The Finishing of 3 little mice : baubles

I decided how I wanted to finish up my little mice designs pretty early after completing my first one. I wanted them in clear baubles to go on my sister's Christmas tree if she has one this year. (Otherwise to a friend or two who will)

I had an (admittedly very quick) look through the local shops but couldn't find what I wanted for the baubles. Though I was certain they existed. In the end I just took the easy though somewhat expensive option and brought them through ebay. Ebay is no always a bargain particularly if you take into account postage. I also had to buy 10 when I really only needed 3. But the others can be used as the manufacturer seems to recommend which is to fill with lollies or treats to hang from the tree.

I did want to use 'Iridescent Easter grass' for the other side of the bauble but you may notice that it doesn't happen to be anywhere near Easter so settled on tinsel instead. Correct festive season and locatable in abundance at a shopping centre near you!

Items used:
Clear Baubles

Tinsel
White Sparkly adhesive foam

A pen
Pair of scissors (a Stanley knife would do the trick too but I've lost mine...after stabbing myself with it. I should maybe not be allowed to play with sharp object without supervision. )

...
And my finished designs of course.

First I traced around the bauble on the back of the foam making a circle. I cut out three foam circles on the inside of the line, to make them just a tiny bit smaller to fit inside the baubles. I wanted them to fit in comfortably but fixed enough the designs wouldn’t move about.

I then peeled the back of my foam circles and lined up the mouse to sit as much in the middle as possible. I was very glad I chose the 8cm baubles and not the 7.5cm ones I was tossing up with. 8cm gave just enough space to look good but allow the mouse not to have to be crazy precise. 7.5cm would have been frustratingly fiddly. 

The great thing about the foam was that it was sticky enough that I didn't have to worry about fraying. Once the mice were stuck it was comfortably I just trimmed the excess and it was ready to go. I put the design in the bauble with a little bit of tinsel on the other side. Squished it all together. And all done :)

Please excuse the reflection of my hand in a few of these photo's. 

Itty Bitty mouse (3)

So last night I finished the third and last Margaret Sherry little mousie from the World of Cross Stitch 3-in-1 kit.

This one unfortunately had a few more 'blips' in the stitching than the other two.

Firstly I don't recommend stitching while exhausted. A long 10 hours of work plus 2 hours travel time does not make for a switched on brain. I completely missed that I'd grabbed the pink instead of the peach - twice. So his feet and ears were in pink instead of peach. It wasn't too noticeable UNTIL I stitched the pink in the correct place (his cheek). Then I'm sitting there going, 'those colours look a lot alike... awhhhh shoot'

And here be my little bundle of shame, all a frogged:

 

Also during my tired stitching I didn't notice I'd picked up the white that had a bit of brown on it. It came in the kit with a smudge of brown on one end. Either somehow contaminated while getting dyed or stained some other way in transport. I was going to trim it off but accidentally used it instead. The end result is a browny cross on his belly where there should be white. It's not too noticeable and doesn't really affect the overall design so I didn't unpick the white. If I'd had to I probably would have abandoned the design.  I have a lot to do at the moment and indulging in cross stitch is just that, indulging.

It was also a little confetti-ish in some places and I missed a few crosses (4 or 5) Not hard to correct but  annoying none the less. 

So here be little mousekewitz number 3 in his finished 6x6 glory:

And one lonely little WIP shot:

Itty Bitty mouse (2)

Little Christmas mouse number two. The second mouse from the 3-in-1 Margaret Sherry  kit that came with The World of Cross Stitch. 

I pretty much said all I wanted to say about this kit in the last post so I’ll be light on words here.

Each design is about 6x6cm and takes around 3-4hours to complete.  Definitely no more than 4hours. In this design I mixed a strand of purple metallic Madeira #4012 with the darkest purple on the bauble. It was a free sample that came with another magazine a while back. I think I should probably have added a strand to the light purple too in hindsight.  But it's too late now so I'll stick with being happy with what I've done.

I do know how I'm going to turn them into ornaments.  I'll save it till they're all done though.  Fingers cross it works (I like it when my ideas work out).

