Playing with Fire

Belated Christmas craft post!  The girls and I set some ornaments on fire!  I saw this on Pinterest from It's Always Autumn.  I followed her directions and supplies list, so if you have questions about how it was done, go there.  If you want to come over and make some more with us, just let me know and we'll set some more things on fire together.  It will be fun. We will singe our eyebrows.

The ornaments have to be glazed porcelain.  I inadvertently bought unglazed ones and the alcohol ink just got absorbed right into them (if I ever do marbling again, I think I'll try to marble those unglazed ornaments.   Until then they've joined the Craft Room Abyss.). We made stars, rounds, and baubles.  I can't think of another description for the third shape.  Bauble.  You know what I mean?

Here they are putting the drip drops of color onto the ornaments.

The directions seemed to suggest that we should only do two colors.  I tried to tell the girls that, but, as you can see in the above photo, they went for full color saturation.  (That's the bauble shape I was telling you about!). Luckily we only had six colors.

Then we squirted them with alcohol, stepped back, and I lit them on fire.  

It was really fun.  We made an initial batch of 12, I think, but some broke so I had to order some more.  Then we tried it again and invited the neighbors over to set things on fire with us.   I would not recommend using the tin foil directly on the table as I did above.  Use a lipped baking tray.  That's smarter.  I didn't ruin the table or anything, but the alcohol should be more contained.

Each one was so unique.  Can you believe that there were no tears shed while actually doing this craft?  It was amazing.  One of us always ends up crying when crafting together.  The tears came later when I asked them to sign their names on the back.

For the signing, we used a Sharpie, but not a regular one.  This Sharpie is maybe oil based.  I can't remember and I can never keep track of where I hide this pen so I can't find it to tell you.  Anyway, in the end all of the ornaments were signed by the children themselves.  I added the year.

Sometimes the backs were just as pretty as the fronts.

And how do they look like on the tree?  They look glorious on the tree:

Partridges, Pears, Turtle Doves

I have been eyeballing mmmcrafts' Twelve Days of Christmas ornament series for many years and a few after-Thanksgiving-sales ago I purchased 1-9 (Partridge-Pear through Drummers).  I figured I would wait to put them together until the patterns for 10-12 were created, which, as it happens, was last year sometime.   Yay!  

Well, as you, gentle reader, are aware, my book club has an offshoot sewing group.  In the past we have made bunting, napkins, gift bags, bibs...and we make the annual excursion to the Textile Center Garage Sale.   Anyway, I whispered to one of my reader-sewer-friends about the ornaments and asked if she'd be interested in doing a stitch-a-long.  She whispered it to another and another and then solicited the group as a whole....and in the end, four of us now have a Twelve Days Stitch-a-Long.  

We have decided to make one per month.  For the Partridge and Pear, we got together to plan, share supplies, and stitch.  Since then, we have incorporated a little show-and-tell at our monthly book club.  The plan is to document the ornaments on a monthly basis.  So, without further ado, here is what we've done so far:

And for the close-ups:

Some of us are using additional embellishments like sequins, beads, and buttons.  I'm a fan of sparklies at Christmastime, especially when the lights from the tree hit them.  Oh, speaking of the tree, for full disclosure, I am not making them into ornaments.  I'm thinking that I will somehow string them, sort of like a garland...perhaps with little felt balls between each ornament set?  I don't know.  I need to use the felt balls up somehow.  I've had them for seven years (they were purchased as a potential nursery mobile craft) and have not done one thing with them.  So we'll see.

More photos?  Yes, please!

And the reverse:

The satin stitch on the No. 1 looks pretty good, but can be time consuming.  Satin stitch is hard for me because it never seems to be very tidy.  I used the same color for the number and the No., but I think I'll try a two-tone scheme next time.

I think that's all for photos for this round.  My camera battery was about to croak, so it was a rush job.  Next month we have the French Hen pattern.  I already have my colors chosen and cut out.  

Oh, and I suppose you are wondering about the mechanics of the pattern.  Everything comes together so easily.  I haven't had a terribly hard time with removing the Sulky stabilizer.  It really does not like to dissolve from underneath the stitches, so I feel like my embroidery is kind of stiff.  I have reduced the number of strands from four to three in a lot of places.  I feel like the needle gets gummed up from the Sulky and, with four strands, I felt it got tough to pull it through the felt and one of my needles even snapped in two.  Nuts.