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. 

Sea Shell Decorations

Love collecting shells when you visit the beach? Me too! but what to do with them when you get home?

We recently went on a little family holiday (Master Fox's first trip to the seaside) and whilst there I obviously collected a few pretty shells, because you just cant resist it right? The problem is I never get enough to fill a bowl or vase or anything like that, I just have a cute little handful to take home and remind me of lazy sunny days on the beach (or windy overcast days if your holiday was a bit like ours).

I immediately set upon pinterest to see if I could get some inspiration on what to do with them, as its such a waste to just throw them in a bowl or drawer. I came across this delightful little post from Hoppin' Up which sets them into air dry clay. Whats great is this is a fun little project for kids (admittedly older than Master Fox, but that just means more fun for me!).

The idea is so simple, cut the air dry clay into shapes, press the shells in and let it dry out. Then you can hang them up as a lovely little reminder of your hollibobs. I hope you like mine, though my shells weren't as interesting as the ones used in the actual tutorial.

Whilst I did them I also made this adorable little plaque for one of Master Fox's friends who is turning one. A baby's first birthday is so special I think its great to have a little keepsake like this to remember it by as only happens once.

Christmas wreath from your garden

A very quick post from me to show you how you can make your own inexpensive Christmas wreath from your very own garden (or the local park if you don't have a garden).

I think I got this idea handed down to me from my mum who I always remember doing this every Christmas. Ever since having my own home I have just always done the same thing and never really thought about doing anything different. She even had to send me pictures of hers this year in order to make me get round to this! Baby has not really given me much time to think about anything for the last 10 days.

The only thing you really need to make this wreath is a wreath form of some sort. Now you can use an oasis wreath which will keep your foliage fresh, but I have always found that it stays fresh for long enough without, and if you use an oasis one you will need to replace every year. My alternative is to use this fake berry wreath which I bought many years ago. The advantage here is I don't have any berries in my garden so it adds some colour, but you can also use willow wreaths or anything else you find in the sales after Christmas which you can re-use year after year.

Now all you need to do is go out into your garden with a pair of snippers or scissors and find yourself some appropriate Christmas foliage. My personal favourites are conifer (like real Christmas trees), ivy (especially if you can get some white and green variegated) and holly, though of course be careful with the holly as it will be sharp, you may need gloves to handle. Essentially you are looking for anything that is still green at this time of year.

Once you have gathered lots of this luscious greenery bring it into the house and start to feed it into your wreath following a directional pattern. I find that this stays in without having to be tied at all as long as you push it into the form far enough. Keep going until your wreath looks lovely and full and there are no gaps.

If you have managed to find something with berries then great, if not you might want to think about tying a couple of baubles on by wrapping wire around the section which you hang on the tree and tying it to the wreath. If you wish, you can add some battery powered fairy lights to the wreath by wrapping them around. You will need to secure the battery pack to the back, but you can do this with wire, or tuck it behind the ribbon used for stringing.

Finally loop a piece of ribbon around your wreath and hang it from your door so everyone can marvel in your festive cheer. 

Felt Christmas Wreath

Christmas is definitely my most favourite time of the year and I love it when its time to decorate the house. I am one of these people who has to have the Christmas tree near the telly, and often find myself staring at it instead of whatever I am supposed to be watching. I am one of those people who gets excited early and its never too early to start making mince pies or watch Christmas movies.I think the build up to it is just as much fun, if not more than the day itself. I think its just all the family, friends, warmth, nice food etc. I love it all!

Most of our decorations are purchased (some handcrafted though) but one thing I do like to do is make a wreath. If you have had a nose around the blog you might have come across my wedding bouquets which I made using felt. I really loved these and its so nice to still have it to keep. Ever since making them I had an idea to try and make a wreath for Christmas in a similar way but using more Christmas themed colours.

The wreath itself is a polystyrene mold which you can get from anywhere on the net, I think mine was from amazon. And the flowers are made using this technique (youtube link). I hope you like it. I think it is a great little adaptation of the bouquets. Now I just need to think about what other applications I can apply it too!

I hope you are all ready and prepared for Christmas. Do you have any DIY traditions which you would like to share?

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.

Tulle Pom Pom Shoe Clips

Check me out! I have clown noses on my shoes! I am sure I have told everyone this already but in case you didn't know my new favourite accessory is a shoe clip. I love how you can brighten up any pair of shoes and make one pair look different every day of the week. 

These little lovelies are made from some thin tulle which I had left over from the wedding decorations which I wrapped around some card (the same way as you make woolly pom poms) with a shoe clip glued to the back of each one. Mr Fox did tell me I looked a bit like a Jester before I left for work this morning, but do we care? No of course we don't, it's bringing me a little bit of joy on a dreary Monday morning. 

