Wendy's blog

It’s been another busy week at Crafty Beggars HQ as we get ready for Christmas and begin to look ahead to filming series 2 of the show in the spring of next year. Julie and I always say that actually presenting the show is the easy bit – it is all the pre and post production which takes the hard graft! However, even though our days are still jammed with meetings, press and paperwork we have still found time to squeeze in a bit of crafting. There is nothing like a tube of glue in one hand and a glass of wine in the other to slow things down and find some pleasure in an otherwise manic day! Having said that, my initial efforts at making a bowl made from buttons was less than relaxing….

Button Bowl

I love the result but it wasn’t an easy journey, primarily because I was under the misguided notion that if I greased the inside of a bowl and lined it with buttons they would melt in the oven.

They did not! The smell of burning buttons was so bad that the kitchen stank for a week and Gary and the boys complained bitterly! Not to be deterred I came up with a Plan B, which was to line a small cereal bowl with tissue paper and simply glue the buttons on top. When it was bone dry I took it out of the cereal bowl, turned it upside-down and sprayed the underside gold.

Bead Bowl

Now this one DID do as it was told! This bowl was made using white plastic ‘pony’ beads and bottle tops. I put some sea creature pictures in the bottle tops because the melted white beads reminded me of sea foam! These bowls are so easy to make yet look like something you’ve spent hours on.

Born Free

I painted this oil on canvas recently to help raise funds for the Born Free Foundation. I am a Patron of Born Free along with my husband Gary and my sister Anthea and we have all had the pleasure of working with them over the past 15 (at least!) years. My lion went into an auction and some kind person purchased him for £350. For more info about the charity visit www.bornfree.org.uk

Holly Leaf Earrings

On a more festive note I had fun making these earrings out of a used Coke Life can and a couple of sparkly red charms. If you have a look at our December Make of the Month video you will see that I am wearing them in that. They are certainly unusual and people always admire them when I wear them – which goes to show that sometimes the simplest and cheapest crafts can sometimes be the most effective!

Simply Christmas at ExCel

At the end of November we had a Crafty Beggars / Hobbycraft stand at the Hobbycrafts Simply Christmas event at ExCel in London. Visitors could stop by and have a go at making a Desk Hog or a Sock Teddy, and also have a look at some edited highlights of the first series of Crafty Beggars. Our stand was busy from dawn til dusk and it was really lovely to hear such kind comments about the show. We will be back at ExCel at the end of March next year so do hope to see all our crafty friends there again.

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