44th Project announcement

Welcome to the 43rd project announcement in my challenge. This week I found this in the rubbish pile......

I have absolutely no idea what I am going to do with it as yet but I am sure I will come up with something!

The carnival went very well, Lizzie looked great and hats off to her for going through with it! We are all really tired today but happy that it went well! Thanks again to Malcolm Hooker for building such a great Ivor out of recycled materials (an old oil drum and left over bits of wood and pipes mainly!), and thanks to Dad for letting us use the Clayton waggon. You can see more pictures on Hollycombe's facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/hollycombesteam














and yes that's me with my partner Richard driving!

43rd project completed! - Gift jars

With Christmas fast approaching, I am already looking for gift ideas.

Rather than discard all these glass jars I thought I would have a go at making some gift jars! They are decorated with a clue to the item inside. These are a very effective way of creating your own unique gifts.

Materials

• Old glass jars
• Computer
• Printer
• Paper
• PVA Glue
• Varnish
• Scraps of fabric
• Coloured rubber bands
• Small scissors
• Pinking shears

Instructions

1. Start by removing the labels from your jars, I soaked mine overnight in a bowl of washing up liquid and hot water. The labels easily peeled off in the morning!

2. Cut a circle of fabric the size of the top of the jar plus 2cm all round. This will make the jar cover.

3. Print off some pictures from the internet to correspond with the items you are going to fill the jar with. For example I printed off some pictures of some beautiful Victorian baths for a jar to hold small bath bombs, and some crayons for a jar to be filled with crayons for a nephew who loves drawing!

4. Cut the pictures out really carefully and glue them onto your jar. Once dried, cover each picture with a coat of clear varnish to protect them.

5. To finish fill your jar, pop the lid on and cover the lid with your circle of fabric. Secure with a rubber band.

There we go, a very simple way of making unique gifts for all the family. Why not make one for everybody this Christmas reflecting their interest?

I have actually been very busy this week with another project. My Daughter is on the Hollycombe float at the local carnival. The theme is 'Ivor the engine' and she is posing as Idris the little red Dragon! Being 14 1/2 she is not best pleased but I have been relishing the making of her outfit all week - those of you with Teenagers will understand how great it is to get your own back sometimes.

The Dragon outfit was made from some left over sweatshirt material given to me by my Stepmother after a clear out and it was stuffed with some more of the pillow stuffing from the other week.

43rd project announcement

Good evening! I seem to have an abundance of glass jars this week in the rubbish so this week I am going to use them up. Let's see what I can use them for!

42nd project completed - perfect autumnal earrings

Well what did I make with the fir cones and sycamore seeds?

Two pairs of autumnal earrings! 

Materials needed (Sycamore earrings)

• Two sycamore seeds
• Permanent Marker pens
• Earring hooks
• Jewellery Pliers 
• PVA Glue

Materials needed (Fir cone earrings)

• Two small fir cones
• Some semi - precious stone chip beads (taken from a broken necklace)
• A few small silver beads
• Earring wires and hooks
• Hot Glue Gun
• Jewellery Pliers

Instructions (Sycamore Earrings)

1. Take your sycamore seeds and very carefully, draw on a small design using the permanent pens ( I did a simple 1/2 tree design using the seed head and spine as a trunk!) See above.

2. Give both sides a coat of PVA glue to add a shine and some protection

3. Once completely dry, pierce a small hole in each top just large enough to take the earring hook.

4. Very carefully attach the earring hooks using jewellery pliers and there you have it a highly unusual pair of earrings, bound to cause a stir!

Instructions (Fir cone earrings) 

1. Using a hot glue gun, glue the jewellery wires to the back of your fir cones. Then very carefully bend them so they curve around the shape of the cone and stand up straight, you don't want wonky earrings!!!!

2. Add a few beads to the wire and then attach an earring hook after making a small loop at the top with the jewellery pliers. 

There we are, two very simple but very interesting pairs of earrings!!!

42nd Project announcement

Hello,


I love seed heads and fir cones and have quite a few hanging around the house I have used them for lots of different things over the years like printing and as sketching subjects. I have decided to have a bit of a clear out and was about to throw these away as they are not as pretty as some of the others I have, when I thought about using them for this weeks project!

41st Project completed - A toilet roll mini album

Hi!


Right, I have decided to have a go at a paper craft project this week, as you will probably have gathered my field is much more of a textiles related one so please excuse the basic nature of my paper crafting!


