Egyptian Hieroglyph Wall Remnant

I fell in love with the idea of Ancient Egypt as a child.  I used to read all the books I could get my hands on until I started getting nightmares after learning too much about the embalming process.  Those people were a bit macabre and had a slightly obsessive relationship with the afterlife.

Years later I finally went to Egypt.  On my to-do list every holiday, is go shopping for the perfect souvenir.  I was surprised and quite disappointed to find that Egypt (at least where I was looking) didn't really have much in the way of cool arty stuff - unless you want some bright, gaudy papyrus paintings - which in the end is what I bought.

So on my return I decided to make my own Egyptian souvenir.  I found an image of some hieroglyphs and thought it would be cool to have my own chunk of wall  - a piece of a pyramid, like the early archeologists used to do. What vandals! 

My very own section of an ancient Egyptian wall, covered in hieroglyphs.

Stained Glass Door Re-Paint

The door is repainted and the stained glass now looks fab I think.
See original post below.
http://foresttea.blogspot.co.nz/2012/11/diy-painting-stained-glass-door.html

Floral Chair Covers

I was looking for a completely different kind of chair cover on a google search for chair covers, when I came across this image:

Preston Bailey: http://blog.prestonbailey.com/2010/03/29/is-it-better-to-go-naked-or-covered/

Seems like weddings are the kings of chair cover searches in google (or should that be princesses?)

Such a cute idea.  Why not have it for everyday.  Seems a shame to have something like that only for one day.  What a nice way to start the day - sitting on one of these and having some lovely breakfast in the morning sunshine....

What was I actually looking for?  Something to keep my chairs protected from small children.

Now I'm going to be sidetracked working out how to make those flowers.  Great way to upcyle some boring old chairs.

Fabric Tree Stack Wandering

Spot the tree

I gave the best made tree (of the two I've completed so far) to my craft buddy Suzy at our end of year secret Santa (ok not so secret) gift exchange.  Mr Mover moved in and lived on the shelf above for a while.  See if you can spot him.

Today I got this message:

Someone is on an adventure! This is where I found the tree 

this morning. Suz

He reminds me of those travelling gnomes.  But he seems to be hanging around for now.

How to make can be found in my previous post Fabric Tree Stack Christmas Decorations.

Fabric Tree Stack Christmas Decorations

I was going to make some trees to fit in baby jars, but on closer inspection decided that baby jars really are tiny.  Sewing tiny things is not a sewing machine kind of thing.  (which is why I think paying grown-up prices for children's clothing is completely fair.  Imagine how tricky some of that sewing is on a miniature scale).  Umm...

Ok.
This is the tutorial I followed: The Small Object Archive.
I decided not to use a glue gun as I was having a misguided 'no toxic chemicals' moment.  Glue gun would work great though.  I, however, used a needle and thimble to sew through the tips of all the tree stack a few times, then knotted to fix.

However I wanted to add a bit of bling, and also have them hanging on the tree.  So this is what I did:

1. I  took some bead strands and sewed at a few points around the tree.  
2. I then sewed through the middle of each stack with some gold thread and did not pull thread tight, but left a big loop which I then knotted together at the tip of the tree both on the inside and outside.

Perfect way to use offcuts of old fabric.

Voila! Very cute christmas tree decorations.

Baby Jar Christmas Crafts

There are so many good ideas for baby jars.  I think they make fantastic Christmas crafts and very cute gifts. 

Here are my 5 favourites:

1. Glitter 'snowglobes' using old toys as decorations.

2. I-spy jars using old toys and rice.

 3. Sewing jar with pincushion lids. 

4. Individual gift cupcakes. (easy option gift dry cupcake mix).

5. Christmas tree dioramas.

I am going to try out all of these I think.  Now I only need some baby jars....

An honorable mention goes to these Christmas trees that people seem to enjoy making.  Not sure that I am super keen on the finished look, but A+ for effort.

DIY Painting Stained Glass Door - Shortcut Fails

I have an old-ish house with a stained glass front door.  It has been made with some inferior glass I guess.  The little opaque squares seem to be proper stained glass, but the other pieces must have been painted then fired (rather than the colour going all the way through).  They have faded badly.

So faded!

I have been googling all over the place trying to find a glass paint that I could use.  I started out looking at Pebeo's Vitrea 160 range which is down at the local Spotlight store.  However they didn't stock the colours I wanted (only stocking the bright-primary style hues).  I wanted the Tea Green and Crimson. 

I was also dubious about the fact that I wouldn't be able to bake the glass once painted.  I'm going for a quick fix here.  There's no way I'm going to take out each panel, paint and bake and then put pack in.

So I went for the Lefranc & Bourgeois Vitrail range which have slightly different colours but no mention of baking. I chose Olive Green and Violet.

The main thing to remember is that I am painting over colour that is already there.  It has faded in places, but any colour I chose was always going to have a yellow base.  So although I chose a purple, it will mix with the yellow to create a red-brown.  Any green I choose will have extra yellow tones.

However nothing is ever as straight-forward as you'd like.  I washed the glass with spirits as per instructions (normally I never do things properly) but after the initial diligence, I sadly didn't pay attention to something I saw mentioned somewhere about making sure to use a soft sable brush.  I used a chisel bristle brush which meant all the brush strokes showed very clearly.  Not the effect I was after.  So I had to wipe it all off again with turps and start again.

Don't use a hard bristle brush when glass painting.

Now my problem is that I used a very CHEAP sort brush so all the bristles keep coming out.  I have to keep flicking them out, which causes funny patches of either extra colour or too little colour or even worse - I miss them and then the brush hairs stay on the glass.  

When  will I ever learn that taking shortcuts doesn't pay??????

Very nice... but what's that stuck in the glass?

Click here to view finished result.