Black velvet display forms for necklaces

Hello dear readers,


My fingers have almost recovered. I made some new necklaces for the jeweler window showcase and took photos of the display forms while I made them

For Baalatova's witch hat, I bought from the local craft store, a small length, 30 cms, of a self-adhesive black velvet sheet.  I have enough of this material left for making the display forms and more.

From both the velvet and a recycled cereal card I cut a strip  2.5 cm (1") wide and 20 cm (8") long.
Then I stuck the strips together.

I made a card template, laid it on the backside of the two-sided strip and with a pen drew lines around the template.  See photo
below.

I cut the forms and went over the joint lines with a black sharpie. I also painted the backside card staff with the sharpie.  To enable the form to stand up,
I glued a narrow strip of card behind the template. See the photos below.  You can paint the strip if you want the back part to be seen.  When this narrow strip is bent a little outwards it makes the form stand upright.

The necklaces are made from earings bought at the "One Shekel" stores.  Earrings provide a lot of mini possibilities. The metal is thin and can be cut with regular nail scissors.  The stones are nail ornaments, also bought at the Shekel store.  Since then, the One Shekel stores doubled their prices but haven't changed the name.

Have a marvelous weekend with blessings!

A new reason to keep on celebrating Christmas

Hello dear readers

Yesterday more wonderful gifts arrived, this time from Nina in Germany.  After being delayed for over six weeks, probably buried under heaps of other parcels somewhere in the mail storerooms between our two countries the parcel luckily reached its destination.

The photos below show what I nearly missed.

A periwinkle 2020 calendar, A lovely Christmas card, lots of yummy cookies, chocolates and marzipans, a miniature snow sled and other cute ornaments.

Edible dragon's eyes for Baalatova.

Here is Baalatova inspecting them

Of all these four edible yummies, I am only allowed to enjoy two.
Baalatova forbids to touch the eyes and my 4 years old great-gran-daughter
doesn't want anyone to eat Santa Claus. She says he is a good man who
brings gifts for children.

Nina's parcels always include something smelling good.  This time a dried orange slice and cinnamon a very aromatic combination.  Also a cute jar of hand cream. I think I saw a mini version of this jar on Nina's blog.

THANK YOU, DEAR NINA, FOR YOUR LOVELY GIFTS AND ESPECIALLY FOR YOUR
FRIENDSHIP.

Another late arrival was a parcel I mailed to Fabiola, earlier than usual in order that it gets to her for her birthday (17 December). It didn't, not on her birthday nor on Christmas. Last week,  Faby
informed me that it arrived, I hope undamaged.  These are what I sent.

At the bottom of my previous post, I showed two necklaces. I found out that their size (1/12" scale)
will be too large for my project. It will be necessary to "shrink" them into, 1/24".
To do this I had to make the black velvet display form smaller, and cut smaller pieces from the
embellishment. 

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I have to make more of these velvet coated small display forms. Does anyone know the proper English name for them? I'll take photos to show you how I make them.

We had a few chilly days, enough for me to catch chilblains on my fingers which are swollen, blue, clumsy and ugly.  Very slow with my work right now.

Wishing you all pleasant and warmer days with blessings.

Celebrating Christmas again

Hello dear readers,

After almost giving up hope for it ever to come, I received, by our sometimes very slow mail service, a parcel containing these precious Christmas gifts from my dear friend in Ukraine, Tatiana.


As you can see it was worth waiting for and is a good cause for prolonging the Christmas celebrations.

Have a good look at these yummy chocolates, no chance that they'll last much longer.
Lovely tree decorations packed in beautiful handmade card boxes. The awesome little Christmas tree is made of green pipe cleaners!

Not a very good picture, because I enlarged it. It's very tiny with fantastic details and fits a nutshell.

A much better view.

Beautiful roses that only Tatiana is able to make from thinner than paper
cold porcelain.  The roses look lovely in the blue glass vase.

Thank you, dear Tatiana, especially for your friendship.

Making a third shop facade will be my first project in 2020.  The toy and candy were the first and second.

I am planning a jeweler's window.  For a start, I already finished
two silver necklaces like the ones I made 2 or 3 years ago.  I used one scrapbook embellishment and one crashed to tiny pieces turquoise bead.

I wish you, my friends, restful creative days and blessings.

Hello dear readers,

How quick is the change from "last" to "next" year! I can't believe this is already a post in 2020.
This is Birgit's challenge,  making a nativity inside an olive wood Star of David.  The origin of the wood is from an olive grove near Bethlehem. The star was exported to Germany, purchased by Birgit and sent back to me in Israel.  Dear Birgit I hope you'll like the outcome of this challenge.

I had two ideas on how to make the tiny scene. 1. The Holy Family made like beads on very thin metal strings fixed to the top and bottom of the open center in the star. 2.  A  wooden box, shaped in a way that will fit the open center. The second idea appealed to me so here are step by step work photos.

A template of the star-shaped open center.

Cut pieces from a popsicle stick.

 A cardstock back is glued to the box. The holy family is crafted in Fimo.  It looks better than on  the photos.

There is a lot more space in a walnut shell than in this star's center.  Still, it was fun to make it.

I wish you a wonderful weekend with blessings.

Christmas gifts

Hello dear readers,

Most of you, my followers, already know Birgit. Birgit is one of the kindest, wittiest, generous, persons in our Blogland If not, run and follow to get to know the magic of her stories, including two cute protagonists, Flutterby and Rosey.

I am one of the lucky, happy receivers (spread across continents) of Birgit's beautiful Christmas gifts which are only a small sample of her generosity.


Solly, one of Birgit's hand made flying bears and a gift from her is helping me open the parcels.

Solly's favorite is the 2020 calendar where he can see Flutterby and Rosey, his brother and sister.

These precious tiny snowmen are perfect for a winter scene in a nutshell.

The "glass blue-tit" is a traditional ornament, Birgit's region of Germany for the top of the Christmas tree.  I love it.  The olive wood star of David is made in Israel, sold in Germany and sent back to me in Israel, challenging me to make a Nativity inside its frame.  Don't be surprised when you see it soon.

The delicious marzipans went from the box to my mouth to stay on my hips but worth every bite.

THANK YOU. DEAR BIRGIT FOR THESE PRECIOUS, THOUGHTFUL GIFTS AND MOST OF ALL - FOR YOUR FRIENDSHIP!

MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HANUKKAH AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Dear readers,

The first one of the eight Hanukka candles will be lighted on Sunday evening.  This leaves me 3 days to finish the gifts for my children and friends for this night.  I spent every single spare moment last fortnight working on these gifts and have only 3 days more to finish the ones to be given on Sunday.

Sometimes, if I'm lucky I find shells with a readymade hole on top.  I believe the hole is done by some unknown sea creature that stung the seashell to suck out its flesh.  I decoupaged the pierced shells to make pendants on a chain or a ribbon. They are also beautiful minis to hang on a mini wall.

Any of you who read my sunshade tutorial saw how to make miniature straw by unraveling the string.  Here are a few more examples of what can be done with this material.

A scarecrow.

A broom.

A bird nest.

Very useful for farm miniatures or even a thatched roof.



A time consuming and a very boring job is opening and scraping clean the inside of walnut shells.
I have about a dozen ready and waiting to be filled with scenes.

The children love the witches and gnomes scenes.

Happy holidays and blessings

700 followers giveaway results

Hello dear readers,

I added Melli and Maite to the draw list and used the random number generator.
The winner is no. 17 BIRGIT.

As always, I would have liked everyone on the list to win and am a little sad that
it cannot be.

Have a wonderful rest of the week and blessings.