To all the Kreado friends!

Final Christmas Wreaths 2011

I have completed my three Christmas Wreaths. Here are some pics of the process and the final products. First I had all my supplies ready. As with the other wreaths I bought the supplies from a variety of places. What was different this time was the 'greenery'. I bought it at Game for R26 each. From there i just twisted it around the branches of the wreath without having to force it in between. Which made my work considerably easier. And within a minute or two i had a nice, bushy green wreath.

Here are two pictures of all the supplies I used. Might look like a bit of a mess but it was a great selection for three very different wreaths.

First up is a wreath I made for my mother and which she is now using as a table centre piece with a candlelabra in the middle. This wreath i wanted to make more than a flower arrangement and I did not specifically aim to be symmetrical in the design. The idea was for it to a bit skew and full. I had a definite idea when i made this wreath but the other two were blanks at first. And of all of these wreath I enjoyed making this one the most.

Next was a wreath I made for my sister. She, like me loves red and I decided to make the main colour of the wreath red. After completing the wreath to this point I thought to myself that there was something missing. And so i went shopping for white feathers! Having used them before and seeing what a hit they were at Kreado I know that they definitely have the WOW factor. 

And so this is the completed second wreath. I think it looks a bit wild but my sister loved it. Not your average Christmas wreath for sure. She used it also as a centre piece for a Christmas dinner she hosted. With a big candle in the middle of course.

The last wreath turned out to be quite a challenge as i had no idea to what i wanted to do with it. I first had the thought of making the predominant colours green and gold. I also wanted to hang a ribbon from the bottom with some bells on. I tried this and the result was just not right. It really bugged me. Interesting how design sometimes just doesn't look right. And yet it seemed like a good idea in your head. After looking at the wreath for a day I decided that i do love the red flowers and how full they make the wreath. 

My own Christmas wreath all done! Turned out more red but hey! I love it. Currently it is still hanging on our dinning room wall and we especially like it because it bring a little bit of Christmas cheer into the house just before all the main decorations are put up. We intend to put up our tree and decorate it this coming Thursday the 15th. The wreath must go on the front door that day as well. It is going to be lovely to come home and see such festive decorations.

Partly Cloudy

Since there are widespread rains today over our beautiful country, i am sure everyone has clouds on their minds. Or that the clouds are not far away. Me like most people admit that this is truly a welcome reprieve from the extreme heat and humidity. So with the thoughts of clouds, rain, sky and pancakes i have taken the opportunity every now and again to take pictures of our beautiful South African sky with specific emphasis on the clouds. They really inspire me to perhaps start painting. But for the most part i just stand in awe of God's creation. And in awe of the pictures he paints for us every day. And how sad it is that we take it for granted. Do you notice the clouds and the sky?

The amazing storm clouds i saw brewing yesterday (8 Dec 2011) from the Southdowns Mall in Centurion. I almost had an accident just looking at the clouds!

A sunrise cloud from our balcony. Amazing is it not?

Another cloud from the same sunrise. To me it looked more like a wave.

An almost stormy cloud over Route 21 Corporate Park. I can not remember the date but i do remember that this was a drizzly day. Well a little bit anyway.

If i remember this was the sky on the 20th of November at the church. I was on my way to the Christmas sermon. Sometimes i wonder what people think if they see me standing in the parking lot with my phone towards the sky... Maybe they think i'm checking for a signal?

My last pics are from a sunny day near Cullinan. Is that not the bluest of blue skies? Well i might look like a crazy taking these photos but hey! At least now you can enjoy the clouds even after they've gone.

Kreado 2012

En hier is ons datums vir volgende jaar se Kreado. Ek sal so met die verloop van Desember dink aan verskillende projekte wat ons kan doen. Voel vry om my ook te laat weet op die blog van enige idees wat julle het of waarvoor julle lus het. 

Our Christmas Kreado

Christmas music in the background, Christmas decorations all around, happy faces and busy hands! That is my personal description of our Kreado session for this November. Much planning was done and in a quick rush it was all done! Until the next Kreado that is. Which will only be in January 2012. I'll be sure to post the 2012 dates soon. But first lets have a look at the lovely Christmas wreaths the ladies made. 

From my observations on Saturday it seemed like the white and silver ribbons were very popular as well as the feathers. Unfortunately i didn't purchase enough! The roses and cherries were also winners. I noticed in the art shops some interesting extras that can be used in a shall i say 'traditional' wreath. Porcupine pens and different types of feathers will make and interesting wreath for sure!


