How to make a Chain Chomp Christmas bauble

How to make a Chain Chomp Christmas bauble

Hello everyone
This week its time for a tutorial on how to make a chain chomp Christmas decoration from an old bauble. I remember being rather scared of these guys back in the N64 days but luckily the chain made them easy to run away from.
While this decoration is made from an old Christmas bauble it can be used on a tree like in the picture above but it can always be used as a fun decoration all year round. I need to get a picture of this guy terrorising my Amiibos.

What you will need:
An old Christmas bauble
A short length of chain (easily found in craft or DIY stores)
A split ring (can be taken from an old keyring if you can't find one)
Acrylic paint in Navy blue, white and black
Paintbrushes
Paint sealant spray (optional)
A pair of pliers
A cup to rest your bauble in

Step 1.
Get your bauble, If is dark blue or white please continue to step 2. If not I recommend Painting your entire bauble white. This is a great way to use a really scuffed or worn bauble since you will be covering it in paint all over so covering all of the scuffed areas.
If your bauble is originally a very dark colour you may need more than one layer of white paint to cover it.
Place your bauble in a cup or hang it up to dry. I found that hanging it up allowed be to paint more of the bauble at once.

Step 2:
Paint the Blue areas of the chain chomp. Leave the area for the mouth and eyes white. If you need to draw on guide lines in pencil.
If your bauble is Dark blue already paint the eyes and mouth on in white.

Step 3:

Using a reference picture use black paint to surround the mouth and eyes. Add the teeth and Pupils. 

Step 4:

Use your pliers to open the end link of your chain then thread it through the hanging loop of the bauble. Use your pliers again to close the loop so the chain is surely fastened to the hanging loop. 

Next add your split ring to the other end of the chain so it looks like this:

 Here I have taken the top off my bauble to make it easier to see. Remember that the top doesn't come off all baubles so don't force it to avoid breaking your bauble. 

Step 5: (optional)

Spray your bauble with paint sealant spray according to the packet instructions.

This is optional but the spray can help keep the paint from scuffing off of your bauble while being displayed or stored. Allow your bauble to dry according to the instructions.

Lastly find a nice place to put your Chain Chomp, it can be hung from the split ring or placed on top of your Christmas tree branches as if waiting for Mario to walk by. 

So I hope you all enjoyed this little tutorial and have fun making your own Chain Chomp decoration. 

For more ideas on how to use your old and worn out Christmas baubles here are some links:

Christmas Bauble Upcycling

Upcycling worn out Christmas Baubles
Spiderman Halloween decoration
How to make a Bloody handprint Halloween decoration from an old Christmas bauble
How to make a dripping bauble Halloween decoration.
Pokemon Gastly Halloween decoration
How to make a Wrapped sweet Christmas decoration.
How to make a Squirtle Squad decoration
How to make a Jake the dog decoration

For the Buzy Bobbins Index page Click here.

How to make wool covered letters - fun kids crafts

How to make wool covered letters - fun kids crafts

Hello everyone
Today is an easy make to use up spare scraps of wool, it can be made with kids with a little adult help.

The lovely little house in the photo is my super cute cottage from Cutsie Cottages. Here's a link to their Facebook page: Click here
This cottage now has pride of place on my mantle piece and thought it would be a super cute way to hang up these colourful letters.
I have also done a little unboxing post on my cottage Check it out here

What you will need:
Wool (I used a few scraps from different colours which was left over from knitting a rainbow scarf)
Cardboard
Glue (PVA works just fine for this make)
Scissors

Step 1:
Decide what word you want to make, this can be anything you fancy. I chose the word Love since its near Valentines day but this also works great with names or other sentiments.

Cut out the letters from your cardboard and make a little hole somewhere near the top of your letter for hanging it up. This is the step which will definitely need adult supervision if the kids involved in this make are not used to using scissors.

Step 2:
Thread a piece of the wool through the hole and secure it. Leave the ends loose for now as this will be where the letters will be hung from.

Step 3:
Now for the fan part :)
Cover your letter with a thin later of glue. It may help to use a glue spreader for this but if you don't have one a small scrap of the remaining card can be used instead.
Then wrap the wool around the letters. You can make solid colours or stripes, just mix it up with the scraps you have until you have covered the whole letter.

Step 4:
Depending on what letters you have in your chosen word or phrase you may end up with letters such as this E where it is hard to completely cover some areas in wool.

However this is a perfect opportunity to cover this gap with a matching charm. I chose a nice button but you can always use other charms or make a tiny pom pom out of your spare wool.

