Cleaning up

Our group worked on a little cleaning caddy.
There is a tutorial from Joanne Swanson, with printies and a pattern for a dust pan. She suggests using a restaurant jelly container for the caddy.
http://joannswansondiyminiatures.blogspot.ca/2011/05/creative-minds-are-rarely-tidy.html

Trim the edging, then cut a strip of cardboard a little smaller than the length of the container.

Now, score a vertical line about 2 inches up the strip. Fold the strip over and trim the edges.

Measure how tall you wish the handle to be. (approximately 1/2 to 3/4 inches). Score this measurement on either side of the first fold

Fold along score lines.

 The strip should now look like this.

Glue the middle together.

Trim the tabs so they fit inside the jelly container.

Cut holes for the handle.

File the handle smooth and maybe file the corners.

Glue the cardboard to the jelly container. Gesso and paint. I used Patio paint.

Here is my finished caddy. 

The gloves are cut from paper, painted and podged.

Remembrance Day 2014 - Farmerettes

WW1 led to many changes in the social fabric all countries involved. In Canada, the boys were shipped overseas to fight, leaving the women to take over the various chores they left behind.
Before the war, women had few rights - they could not vote or hold political office, only a few worked outside the house,
Only 14 years before the War, the Marriage Property Act made ti possible for a woman to control her own property and wages separately from her spouse, while being jointly responsible for child support. Teaching was the only profession which provided a pension.  See this reference for milestones for women in Canada.
One of the most important supportive tasks which needed to be maintained was in agriculture. While women did train to become nurses and went overseas, others remained at home and assumed the farming duties needed t maintain the civilian population at home and the fighting men overseas. June Hitchcox describes her experience as a member of the Farm Service Force.in Ontario.

Taken from

Library and Archives Canada, “Canada and the First World War: We Were There,” Government of Canada, 7 November 2008

All Fired Up!

Cool! Icicles

Chris in Canada writes:
I have found a way to make some really beautiful 'trashicles' for house eaves. These are crystal clear, and with care can be made to have the bumps, forks and rings of the real thing. All you need is an empty plastic water bottle, scissors for cutting the bottle, wire cutters or any strong cutter for cutting the ends from the finished icicles, two pairs of tweezers/needle- nose pliers and a candle of any sort, as long as the wick and surrounding wax is fairly clean. Unless you want a dirty icicle, that is. ;-)

Step 1- Cut off the neck and bottom of the bottle, then snip out a rectangle about 3/4" X 2". This little bit will be a test piece to determine how much time, heat and pulling you'll need to shape the icicles. If you follow the instructions carefully, you'll have made two icicles, but if something goes wrong, relax. It was just a materials test, not the real thing yet, and the materials you used failed to perform as expected. Just repeat the test until the results are acceptable. Can you tell I volunteer with primary grade ESL students?

Step 2- Light your candle, and holding each end of the strip in the tweezers or pliers, lower the centre of the plastic into the flame bit by bit until the strip starts to look wet, then remove it, trying not to pull it out of shape. This is the furthest into the flame that you can go for good results with your particular plastic. Too much heat and it will liquify rather than stretch, or poof into a tiny self-extinguishing flame at the mid-point of the strip.

Step 3- Next, test how it pulls by lowering the strip into the flame again. When it starts to look wet, begin to pull and stretch the plastic gently and evenly, at the same time moving it slowly up and out of the flame. You'll see and feel it getting very soft when it first looks wet, and then becoming almost liquid. As it comes up out of the flame it will stay soft for a few seconds giving you time to start stretching it into a strand. Work slowly, and when it starts to resist the pulling, simply reheat the strand by passing the whole thing through the flame for a few seconds and pull. Pulling slowly will leave the icicle completely clear, and pulling faster will result in tiny bubbles forming which is a common feature of most very large icicles. Repeat as needed until the strand thins out to almost nothing in the middle and breaks apart into two plain icicle shapes. Cut the icicles off at any length you want, possibly leaving a bit of the strip attached (then bent at a 90 degree angle with reheating) as a secure base for the glue if you are making thicker or longer icicles. Smaller icicles cut flat across can be attached with a dab of SuperGlue or simmilar.

