Mom's "Fairy Godpumpkin"

For this past craft swap, I was stalking my partner, Crafterella. I was browsing her wist for ideas and came across something that must just have been fate. I had just the thing sitting over here.



She had wisted an adorable set of pumpkins wearing witch hats. Coincidentally, my mother had started one very similar awhile back while playing around with some air-drying clay she had. Her pumpkin was so adorable, I just had to get her to finish it up. Just look at all the detail she put into it! I'd say that is amazing considering the medium she chose was very disagreeably to work with in this way.



I helped her glue it to a resin base that she had found at a secondhand store while visiting my sis in Kansas. It was actually three books fused together, but she had my sis's husband cut them apart. This one is a book labeled "Cinderella" on the front. I think that was just perfect for her little guy. We painted and stained it to go better with the pumpkin's colors.



I was so terribly nervous about this item making to it's new home with Korinne in one piece. I'm so glad it did make it. Yay!

The next item I'll be posting about is much less fragile. It will be another wee house for tiny birds of the six-legged variety. :)

Crazy Quilt Binder Cover

Another craft swap has been sent out. One item my partner, Crafterella (oohmybees on Craftster), requested was a Teesha Moore inspired Journal, or 3-ring binder, cover. She described the style she was looking for as "Goth-hippie". :)



I asked my mom to help out on this one since we had planned to try making one awhile now. I threw a pile of choice scraps in front of her and let her go to work. She didn't follow the thorough directions that TM has on youtube. Instead, she just winged it. I let her go at it until it was large enough to cover the binder. Then, I trimmed it down to fit and backed it with some polka-dot fabric.



We used a removable button-on strap closure to hold the book shut. It was a strap off of one of my mom's coats. Not sure why she removed it when she bought it, but it worked great on the cover.



I tried my hand at personalizing the cover with her name sewn with some of my pathetic freehand embroidery work. I must admire those with enough patience to embroider. I can only tolerate it in small doses. :)



Inside I added two pen/pencil holders and a zipper pocket for other tools/supplies. I thought she could put her hole punch in there if she liked. It also makes a nice place to store the strap when the binder is in use.



I decided that if it's going to have a pen holder, it needs a pen to go with it. So, I made one out of polymer clay according to a tutorial I found on youtube where you roll the clay over the plastic pen barrel. What I liked was that the inner pen part can be replaced if it runs out of ink. I used a Bic Stick Pen like the tute, which are pretty common and easy to find. After completed, I'm not certain about the durability of the pen. There were suggestions that different brands of clay are stronger, but I used the colored Sculpey that I had. It should be alright. **Knock on wood**

Up next, I'll be posting a little something my mom made.

Steampunk Time-Turner

For a friend's birthday SO and I made a steampunk necklace for her. I'm calling it a "time-turner" (like Hermione's in the Harry Potter series). Who wouldn't want a portable time machine? But, according to my SO, it has another function that I won't go in to here. ;)



It's almost entirely made from broken clock parts. The center piece of the pendant is a "balance wheel" that is still intact and can be animated by movement or by finger.



Various gears and other parts were used here and there. The black metal pieces spaced along the chain were brackets that I flattened out with a hammer.



The rest of the parts of the necklace were just bits, rings and chain pieces I had in my stash.



Clockwork parts are so interesting. It's amazing how all these complex shapes all go together to tell us the time. Too bad these particular parts will never tell the time again. :)



I enjoyed putting this piece together. I think I'll attempt another for myself at a later date. Though, I'm sure it will end up looking nothing like this one. I never seem to make two of the same thing very often.

Thanks for taking the "time" to check this out! Later!