After a Fimo demo

I had great fun this weekend working alongside the lovely people from Boxes and Busts at the craft show at Cardiff City Stadium. We had lots of people come and learn about Fimo and everyone was fascinated with how to construct millefiori canes.

The day after a demo I sit down with all the canes I've made and work out how to finish off a project before baking. This sunflower bracelet was one of my favourite makes from the weekend. I used my scrap multicoloured clay as a core for the beads before applying slices from the sunflower type cane I'd made.

I made a few kaleidoscope canes too. I love showing people how to make these patterns as it starts out as a few sausage shapes, but gradually changes into these intricate patterns by a series of cutting and reforming the cane.

There were quite a few finished flower canes by the end of the weekend. I've rolled them to be quite small and sliced them up before baking. I've had an idea for a mosaic with lots of millefiori slices and so this can be the starting point for that project.

I've got another couple of projects just baking in the oven and so come back to see how they worked out.

A Fimo pen

This week I've been having fun playing with my stash of Fimo. I've been working on a project for Beads and Beyond, but you,ll have to wait until December to see that one. This weekend I will be demonstrating Fimo at  the Craft and Hobby Show at Cardiff City Stadium with Boxes and Busts ( who sell jewellery supplies and run fantastic jewellery workshops in South Wales).

I've been asked to demonstrate the new Fimo Pen. It's a plain metal pen - with a great quality Staedtler pen insert - and it can be decorated with Fimo before the metal cover gets baked. I used four new Fimo Effect colours - ruby quartz, agate blue, citrine quartz and blue ice quartz. These gemstone colours have a lovely subtle sparkle to them. I hope you can see that in the photos.

I made a flower millefiori cane and it doesn't take much Fimo to cover a pan and so I had lots left to play with. I made  these beads with the leftover cane. The beads have been threaded onto memory wire to make a bracelet. I don't usually varnish beads, but the varnish on these beads have brought out the sparkle beautifully.

A rainbow card

I made a card for a friend's birthday this week using scraps of patterned paper. I discovered I have hardly any red papers - do I use a lot of red in my scrapbooks or do I have an aversion to buying red papers? I'm not sure what the answer is here. This was supposed to a rainbow but I realised after I had cut out the papers that I had got the orange and yellow mixed up - oops.

I've been inspired to try this pattern out from various sources and I really like how it turned out. It may be appearing on a scrapbook page soon. Here's where I got the idea from...

A piece of art from You had me at Bonjour

A scrapbook page by Lisa Truesdell
( I love the chevron details on here)

                                                                                 

A scrapbook page by Kelly Purkey
(this has been done with mists)

Use it up - Simply Stated rub ons

As I gradually get things back in order after the chaotic summer, I have a new timetable to adjust to as The Boy is now at nursery three mornings instead of two. I decided I wanted my Wednesday mornings to be my play day. I have online workshops waiting to be completed as well as ideas rumbling around in my head. This is my first play day and this is my favourite layout I've made for a long time.

I recently found I had loads of half finished packet of Simply Stated rub-ons by Making Memories. They are an old product which I remember being given at a workshop and being so excited by them - it was quite a while ago...I noticed a copyright 2003 label on the packet! I decided I had to use them up and I managed to finish two packets on this layout. I was quite impressed that the rub-ons still (mostly) worked after all this time.

I've used watercolours, distress ink with a stencil and some acrylic paint on bubble wrap in the background, along with a Maya Road doily strip stamp. I made a wire frame and stapled it on, inspired by the article on craft wire in August's Scrap365.

80's Glam Sharpie happiness

I was really excited to receive these new Sharpies in the post this week. Of course I am excited - it has a pen labelled "Legwarmer Orange". I am an 80's girl at heart. My favourite all time band is A-ha and I have loved them since I was 7. Ah... neon socks, leather straps around the wrists, big backcombed hair, I even had a royal blue wool dress with shoulder pads and a big black plastic belt.

I keep seeing Sharpies mentioned on craft blogs and Pinterest and so decided I needed to expand my collection, When I saw these on special offer, how could I resist?

Here are some Sharpie projects from around the web, firstly from one of my favourite craft bloggers, Alisa Burke...

Doodle Easter Eggs by Alisa Burke

Wooden key fobs from How About Orange

Leopard Tote bag from P.S. I Made This

Shrinky Dink Pendant from ModPodge Rocks

Red Shoes from The Hidden Seed

Tie Dye T-shirts from Sun Scholars

Wellie Boots from Giverslog

For more Sharpie inspiration, check out their blog. And if you are in need of some true 80's glam, click HERE

Cardboard box space rocket

When I look at which pages are looked at most on my blog, it's actually my cardboard box posts which are always top of the list. Everyone loves a cardboard box! I now have a new label of "cardboard box" to find more cardboard box posts. Over the summer friends have commented on our cardboard box castle, but it has now transformed into a space rocket.

This obsession with space started at the Science Museum in London where the kids were really excited to see actual rockets and a real piece of the moon. The Boy has decided he wants to go to the moon - NOW! (Add stamping feet to that statement).

Us at the Science Museum

We bought a 99p roll of value tin foil and set about changing our castle into a space rocket. The cone on top was made with some wrapping paper stuck onto lining paper to strengthen it.

Here's the inside of our rocket. We have bottle top buttons and a control panel made from the inside of a chocolate box. I even found an old piece of scrapbooking paper with planets on which we made into a navigation screen (by sticking it onto a cereal box).

Holiday crafting with friendship bracelets

It been a busy summer with lots of days spent like this (see above), but I am a maker and I get itchy fingers if I don't have something to make with me. Last year I ended up buying a magazine and kit at a supermarket and learning to crochet. This year I decided to be a bit more organised and I was inspired by the front cover of Issue 16 of Mollie Makes, so I packed up a bag of embroidery threads and off we went.

I have only been able to make bracelets with diagonal stripes before and I was determined to learn how to make a chevron pattern. There is a great tutorial in the magazine. I got the hang of that one fairly quickly with great results. Then I found a website full of friendship bracelet patterns here. I spent a few days of frustrated knotting until I went back and read the tutorial about how to follow the patterns and then I really got the hang of it. As my husband says, "When all else fails, read the instructions!". I would recommend starting with the easier patterns and working up as they are usefully rated by difficulty.

The bracelets here are (L-R) one I made up (not sure about this one), pattern #32492, a chevron, and pattern #26109 .

I then had a go at a tricky one (pattern #59957)  and it worked out well, although it ended up being a bit short as the threads you start with need to be much longer than I anticipated. I really enjoyed making these and they were a welcome break of crafting just for fun, with no deadlines or expectations, just creative expression.