Robot Pen/Pencil Holder - Helmar Creative Team

Hubby got me a pen/pencil holder with dividers in it from the clearance section at Officeworks years ago, it had marks on it and he thought I would like to alter it but I couldn't decide on how I wanted to alter it until now, so I grabbed it out and some old thin robot scrapbooking paper I got from Spotlight several years ago and set to work.  Yay for stash busting ;)

I started by trimming 2 piece of my paper to fit.

I then ran some Helmar Acid Free Glue around the edge of one side of the pen holder and a squiggle in the middle, then spread it out with a foam brush and applied the middle of my paper to the side, Helmar Glue gives me the wiggle room needed to get a precise line up of paper to the edge and time to smooth things out.  Once I had the middle piece right I glued down the side pieces to the sides of the pen holder.

I repeated this with my other piece of paper.  I love that on one side the robots aligned perfectly and the other side it was so close that my only issue was having 2 blue together.

You could stop here but I didn't want to have 2 blue robots together so I went through my stash and found a robot die cut or sticker to adhere over the second blue robot. 

I decided to add some navy blue ribbon from my stash to the top and bottom edge of the pen holder using Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive to get a strong hold on the paper, unfortunately my hand wasn't steady so I got some where I shouldn't but mistakes are just a embellishment away from being awesome.

I then started adding stars from my stash randomly over the pen holder so my robot covering the extra blue robot felt like he belonged and to cover some of my wibbly wobbly glue mistakes, then I just randomised to make it feel natural..
I adhered the die cut stars down with Helmar Acid Free glue.
I adhered the resin and sewing patch stars down with Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive.

Apart from the resin and sewing patch stars everything is flat so the pen/pencil holder can sit on it's side for pens that need to be kept that way.
I love how it turned out, now to work out who gets it on their desk.  :)

 It even works as a book end ;)

Upcycled box Fireplace and Pool Noodle Centrepiece - Helmar Creative Team

I hope you are having a great Christmas Eve.  Today I have 2 Christmas Decor projects to share with you.  But first I wanted to start by sharing how I came to be creating my project.
I originally started created the word MERRY from large wooden letters that I was decorating with various papers and embellishments, I was in the middle of my first letter when I thought to myself this decoration really needs to be on a mantel but I don't have a mantel.  So I decided to make a box fireplace.  There are so many versions of this on the internet but I wanted to make one that was kinder to the environment and stronger thanks to using Helmar wherever possible.

So I collected 6 identical wine boxes and 2 laptop identical laptop boxes and assorted non-recyclable clean plastic rubbish and foam packaging that was't recyclable to fill the boxes to give them stability and strength, I sealed the boxes with packing tape, this was the only time I used tape in this project.
I set to work constructing my Fireplace.   I glued my boxes together with Helmar Hobby & Craft Glue at first but later switched to Helmar Premium Craft Glue as I thought it would give more strength and it definitely worked better when I experimented to add texture with fibreglass tape.


I created my base by cutting down a box from a fan and adhering my fireplace to it with Helmar Premium Craft Glue.  I also cut multiple strips from the fan box to use for adding details to the fireplace.
I stacked some boxes of books on top while it was drying to ensure enough pressure was applied to both sides while the glue dried.  And I was hoping it would help my laptop boxes straighten out as they were a little warped.

I added a back to the fireplace and then I added details to the front with the strips I cut from the fan box earlier.










I decided to try covering my fireplace in crushed packing paper and then a coat of beige paint to give it what I hoped would be a rendered look.
When adding the paper I found it best to work in small sections to ensure the details came through.
I used Helmar Premium Craft Glue where the packing tape was to ensure a strong hold.  Adding the glue then applying the paper here first.
Then I used my Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA for the parts that didn't have tape on.  Again working in each detail section at a time.

Once these front sections were covered I applied the paper to the sides and inside as far as it would go.

Now it is ready to be painted.

I was hoping my sample pot would be enough to give me a good coating but still allow my details to show through and that the overall effect would be a rendered look.   However I ran out of paint after 1 coat and my back was not happy so I decided to love it the way it is.
Here is a close up of the top.  What do you think?  Did I get a rendered look?







