Beaded Christmas tree update

Tis the season to bring the Christmas tree out.  Since I live in a small unit, a big tree is not going to happen so for the last few years, since I made it, I've had my beaded Christmas tree.

But see that ugly wire down there?  This year I decided to hide it away.  Now I could've just put stuff at the bottom to hide it but that wouldn't completely hide it as the lid would be problematic.  Instead I've gone a bit more posh and cut the wire to let me thread it where I would.

Step one was to make a hole in the box so it can be turned on/off from the outside.  I had a new box I was going to move the tree to as part of this process that was a bit taller so the battery pack fit in well.  A bit of scrap paper to rough out the shape of the end of the battery pack and the location of the switch and I had a template.

The template is upside down in the photo relative to the pack but oh well

The template then let me draw where I wanted the switch hole to be easily.

The final spot is on the left- the bottom is where I tried to freehand draw it and failed.

Using a craft knife I cut out a hole for the switch, making sure that it was long enough to let it be turned on and off.

Next step is the lights.  LED stands for Light Emitting Diode and the diode part of that means that they only work when the current is passing through the correct direction. If you have the poles around the other way nothing will happen.  So I used a black marker to colour one of the wires in so when cut I could tell which end went with which.

The wire is coloured in so I can identify it later- I'm using a different set of lights for this part to make it easier to follow

Then cut the wire using wire cutters and strip the ends.

Wires cut and stripped- note the bottom two are coloured black for easy identification.

Before doing anything else, checking things are still good is useful- just hold the bare metal of each wire together and see if it lights up (note- this should ONLY be done for low powered battery lights, not something running off mains!)

Yep, still works

I had to remount the tree into the box so that meant making four holes for the trunk of the tree (four rigid metal wires bound together with florist tape) and an extra hole near the trunk for the lights wire to pass through).  Once things were stable in the box lid it was time to fix the base up.

Place the battery pack into the box so the switch is in the correct place.  I used tape initially but will go back later with hot glue as I am finding the pack is moving just enough to make using the switch annoying.

Interior of the box showing the battery pack in location and my lovely wire connections (real electricians should probably turn away here)

Inside, check that you have the wires around the correct way again (it's only paranoia if the universe is NOT out to get you!) and then join the wires- a light twist then lots of electrical tape is my method of choice.  Just a light twist mind you- too much and you'll break the individual wires.  And the tape is important as it will prevent any short circuit occurring which could kill the lights, tree or batteries or all of the above.  You should also check that there is enough length in the wire to allow you to place the lid on a table next to the box easily.  Otherwise you'll be trying to hold the tree while also replacing batteries and that's just annoying.

That's pretty much it.  Not fancy but it does make for a nice tree.

Look at that base- isn't it nice with no wires!

Happy Christmas everyone.

Holidays!

Horray!  It's the most wonderful time of the year!  Not because of Christmas, but because I am now on HOLIDAYS!   *runs around madly flailing arms like Kermit*

I've been very productive so far.  Well, I've left the house, which is kind of like being productive.  Went to Bunnings to look for a Christmas present for my sister. I sadly didn't find what she wanted but I did buy some lavender to replace the one that kind of... died.  Turns out that plants need water... go figure.

Anyway, I also used a 15% off voucher I had for Spotlight for something that may feature in a future post, bought some shoes (exciting, I know!) and wandered around a market that was on in town.

Then I had my LIFE THREATENING EXPERIENCE!  *dramatic music would play here if it wasn't for the fact it would be a) a pain to do and b) break rule one of the internet and force someone to listen to a webpage*

Living up here in rural Victoria, I knew that redback spiders were much more common than in suburban Melbourne.  But after three years, I started to figure that it was more an issue if you were out on the edges of town.  At least until I moved a pot of dead lavender (see above) and saw a FREAKING ENORMOUS ONE!!!!

Run away! Run away!  And yes, my first instinct on seeing my first wild redback spider was to take a photo- after being satisfied it wasn't about to leap over and eat me.  I blame the internet.

Several meters in width... Um, the camera makes it seem smaller...  Anyway, lets just say that my initial plan of potting up the new lavender was deferred as I lost my interest in gardening at that point.  That and I'd forgotten I had run out of potting mix...

So anyway, I'm back and I have lots of ideas battling it out in my head and already have a few half done projects I'm working on to post here so expect a return to regular posting.