Do you own any show clips, or have a favourite accessory that might overtake these? Let me know. I also encourage you to make some of these yourself for a bit of a chuckle xx

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.

DIY Panda Balloon Tutorial

Happy Monday to you all, I have a lovely post weekend treat for you today:

We went out for a good friends birthday this weekend and I was tasked by her other half to think about decorations for venue. Its a big birthday, but I didn't want to rub it in, because although she is a wonderfully social person, she doesn't like to be made a fuss of. So I got to thinking about what she loves, and she LOVES Panda's (who doesn't love a cute fluffy panda?).

So I got ebaying and googling to find some panda balloons to buy for the occasion. Much to my surprise there is a distinct lack of (cute) panda balloons out there. So I then thought to myself, ok, you must be able to DIY a panda balloon right? off to pinterest I went, but nothing. What is wrong with the internets? it couldn't give me the panda love I needed. So I bought some white balloons and here my lovely friends is what happened!

You will need:
White balloons
Sharpie
Craft glue
Black crepe paper (normal paper will probably work fine)
Scissors

Step 1: Blow up your balloon

Step 2: Cut out two semi circles of your crepe paper, and have little tags at the bottom on each side. It also helps to have a little curve in between the two.

Step 3: Using your sharpie draw some nice big panda eyes on your balloon and colour them in. You might want to draw up a quick template if you are worried about getting the eyes the same. My panda is looking a bit evil here, but he will look cute in a minute I promise.

Step 4: Draw a little nose and smiley mouth on your balloon, I find the closer to the eyes, the cuter the panda.

Step 5: Fold up the tabs on your ear pieces and pop a little bit of glue on the bottom.

Step 6: Stick the tabs on to the top of the balloon, place the tabs pointing towards the face, and it helps to angle them in a little bit so you get a nice curve on the ears, and this helps them to stick up rather than fall over. A bit like pointing your big toes in towards each other.

And you are done! Hazzah! Panda balloon to the ready How cute and easy was that!

Photo credit: Ian Plumpton Photography

Now all that is left to do is prance around pretending you have a panda for a head!

I would love to see your versions if you decide to give this a go. Maybe think about other animals, I would love to see a kitty cat.

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.

Christmas Gift DIY

I am full of festive cheer at the moment. Any excuse to put on a christmas tune and have a sing a long. So naturally we are all thinking about the decorations and the gifts. 

My mum has always had a fascination with wrapping anything and everything for under the tree, something which has rubbed off on the rest of us. So I wanted to hand make a couple of the stocking fillers this year. 

All my family are huge gardeners, from my grandad to my younger sister, so naturally all enjoy relaxing outdoors enjoying the fruits of their labour. So I decided to adapt my DIY ombré candle tutorial and make these cute little terracotta plant pot candles.

They are scented using citronella which it perfect for these as it is known to be an excellent insect repellant, so great for lighting outdoors in the evening. 

I also had an excellent brainwave for the wicks, instead of tying them around, if you pull them over and then tape them to the outside using duct tape then you get a much better wick placement. 

A word if note as well if you are thinking of starting the is to plug the hole with either a bit of duct tape or cover it with a penny. 

I hope you, and they, like them. I would love to know what wonderful/quirky Christmas traditions your family have passed down, or what DIY stocking fillers you are planning to make this year.

Felt Garlands Inspiration

I am in love with using felt at the moment, and really want to make some garlands after not making any for the wedding. So with this in mind I have started looking at some tutorials on Pinterest, you all know you get lost in there as much as I do. I have created a board which you can take a look at below. As always these are a work in progress but I wanted to showcase some of the gorgeous work made by talented artists out there:

In doing so I came across a beauty of a quick tutorial from Betz White for a Felt 'Ogee' which is a kind of paper snowflake. Honestly, check out Betz's site she explains it much better than I can. This is a perfect showcase of how something can be so simple in concept, yet so effective, so I just had to give it a go.

The tutorial was really clear and easy to follow and it really only takes around 10 - 15 minutes. I used a glue gun instead of thread, just because I was being lazy I think, and the glue gun was at hand. I really would recommend anyone giving this one a go. 

I hope this post brings you a bit of inspiration and early festive cheer, after all T'is the Season to be Jolly.

I would like to get some feedback on the use of pinterest boards to showcase things which I hope give you inspiration as well as myself. I find it such a useful tool. Hopefully you can click straight through to the owner of the work/tutorials, so I will not be stealing information/images which are not mine. However if anyone thinks this is a particular problem do let me know.

The DIY Fox
xx