Candle making comp!

Good afternoon ladies!  I've got waxy business for you today.

I was contacted by Homecrafts Direct to ask if I wanted to take part in a competition.  They sent me some candle making goodies and I had to make a candle.  I, of course, agreed.  I've made some candles in the past, but nothing more than these basic teacup and glass candles. 

This is what I was sent:

A big bag of paraffin wax, some rods to hold the wicks, wicks and wick holders, orange and blue colouring and blue and green liquid wax pens.  I grabbed my votive moulds along with my candle-dedicated saucepans and off I went.

I really wanted to do something creative, but I was limited to use what I had on hand.  What I mainly found was grease proof paper and mugs.  Well, that could work.  I also had an empty spice container (empty after we emptied it!), an empty milk bottle and some paper cupcake cases I found in a cupboard.  Oh, and shells.  We have been to the beach after all!*

I whipped up several batches of wax and got pouring.  First up were the votives and the spice jar.  I went for an ombre effect, using three shades of blue. 

I really like how these turned out.  That back one has a layer of the liquid wax as the top was messy.  I couldn't get it very neat though!  The photo below is the spice jar.

 

I poured some wax in a bowl lid covered with grease proof paper.  I was hoping to cut shapes out and attach them to the candles with the liquid wax. 

I didn't manage to make a smooth enough candle so that didn't happen.  I used some of the larger shells I'd collected to make mini candles.  These ones worked out well, the mussel shells didn't!

More greaseproof paper got pressed into mugs and wax added.  I wanted to really experiment so played around with different colour intensities, adding new coloured wax to the existing at different points of the wax setting, adding big chunks of wax to semi-set or still liquid wax... 

I love the effect of where it's got into the folds of the greaseproof paper and then I've peeled them away.

I used a range of colours.  I had blue and orange and discovered that they made a lovely olive green.  Should I have known that?  I would have guessed at brown or maybe purple.

The one with the chunks in didn't work.  The wax got all round the layers of paper and we couldn't get it out of the mug!

The pens were tough.  I googled and I pinterested and found nothing to show me how I could use them creatively.  I wondered if I could make very thin candles by drawings with the pens, adding a wick and then drawings over them.  Nope!

In the end I used them to stick sea shells around a grease proof paper candle.

More wax went into the cake cases,

I had a hairy moment when I couldn't get it out of the glass I'd put it into to support it as it set!  I then melted some wax and didn't add colour. 

When it started to set I whisked it with a hand whisk and added it to the top - cream!  I LOVE this candle.  I'm going to make some more with more realistic colours and see about adding some decorations.

Oh, and the milk jug?  No, that didn't work either... nearly, but the handle fell off!  I basically poured the wax, uncoloured, into the milk bottle, put it in the fridge to set and then got Mr CA to cut it out.  I do quite like the effect!

I've entered these into the Homecrafts Direct competition, they will show all the entries on their blog so please keep your eyes peeled for the post and say something nice!!  Incidentally, this online shop has LOADS of craft stuff for all kinds of crafts, if you're in the UK and interested in different crafts, check them out.

*I am aware I haven't mentioned going to the beach... stay tuned and I'll fill you in.  Don't worry, I won't be posting boring holiday snaps!

baby shortalls - a tale of two disasters

Good morning!  It's bank holiday Monday over here in England which means it's raining.  Let's have a great big cheer for our crappy weather!  For those fellow Brits who're suffering from the weather, I'm hoping this post provides a little entertainment! 

A while ago I made a baby shortall from an adult t-shirt following this tutorial.  My brother was so pleased with it that he gave me some more t-shirts to convert.  Jacob has grown a lot since that first shortall and so I needed to make the pattern bigger.  I mentioned this in my original post and one lady clearly thought I was getting too big for my boots as I'm such a novice and I was suggesting drafting  my own pattern.  It was this comment more than anything that spurred me on when I messed the first attempt up.

I didn't move the slope for the arms... 

See what I mean?  The rest of the shortall is fine and fit with the measurements I'd been given for Jacob, but this underarm bit...  hmmm a little strange!

But there's nothing like a snotty comment to encourage you on so I re-drafted the pattern and tried aggain.  Then my machine started doing this:

And then this!

I really don't understand why.  I cleaned out under the needle plate, I changed the needle, I rethreaded the machine, I rewound the bobbin, I played with the tension.  I can't access the bobbin tension so  couldn't do that.  After doing all these things a few times, I just put in a piece of scrap fabric and put my foot down.  Eventually it righted itself.  Stupid bloody machine!

