Sunday 15 February 2015

A very happy Spider day

We had a lovely Valentine's day and I even had a couple of hours for some crafty play. The snowdrops are looking so pretty outside but I noticed that morning as we were going out the absence of spiders' webs.
I honestly love garden spiders and find them fascinating and for most of the year I am able to marvel at the webs they weave. Obviously at this time of the year it is far to cold for them, so they must be tucked away somewhere keeping snug.

I bought my Hb a box of chocolates for a token present but I also thought that in my few hours free I could make a little gift for him. I could also join in the challenge of "paint" over at PaperArtsy as well as a couple of other great challenges I wanted to enter.


My Hb wears a suit to work and all his shirts have removable bones in the collar. To give an idea of size I have put a pound coin in the photo.
The other day he asked me if we had a small jar that he could keep them in as they lie loose in his bedside table and he is forever searching for them.









I decided that not only did I have a little jar but that I could make it into a gift for him. This jar contained olive pate which we bought years ago in Rhodes.It is one of those things which has sat in the cupboard and never seen the light of day again. I emptied out the contents...the sell by date was 2010...LOL. I threw away the lid and washed the jar thoroughly.





Over at PaperArtsy the theme for this fortnight is paint and I watched Leandra's video. I was amazed to hear that it is possible to paint straight onto glass with acrylic paint with no prep at all. I decided to get out the few colours of Fresco paints I own and have a go.

I chose Vanilla as my base and gave the jar 2 coats.



The paints went on really easily and dried quickly. At this point I had no idea at all what I was going to use as decoration..it is so hard to make things for men. I had already used hearts for my Hb's Valentine's card...then I remembered the lovely green of the snowdrops and the lack of spiders from the morning. I remembered that one of his favourite stamps of mine is a sweet spider and spider's web which were the first ever stamps I bought in 1993.


I decided to add some Toad Hall green paint by dabbing it through some hessian as a stencil, my shop bought stencils would have been too fiddly.




I then added my stamping using Archival inks. First I added some random text using Wendy Vecchi's lovely yellow version.
It was very tricky as I had to roll the stamps around the jar but the end result was fun.
Any spider features which were not clear I just neatened up with a black permanent marker. Some only had 4 legs so I made them up to 8! A spider is only a spider if he has 8 isn't he.





So here is the finished spider jar, I glued some hessian to the rim to finish it off. 


My Hb loves it and it was made with love for him on Valentine's day...or should it now be called Spider Day?

I would like to enter my painted/stamped jar into the following challenges;

PaperArtsy paint;Topic 3 I was also inspired by Anneke showing that you only need a couple of colours to made something striking.
Stamping Sensations anything goes
That Craft Place Film inspired yes you guessed it...Spider Man!
Simon Says stamp Wednesday all creatures great and small my spider is tiny ;0)
Rhedd's Creative spirit anything goes
Our Creative Corner tic tac toe I have used the middle horizontal line; paint, stamps, stencil (I used the hessian as mine)
Craft Stamper Take it Make it stenciling I hope to have shown that you can use anything, even hessian as a stencil
The Ribbon Girl Ivory/cream
Art with heart projects to love

I hope you all enjoyed your own Spider(Valentine) days and have a lovely restful Sunday. We're off to Southampton in the next hour to catch up with Daisy and her Mummy and Daddy. Thanks for all you kind visits and comments and can I extend a very warm welcome to my latest followers, it's so good to see you here following my creative journey.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

20 comments:

  1. An inspired little jar! Love it.

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  2. You are clever, I love it!! I love spiders too, they get such a bad press and we really couldn't do without them.
    Isn't Toad Hall Green such a brilliant name for a paint! :)
    Enjoy your Daisy time my friend,
    V x

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  3. February looks better where you are. I wish I had snowdrops in Ohio this time of year, but all I have is snow. I like what you did with the jar. I'm glad I'm not the only one who appreciates spiders, and yours are so cute!

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  4. Jane, that is so cool! (as the kids say) what a fantastic idea and so well executed! I bet your Hb loved it and also solved the problem! Happy belated ❤️ day my dear friend! xoRobin

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  5. Cute jar! Thanks for joining us at the Take It Make It Challenge.

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  6. Love your jar thanks for the tip on painting on glass .

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  7. What a fun idea! I love re-purposing things like that. We're having a sunny day here.. again.. it's an amazing February! Enjoy your garden.. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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  8. Wonderful with a masculine feel to it! And you repurposed a jar..fabulous! Thanks for sharing with us at Rhedd's Creative Spirit this month! ~Nanette, DT member~

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  9. Wow, what an amazing transformation! Love the colors and use of mesh! This truly is the perfect alter Valentine's Project! So glad that you join the fun over Simon Says Stamp Wednesday “All Creatures Great and Small” Challenge!

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  10. cool idea! I love to recycle- thanks for sharing on our Art With Heart challenge Jane!

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  11. What a transformation, and I love how you were inspired. This is a great piece, love it. Thanks so much for joining in the Eileen Hull Art with Heart Challenge. Tracy x

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  12. What a fabulous transformation of a mundane jar into something really special, I'm not a spider fan but I think yours is really fun!

    Thanks for joining us at Stamping Sensations This Month
    Joan

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  13. What a fun little jar with a cute little spider. Reminds me of the TV programme as a child with I think Itsy Bitsy.
    Julie x

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  14. Great alteration of your little jar and I love that it will now have a new lease of life! Thanks so much for joining my Tic Tac Toe challenge at Our Creative Corner. Juliax

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  15. What a fab jar, and those spiders are so cute! Thank you for entering your project at Rhedd’s Creative Spirit. Sammy-x

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  16. Jane it is so refreshing to meet a fellow nature lover who is not afraid of spiders. We have fabulous ones here in Australia and Autumn brings them out and so bust they are too!
    Who would have guessed that an unused container could be turned into such a cute container.
    Thank you for joining in at Rhedd's Creative Spirit this month!

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  17. This is so cute! Thanks for joining in with the TIMI challenge ..... good luck! Linda xx

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  18. Haha, so glad he likes it, and useful too! Astonishing he that paint sticks to glass isn't it!

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  19. Wow wow wow such an awesome jar, love it. Happy Art :-) Kezzy xxx

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