Black Felt Sugar Skull Ornaments

I picked up some felt squares

at JoAnn's last week.

The Black Friday shoppers had already

cleaned out several colors and it was

only Tuesday!

I wanted to pick up some white or cream for a

base as well as the black, but they were out of stock

at my store that day. 

I do like black with the bright colors

and am happy with the way they turned out.

I started by drawing a pattern on grid paper

and then cutting out the design on cardboard. 

I had a piece laying around that happened to be red. 

As you can see I need a new blade for my razor knife. 

(The right tools make all the difference!)

 I cut enough cardboard templates 

for each ornament, because they were glued inside.

I cut the felt about 1/4" larger than my template

so I could finish the skull off with a blanket stitch. 

I used DMC floss, buttons, beads,

and rhinestones for embellishments. 

They're a lot of fun to make.

I'm still working on several more. The options for

designs are endless!

Love Shrine

This is how my "Love Shrine" started out.

The base is an old Lang Christmas card box.

(Whenever I come across a good strong box, 

I always tuck it away for a future project.)

I designed a fancy asymmetrical frame to go around it, built it

up with some air dry paper clay and cardboard 

designs, and then paper mached the whole thing. 

 Once it thoroughly dried (about 2 days),
I primed it with Zinzer Bullseye 123.

I used assorted acrylic and dimensional paints to create

a primitive design, which I sealed with a gloss medium. 

It's embellished with some cold porcelain clay roses

and rhinestones. 

It's rustic, simple, bright and cheery.

I may need to add some glitter modge podge

to the frame to give it even more pizazz. 

Either way, I "LOVE" it!

Sugar Skull Egg Ornaments

I came across these eggs while digging through

my craft supply box. 

They were a half off "after

the holiday" purchase from Walmart. 

I wish I'd picked up

several dozen. I'm hoping they

carry them again this coming Easter. 

They are so much fun to work with!

I decided to make a sugar skull ornaments with the eggs and 

used my very fine artist markers for the design. 

I finished it off with lace, a flower bead, and beaded straight pin.

Black ribbon was used for the hanging loop and I glued 

all those things together with Tacky Glue. 

The back had to say Feliz Navidad!

After making a "her" I had to make a "him".

I started by making a black hat with a purple rose

and green leaves out of cold porcelain clay and let 

that dry for 24 hours. 

In the meantime, I worked on his face

and back "Feliz Navidad" greeting. 

The hat and ribbon were adhered

with a black beaded straight pin

and Tacky Glue. 

I love the way they turned out and am

anxious to show you some more that I've just finished.

I learned from the first ornament, not to use my artist markers.

While they're great for drawing on paper,

they smeared a bit as I turned the egg in my

hand to work on it. 

With my subsequent ornaments, I used permanent markers
(Bic and Sharpie) as well as Pitt Pens.
They all worked well together and didn't smear. 

Happy Thanksgiving.

I hope you have a wonderful holiday!

Star and Cross Shrine

This is the completed star and cross shrine

that I mentioned in my last post. I say completed,

but I'm still pondering adding something

to the bottom right (inside) corner to hide some

bubbling that occurred in that area. 

I still need to figure out how

to hang my shrines.

There's not a lot of weight to the piece, but

any hanger will need to be adhered with 

glue of some kind. I want something that'll

be sturdy and long lasting, but won't damage the piece. 

I'll have to see what Home Depot has available. 

Up next is a side view of the piece. 

I had to make that pretty too.

You can get more of an idea of

it's size next to my hand in this pic. 

On Wednesday, I plan to share some funky
Christmas ornaments that I'm working on.

Hope your day is a good one!

Cardboard Shrine Boxes

There were a couple of factors that tipped the scales

when it came to making my own shrine boxes as 

opposed to purchasing ready made ones. 

First and foremost, I wanted to design my own

patterns and create one of a kind pieces. Mind you, 

I looked at a bunch of different designs and

then started sketching out 

some patterns of my own on grid paper. 

The second reason goes back to

my desire to use the materials I have on hand.  

The bases are all sturdy Christmas card boxes. The

frames and details are cut from various cardboard mailing boxes

I'd saved. 