During one of the breaks I took while making the Fireplace  I saw a post about creating a pool noodle table centrepiece in a Mum's group and there were so many Mum's who had burnt themselves using hot glue to create this, I knew I had to make one with Helmar so people would know they could avoid the burns by using Helmar for projects like this.
I wanted to be as environmentally friendly as I could be by using old/damaged decorations a friend gave me and a damaged pool noodle.  I wound up buying the green pine tinsel on sale for 50% off and some extra red and gold decorations as there wasn't quiet enough in the box my friend gave me but I tried to keep my environmental footprint for this as small as possible so I only bought what I needed.


I first experimented with doing a all gold one just to see if it would work.  I looped the tinsel garland and bead garland and applied Helmar Premium Craft Glue in sections to add these garlands to my pool noodle.  This was a great way to get it on quickly.  I would wind up removing this before it was dry so I could instead use green pine type tinsel garland and a mix of red and gold decorations.






So the LED candles could easily be turned on and off and fit where they needed to go easily I cut the packaging they came in into 3 and added it onto my pool noodle where I wanted them to be with Helmar Premium Craft Glue. 

I added some of the gold bead garland to the candle packaging as it is clear and I needed to hide the pool noodle when the candle is in it.
I then started adhering the green pine tinsel around the bottom and cutting some pieces off the end to fill in the top between the candles.

I then started adding decorations, just adding them where I thought they looked best and keeping in mind when putting them near where the candles would go that they should help provide stability and support to the candle packaging.
When adhering each decoration I would put some Helmar Premium Craft Glue to the parts that would be touching something else, I would hold whatever it was touching together until dry, whether that was the tinsel and another decoration or 3 decorations.

I used Helmar Premium Craft Glue for the entire pool noodle decoration.  It has been great for this project.  This was my first experiment creating anything like this and next time I will experiment with Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive as I think this will give me a even better hold.

And here is the finished Fireplace and Pool Noodle decoration all set up with LED candles and LED wire lights ready for our Christmas celebrations.  I love how they turned out.

3 layouts in my Childhood Christmas Memories mini - Helmar Creative Team

Last year I started creating a Childhood Christmas Memories mini by altering a Little Golden Book that I think is one I had as a child for the December 2017 YouTube Hop.

Before I get into how I created the layouts I did for this post I just want to explain how this project came to be, I cover this in the YouTube Hop video but I will cover it here too.  I only have one Christmas photo of myself as a child.  Like most 80's kids not many photos were taken but I have even less now than what I had a few years ago as my Mum unfortunately did some odd things before her stroke including throwing out photo albums, she had been reluctant to part with photos as she liked to treasure them all so a lot of irreplaceable photos were lost when this happened.  I mention this as it is so important we scan those precious photos relatives have so we all have a copy and right now with the bush fires in Qld last week it reminded me that I need to scan all the photos I myself have that were taken before I had a digital camera and only exist in my albums or in boxes awaiting scrapbooking.  I did start scanning a few years ago but the hard drive I was using at the time was borrowed and lost before I could back it up, so I need to start the task again and save as I go to 2 places to ensure that work isn't lost again.

Back to this project.  As a scrapper I record so much and I found myself thinking that I would love to record my childhood memories, I reached out to the group for my Primary School to see if anyone had photos of me for just general childhood scrapping, I reached out to my Mum's best friend for her memories of me and our families holidaying together but Christmas there was no one with photos and I knew it so I Google Image searched the locations that we celebrated Christmas at during my pre-teen and teen years and I tried searching for the distinct tree we had when I was little and the decorations we had and I actually found 1 photo of the tree, I was so excited.  It is a close up and you can't see much but it meant I could scrap that tree.

When I got my album out from storage I thought I had forgotten to glue the pages together so I started by gluing the pages together with Helmar Acid Free Glue to give a stronger background page.  I would realise after doing 2 layouts that this was a mistake and I had left just enough pages in the book so I would wind up needing to add a page, I will show you how I did this later in the post.  

So the first page I worked on for this post was for the tree, I was going to do a double page spread with the decorations on the other side but I forgot that when I printed the photos last year I printed them too big so I will save doing that page for another post.

