Welcoming Summer Lanterns

Black glass ceramic applied by dabbing it through the self-adhesive foil stencil. Butterflies are painted with glass effect gel.

The paint must harden for 8-10 hours before placing the self-adhesive foil stencil on top. Otherwise you risk pulling off the glass frost frosted paint again. If you are in a hurry you may fix the glass frost frosted paint in the oven at 160 degrees for 30 minutes.

1. Measure and cover with masking tape.

2. Dab with glass frost frosted paint. Remove the masking tape. Allow to harden for 8-10 hours.

3. Place the self-adhesive foil stencil onto the glass and dab liberally with ceramic paint on a nearly dry foam stencil brush. Let it dry.

4. Use the self-adhesive foil stencils to paint butterflies with glass effect gel. Put the stencil back onto the backing paper and clean it carefully with water and a brush before using again.

5. glass effect gel is made weather resistant by fixing in the oven at 160 degrees for 40 minutes.

Eggs Wrapped in Felted Knitting

A plain-knitted square stitched together to form a tube with a fixed piece of string in both ends. Then put a plastic egg inside the tube and sew each end together with the egg inside. Then felt in the washing machine.

1. Plain-knitted squares: for the plastic egg measuring 6cm in diameter, cast on 14 stitches. Knit 40 rows  in plain knitting = 10cm. Cast off.

2. For the plastic egg measuring 4cm in diameter, cast on 8 stitches. Knit 30 rows in plain knitting = 8cm. Cast off.

3. Sew the short ends of the square together, forming a tube.

4. Tack a piece of wool at the top and a piece of wool at the bottom of the knitted tube. Put the egg inside the tube.

5. Pull both ends of the pieces of wool tacked at the top to close the tube in one end. Secure. Repeat this at the bottom of the tube.

6. To make a string for hanging, crochet 30 chain stitches for the small egg and 40 chain stitches for the large egg. Felt the egg in the washing machine at 60°. You may pull the egg into shape whilst it is still wet.

An example

This is a photo of eggs in bold colours prior to felting in the washing machine.

A Suede Bracelet

A bracelet plaited in suede cord with coconut buttons used as decoration and as a fastener.

1. Cut two pieces of suede cord; one measuring 70cm and one measuring 35cm. Double over the long piece of cord to make a loop. Glue the short cord underneath the loop. Tie a small piece of cord around and glue it onto the back.

2. Plait the three cords, keeping them flat.

3. Close in the same way as in the beginning. Cut off the two outer cords.

4. Glue or sew on a button at the end of the plaited bracelet for fastening with the loop.

5. Sew a large button in the middle of the bracelet.