• Projects

    Decorative Fused Plastic Leaves

    This project is one which has evolved out of my recent experiments with fused plastic. It’s a way of recycling old crayons and plastic bags creatively and I love the finished ‘leaf-like’ feel of these. The finished leaves can be used for a wide range of purposes, or alternatively you could cut the fused plastic sheets up into any shape you like.   Materials Plain white plastic bags – or bags with large areas of white that can be used. Roll of Cling film Old wax crayons Metallic Gold Ink Pen Baking parchment Equipment Old kitchen grater Domestic iron Pinking Shears Heat Proof board (I used a toughened glass chopping…

  • Autumn,  Nature

    Doodled & Decorative Autumn Leaves

    It’s been a while since I last used autumn leaves for a project – a few years ago I did a project here in which I laminated them to use as suncatchers, and since then I have seen people using leaves for drawing on, and always thought they looked beautiful. However I was never sure what you would do with them afterwards – it seemed the most ephemeral of activities. So this project basically combines the 2 ideas to create something a little more lasting: greetings cards and Christmas tree ornaments. I used gold marker pen to draw the designs onto the leaves – as you can see, the effect…

  • Projects

    Confetti Shakers

    I have to confess, that I wasn’t sure what to call these – they’re not quite sun-catchers, and not really snow-globes, so I decided on Confetti Shakers in the absence of any other ideas. These were born when I accidentally discovered, in one of those ‘Eureka’ moments that you have now and then, that the lid of a Pringles tube, fits exactly onto the lid of a tub of cottage cheese from Tesco (I think other products have the same lids too, mine just happened to be cottage cheese!) My mind of course ran riot with potential ideas of how I could use this discovery (you can see I lead…

  • Autumn-Leaf-Suncatcher
    Autumn,  Nature,  Outdoor,  Projects,  Seasonal

    Last of the Autumn Leaves

    They say the Autumn colours have been better than ever this year.  I live in an area with lots of tree-lined avenues, and the sight of the gorgeous colours, particularly when the sun is on them, has found me collecting stacks of leaves with the kids.  Having got them all home I then had to decide what we were going to do with them all, so here’s what we did with some of them.  You do need a laminator for these activities I’m afraid, but if you don’t have one, they’re not expensive and come in very useful for all kinds of things – not to mention art and craft…