The last thing to do is to hang up your letters somewhere where they can look pretty, dont forget to pop them in the right order :)

Thank you for joining me on this simple kids tutorial I hope you all have lots of fun making this one. I definitely had a blast using up some of my wool scraps. My lovely Niece Chloe wants to use up a little more wool to make a name sign for her door, I think this is a fabulous idea :D

For more fun things to make here are some links:

Christmas Bauble Upcycling

Upcycling worn out Christmas Baubles
Spiderman Halloween decoration
How to make a Bloody handprint Halloween decoration from an old Christmas bauble
How to make a dripping bauble Halloween decoration.
Pokemon Gastly Halloween decoration
How to make a Wrapped sweet Christmas decoration.

Other Upcycling

Upcycled bunting from left over wrapping paper

For the Buzy Bobbins Index page Click here.

How to make cute upcycled bunting from left over wrapping paper

How to make cute upcycled bunting from left over wrapping paper

Hello Everyone,
Being super organised this week I had a whole bunch of presents to wrap and found myself with small scraps of wrapping paper left over which were not large enough for any of the presents. So I came up with this idea to re use the wrapping paper into cute decorations.

This project only requires a little cutting and sticking so could be a great rainy day make with kids who are old enough to use a glue stick and scissors.


What you will need:
Scraps of left over wrapping paper
Card (I used the card from old cereal boxes)
A glue stick or PVA glue
A long piece of string or ribbon
A hole punch, a normal circular one can be used or a shaped one as long as it does not cut too close to the edge of the card.

Step 1

Cut out the shapes for each piece of the bunting out of the card/ cereal box. To make them all the same you can use a template out of paper or card to draw around.

The shape does not have to be triangular, it could also be squares, rectangles, Christmas tree shapes or anything you can imagine. They could also be different shapes all along the bunting if you wished as long as they are roughly the same size just let your imagination run wild!

Step 2
Next glue your shapes on to the spare wrapping paper. You may want to plan this so the prettiest bits are in the middle of your shapes.
Then let the glue dry a little. Once its dry cut out the shapes.

 

At this point you could just leave one side with paper on or put another piece of paper on the back of each shape if the bunting is to be hung somewhere where the back could be seen. Or simply as a way to reverse the bunting for a different look.

 

Step 3
Using your hole punch make a hole in both sides of the cardboard shapes and thread your ribbon or string through each hole as shown below.

I used ordinary parcel string since its strong but won't distract from the colours on the wrapping paper. However a complimentary ribbon is sure to look great here, just use whatever you have spare.

How hang up your bunting by the string. I hung mine over the mantelpiece but it can also hang across walls, shelves or other surfaces. :)

Have fun crafting everyone!

For some more Christmas ideas here are some links
Christmas designs
Christmas stocking maze
Christmas bauble collection
Gingerbread people
Colourful Christmas Crackers
Christmas bauble maze

Christmas Bauble Upcycling
Upcycling worn out Christmas Baubles
Spiderman Halloween decoration
How to make a Bloody handprint Halloween decoration from an old Christmas bauble
How to make a dripping bauble Halloween decoration.
Pokemon Gastly Halloween decoration

 For the Buzy Bobbins Index page Click here. 

How to make a Pokemon Gastly Halloween decoration

How to make a Pokemon Gastly Halloween decoration

Hello everyone,
Heres another idea on how to use up your old and worn Christmas baubles

I'm trying something a little different with this tutorial by providing a drawn painting diagram instead of just photographs to help make everything really clear, Please feel free to let me know in the comments what instructions you prefer.

What you will need:
Old Purple or black baubles (depends on what Pokemon generation you want your Gastly to be from, they started out black but have become purple over the course of the games)
Arcylic paint
Paintbrushes - you will need at least one thin one for the details.
Netting In purple or blue if your Gastly is the shiny version.
Strong craft glue
Paint sealant spray (optional)

Before you start:
Get your bauble and make sure theres no excess dust or dirt on it, a quick wipe will do for most baubles which have been in storage and are just a bit dusty. Don't forget to pop some paper under your painting area to avoid accidental mess.

Step 1:
Place your bauble in a suitably sized cup so that you can paint on it without it rolling away. If your cups are too big I found that placing tissue in the bottom of a cup can help keep the bauble steady.

Now as shown on the diagram below use white paint to paint on the eyes and a dusky pink paint to draw a nice wide grin. Let the paint dry.

Step 2:
Use a light pink to draw on the Gastly's tongue in the bottom section of the mouth. Using white paint and a small brush paint on two pointed triangles for the teeth. Let the paint dry before the next step.

Step 3:
Using your very thin brush outline the eyes, mouth and teeth. Then pop some ovals inside the eyes to make the pupils.

Step 4: (optional)
Spray your bauble with paint sealant following the packet instructions. This will help your paint stay on longer. But as always this is an optional step.