Now you can make the basic tapered shape, try twisting the strip as you pull to create bends and twists, or make a forked shape. Cut a lengthwise slit about 1/4" long starting at one end of the strip. Hold the uncut edge in tweezers/pliers and working slowly, heat the cut end using the other tool to pull alternate halves of the end into separate strands. Let cool until firm (10-12 seconds), hold the icicle in tweezers just at the point where the forked section joins the main icicle, then heat and pull the rest of the shape. For rings, make a basic shape. Place the tweezers/pliers where the first ring will be, heat the icicle right above the pliers and give a little tug followed by an immediate push, being careful not to squeeze the tweezers/pliers. Let cool and repeat along the icicle as desired.

WARNING: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO SPRAY THESE WITH SEALER, FAKE SNOW OR GLITTER ETC... DITTO FOR NAIL POLISH AND ENAMELS. ANYTHING OTHER THAN WATER-BASED PRODUCTS WILL CAUSE PERMANENT DAMAGE TO ALL YOUR HARD WORK.

Happy Trashcicling.

The Cutting Edge

CAUTION: These knives are sharp and actually cut. Do not use in a child's dollhouse, and watch your fingers when you are making them.

If you need realistic knives for a kitchen or table setting, serrated knives are easy to make from the metal cutting strip from a box of aluminum foil or plastic wrap. Peel the strip from the box, then use old scissors or metal cutters to cut a piece about half the width of the strip and the length of the knife including the handle. Snip this strip at the point where you want the handle to end, cutting from the serrated edge to the middle of the strip. Trim off the serrated edge on this handle end, fold the handle in half lengthwise with pliers and squeeze to flatten. Trim the blade end to form either a pointed or slightly rounded end depending on what the knife will be used for, and round off the ends of the handle slightly. Finish by applying a few coats of paint or nail polish to the handle to thicken it and conceal the overlapped metal edge then seal with a clear sealer or clear nail polish. To vary the blade size, just make the starting strip wider or narrower.

Happy knife-making. :-D

Chris in Waterloo, ON

Remembrance Day 2013

Remember Snoopy and his fights with the Red Baron? (Manfred von Richthofen)  One of the famous Canadian aces of the WW1 era was Billy Bishop.

Although it has been said Billy was not the best pilot, he was a crack marksman, which prompted the Germans to put a price on his head.
There is a musical in his honour,  Billy Bishop Goes to War

 

The small Billy Bishop airport located on the Toronto Islands at the base of the city of Toronto The airport is used by civil aviation, air ambulances, and regional airlines using turboprop planes. 

Also well known during WW1 was William Barker.

Trimming the Tree

Easy Christmas Tree Trims and Garlands

NOTE: I shared this idea several years ago on one of my groups and apologize if you've read this T2T already, but with Christmas coming up it may be helpful to some.

Here are three easy steps to make teensy silver tree garlands and curly-cue icicles:

1) Find a guitar player who uses metal wound strings on the 3 or 4 lower strings and ask him/her to save the old strings the next time the strings are changed. (Classical guitars strings are the best source because they are real silver wound over a fibre core, but any metal wound acoustic guitar strings will do the job. I haven't tried using violin strings, but the G and D strings should work as they are close in diameter to the higher guitar strings.)

2) Cut one end of the string off at the point where the string straightens out, find the end of the metal strip and gently pull it to unwind the metal from the core. Hold the core end in the other hand and go slowly so you don't stretch the 'spring&# 39; out of shape.

3) For icicles, cut the spring into 1/3 to 1/2 inch lengths stretching the springs if needed to open them up a bit. Attach a loop of sewing thread to one end with CA glue. For garlands, slightly stretch a long piece until it looks good to you and wrap it around the tree, outdoor pillars or railings, a mailbox or whatever you fancy.

BTW, you can also use the metal strips in jewellery both RL size and mini, and it can be soldered.

Chris in Canada