An Old Creation With A Wintry Twist

Hello my dear friends,

I am slowly starting to feel a bit better. My cold/flu isn't gone just yet but it's not too bad anymore and I am so happy because I just hate feeling unwell, but then who doesn't? Thank you all for your well wishes, they really helped me feel better!

These past few days I have been crafting a little and I would like to share my 'newest' creation with you today. It is actually one of my older creations with a wintry twist ~ my little felted nests!

I really love my little nests ~ which is a free tutorial for all you lovely bloggers ~ so I decided to make a few new ones but gave them a wintry glisten for the season. I am really pleased with the way they have turned out especially because it gave me a chance to use my newest yarn/wool I purchased from Martha Stewart amongst a lot of other very beautiful yarns that I had bought in Europe years ago but never used.

So, why not scroll down and take a look and I hope you like what you see!

I love the different textures of the beautiful yarns and the effect they give!

And these are my wintry little nests ...

They are all a little bit different from each other.

To paint the eggs I used Martha's newest paints with a pearl effect ...

and a tiny touch of sparkly glitter.

I love the look of these nests, it's almost like they are built from frost and ice!

Why not try and make one of these yourself? They would be a beautiful decoration for your Christmas tree, or Christmas display and they are great little gifts!

Last but not least ...

this was my backyard on Thursday ~ very green and warm.

We almost had a record temperature for December here!

And this is my backyard this morning ...

hopefully this won't be the last of the white beautiful flakes!

I hope you are all well, looking after yourselves and life is treating you kind.

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

At First Disapointed But Not Anymore ~ A New Tutorial

Hello my dear friends,

I woke up at 6 am yesterday morning and since it was a grey and rainy morning and I had no intention to venture out of the house or wanted to spend my day tidying my craft room (I know I really should have), I decided I wanted to create a new tutorial for you in which I was going to recycle small tins. I sat down in my dining room at the big window for about 2 hours, wrote the instructions as a post, saved it and then worked on the actual creating part but unfortunately things just didn't want to look the way I had imagined them, so I gave up on the idea for the moment. Eventually I will return to it and work on it more another time. You never know, it might work out fine the next time round.

I must admit I was quite disappointed with myself that my idea didn't work, so I just had to try something different, hoping it would work out this time. The basic idea stayed the same but I decided to use different materials then I had chosen the first time and I think it worked out fine.

So here is a new tutorial for you ...

... a vintage jelly form pincushion tutorial.

 

You will need the following:

- Small vintage jelly form

- Hammer and nail

- Permanent marker

- Wire

- Pliers

- Scissors

- Fabric

- Tacky glue

- Fibre fill

- Needle and thread

- Lace, ribbon, pieces if old doilies

- Buttons, old piece of jewelry or anything else you would like to use to embellish it with

- Old tag or tag cutter and tea-stained card

- Fine marker

Let's start now ...

 

 

You can use a jelly form or even a little tart tin if you like for this tutorial.

 

 

Now take your jelly form and with the permanent marker make a small dots on either side of it where you want to have your holes for the handle. Then using your hammer and a nail, carefully punch the holes through the tin but make sure it's not too big.

 

Cut a piece of wire approx 16 inches long. I used thicker old wire for the handle. 

 

Bend you wire into a handle shape with about 4 inches left on either side.

 

Insert your wire from the inside out of your jelly mold.

 

Bend the straight end around the handle part and with small pliers curl the end of the wire.

 

Now take a square of fabric about 8 by 8 inches and place a good bunch of fibre fill in the centre of it.

This is the part where you will have to "play" and see how much fibre fill you will need so you are happy with the "cushion" part and  it will fit your jelly form (as you can see my fabric has creases from "playing" with the amount of stuffing).

 

 

Gather the corners of your fabric first and then start gathering the sides of your fabric together.

 

Pull the fabric into your hand until you are happy with the shape and firmness of your "cushion".

 

 

Using a piece of string wrap around the cushion, tie off and cut off the excess. Trim the fabric below the string but not too much.

 

Now place your cushion into the jelly form and using your tacky glue glue in place by pulling the cushion away from the form and dabbing a bit of glue onto the tin and then letting the cushion fall back into place. Be careful not to use too much glue or it will come out at the top of your pincushion and spoil it.

 

 

This is where the fun part starts - embellishing.You can use as much or as little as you wish ~ it's really up to you. I used a small piece of an old doilie and hand stitched it to the cushion.

 

Then using my tacky glue I glue tea stained lace to the top of the jelly form.

