2020 calls for DOUBLE stockings!

Hanging hopefully on Jessica's wardrobe this evening are a pair of stockings that tell one of the many tales of 2020. This is a story of plans made, excitement built and then everything changing at the eleventh hour. 

Jessica and I were supposed to be in Wales with Dad for Christmas this year and so we had prepared for a double Christmas – one with Grandad and then another with Daddy. Two Christmas mornings surely must mean two stockings, right?!

I had made Jessica’s crocheted stocking for her first Christmas. I’m proud of it and I could never replace it but I do wish I’d chosen my wool to be Christmassy and that I’d actually thought about how I wanted it to look. So, one idle evening (yes, I do occasionally get one) I thought I’d break out the Christmas fabric and make a new patchwork stocking especially for this year at Grandad’s.

Fast forward to Christmas movement being restricted and Wales going back into lockdown and we’re back to a single Christmas at home but we’ve still got two stockings! We were also let loose with pompom makers this evening, so each stocking is now fully accessorised and ready for anything that the Christmas of 2020 can stuff inside!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Painting Bauble Fillers

Yesterday was a painting day. After finally finishing painting the kitchen walls (I started in August!) I got out my finest brushes and turned my sights on painting and touching up bauble fillers from Hobbycraft. 

The small wooden cottage and pine cones took a while to paint but I'm so happy with the results. I created a little scene in this unusual fillable bauble with snow and a tiny log pile. Here is it hanging proudly from our tree...

Jessica had chosen a small resin cat to use in a bauble a few weeks ago. We decided to use cotton wool as a snowy base with a few glittery snowballs scattered around. We then glued some snowflake confetti shapes to the inside of the bauble and painted some snow dots on the bauble along with some snow detail on the top and around the edges of the opening but they are difficult to see on the photo below. The cat benefitted from a little touch up with acrylics and I added some snow on the ear and tail tip just because I could!

We've got several other resin figures in my Christmas supplies but I think I'll save them for next year now. It doesn't do to add too many new decorations each year!

 

All About Crackers!

I've made my own crackers for years and years. It was something Mum and I started together. She would buy some lovely little gifts for us and I would make the crackers to put them in. I'll never forget the year that we put a beautiful silk scarf in Nan's cracker - it was not very well received but her response was priceless! 

Anyway, we used to buy cracker making kits that included everything else you needed - precut templates, snaps, jokes and crowns. In the last few years I've just used snaps bought from Hobbycraft and have used cardboard tubes wrapped to form the cracker but I had a bit more time on my hands this year so I decided to try making them properly. I used a template from Mr Printables, which worked really well. I printed one copy, which I have laminated to keep. I then used this template to make a dozen crackers and will keep it to use for years to come. 

All that remains is to see if they actually snap properly on the day itself! Fingers crossed...

 

Encaustic Baubles

We got adventurous over the weekend and tried a new technique for decorating Hobbycraft's ceramic baubles - hot wax painting (encaustic art). We used our encaustic stylus to melt and apply the wax, which seems to have adhered really well to the ceramic surface. Although time-consuming it was very satisfying and we were both pleased with the results. My photos don't really do them justice but here are our chunky wax painted decorations...

 

Miniature Modelling

There are times when Jessica takes advantage of my keeness to craft and I start to question my sanity. Last weekend I found myself modelling all sorts of things from polymer clay and hot glue for her Sylvanian families. It was therapeutic and Jessica was delighted but surely there were better things I could have been doing with my time!

It all began with making bowls of cream for the cats...

These were moulded around small marbles, baked and then filled with hot glue "cream". Jessica then decided that they needed remote controls for their television and a ladder to reach their top bunk in the caravan. Naturally, they also needed a new set of tiaras as well. 

 

Perhaps this weekend Christmas will arrive in the Sylvanian town and I'll find myself making tiny rrees, lights and tinsel!!! I will not be giving these ideas to Jessica; we're going to be far too busy finishing Christmas gifts.

 

A Very Merry Christmas Craft Weekend

We may be out of lockdown but it's December so Jessica and I spent the weekend crafting at home. Some of our crafting was for Christmas gifting so I won't share those bits yet but here's what we've been up to for ourselves...

Our little snowman is made from cork, wire, acrylic paint and embroidery silks. Super simple, aside from the fiddly nose, and so cute - he looks great hanging on the tree.

 

I did some needle felting on Friday evening whilst catching up on "Kirstie's Handmade Christmas". I had a polystyrene base to felt onto but it was quite thin so this was a bit more challenging than usual and I had to be extra careful of my fingers. I also squeezed in a bit of time to make my own little wreath. I opted for a "less is more" approach and kept it simple. I opted to use wire rather than hot glue to attach everything so I can easily make adjustments in future years. 

Finally, Jessica and I have been pottery painitng AGAIN! I can't share her efforts but I was really pleased with my little gnome / nordic santa. I'm now praying to the kiln gods that he comes out how I'd like him to!

Pine Cone Rudolph Decoration

This little fellow is a make from a few years ago that I seem never to have shared although I love him. This under five minute make has felt ears, googly eyes, a ruby red pom-pom nose, twig antlers and the ability to make you smile year after year when he comes out of storage!