Completed project:

 

Work in progress shots:

Itty Bitty Mouse (1)

Some actual cross stitching! Gasp. I won't have to change the name of my blog after all..maybe. 

Yay to free magazine gifts, though considering the cost of the magazine and that the 'freebies' are more than half the reason I pick up a copy not really free-free I guess. Regardless yays anyways.

This little guy is from the 3 in 1 kit that came with issue 220 of The World of Cross Stitching.  I probably don't even need to mention the designer (Margaret Sherry of course) as the design/s are very distinctive. 

I complained about the design of the fathers day card I did a while back not being really workable at the size it was. This kit on the other hand is perfect and clearly they have been designed to be stitched tiny and cute. All the definition comes from the backstitching but the cross stitch colours are exceptionally harmonious. All in all what you can expect from a Margaret Sherry design.

Also the completed design pictures in the magazine were lovely.  Whoever stitch them deserves significant kudos.

This guy was really quick to get done. A little stitching after work and here you go. One cute little mouse waiting to be turned into (I think) a Christmas ornament. 

I made a shmozzel of his tail. I couldn't really work out where I was meant to be putting my stitchs based on the chart. In hindsight I can see how I should have worked it but at the time it was a mystery.  I really just made it up, sort-a kinda. It's also a stitch longer than it should be since I accidentally added an extra cross. Being my only real mistake it doesn't really bother me too much. Still looks cute.

The only thing I though after completing the white on his hat was I should of added some metallic thread and/or blending filament to make it sparkle a bit. Woulda been pretty. Oh well too late now and it's still much cute as is.

Easy Upcycle; tea light burner to hanging pot

Just a quick and easy Upcycle I got the time to do today. I brought the above little pot at a Vinneis second-hand shop the other weekend for $3. It was clear that in it's previous life it had been used to burn tea lights in as the inside had a liberal amount of smoke residue. A bit of dish-washing soap and elbow grease got it cleaned up easily.

the fly-wire on top of a tea box

The holes at the bottom were too big to be used immediately as a pot. Conveniently I had stashed some old plastic fly-wire mesh that would work for covering the base and stopping my dirt from pouring straight through. I cut it to a rough circle and shoved it in the bottom. Crude but effective. 

And before anyone asks, yes I do tend to hoard random stuff - but it eventually comes in handy as seen today. (or eventually gets thrown out - whichever option comes first)

With some more hemp rope as used in my treasure chest only this time brown I created the hanging part of a hanging pot. :) Everyone should have a spool of string running around the house somewhere, it's so useful and versatile.

I cut 4 lengths twice as long as I wanted it to hang. Then I doubled them over and looped them through each hole at the top of the pot, like you would a phone strap. One string for each hole.  I then looped them all together at the top using one strand to wrap around the rest and hold them all secure.

Progress shots at this point:

Though really there were like 3 whole steps to this protect so I'm milking it a bit.

 

Add some dirt and a little succulent plant I picked up at a garage sale last weekend for just this purpose and here you go, 

done;

 I'm hoping the succulent will grow to fill the top and delicately dangle over the edges while not obscuring the pretty pot.

STOP, and yarn bomb

And zip ties, good for so many things up to and including it seems fence beautification!

Butterfly necklace

I picked up a copy of Cross Stitcher at the local newsagent the other day.  Almost entirely because it had a cat on the front and a wooden butterfly cross stitch frame. Actually not even 'almost' it WAS the entire reason.

On opening the kit I discovered I had gotten two bundles of thread...This would seem to imply that someone out there did not get their thread. So if you brought the August 2014 copy of Cross Stitcher and your free gift was missing it's bundle of floss. Hey it's at my place, drop me a line if you still need it :p

Getting two lots of floss might have been useful IF I'd ever intended to use the colours and design provided with the magazine. But no I never did. If I'm going to make a butterfly necklace then it's going to look like a real butterfly as much as I'm able to make it. And the 'jewel-toned wooden necklace' design with the magazine..? Not so much like a real butterfly. The original design as seen in the picture of the kit was designed by Angela Poole. My final product designed by me. The design size is 5.5x8cm and contains about 4hours of stitching work.