So what did I make with my toilet roll inners?

A mini album


Materials

• 3 or more toilet rolls
• patterned papers to cover them (I used photocopies of some of my artwork)
• Some card (white or patterned )
• Ribbons or chunky threads
• A hole punch
• Glue
• Paint
• Paper trimmer or scissors
• Optional - Some decorative brads and other bits and pieces

Instructions

1. Take your clean toilet roll inners and fold so they lie flat.

 

2. Carefully cover your rolls with patterned paper. I then put a colour wash over my papers to make them more subtle.

3. Measure out a card Tag to fit into each roll they should be roughly the same length as the roll as after you have bound the rolls together they should still protrude from the pockets. You can decorate these however you like. I used some angel hair paper and paint. Punch a hole at the end of each tag and thread through some ribbon or chunky threads.

4. Bind your rolls together by punching two holes at one edge and thread them together using some ribbon or threads. Knot on the top. And add a space for a title. You can now decorate your tags and folder with decorative brads etc. and add photos, samples or whatever you like!

41st project announcement

Whoops! I wrote this post last night (I must admit I was a bit tired!) but I stupidly forgot to press the publish button!!!!! Oh well here it is........

Good evening all!


Well, number 41 has proved challenging already as I don't seem to have anything in the rubbish that I haven't done already. However, I eventually found these so lets see what I can come up with!

Humble loo rolls

Join me as usual on Saturday night to find out what i do with them.

40th Project completed - A' filigree brooch'

Well another busy day over and done with. I spent the morning replacing numerous bolts in the Locomotive - Jerry M that we are overhauling at Hollycombe. A bit of an unusual way to spend a Saturday morning I'll admit but there you go!


Well what am I making with the bottle tops I found?

Filigree brooches, very 'Accessorize'


Materials needed

• Bottle top
• Fine gauge coloured wire
• Knitting Needles (I used size 7 needles)
• Bits and bobs (left over seed beads, broken bits of necklace etc.)
• Brooch pin
• Hot Glue gun and stick

Instructions

1. Knit a small rectangle with the fine gauged wire (I cast on 12 stitches and knitted around 12 rows).

2. Once complete, fold opposite corners of your knitted piece together as in picture above and slip in the bottle top. Then take a length of wire and attach it to the back of the brooch then randomly 'sew' on some small seed beads through all layers taking care to encapsulate the bottle top.

 

3. Now add some swirls of contrasting wire to add interest and sew on some larger beads, bits of broken necklace etc.

4. Once you are happy with your design attach a brooch pin to the back using some hot glue, allow to cool and there you have it, A filigree brooch!

I hope you enjoyed this project please join me tomorrow evening to find out what I will be using next week.

40th project announcement

NUMBER 40!!!!!!!!!!

A bit of a milestone I think you'll agree, at this point I would just like to say boo hiss to my daughter who doubted I would make it to week 3!

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. I have had a bit of a rummage and found these........

Some brightly coloured bottle caps. Again, I am not sure what to do with them but I'm sure some sort of inspiration will arrive. Pop back next Saturday and see what I come up with.

39th Project completed - a zip flower

What a warm day! It has been about 28 degrees out today -  really warm especially for October! They do say that it will break all the records for an October day in the UK today, I wouldn't be at all surprised!!!!


It has been far too warm this week to do much heated craft work but this one is nice and simple and should appeal to most of you, as you can use them however you like whether it be as a topping for cards, as embellishments for sewing projects such as bags or as I have, as hair accessories.


So what are they?

Zip flowers!!!


Materials

• An old zip
• Scissors
• Strong sewing thread
• Needle
• Seed Beads and thin wire
• Long nosed pliers

Instructions

1. Firstly you need to separate the two parts of the Zip by cutting off the bottom stop of the zip. Then open the zip so you have two halves.

2. Next run a row of gathering stitches along the half you are using. Carefully pull up the stitches,  and then manipulate it around to create the centre of the flower, you will need to add a few holding stitches to hold it all together. If you are using a shorter zip add the remaining half of the zip in the same way to make the flower larger.

 

3. Cut some pieces of wire. Fold each in half then add a bead to the end by bending the wire back on itself with a pair of long nosed pliers. Push each pair through the centre towards the back and stitch into place.

4. To finish you can use the flower however you wish, I added a hair pin to mine but you could stick it to a card. Or sew a few onto a bag, add a brooch back or even add to shoe clips! You could also decorate with more beads or colour with some fabric paint.