Crochet Baubles

One of the things I spent lockdown (the first one...) doing is building up my stock of these crocheted baubles. 

I had bought a big box of red and white baubles in the January sales from Poundstretcher which were perfect for these decorations.

The first stage was to paint the baubles a base colour so the original colour wouldn't show through any gaps in the crochet.

As you know, my Mum is the crochet wizard, not me, so during a doorstep drop off of some groceries to my parents I handed over a box of painted baubles with drawings of extra pieces I needed like ears and scarves. Then a couple of weeks later I picked them up; all crocheted and ready to decorate. Probably in exchange for some bread flour or yeast that I'd managed to get hold of.

Most of my designs were straight up Christmassy - Rudolph, Christmas pudding, Elf etc - but I also tried some other things like these animals. They were all made by cutting out felt pieces which I sewed to the wool.

My favourite design is this BB8. It took a lot longer than the others but I think it looks awesome. I must try making a Yoda next...

Crochet Unicorn Ornament

It doesn't look like the unicorn trend is going away any time soon so I'm fully embracing it with my craft fair offerings. I have unicorn hairbands, unicorn pencil toppers, unicorn toys and now unicorn baubles.

When my Mum was crocheting the baubles for my Mickey Mouse ornaments I asked her to do a few white ones.

I made the horn and ears out of felt which I sewed to the wool.

I used some little fabric flowers to embellish the unicorns and added the eye lashes with black embroidery thread.

Painted Baubles

I started painting baubles when I was at uni and every couple of years I add a new bunch to my stock. They're a good item to have on my craft stalls as they draw people's attention. They usually can't believe that I painted them.

I usually work on at lest two baubles at a time so a layer of paint can be drying on one while I work on the other. I pop on a podcast (usually This American Life) and flick between the internet tabs I have open of images found by googling something like 'winter scene'.

I use acrylic paint on plastic baubles. I've found matt, silver ones are best as they're the closest to a white blank canvas, and the paint sticks better to matt plastic rather than shiny.

Elf Baubles

It's another Christmas one folks, and another chance for me to use up some of my Christmas coloured felt.

How cute is this Christmas elf bauble?? That's right, it's a bauble, not an egg, as a few of my family members have thought.

To make it I painted a bauble skin colour and stuck on some card ears.

I sewed the little felt hats and added a pom pom, which is wear the thread for hanging comes out. I painted on the face with a tiny brush and then they were done.

Once I'd figured out the pattern for the hats they were really quick to make, so I could see myself making a whole bunch.  

Crochet Baubles

I recently saw some knitted baubles online and wondered if my Mum could crochet something similar.

Of course she can, she's a crocheting magician!

She just crocheted around a plastic bauble. Half way through it looked like the bauble had a little beanie hat. Then when she was done I added the stars for some bling. 

My Mum also tried some more lacy designed so the colour of the bauble showed through. Which style do you prefer?

Miniature Winter Tree

My Mum got a pair of socks in a plastic bauble for Christmas and I got to have the bauble. I actually got the socks as well because my Mum has the feet of a child.

The bauble opens in two halves which is perfect for putting a miniature something in.

After much thought I settled on trying a simple white winter tree to put inside.

 The tree started as lots of pieces of wire twisted together to make the trunk and branches.

Then I covered wire in Sculpey, baked it, then added a bit more Sculpey in places, and baked again.

The Sculpey right on the ends of the branches was a bit fragile so to fix a few broken twigs I used a technique I learned last year on my Scale Model Making course.

Apply super glue to the join and sprinkle baking powder on it. The glue will dry almost instantaneously and will be bulked out by the now hard powder. This can be sanded down if needed.

I painted the whole thing with white acrylic paint and added glitter.

I may have gone a bit too crazy with the glitter.

Then I stuck the tree over the edge of one half of the bauble using my trusty E6000 and added more glitter around the base.

Now that I now this sort of thing works I can start thinking of other miniature things to put inside. Any suggestions?

Christmas Pudding Baubles

Here are some more Christmas decorations I've been working on.

Christmas pudding baubles!

These are a fun alternative to the winter scenes I usually paint on baubles.

First I painted the whole thing brown. Once that had tried I painted the white for the icing.

Then I covered the icing in glitter. I used clear glitter that on mass looks white.

I painted the top part red for the holly berry and stuck on some holly leaves made out of painted green card.

Really simple but really fun.

These ones I made have already sold at the Letchworth Arts Centre's Christmas Craft Fair. I may have to make some more!

Movie Quote Ornaments

For fun I decided to make these Christmas movie quote baubles. Or Christmas moments in a movie, in the case of Mean Girls.

Firstly, writing with paint and a paint brush is hard y'all! Especially when it's on a rounded surface.

But I did my best.

I'm not even sure this quote is in Home Alone, it might just be, "keep the change, ya filthy animal", but some store had made a jumper with the Christmas version on so if it was good enough for them, I'd go with it.

Starbucks have started selling candy canes at the counter and when me and my friends saw them we came out with this quote from Mean Girls. Then a little while later when we were sat down we heard some girls do the same thing!

I painted some candy canes on the sides of this bauble, but you can't really see them in the photos.

This one is my favourite. I'm really happy with the way I painted the letters.

And I love the film Elf, and I do come out with this quote whenever someone mentions Santa.

What are your favourite quotes from Christmas movies?

Painted Christmas Baubles

I've been continuing to increase my stocks ready for some up coming craft fairs, which includes painting some more baubles.

I started doing this one year at uni and sold a few at that time.

I even had some on sale at my local hair salon, and did a set of commissioned baubles.

Last January I bought a tube of silver baubles, which were on sale of course, ready to be painted this season. 

This time around I did a lot of snow covered fir trees.

The trees are really easy to paint using a small flat paintbrush.

I hope people like them and buy them!

Bauble necklace

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas, or other winter based celebration of course.

The Christmas festivities (or Christmastivities as I like to call them) continue here so I made a necklace to add some Christmas to my outfit.  

It's made of mini-baubles!! So cute.

Hand painted baubles

This set of 3 hand painted baubles was a commission for a friend of my Mum's.

They depict three different views of Lake Tekapo in New Zealand.

3 for £10. Not bad at all. 

Christmas baubles

Interested in some less traditional Christmas baubles? Then check these out.

This knitting needles and ball of wool bauble from craftster is so clever.

I love these ice cream baubles from the Naughty Secretary Club

And what's not to like about buttons in a bauble! From Polkadots are Love.

Yay Christmas.

Everything looks better in Gold and Green

December 1st means I can legitimately talk about Christmas!

I can listen to my new Sugarland album Gold and Green

I can tell you about my hand painted baubles

(available to buy at the Barn Hair Studio if you're in the area)

And I can go sledging! Ok, I did this yesterday, but it felt festive.