Crafts Fair Buys and Fun with Molds

My parents and I went to a craft fair recently.  I figured that this year I would write a list of the things I planned to buy.  Normally I'm a bit of a magpie - ooh I like that, or ooh I need that.  So the plan was to buy the following:

• Some big sharp scissors for cutting fabric.  I will turn that duvet cover I've kept for 3 years into a crochet rug;
• Ring blanks.  Both my daughter and I want to make some rings;
• Clip On Earring findings;
• Coloured paper.  I love finding pretty patterned paper, but when I come to make cards I struggle to figure out which patterns I can use with what, and besides I have a bit of a stockpile of patterned paper.  Oops.
• pretty flower beads like these.  I saw these bracelets and fell in love immediately,  I now need some similar beads!
• Good value yarn, lots of balls in the same colour.  I want to make something for me.
• Little gems - because you always need these;
• Double sided sticky tape;
• Black/dark coloured embroidery thread

I did manage to find everything on my list, well actually the flower beads I found weren't actually beads, but they were still pretty and perfect for adding to the ring blanks.

Oh, and the earring findings.

And I'm sure they'll look beautiful on cards too, if I can bear to part with them.  I made some cards for friends with my lovely new paper and some of the gems got a look in too.  The bird stamp set is also new.

The yarn and scissors were for more long term projects, so hopefully you'll get to read about the amazing crocheted rug from an old duvet cover sometime in the not too distant future.  I have a couple of projects I have to finish before I can find the patterns I want to use for the yarn.  And yes, I know I should probably find the pattern first and buy the yarn next, but I don't seem to work that way!

I did find something to buy that wasn't on my list at all, but I am so pleased I did!  I saw some molds like these and these.  I couldn't decide which ones to buy, I wanted them all!  I ended up with 3 different packs of molds, with a variety of shapes, flowers, butterflies, owls, birds, cupcakes,strawberries and bows.  I wanted to play straight away, but sadly the air drying clay in the house belongs to my daughter, so I had to wait until she came home from school.  Luckily she loved the idea as much as I did and we had already made a whole load of shapes before tea time!

I decided to have a go with the home made air drying clay I had used before and then my son wanted a go too, so I made another batch.  It definitely does work with the home made air drying clay, but it doesn't have such a pretty finish on it afterwards - it feels quite rough whereas the clay feels lovely and smooth.

For jewellery I think you'd need the bought clay although you might get away with it for ear rings.  I want to try it with hot glue and fimo too to see if I get different finishes.  So far it has been super easy to use these molds and I'm so pleased I bought them.

Heart Art

We have done some heart artwork over the years, some stuff I thought I would share.

I loved these layered cardboard hearts from A Little Learning For Two, and I thought we would have a go.  I traced around my heart cookie cutters, the inside and the outside to make 6 hearts.  Though I'm sure most people would just be able to create their own.  I also cut the hearts out of thick cardboard, as the kids were a couple of years younger.  However, if we re-do this project the kids will be tracing and cutting their own hearts onto thinner cardboard.

They picked their own colours.  My daughter wanted pink, so we used various shades between red and white.  It is slightly more obvious in real life than in this photo (but only just, I was a bit liberal with the red paint when we started!)

My son basically picked all the colours we had at the time!  I do love it though.

We also tried printing with toilet roll insides. My daughter wanted to create hearts, so we simply bent the toilet roll inside to look heart shaped.  I don't know how she managed to pick up enough paint to fill some of the hearts, but I like it.

This isn't our art I'll admit (how amazing would that be!), but pretty nonetheless.  It is the Red Arrows performing their heart formation.  You can just see them completing it at the bottom of the picture. 

I think this is one of my favourite crafts we have ever done.  DIY air drying clay , we have done it a couple of times, I like using the little cutters we have to create toppers for cards.  Here I just used the clay as it came, but it can be painted too.  If it is rolled thin it dries pretty quick, in about 24hrs.  Thicker stuff takes a while.  It is quite brittle, so I don't think I could make it into jewellery, but it is fine for cards.  

Here is another heart related card.  I still haven't sent this one, everytime I look at it I think of the Beatles.  I guess it is the colours.

So these were some of the heart projects we have done in the past.  I'll share some of things we've been doing recently soon.