 

Jessica's Christmas Wreath

It's certainly beginning to feel a lot like Christmas this week. I can't remember the last time we saw snow so early in the season and just a short walk around the neighbourhood yielded 65 houses with Christmas lights up last Sunday. Our tree went up on Thursday and out came all of our window ornaments, Christmas pictures and this wreath that Jessica made last year. 

She made candy canes, stars and bells from polymer clay and riffled through my suppliers to find ribbon, skeleton-leaves, ribbon flowers, bells, wire flowers, pine cones and pom-poms. She used a blank rattan wreath from Hobbycraft and carefully designed it before giving me the instructions with the hot glue gun! It would appear to have survived a year in storage and is now hanging in pride of place in the conservatory again for a few weeks. 

Inspired by Linda Lang - Part 2

Whilst we waited for David to return home with shaving foam yesterday I thought I'd reacquaint myself and introduce Jessica to encaustic art. This is a craft I haven't picked up for decades but the friend I used to enjoy doing it with, who now lives in New Zealand, gifted me her childhood supplies the last time I saw her and I'm delighted to be putting them to use now. 

The general idea is that you create pieces of art from beeswax mixed with pigment. The wax blocks are melted using a low heat and applied to special paper. We learned to use the iron first, applying the wax directly to the iron and then wiping it across the paper. Then we discovered the joy of making patterns in the wax by applying the iron and lifting it from the paper as if hinged to the table.

 

Once these basics had been understood we turned out attention to the stylus with it's two knibs and one metal brush attachment. You put the knib into the wax, which melts and is drawn up into the cavity of the knib where it is stored as liquid colour and released onto the paper as you write or draw as you would with a normal pen. It's brilliant! 

 

I was so impressed with the way Jessica handled the tools. She thoroughly enjoyed her afternoon working with melted wax and even managed to create tiny wax penguins on her homework piece, again in the bottom right hand corner...

I also wanted to share the paper she had for getting used to the wax and tools and practising the techniques. I think it's rather beautiful...

We had such a lovely afternoon that I've put some new encaustic waxes and papers on my Christmas list ;-)

Inspired by Linda Lang - Part 1

One of Jessica's homework tasks this week is to recreate a painting by the artist Linda Lang, whose work they have been studying in school as part of their current topic "Ice". Invited to use a medium of their choice, Jessica opted to depict Watching the Iceberg Calve in two ways - shaving foam marbling and encaustic wax art. She spent hours on these this afternoon and they are worthy of separate posts so I'm going to just look at the marbling for the moment.

We hadn't had a huge amount of success with shaving foam marbling before but the swirls of ice and sea on the painting were screaming out to be marbled so we gave it another go. This time we got it right and it was a lot of fun so I thought I'd share our simple steps...

1. Squirt shaving foam into a shallow tray (an old baking sheet is ideal), lather it up and spread it out.

2. Slacken down some acrylic paint with a little water and drip onto the shaving foam. I have also read that liquid watercolours and food colouring work well.

3. Use a skewer, cocktail stick or similar to swirl the paint around in the foam. You can do this one colour at a time or add all of your colour in one go and swirl altogether.

4. Place your card or paper on top of the foam. You will need to gently but firmly smooth the paper down all over to ensure contact and transfer.

5. Lift the paper off and scrape the foam off, holding the paper down and scraping from one side of the paper to the other. An old credit card is ideal for this but anything rigid with a flat edge would do. Make sure you have something to put the removed foam into so that you can clean the scraper between strips.

6. Allow to dry off and use to make greetings cards or just enjoy the pretty patterns. Jessica added the finishing touch of three penguins in the bottom right hand corner to complete her Linda Lang inspired painting. Can you spot them?!

Pottery Painting Party

2020 has not allowed for many children's parties has it?! However, we were lucky enough to be invited to celebrate a special friend's birthday in October via a Zoom Pottery Painting Party, which we joined from Wales. Using kits from Blue Owl we enjoyed a fabulous morning of painting and games. Jessica kept diving off to go and check on the subject that she was painting, Dad's cat Monty, and I created a #DrawWithRob inspired coaster. We collected them post-firing this weekend. So pleased with them!

These paint at home kits have been one of the positives of lockdown and 2020. I have loved getting the blank pottery and paints to bring home. It has meant I could spend hours designing and painting pieces in multiple sittings. It's been excellent therapy and we've now got quite a selection of unique pieces in our home as well as a few gifts ready for our Christmas giving.

 

Photo Pearls Tiger by Goliath

When Jessica was shopping with Christmas money back in January, she spotted a craft kit in Homebargains that was right up her street. A Tiger made from 3600 picture beads at a brilliant price - it was a no-brainer; we had to have this one! In the kit we found beads, 4 square peg boards that nterlock, double-sided adhesive squares to fit the pegboards and very clear, large patterns to follow. The beads are just like Hama beads but you don't iron your finished piece; the adhesive sheets can be used to mount your tiger on card, board or something similar.