So this is my next attempt.  I'm really pleased with it.  So yes I CAN redraft my own patterns!!  This was a heavy cotton jersey and was lovely to sew. 

I try to preserve the little touches like this label.   That seam looks twisted, but this photo was pre-ironing.  The first one took me about 2 hours, the next two took about 20 minutes each.  I wanted to sew them production line style, but each one needed a different thread colour!

It was important to me that I get this one right as my brother designed this t-shirt.  It's for an American skate-wear company and he was very proud of this.  Luckily, I didn't mess up.

A lot of my brother's t-shirts have detail on the back which is of course on the finished shortall.  Last but not least was the one below.

Another resounding success.  This was the first one they put on Jacob and he did a massive poo which managed to get on every centimetre of this shortall within about 10 minutes of him putting it on!!

You may notice that none of these has poppers on the bottom.  They do now, but I wanted to take the photos before I lost the light.

bottle tops

Good afternoon ladies!  I hope you're all well of a Friday afternoon?  Now, I don't want you all to panic, this post isn't about the Zakka Style Sew Along.  I know, incredible isn't it, I'm actually talking about something else!
A little while ago I told you all about the mixed-media jewellery making workshop that I attended.  One of the products was Pebeo Fantasy Paints.  I had a thought and fancied giving it a go.  Out came my big bag of bottle tops, aquired years ago at a craft show.  I used to use them in cardmaking but they'd been put aside for a while.  I got to work filling them with the paint and swirling two or three colours together in some of them.

Please excuse the rather dark, badly-lit, badly-shot photo and the crappy old placemat.  I wanted to get a shot of them before they dried, and so waiting for optimal light conditions was out of the question, as was moving them! 

I love the effect.  We were told at the workshop that you have no control over how the paint comes out.  This isn't strictly true if you've worked with them a little as you get to know how they behave and so can manipulate the paint.  There was one big flaw.  I didn't take shrinkage into account and they shrunk so much that I could see the inner circle of the bottle top on many of them.  Quite predictably, on my favourites!

I added some more paint and got my cocktail stick out again for more swirling and swooshing and other onomatopeic words.  Hey, big fancy word there, eh?  Spelt wrongly I don't doubt!  You can still see the bottom in some of these, but I've only noticed it on the photo, not in real life.

I did one each of the colours alone, though I don't seem to have done a red one for some reason.  They didn't turn out so well.  The light blue one on the left is how they should look, with that strange patterning.

Then I went to town swirling and mixing.  Some I love, some I don't like so much.  In some cases I loved the first go, but when I tried to replicate it as they were too empty, it didn't quite work, despite all my talk of learning how the paints work!  I suppose they're just not that precise.

It used a lot of paint.  I think next time I'll half fill the bottle tops with ordinary acrylic paint, then use the Fantasy paint over the top.  So you're all sitting there thinking "but what are they for", I can see it.  I'm thinking of adding brooch backs or even bails to make them into necklaces.  I'm wondering about drilling them to string a few together - but that's got to wait until I get a Dremel.  I'm saving up in Amazon vouchers that I get for doing on-line surveys, I'm half way there!

This lovely parcel plopped through my letter box this week.  Well, in all honesty, it plopped through my parents' letterbox and they passed it on to me.  I won this gorgeous panel from my lovely bloggy pal Susan.  She very generously added the perfect co-ordinating FQ and some flavoured teas.  I'm looking forward to getting to work on this one, I just hope I don't mess it up!
In other news, my lovely friend Allie has just started selling her patterns.  She's incredibly talented, so please go and take a look.  You can see her work on her blog and I'm sure you'll all agree that her patterns are amazing.  You can buy her first pattern (below) here.

Zakka Style Sew Along week 21 - Picture Frame

Sorry ladies, it's more Zakkaing again today!  I know, change the record Wendy.  I will, soon!

This week's project was a picture frame by Ayumi of Pink Penguin.  The picture did look sweet in the book.  In reality?  Not so much.

The supplies listed called for chipboard.  Not having a dedicated woodwork room in my house, I went with thick cardboard instead.  There was very little machine sewing involved, I pieced two strips of scraps, then it was hand sewing as shown below.

That became this, below, sideways for some reason.

I didn't have any ric rac, so I used a lacy ribbon instead.  I wish I'd left it off.  It looks stupid and only accentuates the fact that the frame does not fit on the backboard.

See?  Doesn't that look crap?  I'm not sure how it happened.  Maybe my rubbish measuring skills but I'm not happy with it.

