jar and particularly loved the little roses I chose.  They were exactly the shade I was thinking of in my mind, and as if by magic … there they were!

Well that’s me done and dusted.

Hope you’ve had a good weekend, and that your week ahead turns out to be a happy one without too many problems or struggles, and that any problems you come across aren’t anything which you can’t handle.

Thank you SO much for coming and sharing some time with me.  I so enjoy your company.  Please feel welcome to leave a few words via a comment, and I promise to reply.  I love your comments as it gets us all chatting to each other, and other people reading get a feel for what you’re like and will want to come and visit your blog too.  It makes blogging world go around so well!

If there’s anything which I’ve forgotten to mention and you’d like to ask about, please ask away.  I’m more than happy to help if I can.

Well all that’s left for me to say is … Have a  truly Blessed rest of your day!

Sending crafty hugs  . . .

 

 

 

 

They’re all coming for Christmas Dinner!

Continuing with my easy and  ‘low-cost to make and on postage costs’  Christmas Cards, – made using Card-io Stamps, stamp ink pads and a bit of imagination.  Today we’re feeding the birds their Christmas Dinner.

All the photographs can be enlarged by clicking on them – but don’t forget to click ‘back’ to come back to this page to carry on reading!

I love this card as it has some humour built into it somehow.  It makes me smile when I look at it.

To make:  I began stamping the garland towards the top of the card,  using a twiggy stamp,  and a berry stamp – to which I added a little red by colouring over the berries with a fine tipped red Staedtler pen.

Then I ripped a sheet of cheap copy paper in a wiggly but straight(ish) line and angled it on top of the card in the place where I wanted a snow-covered hillside in the background  to be.   Using three colours of Versa Color ink pads I ‘made’ the sunset  by blending first the lightest yellow colour, using a cheap cosmetic sponge – over the edge of the torn paper.   I then added a soft shade of yellowy orange to the centre – blending it outwards so that the colour began to graduate.  Finally I added a tiny touch of a deep warm shade of orange, again blending outwards so that there were no ‘edges’ to the three colours, but a warm glow.  Voila!  A sunset.

To make the blue sky over to the left hand side of the card, I did the exact same thing as making the sunset – simply blending (this time) two colours of blue.

Next came the sentiment closely followed by stamping the bird houses/feeders.   I added the trees in the background, and birds on the bird boxes, individually.

I ‘framed’ the whole  scene by hand drawing a pair of wiggly, barbed,  lines around the edge of the card.

Then came the fun stuff …  the Snow!

I took this photo at an ‘odd’ angle so that I could capture the snow to show you where it was.  I used Pinflair glue, and added Pinflair Snow Dust to make the snow on the hillside, and on the tops of the bird houses/feeders;   around the bottom of the post on the one bird house/feeder and along the ledges.

I also added more ‘snow’ by using a Graph It marker in white.  Using it as ‘snow falling from the sky’ by dotting carefully and gently over the scene, and also adding little strokes to the garland so that it looked like snow had collected on some of the twigs.

And that, as they say, is all there is to it!

I really enjoyed the making of this card, it came together so quickly and was such fun.  (I was watching Judge Judy at the time – so I’m astounded it turned out well at all.  Judge Judy is SO acerbic and caustic, she has me hooting with laughter.    I’m quite sure that I’d get it in the neck from her for doing that – so please don’t anyone tell her or she’ll ground me for a week!  LOL)

Whilst I’ve got your attention:  those of you who were waiting for my ‘Craft Product I Recommend’ blog post about Card-io Stamps – it is in the pipeline, and there is a reason that it’s not on the blog here yet, which you’ll find out about when I actually post it.

Thank you so much for visiting and staying with me for a while.  I SO enjoy your company.  I always feel like you’ve come and joined me at my kitchen table, and shared a coffee with me while we’ve had a good ol’ chat and a few giggles about crafting.  Perfick!    (lovers of Pop Larkin;  author H.E. Bates;  Darling Buds of May, will ‘get’ that word:     →  but for those who haven’t got the foggiest notion of what I’m talking about – replace ‘perfick’ with ‘perfect’).  😀

Have a truly magnificent Monday!   In fact, I hope it’s  PERFICK.  ♥  love  ♥ ~

The night before Christmas . . .

I loved making this Christmas card.

I wanted to make some night-time Christmas cards  . . .  but I wanted ones which weren’t the typical  ‘cottage with the lamp in the window’ views, nor the:  ‘Santa driving his sleigh across the moon’ type of thing.   These sorts of card are really lovely, pretty cards.  But they weren’t what I had in mind to make.  I wanted to make something more ‘edgy’.  Christmas night sky – but with a difference.

Made using only Card-io Stamps for the images on the card.  I began by first making a mask for the moon – which I cut from a post it note, using the sticky part of the post it as part of the circle, so that I could attach it to the card without any fear of it marking the card when I removed it.

After getting the moon in place, I then ‘put in’ the snow drifts and then stamped some trees.  I added the birds flying in the sky, and then chose a black fine tipped pen and drew a swirly line around the left hand side of the card and across the top.  To this I ‘pegged’ some stars, (in three sizes), some hearts and some Christmas Trees.  The hearts I coloured in red, the trees in green,   and the stars:  I coloured some in icy blue;  some in Gold glitter from a Glitter It pen, and some in sparkly Silver, again from a Glitter It pen.

 

I then added ‘snow’ to the snow drifts – using Pinflair Glitter Glue and Pinflair Snow Dust.  (see close up, above, of a section of the card so that you could see the Snow Dust).  I then took a fine tipped glue pen and added some tiny dots of glue, which I sprinkled some glitter dust on to make twinkly dots in the sky.  Finally, just to finish the night scene off, I used a Graph It marker in White, to add ‘snow’ dots to the scene.

And that, –  as they say in some of those TV shows,  –  is all there is to it.

This card was seriously simple to make, and I really like the way it turned out.

I pretty much think I’ve told you everything I’ve used to make this card as I was walking you through what I did to make it.  The only things I think I’ve left out are:  I used Whisper Archival ink pads in three shades of blue and also in a sage green (only the teeniest bit of this).  I also used Ranger Archival Ink pad in black, and used Staedtler fine liner coloured pens to colour in the trees, stars and hearts.  Finally – the glitter I used was from a collection of glitters by WOW.

If I’ve missed anything and you want to know just ask using the comment box.

Thank you for coming and visiting.  I’m always so thrilled when I get visitors, and even more chuffed beyond measure when someone leaves a ‘like’ or comment for me, so please feel free to comment away!

Wishing you a thoroughly lovely Thursday.  Have a good one!   ~ love ~