Custom Dragons

I worked on a few custom orders before Christmas (which is why all restocking of regular dragons ground to a halt)

Fire/flame inspired

Black/Purple

A different set of dice with one of my normal designs

5 D20 Dice Dragon Decorations.

Derpy Reindeer

He came as a free kit from a magazine and hes suppose to have more decorations on him but I like him naked hehe. This took far too long to make and was quite stressful, the last time I attempted something like this it was a fox and it did not go well.....

Anyway despite his tiny feet and derpy face, I like him and hes going to go on a shelf when we start decorating for Christmas. 

How to make: Air-Dry Clay Christmas Decorations

I've been busy making decorations for the tree, this year its going to be a white theme. These were pretty easy (and messy) to make so I thought I'd write how to make them.

To begin with you will need:
Some Air Drying clay (whatever colour you want the decorations to be)
A rolling pin
A selection of cookie cutters
An easy to clean surface, as its going to get messy! maybe some newspaper as well
And a bowl of water to rehydrate the clay if it starts drying out

For finishing touches:
Sandpaper
Maybe a small file
Some pretty ribbon or string to hang the decorations with.

First off grab a handful of clay and mould it into a ball

Roll it out, making sure to keep it all the same thickness

Decide how thick you want the decorations to be, the thicker they are the longer they will take to dry

Start cutting the clay with the cutters, being as economical with the placement to make the most of the clay.

Remove the excess clay and find a straw and make some holes at the top big enough to fit the string or ribbon through.

If you want get something flat and neaten the edges, but you don't have to as we have sandpaper to neaten the edges once they are dry.

Move them on to a tray or a surface that is not going to have cats sit on them or something and let them dry for 24 hours. You can tell they are drying as the edges will start to become whiter. Now I found that some of the decorations the edges started turning up as they were drying, so every few hours I would turn them over.

Once they are completely dry thread your string or ribbon through the holes and then get your sandpaper and neaten those edges!

and if you have snowflakes like mine a small file is useful for getting the middle bits

Here is a comparison of the wet and dry clay for anyone who like me panicked and thought the clay wasn't white enough when it was wet.

Half a pack of DAS 500g makes this amount of decorations. Now you can paint them if you wish or leave them natural like mine.

Any left over clay remember to put in a grip seal bag or an air tight container as it will dry out and become useless.

Yay now you have pretty decorations to hang on the tree or wherever you want!

Gingerbread men

Something else that has been in the to do pile are these charming Gingerbread men felt decorations. I have just finished them and they are listed on Folksy.

Originally they were going to have just white ribbon on the arms and legs but I think white ric a rac looks a lot better and I love the red with white spots ribbon! going to find other projects I can use it on he he.

Christmas stock

I have been busy working on Christmas stock the last few months and some of it has already been listed in my shops but I thought I'd wait a bit before making a blog entry about them and as the supermarkets are putting their Christmas stock out I thought now is a good time to make a Christmas blog entry.

These have been completed recently and I love them! Felt Christmas trees with button decorations.

One of my favourite earrings that I made to wear at work last year are these Christmas puddings. So this year I've made some to sell.

and my second favourite earrings we're my gingerbread men and these are for sale too.

I loved making these for my own tree last year and they looked really good too. I made one into a brooch to wear at work as well :)

Not necessarily Christmas but these looked really pretty on the tree with the other Christmasy decorations and were good decorations for Valentines day too.

and a white version.

Union jack bunting

So i think this will be my last bunting i make for awhile, its fun to make but i have plans for many other things :)

 2.5 metres, 10 flags (1 is cropped out in the photo)

 The reverse has red white and blue so which ever way its hung it will look good.

The Jubilee is getting closer, I'm getting excited :)

More bunting

Ok so my painting i started last week did not go well, so i am leaving that and have been making some more bunting, this time some plain red white and blue:

More bunting

Bunting is so much fun to make:

These 3 are now available from my Folksy shop. I have spent the morning readjusting my postage prices with the new prices from Royal mail, rather annoying that anything under 750g is £2.70, when most of my stuff that I send never goes over 100g :(

Anyway quite inspired to do some acrylic painting and i know exactly what picture i want to paint :)

New Sewing Machine

I am a bad person for not Blogging this sooner :( 

Here is my brand new spiffy sewing machine: 

A Singer 2250, i got it for my birthday last week from my wonderful other half :) and i love it! so far i have sewn some linen napkins (that i was meant to make for Christmas last year, eek!) and what i finished making today was some bunting:

 Ready to decorate my house for the Diamond Jubilee :)

I am quite pleased with these, but my next set of bunting will have some Union Jacks in as well.

Decorations

Here is the latest batch of decorations I have been working on.

For the Bell, Bauble, Heart and Snowman I used a template from Mollie Makes magazine, and also took inspiration for the embellishments from the magazine. So much fun!

I have also made my Christmas cards for this year (finally!). Now I just need to work on these gift tags....

Busy busy

First of I've made some Christmas pudding decorations from felt.

Then some hearts!

Then ordered some more buttons from Blooming Felt and LovePaperfish. I love Buttons!

And then ready to wear at work I have made some Christmas Pudding earrings out of fimo! also have a few more that will go on my Christmas Charm bracelet.

Today I plan on making more felt hearts with my new buttons and hopefully make a start on this Robin lino cut that I want to do for my Christmas cards.

Getting ready for...

...Christmas! I have been super inspired by Craftseller magazine and the Prima Christmas makes magazine, So i went shopping and bought some stuff:

Not sure what this lot will turn into, either Christmas cards, decorations or jewellery, i don't know! i have so many ideas buzzing around in my head, i haven't been this inspired for ages! Might get some more felt tomorrow before work...