I wanted to bring the feel of the tree into the rest of the page, the tree was blue and green foil so I grabbed out what I thought were lovely shimmery paint samples that I got in a mystery box from Dusty Attic back in October to add to some texture paste, they were actually some gorgeous shimmery mica powder.
I used a Tim Holtz stencil to stencil poinsettias onto the page with my lovely shimmery texture paste.  I let the 2 colours blend together through the stencil and I love the results.

When doing another layout I would decide to add the lace Christmas Tree from Scrapping Fun Kits November 2017 Aussie Christmas Kit which I coloured with the mica powders and some water to the finished layout using Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive.

I backed the photo with some teal cardstock from my stash and adhered it with Helmar Acid Free Glue.  I added some stickers from my stash.  I titled the page TREE at Mt Waverly and called this page done.  I do want to add some journaling but I think I will incorporate that into the opposite page that will have the decorations on it. 

The next layout I worked on was my Carols by Candlelight spread.

I started by adhering some red foil tissue paper across the 2 pages with Helmar Acid Free Glue.  I then matted my photos with some red cardstock and built my spread with some paper scraps and stickers from my stash.  Adding a journal tag with memories of watching Carols by Candlelight on TV with my family.

It was after I did my Carols by Candlelight spread that I realised I needed a extra page and that it should go between my Tree page and this spread as it was our celebrations in Sorrento when we would watch Carols on TV, so I was happy I hadn't been able to do the right side of my Tree spread as I could add a page here.

I cut some one sided paper down to 6 1/2 inches x 8 inches and scored it on 1 side so the finished page would be 6x8 which is the measurement of the pages of my book.  I then applied Helmar Acid Free Glue to the 1/2 inch section and added it to the edge of the page.

I chose a paper that would suit my decoration photos but I plan to pull it together by repeating the stencilling on this page once I have smaller photos.

Now I could create my Sorrento layout.
I decided to keep the 4x6 photo size for this layout as I wanted to have that gorgeous visual of Sorrento Back Beach so I created a 2 photo waterfall on my added page.  The space behind my front photo will be perfect for adding journaling to as I come up with suitable wording for detailing these memories.

This is the first time I have created a Waterfall with Helmar Acid Free Glue and it is definitely a far better way to do create it as you have some wiggle to get it perfect which is much harder to do with tape.

I also included a photo of Portsea taken from in the water as often when we were at my relatives at Sorrento we would go to Portsea for a swim and I would look back at the Portsea Life Saving Club while swimming in the beach.

I used papers and stickers from the Scrapping Fun Kits November 2017 Aussie Christmas Kit to build my layers and decorate.  I needed things to be as flat as possible so these were perfect for this.












For my title I cut down a piece of Memorymaze chipboard to being just a gumleaf and gumnut and the word Christmas and coloured it by spraying it with a blue ink spray, I then added the blue mica powder to the wet chipboard.
I then realised the leaf should be green and the gumnut should be brown so I added the green mica powder to the leaf and some gold and then brown ink spray to the gumnut.  It gave it a Christmas decoration feel and I love it.  I adhered the chipboard piece with Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive to ensure it had a strong hold.
I finished my title with some alphas from my stash and added a small amount of journaling to my righthand page.

I love how these pages have turned out and because I have used Helmar I know they will last.

If you are missing photos for some memories you want to record maybe try doing some Google Image searches for places or things you associate with the memory and create a album about your memories.

