Nevermore

October 7, 2016tinybows 2 Comments

It’s been a while since I’ve made a wreath.

My last square one was a hit so I thought I would try it for my Halloween wreath.

Bits and bobs and bullet casings? Why not, it’s Halloween right

I got the form wrapped with some “spooky” (read black and white) ribbon and lace

Now on with the, fiddley bits, detritus, found objects and other accoutrements.

Need a hand?

Topped off with a motion activated crow from the dollar store that’s annoying as hell.

I had to learn how to tie a noose this week, something I thought I would never do.

But it was worth it for my spooky wreath.

Mass Production

June 30, 2016tinybows 1 Comment

Do you remember that post I did for a secret Santa, where I made an earring display hangar. I’ll link here it if you don’t.

You should check that blog out first because this is me refining that process. Mr. Smith’s Aunt makes jewelry and owns a shop where all the goods are hand made. You can find out more about it on their Facebook page here.

I thought it would be fun to get involved by making some fun ear ring cards. I’ve got a few different styles I’m working on, but the most involved ones are a variation on the one I did for my secret Santa.

I started off by doing a color wash on the laser cut frames in green and purple; they are the primary colors of the store.

I then cut out appropriately sized sections of lace for each frame.

Then my favorite part…experimentation. I used some diluted paint to dye the lace.

I soaked the lace in a paint and water mixture and then just gave it time to “cook”. By that I mean I zapped it for about 1 minute in the microwave and then just let it sit.

After 10 minutes or so I pulled the lace out of the paint mixture, doused it with lots of salt, and gave it a good toss. Yup just plain old salt. It acts as a fix for most dyeing projects.

After a very good rinse in cold water I lay the pieces out to dry.

In my original hangar I used a second, identical frame to sandwich the lace between. This time around,to cut costs, and because the double frame was a bit hard to situate, I chose to use long slender craft sticks.

I simply cut them in half and sanded the raw edge round to match its opposite.

After a coat of paint on the sticks I used wood glue to sandwich the lace between the frame and the craft sticks, and clamped them with clothes pins

After a good drying period and an exact-o knife to clean up any overhanging lace on the back, the finished product is ready for the shop.

A house is not a home…

April 3, 2016tinybows Leave a comment

…without a wreath. I’ve made lots of wreaths. I think I’ve got at least two blog posts on wreaths. You can find them here and here. I figure now that Mr. Smith and I are finally settled into our own home it’s time I made a wreath for us.

I used a pretty basic wreath form. As you can see here I already wrapped a branch with some black twine.

I then just wrapped a couple of sections with some burlap ribbon to serve as my base.

Then it was time to pick out flowers and bits and bobs.

I felt like this flower needed a little embellishment so I added some hands of a clock.

In fact I added the gears in another section. It’s the clock that I turned into a lantern last year, which you can see here.

I also warped a few keys into the vines

And easy as pie we have our own wreath for our own house. Finally

Secret Santa-ed

December 21, 2015tinybows 5 Comments

‘What did you get for Christmas?’ ‘A house’ ‘Well merry Christmas to you indeed’ am I right?

It’s a little scattered here

How did we get so many chairs, all the furniture we own consists of chairs

luckily I planned ahead a little bit so I’ve got a few posts I can share with you

So lots of people are likely doing their secret this coming week and I thought I would show you what I did for my secret Santa.

My secret Santa wanted gift cards (boring) or ear rings (I can work with that)
Most secret Santa gifts are limited to around $10 to $20. You can’t get much for that anymore. And to me small presents are all about the presentation so along with some $8 earnings from H&M I got $2 worth of craft supplies to make a little ear ring holder/ornament.

You’ll need two laser cut frames like I used in one of my very first posts found here.

Some paint, lace and some ribbon or twine for hanging.

First I painted my frames using a stippling technique to give them some texture.

Then I just used hot glue to glue lace to the back side of one of the frames. I also layered some tulle in there simply because my lace had very large holes and the tulle would secure ear rings better.

Then I spot glued a small length of ribbon onto the back of the frame to serve as a hangar.

Finally I coated the back of both frames with wood glue and sandwiched the lace and ribbon in between the two by gluing the frames back to back and carefully lining them up.

I clamped the layers together with clothes pins while it dried

After about one hour I had a lovely way to gift ear rings and money left over in my Santa budget for other goodies.

Mother of Dragons

December 6, 2015tinybows 6 Comments

I made dragon eggs!!! Ok technically they are supposed to be pine cones but they definitely look like what I imagine dragon eggs look like.

Start with some squares of paper

Or alternately short lengths of ribbon (I used sticky back ribbon for extra ease)

Fold your ribbon or paper so you have a peak and pin them onto your styrofoam ball

Start with four “scales” all pointing towards one another, overlapping them in the center

Then cover your outside corners with four more

After that you can just start spiraling around with your “scales” being sure to overlap and cover your pins

It can be tedious

But so worth it

The if you want them as orniments simply find a means to hang them

For my first one (the ribbon dragon) I found one of the old drawer pulls from my infamous desk

I (ok my dad cause I was a scardey cat) drilled all the way through, I used some guilding wax on it and strung some twine through.

Then I just hot glued the repurposed handle to the top of the ball to create a hangar

Clothes Pin-terest

December 1, 2015tinybows Leave a comment

As you saw in my last blog I’ve been scouring Pinterest for DIY Christmas ornament ideas so Mr. Smith and I can have some memories for our first Christmas as husband and wife (maybe even in our first house if everything goes to plan)

I came across a few involving clothes pins the other day that looked pretty easy so I thought I would give them a go.

Start by taking apart some (by some I mean 8) wooden clothes pins.

Then glue the flat sides together like so

I followed that up by staining them along with a lot of other Christmas ornament supplies by using diluted paint. That’s completely optional though

This is also completely optional. I wrapped the edges of the pins with washi tape.

Next lay out your pins in a star/snowflake pattern. It’s easiest to first do four at 90* angles from each other and four in between those

Then find a bauble to glue to the middle on each side.

I chose to use a small fabric flower topped by a wooden snowflake

Just string some twine or ribbon through one of the small holes in the pins or glue one on and you’re all set

Like Tiny Snowflakes

November 22, 2015tinybows 2 Comments

Mr. Smith and I are getting ready to buy a house and we get to move our hodge podge of stuff into it. Unfortunately that hodge podge does not include any Christmas decorations.

So we are going to make some of our own this year. Here is a quick one I did over the weekend.