Victoriana Cherub Ornament

Technique: Decoupage, General Crafting, Recycled

Materials:
burnt out light bulb
dishwashing liquid cap
soft drink bottle cap
victorian images
acrylic paints
glass primer (optional)
hot glue
lace and other romantic trimmings
Liquitex Gloss Medium and Varnish
beading wire

Tools
hot glue gun
painting sponge
wire snips

I loved this project, not only is it still in keeping with the romantic feeling leading up to Valentine's Day, but it honours Thomas Edison's birthday!

If you are using a glass primer, follow the manufacturers directions. I am trialling a product called B.I.N. which is a primer that will adhere to any surface. If you are not using a primer make sure the light bulb is thoroughly clean with no grease from your fingers, otherwise the paint will not adhere properly.

Paint lightbulb in desired base colour. I used two colours applied with a sponge for a soft, dappled look.

Follow my directions here for a step by step on how to decoupage onto glass and curved surfaces.

Once dried and clean, apply two coats of a clear varnish or sealant.

Paint the cap to the dish washing liquid and soft drink bottle cap metallic gold (I primed with B.I.N. first) and apply two coats of cleare varnish or sealant.

Using hot glue, attach the dish washing liquid cap to the bottom part of the bulb. Cut a length of wire and push through the soft drink cap and secure to form a hanger then to the top of the of the bulb covering the metal fitting. Decorate with lace, beads or any other trims you desire to finish.

Sardines Please

Technique: General Crafting

Materials:
clean sardine can
cats with sardines print found here
cardstock
beading wire
embellishments
spray adhesive

Tools:
scissors
wire cutters
Dremel tool

When I saw this sardine can in the store I knew just what to do with it. First step, feed the sardines to the cats (blech). Next, clean the can scrupulously, several times to be sure, and let it air. If, when dry, it has the slightest whiff of anything fishy, soak it in a bleach solution and clean it again.

When dry, use it as a template to cut a piece from the cardstock and one from the print.

Using the spray adhesive, attach the print to the card and fanangle it into the can (by fanangle I mean bend it ever so slightly, only enough to ease it in, not enough to crease it.

Use the Dremel to drill to holes in the top of the can for the hanger. Push a BBQ skewer in through the holes and push the print to the front of the can. Mine was a nice snug fit, but if yours is relatively loose, run a rim of glue around the inside lip of the can and then push the print up against it so it stays put. Leave dry if necessary and make a hanger from the wire and push through the holes, securing with glue if needed.

Recycled Ribbon Spool

Technique: General Crafting

Materials:
empty ribbon spool
music print paper or fabric
miniature musical instrument
ribbon
glue

Tools:
hot glue gun

This ornament was made from the plastic spool that ribbon was wound around, combined with a piece of a broken christmas ornament. Cover both sides of the spool with paper or fabric, on mine I used fabric. Wrap ribbon around the cardboard centre of the spool to cover and add decorative bows and a hanging loop. Hot glue embellishments into place.

Queen Bee Lightbulb Ornament

Technique: Recycled, General Crafting

Materials:
screw in candelabra light bulb, cleaned out
black and yellow chenille sticks
little bees (mine were made from ribbon)
hot glue
styrofoam ball & paperclay (or large wooden bead)
acrylic paints
glass and tile medium
masking tape
cake decorating stamens
raffia
spray varnish or sealant

Tools:
hot glue gun

Abdomen: Using masking tape create a stripe in the middle of the lightbulb. Following the manufacturer's directions, mix some yellow paint with glass and tile medium and paint the stripe. Allow to dry thoroughly. Apply the little bee's using hot glue.

Thorax: Determine which side of the abdomen is your best side, so that you know which will be your back. Starting at the back wind black and yellow chenille sticks around the screw in part of the globe, securing with hot glue as necessary.

Arms: Find the centre of a yellow chenille stick and fold the ends in towards that. Leave about 1/4" of yellow free at each end (for hands) and wrap the remainder in black chenille, you will most likely need to use two sticks to fully cover the arms. Bend at the elbows and glue into position at the back.