Dr Who Celebrations - Weeping Angel Doll Decoration - Helmar Creative Team

I decided earlier this year to create more fun in our lives.  At first I thought about doing themed days for their educational, cultural and awareness raising value, I also realised making the decorations and food could be great for fine motor skill and sensory activities for myself and the boys.
With this in mind I have been trying to think of themed things we could do and Dr Who is just perfect for this need, and we could get 3 days out of it.  Dr Who Day could be the season premiere, the anniversary aka my Granddaughter's birthday and Boxing Day (our favourite Dr Who Day each year).  So I picked out a few ideas that would be things myself or the boys could do and one thing I have wanted for a long time is a Weeping Angel decoration so I decided to make a Weeping Angel decoration that could either stand on the table or be a tree topper.
I found a few tutorials online for converting a barbie into a Weeping Angel and I asked my friend that lives in the town that has my closest Kmart to pick up one of their $4 barbies for me when he was next in Kmart, as I couldn't get to the op-shop at the time.  About a hour later he sent me pics so I could choose one.
All the tutorials either melted the elbows and wrists or used hot glue, I didn't want to melt plastic as this releases toxic chemicals into the environment and I prefer using Helmar glues over hot glue as I tend to get glue all over me when I craft and Helmar doesn't burn.  So I planned out what glues I would try for which part and set to work once my friend dropped off my $4 knock off barbie.

Items needs
Cheap barbie type doll
Craft Foam
Gauze
Thin ribbon scraps
Pewter Spray Paint
Sheet of cardstock
Helmar Fabric Glue
Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive
Helmar Foam Glue
Stanley Knife
Cutting mat
Scissors
Embossing stylus
Marker for drawing your wing outline.

I decided to try using the doll's hair to create the Angel's hair instead of the method used in all the tutorials and absolutely love the finished look, it was certainly much easier than the other method.
I simply put her hair into a ponytail at the right spot on her head (her original style was too high), then I wound the hair around into a bun shape and gluing with fabric glue as I went.  I finished it off by trimming the hair and using fabric glue to kind of seal the shape where it was trimmed.  I thought that once it was painted you wouldn't be able to tell.
I finished it off by adding a skinny ribbon around her head with Helmar Fabric Glue.

Now for the arms I simply cut them at the elbow with a stanley knife and glued them at a right angle using Quick Dry 450, as the edges don't meet very well I let it have a long drying time and then used some polymer clay to fill in gaps and sort of stabilise the joint.
I didn't need to do anything to the wrists as the plastic is a soft plastic so her wrists and fingers were bendy and a small amount of glue where the fingers need to attach was all that was needed.

For the dress I started by making a cardstock cone, I simply wrapped some cardstock around at her waist into a cone shape, glued it at the seam with Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive as that is what was on my desk and open.  And then trimmed the base of the cardstock level with her feet.
I then cut some white tulle and cut head and arm slits in it.  Put this over her and tied some ribbon around her waist.  I added in sections of tulle to cover her cardstock base.
I eventually realised that because I had bought Pewter Paint not Stone or Granite the tulle would show as tulle so after putting her wings on I added some gauze by selectively gluing pieces over her and then tieing another skinny ribbon around her waist.

For the wings I used some 1mm white craft foam.  I cut a rough angel win shape and drew in the feathers on both sides with a embossing stylus. 
I also cut 2 small bits for the tops of the wings.  I glued these onto the base with Helmar Foam Glue, and let dry.
I attached the wings to the doll with Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive.

I took her outside and spray painted her with the Pewter Paint, taking her upstairs to dry on the railing of my back landing.
















I love how she turned out and because I used Helmar I know she will last.

Check out how cool she looked on my Dr Who themed table.

Upcycled Paper Clay and Paper Mache decorations and scrapbooking embellishments

 I was inspired by Farrel's DIY plane embellishment she created with Helmar glue and a silicone mould to try making my own embellishments with silicone molds.  I wanted to make someone archival so I used archival paper scraps and Helmar Acid Free Glue to make my embellishments.
I simply tore my paper scraps up and soaked them in water overnight.  I then pulped them with a blender.  Squeeze as much liquid out of the pulp that you can.  Then add Helmar Acid Free Glue to your pulp until you have a clay consistency.

Place you clay into your mold and allow to dry.  I hit it with the heat gun for about 10 minutes and then left it over night.

I then painted my embellishments.  I coloued the Jack 'O' Lantern's eyes, mouth and nose with a fine detail brush and black ink spray.  I used a normal brush to pain the main areas and to dry brush details were needed with some Vicki Boutin and Dyan Wakely paints.  I got some black ink mixed into my yellow paint when painting my moon and stars and I love the effect, the feel more Halloweenish.






I used Helmar Premium Craft Glue to add some bakers twine from the October 2017 kit from Scrapping Fun Kits as the handle of the Trick or Treat bag.












