Mum, I'm Bored!

Now that the Easter holidays are over and Term 2 has started, I finally have time to sit down and write about my experiences with Melted Pony Bead Suncatchers.  I actually made these back in February, but we'll pretend it hasn't taken me two months to blog about it, OK?

You know how it is...  You see a post on Facebook or a picture on Pinterest and think to yourself, "That looks pretty/interesting/easy enough, and would be a good boredom buster.  We've certainly got all the supplies to make it.  Why not give it a go?"

Sound familiar?  I know you're nodding your head.  So, here it is - part tutorial, part cautionary tale.  This is NOT one of those Pinterest Fails... for the most part. I'll get to that later.

Step 1. Gather your supplies.  
You will need cheap pony beads in colours of your choice (we already had a heap of these - they seem to be a popular gift for pre-teen girls).  Depending what you are planning on making, use either transparent, with or without glitter (for suncatchers) or solid colours (for coasters, placemats, etc), but don't, on any account, use those iridescent ones.  Their oil-slick colours will lure you in with their attractiveness, but just don't go there.  I'll show you why later.
 
You'll also need some old non-stick pans, shaped foils pans, or egg rings on an old pizza tray (basically use whatever shapes you're aiming for), cooling racks and something to do the melting in.  Don't use your good cookware. You will not want to use it for food after melting plastic in it.  Try thrift store for cheap pans and keep them for craft use. 
Most instructions tell you to use an oven, some have used a heat gun, but I recommend using a hooded bbq. Outdoors. Trust me. Melted plastic fumes are NOT pleasant.  If you have pets or people with sensitive noses, keep them away.  Consider yourself warned.

Step 2. Arrange beads in your chosen moulds 
Preheat your oven/bbq to 200 degrees celsius.
You could go completely random or try to make patterns. Totally up to you, but make sure you only have a single layer of beads or they won't melt properly.

Step 3. Melt beads.
Instructions for ovens says 200 celsius for 20 minutes, but as I'd cranked all the burners on the bbq and shut the hood, it got pretty hot, pretty quickly, so I didn't need 20 minutes.  Just keep checking them and remove when fully melted to a smooth liquid state.

Step 4. Allow to cool.
Place on a cooling rack and wait for the plastic to cool.  Don't freak out at the loud cracking noises it makes as it cools.. As it cools, it will come away from the edges, so that it should just tip out of the pan when completely cooled.

Step 5. Remove from pans and sand rough edges if needed.

These heart shaped ones used glitter beads.

Step 6. Drill holes for hanging, if required.

Step 7. Hang and admire. Wasn't that easy?

And now for that cautionary tale...  I had a bag of iridescent (yet translucent) beads.  The colours were dazzling, like a dragonfly.  Semi transparent, so I thought they'd turn out nicely.  Wrong!  Not sure if it's the iridescent coating or maybe they're made of a different plastic, but they just didn't melt properly.  Even after triple the time in the heat.  The result was a lumpy, oil slicked mess that resembled fake vomit and stained the pan.

BEFORE

(I used solid colours to form the C)

 AFTER

So now you know what to do and what not to do.  Have a go.  It really is easy. I'm very happy with how mine turned out and will definitely make more.

Experiment with colours and patterns, but if you do find yourself falling for the allure of iridescent beads... don't say I didn't warn you!

Weekend Sewing Project

...well, maybe a long weekend.

So I’ve been sitting on this project for…   oooh, nearly two years now, and seeing as I was in a creative mood last Sunday, I thought I might finally get on with it.

There seems to be a trend of "re-styling and re-purposing" at the moment.  Everywhere you look, crafty people are turning one thing into another thing.  May as well join the bandwagon, right?   To tell the truth, I was already planning on using Cheyenne’s old kindy sheets for this project, way back when I bought the laundry hamper.  I mean, what else was I going to use them for?  She did use them (as sheets) once or twice when we went camping, but she really is too big for them now and they don’t fit her camp stretcher.  It just seemed a waste to chuck them out and not do something with the material.  But hey, now I can seem trendy and say I’m re-purposing them, LOL.

So, it’s a cheap and not-so-cheerful laundry hamper from a bargain shop.  Cost me about $14.  Ugly plain linen bag complete with dodgy, el cheapo stitching and unfinished wood – you know the ones I mean.  All it needed was a new bag (courtesy of Cheyenne’s kindy sheets), and a lick of paint and it would look fantastic in her bedroom.

I love the floral pattern and colours in this fabric.  I fell in love with it at the time when I got it on sale at Spotlight. So much so, that I think I got some in blue tones as well…  * note to self - hunt through material stash *

After much grumbling and swearing, I gave up trying to un-seize the lift on my sewing cabinet (last time I was packing up my machine, the lift got stuck about a third of the way down, and now it won’t go back up again either!) and just made-do.  Just as well I wasn’t sewing something huge that I needed the extra table space for!   The bag is such a simple shape that it all came together very quickly and I only really had to stop and think when I came to do the buttonholes on the tabs.  OMG, the last time I sewed a buttonhole was in Home Ec at high school.  Thank goodness for my Bernina instruction manual, haha.  Result?  Four perfect buttonholes.

With nothing left to do to the bag other than sewing on the buttons, I turned my attention to painting the frame.  Cheyenne’s bedroom furniture is white, so I was determined it had to match.  Quick trip to Bunnings for some spray paint (yes, you're right, I'm too lazy to fiddle around with a paintbrush) and I was ready.  First, the primer. No problem there.  Now the top coat...  Two coats of white later and I could still see patches of the primer showing through. Seriously?  I could be re-coating forever…  Time to rethink the colour.  I sewed on the buttons while I thought about what colour would be more likely to give a nice even coverage.

I decided to go with a bright pink paint, which would pick up some of the colours in the fabric. That meant another trip to Bunnings in the morning.  *le sigh*   Naturally, it rained all day, which put a stop to painting.  My “weekend project” had now stretched out to three days!  Thankfully, yesterday was fine and I got two coats of pink on the frame.  Touch dry in ten minutes, my arse!  Not even after 20 minutes!  After retouching a few touch marks, I set it to dry overnight.

 Yes, pink was a great choice, I think.

Ta Da!

Finally, it is finished. Yay! My "weekend" project only took 4 and a bit days!  Although Cheyenne will be using it in her bedroom straight away, it will match even better with her room décor when she moves into the front room at the end of the year. After we paint it pink, that is. And after I move my craft room out and into her current bedroom… and don’t even get me started on that!

(I’ll leave THAT for another post)

Oceans of Fun

“Have you started your project yet? You’ve known about it for a couple of weeks. How are you going to get it finished on time if you haven’t even started?”

Sound familiar? Seriously, I think I’m beginning to sound like my mum. Oh the horror! LOL.

Welcome to 2RS semester 2 assignment. Environment Dioramas. They had to choose between a Natural, Social or Built Environment and build a diorama. The even had the boxes supplied for them. I’m sure Cheyenne chose the biggest box. No shoebox for her. Oh no, that would be too easy. She ended up with a file box. Which then sat untouched on our lounge room floor for about two weeks!

She decided to make an ocean diorama. With that initial decision made, she figured there was no rush to get started. In an attempt to try to motivate her, I raided my craft cupboard for things which she might find useful.

Cheyenne knew she wanted to have starfish made from kitchen sponge (not sure where she got this idea from, but they do look pretty good), rocks, seaweed, coral, anemones, jelly fish, an eel and of course, fish. She didn't think she would be able to draw fish that looked like fish, so we compromised and I printed out some pictures she could colour in and cut out.

This was all well and good, but she couldn’t start putting it together until the painting was done first. After much nagging by me she finally got stuck in.

The bottom and three sides of the box had to be painted blue for the water, and the fourth side was smeared with PVA and covered with sand (from her sand pit). In lieu of real rocks (which may have been a tad heavy and tricky to glue down, LOL), we grabbed a few smallish chunks of styrofoam from the Great Mountain of Styrofoam behind Steve’s brother Brett’s shed. Don’t even ask... Trust me. These chunks of styrofoam were painted a sandy colour and glued into the box. Coloured pipe cleaners twisted together became seaweed, coral and anemones, and poked easily into the foam. Yet another good reason to not use real rocks, LOL.

I’d saved an individual pudding container “just in case” (yes, I’m genetically predisposed to hoarding, LOL) and this became the jellyfish, with kitchen string for tentacles. Cheyenne was unsure how to make the eel. After a bit of thought, I suggested a wiggly balloon, stuffed with cotton wool, with googly eyes stuck on.

Much fun can be had with an assorted pack of googly eyes, LOL.

All that was left to do was to decide where to position the star fish, shells and eel, and where to hang the jelly fish and fish by their fishing line. 

...Oh, and write up a materials list and draw up the plan (which, of course, was supposed to be done first, but hey, whatever, it’s grade 2 not high school).

 

The finished product.

As practising in front of Steve and I was deemed to be “too embarrassing”, I was unsure how her presentation would go. They were to be marked on how well the construction "followed the plan" (ROFL), their discussion of their strengths and weaknesses and general oral speaking skills.

This afternoon I asked her how she did and what she said. Her reply? “Good. I just said some random stuff.” Good grief!


Her teacher reassured me that she did do quite well, apart from not making eye contact. Apparently she was too busy facing her diorama, pointing out its features, LOL.