craftylife

2009-07-10T00:29:00.000-07:00

Its been a few weeks since I updated this blog and thats coz I have been working non stop on this buttercup cottage!

Dame Flora De Seedie lives here and is a Botanical Illustrator and her lounge is also her studio and office..

Upstairs is her bedsit..she is very good at making the most of the available space. behind the screen is the bathroom with a commode and in the back recess is her dressing space. The screen is movable between both of these!

She is ready for a new day at work sketching a specimen that has just been delivered..the finished work is ready to go to the printer -her new book is too be published in time for Xmas.

LOL I have had tremendous fun and satisfaction making this..it will never be finished as I can already see ideas forming for many other additions to this little house and garden!

After waiting for 10 years or more it is finally come to this stage!

June Project carriage base

2009-06-04T18:51:00.000-07:00

The old song is playing in my mind "June is busting out all over" (I sing a LOT) love singing,

and I love this months project for June....and my thanks go to Jacquie Johnson of Victoria who has provided not only the project, but also the photos and information.

It is a great alternative to the heavy metal carriage bases and how easy is this to gather the component parts!

I hope you enjoy this months project and will go ahead and make one (or several!)

You Will Need.
4 Plastic Disposable Glasses
2 Lengths of Dowel about 4 inches long to fit the center of the base of the glasses.

1 steel Knitting needle about size 3 and half mm Cut two pieces about 3 and half inches long

Off-Cut of Ostrich Egg with hole in the middle to fit on the top of the base.

Directions

/ Drill two holes in each piece of dowel about 1 inch apart in the centre.

2/ Sand the dowel where you have drilled.

3/ Glue the knitting needles in to the dowel with araldite,Make sure you hold the axle straight until it sets.

4/Paint the axle white

5/Decorate the wheels before you glue them to the axles. I put gold braid just inside the wheel then Pearls and roses in the centres but you can use nice buttons or earings

6/ Glue wheels onto the Dowel making sure they sit nice and flat on the table till glue has set.

7/ Paint the off-cut of egg and braid and pearl it, , you can glue some thin lace under the edge if you like.

8/ Cut some cardboard and paint it white. I glue this under the egg cut-out so you don't see where the coach has been glued to the base when you have glued you finished coach to the mirror.

you can make smaller wheels by cutting the plastic wheels with curved scissors.

Cut some cardboard circles the size you want the wheels to be ,blue tac them to the middle of the wheels and mark around on the wheel then cut with the curve of the scissors facing out then cut .

Sand the edge with sand paper when finished.

Adjust the length the dowel for a small egg (the length will decide how wide the space is for egg to fit inside)

You can also cover wheels with gold mesh material by cutting a hole in the centre and fitting and gluing around the centre and out to the edge, then glue on the braid and pearls.

These are good for goose eggs and small prams.

****Thankyou so much Jaquie ..I look forward to making some of these for Christmas egg projects now!

Dot

Get Kodak prints of this picture, and all your other favorites, at www.kodakgallery.com!

egg oval greeting card in CD case

2009-04-30T21:39:00.000-07:00

This is the project for May, and can be used for Mothers day (May 10th) but can also be used for any other special occasion.

To make this, take the insert out of a plastic CD case.

Measure and cut craftcard to fit the front and back of the case.

Take a scrap oval of shell, and use this as a template to mark an oval on the front card. Cut out oval from card, slightly smaller than the shell oval

Cut the oval scrap down to fit in the case when it is closed (there is a lot of measuring to fit in this project..remember to measure twice and cut once!) in egging we can adjust to fit as needed to as well.

Decorate the card and the oval scrap -I found this gorgeous earring, and it was just asking to be used in a project like this.

Now glue the decorated scrap of shell to the oval cutout of the card, from the back of the front card with the oval facing out.

add cord and braid around edges of oval. Cut out a suitable picture (I used gift wrap) and paste this to the outside of the back cover. I used stickers to decorate around the edges of the card, a suitable verse can be printed on light paper and pasted on the inside of the back cover. scrapbooking embellishments are very nice to use as well.

This CD case greeting card can be safely mailed anywhere in a CD mailer!

a nice way to use those oval scraps of shell, and to recycle those old CD cases.. cheers Dot

2009-04-10T00:33:00.000-07:00

I I have finally put the egg basket project together! I hope you find this lesson useful..

Its a goose egg, I marked a handle and cut it out, painted the edges with gold paint, and worried for ages over how to decorate it ! I wanted a basket weave effect, so ! first tried gold braid woven in situ- nope, that didnt work-it was too fiddly..so I thought about beading..seed beads didnt look so good- tricuts were better but getting the basket weave was still a hassle..getting deadline desperation now- soI had a chat to EggyAnnie on her Wednesday night chat-by then I was thinking about using cake decorating techniques with glue- its wonderful how brainstorming with Annie Pattie and Alice set the braincells soaring- The lightbulb went on yesterday (Thursday) why not try mastic (paste made with bicab soda Cornflour and water)LOL this one of my favourite pastes for making roses. So out with the saucepan and ingrediants and in a few minutes I had a lovely ball of paste to play with!

I learned a long time ago how to roll out paste with an even thickness, using a tile, some credit cards and a roller. so I set it up last night and started work!

I rolled strips first and glued them around the side edges and across the handle. I then used a tiny 6 mm wide piece of plastic card to mark out the basket weave design. I continued to paste and mark the paste as I added it around the egg and left it overnight to dry..

I then drybrushed gold paint over the design to highlight the weave.

I filled the basket with some gold tinsel and then added some real chocolate mini eggs!

I will convert this egg into a picnic basket after the holidays and maybe add a stand-although it sits very well without one.

I hope you have a go with this paste- I was delighted with the effect!

Recipe for the paste~

1/4 cup of cornflour , Bicarb soda and water. put into a saucepan and heat- stirring all the time until it forms a ball. Remove from the heat and cover with a damp cloth until its cool enough to handle. knead well until its smooth and pliable. keep in an airtight bag.

This paste dries very quickly no need to fire or bake. colour can be added while working with it (making a figure or flower etc) or in this case after it is glued in position (PVA tacky glue is fine)I will add progressive pics of the egg now..cheers Dot

2009-03-05T22:10:00.000-08:00

2009-03-05T21:56:00.000-08:00

The two pieces of shell were joined with spakfilla, when this was dry, the hat was painted and sealed with a high gloss sealer.

The fine gold braid was glued in place along the raw edge of the hat brim. The flower was attached to the feather with tacky about 1 inch from the tip.

A rhinestone flower was glued to the centre of the flower. When the glue was dry the feather was cut just beneath the flower. This was attached with tacky glue to the the place at the left where the brim joins the crown.

A picot braid was glued along the edge of the brim, and then also along top edge of the brim, and a neat join was made where the brim joined the crown at the opposite end from the flower.

The remainder of the feather was glued behind the tip of the feather where the flower is attached.

2009-03-05T21:53:00.000-08:00

the first pic is of the eggshell marked ready to cut the hat brim and crown

2009-03-05T21:49:00.000-08:00

March 6th 2009 and I have put this art deco hat together as a project on todays eggchat