Fun with wallpaper and Mod Podge

I have been enjoying myself with my wall paper sample books.  I am also for the first time ever using Mod Podge.  I had been reading about Mod Podge a lot lately and the glossy variety  looked like just the kind of stuff to finish my beads. I had tried varnish and that worked OK but it didn't get a nice gloss.  There are quite a few other varieties of Mod podge so there is more undiscovered crafting fun left for me!   So first I started with marking out my triangles on the paper.

     
I then rolled the beads  on bamboo skewers and glued them down with "Tacky Glue"

 As soon as they were dry I coated them in glossy Mod Podge.  I let those dry over night and then gave them a second coat and this is how they looked

   

I had to leave it then for a day as I had to "other stuff" but I managed to finish it Saturday.  This is the finished piece and I am very, very happy with it.  I am almost sorry to let it go but you can find it here in my shop.

 ( this is an edit because this morning I realised I had not added a photograph of the finished piece. Silly me!  Anyhow I hope you like it)

Home-Sweet-Home

Today I want to show my latest treasure.  I was out for the day with my husband last month and we were wandering through a craft market when I spotted this:

  It was just too tempting to leave.

Just look how lovely it looks.

I checked out the serial number and found out that it is a machine from 1948.

I haven't tried sewing with it yet, but it sounds beautiful when you turn the handle so there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it either. I am just so pleased with it.  Who knows, maybe I will be able to make some of my clothes or bags on it.  Will keep you posted.

Treasury Thursday

I am not liking the rain one little bit. It is making all things look grey. But then again grey can be rather beautiful as you can see in this treasury. These gorgeous items are made by the members of the Crafty Folk Team on Etsy. Go on have a look, maybe it will cheer you up.

Wordless Wednesday

 9:00

15:00

Home Sweet Home

Today I share  a corner in my craftroom. As you can see I have been invaded. The cats had bust in and were spying on the geese who are momentarily in the front garden. It is rather nice because Sid (the male goose) keeps wandering up to the window to "have a word" and if I don't open the window and chat back to him, he knocks on the wall until I do.  The cats are a little jealous so keep jumping up my table and get in between. Although I love them they are quite annoying as they keep knocking things on the floor.

This is the room where I make my jewellery and I had just tidied up (honest!) but as soon as I start on a new piece it gets back to chaos...

New, beautiful craft material.

 Yesterday I went to town to pick up a few things and one shop was having a mini sale. I picked up a few odds and ends and found a great treasure. They were throwing out the big wall paper sample books.  I peeked inside some of them and they were GORGEOUS!  Not only would I have liked them on my walls, the papers were a crafters dream!  There are leather look-a likes (and they are so realistic) and other beautifully textured ones in super colours. I picked up several of them.  There are so many different ones to choose from I didn't know where to start so I just picked the first two sheets in one of the books and this is what I made with it.

 The finished beads

 First attempt at stringing.

 Not very flat, it keeps twisting.

.

 Second attempt with smaller beads.

 Same problem

 In the mean time I tried some different varnishes for the subsequent beads.

 Two of the varnishes used and I also used a normal quick drying varnish.

The finished necklace.  Still a few wrinkles to iron out, but this is just a proto type.

Well what do you think? I would love to hear what you think.  I will soon show the leather look beads and what I made with them.