To begin I gathered some random leftover floss I had running around, black,  white, Sullivans #45300 (similar to DMC 970), what I THINK is DMC 900 or something close and from the original magazine kit DMC 3854. Googled monarch butterfly images and started stitching.  I made up the design as I went along, this seems to work well for me. 

I managed to almost immediately loose the needle from the kit. I may need to be careful where I sit/walk for the next few weeks. Fortunately I had two spare needles stuck in the black floss (lost them too, all in one evening. But these two I at least found again so no harm done).

I used a full 6 floss strands on the cross stitches rather than the usual 2 just for coverage on the wood. I considered going crazy and using 8 strands which would have been really thick and potentially luxurious looking but I didn't have that much floss and 6 seems to work well enough for me. For the backstitching I used 2 strands, I tried 1 but it just didn't stand out enough on the wings to look like a real monarch. Two worked much better although did have an annoying tendency to separate, showing the two separate lines instead of just one darker/thicker thread, I probably should have deliberately twisted it before stitching. 

The black in the design is straight forward. The orange in the bottom wings is the Sullivan #45300, in the top wings it's 4 strands Sullivans and 2 strands DMC 900. In the top corner of each of the upper wing's there is one cross in white and two in DMC 3854. 

Despite a bit of trial and error the stitching was fairly straight forward except one stupid row on the upper right wing right at the top. I stitched my crosses backwards. The whole row needed to be frogged.  While I was cutting out the incorrect stitches I managed to gouge my frame as well. This can still be seen if you look closely as the new stitches dip where the frame is damaged. Though it is slightly hidden by the backstitching now.

Lastly I coated a piece of back felt with some craft glue and covered (most) of the back. This was to obscure the stitching on the back. The felt doesn't quite cover everything but it does the job well enough. It'll make it more comfortable to wear too I expect. 

I actually spent the entire stitching experience thinking I was going to break the frame. The little guy was fairly fragile feeling and I'm a rough stuff. Fortunately it made it mostly in-tacked and looking good.

On a final note, the one thing I would recommend when working with wooden frames is a pair of pliers. Threading the needed under to tie down an end can be quite hard as the frame is unforgiving and the stitching quite tight. The pliers make it just that much easier to yank the thread through.

Finished Product;

And here be some progress picks;

Treasure chest :)

So a while back I picked up a bag of miscellaneous world coins a the ANDA coin show. They're all relatively worthless but a bitta fun to sort though and look at all the difference denominations.

And what better to store treasure in than a treasure chest?

I brought (mostly) everything I needed to make my coins a treasure chest from Riot Art & Craft on a whim ages ago. It's all been living on the living-room table till inspiration struck. For some reason that was this weekend/Monday. 

Stuff I used:
An unfinished wooden treasure chest
Art Culture acrylic paints, Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna, and Burnt Umber
Random 3/4inch paint brush
Hemp rope (it calls itself 'rope' but it's really string)
< Red sparkly felt
Black felt + free cat fur
Craft glue
Mod Podge (water based sealer)
Copper Slug and Snail tape

First I painted the raw timber chest with Burnt Sienna all over except the straps. Then after that had soaked in and dried I painted a few random spots with Raw Sienna. I didn't really like the Raw Sienna colour and was pretty worried that I'd stuffed it at that point.  But the last layer of Burnt Umber evened it all out and finished it up well. Lucky!

I've never done much painting.  But this was relatively straight forward and enjoyable with nice results, I think I like messing around with acrylic paints. After the painting was done I sealed it with Mod Podge then filled the groves with string lengths of the hemp rope to add some definition and highlights.  I fixed each string lenght with some craft glue. 

I stuck a random bit of black felt on the inside of the lid of the chest with more of the craft glue. I didn't really measure it well or worry too much about the placement.  I'll live with the odd edges and rough positioning.  Then the red sparkly felt was used for the rest of the chest inside.  Also not measured particularly well. I love felt just for the abuse you can heap on it and still get a good outcome. 

