Craft Club - need input from you.

On Wednesday it was another craft club meeting.  This month we were making paper beads.  Now this is something I have never done, but have enjoyed looking at in stores.

We were given this instruction sheet and we were to make a book mark or a key chain.  She had the fixings for both of those things.  She also told us what to do........which helped a lot.

She supplied a variety of old books pages and scrap book paper.  Now for anyone wanting to do this, the thinner the paper, the easier it is to roll up.  If your paper is thicker, you probably need to roll it up twice to get it tight enough.  Magazine pages would work really well as well.

She supplied us with a piece of pool noodle and toothpicks to pop the beads in to dry.  I wrapped the paper around the cotton bud stem which you can see in the bottom of the photo.  She also suggested the thin end of a paintbrush.

When you have rolled up your length of paper, you attach the end with a dab of glue and then using a paint brush cover the whole bead with Mod Podge and place onto a tooth pick to dry.  They don't take very long to dry.  These are some of the ones I made.  Five were made with scrap book paper and the far right one with book pages.

We all found it quite therapeutic to make these.  I thought I would struggle with my hands, but I rolled them not in my hands but with the paper placed on the table.  A couple of the other women copied that idea and found it helpful.

So this is where I would love your input.  I neither want a book mark or a keychain, or jewelry.  Do you have any other ideas on what else I could use these for, as I really do like the look of them.

There are a number of how to videos I included a shorter one for you to look at.

Also good news, I am already registered for the April one...YEAH!!

Bonus points if you can identify what it's supposed to be:

Wednesday was the monthly craft club meeting.  I managed to snag a spot again, so that was good.  Now I knew from the meeting last month, that the regular woman who runs it was away and another woman was taking over this meeting.  So imagine my surprise when I walked in and a young-ish guy was there and was handing out supplies.

Turned out he had drawn the "short straw," and although he is a librarian, he is also an artist on the side.  He was a smashing young man originally from Nigeria; but he had such a long name that no one could pronounce in this country so he went by the initials of his name.  Unfortunately for him they were very close to be IBM.  So all I could think of was IBM, so whenever I asked for him, my mind went automatically to IBM, then I had to think to remember the one initial it wasn't.

He started handing out supplies, first there was a sheet of legal size paper, then a piece of card stock, then a paintbrush......at this point I asked him are we painting, and he said yes.  I said you do realize that I have no talent whatsoever when it comes to painting, and a couple of ladies said they were the same.  He said this project was super basic and anyone could do it.

He handed out kids washable paints and some kids stencils and told us to experiment on the legal size paper.  The card stock was to mix our paints on.  I just sat there looking like a deer in the headlights........totally and utterly clueless.  He then announced we could transfer what we had done onto a 4 inch square piece of plywood/coaster.  So I made he give me the coaster, to help visualize the finished product and everyone else wanted theirs as well at that point.

My stencil was a bee, which turned out to be useless with the brush, so I gave that up pretty soon and my neighbour took it.  We fiddled on for a while, then I gave up and did my own thing on the coaster and this is what I did.

While talking with another lady we got talking about these Tik Tok video's we watch called Andrea Nelson Art, if you click on her name it will take you to her page.

So mine is sort of inspired by what she does.  It's a flower in case you didn't know, and I won't be at all offended if you had no clue....LOL

It cannot be used as a coaster unless I decide to put some varnish on the top of it to protect it.  Did I enjoy doing it...........not really but it pushed me to do something I would not normally do.  I don't have enough imagination for this sort of thing.  Paint by numbers is more my thing.

Although he was a lovely guy, he didn't really instruct us in anything.  I enjoyed doing the mobile more.  Everyone else was a mixture of very creative too, very basic and child like, like mine.  

Again I don't have a spot for next month's session, so will have to wait until the beginning of March to see if anyone drops out.

P.S. The children's paint which was washable, stained the tables and your hands like crazy..........goodness knows what was in it!!

Some things I have done this week.

Was talking to daughter-in-law about how my drawer organizers move around, she suggested putting feet on the bottom of them to stop them moving.

Went to Dollarama and found these.  Ended up not using the instant Tac, just the bumper pads.

They worked perfectly for the job.

Now when I open the drawer the organizers haven't moved.

I love these mini cucumbers.  The local store had two packs of 6 on for $4.  I managed to snag packs with seven in them!

They keep really well in my Fridgesmart Tupperware containers.  I also pre-peeled some baby oranges ready for eating.

I made a really yummy couscous salad.  I added to one cup of cooked couscous, some veggies and feta cheese and the dressing on it was Kraft Greek Dressing..

Picked up a book from the library that I had ordered.  This is the selection for the book club in the UK my mother goes to.  They meet at the end of February.

I have been cleaning out cupboards etc and putting things we don't need into boxes to donate to the charity store.  Made a trip to drop off the boxes, while doing some errands.

I remembered to check the library website and managed to snag a space in the February craft club, so looking forward to that!!