Green- Not Envied

 

OF COURSE ART WORK IS NEEDED

The original art work was fine but not in the colors I wanted.

That's it***

Footnote 11-23-2025

                                            Toiletries holder

Decided to hang the picture. Can always take it down. The colors don't show up great here but I didn't want to toy with all of the doo-dads.

END...again

This and That with discards

 Sometimes you just want to do something to occupy your hands and your mind. Escapism.

 

The finished product.

empty vinegar jug, yellow pages,  cardboard, permanent markers, napkins, Mod Podge, air dry clay,  sealant

I didn't give any of these a lot of thought. Just played it by ear using left over and recycled items.

That's It ***

Caftan

 I bought these fabrics  in May with intentions of making three caftans. I prefer a cotton blend of fabric for this type of project since it's for comfort  around the house during summer. However, I will wear caftans in colder weather with a sweater. 

 How hard could it be? Who needs a pattern for that? 😶 I do.

Folding, cutting a neck hole and at the last minute deciding I wanted pockets didn't work out as well as I would have liked.

Sewing and drinking coffee. My Home Ec. teacher 
would be appalled. NO FOOD OR DRINK WHEN
SEWING!!

Since the front and back looked the same I decided

to add these beads I had in my stash. The dental

floss is to make sure they stay in place. The only

problem is that the white floss shows. Sooo, I used

a turquoise marker on the  white floss.

Front

This shows the finished caftan to
the waist. I was later told that this is 
a tunic and not a caftan.

It is now the middle of October so I'll put the idea of two other caftans to the side until warmer weather, the same way I did last fall 2021 for

    this 

          project

Bleached flannel

But, that's a story for another time.  

That's it***

Tin Can Man

The Wizard of Oz was always one of my favorite movies as a child. Later in life I learned about all of the rumors, legends and scandal behind the filming of the movie. Some true, false or simply embellished.

For some time I've wanted to make a tin can man. I washed and saved several cans of various sizes. When I had enough I began to construct in my mind how I wanted him to look.

Of course I searched Pinterest and other sites just to get workable information.

I wanted to use bolts to hinge parts together but it was too difficult even trying to use my drill. I probably don't have the correct drill bit.  I used E-6000, HVAC tape and hot glue in areas that were tricky to keep in place. I'm well aware that the glue will melt in hot weather as I expect it to. Hot glue was a temporary measure to keep things in place until the E-6000 had time to cure.

The buttons consist of 2 washers and one bottle cap, The metal heart is a metal icon I had in my
stash. I may paint it red at a later date.

I'm very pleased with the Tin Man's outcome. He's hanging on the wall of my back fence. I look forward to him rusting and gaining more character. 

I may even  put together a companion for him. 😉

Purse charms/Key rings/ Lanyard

 G. J. and I were in charge of our April Red Hat event. The chapter  usually has a "lovely parting gift" for each person that attends. I told my  event buddy that I'd been working on these, showed  her a sample and we both decided that they would be fine as a gift.

At first it was going to be a pendant on a gold or silver chain. Then I realized some are sensitive to various metals. I didn't want to use ribbon or cord so I had to rethink the project.

💡

A purse charm would be away from the body and it would be less prone to cause sensitivity.

     I painted one side of wooden circles purple for Red Hatters and pink for Pink Hatters. Let it dry. I drilled a hole at the top of each one.

 I painted the back side some form of gold or silver. A  fellow crafter had given me strands of pearls and strands of gold beads which were perfect for this project.  With the beads being on a strand it was much easier to wrap them around the glass bubble picture of each one and slowly pull the string after the beads were in place. I used E-6000 glue for all adherences. 

Pearls in place, Gold beads in place, names on the back, etc. Let it dry.

Now it was time to  do individual beading to make the dangly, thingies that would hang off of the purse charm.
Yep, you're seeing it right. I used an empty egg crate to separate my beads. 

The danglies were then attached to the blank key chains which I purchased from Amazon. 