 

With this pincushion the motto was " less is more" and I wanted to use something really different for the embellishment so I used a few old Monopoly pieces ~ thimble and iron ~ which I held in place with a stronger glue. You can used an old brooch or vintage buttons ~ what ever your heart likes.

 

 

As a final touch I added a double bow made from some crinkled seam binding and a tag made from tea stained card. A few long pins and a vintage button and there we go! Finished!

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you will enjoy this new tutorial that I have created for you. I do work very hard to ensure I explain everything to my best ability so you will have a wonderful result. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to e-mail me and ask! I am sorry if my photos are not the best at times ~ I take all my photos whilst I am creating which sometimes it is very tricky with sticky hands.

I hope you are all well.

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

It Might Be Raining Outside, But Not In My Heart

Hello my dear friends,

even though it is raining outside right now the sun is shining in my heart for more than one reason.

http://www.tarnishedandtattered.blogspot.com/

Firstly I am very happy because Lisa from Tarnished and Tattered is working on a few new tutorials ~ YAY!! For those that don't know Lisa, drop by her blog and take a look at all her neat creation and her tutorials.

And secondly ...

 ....I am a winner in Liz's giveaway!!!!

The lovely Liz from " Lululiz in Lalaland" in the UK had a wonderful giveaway and I had just talked to her yesterday via e-mail and this morning she let me know I had won!! What a wonderful way to start the day!! Thank you so much Liz!

And this is the beautiful gift I won ~ I am so happy and excited!!

And last but not least ...

... because I have the chance to meet so many lovely people here in blogland I would like to take this post to thank all of you lovely bloggers and followers that have been so kind with their words and so helpful with their advice since I have started Todolwen. You have welcomed me into blogland and made me so very happy. My heart is touched by your kindness ~ thank you!

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

Bring Out Your Doilies - A New Birds Nest Tutorial

Hello my dear friends,

whilst working with my little coconut fibre pot on Tuesday and waiting for the tea stained eggs to dry I thought it would be nice to come up with a new little tutorial for you!

After my Easter basket which was made from a stiffened doily my thoughts went with a nest made the same way.

 

 

And this it what you will need:

- An old doily

- Wooden egg/eggs

- Fabric stiffener

- Teabags and hot water

- A bowl for tea staining/a bowl for stiffening the doily

- A small tin to mold your nest with

- Book pages

- Plastic wrap

- Scissors ( I used decorative scissors but you can use plain if you wish)

- Aluminium foil

- a piece of cake or pie ( not a necessity just yummy)

 

Boil your water and throw 3 tea bags into your bowl and add your eggs (wooden eggs that is my fellow bloggers - I don't want anyone accidentally cracking a couple of real eggs in there! No baking today) and doily. The doily won't take as long as the eggs. Once you have the right color for your doily, take it out and let it dry. Your eggs will take about 2 hours in the mixture. Yet again once you like the look, take the eggs out and let them dry over night. Note, the shade of color will dry lighter than when wet.

 

 

When your doily is dry the next step is to get your things to stiffen your doily.

 

 

Place a piece of foil down and cover your tart tin with plastic wrap. Both of these items will help your doily from getting stuck whilst drying.

 

 

Place your doily into the bowl and pore some fabric stiffener onto it. You are best not to use too much at first, you don't want it dripping with the stiffener and you can always add more if needed.

 

 

Work the stiffener into the doily. Once the doily is saturated, wring it out a bit so you don't have too much excess liquid otherwise it will dry as a plastic like texture which you don't really want.

 

 

Place your doily over the tart tin stretch it out.

 

 

You don't want it too neat, because you are trying it make it look a bit natural. This is yet again the time when the yummy stuff comes into thought.  (I have a thing for oatmeal muffins when I sit and wait.) Now you have to let your doily dry. I tend to leave mine over night to do so.

The following day ...

 

 

Your doily should be dry now. Peel it carefully

from the tart tin.

 

 

Now is the time you can decorate your nest. I decided to go with Scrabble pieces and use the word 'nest' which I glued to the rim of the nest. Use a good glue that has instant stick so the pieces stay put right away if you want to do the same. 

 

 

You can make the the 'stuffing' for the nest. Cut thin strips of book pages either with plain or decorative scissors, which ever you prefer. Use about 1 - 2 pages not more. If you don't like book pages why not try music sheets?

 

 

Scrunch the strips up and place into the nest and the last thing to do now is to place your eggs into the nest.

 

 

Finished!!

With this creation I think less is more but you can decorate as much or as little as you wish.

 

 

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial today.

 

Have a peaceful and creative day,

 

Karen B.