I made one! I took two pieces of corrugated plastic (good as it is light but firm and protective), glued felt to both sides of this, then sewed a fabric pouch for this to all go into, and I folded the top ends of the fabric pouch inside. The outside strip I actually glued around (I am a bit addicted to hot gluing things :)) and attached velcro. The fabric I inherited from my grandmother’s stash and the corrugated plastic came as packaging with records so it was all free, woo!
I made this Christmas wreath by cutting out two rings of cardboard, one smaller than the other. I covered them both with felt. Then I wrapped lengths of ribbon around the bigger ring sticking down the ends. The ribbons were just ones that I’d gathered over the years – from gifts and here and there. Then when all the ring was covered I stuck the little ring to the big one so it had a nice neat back. A fun project!
The other decorations I made were these. They are for my family. I try to make one decoration for them each year. Working in the countryside now I have so much more access to pinecones so after a couple of lunchtime walks keeping my eye to the ground for the really small ones I had enough to take home and dry out. I did some experiments trying to string them on wire but in the end hot glueing them to each other was the easiest and most satisfying. I them painted them with gold enamel as that’s what I had to hand, spray paint would probably also be good, they had two coats. I didn’t worry too much about getting the gold in every crack as I think it’s nice having a bit of the natural colour showing. Final thing was to string them on a ribbon. I did try adding a bow but that seemed too cutesy. I hope that my family like them :)
AFTER:
BEFORE:
The pictures explain all the steps really, it took about 20mins. I got given the Aveda bag for free when I did my annual salon-size bottle purchase of shampoo. It’s a useful great quality bag made from really thick cotton however I don’t want to be an advertising billboard when the logo and text is not very interesting so I followed their “r√©duisez reutilis√©z recyclez” instructions ;) The ikat scraps of fabric I inherited from my grandmother’s fabric stash, I wonder what she used the rest for?
When I showed a friend the bag they said I had “upcycled” it, it’s always pleasant to get something for free isn’t it. Black bags are good on the bike too as there are always those mysterious black smudges that appear from the lock and if your chain falls off.
(PS. The Takashi Murakami flowers in the picture are like my small version of what Pharrell Williams has!)
One of the gifts I gave my sister at Christmas was a small leather bag that I made over. I had bought it in a charity shop as although it was a little stained and scruffy it was great leather. I took it home and I sat on the edge of the bath (to contain the dust you understand) and sanded it and sanded it until the whole thing had a rawer feeling. I then over some weeks painted an intricate pattern of different coloured scales onto it using acrylic paint. Then I sat back and considered it…. it looked good but not great. It was too much, fussy. Boo!
So I went back to the bath and sat on the edge sanding off the pattern I painted on. The cats would come and watch me with a puzzled look. I left some of the marks on the leather in as I think it looks good that way. Then finally when all the paint was off I painted the bottom half of the front flap sage green and left it at that – MUCH better.
The whole thing then got a good polish several times over, buffing it until it was shiny and felt waterproof. My sister seemed to really like it which is the main thing. The lesson I learned was to remember to try to keep things simple!
I don’t think it’s too early to start listening to the U900 Christmas Album. Here are two songs that are on it:
I’ve also been crocheting again. The good thing is it seems to be of less interest to the cats than knitting.
