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.