"Happy Birthday!" (without the cake)
A-Rae's Blog
HANDMADE IN CENTRAL NEW YORK
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
Friday, December 12, 2014
KALEIDOSCOPE FOR CHRISTMAS
For those of you whom enjoy a little DIY challenge/fun you'll love this!
Each Christmas I like to hand craft gifts for family and friends. This year I have made kaleidoscopes for the kids. Not that these wouldn't make great gifts for adults as well. If only I had the time to make that many. Overall these are quite simple to make.
I'm posting some pictures of the process. The pictures should give you a pretty good idea of how to tackle such a project.
Materials I used:
- Cardboard Tube 6" x 1.25"(check office supply store/or shipping store for a strong one of these, paper towel rolls would work but they're not nearly as strong)
- mod podge
- puffy paint
- 1inch mirror pieces (you'll have to do some measures and math to determine the amount needed)
- scrap book paper (anything decorative or you could paint the outside)
- poster board (cut the length of the tub and in strips as wide as
mirror pieces)
- glass circles (you'll have to get creative here unless you're used to
cutting glass as I am and have the tools)
- wooden circles (cut about 1/4" thick, with a small hole drilled into
center, and small enough to slide into tube)
Adhere wood pieces into one end of the tube with mod podge.
The best views are those using natural light. Let nature wow you through the viewer of your handmade kaleidoscope.
...........................................................................................................
As a separate project I've created these cute little boxes to store the Kaleidoscopes in.
These could be gifts on their own.
I held my phone camera up to the kaleidoscope to give you an idea of the pretty patterns you may see.
Each Christmas I like to hand craft gifts for family and friends. This year I have made kaleidoscopes for the kids. Not that these wouldn't make great gifts for adults as well. If only I had the time to make that many. Overall these are quite simple to make.
I'm posting some pictures of the process. The pictures should give you a pretty good idea of how to tackle such a project.
Materials I used:
- Cardboard Tube 6" x 1.25"(check office supply store/or shipping store for a strong one of these, paper towel rolls would work but they're not nearly as strong)
- mod podge
- puffy paint
- 1inch mirror pieces (you'll have to do some measures and math to determine the amount needed)
- scrap book paper (anything decorative or you could paint the outside)
- poster board (cut the length of the tub and in strips as wide as
mirror pieces)
- glass circles (you'll have to get creative here unless you're used to
cutting glass as I am and have the tools)
- wooden circles (cut about 1/4" thick, with a small hole drilled into
center, and small enough to slide into tube)
Cover the outside of the cardboard tubes with scrapbook paper and seal with mod podge. You could skip sealing the outside but I think they will last a lot longer if you do.
Seal the wooden circles with mod podge as well.
Adhere wood pieces into one end of the tube with mod podge.
Next get the mirrors ready.
I was not lucky enough to come by long skinny sheets of mirror.
The following is my improvisation in creating this.
First tape the individual pieces with duct tape. Then hot glue them to poster board strips.
Three strips of mirror are slid into a tube to create a triangle shape.
To keep it from rotating put a little glue along the end edges before sliding into place.
Once you have three stips of mirror in place top with a glass circle. I glued a little of scrapbook paper to the backs of the glass to hide the empty space around the mirrors. The clear glass is held in place with a little glue on the triangle plus a few skinny strips of paper just above the glass.
Seal the edges with the puffy paint.
The best views are those using natural light. Let nature wow you through the viewer of your handmade kaleidoscope.
...........................................................................................................
As a separate project I've created these cute little boxes to store the Kaleidoscopes in.
These could be gifts on their own.
Materials you'll need:
- Wood
- Glue
- Two nails
- Wood burner
- Wood conditioner (I use a beeswax/olive oil mixture)
- Clamps to hold things together while the glue dries
Hope this brings you inspiration.
"Happy Holidays!"
A-Rae
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Sunday, January 12, 2014
January 11th 2014
January 11th 2014
Happy New Year!
Within this new year I have been greeted by snow, sun and ice!
This past week I witnessed an iced damned river, a first for me. It was a prehistoric site of sorts. Then yesterday our temperatures rose and the river is flowing fast and large. One would expect spring to be approaching as we have gone from a white covered landscape to green again. Soon this will again change as we all know the snow will return to Central New York.
All of our bad weather days have given me the time to work some of my crafting magic. Here are a couple of my recently completed projects.
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Happy New Year!
Within this new year I have been greeted by snow, sun and ice!
This past week I witnessed an iced damned river, a first for me. It was a prehistoric site of sorts. Then yesterday our temperatures rose and the river is flowing fast and large. One would expect spring to be approaching as we have gone from a white covered landscape to green again. Soon this will again change as we all know the snow will return to Central New York.
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