Bookmarks from Clay!

I have been desperate to have a play with Fimo Leather Effect since seeing it featured on Kirstie's Handmade Christmas so I chose this for our most recent Crafterzoom session. The concept of a clay that tranforms into a leather-like material that can be sewn and cut after hardening was inticing and the stuff has not disappointed. We've only been playing with it so far but Jessica and I have enjoyed our initial experiements which culminated in these bookmarks. 

The clay can be used in the same way as other polymer clays before hardening; we experimented with marbling and dotting before rolling out our clay as thin as we could and stretching it gently by hand to add additional texture. We also stamped messages into the clay using small rubber letter stamps ahead of hardening in the oven. It takes 30 minutes at 130^oC to harden and fix into this strange rubbery material. Once this is done, it can be cut and sewn just as you would leather. I used punches to create holes and fringed a rectangle of the fixed Fimo before rolling and gluing into a tassle whilst Jessica used a paper punch to cut out a heart that she stitiched onto hers.

There are loads of ideas and tutorials online but this one, from Hobbycraft, gives you a good sense of what can be done with Fimo Leather-effect: Luggage Tag.

 

Tatting - crafting in minature!

Our Crafterzoom sessions contnued with a Tatting kit from Harlequin Lace. This one required concentration and a significant amount of practice after the first attempt. It is another craft involving knotting thread and reminded me of making friendship bracelets. The big difference is that you need the knots to stay flat and so the manipulation of the threads and shuttle (think bobbin if you sew) is really important and was the element that made this craft challenging to grasp.

As with crochet, you can work either in a line or in a ring. You work everything in double stitches, which act against each other to stop the whole thing twisting around itself. Once I was happy that I'd mastered the basic stitches I had a go at following a pattern and making a butterfly. I have not mastered this craft yet; I'm finding it hard to get the rings equal in size at the moment. However, I intend to keep picking it up occasionally to improve my skills and confidence. 

 

Diamond Painting

We've completed two diamond paintings between us now and have well and truly got the bug. I've found it to be a great mindful activity through these difficult times and have already ordered another two for us to do. 

This one used almost 16,000 "diamonds" and the resulting picture looks fabulous up on Jessica's bedroom wall. 

We've tried both round and square drills with these kits. The square drills were much more time consuming and fit so tightly that they were a bit of a fiddle. I ended up using tweezers rather than the pen for attaching them. On top of that, there were a couple of different cuts of drill with the surfaces looking very different and I couldn't decide whether that bothered me or not! The circular drills are uniform and much more forgiving in the application so we could make much faster progress. Not surpisingly, the new kits are both circular drills!

Having completed the kits, we've now got millions of them left over and I can't bring myself to get rid of them so I have to think of creative ways to use them up. Cue more card making and tiny mosaics... :)

 

Foil and Fingerprint Cards

We had cause to make birthday cards for twins a couple of weeks ago and wanted to make them matching but not identical. With left over foil from her Galt Foil Art set rubbed onto double-sided adhesive, Jessica created a cake and some balloons. We then added fingerprint flames and more balloons before stamping the birthday message.

Super simple but Jessica was realy pleased with the results...

An Old Favourite of Mine

Our second Crafterzoom craft was my choice; I decided to return to a spot of quilling with a beautiful kit from Past Times. This was comprehensive and easy to follow but this was a much longer project. We met a couple of times online and both completed the project in our own time after that. Worth every minute though. I just love the intricate detail you get in a quilled card and this was a delightful pattern to work with.

Having rekindled my enthusiasm for this craft, I was also keen to revisit the production of paper roses using quilling techniques so I went on to create an anniversary card for my long-suffering husband.

I had only ever made roses one way before but this time I tried three different techniques for making them. The folded roses are my favourite but the different styles added a bit of interest and Jessica insisted that I also include some fringed flowers. It was my first attempt at making fringed leaves, which were incredibly satisfying and the results were very effective.

 

Another Year Older

How to Train Your Dragon continues to fire Jessica's imagination. At some stage, she requested a "Night-light" cake, at which point I stopped listening to all the other requests that came because I quite fancied the challenge of modelling one of the offsprings of Toothless and the Lightfury. She was thrilled with the result; I thoroughly enjoyed making the dragon and having a go at marbling fondant icing. If you fancy giving it a go, this is the tutorial I used for the marbling: Wilton Tutorial

 

Mindful Crafts - Macramé kit

It's time to catch up again! Other things have got in the way of sharing my crafts since my home was invaded, once again, by work and schooling but, mercifully, I have managed to squeeze in the time to do some more crafting at the start of 2021. 

The first exploit of the year took the form of a macramé wall hanging kit from Mindful Crafts. A lovely, well thought out kit with clear and simple instructions, this was the perfect kit for our first Crafterzoom session (massive thank you to Hannah for initiating this - it's doing me the world of good). Jessica and I had dabbled with macramé during the first lockdown but I am most certainly still a beginner and this kit was pitched just right. It took us the evening to complete and we were both pleased with the results, I think?!

As is customary in this household, when Jessica saw my effort she wanted to have a go herself. So, out came the dowel and chunky wool and we went through the instructions again. These now hang side by side in our lounge turning slowly in the convection currents from the radiator below them. A first macramé project but definitely not our last.