The felt had actually been running around the living-room with the cats for almost 12 months so before I used it there was some cat de-furing to be done. It was nice to finally use the stuff. I originally brought it to make a Christmas gift for someone but she's managed to significantly annoy me (there are places you don't invite other peoples partners/boyfriends - a strip club is one such place.)

And moving on;

Lastly I used some copper tape I had left from gardening for the straps around the chest. The tape is basically a thin layer of adhesive copper. It was a rough start as can be seen in the finished product pictures. I put too much on one side several times but in the end product looks pretty good and I'm optimistic that once the copper tarnishes up it'll look rustic and blend in nicely. It's a fair bit too shiny at the moment.

And I only glued the chest lid down once. After I pried it reopen with a pair of little scissors I didn't have any further sticking issues. 

No progress pictures but here's my finished treasure chest. All that's left is to dig up my world coins and fill it (the bottom at least, it's a good excuse to buy some more next time I get the chance) 

Felting, first attempt

Back in June I brought off Etsy a cute kitty felting kit from seller 1127handcrafter titled 'cute sweet cats.' I'd never done any felting before and figured a starter kit was a good idea. I also brought a couple of needles and a felting mat (glorified name for a rectangle of foam stuff). Everything I needed to get started.

It sat and gathered dust until the other day when in grabbed the Magazine  'Made in Felt' on a whim at a local newsagent. Felting is so cute and versatile. All the interesting creations reminded me that the kit was just sitting around waiting to be started.

Now it's no secret if you check out 1127handcrafter's shop that the instructions for the kit did not originally start out in English (I wouldn’t be surprised if google translate played it's part in the English version). I knew this when I brought it but for a beginner I probably should have began with something just a little less intricate and with very dumbed down instructions. In saying that I still think my finished kitty is cute...just not really as much so as the one shown on the kit front.

Details of the kit:
The description on the site "Needle Felting Use Wool Felt to make Sweet Cute Cat : English Material Kit can make 2 (English / For Beginner)"

And in the kit: wool sufficient for two cats and two individual paws in grey, orange/yellow, chestnut, light pink, white and black.  6mm black eyes x2 sets and a pink&white woollen thread to make a ball.

I decided to make the grey tiger cat (possibly subconsciously as my cat's grey?) the kit says my finished product should be 8.5cm.

First I did his body, I knew almost from the get-go that it was too big but with a lot of stabbing the wool (fairly aggressive yet therapeutic) made it firm enough that it was close enough to the right size to be acceptable. Then the head. After I finished (kind sorta good enough finished) the head I went to grab a glass of wine, came back and the body was missing. The cats had helpfully carried it off. Luckily it had only gone as far as the front window were it'd been abandoned almost entirely free of mauling.

At one point his head rolled off the couch and under a low table. I batted it out with some random pipe left over from a DIY project. Cats wanted to help but were successfully warded off. I broke one of my needles half way through but the other one carried on to the end.  I kept working at it until I was so tired my eyes were burning. I really should have packed it in a bit earlier as I think the quality suffered some for being worked on while exhausted. So off to bed I went with only his nose, mouth and fluffy ball to finish.

His arms and legs were a bit long and positioned oddly but I really like his tail as it looks a bit like my Fenn's tail.

I picked it up after work the next day. Turns out between the night before and this night the left over black wool seems to have grown legs and wandered off... not to point fingers or anything but I blame the cats. I'm not sure if I want it back as I anticipate significant cat slobber. I only really needed it for a bit of black wool around his eyes so it's only a minor hiccup in the scheme of things.

It took several tries to do his mouth and nose, even at the end I wasn’t too happy but I couldn't see it improving with more attempts so left it as is.

Next... you'd think I'd know better but nope left the little guy on the couch to get my (now overcooked) dinner off the stove. Came back and Fenn kitty was in the process of going in for the kill. Fortunately immediate intervention prevented any more damage than a bit of slobber and a single nibble.

 And here's the finished product;