All of the pieces of these boxes

were adhered together with masking tape, no glue. 

Sorry about the fuzziness of the bottom box in this next picture,

but I wanted to point out how I used

some air dry paper clay as well as cardboard 

cut-outs to build up some dimension. 

I learned a few tips with this project. 

1) The more intricate the design, the more patience and time

you'll need to paper mache. I did several pieces at a time and it

would've been better to focus on one to completion. 

2) Also, the more detailed the design, the smaller the strips

of paper you'll need to fit in the little spaces. I thought maybe if

the paper was saturated enough, I could coax it into the crevices

and around corners. . .wrong! It didn't work and I had to undo and redo.

3) I would've been a bit more generous with the masking tape, especially

around the edges of the frame. One of the frames became

a little too pliable while sitting to dry. Gravity wanted to pull down

some of the scroll type edging that had become too saturated

during the paper mache process. I was able to straighten it, but more

tape may've prevented the problem in the first place. 

The following is my star shrine. I'll 

post pictures of this piece all finished in my next post. 

Bird and Bear Nicho

The base of this nicho is an empty crab meat can.  

It's a little deeper than a tuna can.

I washed it well and made sure to get rid of any odor. 

My next step was to draw and cut out a cardboard frame 

to fit the opening of the can.

I taped the frame to the can with masking tape. 

 Using my homemade air dry paper clay, 

I built up some dimension and ridges

on the frame and paper mached the whole thing. 

It took a full 24 hours to dry before

I coated the whole thing with Zinzer 123 Primer. 

The following picture is the completed piece.

I used an old greeting card for the background and some reindeer moss

for the inside surrounding edge.

The roses were made from my cold porcelain clay.

I used acrylic paints and dimensional fabric paints (which 

may be used on surfaces other than fabric). 

I coated the outside with Liquitex Gloss Heavy Gel Medium. 

Because of the depth and the visibility of the outside

of the can, it needed some embellishing as well. 

I haven't finished the back yet because I have to figure out

how and if I want to hang it.

It sits nicely on a flat surface, but I think it'd be cute hanging as well. 

Once I figure that out, I'll add a meaningful quote and my signature 

to the back and give it a quick coat of the gloss medium. 

Fabric Basket

Here's a fun and fast project that 

takes just half a day to make.

If you like to sew, you probably have all the 

materials on hand. 

~Material

~Fusible batting

~Four Buttons

~Square Template or Ruler

The little unfinished basket in the following 

picture belongs to a friend of mine.

She brought it with her to our last coffee date and let me take it home

to study and make one for myself. 

I used a 15" square template and hers was probably a 10" square. 

After I finished this project I went on Pinterest and typed "fabric baskets" in the search bar. 

Plenty of pins like this came up with DIY's you may link to  

if you're interested in making one for yourself. 

I look forward to making more of these.

I think they'd make great little gifts!

Questions are welcome.

Happy Sewing!

Te Amo Niche Shrine

This project was an experiment

with a variety of mediums.

Paper Mache

Cold Porcelain Clay

Air Dry Paper Clay

Niche Design and Creation

Nothing was purchased for this project. 

Lately I've been trying to create things

 from materials I have on hand. 

I've always loved niche/shrine/diorama art pieces and

decided to give one a try myself. 

This one took me about 4 to 5 days to complete.

I ruined a perfectly good sauce pan cooking the cold porcelain

clay, because I mixed it in the pot instead of a separate

bowl first and then I cooked it too long. 

It made me a little sad throwing that pot away

that I've had for 28 years! Next time

I'm buying a cheap pot from the thrift store and using that. 

That's what I get for being a rebel and not paying 

attention to the suggestions on the youtube videos I watched. 

I found the easiest way to color the cold porcelain 

clay is with markers. Just poke them into the clay and knead away.

Sharpies are fine and won't permanently stain your hands. 

The flowers, leaves, candles, and pink hearts are

all made from the cold porcelain clay.

The big red heart at the top and the center cross are

made from the paper clay. 

I used acrylic paints as well as dimensional fabric paint 

and sharpie markers on the design.

I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out and have started

a couple more. 

Let me know if you have any questions. 

Happy creating.

Terri