SIDEBAR: I noticed that some of the key chains had a straight piece of wire in between the groove where the keys go.  Not knowing what it was, I inquired and discovered that it was there to help separate the clip so that the keys could slide on easier. BTW- A staple remover works well also when separating to add keys. No more ruined manicures.

You'll see the results of the dangly, thingies here and below.

The fronts and backs were all finished with at least three coats of Triple Thick. This product gives a glassy, glossy appearance to projects and helps protect them.

They needed some type of packaging and personalization so  I used card stock and personalized everyone's name on their individual purse charm.

This was a fun project and turned out just the way I wanted it to.

That's it ***

Decorative Ribbon Tassel- Part 2

I was going for a mosaic look using food color dyed egg shells by means of a process that worked perfectly when I used eggshells on a mosaic bracelet I made.    I guess foam orbs aren't made for that.  

mosaic bracelet from egg shells and cardboard 

After trying to save the orb, it went the way of other failures.

Take 2   ACTION >>>>>>

Since I had 3 foam balls in the pack, I started over by painting the foam ball with a gold acrylic. Let dry. Then I mixed a little  green glitter  in Mod Podge and painted the ball. Let dry. Since I was using blue ribbons also, I decided to go over the green with a little blue glitter mixed in Mod Podge, hoping both colors would show through as well as a little gold

As you can see, It's more blue than green. 

I also added a collar of upholstery corded beads in green and blue. I finished off the lower collar with a little fancy green stitching.

I added additional beads to some of the cords
similar to what I'd seen on the inspiration tassels  I'd seen in Hobby Lobby. 

I used a LARGE needle and drove a much
smaller hole through the bottom on up to
the top and added more beads and tied on a ribbon. 

Lengthwise, before the ribbon

All done and satisfied finally with the outcome

END***

Decorative Ribbon Tassel- Part 1

(13 pictures)


I wanted a decorative tassel to hang on the corner edge of a new single sleigh bed I bought, just in case I have an overnight visitor.

The type of  tassel I wanted can be expensive.   Being the creative and frugal  person that I am, I put on my thinking cap and tried to figure  it out.

I was inspired by the DIYs of tassels made from salt shakers such as the ones below.

Curiouspeddler.com

DancingBearTassels on Etsy

  So of course I scoured thrift stores to see what I could find.

On a whim I bought this ceramic 49 cent dinner bell, which is about  2.5 inches high and 2 inches wide. I was thinking I could remove the clapper and stuff the tassel inside of it. But, then I realized I wanted more color. It had the green of the walls in the room but not the turquoise I wanted to also use, so 49 cents gone. I'll figure out something else to do with it.












 Hobby Lobby was next, and thank goodness for cameras on phones. I could discreetly take a picture of what I liked and then  use my own imagination and that's what I did.

I ended up liking the style of the orange one on the right.

















I had ribbons galore from $ Tree and other places. I also gathered other things that I thought I might use.

I measured the ribbons to 28 inches each.     The eggshells, I  dyed overnight in a vinegar, food coloring and water bath. I've used this egg shell method in another project. Then I crushed the shells fine so that I can use them as a mosaic on the foam ball.

I used a regular pair of  scissors to make a hole through the ball so that the tassel will go through.

Cross the ribbons 4 at a time in the midpoint and tack together with a stitch

Here's a close up view of the ribbons tacked together at their midpoint. NOTE: It'll be hard to push a needle through all of those layers so content yourself with sewing each layer to the one directly underneath. In the end they'll all be together when you finish.

Next I wanted to test to see if the ribbons would go through the hole.  They did. But, I noticed there's a  lot of foam dust after digging the hole and pulling the ribbon through. 

I painted the inside of the ball with Mod Podge to tamp down the foam dust for when I get ready to pull the tassel through. The outside I painted green as the background. The egg shell mosaic with be attached to the outside. Drying the ball from the inside has proven to be the most challenging. It's taking a long time.

Part 2 -Coming Soon