Autumn Leaves

Feeling inspired by the change of season so motivated to make something "pretty". I came across some pictures made by melting wax crayons which gave me a germ of an idea.

• A piece of blue mountboard ( about A4 size)
• Some cheap wax crayons
• Some brown paper
• Distressing ink
• Paper leaves
• conkers ( horse chestnut seeds)

Also need glue gun and a hairdryer.

First cut a tree shape from the brown paper. This is actually textured but you can't see that very well. Stick firmly to the mountboard and trim off the excess at the bottom if necessary.

Next I selected all the greens, browns and yellows from my packet of wax crayons and after removing the paper sleeves hot glued them to the bottom of the paper.





The next stage which I forgot to photograph ( it was a bit stressful!) was to turn the paper upside down so that the wax crayons were hanging down. Using the hairdryer  I melted the wax so it all ran together and down the paper. The crayons melted very suddenly and became much more funny than I expected so the effect was not what I had pictured in my mind but no matter.

The leaves are die cut form brown paper by a kind friend who has one of those clever machines. If you don't have paper leaves there is no reason why you couldn't use real ones.






I sponged then first with diluted distressing ink ( strong black coffee would also work fine) and then marked in the veins with undiluted in. The wetness of the ink causes them to curl up a bit which gave a very pleasing effect.

Finally I stuck on the leaves and the conkers  randomly with more hot glue and left to dry.












As a first attempt I am quite pleased with it - it wasn't what I was setting out to do, mainly because the wax melted much faster than I'd anticipated and was blown about by the hairdryer.

Next time I'd use a lower heat setting and make sure the blower was set to a minimum as the liquid wax was blown sideways rather than just running straight as I'd expected.

So Summer is over...

...and Autumn begins.  Although I'm not sure we have actually had a summer this year at least in the UK.

However be that as it may,  Happy Equinox to all those who celebrate it. I'm working on an expermental  seasonal craft project and will post some pictures if it turns out OK!

Apple Carving

It's looking like a very good year for apples. My poor Bramley has partially collapsed under the weight of the crop.

We've lost at least a third of the tree and I think it is now on its last few seasons given the spectacular bracket fungus growths that it also produces each autumn. I shall be very sorry to see it go, it is very old and a superb cropper ( ironic!)


The broken branches are loaded with very underripe apples which are not really cookable. An experiment with stewing them took a very long time and an awful lot of sugar...

 Most will be composted but I saved a couple to try some apple carving as suggested by some friends on a cross stitch board.

 

So this is it after the carving. It's been soaked in acidulated water ( water and white vinegar) to stop it going brown and now just needs to dry out in a warm place.

Anyone have any ideas on what else I can do with them?


That is the Four Thieves vinegar in the background. Still looks horrible and I haven't dared open it to see if it still smalls bad. Another 2/3 weeks before that is ready for bottling.

Too much of a good thing!

Being an inveterate magpie I have a habit of picking up interesting “bits and pieces” during my wanderings and have managed to acquire a rather large collection of rocks and pebbles over the years – there is definitely a limit to how many boxes of them can be considered reasonable and I have now exceeded that ( and then some!).

So what to do with them? A friend on another forum said she was going to buy a “stepping stone” kit to make something for her garden. This sparked the idea.

Having never seen a stepping stone kit in the UK, I was obviously going to have to start from scratch. A check of the garage revealed that there was no concrete lurking deep in its depths so a trip to the builder’s merchant was required for the basic cement/aggregate mix and some sand.

Having got them home I then used a soil sieve to remove the larger pebbles from the concrete mix.

Next was a mould – I used an old sweet tin, one that had previously held wrapped chocolates and because it had a “lip” at the top I lined it with cardboard so I’d be able to get the stepping stone out. A completely smooth interior would be better but I couldn’t find anything suitable and I certainly wasn’t going to pay for a commercial mould.

Once a couple of inches of concrete had been poured into the mould I was able to concentrate on the fun bit – making the design. I chose a sun wheel motif for this one. If you use quick drying concrete you’d need to have this pre-planned and ready to go but as I was using the traditional mix I had plenty of time to keep changing my mind.

You need to push the stones well in to ensure that they stick but not so far that they disappear.

The whole thing was allowed to set for a couple of days before unmolding. I was really pleased with the way it turned out and it is now the basis of an outdoor shrine in the back garden.

I’ve still got a huge number of stones to find a use for so all ideas are welcome.