Now my paper clay embellishments are ready to use when recording my memories or when making decorations for Halloween.  Hmm I might make a banner with these cuties.


Since I had some paper clay left over and inspired by a post I saw on Pinterest I decided to make a paper mache pumpkin stack.   I felt this could be a great way to use those single use plastic bags that have now been banned where I live but many of us have a heap of and any other non-recyclable soft plastic.  So I stuffed my bags with single use plastic bags and any packaging that wasn't recyclable but was soft and clean.
I wound some washi around each bag to get the desired shape and then set to work applying paper mache to each pumpkin.
The top pumpkin was small enough to do on my desk so here is a video of how I did each pumpkin.

I used a assortment of Helmar white glues as I was towards the end or each bottle so it was a great way to use them up.   Glues I used to apply my paper were Helmar Decoupage & Craft Glue, Helmar Tacky Glue and Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA.  I added 1 part water to 4 parts glue.
Due to limited space to craft I had to do each pumpkin individually and wait for them to dry between each layer so this made this project much more time consuming than if I could do 1 coat on all of them, let that dry and repeat.  So the time it took me is not a good gauge of how long this project will take.

I planned to not use a pole/pipe in the middle but I found a scrap piece of PVC pipe from my son's Physics assignment and used it to make the stack a stronger stack.  I decided to seal each pumpking top.  First I tried tape and then I grabbed my Helmar Premium Craft Glue and ran it round where the paper mache and pip meet, adding scraps to fill in gaps if needed.

I needed to make a 4th pumpkin as once I squished the pumpkins down a little and sealed with the Helmar Premium Craft Glue there was extra pipe left to cover.    This is the one that is in the above video.
Once the 4th pumpkin was on I used my left over paper clay to make the stalk.  I left this to dry for 48 hours before painting.

The boys and I spent a day applying coats of orange paint to our pumpkin stack.

Once it had a good coat of orange on it I applied watered down brown paint in small sections and then wiped off the paint before it dried.  This helps add detail to the pumpkins.  I also painted the stalk brown.

I love how my pumpkin stack turned out.  I love that it is much more environmentally friendly than anything I could buy.

And I just had to make a cute Banner with my paper clay embellishments.   A blog post and process video for making the banner will be up on my blog and YouTube channel shortly.

So why not save any clean soft plastic you have that is not recyclable and use it to make a paper mache decoration.  Great for the budget and the environment, so a win win.

Halloween Upcycled Mini Album - CraftOnline Creative Team

While I was experimenting with my Distress Oxides the The Stickmaster Heat Resistant Tape was there on the back of my desk and I was inspired to put what I was doing away and instead create a mini album like the one I made for Earth Day this year.  Since it is heat resistant I wanted to see if it would survive a summer in my home and I thought I should make the same style I made for the Earth Day album so I can make a true comparison, I will also make a Christmas themed one with the tape I used to use to make a fair comparison.
I am excited to see the results of my test next March.

Items used
Fancy Pants Designs 6x6 Spellbound
The Stickmaster Heat Resistant Tape
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Carved Pumpkin
Tim Holtz Idea-Ology Trimmings Halloween 6 pack
Tim Holtz Idea-Ology Trimmings 2 pack black and orange
Jolee's Boutique Dimensional Stickers Moveable Skeletons
Jolee's Boutique Gauze Ghosts (no longer available)
Silhouette Curio
Helmar Acid Free Glue

The Halloween supplies I ordered to make a card for my friend made decorating this mini so easy, the 6x6 pad was perfect for a quick crop and glue down.
I also die cut a few Halloween items with my Silhouette Curio that I bought from CraftOnline last year.  Having a pile of die cuts that suited my theme ready to go really helped the creative process.

Here is the unboxing of the supplies.

Here is a process video of how I made this album.

I love how this mini album turned out and can't wait to give it to me friend.

Why not give making a upcycled mini album a go, they turn out so cute.
I will have another post later in the month with my decorating of the cover of my October Daily and experimenting with that gorgeous haunted house stamp, so if you haven't subscribed to my blog and YouTube Channel yet make sure you do so you don't miss out on seeing that post.  :)