Resin Flower Pendants

 

I have always wanted to try my hand at making resin flowers…so when I teamed up with WholePort, I knew it was my chance! 

I got this mold…very pretty and delicate.

I learned a lot about the resin process, mainly that there are a lot of variables when working with resin.  Seems that the heat, humidity and other unknown factors affect how (or if) the resin sets up. 

Here’s some of my first products…not great and not all of them hardened all the way, but some were useable.

But as I played with the resin more, things started turning out better!

I got 5 different molds from WholePort and used them all.

Another thing I did was when I had a dab of leftover resin I would just put it in a 30 ml medicine cup.  When the resin hardened, I cut the cup and pulled out the resin circle.  I got to thinking (ever had that happen?) about how that would make a good base for the flowers to make pendants.

So I got out my E6000 (also from WholePort) and glued contrasting flowers onto the resin circles!  And I loved the way it looked….

I glued bails to the backs of those circles and I had me some pendants.

I am just loving how they turned out. 

Very cute! 

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Package Pals~~What Melinda Sent~~

I got my package pals gift from Melinda in Australia today!  We got our packages on the same day which I thought was funny!

Vintage trims, a sheepish bag, pincushion and key fob pattern, hand written and drawn by Melinda…very sweet touch

and some maps of Australia with notes written by Melinda showing me where she lived…she is a nurse like me and so I was interested in seeing where she had worked on King Island.

This package was packed full of things…

like this sweet owl and flower necklace.

and this really cool vintage ship trim ribbon.  Very cool!

A sweet owl fridge magnet and a tiny, tiny purse with a tiny embroideried lady on a button on the side, trimmed in pearls and very sweet! 

This package was stuffed full of sweet things!

I just kept pulling little things out…

Sweet little fabric pouch…

and look at the tiny little embroideried rose on the tag of the pouch!

Then we have a tiny water color of violets in a planter…Melinda did this herself. I am looking for a tiny frame for it now.

but this is on the back of the painting…I like it too, but have to choose which one to frame!

And a paper bag full of vintage embroidery transfers.  I love these dancing sailors, how great would they look dancing across a white flour sack towel?

And..then there’s this…

Hmmm, it’s a book with handles, or is it??

No, it’s a silk lined purse!

with a pocket…

So very cute!

There was also a pearl wrap bracelet which I wore to work today.

And the whole gift was wrapped in the vintage fabric you see in the background here!  What a wonderful package pal gift!  I am so glad I decided to sign up for the international partner!

Thanks Melinda for such a thoughtful package!!  You clearly poured your heart into preparing it for me…I love all the personal touches!

I love the whole Package Pal concept!  Thanks to Jamie at C.R.A.F.T. and Julia at Stars and Sunshine for organizing all this!

You can see what I sent to Melinda here!

 

Package Pals~~What I sent~~

This is the first time my package pal didn’t have a blog or pinterest board or some way for me to get to know her…luckily Melinda sent me pictures and told me a lot about herself. She lives in Australia and is a nurse like me and seems we both like vintage and we had an instant connection. So I had an idea of what she liked…I hoped anyway!  So I made her a flower pin from felted/fulled wool.

Melinda has this thing for caravans…so I whipped up a pillow with a hopefully recognizeable caravan.  I almost decided to keep it myself but decided to send it off to Australia!

Actually I had fun making it…thought it turned out pretty cute!

I sent it with the flower pin,

some wool felt from my stash,

and a pink bunting made from a vintage sheet. 

I love the whole Package Pal concept!  Thanks to Jamie at C.R.A.F.T. and Julia at Stars and Sunshine for organizing all this!

The funny thing is that Melinda and I both got our packages in the mail the same day!  How unlikely is that??  I am working on a second post for the package Melinda made for me!  It was too awesome to include in the same post!

Wool Wrapped Trees

These little guys did not cost me one single penny to make!

I bought a box of various craft supplies at an auction for $1 and these paper mache trees were part of the deal.  I shoulda taken a before pic, but I didn’t…sorry bout that!

I cut 1.5 inch wide strips of wool from a green wool shirt that I found at the Salvation Army.  It had lots of holes in it so it was quite cheap. I washed it in hot water several times, so the wool was pretty thick.

I used hot glue and just spiraled the strips around upward.  Here you see my assistant stealing helping me show how the strips unroll from the neat bundles I had made.

Here the little thief assistant takes one of the strips and unrolls it completely.

Anyway, who needs extra strips…I only had five trees to cover!  You could use styrofoam trees instead of the paper mache ones, although the paper mache trees have some kind of weight in the bottom so they are difficult to knock over.  My clumsy pug assistant showed me proof of that.

And here the weasel assistant takes the last roll of wool…

But like I said, I don’t really need them anyway!

Stinker!

Love how they look on top of my quilt cabinet…

I may be linking to these great parties!