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!

 

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...

 

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!

 

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.

Unicorn Baubles

I've turned my attention to my sister's tree now; her style is somewhat different from mine! I have to admit though, these have been my favourite baubles to create this year and I'm really pleased with how they've come out...

These are made from fillable baubles, which means that the glitter is all enclosed! Jessica and I painted the inside of the baubles with clear PVA glue and poured in the glitter. She also helped me make the horns from Fimo Soft. I then painted the eyes with acrylic paint and made the ears from card before using my cool glue gun to put it all together with a few ribbon roses and crystal flower to finish them off. We've made four large and two small unicorns and I can't promise that Sarah will get all six because I think Jessica is going to love them!

More Animal Baubles

The tree is up but that doesn't mean that we've finished making baubles for the year. No, no, there's always room for more. 

There's nothing festive about a fox but I don't care, she's so cute...

I also painted a far more festive robin. They are both created using polystyrene eggs, acrylic paints and the tails and ears are painted card attached with my cool melt glue gun. I love that glue gun so much! 

Snow Globe Baubles

So, this is what we did with our Christmas tree and snowman figures from yesterday. We glued them to the base of fillable baubles and added a scoop of artificial snow and glitter to create fabulous little snow globe baubles.

We also used a miniature gold bottle-brush tree to do the same thing, which will look stunning on our tree but has far less charm and character than our entirely homemade ones above!

Needle Felted Christmas Pudding

Bungay Christmas Market was full of wonderful ideas last weekend. Whilst I'm afraid I couldn't bring myself to pay the money the stall holders were asking for their own decorations, I did come away with loads of lovely ideas for decorations I could easily make myself. There were lots of different baubles based around the humble Christmas Pud to be seen and they used all manner of techniques. So, I couldn't resist having a go at my own needle felted one...

Painted Penguin Baubles

I spotted this one on Kids Craft Room and thought we'd give it a go. I had a couple of cardboard baubles from Baker Ross left over from last year so we used them along with acrylic paints, googly eyes and orange felt for the feet. 

Needle Felting Baubles

I'm slowly picking up the pace with my Christmas preparations. The shopping's nearly all done, the important food and wine are ordered so it must be time to start thinking about some new tree decorations. My favourite baubles to make are created using needle felting. Here's the one I made this evening...

I use styrofoam balls as the core of my bauble and fuse the wool roving onto the ball using a very scary multi-barbed needle. I find the process very therapeutic and I love the results. Now that I'm back in the swing I'm nearly ready to tackle the polar bear felting kit that I picked up from Hobbycraft at some point. Keep your eyes peeled! 

Fillable Baubles

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas! I have bought fillable baubles from both Hobbycraft and Baker Ross this year. I have to say, not only are the Baker Ross ones cheaper but they also lock together much better so I won’t be using Hobbycraft ones again. I’ve filled 18 baubles with pompoms, bells and various Christmas sprinkles to share between our tree and my sister’s. Hope she likes them!

   

   

 

Knitted Baubles

These beautiful baubles were created by Lib as part of our Christmas present this year. Now I’m definitely going to have to actually put our Christmas tree up next year. Homemade baubles and homebrewed beer – well done and thank you, Mr and Mrs Haigh!