DON'T BLINK - DIY Weeping Angel

Having seen the official Dr Who Weeping Angel tree topper too late  - it's sold out and apparently discontinued I really wanted one for the top of my seasonal tree.

So - how hard could it be to make one?. The answer is not hard at all!

I acquired an angel who had seen better days from a friend who was having a clear out.

She had sculpted hair and articulated arms which was great. She was however a bit too fancy in her dress and the plastic wings had developed a forward curve over the years...

 She looks better already

A couple of minutes with a sharp scissors took care of the lacy over skirt and all the trimmings. Ideally I'd have taken the puffed sleeves off too but she only had arms from the elbows!

I straightened the curved in the wings with a wooden coffee stirrer taped to the back of them.

A couple of coats of stone effect paint later and here she is.

I super-glued the hands over the eyes after the first coat  whilst it was still tacky.

The paint takes a long time to dry - at least 24 hours so you do need to allow for this - she is still drying at the moment which is why she is on the table and not on the tree!

Gingerbread Cottage

Well I've called it that - I may of course change my mind....

This was a gift from a very good friend and with the bad weather today it  seemed an excellent time to start it..

I'm sure these go together somehow?

Some time later! Now it has to dry and I want to start decorating it before attaching all the pretty little trimmings.

I'm going to have to make a decision soon!

Crafting Challenge Update

Well not a lot achieved. I took this away with me for a week's holiday in the hope I'd get a flying start. I did get quite a lot done but I'd have liked to have got substantially further to be honest. This is a lot of "confetti" stitching though but from early indications it is going to be very worth it.

The new project started 2 weeks ago looking like this:

It now looks like this - well I've put a few more hours in since this was taken but it doesn't look that much different yet.

I think this may be a long project!

Skulls and ??

Well it's done.

Very pleased with the way it's turned out. The fabric is actually a lot pinker than this but I used the camera phone. Now it'll join the others in a drawer until Jamie does enough suitable designs for me to make my planned throw! ( No pressure Jamie!)

Now onto the next  - choice of fabric was difficult but I think I've settled on Parchment from Sparklies

The design will be Circle of Life, again from White Willow Stitching

I'm not sure if I'm going to put the background in yet. We'll see. I have plenty of fabric.

2014 Craft Challenge

Blowing the dust and cobwebs away... Gosh it's quiet in here!

I've joined a challenge with some friends to do something "creative" every day in 2014. Whether I'll manage this remains to be seen but it's got me picking up my needle again after a long hiatus.

Even the dolls house has been dusted off and the other half persuaded into doing some wiring for me (which is why it was stalled). I've no excuse now though not to get on with it.

Firstly though, what I've been doing since Jan 1st

Here's a stitch project that has been lying idle for a couple of months. Time to get on and finish it I think. There are a number of other designs that are in the same style and I want to create a themed throw/quilt out of them.

Progress up to 1st January

And as  at this afternoon. If I crack on who knows I might even finish it this evening.

The design is Tribal Skull by Jamie Larson at White Willow Stitching.

The fabric is called Fuchsia Fizz and is a 28ct evenweave but I've had it so long that I can't remember who the dyer is. To be honest I never thought I'd find a project to stitch on it!

Summertime and the living is easy

Time for a summer project and maybe even some colour....

The base of this was one of the very cheap stretched canvases from the Works ( 4 for £4.99). I wouldn't want to use them for fine art but for this sort of thing they are fine.

The shapes are cut from Tim Holtz's grunge board. These were pre-cut  but they would be easily cut with a die cutter.

Having decided roughly what  I was going to use and where it was time to colour the background.

The canvas was coloured with the Ranger "Bubblegum" inks. Sprayed with water they were allowed to flow into each other  and the canvas left to dry.

The background was further decorated by stamping, both directly on to the canvas and also onto  thin white tissue paper which was then stuck to the canvas with gel medium.

The individual letters and motifs were decorated with a range of distress inks, decoupage and paint.

All that remained was to stick everything down and let it dry.

Amazing how much mess this all made!

Configuration Time

I've been wanting to make up one of Tim Holtz's configuration boxes for a while - it''s been sitting around for a couple of months but too many projects and not enough time.

But tax season is over in the UK and time to celebrate ( and the skilled assistance of a friend who has done these before!)

I was planning on a woodland/nature theme so the papers and materials I planned to use were collected with this in mind.

So basically it's a box filled with lots of little boxes that you can move around and take out. I wanted to have a big space so I didn't use all of the little ones. Much moving around and head scratching later, this was  the configuration initially decided upon.

Then comes the time consuming task of lining each of the little boxes with paper.

No that big green space isn't working for me either and yes they are in a different order from the originally intended configuration. Oh well.

The back, sides and lid were also covered with paper.





So what is going in that big green space? At this point I'd better post a warning of graphic photos of dismemberment that might be distressing to any wooden manikins reading this.

This was a £1.99 wooden artist's  model from a discount shop. The question was what to do with it.

No idea where the idea for a tarot inspired hanged man came from but that took root. The main problem is that the model is attached with reasonably strong springs and the initial idea of gluing his hands to his hips to get the correct arm position didn't work. Attempts to nail them didn't work either.





In the end a pair of wire cutters were used to cut the arm springs and they were reconstructed using sellotape to mold and attach them to the body in the right place. The same method was used for the legs.

This now looked pretty awful as you might imagine but once bandaged together with tissue tape and coloured it was really working well.

The problem was that he really didn't work in the green box so he was put aside for another project. I'll think of something one day.











I was also starting to really hate that green  so a quick make over ensued. It would have been a lot easier to do it earlier but the results were definitely worth it.

 And here it is - a witches kitchen! Not quite what I'd set out to make but never mind.

It isn't quite finished, the feet are temporary awaiting inspiration and some of the boxes need to be filled - again I'm awaiting inspiration.

The hanging cauldron ( actually a small jam jar hung with a piece of chain from an old necklace) needs filling with something and I need a tall vertical object to go alongside it.

The pile of skulls is made from beads I had hanging around which have been glued together.

The little bottle is full of wood dust from my incense making supplies/

The  nest of eggs were from a £1 shop and I have 5 more of them to use up and the pottery Amanita Muscaria came from a garden centre many months ago.

I'm not sure what I'm going to put in the remaining three boxes - maybe another bottle with some herbs in next to the one already there but for  the last ones my mind is blank. Suggestions please!