Yarn Christmas trees and washi tape decorated wooden bracelets

Hey! I've been working on a few WIPs lately and doing a lot of gardening and housework, but today I thought I'd do a couple of quick, easy projects so I actually had something to show you (~_^) and because simple projects are great for that sense of satisfaction that I love to get from completed crafts ^_^

First up: yarn trees! These are for my Christmas decorating (I'm getting ready early!) and they are sooooo easy to make. All I did was wrap yarn around Styrofoam cones. Yup, that's it. I really do like how they turned out though ^_^

Next: a set of wooden bracelets. I'd had these plain wooden bracelets in my craft room for quite a while and today they finally got a makeover ^_^

The top bracelet is decorated with washi tape hearts, the middle bracelet has faded circles and measuring tape washi tape, and the last bracelet is chalkboard and currently features my handwriting ~_^

 

This washi tape heart bracelet is my favourite ^_^

 

Here's how to make one of your own

1. Draw heart shapes onto baking paper with a permanent marker

2. Tear of lengths of washi tape and place them so that they overlap both the heart outlines and also each other

3. Carefully cut out the heart shapes

4. Peel the baking paper off the back of the washi tape 

5. Stick your washi heart onto the bracelet

6. Varnish with clear, matt Mod Podge

This is a really great way to showcase your favourite washi tapes and, because you can choose the colours, you can make your bracelet match any outfit!

This heart sums up this season's colours and patterns for me ^_^

 

What do you think? I hope you like them!

Lisa x

Beware Zombies sign

Braiiinnnsss

Ahem, I mean, hi! ~_^

I'm still making things for Halloween, and here's my latest project - a faux-aged warning sign. You never can be too careful around these dangerous suburbs!

Here's how I made it ...

I started with a pristine piece of wood ... and a not so pristine table. We use this old, mostly broken table for spraypainting, resin-work, and various other messy crafts.

I used my jigsaw to cut the wood roughly in half and then cut the edges so they were jagged and rustic looking. This isn't shown in the photo, but I clamped the wood to saw horses to prevent it moving, wore safety glasses, and followed all the safety instructions - this thing could cut you pretty bad so be careful if you're going to give this a go!

 

 As you can see, I didn't make it too neat! I didn't both sanding as I want this sign to look really old and weathered. I also beat up the wood a bit with my hammer, to make it less smooth and perfect.

 

Then I added a wood stain and then (after it had dried) a black wash made from acyclic paint. The picture above shows pretty much the exact wrong way to apply wood stain/ paint wash. If you do it this way, you'll end up with variations in shade and you'll be able to see the drips and splashes when it's dry. And that's exactly what I wanted ^_^

 

P.S. To make a black paint wash: add a little bit of water to an old jar, dip your paintbrush in black paint, and then mix the paint into the water like you would if you were cleaning your brush. Easy! ^_^

After the wood stain and the wash had dried, it was dark and so I didn't take any more in-progress photos. You can use your imagination for the next part ~_^ 

I loaded up my brush with red paint and painted on the letters, making sure the paint was really globbed on. The look I was going for was "OMG ZOMBIES ARE COMING" so the paint is definitely not even ~_^

 

When the letters were dry, I added another wash of black paint and then added a few splatters of a less diluted mix.

I used my staple gun to add some thin rope to hold the two peices together and also to create a hanging string. And that's it! I can't wait to put this out at Halloween with my next project ... it involves garden ornaments and more zombies ~_^

What do you think? Do you like it? I hope you do!

- Lisa x

Button heart hoop

Hey! Yesterday I made this cute little hoop for the Harry Potter Craft-a-long Transfiguration project, and today I took a ridiculous amount of photos of it ~_^

The fabric that I used is from Spotlight, but I'm not sure what it's called; I brought it in a flat fats bundle.

 

I raided my button stash for lots of white and clear buttons, and I also added some pink to make it look a bit more interesting and also tie it in more to the fabric.

 

My favourite buttons are probably the interestingly shaped ones; the hearts, flowers, and kinda asterisk shaped buttons  ^_^

 

When I was arranging the buttons, I found that pins were a good way to keep them in place but also great because I could move everything around really easily.

 

To make this hoop, I drew a heart on my fabric with chalk, then added buttons around the edges before filling in the centre.

I hope you like it! I'm planning on doing some heavy duty crafting today; I'm getting out the power tools! ~_^

Have a great day!

