Still Crafting!!!

I have no upcoming shows but I can't stop making things.  I have so many projects and tutorials saved that I just have to keep chipping away at them.

This is a cinnamon stick star I saw on Pinterest.  The person that made the one I saw used different decorations like real juniper and star anise, neither of which I had.  However, I was able to snip a few bits off of some existing decorations to use in the corner, and I found a small cardinal mixed in with my Christmas craft supplies.  

Then I had to make more of course.

Craft kit of the month came in and I wanted to get that done ASAP too.  The bags are made from vellum and had to be traced, cut and folded.  Then embellished with rub ons, embossing and small pearls, assembled and the ribbon handles were added last.  I worked on these while watching the Seattle Seahawks kick the Giants' ass on a cold, rainy Sunday.

Here's another lit bottle with blue, purple and green glass blobbies glued on.

It's somewhat difficult to make the blobs fit well all the way around and I tried to do all my 'fudging' on one side that I keep turned towards the back.

And another picture I saw on Pinterest using beach glass wired wrapped to a starfish.  This is a prototype but I've had some friends express interest in buying them.  I can get the starfish at the Christmas Tree Shoppe, but only in summer unfortunately.  I popped in to buy some and was really disappointed that they are gone till next year. 

This is another one I'd been wanting to do, making a suncatcher with the plastic Makit Bakit crystals.  I found one of their kits to make bowls by melting the bits in a pie tin and then shaping the sides as they cooled.  I really bought the kit because it had large bags of crystals which are next to impossible to find.  I melted them in the pie tin but I didn't shape the sides.

This one I did in a cookie cutter.  Unfortunately the heat of the oven and expanding crystals popped the soldering on one of the cutter seams, down at the bottom which is why it looks so raggedy.   

Russell's niece had asked me to make a beach glass bracelet for her sister....

....and liked it so much she commissioned four more.

And since I had everything out and a tall, thin jar, I tried again with this Austrian Santa snowglobe.

Old Time Crafts

I used to love Shrinky Dinks and Make It Bake It kits back in the 70s.  Some of these items are enjoying a resurgence thanks to Pinterest craft ideas.  

I found the doggie kit in Michael's Crafts and picked it up because it was just $2.99 and it's really cute.  The Shrinkies is a 1960's themed kit and I didn't realize that all the designs were precut and pre-drawn and just needed to be coloured.  I thought I would have to first trace & cut the designs.  But that was OK....it was a snowy afternoon and I was watching 'Amadeus' so I coloured all of the designs in one sitting.  

 Here's a batch in the oven, in mid shrink

The one on the left was once as big as the one on the right!

Large size designs ready to go in.

And here's the plate of all the shrinkies post-oven!

And here's my doggie suncatcher.  I actually had to bake this one twice.  The first time there were quite a few spaces that needed additional beads.

I forgot how much I like the smell of melting plastic.