Arrows

I was reading a great book by Jared Diamond
called "The World Until Yesterday" and
he spoke about a tribe that traded arrows
to convey solidarity between members.  It
lead to this craft idea!  Making the clay
arrow heads was the hardest part.  It made me
think about the skill involved in making
functional pieces.  Thank goodness they
are purely decorative or I would have
gone hungry in the woods...

To display them, I inserted tiny eye
screws and hung them with curtain
clips.

I tried to make the colour combinations
as wild as I could.  I used felt, wool, and
washi tape.  The wood dowel I used
were precut from a package.  They
were pretty time consuming to make,
but also very satisfying.  If anyone wants
to make arrows to trade, let me know!

Fimo and Sculpey addiction!

About a week ago, my friend CJ invited me over to have a Fimo party! The whole reason for this was because my old gas oven runs too hot to cook the Fimo.  No matter how low I set it, it was still way too hot for Fimo!  I was impressed with the beads she made for me and was keen to make my own.  Here are the results!  We made beads and beads for hours!

I experimented with the cords.  I tried out coloured hemp
twine (too scratchy), fluro builder's cord (gets fuzzy after
a few wears, but looks way cool!) and cotton cord (CJ's
choice, and it's a winner) from work.  The hard part was to find out which beads to put together and how many sit right.
To make the faceted ones, you just take a one sided razor
blade and carefully slice off random chunks before cooking
it  to give it an nice uneven look.

It took a few tries to get them even.  I had fun mixing
the colours to get different hues.  I learned to wear
latex gloves so you get no fingerprints, to do the light
colours first, to use wet wipes between colours and
not to do things too perfect.  You can also get very
fine sand paper if you need to smooth them more
after cooking.  The only thing I still cannot do is
get a lint free bead, grr!  They got better in the end,
but still, bits of lint especially in the white and tan.
So glad I don't have a cat!

Here's a cute idea!  Just roll out the Fimo
thin and use a mini heart shaped cookie
cutter to make a string of flat beads.
The ideas are endless!!!

Another mini cookie cutter idea.  I tried to
make a black and white slice, and it turned
out ok.  Need more practice!

I did figure out how to make my oven work
in the end!  I got a little oven thermometer
and put it inside where I could see it, then
turned it on as low as it goes.  Once it passed
the 130 degree mark up to about 200 degrees,
I switch it off completely. When it gets close
to 130 degrees, I pop my beads in the oven
and set the timer for 20 minutes.  A bit fiddly,
but it does the trick!  Although I can now do it
at home, I will still enjoy craft parties at
CJ's house!

My favourite colours!

New Fimo bunting style necklace
with hemp twine holding it
together.

So many ideas...

Now on to wooden geometric
beads painted with acrylic and
decorated with Washi tape!

Muted colours highlighted with
gold leaf and protected with
Matt Mod Podge.  

In a Christmas mood!

I've been getting into the Christmas mood early this year, maybe because I'm in denial of my birthday... I've been 
inspired and motivated by things I've seen online, in stores, and by my creative friend CJ!  This advent calendar
is a Kaisercraft kit I bought at Spotlight.
Once I built it, I kinda got bored halfway through. It turned out good in the end!




This wreath was fun to make!  I 
wrapped the whole thing in green
raffia, then got some cute ribbon
going around it. I had saved some
wood snowflakes from last year
to decorate the bottom.

I have a giant pile of colourful
felt that was begging to be made
into stuffies!  These two kitties
were easy to make.  I just cut out a pattern made from scratch, embroidered the eyes and face, sewed them together, and stuffed em'!


This little creature was inspired
by the Bjork video for Human
Behaviour.  Cute little man eating
bear!

These are just styrofoam shapes wrapped in colourful yarn.  As I wrapped them, I spread some Tacky craft glue underneath to keep it on.  The tree was far easier than the mini wreath. Then i got some sparkly sequins and pinned them on, secured with a seed bead.






This little tree is a mini foam cone
layered with small leaf shaped felt 
cut outs.  I pinned them on with 
sequin pins.  Then I got the clear
glitter glue out to decorate.

My friend CJ showed me how to make
this simple little decoration.  You punch
out a contrasting shape of each colour with a scalloped circle punch, fold each circle in half, then glue it all together. The colour combinations are endless!






I've been obsessed with peppermint 
candy swirls lately, so I have to make
these!  They are painted onto a 
chip board circle, then glittered up!
The painting took a long time because 
I stupidly painted white on red, ha!