- Lisa x

Starry, starry night

Hey! How was your weekend? Mine seems to have gone so fast, but I guess they always do ^_^ I did a lot of cleaning, a lot of sleeping, and I redecorated a bit to get into the (very early) Halloween spirit ~_^ And I even did a bit of crafting - yay!

I made this constellation embroidery for the Astronomy challenge in the Harry Potter Craft-a-long. It was a really quick and easy project, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. When I was planning this project, I knew I wanted to use dark blue fabric and silver thread, but I wasn't sure how to do the stars ...

 

  

Sometimes when I can't think of a solution to a problem, I think about just before I go to sleep and then when I wake up my subconscious has thought of a solution for me. Yeah, I'm weird. Also, sometimes it backfires. Like, one time I was wanted to dream about a solution for some crafting problems but then Scott asked me a question ("What was the name of Sean Connery's character in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen?") and so when I woke up all I could think was "Allan Quatermain!" ^_^

Anyway, when I woke up this morning, my subconscious had helpfully provided the solution to how to make the stars in this embroidered contellation: glow-in-the-dark perler beads. Yes!!

 

I think it turned out really well, and I was really pleased to finally use some of these perler beads - I knew they'd come in handy some day ~_^

The embroidery also looks really cool in the dark, but I couldn't get a good photo of the glowing, so you'll just have to imagine that!

And, for those wondering, I chose the constellation Sagittarius. I was really into astrology in my teens (hey, we all have our guilty secrets ~_^) and I still think the constellation is really pretty looking ^_^

What do you think? Do you have a favourite constellation?

- Lisa x

so. much. instagram.

Hey folks! I'm going to be pretty busy for the next couple of days with family stuff&things so I don't know if I'll have time for a proper post. So, instead, here's a whole bunch of instagram photos I've been taking. I'm really loving having a way to take pictures (that actually look nice!) with me all the time ^_^ Sorry if you already have seen these on instagram! But for those who haven't, here's a snapshot (ha ha! ~_^) into my everyday life ...

 

 

- Lisa xx

Fresh baked pi embroidery hoop

Hey! I finished this embroidery piece for the Harry Potter Craft-a-long and I'm really happy with it! ^_^

 I used part of a fat quarter of pink fabric from Spotlight and black embroidery thread.

I aimed for a kind of sketchy look which works really well for me because my embroidery skills are not that great! ~_^

I'm especially happy with how this bit of text turned out! Yay for improvement of skills!

 

The image I used is from here and I added the text in Illustrator using "Velocette" and "Gabriola"  ^_^

The hoop was from an op-shop and for some reason it had writing on it so I covered the embroidery hoop in washi tape before I began stitching. I really love the look! ^_^

- Lisa xx

Bubble, bubble

This week has been one of those in which all you want to do when you get home from work is eat junk food and cocoon yourself into a doona. But it *did* end up getting slightly better. Kinda. In some regards. 

Anyway, enough of my whining, let's get on to the crafts! ^_^

As it's getting close to the end of September, I've been getting into the Halloween spirit (ha ha! ~_^). This headband is cute enough to be worn at work and I can't wait to wear it on Halloween!

 

It was super easy to make; I just cut some bats from black felt, covered them with glitter mod-podge, and then (when they were dry) hot glued them onto a headband.

 

The mod-podge made the felt slightly stiffer, which prevents the bats from being too floppy. And they look very pretty and sparkly ^_^

Continuing with the bat theme, I made this wreath for our door.

 

I wrapped a styrofoam wreath base in grey wool - which took ages! I used a GIANT ball of wool from my Nana Tess and I used the entire thing! So if you're planning on doing this yourself, buy more wool then you think you'll need. I was so suprised at how much yarn it took to cover this thing.

 

Then I just hotglued on more felt bats. It's pretty basic looking, but I really like it ^_^

 

Next, glitter time!

 

 

I brought three cheap plastic skulls, covered them in modpodge, and then covered them in *glitter*! If you haven't done this before, here are two tips: 

 

1. Don't mix the glitter into the modpdge - it seriously reduces the sparkle.

2. Use a shoebox (or steal the box from your husband's new Warhammer models) to contain the excess glitter - you'll be pouring a lot of glitter over whatever you're covering but you can return the excess to the jar at the end (by using a funnel) and having a box with corners makes pouring a lot easier.

 

I love how they turned out, but the silver and purple ones look so much better than the black - I think because the black glitter is not as fine.

Anyway, that's it for today - I'm hoping to get a couple more projects done this coming week so fingers crossed for productivity! ~_^

- Lisa x