Craft Kits of the Month

I'd let a couple kit of the month club projects fall behind so I decided to knock them out one week when the heat and humidity kept me indoors.

This is the Christmas in July project, a painted tin tree bell, or chime.  It came with enamel paint and when they say it dries quickly, they aren't kidding.  This was fairly easy, just paint & tie the bits together with jute. Hard to see but there's a dark red jingle bell at the bottom.  I think it's meant to be hung outside, no matter the weather.

This was June's project, an embossed velum lantern.  I had to glue the wood frame together, and then decorate 4 sheets of vellum paper with the flower rub ons and embossing.  I was stoked that the kit came with the embossing tool and very pretty and intricate stencil.

This, unfortunately, went from a project I was looking forward to, to one that I couldn't wait to finish.  Just a lot of measuring and detail work that I didn't have a lot of patience for.

I messed up one of the vellum sheets really bad, so the back panel is plain but for the embossing I did.  I was supposed to cut the scallops at the top and bottom, but the directions on how to hold the scissors and cut them made absolutely no sense, so I left the edges straight with the design punched in.  I also majorly screwed up the ribbon holes on the first piece of vellum.  The directions should have advised that those be cut in first, then work the embossing around them.  

The kit also came with a flameless, battery operated tea light but it isn't very strong, light-wise, so I used a candle for the purpose of these pictures.  I would not, however, use a real candle in the center unless it was protected by a glass votive cup.

Oddly enough, the panel that I had to fudge is the one that looks coolest with the candlelight!

This is August's Kit of the Month, a rain forest jasper necklace.  I am always less enthused about the beading projects because I already do so much of it.  When this kit came in, I did it right away.  It's not really 'me' so I'll put it in the pile to sell.

This one surfaced in a drawer.  I forgot all about it, but I got it years ago when I was still out west.  I wasn't real thrilled with it, but also didn't get around to returning it either, so I stuffed it in a drawer and forgot about it.  It came with brown beads and sequins and I thought it was so dull and ugly.  Who uses brown napkins? This isn't the 1970s.

I ended up using the stencils only and then using my own stash for the bead embroidery.  I screwed up with the heart, because it's going the wrong way when slid onto a napkin.  Also, I did a sucky job of sewing them together too. I may put a beaded edge around them to hide the crap ass sewing, but on the other hand, I don't feel like expending the effort. I am sure these will end up in the pile to go to Goodwill or something. My OCD made me do the kit, but really it served as just a practice exercise in bead embroidery using sequins.