Fused Glass Decorations

How beautiful are these? I have my very talented friend Stevie Davies to thank for letting me and my mum loose In her workshop and showing us how to create these. Stevie is a very talented fused glass artist in Derby and you can find out more about her work on her website here (and her work is much prettier than these samples made by myself and my mum). She also teaches workshops around the East Midlands and I would definitely recommend, she's a brilliant teacher.

My mum has always been drawn to fused glass Christmas decorations so for a long time I have been meaning to sort a time for us to go and do this as a surprise for her. I think she was pleased and I think her decorations are amazing. I'm not going to get technical and pretend I know what I'm talking about, I will leave that to the experts, but here is a brief description of what we made. The first image is a fused glass tree my mum made which is mounted onto a clear glass candle holder. The tree is made of two layers of clear glass with some thin green coloured glass in between the layers and the snow effect added To the top to give a 3D effect. Her second piece, the star, is made of 5 triangle pieces which have been overlapped when fired to create the shape. These are only one layer of glass and my mum has added tiny pieces of coloured glass to the top which has melted and fused together and created this lovely mottled star decoration. I think she has a natural flair for this don't you! 

I made three pieces, the first tree has had some small chunks of glass added in between layers to make the tree bauble effect and a small wire star on the top which has fused into the glass to make the hanging which I really like. The second tree was made using very thin rods of glass cut and layered into the tree shape on top of another piece of clear glass. I love the bumpy feeling of this one and the colours! Not very festive, but I absolutely love this colour combo. 

Finally I managed to make my own star which has small thin pieces of coloured glass on top to create the colours and graduates from purple through blue to white snowy tips. 

I really enjoyed doing this, it was really interesting to learn how the glass works with each other in order to create the different finishes and this is something completely different to what I make normally. If you have never tried doing fused glass I really recommend finding a workshop near you (or booking one with Stevie) as its loads of fun and really easy to make something truly beautiful. You don't have to just make decorations for Christmas but for all year round, they would look lovely hanging in a window where the light can really show them off. 

Do you have a favourite type of hand made decoration, or make any of your own? I'm always looking for new ideas to try and inspiration so let me know. 

Make your own gift tags - Scandi lino printed tags

I have a real problem with gift tags. They cost a fortune if you want nice ones and you need about 20 packets if your family are anything like mine and wrap EVERYTHING. They are something I never buy when I buy gift wrap because they are so expensive, but then if you don't buy tags you either don't know what belongs to who, or you have to write on the present which just isn't pretty. In that vein I always end up making my own. Mostly just pieces of card with a hole in, but this year we are getting more inventive! 

So using my new found lino cutting skills I designed and made these scandi inspired Christmas tree tags. If you want to have a go at these yourself you just need some lino cutting supplies:
Lino cutting tool
Lino block
Pencil
Block printing ink
Roller
Piece of glass
A spoon or something similar
Some plain card
Hole punch
String

So all you need to do is draw up your design of choice. Have a look on the internet (or dare I say it... Pinterest) for a bit of inspiration. Think Christmas trees, stars, snowflakes or something much more complicated if you prefer. Then using the lino cutting tools cut out the design. You will need to think in reverse, remember, anything you cut away will be the same colour as the paper and anything you leave raised will be printed in the colour.

Once this is done put some of the ink on your piece of glass, roll it around a bit with the roller and add some ink to the block. Place the block upside down on your piece of card and apply pressure with the back of the spoon (I used scissor handles). Once you are happy you have rubbed over the image remove the block from the card and you should have a pretty little print. Just repeat the print over and over on the card to make many labels. Once they are dry, cut them out, punch a hole and thread your string. It really is that simple.

Or.... if you want to do this at home, and don't want too complicated a design, use a potato and some poster paint! Works just as well, you just won't get to keep your block for next year but is much more accessible for younger hands.

