Re-Purposed Spoon Cameo

Pick up a cheap spoon or two.. no need for the good ones since it will be covered by an image.

Flatten the spoon, I use a ball-peen hammer and for an anvil the head of an old awl.  Hammer until it is flat, flat, flat...

Place the Flattened spoon in a vise and remove all but about an 1”-1”1/4 of the handle (I use a dremel with a cutting wheel)

 While the spoon is still in the vise use pliers to bend the remaining handle towards the back of the spoon, making a loop for whatever you want to use to hang this from.

Find an image you like, (post cards work well) and trace the spoon then cut out the image. Glue the image to the spoon. I use mod podge, it loves paper and dries quick.

  Once the paper is dry use sandpaper to finish edges and also sand the image very lightly to give a worn effect. Next mix up a little acrylic paint.. for this one I used a little yellow, brown and red.. diluted it with a bit of water and painted over the image, you may want to dab (LIGHTLY) to remove any excess and get the effect you  like. I may then sand a little more/paint a little more until I am happy with the image.

  Finish with clear coat.(I use angus clear finish.. just what I have.. any you like will do) give it many coats so the image stays clear and safe.

Add something to hang this on your neck with and your done!

These are in various stages of finished.  The first only has the image glued onto the spoon, second has been sanded and painted, third just needs another coat of clear and the fourth is ready to wear.
Add your own ideas, questions are welcome and most importantly ...Have fun with this!

 Three more completed

The Musical Bench

The History of the Musical Bench (follow link for video)

 Mark and I sat on this bench at Maker Faire last year.. it was lovely...

This is my dream project.  I am working up to this... so far I have learned soldering and a little (insey) bit about circuitry.. one day I will make a similar bench. 

Blackberry Jam... Wolf Creek Style!

Today was creek monitoring day for Wolf Creek.  I picked up my testing kit at NID and drove to my beautiful site 6.. The trail was extremely over grown.. (mental note, next time bring a machete!)

 Met my site partner Gary at this amazing cool and shady spot and completed our testing

 

 and on the way out spotted this in the sunshine

 And that lead to this.....

 

 Which of course led to this...Came home scratched and with one tic crawling about.. ewwww... took a shower and cleaned the Blackberries I had picked

 I used Pectin this time and my friend BJ introduced me to Pomona's ( I usually rely on the natural pectin in fruit to gel) This stuff is great.  Mostly because it calls for FAR less sugar.
My Recipe:  4 cups crushed blackberries, 1/4 c lemon juice, 1 1/2 cups of sugar, follow the directions on the pectin package for processing.

Creating a Yarn Bomb with LED lights

This is my fifth yarn bomb and first with LED lighting .. I am including instructions on how to create the lighting effect.

 Back of where the flowers will be placed on Knitted strip... some of the ingredients.. Conductive Thread, LED's with leads bent, battery holder, coin cell battery.

 Crochet flowers sewn onto knitted strip

 Small piece of muslin sewn to back.. because sewing onto loose weave knitting sucks..

(there are two lights on one battery holder) Once the muslin is in place sew with conductive thread from the positive lead on one LED to the positive on the battery holder and then to the other positive lead on the second LED. Repeat same process for Negative leads and battery holder.

 Place battery in holder.. the "on and off" is just taking the battery out.. no need for a switch in this case for what I am doing with this... but a switch would be easy to add

 And they light up! To make the LED's easier to sew I bend the positive leads in a square pattern and the negative in a spiral.. then they don't get mixed up..(see the first picture and look closely at the LED's unattached)

 Lights in the dark...

 All six flowers lit up...

Publish Post

Lavender Dryer Bags

Lavender is out in abundance this time of year. It smells like heaven.  About a year ago I purchased some lavender dryer bags at Trader Joes.  Toss them in the dryer and all year your clothes, towels, sheets come out smelling like summer. Inspecting the bag I realized how easy it would be to make my own.

In this step by step I used Spanish Lavender, but the English is a far better choice and I have since made the bags with it.

They last through about a dozen washings and I keep some dried lavender in a canning jar for later in the year when lavender is not in bloom.

 Cut Muslin into 3X3 squares.. I used Pinking sheers so I didn't have to finish the edges...

Go Pick some lavender.. NOW .. It is in bloom all over.....

 Put about six or seven blooms in the middle of one of the squares ( or a good few tablespoons of dried)

 sorry, blurry... Place second square on top of the lavender and first square and pin.

 Sew closed...  Now they are ready  to toss in the dryer and tumble with your laundry!