Stay safe everyone! 

Gilt lettering and more Discworld stamp yearbooks

It's only been a week and already the school holidays seem a distant memory.  Thanks to a rotten bug, I didn't get as much relaxing crafting done as I wanted but I did manage to play with something I bought years ago.

One of the things I always wished I could do with the books that I create was to make good looking, crisp, gold lettering.  Metallic pens just don't do the job in my experience- they don't shine the way that metal does and the majority of pens just don't go fine enough (the finest one I have is a 0.3mm tip).  But years ago I came across Hugh Spark's webpage which talked about using a product that lets you print with a laser printer, gilt those letters and then transfer that to anything you like as a decal.  The stuff used I bought from Pulsar Pro FX (website was working a few weeks ago but now seems to be down?).

I followed Hugh Spark's instructions and for the most part, it worked well.  There most definitely a learning curve, and there are a lot of steps where things can go wrong.  But after battling the gremlins, I managed to make these...

These were all created as presents for friends.  As you can see, not all had the same spine contents thanks to the decal not always surviving intact to the end of the process!  But it worked well enough and enough survived that I was pleased with what I produced, particularly compared to previous methods.

And after doing all that, I had to get around to making my own.  The observant among you will notice that I have cheated with years and am not making these in year order at this point.  I do plan to fill in those gaps, but I also wanted to have somewhere to put the stamps that I am only lightly collecting again...  *wimper*  I can stop any time I want to... 

A few bits and bots

I've finished the crochet bag!  Horray!  The final bit joining the flowers to form a base was fiddly, but it turns out if you go back and read the instructions rather than making things up works well *sigh*  And of course, by finished, I mean 'up to the point where I have to sew a lining, attach to the crochet, work out a suitable handle and source all materials needed to do these things.

But I hated the baby blue thread.  Sadly, there wasn't a lot of choice when buying the thread since it was that, pink (double blech), cream or white.  So I've pulled out the dye stocks and had a go.

Here's before, in the original, baby blue thread.

And here is after I tried dying it in a mix of turquoise (blue), periwinkle (purple) and a hint of black.  The end result is a darkish, forget-me-not blue.

I have not decided what I'm going to line it with.  At the moment  I quite like the cream- a bit of spare calico- that I've used to show the pattern a bit clearer, but I'll have a think about it.

Finally, here's some jewellery that I've made.  The earrings because I found the kit when sorting out my beading stuff, and the bracelet that was something I had put into my beading stuff to be fixed and never got around to.

And this post is the last of my holiday posts.  It's closing to the end of the third week of school and sadly the large pile of marking, planning etc has sucked up all my time (free or otherwise!).  So expect irregular posts for a few months.

Discworld stamp Yearbooks

One of the last things I did on my break before pulling out the work I needed to do was to finish my most recent Discworld Stamp Yearbook.  It seemed particularly appropriate as this year is the 10 year anniversary of Discworld stamps.

These were inspired by stamp Yearbooks I have seen for Australian stamps.  Now since I don't collect them, I've only seen them for sale in the Post Office, but from what I saw, I loved the idea of information about what was featured in the stamp in addition to the stamp details and, of course, a place to put the stamps themselves!

For some stamps, I had fun researching the techniques that were used

Two of these were made several years ago, but I just finished the 2007 Discworld Stamp Yearbook and put my stamps in.  So now I want to show off my collection.

I love pages that have all the sports!

For others, I have wishful thinking gaps.

I only have one years worth of stamps to have my collection stored in as after 2008 I dropped collecting due to lack of time.  While I have bought the odd edition if it was particularly cool looking (one of these days I'm going to decoupage some of them for instance), I didn't have time to keep up as I always wanted to get the sports in addition to the commons.  Now I think about it though, I could start again with a reduced 'just the commons' policy....  *twitches*

If you would like to make a Discworld Stamp Yearbook of your own, feel free!  I've linked to the files below.  Read through my series on Bookbinding (starts here) to see how to print these out and bind them into a hard cover book.

Links (Word files)

Year 1 (2004-2005)

Year 2 (2006)

Year 3 (2007)

More info on stamps

The Cunning Artificer shop (where to buy them from)

The Discworld Stamp Catalogue (if you want to identify an unknown Discworld stamp)