I hope this has inspired you to have a go at making some of your own gift tags instead of spending a fortune on the shop bought ones. Your imagination really is your only limit. I will have a new quick post of Friday to tell you how you can make your own gift tags to match your wrapping paper and very little extra expense. We can't complain at that now can we, I like the idea of thrifting a little at Christmas so you can spend a bit more time on the important things.

Happy Christmas Puds for a Crafty Christmas Fair

 

The world is definitely split in two when it comes to this time of year and the Christmas stuff starts to appear in the shops. There are those that grumble and groan about it being far to early and then there are the others, like me, who start jumping up and down with excitement at the prospect. To say I LOVE Christmas is a bit of an understatement, I just find the whole countdown really exiting and I still have sleepless nights the night before because I just can't wait. I guess I'm just a big kid at heart. Having my birthday so close to Christmas though probably doesn't help, its just a whole season of celebration and now I have the birth of the little man to look forward to, who is due just just 7 days before! Bets on whether it will end up being a Christmas day baby? Who knows, we will just have to watch this space. 

For a lot of us creative types Christmas really does usually start in August when you start thinking about Christmas craft fairs, Christmas related inspiration prepared in advance etc and so I am obviously no exception to this. In addition this year we are also going to be re-running the charity craft fair we did at Easter to see if we can raise even more money for a good cause. The idea is to make handmade items out of the goodness of your heart and donate them to the fair so that others can purchase them, all funds raised going to charity. With that going on I am obviously thinking about what I can make to contribute and these little guys are perfect no? You will remember my Christmas Pudding Tutorial from last year? Well if not check it out. This is just a slight modification on that where I stitched a tiny little happy face on to the icing because we all know food should have a face!

I hope you like these little guys, and are not offended by their appearance on the blog in September! You should so have a go at making some of these yourselves with your little ones for Christmas using my tutorial I linked above.

I don't really have much to tell you about my weekend this week, we had a lovely quiet one at home for a change and I really haven't done a lot at all. I don't know why quiet weekends go so quickly, they should be slow and dull but somehow they just aren't. I also didn't do any of the jobs I intended to but I did enjoy spending time with Mr Fox so I'm not going to beat myself up about it at all. I hope you had a lovely one whatever you have been up to and I wish you a productive crafty week ahead.

Mummies and Bunnies and Twig Trees

The title nearly rhymed didn't it? I have had a busy but very enjoyable weekend. Saturday was spent mooching around in the good weather and then spending time out and about and playing crazy golf and eating yummy food with some good friends. Sunday, of course being mothers day here in the UK, was spent visiting the lovely mummies, eating more lovely food and generally catching up/chilling out. I really can't get used to loosing an hour to daylight savings though. Its going to be lovely having some daylight in the evenings (maybe I can actually take blog pictures in the week now) but I feel likes its earlier in the day than it really is, and getting out of bed this morning was a killer!

Anyway, I mentioned the other day getting back to some old school sewing projects and here you have it, some Monster Magic inspired bunnies ready to hang up in time for Easter. I designed the patten myself  based on an old bunny pattern I had (which have been described as looking like teeth wtf?!?). They are mostly machine sewn with the exception of the french knot eyes and the closing seam. The body is made from fleece and the ears from felt and cotton fabric scraps, these are such good little projects for using up those small left over bits you can't bear to throw away.

I really enjoyed doing this again. I love the little bit when you sew on their eyes so they have real faces, or when you stuff and sew their husks and make them come to life. Is that strange? oh who cares.

My sister has a lovely twig tree in her house and I wanted to steal her idea to use for displaying things on at the craft fair. I contemplated doing a tutorial for this but to be honest I don't think you need to be taught how to suck eggs so here you go:

Twig Tree Tutorial:
1. Gather some sticks
2. Paint them with emulsion (or don't like Rachel's)
3. Stick them in a vase/plant pot/ other receptacle
4. Hang things off it!
 If you want to secure the twigs I wrapped them in a cut up car sponge and then just shoved it in there. If you want to cover the top of the receptacle I used shredded tissue paper but you could also consider things like glass beads/sand etc.