I made so many of these! I 
couldn't stop!  They can be every
day decorations, for birthdays, 
or any occasion. Ahhh, I have 
a week off coming up so stay
tuned for more craftiness!

Long time no make!

Well, I've been crafting off and on (more off than on!) and it was all piling up so here's what I've been up to these past few weeks...

After seeing a pair of expensive sparkly shoes
at a shoe store, I decided to make my own
cheap version!  Kmart had some light teal
sneakers, so I busted out the glitter and jazzed
them up.  I gave it a coating of matt spray
just in case all the glitter fell off, so hopefully
it works... I might look like a 12 year old girl when I wear these out, ha!




At my work, we got these nifty little hexagonal
pencil holders and immediately, it popped into
my head to do this with them!  I painted the
insides all these bright colours, then glued them
together in a beehive kinda way.  Most shorter
pens will sit fine, but I think I will glue a bit of
dowel just at the front to give it a little tilt so that
the longer pens and pencils will sit in there
without falling out.  Too fun!

Can you tell what my favourite colour might be??

I got these cute little white paper suitcases from my work and painted it minty green.  Then I glued a cute polka dot ribbon around the edge. On the top, I glued a pretty piece of scrapbook paper. Voila!  Yet another box I can stuff to the top with craft items, ha ha!  The craft hoarding is starting to get out of hand... I wish I had more friends who like this kind of stuff so I could give them away as presents!

When we got these amazing wood cabinets at work I flipped out and bought three of them!  They are great to put all your tiny bits and pieces in like buttons, push pins, pegs & paper clips.  In the other one, I put my rings, broaches and pendants.  In this one pictured, I want to make it into a curio cabinet.  I can put rocks, sea shells, bits of driftwood that I find lying around.  Don't bother looking for any, I think CJ and I bought them all, ha ha!  I have a sickness for painting wood objects.  I dread when a new lot of wood craft comes to the store, because I know there will be something in there I will want to decorate!


These were the cutest little scalloped wood trays!  On this one, I painted it all my favourite shade of aqua:  Coral Fantasy from Bristol Paints.  This colour is incredible!  If I had my own place, I would paint an entire room this colour.  (As it is, I've painted many things around the house with it.)  On the inside, I covered it with Josonja's Opal Dust.  It's a glitter coating that has small and large bits of iridescent glitter.  This picture does not do it justice.  I want to BE this colour, I want to consume it!!!



These clever little shadow boxes came with a bit of string and some tiny pegs so you can clip a photo or two inside.  I got the idea to clip some wood letters inside and make a cute message!  Well, by now, anyone looking at this post will have had a twee overdose!  I apologise...  If you are impressed with this selection of crafts, check out my shop Riot Art & Craft and go right to the wood craft section regularly for these gems.  That is, if I haven't got to it first, hee hee!

Too much!

I have been having trouble deciding what to post about next because there is a craft jam in my head!!  So many crafts and so little time.  If only I had just ONE more day off to get things done properly.  What I've really been wanting to do is to get out my silk screen again.  It takes so long to set it up and if you're only doing one or two prints...is it worth it?  Recently, I restocked all of the inks from work and purchased some stick-on-stencil film to make it easier.  I don't have much experience with silk screening, but would like to play around with it more.  I hope my screen is ok, since last time it was used, it was left without cleaning for a while...ahem!  Grr, not naming any names... The good thing about working in an art & craft store is being able to get supplies at a discount!  Also, as I'm sure many of you can relate, my craft area is super compact, so not much room to move around, especially with a glass of wine at your elbow!  Enough said, just have a look at this picture of where it all happens.

Washi Tape!

Ok, I had never heard about Washi Tape until my lovely friend CJ brought it to my attention!
Basically, it's colourful masking tape from Japan and you can do all kinds of things with it.  It turned into a full blown collection in no time at all.  My problem was how to display all these colourful
rolls... I had seen a few dispensers online, but they held very little and cost too much.  So I decided
to make my own out of Balsa wood, dowel and cork.  It turned out beautifully!  And filled so
quickly (it is now filled to the top!)... Now I have to use it up!

Make stuff!

Hi everyone!  I created this blog to motivate myself to use up all those good bits of craft that I keep hoarding.  Hopefully I can inspire others to do the same.  It's just a shame to collect all these beautiful bits and pieces and hide them away in desk drawers and boxes.  They need to be put to good use.  I work in an art and craft store, so it's easy to go a little crazy!  So I will posting pics of all the things I make and using all the NICE THINGS!