Happy Aboriginal Day!

It's a good day to be Indigenous...

NDN Kars - Keith Secola

Make your own stamp

so love this song

my new theme song with video!

Library by Cursor Miner.

"It's a lot better than watching TV."

"Librarians are often sexy!"

Lush extravaganza

So thanks to Lizard (gift card at Christmas/Yule), I went wild at Lush. Got a wonderful package of goodies on their new 9 Products for $25 promotion. See here: http://www.lush.ca/shop/hskt/

I figured its a good way for a newbie like me to try out their stuff. I've bought soap and bath bombs before but not all the wild creams and other things.

Thankfully the very helpful sales person gave me a little sheet to tell me how to use all these products. She did explain as we were going along chosing the items, but there is no way I would remember how to use all 9 of them!

I also got some Karma soap and the Honey Trap Lip Balm.

Oh boy, am I going to smell good!

Captured Faeries/Faery Jars

I saw these done in a few different ways around the internet & decided to give them a go at my daughter's 10th birthday party with a handful of 10 year old girls. It was a blast & I was able to use things I had on hand, or purchased at the dollar store & Value Village (a second hand thrift store.) I made one to test it out first & was quite confident the girls would be able to create some great work, & they did! I've been thinking that this could easily be adapted into an angel jar, maybe even with a holiday theme...

List of supplies:

~rose bowl or canning jar (even better with a rusty lid!) I got mine at Value Village for 69cents-$199 each.
~card stock
~small scrap of patterned paper
~a quick & clear drying, thick, white craft glue
~glue stick
~artist pigment powders or glitter craft paint
~butterfly rubber stamp & black ink or image of butterfly/drawn butterfly wings
(markers/crayons/paints whatever you have on hand to colour stamped image if using)
~image of a person from a magazine that is of an appropriate size to fit in your jar
(children & babies make nice faeries, little boys make good wood nymphs, fashion magazines have pics of women in some great faery type dresses etc.)
~moss or fake grass
~pine cones, acorns, twigs, bark, pebbles or other tidbits from nature
~scrap of sheer fabric or tulle
~assorted ribbons & fibers
~various trinkets, charms, beads, & found or repurposed objects to embellish
~glitter, sequins of assorted shapes, mini metallic confetti, etc
~small fake flowers
~rub on words & butterflies
~med sized artist's paintbrush with a longish handle & water for rinsing
~scissors
~gold or silver paint pen


Instructions:

If stamping your faery wings, do so with black ink on white card stock & set aside to dry. Trim your magazine image to within about a half of an inch & use the glue stick liberally to adhere it to card stock. Set aside to dry.

Squirt an ample amount of white craft glue into bottom of your jar, pop in moss or grass & use handle end of paintbrush to poke it all down til it's smooshed into the glue well. Tilt jar & squirt a nice amount of white glue onto the back of the inside of the jar & then spread it around with the paintbrush. Sprinkle pinches of glitter/confetti into the glue. Now put about a tablespoon of white glue on the back of the outside of the jar & smear in pigment powder with paintbrush or fingers. Work it in well covering the back of the jar & bringing it around to the front a bit at the bottom. Use a bit of water sprinkled on with your paintbrush to thin & spread the glue, adding a bit more if needed. (Alternatively, paint the back of the jar as stated but with craft glitter paint, or glitter mixed into craft clear topcoat or clear drying white glue.) Set Jar aside to dry.

Trim around the magazine image & colour your stamped butterfly, if using. Trim rubber stamped butterfly image/butterfly image, cutting it in half & trimming the body off so you are left with 2 wings. Use scrap of patterned paper to cut out a crown of the right size to fit your faery & embellish with glitter or mini rhinestones/sequins & ribbon. Adhere crown & wings to faery using a small amount of white glue.You may want to add glitter or sequin stars etc to your faery. Set aside to dry. Make a tag about 2 1/2 inches by 4 inches. You can age the look of the tag by rubbing the edges with an ink pad, or even crinkling it & then flattening it out. Add a saying to one side & if it's a gift, the 'to & from' can go on the other. I like this saying for faery jars: Believe in faeries because we believe in you! You may want to use a gold &/or silver paint pen to draw some swirls & dots in the front edges of the pigment powder/glitter paint on the outside of the jar.

Cut out tulle/fabric of a size to cover the top of your jar & hang over approximately 4 inches. The size you need varies on the type of jar & whether there is a lid to cover the fabric or if the fabric needs to be tied with ribbon/fibers. Just place the fabric over the jar & eyeball it. If you are adding rub on words & butterflies, put them on your jar now. Place a thick bead of glue along the bottom edge of your faery & slide it into place in the jar, pushing it into the moss/grass & propping it up with the paintbrush handle for a moment to dry a bit if needed. Decide what bits of nature & embellishments need to go into the jar to round out your faery's environment. Put a dab of glue on the bottom of each of the embellishments, one at a time, drop into the jar & use the handle end of the paintbrush to scootch them into place & press them down for a moment.

Cut a length of ribbon to tie around your jar with extra to dangle. Put fabric over jar & place lid over or tie with ribbon. Wrap lots of different fibers & ribbons around the lid or jar, & dangle the tag, charms, beads, trinkets etc at different lengths. Gather the knots to the same spot to the side & glue a large sequin, charm, or button over them. Tuck a couple of small fake flowers behind the knots. Finis!

Feel free to adapt to what you have on hand, can salvage from your kid's craft stuff, repurposed items from the dollar & thrift store & even items found on the ground! Grab a group of girls (boys can always make wood sprites, tree nymphs, forest trolls, or even little devils heehee!) If doing this with children, plan ahead & do some prep work (like gathering assorted images of people from magazines, stamping out your butterflies on card stock, cutting out the tags, making sure you have multiples of tools needed, etc) This would be a great activity to use items gathered on a nature walk, or it could even be adapted to goddess jars & done as a more spiritual activity with your adult girlfriends. Let your imagination go with this one, it's hard to mess up LOL

Happy Creating
Jackie

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