Head: You can get wooden beads that are specifically designed for using as heads on clothespin dolls, but here in Australia they are proving very difficult to source. I have had to become very creative! If you can get those beads, then they are the perfect size, go ahead and use those. If you can't get them, you can use either a small styrofoam ball just as it is, or cover it with a thin layer of paperclay like I did. I prefer the paperclay coating to the plain styrofoam ball because it's a nicer surface to paint on, but do whatever works for you. DO NOT cover a styrofoam ball with polymer clay, the baking process will release toxic fumes from the foam, always use paperclay when using foam.

Give your head 2-3 coats of yellow paint, drying between coats. Paint on details of face, spray with clear sealant or varnish and then wrap black chenille around the rest of the head, using hot glue to secure where necessary. Use stamens or bits of chenille as antennae.

Finishing: Glue head into position on top of the lightbulb. Make a bow out of the raffia and glue onto the back of the bee for wings. Give your bee a little heart to hold. If desired, you can write a cute little phrase on the heart such as "Bee Mine!"

Recycled Valentines Ornament

Technique: Recycled Craft

Materials:
tin can
old valentines card
roses and ribbon
eyelets
Dremel Tool (or nail and hammer)

Tools:
scissors
hole punch and eyelet setter
safety can opener

What a lovely and eco-friendly ornament!

Take the top off a large tin can, I used an 800g tin of peaches. It is important to use a safety opener so that the lid has no sharp edges. Use this to draw a circle on the valentines card and cut it to fit.

Put a hole in the top of the lid for the hanger, and two holes in the bottom. Use what you have, I used a Dremel tool, but you could punch a hole through using a hammer and nail. Put matching holes in the card using the hole punch and place eyelets.

Decorate with ribbon, silk roses or any embellishments that you feel match the card.

Recycled Card Ornament

Techique Used: Papercraft

Materials:
old christmas cards
pva glue
pencil

Tools
scissors
hole punch
glass or jar that is approx 1.5" in diameter
letter opener

Using the glass or jar lid trace two circles onto one of the backing sides of the christmas cards to use as a template. One one of the circles draw an equilateral triangle. Believe it or not this is the hardest part of the whole craft! An equilateral triangle has sides of the same length and it's angles are 60 degrees. I used a small protractor to measure off the angles and cut the triangle, but you could also use a ruler and fiddle around until you found the exact measurement for each side for the side of circle that you drew. Once you have the triangle drawn, cut that out.

You should now have one circle template and one triangle template. Draw 8 circles onto the printed sides of the cards, if you are using cards that have people or scenes depicted on them rather than just patterns place the template carefully to ensure you get parts of the images that you find most pleasing. Cut out the circles, trying to follow the lines as closely as possible and avoid jagged edges.

Now place the triangle over each circle and line up carefully so that the points are all touching the edge of the circle and score the lines with a letter opener or something similar. This scoring provides the line for folding, you should now be able to fold up three 'flaps' on each circle. Do this for all eight. Working in pairs glue two edges together and allow a few minutes to dry. Glue two pair together, which will form the top and bottom, and let dry briefly before gluing the top and bottom sections together.

To hang, you can either use a hole punch as I did to make a hole for a hanging wire, or knot a piece of thin cord and place the knotted end of the loop between the two halves before gluing together.

You can make this ornament bigger by using more circles and having 5 across the top and bottom parts of the ornament, and ten across the middle band, for a total of 20 circles.

Grandma's Buttons

Technique Used: Basic Crafting Skills


You will need:
An old lightbulb
Variety of small buttons
Tacky Glue
Braid or ribbon

I have a huge jar of buttons that was started by my Grandma, and then passed along to my Mother, who in turn passed them along to me. A glorious collection of colours and textures, most taken from old clothes before they were turned into rags. I had been mulling around ideas in my head on how to use old lightbulbs, and this is what I came up with:

I followed this step by step tutorial on how to hollow out a lightbulb. I used a candelabra style globe, but a regular round globe would work also.

Once it was hollowed out and cleaned I went through my button collection searching for any that were a pink, beige or cream colour and small enough to fit through the top of the lightbulb. Once it was sufficiently full I glued a dusky pink braid around the screw fixture of the bulb using Tacky Glue.

The hanging part was my son's clever invention. Taking a thin piece of cord I threaded it through the holes of a button and tied the ends together, and then glued the button to the top of the lightbulb.