Embellishments made with hot glue

I have been having a lot of fun with a hot glue gun! They are inexpensive now, and most of us have one in the house somewhere, so I thought I would give it a go and see what I could do.
For the embellishment on the tag:

1. Trail the hot glue in the centre of a heatproof, non stick craft mat, and make a circle about 2" by 3". It needs to be pretty well filled in with glue, no gaps.

2. While it's still hot, fold an unused corner of the craft mat and lay over the top of your circle. Gently smooth it down. This will give you a nice smooth and flat finish.

3. Stamp into the warm glue with a stamp of your choice. I have used a ruler stamp. If your glue has cooled a bit too much, heat for a few seconds with a heat gun, then stamp.
Remember, if you don't like it at any stage you can remelt it with the heat gun and start again (phew!)

4. When cool, use metalic rub ons or gold leafing pen to rub colour into the imprinted image. You can then use a contrasting colour to rub over the top if you like. Chalks, inks, and acrylic paint also work.

To make the wing:

I used a buzz and bloom chipboard wing as a template, which I drew around with felt pen on the craft mat. You might be fine to do it freehand though. I then let the got glue drip onto the outline and trailed it across the middle to make the pattern. Make sure the centre lines are attached to the outline, so it will stay in one peice when you move it. While the glue was still hot, I sprinkled fine glitter over the top. You can also use embossing powders, or use rub on wax when cool.

You can then peel it off the mat and glue it wherever you want it. I have found Ranger's Diamond Glaze glues it brilliantly. Dont try gluing it with more hot glue, it just melts in to your work of art!

This is all so much easier than it sounds :)

Other ideas for hot glue:

1. Use it as a photo transfer method, by pressing your photocoppied picture into it. When cool, dampen with water and roll the wet paper off.

2. Liberally trail the gue on a heat proof craft mat to make random shapes, the more 'holey' the better. Colour as desribed above.

3. Put a blob in the centre of a silk flower. Add glitter or gold leaf while still hot. Brush away the excess.

Have fun, and let me know how you get on!

Blog followers

I just wanted to say Hi and THANKS to those of you who follow my blog. Some of you are good friends, others I don't know, but it's really good to know that someone is out there! I love sharing what I do. I would love to hear from you. Either leave a comment on here, or feel free to email me at donnadowd59@hotmail.com with your comments, ideas for me, links to your blogs or photos or just to say hello. I will be posting more in the next few days. Watch out! My son is a keen photographer and has set up a Flikr account with some of his pics. This is the link http://www.flickr.com/photos/mjdmjd

There are some of my adorable grandchildren (not biased at all!!) and other family photos. This is one of my faves. Phoebe loves her little plastic animals more than anything else, and has a very clever way of managing to carry several at once. Not easy when you're two. She walks them round and round on the furniture. Bless!

Holls

It's a tough old life! This is the view I have had to put up with for the last week:) Our holls in Fuertaventura were wonderful! There is much beauty there, and much to inspire the artist/scrapbooker in me. We rented a villa with some good friends so had a lovely pool to ourselves. We flew with Ryan air- and the flights were great! (Do I sound surprised?) It felt good to feel the warmth of the sun, but it's always nice to get home again. There is something so comforting about sleeping in your own bed!

Altered Storage

Here's a storage unit I got from Ikea a few years ago. It's been fab, but I got fed up with how it looked so I have given it a makeover!! It was a quick and fun project to do. I just used scraps of paper, and some mostly hand made embellishments.

I had a lovely day at the crop today. There were around 15 of us there, and Skrapz came to provide our shop. I think they may have been more stash buying than stash using going on!! Thanks for a great day everyone:)

Saturday's Crop

I'm really looking forward to our January crop! I am not doing a class this time, but there will be a demo that I am excited about:) Who knew what could be done with a glue gun?? I bought a new book that has inspired me so I will be showing that too. Ann from Skrapz is coming with her crop shop- can't wait to see what she brings. Have a look at her website for a sneak preview, www.skrapz.co.uk If you see anything that you would definitely like Ann to bring email her and she will happily oblige. See you Saturday!

Else and Walley, a tribute!

I used a piece of canvas as my base, which I swiped with Ranger distress ink and blended with a foam brush dipped in water. It gives a nice aged effect. I used a lace edged damask doiley which glued on fine with PVA. I photocopied some flower cigarette cards as an embellishment and hand wrote the text that stood out to me "Don't forget me, will you?" I stitched some old buttons on to make a bunch of 'flowers'. To give it a more aged feel, I ruffed up the edges. That was fun! I loved doing this piece, its great when you feel totally free to just play with your creativity.

Old Postcards

I love browsing in charity shops! Kevin looks at books, because he obviously hasn't got enough to read (about 40 waiting!!) but I look for old buttons and postcards. I found this one in Oxfam in Stafford, and it has really captured my imagination. I love how a postcard gives you a snippet of someones life, and when the postcards are maybe 100 years old, it also tells you something about social history. This postcard from 1911 identifies one of the puppies by a x. Else says "My darling Walley, doesn't the puppy marked look like mine? Which one would you like? Don't forget me will you? from loving Else." Well I want to know what happened! Did Else ever see her beau again? Did Walley survive the forthcoming 1st world war? I've made up my own story about it all! What a drama. These old documents inspire me. I'm making a piece to celebrate the lives of Else and Walley, in their honour.