Step 5: 
Once everything is dry its now time to add the netting to  represent Gastly's smoke trail.
To do this I took the netting and cut a rectangle shape out of it. The size of your rectangle depends on how much you want the netting to flare out behind the bauble. Make it smaller if you will be displaying the bauble where there isn't too much room.
Then take one side of the netting fold it in a concertina effect before laying that against the bauble and glue it down when you are happy with the effect.
Since netting is springy you may need to hold the glued areas down a little while before putting the bauble down properly to dry.

Once the netting is dry you can hang your Gastly up with the rest of your Halloween decorations.

I hope everyone has as much fun with these as I did. I'm a big Pokemon fan and so wanted an excuse to hang a ghost Pokemon in with my other ghostly decorations.

For more ideas on how to re-use your old Christmas baubles can be found here:

Christmas Bauble Upcycling

Upcycling worn out Christmas Baubles
Spiderman Halloween decoration
How to make a Bloody handprint Halloween decoration from an old Christmas bauble
How to make a dripping bauble Halloween decoration.
How to make a Wrapped sweet Christmas decoration.
How to make a Squirtle Squad decoration
How to make a Jake the dog decoration
How to make a Chain Chomp Christmas bauble

For Halloween cross stitch designs here are some links:
Simple sweet themed Trick or Treat Bag
I Love my Mummy simple Halloween motif
Pumpkin Alphabet
Jack O' Lantern Coaster designs for Halloween
Cute ghost coming out of a pumpkin
Cute cat in a pumpkin
Cute ghost giving a gift
Happy Ghost at a gravestone
Halloween Haunted house silhouette cross stitch design
Pentagram for Altar cloth
Butterfly inspired sugar skull cross stitch design
Witches bookshelf - small bookmark cross stitch design
Sad ghost at a gravestone

For the Buzy Bobbins Index page Click here.

How to make a dripping bauble Halloween decoration

How to make a dripping bauble Halloween decoration

Hello everyone,
Here's another tutorial on how to use your old and worn out Christmas baubles to make spooky Halloween decorations. This tutorial is even suitable for kids to help make, with some adult supervision of course.

What you will need:
Old baubles
Acrylic paint (I recommend red for blood, green for slime and black for swamp goo but this can be any colour you wish)
PVA glue (optional)
Paint sealant spray (optional)

A place to hang the baubles to be worked upon and to dry
Some paper/card to cover the table/floor to stop paint getting on it. This is very important you may need a few layers of paper or try some card from a cereal packet since the dripping paint will be thick and may soak through.

Step 1
Decide on your paint colours and put a small amount in a container for easy use. If you find the paint is too thick a small amount of PVA glue can help make it runnier. However if you use more glue than paint the colour will end up patchy so unless you want that as a finished effect only use a small amount of glue.

Heres my red blood and green slime ready to go!

Step 2:

Hang your baubles somewhere where they can be worked upon and left to dry. Don't forget to place some paper or card under the area. 

In this picture I have rested a clothes hanger against my table and placed the card on the table. 

Step 3:

Now heres the fun bit. Use your piece of card or a plastic spoon works really well to scoop up a small amount of paint and drip it over the top of your baubles. Allow the paint to run down the bauble to create the dripping effect and keep adding paint in drips until you get the effect you like. 

Once you are happy with the amount of coverage your baubles have leave them to dry. I left mine overnight. 

Step 4: (optional)

Spray with paint sealant according to the packet instructions. This will help your baubles past for many Halloweens to come. 

Then they will be all ready to add to your Halloween decorations, these look great hanging from the mantelpiece or shelves. These can even be used in a Halloween wreath or hung from an old branch.
If you have decided to add these to your decorations please feel free to send a link to them. I'd love to see everyone's creativity when coming up with spooky decorations.

For more ideas on how to re-use your old Christmas baubles can be found here:

Christmas Bauble Upcycling

Upcycling worn out Christmas Baubles
Spiderman Halloween decoration
How to make a Bloody handprint Halloween decoration from an old Christmas bauble
Pokemon Gastly Halloween decoration
How to make a Wrapped sweet Christmas decoration.
How to make a Squirtle Squad decoration
How to make a Jake the dog decoration
How to make a Chain Chomp Christmas bauble

For Halloween cross stitch designs here are some links:
Simple sweet themed Trick or Treat Bag
I Love my Mummy simple Halloween motif
Pumpkin Alphabet
Jack O' Lantern Coaster designs for Halloween
Cute ghost coming out of a pumpkin
Cute cat in a pumpkin
Cute ghost giving a gift
Happy Ghost at a gravestone
Halloween Haunted house silhouette cross stitch design
Pentagram for Altar cloth
Butterfly inspired sugar skull cross stitch design
Witches bookshelf - small bookmark cross stitch design
Sad ghost at a gravestone

For the Buzy Bobbins Index page Click here.