It was a really enjoyable make for us both and we love the end product but it was not without it's issues. Firstly, the kit comes with the beads mixed into just 2 bags and it was a significant struggle to seperate the colours (which are incredibly similar) and determine which shade matched each description from the instructions. Once we had completed this challenge it was plain sailing until we were close to the end when more than one shade actually ran out, leaving us with gaps at the bottom and a problem to solve. This image below shows the extent of the issue...

In the end we did the best we could to fill the spaces with spare beads from the kit along with our Hama and Hobbycraft picture beads. We managed this well enough that I don't think you'd know we'd had a problem but it was frustrating after so many hours working on the project together. For the pennies that they must cost to produce I really feel the manufacturers should ensure that there are a few spares of everything - there really shouldn't be any risk of people being unable to complete their picture.

So, I'm undecided whether to recommend these or not. We paid about £7 for it and I'd happily pay that again and do another one myself but I'd do it expecting to have problems. On the other hand, I couldn't give this as a gift knowing that it didn't quite work properly for us. If you do decide to give them a try I'd love to know if you have the same experience as us - perhaps we were just unlucky...

The Christmas Craft Cupboard is Open!

That's right - we're beyond October half term, so it must be time to crack on with some Christmas crafting, surely!! As a result of returning to teaching and struggling to adjust to a new work-life balance we didn't do much for Christmas 2019 but I have built up a huge supply of blanks and bits in the sales over the past two years so we've certainly got enough to get us through this lockdown comfortably! 

Today we kicked off with polymer clay modelling. Jessica wanted to do a Christmas tree and snowman (again) but I think we might be ready to try something like a penguin next time! 

These lovely little creations are destined to hang on our tree in fillable baubles looking like little snow globes. We've got a few different options for the shapes and sizes of baubles and for the accompanying filling matter currently in my stores from places like Hobbycraft and Poundland and haven't decided exactly what form they will take yet but here's the general idea...

With the remaining warmed up clay, Jessica decided to also make some little marbled pendants in unusual shapes. I love how simple rolling and folding creates such beautiful effects.

We use Fimo Soft, which is smooth and easy to blend. The colour does bleed onto hands and surfaces so you have to be slightly careful and be prepared to clean your workspace between colours if you need to keep crisp colours and brilliant white. It's a lovely activity for everyone and I'm always surprised how far a little block will go.

Centenary Banner

Last summer was Woodford County High School's centenary. Despite it being a few years since I had last set foot in the place I was absolutely delighted to be called upon to add to the fabric of the school once more! The school ran a competition to select a design team of about a dozen students who designed the banner that I ultimately created. It was a lovely experience to work with the students in this way. It's so different trying to make the visions of other people happen. They had the vision and the ideas whilst my role was to guide them in what could be crafted on a fabric banner and then ultimately make it happen. 

They wanted the golden ribbon to flow from the old, traditions into the modern 21st century school that they are proud to attend. The new Maths and Science building along with the observatory where key features whilst they wanted to incorporate the House colours and the green surroundings of the school which remain incredibly important. They wanted their community to be represented by a circle of hands and mark the school being named "London State Secondary School of the Year". Finally, they wanted to include an element of recycling, requesting that I use an old school shirt as part of the top band.

Here's a closer look at some of the individual elements...

It was a complete pleasure to create and an honour to be asked to do it. Countless hours, two banners and three window seats - WCHS I think that's probably your lot!

I'm back!

It has been such a long time. Things have changed; let's face it, the world has changed. It's a challenge to fit anything in for myself around work, being Mum and other commitments but crafting remains incredibly important in my life. Fortunately, Jessica continues to share my passion so whilst I struggle to complete my own projects I get my fix sharing moments with her as she starts her creative journey through life. 

In these crazy times, with long, dark evenings ahead it feels like the right time to start sharing on here again. Like so many others, I have struggled to maintain a healthy work-life balance in 2020 and I'm desperately hoping that this additional focus will help address it. It's almost time to crack out the Christmas crafts so there will be no shortage of material to share!

For now though, here's a little glimpse at the kind of thing we've been up to recently (aside from all the mask making) ... 

We absolutely love our local pottery cafe, Blue Owl. Before starting school we used to go to a Storytime session but these days we love a Paint-at-home kit. I love being able to spend hours designing and painting my pieces. I lost count of the number of hours this pasta bowl took! 

Jessica was incredibly proud of the cushion she created for her teacher as a thank you present back in July. She enjoys using my sewing machine, making clothes for herself and blankets for her toys. Needless to say, she's a huge fan of The Great British Sewing Bee.

Crafting for her toys and imaginative play motivates Jessica to try new things and create some beautiful things. This hot glue waterfall was a quick, simple but incredibly rewarding little project earlier in the year. It is currently used in play with her Schleich animal collection.

I'm afraid she has also developed my habit of having multiple projects all on the go at the same time. We've both got cross-stitches, latch-hook cushions and diamond paintings on the go on top of patchwork, figurine painting and paint-by-number kits.

There are a few big projects that I have completed but not shared yet and I have been seeking mindfulness in drawing so there are plenty more posts in the pipeline so please, don't be a stranger. Come back and see what else we've got to show you!