And there you have it! Thank you to everyone who participated and hope to see you in 2012. Dankie ook aan die kerk (NG Lynnwoodrif) dat ek altyd hulle fasiliteite kan gebruik en die bemarking wat hulle doen van hulle kant af. Tot volgende keer dan!

Christmas Wreath: Kreado 19 Nov 2011 Inspiration

Up and coming in a week's time is our last Kreado for this year. We will be making Christmas Wreaths due to popular demand for a Christmas theme. After extensive research i discovered that making a Christmas Wreath is not as complex as it looks. Especially when most of the 'ingredients' are ready made and just need to be combined. Which is exactly what we're going to do next week Saturday.  I had to of course have my own try out before presenting this class. A hunt through numerous Art Shops in Pretoria helped me get all the necessary parts for the project.

 

I also considered several 'How-To..' projects as to what is possible with making a Christmas wreath. To my suprise i realised that I can re-use old Christmas decorations by gluing it to the wreath. I also discovered that almost anything can be used on a Christmas Wreath and it doesn't necessarily include live greenery. For example feathers! Ribbons are of course always traditional to a wreath and I have been experimenting with my own. 

Just yesterday my mother-in-law and I visited a very interesting shop here in Valeria in Pretoria called SA Flora. To my surprise it was very similar to the other BIG craft shops that i have visited but with a special interest in 'decorating'. I think their main focus used to be flowers (not the real kind though) and the containers to put them in. And I have never seen so many ribbons together in my life!

As has happened before in other craft shops and crafters markets, i had trouble taking everything in and where to look! Another pleasant surprise and another shop for me to remember. It is always good to know where to find things and be able to compare prices. I think my knowledge base is getting there in terms of crafting, where to find what etc. 

But back to the Christmas Wreaths!

Just some more inspirational ideas that I found accross the net. Looking at them i realise that my next wreath i will be decorating much more extensively. But then again i guess it all depends on a matter of taste. Some people prefer simplicity. Others are more traditional. And that is what makes it all so interesting. Life would have been boring otherwise.

 

Oh and did I mention that a lady from SA Flora showed us how to tie a beautiful bow? Or rahter how to make a bow. Thank you! I didn't know that it could be so simple!

Pretty much anything can be used on a wreath. It all depends on you!

And there you have it! I must say, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! 

For those who are interested in where my supplies come from here is the list:

* Jimnettes > Lynnwoodbridge Shopping Centre

*  Her Annies > Lyttelton Centurion

*   SA Flora > Valeria Pretoria

*   The Crazy Store

*   Checkers

And for those who are looking for some more inspiration....
Autumn Wreaths

Some Kreado Snippets

After a hectic couple of months i've been asked to be so kind as to post the Kreado pictures i take at every session and publish it for the ladies who where so generous in showing me their creative side.

So here is my new goal, i shall publish the pictures i take! And perhaps another goal.... ek moet vir 'n slag in Afrikaans ook blog.... Is dit 'blog' in Afrikaans? Genugtig alleen weet.

As long as the languages aren't mixed to much right? My dad will be frowning at this.

Back to Kreado! Just over a week ago we had a wonderful pewter session. During this session i tried to make sure that we were able to finish our projects. The class entailed that every lady paints a tray and then does a pewter design for the base of the tray. The projects came out beautifully!

And once again i'm amazed at the results. This has inspired me for the Christmas gifts i'm planning for this year. 

This past pewter class have truely been one of my favourites so far. I had so much fun being with the ladies and watching them be creative that i am even more excited now about our next Kreado session.

The one thing we did not get to during this pewter class was covering the trays with liquid glass so that the bottom will be level for use. After a discussion with Kreado regular Annet, we decided that it is wiser not to make that part of the class. Reason number one: The liquid glass takes 78 hours to set and may not be moved! The only liquid glass product i know of at this stage is Kraftex. I stand to be corrected on that name though...

So for Christmas i'm already planning for some lucky family members to receive unique, South African made, pewter trays. Playing around with the designs in my head is at the moment my past time...

What a wonderful Kreado session we had! 

Until next time then... good night everybody! I'm off to bed, dreaming about designs....

 

These are a few of my favourite things....

