The Bewitching Hour

Hi there - It's Jeanne here! I hope you all have been enjoying the tutorials we've been showing here on Joli Paquet. And what about those kits? WOW!  Well, today is my turn to show you how to create the fun little witch shown above. So let's get started. . . .
1.  The first thing you need to do is to click on the witch photo above to enlarge. Then right click to download the image and print it out on regular paper.
2.  Next you will need to cut the witch out. Refer to the photo above - do you see how I included part of the chair back that she is holding? This will be the handle to her broom so make sure you don't cut it off.

~ Click on photo to enlarge ~

3.  Now you will need to get yourself a tart pan (about 2.5" in diameter), a roll of crafting metal (I used Creative Metal by Walnut Hollow available at JoAnn Fabrics), a rusting kit (by Sophisticated Finishes available at Michaels) and a paint brush.

4.  Referring to the photo above, cut a piece of the metal slightly larger than the witch cut-out. NOTE: Cut the metal long enough so that there is about 1-inch extra at the bottom of the witch.

5.  Following the manufacturer's directions on the rusting kit, paint both the sheet of metal and the outside of the tart pan with a coat of the iron metallic surfacer (see photo 4 above). Let dry thoroughly. Then coat both the metal and tart pan with the rust antiquing surfacer (see photo 5 above). When dry and metal has rusted it's time to move on to the next step!

 

6.  Using a glue stick or your favorite adhesive, adhere the witch image to the back (non-rusted side) of the metal sheet. Position the witch so that there is at least 1-inch of metal below the witch.
7.  Using a dark brown ink pad, ink the edges of the witch as show in the photo above.
8.  Time to make the broom! Wrap raffia around a ruler about 10 times. Carefully slip the raffia off the ruler and tightly tie the top using black embroidery floss. Trim the raffia at the bottom to finish off the broom. Set aside.
9.  Select a gear from Tim Holtz Sprocket Gear set (available at Michaels). Glue a watch face on top of the gear. (I have a very limited amount of watch faces available in my Etsy Shop that can be used in this project.)
10.  Bend the excess metal at the bottom of witch back at a 90 degree angle so that witch will stand up. Hot glue witch to the tart pan turned upside down. 

11.  Glue watch face/sprocket to the bottom of witch's dress. Glue broom head to the bottom of the broom handle.
12.  Click on the text strip above to enlarge. Then right click to download the image and print it out on regular paper. Cut out text.
13.  Cut a strip of contrasting card stock slightly larger than the text strip. (Mine is 3.75" x .5") Trim ends in a "V" fashion to create a banner. (I used a Martha Stewart pre-made banner in gold available at WalMart)
14.  Attach text strip to banner using a glue stick.
15.  Finally, attach the banner to the witch using double stick foam tape.

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial and don't forget to check back here as the fun continues for two more weeks!

xo

Jeanne

Sweet Family Fun!

I wanted to quickly share this memorable moment with you. We had one of the best Valentine's Days 2 years ago. The kids and I planned a surprise Valentine's dinner for my  hubby. He works so hard and we wanted to show him how much we loved and appreciated him with a fun family dinner. I let the kids do a lot of the work. My son loves to cook and my daughter loves to decorate so they were off and running with a little help from me. We used things we already had around the house for the table. We played a "luv ya" bingo game with m&m's as markers. We went around the table and shared what was special about each person. It was a great night! My hubby loved it and the kids were so proud of themselves for doing a lot of the work. So make Valentine's Day a family affair by getting everyone involved!

There's only a few hours left to put your name in the hat for the "sweet give away"! I will be cutting comments off at 10pm CST. So if you haven't entered just leave a comment on the post below!

And tomorrow is our first tutorial by Tiffany! It is so cute, so be sure and come back tomorrow to see the tutorial and to find out who won the give away!

Hugs to you all!

Cindy

Crafting in the Kitchen ~ Part 2

Now here's a quick and easy project you can whip up in no time at all. This time of the year always makes me think of baking Christmas cookies with my mom and grandma. Well, once you are finished rolling out the cookie dough, you can make this cute little garland to use as a decoration for your kitchen or on your Christmas tree.

~ Supplies ~

* Cookie Cutters - These can be vintage cookie cutters or new ones. I bought this set of six vintage-looking cookie cutters at Homegoods for $7.99. I like to use an odd number of cookie cutters (I used 5 of them for my garland), but you can use as many as you like.

* 48"-54" of ribbon - I used 7/8" wide red gingham.

* Red & green buttons - larger buttons work best for this project. I used 3/4 " diameter buttons.

* Glue gun and glue sticks.

Fold ribbon in half and mark the center with a straight pin.
Figure out which cookie cutter you are going to use for the center of the garland. Thread the ribbon through one of the holes in the cookie cutter, starting from the front and going to the back of the cookie cutter. Then thread the ribbon up through the other hole, from back to front of cookie cutter. Center the cookie cutter on the ribbon by using the straight pin marker as a guide.
At this point, your garland should look like this.
Continue to string the cookie cutters on to the ribbon, spacing the cutters evenly along the ribbon.
Apply a dab of hot glue to the back of one of the buttons.

Center and glue the buttons to the ribbon midway between the cookie cutters. If you prefer, you can sew the buttons to the ribbon using needle and thread.

Tie a knot near the end of each ribbon.

Hang your garland on the Christmas tree, or the fireplace mantle, or from a small kitchen tree or wherever you want to add some holiday cheer! Don't forget to post a picture of your garland (and other projects) on the Joli Paquet Flickr site, so we can see all of your wonderful creations.

Don't forget to leave a comment on the post below to sign up for the GIVEAWAY.

Be sure to periodically check back here and on the artist's blogs listed on the left ~ you just never know when another Joli Paquet event may be happening again here in blogland!

xoxo

jeanne