So after the sunshine, the gardening, spending time with families and making these bunnies it really feels like it should be Easter already. The urge to go and buy a chocolate egg is getting far too strong.... must resist. Have you been inspired to make anything Easter related/themed lately, or have the signs of spring sprung you into florals? I would love to hear/see what you have been making.

Christmas Pudding Decoration Tutorial

Today I am going to show you how to make your own awesome Christmas Pudding tree decoration.

I came up with this design for a little stuffed pudding a couple of years ago when making stuff for my Monster Magic stalls at Christmas. Its very quick and easy to make and looks lovely when all finished up on your tree. Its a great little project to make as its quick so you could have a whole ton of these made up in time for that special day.

You will need:

Brown Fabric (anything will do, I used Fleece)
White Felt
Sewing Machine and or Sewing Needle and thread
Stuffing
Pins
Paper
Skissors
Pen/Pencil
Small piece of ribbon
Green Felt
1 Button (preferable red, pink, orange or purple)

Step 1:

Using an upside down mug or glass draw round the edge on to a piece of paper, make two circles this way. Once you have your two circles draw a wiggly line across the center of one circle, as above (this is to look like icing/cream/brandy sauce yum!). Cut out the full circle and the top half of the wiggly line semi-circle.

Step 2:

Get yourself some brown fabric (I used fleece but you can use whatever fabric you have lying around) and some white felt. You can use brown felt for the main body, but I find that it doesn't have much give in it to make a nice plump pudding. Fold both fabrics in half, pin the full circle to the brown and cut round it. Pin the half circle on to the white felt and cut out. You should end up with two brown pieces and two white pieces.

Step 3:

Pin one of the white piece on to the right side of the brown fabric (good side of the fabric facing outwards) and top stitch along the wavy line. Do the same on the other piece of fabric.

Step 4:

Fold your small piece of ribbon in half and pin it onto the front of one of your circles, try to get it as central as possible. You want to try and have the raw ends poking a bit over the edge of the circle as above to be sure that you are going to catch with with the seam. Be careful where you place the pin as you are going to be sewing around it. 

You then want to put your two circles on top of each other, with right sides facing each other. Make sure that you line up the white sections as neatly as possible. 

Step 5:

Pin all the way around the circle, but you are going to need to make sure that you leave a gap for turning the seam the right way out. I like to mark this section with two pins so I know where to start and stop. You also need to make sure that the ribbon is not going to get caught in the seam. The best way to do this is by making sure it sits inbetween these two pins. You can see mine just poking out above.

Step 6:

Machine stitch (you can hand sew it) around the edge of the circle. It is a good idea to do some back stitching over the ribbon to make sure it is secure. Once you have done trim and snip along the seam so you get a nice circle.

Step 7:

Turn your pudding the right way out and stuff with soft toy stuffing. If you don't have any stuffing you can just use some old fabric scraps. 

Step 8:

Hand sew the opening closed using ladder stitch (here is a YouTube video) You should use matching thread but I was fighting sunset so I am using the wrong thread for speed!

Step 9:

Finally, cut two tiny holly shapes out of green felt and hand stitch these on to the top of your pudding along with a shiny red button. 

Voila! you have yourself an awesome looking Christmas pudding to hang on your tree. You could make these for your tree or as last minute stocking fillers for your friends. Its a great little project which is really quick, and you could have a go with your kids, either learning to use a sewing machine, or if they are a bit younger helping to pick out the buttons.

If you make one of these up I would love to see it.

Its my birthday tomorrow so I am not going to be wishing you Merry Christmas just yet. I have been baking my little socks off since finishing work for Christmas on Friday in preparation for some family and friends coming over. I made my first ever Christmas cake, many batches of mince pies (using my Aunties home made mincemeat! Yum!), and I have some dough rising for pitta's and bread sticks. I hope tomorrow brings me lots of lovely crafty things to share with you all.