Since i've acquired the new iPhone4 i've had an absolute blast playing around in the AppStore looking for things that fall right into my taste. These of course include things involving décor and art. Books, music, funny games are also on my search list. In the process i came accross the wonderful application of Houzz.com. Do yourself a favour and go and look at their site. I can't always afford to buy a decor magazine but subscribing to a newsletter doesn't cost me a thing!
Here as some pictures of my favourite things....

Kreado Pewter Crosses

Our Kreado session during the month of March consisted of making crosses of pewter. Before any confusion sets in, we didn't mold the pewter but actually used wooden project crosses and then sculpted pewter and covered the wood with it. The colour you see on the crosses was achieved by using glass paint.

I was really surprised with this class since i intended until the morning of the class just to show them one pewter sculpting technique. It would have been inverse indentation (I hope i've got that wording right!). But then as i was busy with my preparations i considered how creative the ladies are. And then i decided to show them how to 3d sculpting where the pewter actually stands out as well. And low and behold they chose difficult designs which were highly successful. I'm always very impressed with the ladies. They go beyond my expectations and i also always learn something from them. For example i learned that you can 'stencil' pewter by using a rough surfice such as brick... Did you know that? Also one of the attendees used both copper and black patina to create a splatter effect on her cross. I think of everyone that has ever attended Kreado, I have learned the most!

Those glass jars and wedding dreams

Remember those glass jars i was moaning about since last year.... And now, finally as promised.... Here is a picture of the final product. Yes my wedding day as come and gone and in all the flurry of activity my poor blog has lagged behind. It was truly the most busiest time of my life. Thankfully for me i had an attentive fiance (those days) who helped me finish up on the little things. And the jars where finished more than a week before the wedding. What was not finished a week before was the table seatings. You know, those things that shows you where to sit? I had this idea of making strands of beads and have it hanging on a tree. Luckily there were only 5 tables but still... I ended up making them till the early ours of Wednesday morning. But they were done and they looked beautiful.

It is amazing how many ideas are out there to have a real creative wedding. No more just everything white! Which on the one hand is great. On the other... well the choices that you would have made would have been much easier. Now the variety is endless. 

I must say that i miss the wedding arrangements. It really took up a big part of my life for a while there and now its all done. And I really enjoyed it. So every now and again i still look at wedding magazines and even discovered some amazing online publications. Here is a link if you are interested like i am....

Wedding publications

Enjoy some wonderful photos and perhaps you still dream of beautiful dresses like i do?

Kreado 19 Feb - Glass Frosting and Painting

Yet another Kreado has come and gone.... 

This time we did glass frosting and painting. Or I should rather say that i showed the ladies how to do both techniques. Interesting enough, this Kreado session attracted 18 attendees. Which is a record for myself. Once before there were 20 ladies for a Mosaic class but overall it rarely happens. I was really excited for this session but also a bit nervous about how i should handle such an amount of people. But all went very well and it was another success. 

It seems as though glass art is coming into fashion. But then again for some reason people are still asking me for mosaic sessions. Mosaic has never gone out of fashion as far as i can see from the Kreado sessions. I must admit that these days i am dreaming of doing Kreado session more often. But have session during the week so that i can still spend time with my hubby over the weekends. But these are future plans and hopefully not that far into the future either. Until then i'll be dreaming and planning....

First Kreado of 2011 - Decoupage & Painting

A belated happy 2011 to everyone!

We've already had our first Kreado session for this year on the 15th of January. From the above picture you can see we decoupaged trays and we painted them with some interesting paint techniques. For this year i've decided to mix up some techniques. Next up on the menu for Kreado is glass frosting and painting. This is for some reason a very interesting topic for crafters because already have 5 registrations which is unusual so long ahead before the session. 

Kreado is now in its third year and still just as much fun as ever. I have to admit the last couple of session the number of dames joining me for crafting has lessened. But still every time there are a couple of new faces and a couple of regulars. I do not consider having a small number of people crafting as a sign of a dwindling Kreado. Rather i'm grateful to be able to be able to do the crafting with them! To go through whatever recipe we have to do that day together makes me more familiar with the issues they're experiencing. And so i also made a tray last Saturday. And almost finished it too.

I say almost because the glass jars (remember them?) took priority this week. And yes you'll be proud to know that they are finally finished! Triple yay! Thanks to the help of my other half, we were able to finish them this week. I took pictures already and will post them in the next post.

Have a wonderful weekend everybody!