Creativity

They are two things I tend to say I will do and never end up doing:
- picking up random bits and bobs that I find to make something
-Taking pictures of food/painting/crafts that I am making to upload it to a blog.

To be perfectly honest... I've actually never followed through!
So today I'm rolling my sleeves up (not to high though coz it's quite cold!) and presenting you my first project:

The Christmas pussy-willow branches!


My mum had kept a dead tree branch that originally belonged in a bouquet. I started having ideas about what I might be able to make for her with this branch that she could use as a decoration... That's when I saw a picture of a Pussy-Willow branch in a magazine. And so the project was born!

It's mid-November, Friday night, I've set myself up comfortably in the living room while Abs learns his lines for his new play. If I make another one, I'll put on one of my favourite films on as well, one that I already know well enough to only have follow... maybe a Christmas movie :)

You can make different alternatives of it, and it looks beautiful as a centre piece on your dinner table.
It doesn't need to be done at Christmas either- you can make it for different seasons by using different colours.
The best part of this is the price : 4£ is the total I spent on making this...

Ingredients:

PVA Glue

Glitter (Silver for our one)


Dead tree branches spray painted silver

Cotton Wool balls

A tall vase

And a Cuppa!! :)

STEP 1:
Spray paint your branches in the colour you have chosen. At Christmas, you can find Gold, Silver and Snow paint easily. Other wise, any craft shop will have them. I used 2 cans of spray paint for 4 branches.

STEP 2:
Once the branches have dried, arrange them in your vase in the position you will want them to stay in. As you do that, add some loose cotton wool balls in the bottom of the vase. Other options would be some big white beads or fake snow.


STEP 3:
Take a bit off a cotton ball and roll it in between your fingers so it becomes of the size you want it to be. The small the more realistic. Then, put a drop of glue on your small cotton ball and dip it into some glitter.
Stick the ball on the branch, at a place where you can see a bud should have grown, like on the picture.

STEP 4
Carry on until you have covered each branch with fluffy glittery buds. To add a bit of frost effect, make a line of glue on the branches, and then sprinkle some glitter over it.
The greatness of PVA Glue is that it is white but dries see-through, so you can see what your doing without worrying about the final effect.

TADAM!!!!

You have a really unique and cheap stunning centre piece for your dinner table, or simply as a decoration for your house.
What we also did- and this was actually Abs idea- was to wipe some of the stray glitter ( and trust me there will be some) with some more cotton balls that we also put into the vase, giving the frosty effect even more power!