Canvas Craft - A little something for Mother's Day

I never know what to get my Mum for Mother's day.

So a spare canvas

some left over paint

an off-cut of fabric

some new buttons

Signed by all of us and ready for Mum.

Happy Mother's Day!

Candle in a tea cup

My friend gave me a great craft gift for Christmas, a tea cup candle kit.

I dug out my old double boiler saucepan to melt the wax beads.

Once the wax had melted I used a small dollop of it to stick the wick to the bottom of the tea cup.

I then poured the rest of the wax  into the teacup. The wick was held straight with 2 pencils until the wax at set.  

So there you have it.  Jeannie-in-a-teapot's candle-in-a-tea-cup.

Fabric Desire Scarf

I'm always on the lookout for something to make for my mum for Christmas. I came across a fabric scarf in the local market. I just had to have a go.  

It was basically a strip of ribbon with holes punched in it. Casting on the 5 stitches I needed was as simple as putting the knitting needle through 5 consecutive holes.

I then just knitted through the pre-cut holes.

I was really pleased with the results and mum loved it.

Glitter Tree

At Christmas I'm always on the lookout for a little something to take to the cemetery in memory of my Dad. This year I left it too late and the things that I had my eye on had sold out. So, I decided to make something.

I bought a small tree for £2.50  from the garden centre.

Painted on some PVA glue & sprinkled on some glitter.

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 I added the final touches, a bow at the top and some ribbon around the plant pot.

For Dad, who always made Christmas so special. 

2012 Halloween Pumpkins

 I bought 5 Dill's Atlantic Giant Pumpkin seedlings in a charity sale at work. 

I looked after them indoors for a while and then moved them to the green house to harden off.

Once there was no danger of frost I planted them out and then pretty much left them to it.

By the end of the summer I had quite a crop.

One for the doorstep.

Jack  - Nightmare Before Christmas.

And the table center piece.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Betty helps out

Hat and scarf storage bags

Autumn is in the air.

 It's time to unpack the hats, gloves & scarves. As I'm a keen knitter we have rather a lot of them. They usually hang about in the hall and often on the dinning room table.

I picked up some colourful fabric in a sale at the Fabric Warehouse.

Within an hour and a half I'd make 2 simple storage bags. 

 

Much tidier and hopefully no more lost gloves.

Roman Mosaic Coaster

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Whilst on holiday on the Isle of Wight we visited the Roman Villa in Brading.

 It was absolutely  fascinating. 

This was one of the largest complete mosaics showing the four seasons. It's one of the best preserved Roman mosaic floors in Northern Europe.

The hypocaust.

Not only did it have a very nice cafe with a good cup of tea, there was also a art & craft tent on site - Jeannie heaven. 

Being a Roman Villa, the craft on offer was mosaic related, making a coaster.

 I decided on the design before gluing the tessere to a tile.

Using sticks as spacers the tesserae were glued to the back of the tile.

We left the glue to set whilst we had another look around the villa site.

 Each tile was supplied with a bag of grout to finish off the coaster at home.

I mixed up the grout in an old container.

 It was spread over the tiles & rubbed in a circular motion to encourage the grout into the gaps.

Next it was left  to dry for 10 minutes and the excess grout wiped off with a damp cloth.

Left for another 10 minutes and then wiped with a dry cloth and left to dry for 24 hours.

24 hours and a polish later, my new coaster was ready to use.

A great reminder of my holiday.