Wild Angel with Filigree and a Doily

Here is how to make a

wild angel from a doily and one of these flower filigree borders. 

 Use strong scissors or tin snips to cut off the wings and 2 of the petals from the flower like this.

Take a 11cm doily and fold it in half ...

and then fold it into thirds like this.

 Draw a line along the edges with Glossy Accents and pour some Glass Glitter over it. You can find several colours of Glass Glitter in the glitter and microbeads section.

Now glue the wings, the flower petals ("hands") and a circle pendant on the folded doily like this.

 Make some wild hair by winding some wool strands around 3 fingers 4 times (or more, depending on the wool). Tie the middle with some thread and cut open the sides. 

 Glue it on the head, draw on a face with permanent marker - if you want - and your wild angel is done.

 You can use her on a card, or as a tree decoration (tie a ribbon through the loop on the circle pendant). 

Here I have made a card using a piece of kraft card, a bit of lace and some gold baker's twine. 

GELI

Handmade Christmas gift ideas (with instructions)

So, Christmas is once again looming just around the corner and crafty people everywhere are looking for nifty thrifty ideas for handmade presents. Now is a great time to start! So I thought I might compile a few of my past blog posts that have steps by step for all sorts of Christmas pressies, from teachers' gifts to jewelry:

Bottle cap magnets:

For instructions click here

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Cork boards:

For instructions click here

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Filigree necklaces:

For instructions click here

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Filigree and washer necklaces with Sugar Beads:

For instructions click here

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Cheer pants:

For instructions click here

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Christmas wreath with jumbo buttons and stars:

For instructions click here

Happy boys

I just love the new grungy embellishments at my2angels. 

Let me show you how easy it is to make a simple boy's layout look great.

Use a 5x7" photo and cut a 5x12" mat from patterned paper. Add some punched strips and both sides and adhere to the background.on the mat. Glue the photo on. Tuck some printed acetate under (or stamp some grungy designs) in the top left and near the bottom right corner.

Choose one of the Grunge Charming Dates (there are 5 to choose from and they all look awesome) and glue it in the top left corner. Add the date. 

Cut and fold a star shaped rosette (I used a die for that) and glue a Grunge Love You to Infinity Key in the middle. The hard work is all done for you - there are little cogs, hearts and a key and other small bits and pieces!

Glue the chain with the "Love you to infinity" in place. 

Now, all you have left to do is a title (I used ready-made chipboard flags strung on some baker's twine) and you are already done!

Super quick scrapping at it's best.

Cheer

Hi everyone, it's Geli. I'm back! 

My Hannah is passionate about cheerleading and her team won the latest competition. I'm so proud of her! Here is a layout to celebrate her latest victory:

Do you hoard pretty paper? I do. This one (by Heidi Swapp) has been in my stash way too long. There were a few pink bits, which I painted white with gesso, cause they wouldn't match the black and yellow colour scheme. The shield shape was outlined with a black rhinestone chain. That was easy, I just glued it down 10cm at the time. Still, the paper looked a bit bland, so the middle got a bit of a black wash. (simply outline the position of the photo and go crazy with paint and water):

It didn't look that great at this point, but once the photo went on top and one side of a black felt frame was attached, things were starting to look pretty cool. 

Have you seen the new framed sentiments? I wanted to write on the banner and while digging through my letter stickers I discovered some old rub-ons from prehistory. I managed to almost find enough letters for "cheer", but had to fake the "h" with a "q". 

At this point I realised that I could either give the archeologist of 3013 something to dig up or use those letters up! (I have other cool ideas for grave goods to puzzle future generations) In other words, using them to frame the photo seemed like a good way to put them to use.

This pretty yellow frame comes with a pin too and there are lots of colours! Find them all here.

Have you taken adventage of the 5c sale at my2angels yet? Spend $5 and get something like this black felt ribbon for 5c! 

I cut some stars off and painted the inside with Ferro metal effect textured paint. This stuff is really cool, it has a gritty texture but keeps its metallic shine.

Then I added a crown charm (after all, they won!)...

...a cheerleader charm...

...and a yellow star flower 

The cheerleader's pom poms and the star flower are also painted with the same metal effect paint. Pretty cool that it sticks to metal!

Hannah loves her page and I hope I have given you some inspiration!

How to make batik Easter eggs

Happy Easter! 

Near where I come from in Saxony (South-East Germany) live the Sorbs (not to be confused with the Serbs), an ethnic minority that has been living in the area of Lusatia since the 6th century. They have their own language and traditions, among them the art of making the most wonderful Easter eggs. You can read more about the Sorbs here. 

While my family is not Sorbian, we have been making those Easter eggs in our family for a long, long time and now I am doing it with my own children on the other side of the world, in Australia. The technique is a simple batik one that children can enjoy as long as you can trust them around an open flame. With supervision, naturally. 

You don't need any fancy equipment. The hardest thing to find in Australia is white eggs. Light brown eggs work  too, but it looks best if you can manage to start with a white egg.

This was me and my 3 kids on Good Friday. Step right in. Excuse the messy kitchen...

Step 1: 

An empty egg. Make a hole, blow the egg out...

...Scrub it gently and dry it. 

Cleaning it  is important or the colours won't stick.

Step 2:

Melt some beeswax in an oil lamp. Real beeswax is by far the best and you can get it from a beekeeper. If that's not possible then get a good quality candle and melt that. Cheap stuff won't work. 

Here are the tools you'll need:

A cork with a pin in it (a glass pin is preferable) and some chicken or goose feathers. Cut the tip of the feather into simply shapes, like triangles and diamonds. Mine get used again and again, so they're looking a bit scruffy.

Step 3:

Once the beeswax is totally melted, dip the pin into the wax, let it heat up and use it straight away to paint on the egg. You can make spots and lines, perfect for flowers. Joel made some Japanese words. Not really the traditional design, but still fun.

Everything you paint now will stay white in the end.

Step 4:

Make some dye. 

I have some real Easter egg dye, but if you don't have that, improvise with a few drops of food dye in a cup of water. Whatever you use, it's important that you add a table spoon of vinegar to fixate the colours. And the water has to be cool by the time you dye the egg or the wax will melt.

I like to use a spoon and a bamboo skewer in the hole to hold the egg under water. Let all the air bubbles come out and it will stay under. The longer the eggs stays in, the deeper the colour gets. Not rocket science, really.

Here is how I made a multi-coloured egg: 

Dip the feather into the wax and press it against the egg. 

You can make lines with the pin like this:

Everything you've just painted will stay white.The finished egg will look best if there is plenty of white, so got to town.

Now dye your egg yellow.

Paint some more designs on the yellow. Those will be yellow in the end. Now dye it orange.

Now paint on the orange. You get the idea. Keep adding as many colours as you'd like, but always paint something first.

 Next I dyed my egg red and then dark pink. You always go from lightest colour to darkest, not the other way around. 

And how do you get the wax off? 

Step 5:

Hold the finished and dried egg close to a flame and let the wax melt, then wipe it off with a tissue. 

Wipe it all over the egg as you go, This gives the egg a nice shine and will protect the dye from fading. You can even hang those eggs outside.

The colours will really shine now and the first layer turns out white. 

Now it looks nice and beautiful.

Step 6:

Cut a match or toothpick in half, tie on some thread and feed it into the hole of the egg:

Now you can hang it up. Done! 

And here is our Easter bouquet: