Felt and clay cacti

Hello! I have mostly been working on granny squares lately (in light grey, dark grey, and black; Death Stars do not have the most inspiring colour scheme!) but I did finally take some photos of the cacti that I made at the last crafternoon my friends and I had. Huzzah!

 We used a tutorial from A Beautiful Mess for the felt cacti and a tutorial from Darby Smart for the clay.

Both tutorials were very simple to follow, although unfortunately A Beautiful Mess didn't include any patterns for their cacti. We drew our own, but patterns would have been nice to have!

Gemma, Catherine, Miriam, and I made clay cacti as well as felt but we all ended up taking our projects home to finish them! I gave mine two coats of Americana Multi-Surface Satin paint (which I am quite impressed with so far!) and then added the spikes by dipping a rectangular brush in white paint and gently pressing it to the surface of the cacti.

 

We did managed to finish quite a lovely contingent of felt cacti on the day, and Gemma, Boulder, and Miriam also sent me some pictures of their finished projects ^___^

Gemma ended up making not one, not two, but three pots of cacti! I love the purple flower on her little round clay cactus ^___^

 

Boulder (yes, I know her from Roller Derby, why do you ask? ~___^) went seriously hardcore and made a little companion to go with her tall cactus that has so. many. leaves. Look at them all! It looks so amazing though, so her hard work was obviously worth it.

And Miriam made these gorgeous little cacti gardens with pretty button flowers and lots of springy grass. I love how she made her tall cacti with different colours of felt; it gives such a cool effect!

I'm hoping to finish the Death Star blanket soon (#eternaloptimist), but my pals and I will be crafternooning again next week so I'll show you that results from that sooner! 

- Lisa xx

Brooches, leather stamping, and glass painting

Hello! I wasn't sure what to show you today, as I haven't finished any new projects this week. However, I do have some little projects that I haven't shown you before so now I figured you could see all of them! ^____^

 I made this brooch for my friend Clare as a "leaving Perth" gift. I designed the image using Illustrator, printed it out, glued it to balsa wood, cut it out, coated it with mod podge, and attached a badge backing. Unfortunately, since I'm such a procrastinator, I didn't have time to take any photos of it before getting to the pub and giving it to Clare!

Luckily, she didn't mind me stealing it back for a few quick snaps ~____^ The tiny banner says "home is where the heart is", but Scott said I should have made it say "they can break a man's arm you know!" (you'll have to watch Hot Fuzz for that reference!) The brooch image is of a black swan on the Swan River (yup, that's what we called it! Clever and original, huh?), in front of the Perth skyline. I drive around and over the river on my way to work and the city, and I always love seeing the swans. I hope they will remind Clare of some fond Perth memories while she makes her new life in Melbourne ^___^

I used basically the same technique to make myself this Glow Cloud brooch. I used scrapbooking paper for the background, and a pen to write on the letters, and then mod podged it onto the balsa wood. I also coloured in the edges of the brooch with a black sharpie, which I really like the look of.

 

I made these little key ring charms for my brothers using leather, metal stamps (courtesy of Bek who knits), a black felt-tip pen, rivets (courtesy of Bec), and some large jump ring type things. As you can see, the red leather has more texture which made the stamping a little less visible; the black pen helps with that a bit, but overall the green leather worked out the best. I haven't actually given Brett his gift yet, but he doesn't read my blog so I think we're safe ~____^ Craig liked his, which was a pleasant surprise as they don't often appreciate handmade gifts.

I also made a key ring charm for Scott; this one is done on black leather but the stamping actually showed up quite well! Perhaps by this time I was actually using enough pressure when hitting the stamps ~____^

Emma from A Beautiful Mess painted some gorgeous cactus bottles, and I decided I simply had to give it a go myself! I don't have many colours of glass paint, but I had the primary colours so I mixed up some green and got painting. I've been using them as water bottles, which I think is much nicer looking than constantly reusing old plastic bottles. When I'm not using them, they also make a pretty little garden on my kitchen windowsill ^___^

And since I had my paints out, I decided to decorate the jars I use for making chia puddings and overnight oats in. I did some gems and an ice-cream cone, but my favourite is Space Kitty! They certainly brighten up my mornings ^____^

I've got skating tonight, and I'm sincerely hoping it's not as cold as last week - we were all breathing out fog and steam actually came off our limbs when we took off our knee and elbow guards! Brrr - think warm thoughts for me, please!

- Lisa xx