Christmas in July Ornament Swap

I signed up for an ornament swap in June without to much thought to my other plans of going away and find myself a little pushed for time to make my gifts (which are already due). So with haste and speed I decided to make something that I knew I could finish in time and which still looks effective.

Clay ornaments are not a difficult things to make and after Christmas last year I purchased some snow flake icing cutters at a reduced price for this purpose. This is the first time I have used them and I do find the removal of the snowflake from the cutter a little fiddly despite it being a punch cutter.

I faffed around with a couple of backgrounds. I am currently waiting for the ornaments to dry before threading them up. I thought the smaller ones could be used as gift tags .
I was fiddling around with some older clay ornaments and trying to decorate them with bronze ink using a Sharpie pen...but did not get a good application of colour...waste of money. My Posca pen in gold gave a better application but not the colour I wanted, so I have ditched the idea of applying colour and will leave the ornaments plain.

I also thought I would make a bag to put the ornaments in and printed up my hummingbird in a bright orange (not really at all Christmassy but very cheery)

 Notice how carefully I have prepared my material,,,I went all out to iron the cotton before printing-not!

Thought I'd throw these in to the mix. I took these display photos at Adelaide Central Market- fabulous colour and I love the display

And lastly a photo of my sisters and I at my 50th Birthday dinner..PotatoHead Bali. Nice venue, pretentious and expensive for a mediocre meal..but lovely company!

Calypso Rose

I've had stored in my cupboard for some time packets of coloured clay and leather strapping. I bought a lot of it at Christmas time and then again when Spotlight gave me some vouchers to spend in store, so not having any particular project in mind I bought a collection of colours that appealed to me.
I obviously like the tangerine colours and the hot brights of summer, watermelon , tangerine and hot pinks - just delicious!

The same necklace taken without flash with flash and then on a different background - anyway you look at it they are really fresh!

And some cooler colours but still a lovely pop of colour

 The roses took a while to form and needed securing to ensure you could see the rose when hanging on the necklace.  Each necklace has an opening clasp but it fits easily over my big head and sits on my scoop neck t shirt neckline

 I'll pop the ones that are complete up for sale in the shop. Did you notice that I opened. I have to work on a few things to iron out teething problems and get a little organized but I should start to fill it up in the coming weeks with a variety of items and not all jewellery- some printed items and sewn goodies too! I'll even try a couple of t shirts but sourcing the t shirt itself is a little difficult so there may only be a few.!

Wreath - same but different!

 Whilst having a messy table I figured I might as well continue my mess and make up a second wreath. This wreath has a slightly triangular shape and I was running out of seed pods and ribbon. I improvised by picking poppy seed heads out of the garden and using some old chandelier crystal and pearls to fill the  gaps.

 Not enough ribbon to make a tie, so some wire and pearls will suffice. Personally I think this is a waste of pearls but when you don't have a car to jump into you make do - far more environmentally friendly as well. I must admit to jumping into the car on occasion when I have to have a certain item for my craft making and I just can't wait

Better go clean up my mess before picking up my car from the mechanics - my brother, always handy to have a mechanic in the family.
For more wreath ideas go here and here and here

Wreath it is!

I decided that the weed come wreath really is a wreath!

I've grabbed some of my clay snowflakes and wired them onto the wreath. Some time ago (something like a year ago) I collected some seed pods from  a tree at the side of the road. My original intention was to utilize them in flower arranging but they were a little awkward  so since then they have been stashed in the cupboard for whom knows when. That would be now! I gave them a quick brush over with some white paint and hot glued them to my wreath. A roll of silver ribbon and some star anise and voilà you have a wreath !

 Must remove the excess glue! Photographs really highlight all those little things you miss!

More Christmas wreath ideas found here and here and here

Clay Swag

 It's an over cast day and you would think that it would be easy to obtain a photo with out lots of glare bouncing off of things, but if your item is white it still reflects the light. Hence the photo of the garland strand has a halo effect. Under the bushes we go to get a decent shot without the glare  but I cant take a photo of the strand strung out

 I've thrown a few photos of the roses because this is the first time we have had such a display of roses. I am the laziest gardener and neglect is my middle name. I'm great a planting things but after that they are on their own. Survival of the fittest in our garden. We've actually had some very consistent rain over winter and hence the garden is happy.

The spent poppy heads in amongst the corriander plant is pretty

 I rolled out these clay discs and snowflake shapes when I made the clay lady- she has since fallen apart. I may try to rescue her or just make another - who knnows.

Can anybody tell me how to load a picture so that you can download it? I've drawn a Christmas stitchery of angels heralding in Christmas on a swag and thought it would be nice to share and make a stitchery together. My children haven't been very helpful in sorting this one out for me, either they really don't know how or are too busy. I'll take a photo and have a bit of a Google later but help would be appreciated. thanks
Stay safe be happy xox

Clay Lady

A little play in clay to make a clay lady. She needs a bit of work.  a knife and satay stick do not quite cut the grade as sculpting tools. It was a fun quick play before I started rolling out clay discs and snowflakes to make some clay Christmas  "swags".

When she dries I'll paint some details in and give her a colour lift.

Still working full time and managed to complete my tax return yeh! That has to be my all time worst job of the year, I'm so relieved to have it all done.Now I can have some guilt free crafting time...

Take care..catch you whenever ??? Soon I hope.