Wednesday 28 March 2012

Wednesday's Workbox - Easter Hearts



Today I am feeling so much better! I have been very busy catching up with all the things that had to be left undone yesterday and on Monday because of my bad hip. I ran some errands, sorted out the bookcase in the living room, did some more decluttering and was able to tidy out the cupboard under the stairs - and in the process of doing that I made several exciting discoveries! The first of these might seem very trivial indeed, but it made me smile very much! I found my pretty pink straw bag, which contains fabric scraps, which I shall use to create some pretty trimmings to decorate our home with for Easter - and in emptying the bag out to make sure it was clean, I found right at the bottom, a very tiny wee screw, about 1/2 cm long and just a couple of millimeters wide. I didn't know where it had come from or how it had got into the bag (or indeed how I managed to see it), but I knew exactly what I was going to do with it now that I'd found it - fix my reading glasses! Recently one of the arms fell off them, and although I have a glasses repair kit, there was not a screw the right size in that kit, and so Papa Bear had said they could not be repaired properly unless we could find a store that sold the right size of screw. He had fixed them as well as he could by winding a bit of wire around the arm, but it kept coming loose and the glasses would fall off. So you can imagine how delighted I was, when I tried this wee screw in them and it fitted exactly! That made me so happy. I have glasses that stay on again!

The third thing that I found in the cupboard (which has to serve as our loft, basement and all purpose storage facilitiy as we have no other storage space, which is good because it reduces clutter accumulation, but difficult sometimes as it really does limit what we can keep, and I do find myself occasionally having to discard items we'd really prefer to hang onto, as a result) was a bag of craft materials left over from when I was working on a big collage that I created as a birthday card for a member of our Church who celebrated her 60th birthday last summer. She's from Scotland, so I collected lots of pictures of famous things associated with Scotland, such as a kilt, Greyfriar's Bobby, some bagpipes, Edinburgh Castle, some haggis, lorne sausage, a bottle of whisky and such. I also found out what the colours of her family tartan were, and managed to get some ribbon that was almost that pattern to decorate the card with. And I also cut a few sprigs of heather and dried them out to put on it too. With a few embellishments I managed to make quite a pretty picture - and the birthday girl loved it! There were quite a few bits and pieces left over, including some sheets of tissue paper. All the pretty colours, the pinks and purples, were gone, but there were still some nice summery colours left, as you can see in the picture above. Inspired by what I'd found, I decided to use this left over tissue paper to create a little Easter ornament.

It took about an hour to make, and this is how I did it ...

You will need - a polystyrene (styrofoam) shape - I used a heart.
coloured tissue paper - about 8 sheets.
sequin/beading pins.
glass seed beads.
a piece of tape or ribbon to use for a hanger.
any other embellishments you like!
You'll also need a pair of craft scissors to cut the tissue paper.

I started by cutting small circles, about an inch in diameter, out of several layers of tissue paper. I pinned these in the centre onto the heart, using a sequin pin and a glass seed bead for added colour. Then I scrunched the paper to make it look more ike a flower bud. I made a row down the centre of one side of the heart first, then worked outwards before turning it over and doing the same on the other side. I kept the circles quite close togehter, and when I was done, I then tidied up any gaps with smaller circles of paper applied in the same way, and a few additional pins with seed beads of a contrasting colour (mine were blue and green). I added the flower motif in the middle using the same technique of pinning it, and then put a hanger in using 2 more pins. Little Bear thought it looked great! They're very easy to make, but I would advise that you keep these out of the reach of small children once they are finished - the pins are quite easy to remove, so hang it well out of their way for safety purposes. We already had the polystyrene hearts, which can easily be found in any craft store, but Little Bear and I liked this so much that we think we might investigate some other shapes to try - we might even attempt an indoor wreath for our door!

Next week, I shall show you how I make some cute fabric birds to use as seasonal decorations.