A bit of fabric stamping and a bit of button gluing later and I have a frame to put a picture of my beloved nephew in.  It was going to be a gift for his parents but I can't give them that, they'll assume Jacob made it himself!!

If you want to see a much better version of this frame, visit this week's host Anna at Noodlehead, and to see many much better versions, go and visit this week's link up.

If anybody wants me, I'll be in a corner sobbing as I attempt to make a clasp purse and failing miserably (failing miserably at the purse making, not the sobbing.  Sobbing I can do)...

FNSI results - August

Good morning ladies!  I've just popped in quickly to write this post, then I'm off to get my hair cut.  I haven't had my hair cut since just after my wedding.  I got married in April 2010.  Ooops.  It's starting to resemble a mop and somedays I look like a scarecrow (albeit a rather rotund scarecrow) and other days I look more like the Wild Woman of Borneo... time to get it cut!

Last night I played along with FSNI hosted by Handmade by Heidi and Crafty Vegas Mom.

Except I didn't sew.  No.  I had planned to, I was going to handstitch some felt flowers for which I was pretty sure I had a pattern in one of the craft books downstairs.  I didn't.  I couldn't be bothered to go upstairs.  Yes, I am that lazy but in my defence I'm always tired on a Friday night and I just had the week from hell at work.

I had, however left my felting supplies and books on the dining room table.  6 paces.  I could manage that.  I wanted to make myself a brooch, I love brooches but have so few of them.

Enter my needlefelted butterfly.  It's taken from Wool Pets by Laurie Sharp.  I love it.  But... it has two major flaws.

It's bigger than I wanted, and it's too thin.  I decided to try again.

I tried to make this one thicker and smaller and ended up making it thicker and wonkier!  Attempt number 3.

I succeeded in size, but perhaps not the shape.  I thought I'd have a go at decorating it anyway.  I do quite like it and may add a brooch back.  People seeing me wearing it will probably think I'm bonkers, but no change there then.

Still in a feltingly mood and hooked on the return of Sharon to Eastenders not to mention the saga between Ben and Shirley, I got out Quick and Clever Felting by Ellen Kharade and flicked through.  I found this paisley motif as part of a felted purse.  I thought it would look nice as a brooch.  I needle felted the white base, added in the purple and turquoise elements (the turquoise is a LOT more vibrant than in the picture, I just couldn't get the colour right) and then hand stitched on some beads.  So I did sew for the FSNI!

I thought you might like to see the back of a needle felted piece - quite funky!  I think I will add a brooch back to this one.  I don't like the white I chose at the base, but overall I think it works.  Am I deluded??  So, that's two more for my Craft Book Challenge.  It's been ages since I made anything from a book other than Zakka Style!

Right, I'm off to get those split ends removed...  I may be quite some time...

Zakka Style Sew Along week 15 - Elephant bookmark

No, don't worry, you haven't entered a time warp, I was just late on this project!  This is for the Zakka Style Sew Along and although I'm a few weeks late, I've done it anyway!  If you fancy a trip back in time, the link up can be found here.

Not long after starting the sew along, I knew I wouldn't be completing all the projects.  Some didn't appeal, like the patchwork ribbon, others I had no use for - the water bottle holder, and some were just too much, like the quilt.  I missed the elephant bookmarks, but it was one I really wanted to do, so amid my Zakka sewing at the weekend, I decided to whip one of these bad boys up.

I liked the idea of a grey elephant with a dress, so I did a quick measurement and made a small piece of patchwork.  Then on to the ear.  I thought it might be easier to cut the seam allowance using the crocodile scissors (my mind's gone blank, can't for the life of me remember what normal people call them!), and it was.  But it was bloody hard to turn!

And then disaster struck.  See this little elephant here?

This is the back.  Oops.  Such a basic error, but one I make so often!

I was not going to let it beat me though and I cut out another.  I thought I might as well make 2 whilst I was at it.  The red fabric is from the Petit Ecole fat quarters that the lovely Nancy sent me, and the yellow is from a layer cake.  No idea which one.

Here they are waiting for me to give them the gift of sight and sound.

So, I've mentioned I want to improve my photos, so I took a photo of them on a book (Strange Telescopes by Daniel Kalder if anyone is interested!).  I then went into the editing software to play around with them but it mainly ignored me so I gave up.

I know, I am so impatient.  But the elephant isn't bad, is it?

This photo is to prove I really did start again and didn't just finish the one with the seamy backside!

Another Zakka Style SAL completed.  Much Zakkaing has been going on recently so I hope to enter the last few linkies.  Yes, last few, we're nearly done!